MULTIMEDIA, THEATRE & DANCE
Rick DesRochers and Amy Larimer
The Theatre & Dance Programs at Lehman College transform students into versatile, self-directed performing artists for the 21st Century. The B.A. in Theatre, B.A. in Dance, and B.F.A. in Multimedia Performing Arts challenge students to develop the knowledge and skills as well as the critical and creative perspectives necessary for a professional life in the performing arts.
The B.A. in Theatre program challenges students in a rigorous, liberal arts curriculum that combines study in acting, dance, stagecraft, playwriting, theatre history, and drama with practical experience in producing, technical theatre, and arts management. The program is intended for those who envision a career as an actor, director, playwright, theatre administrator, technical director or stage manager, or in related professions, such as law, business, and management.
The B.A. in Dance program challenges students to develop their own voice through the study of improvisation, choreography and dance history with practical experience in producing, technical theatre, and arts management. Our curriculum includes a wide range of dance techniques including: modern, ballet, hip hop, capoeira, house, tango, somatics, yoga and jazz. The program is designed for those who intend to pursue a career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, dance administrator, or dance therapist.
The multidisciplinary B.F.A. in Multimedia Performing Arts allows for a concentration in either dance or theatre. The program develops multidisciplinary actors and dancers who train to perform for the stage, film, television, and new media. This intensive program is intended for those who envision a career as a performer in theatre, dance, film and related media.
Multimedia Performing Arts Showcase Presents
New Voices Playwriting Festival
Spring Dance Concert
The Music, Multimedia, Theatre and Dance
Department Presents
Fall 2023 Audition Announcement
Spring 2022 Season
Pa'lante!
New Voices: Student Play Festival
Directed by Stephanie Stowe:
October 27th through October 31
Wednesday 3:30 PM
Thursday-Saturday 7:00 PM
Sunday 2:30 PM
Live and streamed performances and post-show discussions with the director, cast, and production team to follow. Now in its 9th year, the New Voice Student Play Festival returns in October 2021 to offer a diverse series of thrilling contemporary one-act plays highlighting the superb talents of emerging Lehman College student playwrights and performers, showcasing the following new works:
IRE by Urmi Rahman
Moments by Yukie Service
Locked in Love by Daniel Mendiola
Volts and Ohms by Thomas Behnke
Dance In Dialog 2021
Choreographed by Tweet Boogie and gorno aka glenn potter-takata
Monday-Tuesday October 4-5, 2021 at 6pm
In-person on the Lehman Quad
Click here for performance livestream via MMTD Instagram Live
Click here Friday October 8th at 7pm for the Performance Video Broadcast
Dance In Dialog is an annual series that aims to start conversations about dance and explore the process of making dances. This year, two guest artists, Glenn Potter-Takata and Tweet Boogie, will work with students to create two pieces which will be performed outside on the Lehman campus quad. Performances will be followed by a Q&A with the artists and dancers.
Spring 2021 Online Productions
Polaroid Stories
Directed by Tamala Bakkensen
Friday March 19 and Saturday March 20 2021 at 7 PM
A year and a day from our original opening of Polaroid Stories by Naomi Iizuka, we'll be presenting a live stream of the performance. It has been a challenging but rewarding process and we are super excited to share and blow you away!
Polaroid Stories was the winner of the 1998 PEN Center West Award for Drama, and is inspired in part by Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story takes place on an abandoned pier on the outermost edge of a city, a way stop for dreamers, dealers and desperadoes, a no-man's land where runaways seek camaraderie, refuge, and escape. There will be Zoom talkbacks with cast and crew members after each showing.
The 2021 New Voices Student Playwriting Festival
Directed by Stephanie Stowe
March 25 and 26, 2021 at 7pm
Online performances and post-show discussions with the director, cast, and production team to follow. Now in its 8th year, the New Voice Student Play Festival returns in March 2021 to offer a diverse series of thrilling contemporary one-act plays highlighting the superb talents of emerging Lehman College student playwrights and performers, including:
Father Dearest– Stacey Conception
Loving the Alien– Alexa Downing
Sonder– Jahdiel Rodriguez
Tribulations– Wendy Torres
Resurrection Men– Mars Truong
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by VictoriaPérez
Co-Founder & Artistic Director of Raíces Theatre Company
Friday April 23 and Saturday April 24, 2021 at 7pm Online performances and post-show discussions with the director, cast, and production team to follow.
Set in a time-bending, darkly comic world between heaven and hell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot imagines if Judas were on trial for his betrayal of Christ and consequently Christianity itself. Featuring a cast of fictional and historically-based characters across several centuries including Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud, Pontius Pilate, Satan, and Jesus, Guirgis’ play confronts contemporary issues of class, race, and gender, and how Western Eurocentric culture has appropriated and distorted the legacy and meaning of these iconic figures, their actions, and words. Stephen Adly Guirgis’s plays include Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train(produced at Lehman College in 2017, and winner of best ensemble at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival) and Our Lady of 121st Street. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He is a former co-artistic director of Labyrinth Theater Company. He is a creator and writer of Netflix’s The Get Down.
