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Tigers Helping Tigers
A virtual fundraising event on June 25 featuring performing artists.
Expression for Everyone
Performing arts at a university known around the world for its excellence in science and tech? You better believe it. By combining the constantly innovative nature of technology with traditional art and performance, we are breaking new ground in the realm of artistic experience.
The benefits of performing arts can be viewed in many ways—a dynamic discipline, creative outlet, tool for wellness, and spellbinding spectacle. We specialize in exploring unexpected connections between music, theater, dance, and other academic disciplines—like animating a scene that accompanies an orchestral performance, or designing and building moving set pieces for a play.
Our students put what they learn in the classroom, what they feel inside, and what they are passionate about to use in creative and unique ways while having fun working alongside others as enthusiastic as they are.
So whether you’re a cellist here to study engineering, or a theater club pro majoring in museum studies, RIT’s performing arts have something to offer.
Upcoming Facilities
The SHED
The Student Hall for Exploration and Development (the SHED), a 100,000-plus-square-foot facility, will become the epicenter of what RIT represents with a huge makerspace, a black-box theater, a dance studio, and music rehearsal spaces.
Learn more about the Student Hall for Exploration and Development
Music Performance Theater
Design of a two-theater complex has just begun. The smaller theater with approximately 800 seats will house musical theater, including a historic organ. We seek to add a 1,500-seat orchestra hall for larger audiences in a second phase.
Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase
Message from the President
RIT is striving to develop the leading performing arts program in the nation for non-majors. We are seeking the most talented and creative students who can continue their passions for music, dance, theater, and the arts. RIT is a place where you can exercise your multiple talents, satisfy your thirst for learning and for doing, and experiment along the way. We’re always on to something. And we’re having fun along the way.
Dr. David C. Munson Jr.
RIT President
Portraits of Performance
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![Claire Wilcox looking at a monitor with an animation program open.]()
A New Way to Tell Stories
Claire WilcoxUndeclared Art and DesignBy combining the performing arts with technology and design, Claire Wilcox is creating a storytelling dynamic that engages technology to share stories on film and on stage.
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![Becky Jasen playing the cello.]()
The Power of Music
Becky JasenPhysician AssistantJasen is a physician assistant major and the music director for RIT Players. She is applying her passion for music to research that studied how music can reduce pain and anxiety in pediatric patients.
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![Ted Canning playing the steel drums during a Steelband Ensemble practice session.]()
The Excitement of Live Performance
Ted CanningAdjunct facultyDirector of Steelband EnsembleFor Professor Ted Canning, music is a universal language anyone can learn. No matter your major, no matter your level of experience, you can make music part of your life at RIT.
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![Professor Jonathan Kruger composing music.]()
Evoking Emotion Through Music
Jonathan KrugerProfessorA difficult task to accomplish, yet a joy to teach, Kruger enjoys composing for visual mediums. As chair of the Department of Performing Arts, Krugar focuses on enhancing a scene with music while keeping the audience immersed in the medium.
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![Fred Beam and another actor signing.]()
Visual Exploration
Fred Beam '85As outreach coordinator for Sunshine 2.0, a theater group at RIT's National Institute for the Deaf, Beam and his troupe provide performances and activities for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults that highlight the fields of deaf culture, literacy, and STEM.
Performing Arts News
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March 29, 2023
![two people standing next to each other, with one holding a bust of Beethoven.]()
How new research is unlocking secrets about Beethoven's life
WXXI Connections talks to Michael Ruhling, professor of performing arts, about Beethoven.
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March 29, 2023
![image of an ear with a brick textured overlay on it. On top of a black and white background.]()
RIT/NTID kicks off NEA Big Read project April 1
In Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic, villagers’ deafness becomes an act of revolt against a totalitarian government, and their use of sign language unites them as a community. These themes, along with others throughout the book, resonate with the contemporary experience of deafness in the United States.
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March 29, 2023
![four college students on stage throwing papers into the air while rehearsing a play.]()
‘Ordinary Days’ is extraordinary musical theater
RIT’s University Gallery is the perfect venue for an upcoming play where much of the plot takes place in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ordinary Days runs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, through Sunday, April 2, in the gallery, in Booth Hall.
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March 28, 2023
![four members of a dance troupe hugging.]()
ASL group creates unique show designed to inspire, transpire change
WVLT-TV features an event with Sunshine 2.0.
