2025 In The Numbers

2025 in the Numbers

It's been a fantastic year full of productions, colloquiums, new podcast episodes, and special events!

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who made 2025 such a remarkable year for the Performing Arts Department. To our talented and dedicated students, faculty, and staff, you are the foundation and backbone of our department. To our incredible production team, actors, dancers, crew and more, we thank you for your hard work, passion, and creativity in bringing our performances to life. To our audiences, colleagues, collaborators, and donors - we would not be able to continue our work without you!

Now, without further ado...check out a "number" of the things that made 2025 so exceptional!

8 PAD Productions

The Wolves

Written by Sarah DeLappe
Directed by Annamaria Pileggi
Stage Manager: Marisa Daddazio
Assistant Stage Manager: Stella Larson
Assistant Director/Assistant Costume Designer: Heather Elaine Anderson
Lighting Designer: Nick Cochran
Scenic Designer: Obike Anwisye
Costume Designer: Nikki Green
Props Designer: Emily Frei
Sound Designer: Sean M. Savoie
Soccer Consultant: Sara Wargo
Photo Credit: Danny Reise/WashU

cast list & full production team

2025 MFA Dance Concert ¿Te puedo contar algo?

MFA Choreographers:
Tess Angelica Losada-Tindall
Lourdes del Mar Santiago Lebrón
Artistic Direction by Elinor Harrison
Lighting Designer: Sean M. Savoie
Costume Design Supervisor: Nikki Green
Stage Manager: Zak Metalsky
Photo Credit: Danny Reise/WashU

cast list & full production team

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Book by Rachel Sheinkin / Music & Lyrics by William Finn / Conceived by Rebecca Feldman / Additional Material by Jay Reiss
Directed by Brenna Jones, BA '23
Music Direction by Larry D. Pry
Choreographer: Jo Palisoc
Scenic Designer: Tina Zang
Lighting Designer: Zachary Cohn
Costume Designer: Heather Elaine Anderson
Sound Designer: Tab Birt (Dedicated to Alan Hiserödt)
Stage Manager: AJ Harness
Assistant Stage Manager: Margaret Fecko
Photo Credit: Danny Reise/WashU

cast list & full production team

WashU Dance Collective: Transcendence

Artistic Direction by Cecil Slaughter & Ryadah Heiskell
Choreographers: Alexandra Acevedo, Ryadah Heiskell, Emma Katz, Erin Morris, Lily Rich, Christopher J. Salango, Cecil Slaughter, 
Lexy Sokolowski, and Lorraine “Rain” Stippec
Lighting Designer: Seth Kleinberg
Stage Manager: Marisa Daddazio
Photo Credit: Danny Reise/WashU

cast list & full production team

2025 A. E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival

Dramaturg: Brittany K. Allen
Producer: Zachariah Ezer
Stage Manager: Alanis Preciado Higgins

"Full Fathom Five" by Heather Elaine Anderson
"Unwelcome Truths" by Anna Schwartz
"Cold Feet" by Rebecca Yang
Directed by Jeffery Matthews

"Eating Crow" by Kit Hoffmann
Directed by Annamaria Pileggi

cast list & more info

Little Shop of Horrors

Book & Lyrics by Howard Ashman / Music by Alan Menken
Directed by William Whitaker
Music Direction by Colin Healy
Assistant Director: Coco Jones
Scenic Designer: Obike Anwisye
Lighting Designer: Margaret Fecko
Costume Designer: Nikki Green
Props Designer: Emily Frei
Sound Designer: Noe Schwartz
Projection Designer: Sean M. Savoie
Co-Choreographers: Cecil Slaughter & Ashley Taylor
Stage Manager: Juan Cortez
Assistant Stage Manager: Raquel (Elle) Brouwer
Photo Credit: Jerry Naunheim/WashU

cast list & full production team

WashU Dance Theatre: something is happening

Artistic Direction by David Marchant
Resident Choreographers: Liz Lloyd, Elinor Harrison & David Marchant
Guest Choreographers: Ron K. Brown & Xi Zhao
Costume Designer: Nikki Green
Props Designer: Emily Frei
Sound Designer: Sean M. Savoie
Lighting Designers: Esteban Castaneda, Evelyn Cheng, Weiyu Guo, Hannah King, Josh Li, Liz Lloyd, Shangwe Nyota, Michael Perlmutter, Emelia Pierre, Noe Schwartz, Brooke Scott, Kajana Whittaker
Stage Manager: Charlotte Corcoran
Assistant Stage Manager: Jacob Elliott
Photo Credit: Carly Vanderheyden

cast list & full production team

Silent Sky

Written by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Ellen Schaaf (MA '25)
Assistant Director: Clara Nipper
Scenic Designer: Robert Mark Morgan
Lighting Designer: Xinyuan Yu
Costume Designer: Nikki Green
Costume Shop Manager: Sabrina Doris
Props Designer: Emily Frei
Projection Designer: Sean M. Savoie
Assistant Projection Designer: Maggie Powers
Stage Manager: Leo Young
Assistant Stage Managers: Louis Chuang & Bronwyn Hamilton-Evans
Photo Credit: Jerry Naunheim/WashU

cast list & full production team

6 Colloquiums

10+ Special Events:

Below are just a few of the special events that the PAD has hosted and participated in over the past two semesters:

  • 2025 Helen Clanton Morrin Lecture: Taylor Mac (critically acclaimed theatre artist). View the Student Life write-up here.
  • Film screening of Taylor Mac's "24-Decade History of Popular Music" in partnership with Spectrum, the Performing Arts Department, and Film and Media Studies
  • 2025 Marcus Artist-in-Residence: Ron K. Brown (Founder / Artistic Director, Evidence Dance Company). While on campus, Brown and Arcell Cabuag (Associate Artistic Director, Evidence Dance Company) taught a Master Class, set choreography on WashU students for our WUDT concert with a public showing of the work-in-progress and participated in a live Q&A session led by Cecil Slaughter, Professor of Practice in Dance
  • Interpolations 2025: Bridging Industry and Academia in the Digital Age of the Performing Arts. Presented by the Immersive Technology Collective, and the PAD. Check out this great write-up about Interpolations in the Ampersand: Charting a course for live performance in the digital age. Funding for Interpolations 2025 was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation.
  • Retina Burn 2025: Concert lighting and digital media showcase featuring the music of St. Louis blues band Uncle Albert
  • The PAD hosted two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, PAD’s nominee for this year’s International Humanities Prize, presented through the Center for the Humanities
  • 12 students and 2 faculty members traveled to the 2025 Regional American College Dance Conference at Oklahoma University
  • 2 Paws with the PAD featuring the WUPD comfort dogs Bear and Brookie
  • 2025 Handprint Ceremony for Graduating PAD Students
  • 3 Alpha Psi Honors Society Events
  • Graham Technique Master Class with guest instructor William Crowley
  • Roundtable Discussion: Careers in the Entertainment Industry
  • Guest artists and instructors including: Lynn Nottage, Brittany K. Allen, Blake Manns, and many many more!