University of North Texas 
Department News
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Student Spotlight: Highlighting the Hard Work of Momo Sugawara
The UNT Dance and Theatre Department houses many aspiring and fantastic artists and creators. This week, we want to highlight Momoka “Momo” Sugawara for her dedicated and hard work for this department. Momo is a Technical Theatre Major, concentrating in Scenic Design, minoring in Dance, and will be graduating this May.
Momo, originally from Japan, has traveled between Japan and Texas for her family’s work. She found her love of theatre, specifically scenic design, after taking a tech class at her high school in Texas. She says, “I was like ‘Oh my god this is so fun. This is so much less stressful, and it’s so joyful.’ Seeing my work being built, seeing my imagery, actually seeing that in the space made me like ‘Ok, I want to do this’.”
During her time at UNT, Momo has been working in the Paint and Prop Shop since 2023, where she has worked as a painter and prop artisan for many of the shows here, including Peter and the Starcatcher, The Donner Party, and Fiddler on the Roof. Momo was also Assistant Scenic Designer and Prop Master for the Fall 2024 production, Bus Stop, and was most recently the Scenic Designer for Machinal.
After meeting with Lin Roberts, director of Machinal, Momo was inspired and able to conceptualize and create her set for the show. Momo shares on her website that “meta, distancing, and abstract” were her focus for the design. She describes creating a multi-layered and square structure that gives the audience an “uncanny valley-like effect” while also having removable panels. Drawing inspiration from The Truman Show, the removable panels “[reveal] the story behind the wall. As the face is completely removed, the frame will be left, which looks like a cage that visualizes the concept of ‘Fight for Freedom’.”
Her interest in scenic design has taken her outside of UNT as she looks to travel to the many theatre conferences the U.S. offers. This past November, Momo took part in USITT Connects, a virtual recruitment event that hooks students up with potential graduate schools and summer stocks. “I talked to like 20 grad schools in two days. Talk for 20 minutes, rest for 10 minutes, talk to a different school for the next 20 minutes, rest for 10 minutes. I did that for two days in a row,” Momo comments, “I did meet some schools, and even if I’m not going there, it’s good to say hi.” Momo will be attending the USITT Conference this March in Columbus, Ohio.
Momo also attended the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) last year, another theatre conference for college students. While USITT focuses on the new tech elements and gadgets, SETC has a stronger focus in design. “I went last year, and that is how I met the grad school I am going to, and that’s how I found my summer job in Interlochen, Michigan. They have a lot of opportunities for designers. They hold some auditions as well, and maybe a little of tech theatre things, but it was mostly design focused.”
After graduation, Momo will be attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), her first pick for graduate school, where she will continue her work in Scenic Design. Grad schools can offer many future opportunities for students, which was something Momo looked for. “They not only do ‘traditional theatre’ but they have a lot of entertainment stuff. I thought I could experience a broader type of theatre designing.” After talking with some of the students at UNLV, she discovered that the school focuses more on learning through experience rather than focusing on a traditional classroom setting. Rather than scenic design being merely a class that students can take, UNLV focuses on providing more hands-on experience for individualized learning.
In addition to her work in theatre, Momo is also a dance minor. She recently performed in Antares Ewell’s piece, “Joyous,” in both the New Choreographers Concert and the Spring Dance Concert. Worlds collide when having to focus on both a dance concert and scenic design. “When I’m doing dance, I concentrate a lot on class time or rehearsal time, and when I’m out of that, I’m in theatre mode,” Momo chimes. “For SDC, I was working in the shop until 5:55 or 5:58, and then run to the [University Theater], and like ‘okay, I’m a dancer now’.”
Though she has been involved in dancing for many years, Momo’s passion lies in theatre and scenic design. She says, “I do enjoy dance, but when I think [about it] as a career… maybe I’ll do it as a hobby or as fitness….” Momo hopes that her master’s will help her find work in the States but will someday return to Japan to help grow their theatre industry. “I do want to go back to Japan to share my experience and help evolve the theatre in Japan, but for a couple of years, I want to keep experiencing.”
We are very proud of Momo for all her hard work in the department and give her our best wishes at UNLV! Check out her website (www.momosugawara100.com) for more of her incredible work.
Written by Wendy Schwartz
Photos by Rebecca Ramos
Photos by Cesar Valdes
Photos by Skyekat
The Directors Cut: A Look at This Semester’s Student Directors
Love/Sick
Love/Sick, written by John Cariani, was performed on February 13th-15th. The show was directed by Kayle Richey, current Theatre Major, as part of the First Stage Series. First Stage Series gives students a chance to direct their own show for the department but with a very minimal budget. The process of proposing a First Stage show starts with having a show in mind, then you fill out a form with all the logistics, including the number of actors, where and when it takes place, as well as explaining the students’ concept for the show. The proposals are then reviewed by a committee of faculty members. Richey explains:
“[The committee] wanted to see that we weren’t just doing the play as it’s written [and] that we weren’t just putting bodies on stage and doing a show. They wanted to see that we had a creative idea and a story we wanted to tell. That we had a passion.”
