Projecting Our Future | Advancing Tech in Theatre & Dance

The Cause...

Today, right now, this very moment, we are raising $5,000 to purchase a brand new LCD projector for student use within the Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Department, and we need your help to get there. From classroom experimentations to performance collaborations with groundbreaking artists such as Ping Chong, it is TDPS' mission is to provide their students with the experience and tools needed to succeed as artists, innovators, and community contributors, but that cannot be achieved without support from people like you.

After a 16-year run, our previous beloved projector, used for classes, symposiums, lectures, final projects, international collaborations, and our student-run second season performances in The Clarice, finally gave out. The School of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies (TDPS), like many other schools at The University of Maryland, rely on technologically advanced equipment to bring our ideas to life, and help us contribute more deeply to our fields and the richness of our community. The ability to work with Projection is integral to providing our student community access to an important piece of equipment that has revolutionized theatrical stage design in the last few decades.

Who We Are & What We Do...

University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies is training the projection designers of tomorrow.  The MFA in Theatre and Dance Design’s new focus in Projection Design, under the supervision of trailblazing Professor Jared Mezzocchi, trains budding artists to use the power of the projected image to take audiences on an imaginative journey from a crowded tenement in Chicago, into the depths of a clinical think-tank, to the outer reaches of the universe, without ever having to change a piece of scenery.

Within TDPS, our Second Season Productions allow students to produce, write, choreograph, perform, direct, market, and design their own performances. Students are allotted a small budget, rehearsal time, access to props and costumes, and a weekend of performances to showcase their creative work.  These performances are the culmination of hundreds of hours of education and craft building with so many students passionate about projection design that our 2015-2016 Second Season is filled with shows focusing on projections as the main source of visual art in the story-telling of their performances.  The skills students acquire through video projection classes and the practical application of these skills in the School allow students to seamlessly progress to projection designing for our prestigious Main Stage shows at the Clarice, and to working in professional venues long before they graduate. So please, donate and help ensure that our programs, our students, and our community continue to innovate, lead, and thrive. Our art will make your soul soar. We can’t do it without you.

Gifts in support of the University of Maryland are accepted and managed by the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., an affiliated 501(c)(3) organization authorized by the Board of Regents.  Contributions to the University of Maryland are tax deductible as allowed by law.  Please see your tax advisor for details.