Leslie Buxbaum
Leslie Buxbaum
Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts, Committee on Theater and Performance Studies; Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality
University of Chicago
Research Project
Arts Labs II
Project Team:
2025 – 2027
Soundproof room for acoustical research, Bell Telephone Laboratories. Photo by Keystone/Getty Images.
Key Question
What are the most effective ways to foster a culture of experimentation for arts research and performance?
Project Summary
The Arts Labs project is designed to identify and explore new frontiers of artistic collaboration across a range of media, technologies, and scales. Now in its second phase at the Neubauer Collegium, the project is comprised of five discrete labs: the Opera Lab, which is devoted to preparing the new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera in 2028-30, examining the tetralogy’s production history and aesthetic politics (on hiatus during the 2025–2026 academic year); the Movement Theory Lab, studying theories and practices of embodiment in dance through a variety of conceptual perspectives and choreographic workshops; the Dance-Theater Creation Lab, a partnership with Lucky Plush Productions to create a dance-theater production inspired by Eugene O’Neill’s The Great God Brown (FACING); the Un-Musical Lab, exploring the dissolution and recomposition of a family told through the dissolution and recomposition of musical theater form; the New Directions in Contemporary Publishing Lab, which convenes editors and writers from distinguished literary publications to collaborate on identifying emerging futures for translation and publishing; and an Arts Labs seminar, which meets regularly to workshop the concepts undergirding the larger initiative.
Research Team
David Levin
David Levin
Interim Faculty Director, Neubauer Collegium (2025–26); Alice H. and Stanley G. Harris Jr. Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies, Department of Cinema & Media Studies, the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies, and the College
University of Chicago
Tina Post
Tina Post
Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing, and Theater and Performance Studies; Affiliate Faculty, Department of Visual Arts and Art History
University of Chicago
Srikanth "Chicu" Reddy
Julia Rhoads
Julia Rhoads
Director of the Dance Program and Assistant Senior Instructional Professor, Committee on Theater and Performance Studies
University of Chicago
Kai Ihns
Kai Ihns
Poet, Editor, and Scholar
Project Narrative
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Movement Theory Lab: Workshop with Moriah Evans
Workshop
Movement Theory Lab: Workshop with Moriah Evans
Choreographer and artist Moriah Evans joined the Movement Theory Lab to lead a workshop at The Renaissance Society.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Movement Theory Lab: Workshop with Moriah Evans
Workshop
Movement Theory Lab: Workshop with Moriah Evans
Choreographer and artist Moriah Evans joined the Movement Theory Lab to lead a workshop at The Renaissance Society.
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