Download a PDF of our 2019–2020 Season Brochure or request a hard copy by emailing tdps@berkeley.edu
About Who Shot La Miguelito?
"We wrote in response to the damn world: I am here, this be my name, you won’t see me, so I will show you, you can’t hear us, so we will shout it, we don’t need no more war, we are down and brown, we is black and proud, la raza vive aqui, we want ethnic studies, si se puede, this my block and it is beautiful. That’s what the shapes you were learning was s’posed to show—the layers of this life."
This dynamic performance piece parallels the murder of a young street artist in San Francisco’s Mission District with the death of immigrant, working-class neighborhoods. Mapping the Mission in murals, tags, stickers, stencils, and socio-political protest art, the piece invites the audience to see, hear, and move with refugees, immigrants, first gens—and ghosts. Originally created for the San Francisco performance group Campo Santo, the piece will be made anew for UC Berkeley with an original score, immersive design, and student stories.
About The Caucasian Chalk Circle
"How blind are the powerful, standing like giants, one foot on the throats of the poor, reliant on the hired fist, trusting in the power they have held for so long. But long is not for ever. Times change. This is the people’s hope: Times change."
This captivating play within a play tells the corresponding stories of an agrarian land dispute and a young servant who sacrifices her own well-being to raise an abandoned child. Bertolt Brecht masterfully employs historification and distancing to reveal the hidden (and not so hidden) oppression of the powerless by the powerful. We are challenged not only to see the inequality inherent in power structures, but also to find ways to change our relationship to those structures—to find our way to justice, fairness, and compassion in the face of overwhelming odds.
About Berkeley Dance Project 2020
How can dance create inclusive exchanges between audiences and performers? How can dance making be a form of community making? How do communities use dance performance to bring forth new narratives and framings of the world?
The annual TDPS dance concert will pose critical questions for our divisive times, challenging choreographers, performers, and audience members to explore the intersections of dance and community. The program will feature student work from the Fall Choreography Showcase and new dances created by TDPS faculty and guest artists.
About The Arsonists
“A joke is a good camouflage. Next best comes sentiment... But the best camouflage of all—in my opinion—is the plain and simple truth. Because nobody ever believes it.”
— Max Frisch
In a nameless town. At an unknown time. A community is on edge as arsonists wreak havoc in the night, going door to door, setting homes ablaze. When the self-assured businessman Biedermann finds himself with the arsonists on his doorstep, will he be prepared for their cunning and coercive tactics?
As timeless as it is timely, Max Frisch’s cautionary comic parable on greed, apathy, and the power of persuasion transpires with the urgency of a ticking time bomb.
About Snowflakes, or Rare White People
In 23rd Century Nueva New York, the dwindling white American population is protected by the federal government. Two of the last are brought to the Museum of Natural History as a living exhibit in the Hall of Caucasian Peoples, only to be freed by a sympathetic gift shop employee. Is society ready for their return?
Inspired by the Hall of Asian Peoples at the American Museum of Natural History and articles bemoaning the "dwindling majority" of white Americans, this cuttingly smart comedy explores American conceptions of race and ethnicity, representation, and the precarity of social status.
Workshop Performances
Student workshops are designed as advanced study experiences, providing laboratories for nascent work. They provide opportunities for student writers, directors, and performers to develop ideas and get them on their feet. Workshops focus on language and performance with minimal technical production. Workshop performances are open to the public and free to attend with reserved tickets.