News

The Rochester Business Journal talks to James Yarrington, university architect and director of planning and design, about the architecture of the Henrietta campus. (This content may require a subscription to view.)

Hundreds of people attended a performance by an RIT-related act during the first week of the 12-day Rochester Fringe Festival, with students, faculty, and staff contributing music, dance, comedy, poetry, photojournalism, in downtown Rochester. And nearly 20 other RIT-related performances are scheduled later this week.

RIT students, faculty, and staff will contribute music, dance, comedy, poetry, photojournalism, and more during the 12th annual Rochester Fringe Festival, which begins Tuesday, Sept. 12, and runs through Sept. 23 in downtown Rochester.

In order to accommodate a surge in students engaged in performing arts, an official groundbreaking was held today for RIT’s new music performance theater, the first major theater project in the Rochester area in decades. The three-story, 40,000-square-foot building will consist of a 750-seat theater primarily to be used for musical theater productions.

Construction is beginning on the first major theater project in the Rochester area in decades, with a 750-seat music performance theater primarily for musical theater productions at RIT.

Nearly one in six of the more than 3,300 first-year and transfer undergraduates this year received a Performing Arts Scholarship from RIT. That brings the total number of scholars to more than 1,800 in the five years since the program began. The program encourages high school students involved in performing arts to continue their passions at RIT.

The new undergraduate students come from 48 states (all but Iowa and Wyoming); Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Guam; U.S. Virgin Islands; and 47 countries, with the largest contingent coming from India, Canada, and China. In addition, there are 927 new graduate students.

Calling all potential cast members, stage managers, designers, dancers, costumers, theater technicians, and more: RIT’s first “Full Season Audition Debut” is set for 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 30 in Ingle Auditorium.

This May, students from RIT participated in the Performing Arts – Global Music study abroad program. During their stay on RIT Croatia’s Dubrovnik campus, students took part in an intensive course called Studies in World Music. The course is designed to explore selected music cultures with an emphasis on music from Central and Southeastern Europe.

In only a few weeks, the SHED will open to the RIT community, and Tiffany Brodner is preparing for her new role overseeing the multi-use facility.

The 2023-2024 theatrical season featuring a partnership between RIT’s School of Performing Arts and NTID's Department of Performing Arts will include a celebration of Deaf rap and hip hop, an adaptation of Hamlet, a multimedia dance production, and several immersive theatrical performances, among others.

The conclusion of the academic year always means full speed ahead to work on an array of projects while the majority of students are off campus.