The Department of Theater & Performance Studies (TAPS) integrates theory, criticism, and performance. Our interdisciplinary department welcomes students from across the University who want to be involved in intensive, innovative, intellectual work. We foster students' engagement with performance in multiple modes. Students in the department learn analytic skills through research-based scholarship. In collaboration with our academic mission the department produces numerous events through its creative program. Our workshops and artistic productions include canonical plays, commissioned dance works, experimental projects, and work by visiting artists. The Department serves many audiences and facilitates engaged scholarship in dance, theater, and performance.
The TAPS main office is located on the first floor of 551 Serra Mall, Memorial Hall. Access to Department spaces face Memorial Way. Along with the Department main office, facutly offices, the costume shop, scene shops, and production staff offices are located at the back of Memorial Hall, opposite the main entrance to Memorial Auditorium. Visitor Parking can be found on Memorial Way.
Our mailing address is:
Department of Theater & Performance Studies
Stanford University
551 Serra Mall
Memorial Hall
Stanford, CA 94305-5010.
Main office phone: (650) 723-2576
Main office fax: (650) 723-0843
*****Please note that ticket purchases cannot be made over the phone, by surface mail, or by fax; tickets are available here or at the door, beginning one hour prior to curtain, depending on availability.*****
The addresses and directions to our various performance spaces can be found here.
Stanford TAPS is grateful for the support and opportunities granted by our partners at Stanford. Stanford TAPS works collaboritively with University organizations and academic departments, as well as Stanford's numerous student-run theater groups. If you would like more information on how TAPS can partner or assist with your organization, please email us at [email protected].
Stanford Initiative for Creativity in the Arts
Education in the arts and humanities is the foundation of a liberal arts education and serves three important roles. First, it prepares graduates to deal with the complexity, diversity, and ambiguity of human societies. Second, it draws out and develops personal creativity. Third, the arts bridge all cultures, providing access to the experience of people in other times and places. In the contemporary world in which Stanford graduates will lead and inspire, understanding complexity, finding creative solutions to problems, and navigating the richness of human culture are essential capabilities. To ensure our students develop these skills, we have launched the Arts Initiative.
The Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts (SiCa), established in 2006, acts as the initiative's nerve center, leading the development of new undergraduate arts programs; hosting artists in residence; administering new multidisciplinary graduate degree programs; awarding grants for multidisciplinary arts research and teaching; incubating collaborative performances and exhibitions with campus partners and other institutions; and providing centralized communication for Stanford arts events and programs.
Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts
The Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA) is an interdisciplinary program in the humanities that involves students in the study of culture, identity and diversity through artistic expression. Our mission is to engage artists, students and the local community in a collaborative process to create visual and performing art.
Stanford Live
Stanford Live curates experiences that engage artists’ and audiences’ imagination, creativity, and sense of adventure.
Founded in 1969 at Stanford University, we produce and present music, theater, dance, spoken word, and multi-media events. We place a special focus on innovation and risk-taking, and through commissions and premieres are an incubator and destination for new work. Stanford Live plays a leading and collaborative role in the university’s thriving vision of a sustained culture of creativity--one in which the arts integrate with the academic disciplines, flourish as a vital part of campus and community life, and inspire new perspectives on our lives and culture.
Asian American Theater Project
Steeped in history and rich in tradition, the Asian American Theater Project (AATP) boasts its famous founders David Henry Hwang and Nancy Takahashi. Established in 1978, AATP strives to feature Asian Americans in positive, non-stereotypical roles and to encourage Asian American talent in the arts. We hope to continue to build on our fine tradition of Asian American drama by providing opportunities to act, direct, write, and design. We welcome those interested in drama and theater to join us in our portrayals of the different stories which compose the Asian American experience.
Blackstage
The Blackstage mission, as a student-oriented theatre troupe, is dedicated to fostering a healthy dialogue of action and interaction with the Black experience through performance art.
Ram's Head Theatrical Society
Ram's Head Theatrical Society is Stanford's oldest and largest entirely student-run theater group. Ram’s Head produces three major productions a year: Big Game Gaieties, The Original Winter One Acts, and a Broadway-style Spring Musical. Ram's Head has been providing acting, directing, designing, producing, writing, and numerous other theatrical opportunities to students for over seventy-five years.
Stanford Improvisors
The Stanford Improvisors (SImps) is the only improvisational theater company on campus. We are dedicated to the teaching, philosophy, and performing of improv. In conjunction with TAPS and instructor Dan Klein, SImps offers beginning Improv classes designed to train actors and non-actors in the ways of improvisation. SImps performs countless shows during the year, including TheaterSports matches and Long-form improvisation.
Stanford Savoyards
The Stanford Savoyards have presented the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan and their contemporaries on the Stanford University campus since 1973. Savoyards produces two fully staged musicals with orchestra per academic year. Our membership includes students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Stanford as well as the surrounding community.
Stanford Shakespeare Society
Stanford Shakespeare Society (StanShakes) is a student-run repertory theatre ensemble that works throughout the year to produce, direct, and perform a free season of Shakespeare's plays for the Stanford and Peninsula communities. We have trained with top Shakespearean scholars from all over the world and performed for thousands of people at numerous venues around the Stanford Campus. We produce two main-stage productions each year, including an outdoor "Shakespeare-in-the-Park" production in the Spring.
Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization
Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization (STAMP) is an ensemble of politically conscious students formed in 2007 who believe in the power of performance as a means of cultivating social change. STAMP’s mission is to raise the political consciousness of Stanford community members by collaborating with Stanford's activist and political organizations to generate timely, relevant performance pieces. Through our performances, we seek to educate, inspire, and mobilize people to take political action.