This is Richey’s last semester at UNT, and she will graduate in May. She has performed in a production almost every semester since starting in the Theatre program, including Fiddler on the Roof, Book of Will, and Pride and Prejudice. Richey’s first experience with the First Stage shows was also through performance. In her junior year, Richey took part in First Stage’s Elephant’s Graveyard directed by Sam Jack, playing “Young Townsperson,” and in Black Snow, directed by Cade Roberti, playing “Ilchin” and “the Fat Man.” Apart from her directing class, Love/Sick will be Richey’s first full show she has ever directed.
Love/Sick features nine scenes, each showcasing a different couple dealing with their own unique struggles. “It shows real couples really struggling with life issues, along with a deep love for one another,” Richey comments. Having a full year to conceptualize her show, Richey went through many different concepts along the way. “Our original concept was going to be reincarnated lovers, as if each of the characters become the next characters. Two people in a lifetime destined to not be together, then it became two people in a lifetime who are destined to meet, teach each other something, and then not end up together,” she says. The final concept was portrayed by one of the characters in the final scene, Emily. Inspired by Richey’s love of romance novels growing up, she decided that Emily also grew up loving the same type of stories.
Throughout the show, each scene is a depiction of a novel Emily has read, leading up to their own story.
Each director has a unique creative process. With Richey, her creative ideas are cultivated and expressed through Pinterest. She uses the site to articulate ideas to her cast, especially since she prefers to see ideas visually. Pinterest also became useful when her advisor, adjunct faculty member Nathan Autrey, gave “direction of finding images and ideas that can represent the concept in the way of ‘How does this scene smell? How does it taste?’ and all those five sensory factors, which is something we touched on in Lisa [Devine]’s directing class.”
The creative process continues through rehearsals, as actors discover the characters for themselves. One of Richey’s main focuses for rehearsals are the characterizations as this show is about the deep connections between each couple. Through the show, the audience meets different couples who are all at different stages in their relationships. Richey comments:
“Some of the couples we’re meeting them the first time they meet each other, [and] some of them we’re meeting nine years into their relationship. [We discuss] what that history is like for them, so that way we are watching two people who deeply love each other and know each other, and not two actors just reciting lines at each other.”
Richey’s love for the show goes beyond the scope of romance and into her passion for theatre and storytelling. For Richey, Love/Sick was her love letter to the department. Being in her final semester and after performing in so many shows here, this final project of hers was an outlet to express her love for her previous shows. She says, “I’ve gotten to work with so many great people here, and I’ve gotten to tell so many cool stories, and I tried to include as many of those pieces of those stories to my set. There’s set pieces from Pride and Prejudice, Elephant’s Graveyard, Black Snow, on the set. I wear my Book of Will ring everyday when I’m at rehearsals.”
But ultimately, Richey had always felt a deep connection with this show. Love can be a complicated subject, and while facing her own struggles, Richey wants her audience to understand that maybe those struggles happen for a reason; she believes that even the difficult parts of relationships can teach us something, that “love always has its purpose.”
Machinal
Meanwhile, rehearsing a few doors down in the studio theater, another show is in the works. Running February 27th-March 1st is Machinal, written by Sophie Treadwell, and directed by Lin Roberts. Roberts is also a current senior graduating this May and was given the chance to direct as part of the Lab Series, a continuation of the First Stage Series. Previously, Roberts performed in UNT Theatre productions of Anatomies and Donner Party, as well as performing in various scenes from the directing classes.
Her directing experience came well before joining UNT, starting as an assistant to her high school director. She stated, “I kind of enjoyed it. I didn’t quite know what I was doing.” She continued directing scenes in high school, culminating in her senior showcase, which led to Roberts having doubts about herself:
“I did my best, and I tried. So for a long time I had imposter syndrome, but luckily I had a really good therapist who was able to talk to me about that, who was like ‘You saw the growth, and you were proud of the growth your actors were able to accomplish. Why does everything else matter?”
Moving into college, Roberts reluctantly continued her directing work through the Directing 1 class, taught by Professor Marjorie Hayes. “There was more direction in how to direct, and there are so many talented people here at the university, and they’re all willing to listen. But even then, I still didn’t think I was a good director,” Roberts continues.
