Professor David Grenke, new chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, offers the following remarks on his department's 2008-09 season:

As we begin the new academic year, we in the Department of Theatre and Dance rally around new and innovative ideas that are the basis for this year's productions as well as an embrace and vital re-examination of the traditions that have brought us here. The new and experimental are the outgrowth and evolution of, or reaction to, the past.

This year we continue to bring in nationally and internationally respected artists as part of our Granada Artist-in-Residence Program.

-- Playwright and director Philip Kan Gotanda, who has been instrumental in bringing stories of Asians in the United States to mainstream American theatre, will direct the first staged version of his work #5 The Angry Red Drum.

-- John Jasperse, internationally acclaimed choreographer from New York City, will be creating a new work. Jasperse has gained a reputation as a choreographer whose aesthetic has expanded the form of contemporary concert dance and its relevance to the greater culture.

-- In the spring, director-choreographer Mindy Cooper will return to UC Davis to work with the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Music on a co-production of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!. Cooper will again bring her vast experience of the Broadway stage to benefit students across many departments, working with musical director David Moschler and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra on this special UC Davis Centennial event.

The Department of Theatre and Dance continues the evolution of a rich and respected tradition of creative exploration and inspired theoretical research. Challenging times create an opportunity for radical re-examination of familiar systems.

Opportunities to think and examine in new ways, to reinvent and reimagine are the objectives we pursue in the Department of Theatre and Dance and the fundamental skills we recognize, support and develop.

THEATRE AND DANCE SEASON

The 2008-09 Department of Theatre and Dance season begins with the THIRDeEYE Theatre Festival, featuring new plays written and directed by undergraduate students. the plays: The Readers by Joe Ferreira, When Marcelli Met the Dream Maker by Carolyn Duncan and A Piece of Water by Julie Friedrichson. Nov. 5-9 in the Wyatt Pavilion Theatre.

The complete season: theatredance.ucdavis.edu

Tickets are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.