Productions

UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) opens its 2018-19 season with 70 Scenes of Halloween, a spooky, scrambled, and sly comedy that transforms the unraveling of a marriage into a frighteningly funny and fantastical romp. Written by experimental playwright Jeffrey M Jones, this fast-moving scuffle will be presented in an intimate configuration on the Zellerbach Playhouse stage on the UC Berkeley campus. Directed by Christopher Herold, 70 Scenes of Halloween runs October 11–14....

On Saturday, the Berkeley Dance Project staged the third performance of its annual showcase of Bay Area dance talent. The showcase, which took on the theme of community, pulled from a variety of sources, from student dance groups — such as Maya at Cal and the Fei Tian dancers — to campus theater, dance and performance studies, or TDPS, students, alumni and faculty.

When Daniela Cervantes first heard about the play, Who Shot la Miguelito?, presented by the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, she knew she had to be a part of it.

“As a person of color, I wanted to be involved in a production that uplifts the voices that belong to people who look like me, who are stereotyped the way that I’m stereotyped,” says Cervantes, a third-year student majoring in ethnic studies, with a minor in theater and performance studies. “I wanted to bring those voices to a platform where they could be heard.”

Who Shot la...

Set in Nueva, New York in the late 23rd century, Dustin Chinn’s Radio Play, featuring CAL students under the direction of Mina Morita, imagines a world where Caucasians, nearing extinction, survive under federal protection. They live on preservation farms and perform their “caucasity” for a curious public.

In this near white-less future world, Chinn wittily shows two arrogant Caucasians who disrupt the prevailing ethnic diversity. Even in a world where Caucasians are critically endangered, their white voices carry weight.