But that didn’t stop her from continuing to direct. She was encouraged to apply to the First Stage Series by Professor Hayes, and though she was hesitant, she submitted a proposal. Roberts decided to pitch Eurydice as her show since she performed it in high school and had also worked on the show in directing class. In directing Eurydice, Roberts felt that her imposter syndrome weakened: “I can’t be an imposter if I actually did it. And that flung open the doors, and I marched right on in.”
Students who previously directed a First Stage show can continue directing as part of the Lab Series. With the First Stage Series, directors make their own designs for the set, props, lights, sound, and sometimes, costumes. The Lab Series, however, is a step up, where students get to run the show with a full production team behind them. Roberts is one of the first students to direct a Lab Series in a long time. She stated that after directing Eurydice, “I wanted more, I wanted to do the next thing. Nathan Autrey...talked about Lab Series quite a bit…so I [knew] that I had a whole year and a half left. I was like, why not?”
Machinal was quite a step for Roberts, compared to Eurydice. The pressure of directing a show with the same expectations that faculty and guest directors have was a challenge for Roberts to face. Though she created the set, sound, and light design for Eurydice, as well as acted as her own stage manager, she felt that she had a “safety net.” With Machinal, she feels grateful to have a cast that is not only talented but invested in the work. However, she feels as though the same safety nets are not there. She explains, “I am being treated as a professional, [and] I have the same authority and team and responsibilities of a director that’s been coming in here for ten plus years and says they want to do a show.”
While she feels that the bar is higher for her, Roberts is pushing past and feeling great about where she and her team are at. Roberts describes Machinal as “the story about an ordinary woman who murders her husband.” It is based on the true story of Ruth Snyder, who was the first person to be executed by electric chair after murdering her husband. Roberts explains:
“It’s expressionistic theatre, which is a lot different from what we’ve done. The only character that’s almost more than two-dimensional is the main character… You get into the inner workings and the inner thought process of the young women, which I find incredibly fascinating.
While the show has yet to come out, Roberts shares what she thinks the audience should get from the show: “When you are backed into a corner and oppressed past the points of words mattering, sometimes you’ve got to be radical.”
Congratulations to the cast and crew of Love/Sick for a wonderful show and get your tickets now for Machinal!
Written by Wendy Schwartz
Shining a Light on New Equipment in the RTFP
The UNT E-Shop staff was hard at work over the winter break installing new lighting systems into the RTFP 127 and 130 classrooms! The new system has implemented LEDs which allow for color washes and more complex looks with the lighting setup in the classrooms. This opens new opportunities for classes, student directors, and student designers.
Its intended purpose is educational usage and First Stage productions. Furthermore, it aims to expand opportunities for lighting designers in the department. With only three plays and two dance concerts per year, student lighting designers have previously had very few opportunities. With the addition of an LED lighting system into RTFP 127—one that isn’t just an archaic set of switches in the wall—new doors are opened for prospective lighting students to design for the First Stage season.
RTFP 127 and 130 still have the strip plates that we, as students, have become accustomed to using. The new LEDs will be usable through monitors set up in the classroom that involve a USB attachment. The attachment loads the same program that’s run in the main theatre spaces, just adapted for digital screen use rather than the average light board.
The development is very new, so many things are still a work in progress, such as who can use the programs, how students will use them, and how to educate on the use of lighting systems. The shop is currently working on an instructional guide to using the new system, as well as continuing to make improvements to the system itself. There will be a bit of a trial-and-error period as we settle into using our new resources.
Again, a huge thanks to our wonderful E-Shop staff, Oso Padilla and Taylor Post, who worked dutifully over the break to install the new fixtures. They were allotted a week to load in and hang new fixtures, and because of their work, Love/Sick directed by Kayle Richey was the first student directed production to use the new lights!
Written by Carver Olson
Heart and Sole: The Dedication and Craft of UNT Dance
The UNT Dance and Theatre Department presented their annual Spring Dance Concert (SDC) this past week, running February 6th-9th. SDC featured a variety of works choreographed by the department’s talented faculty and students, as well as featured guest artists. “The pieces are really strong,” comments Daniel Garcia, Dance Adjunct and Rehearsal Director for SDC. “There is use of props, different styles of dance like ballet, contemporary, hip-hop. There is an overall emotional story, where pieces build and fall in energy. Each audience member is able to get a different experience.”
Among the choreographers is Dance Adjunct and UNT Alumni, Jocelyn Schimpf. Teaching at UNT since Fall 2021, she has taught a wide variety of classes, this semester including Ballet 6, Laban Studies, and History of Dance. Schimpf is back choreographing for SDC for the third time, with a tap and contemporary fusion piece, titled Prisma. “It may seem very chaotic, but we want the audience to see the fun and community within it,” chimes Schimpf, “students putting their heart into each piece, how they move and interact through the stage, and how they share that love and passion with the audience.”
