TDPS faculty, graduate students, and staff actively direct, design, stage manage, and perform in productions across the Bay Area and beyond. Explore where you can see their work this semester!
Fall 2026
How to Make a Passive Dance
An Immersive Dance Performance by SanSan Kwan
September 18-20, 2026
iMPACt Center for Art & Dance, 94109
How do you make a passive dance? In an era marked by increasing political aggression, How to Make a Passive Dance poses a timely question: is there value in being passive? Asian Americans historically have had a fraught relationship with passivity, but might there be reason for us to reconsider qualities like deference or quietude? And how can dance – a medium defined by embodied action – serve paradoxically as a space for exploring inaction? This quintet investigates dance as a practice of listening and attunement. Audiences will be invited into an intimate, immersive experience that encourages receptivity.
*Choreography & artistic direction by TDPS professor & former chair SanSan Kwan
*Lighting design by TDPS lecturer Ray Oppenheimer
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
September 9-October 11, 2026
Round House Theatre, Bethesda MD
Set in 1920s Chicago and pulsing with rousing blues music, wry comedy, and poetic insight, August Wilson’s acclaimed play follows trailblazing singer Ma Rainey and her band during a fraught recording session. As conflicts flare over art, power, and control, the struggle between the musicians and studio executives grows to a shattering finale. Don’t miss this explosive and thrilling “genuine American masterpiece” (Chicago Reader) that takes a searing look at the racial exploitation at the heart of the music industry and celebrates the cathartic power of the blues.