Dance & Theatre

Opportunities abound for individuals to watch or participate in theatre or dance.  The University Dance Company displays many styles of dance from modern to traditional, while the Theatre & Drama Department performs 5 productions each year at the various performing arts venues found on campus.  The Basement Arts group produces around 20 plays each.  Basement Arts is an organization in which students direct, design, and perform each play.  These performances are free and open to the public.  Additionally theatre students also perform in plays produced by various university groups such as the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, MUSKET, Residential College Harlotry Players, Soph Show and many others.

Numerous local theatres and and performance groups attract audiences from all over the state of Michigan and the mid-west.  The Michigan Shakespeare Festival has several performances a week through out the summer months of July and August.  Performance Network is an off-broadway theatre located in downtown Ann Arbor that offers broadway quality performances in an intimate 139 seat theatre. The Burns Park Players, a neighborhood theatre group, incorporates children grades 1-5 of Burns Park School area into its cast and crew for its annual February production; a benefit for arts enrichment programs in the public schools. The Purple Rose Theatre Company (located in neighboring Chelsea) is founded and directed by Jeff Daniels.  The Purple Rose is a not-for-profit company that ". . . is dedicated to the belief that there are creative and revelatory voices in America's heartland to hear and explore."