The student choreographers chosen for SDC are also chosen to participate in the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Conference. The ACDA Conference hosts students, faculty, and professionals from across the country to showcase their work and gain outside experience and feedback from their peers. “It is a platform to push student work,” describes Garcia. This year, the conference will take place at Texas State University on March 12th-15th. Through an adjudication process, students submit and present their work to a committee consisting of two faculty members and two student representatives, which get put to an anonymous vote in which dance students partake. The committee then comes together to select the submissions, taking account of votes as well as what they feel best represents the school.
At the beginning of the year, there is a formal audition for SDC that is open to all Dance Majors and Minors. Ava Townsley, a current senior graduating in December, is performing in three of the show’s pieces, including one as an understudy. She comments on the audition process:
“There is no preparation needed. You come in and warm up, and then there are two to three sections of the audition: there’s a ballet section, a contemporary section with partners, and then a more ‘worldly section’ with jazz and hip-hop. Then [faculty and guest artists] decide based on availability, and of course, who fits best for each piece. You pretty much come in blind-sided. It’s a very professional process. You learn and gain skills, even if you don’t make it in.
One student adjudicated for ACDA, and presenting her piece Imperceptus in SDC, is Camille Williams. Williams is a Senior, Majoring in Dance on the education track, and is currently a student teacher in Carrollton. “Growing up, my mom always thought I’d be a choreographer,” Williams comments.
For Imperceptus, Williams looked for dancers with a solid foundation of ballet. “My piece is very light and angelic. I wanted someone with soft qualities, but also someone who will come in at 7am and do the work and won’t flake.” Despite the early morning rehearsals, the process for her dancers is still enjoyable. “No one is in the building. We just sit and get to know each other.”
When asked about what this piece means to her, Williams explains,
“The meaning of my piece is very centered around the future and the unknown, which is inevitable for the human experience. Do you resist or surrender? It comes from personal experience. I transferred to UNT and switched to dance, which was a big unknown moment for me. I used that personal experience to create the piece.”
We congratulate all the choreographers, designers, and performers in SDC, and send
best wishes to those performing at ACDA!
-Written by Wendy Schwartz
- Photos by SkyeKats Photography
UNT Faculty and Alumni Take the Stage with Shane at Dallas Theatre Center
Dallas Theatre Center’s latest production, Shane, is an adaptation of the 1949 western novella of the same name about the Range Wars. The stage adaptation by Karen Zacharías had its premiere in August 2023 at the Guthrie in Minnesota. Zacharías’ adaptation reexamines the assumptions and allure of the Wild West—its fantasies, myths and values—and creates a new point of view of the classic story of Shane. It examines the forgotten voices of the true Wild West—the People of Color and Native Americans who shaped the American West—but are erased in the John Wanye-esque ideals of Hollywood and the American cowboy myth. The production and its themes are incredibly timely.
Running from Jan. 31st-Feb. 16th, you will find UNT faculty members and alumni as production members of Shane: Professor Bob Hess as Luke Fletcher, Professor Laura Berrios as Assistant Stage Manager, and UNT Alumni Stephanie Delgado as Winona Stephens. The production is receiving rave reviews. DFW Center Stage says to “forget all those western cliches and prepare yourself for a supremely entertaining evening of theater.” Dallas Weekly’s Aaron Zilbermann says the fresh perspective “leaves us walking out of the theater reminded of why we love these stories in the first place.”
Dallas Theatre Center is one of the very few theatres that works under the League of Regional Theatres (or LORT) in DFW and is the largest in North Texas. Dallas Theatre Center produces around five to six shows per season, as well as holds public works such as community workshops, a flagship education program, and master workshops. Shane is the third show of their current season.
I got the chance to speak with UNT Professor of Acting, Bob Hess, about his experiences with Shane. On top of being a full-time professor at UNT, Bob is one of the 10 resident actors with Dallas Theatre Center. He was Scrooge in A Christmas Carol earlier in the season, as well as Mina, Dr. Helsing, and others in Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. When I asked him how he does it, he said that it is an exercise in time management. “It involves careful time management and a support system that understands that I can’t be two places at one time. Dr. Wolverton (the UNT Dance and Theatre Chair) … values the importance of what I do as an artist with my creative research and how it makes me a better teacher.” Prof. Hess takes on the role of Luke Fletcher, who he calls a “particularly greedy character who wants to own everything.” It’s hard to imagine him as anything other than the kind professor we know and love… But he’s a consummate professional at his craft.
Shane is an incredible story about caring for each other and the world we live in
and flips the narrative in a necessary way to tell the stories of our predecessors.
Our Theatre faculty and UNT Alumni are remarkable professionals and work incredibly
hard in pursuit of their artistry. Go out and see Shane and support live theatre and
our UNT Dance and Theatre community!
-Written by Carver Olson