Performing Arts at Tulane
Experience. Create. Engage with us.
Performing Arts at Tulane invites all members of our community—students, faculty, staff, and the broader New Orleans region—to explore, imagine, and perform. Uniting Theatre, Dance, Music, and Musical Theatre, we foster artistic curiosity, rigorous scholarship, and rooted cultural expression.
We champion inclusive artistic excellence, grounded in Tulane’s rich liberal arts tradition and New Orleans’s extraordinary cultural tapestry. Our programs are committed to creating new work, preserving heritage, and partnering locally and globally.
Performing Arts at Tulane
Through performance, research, and shared creative practice, we shape artists and thinkers who lead with imagination, integrity, and inspired purpose.
Featured Performances
Spaces & Places
In the Spotlight
Courtney Bryan
The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival
Dylan Parrilla-Koester
Parrilla-Koester, an alumnus and former member of the Tulane University Marching Band , has served as interim director of bands since November, overseeing all aspects of the comprehensive band program, including directing the Tulane University Marching Band and serving as artistic leader of the Tulane Concert Band. His appointment marks the continuation of a deep relationship with the place where his identity as a musician, educator, and leader first took shape.
A 2018 graduate of Tulane’s School of Liberal Arts, Parrilla-Koester earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in trumpet performance after initially studying political science and history. As a student, he immersed himself in every corner of the band program—from orchestra and brass band to pep band and marching band—ultimately serving in multiple leadership roles, including drum major and student conductor.
“Dylan Parrilla-Koester represents a wonderful combination of attributes and talents—academically accomplished, artistically ambitious and deeply in touch with New Orleans,” said Brian T. Edwards, dean of the School of Liberal Arts. “His experience both as a former student musician and having served the band as assistant director uniquely positions him to lead the program into its next chapter. I look forward to working with him as TUMB continues to expand and enrich its relationship to our home city, a place where music, brass bands and parade culture are at the highest caliber. Whether on the field for a halftime show during a Green Wave football game or in a Mardi Gras parade, the Tulane Marching Band brings joy to fans on campus and across the city.”
Following his undergraduate studies, Parrilla-Koester pursued advanced training in music education and conducting. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Doctor of Education in music and music education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Parrilla-Koester’s research examines music education, institutional leadership and higher education policy. He has also built an impressive career as an educator, directing award-winning instrumental programs in California and working with ensembles across the United States and Canada.
At Tulane, Parrilla-Koester was instrumental in shaping the band program, serving as assistant director of bands from 2022 to 2025. Under the leadership of longtime band director Barry Spanier, Parrilla-Koester was involved in a wide range of roles, from leading rehearsals and arranging music to designing marching productions, conducting on the field and strengthening relationships with students, alumni and supporters. His leadership reflects a philosophy that sees the band not only as a musical ensemble but as a vital ambassador for the university.
“The band is both a classroom and a public voice,” Parrilla-Koester said. “We are teaching students at the highest level while also representing Tulane everywhere—from Yulman Stadium to the streets of New Orleans during Carnival season.”
Few institutions of higher education are as intertwined with their city as Tulane. This connection is also reflected in the university’s band program, which performs at football games, university events and Mardi Gras parades, as it carries forward a tradition that is distinctly New Orleanian and uniquely Tulane.
For Parrilla-Koester, that tradition is personal. As a student, he experienced firsthand the band’s role as the “soundtrack” of campus life. From convocation and admissions events to game days and community celebrations, the band was always present. He also witnessed the program’s modern rebirth in the post-Katrina era, when Tulane Bands re-emerged as a symbol of resilience and renewal under Spanier’s 21-year directorship.
Now, as director of bands, Parrilla-Koester sees his role as both steward and storyteller—preserving the traditions built by generations of students while continuing to evolve the program in ways that reflect the spirit of New Orleans.
“Our students don’t just learn music—they learn how to be part of this city,” he said. “From the moment they arrive, they’re immersed in the city’s traditions, in performance and in community. They become New Orleanians through the band.”
Ray Proctor
John “Ray” Proctor
Play On; Julius X
Dramaturg: Signature Theatre; Folger’s Shakespeare Library, 2025
Shakespeare Studies scholar John “Ray” Proctor was an integral part of the creative team for two productions, serving as dramaturg—the resource and researcher shaping the world of the play for the cast, crew, and designers.
Set to the syncopated soundtrack of Duke Ellington’s greatest hits, Play On reimagines Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night” in 1930s Harlem, following an aspiring songwriter as she is swept up in a swinging tempest of love, mistaken identity and jazz.
Julius X takes Shakespeare’s classic tragedy and reworks it through the lens of the American Civil Rights Movement, focusing on the story of Malcolm X and drawing parallels between ancient Rome and 1960s Harlem. The bold new play reveals the cyclical nature of societal strife, as well as the shared human experiences of ambition, betrayal, and brotherhood.
Sherrice Mojgani
Sherrice Mojgani
Laughs in Spanish; The Color Purple; All’s Well That Ends Well; The Comedy of Errors
Lighting Designer: Hartford Stage; The Village Theatre; The Old Globe; The Old Globe, 2025
Sherrice Mojgani served as lighting designer on several national and international productions during the 2025 season.
It’s the eve of Art Basel in Miami, and gallery director Mari is freaking out. The art has vanished, the phones are ringing off the hook, and her assistant Caro is acting suspicious. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, her famous, often-absent mother Estella arrives in town… baggage in tow. In Laughs in Spanish at Hartford Stage, the original 2023 director and cast reunite to present a vibrant collage of chaos and cultura.
With a Grammy Award-winning score infused with jazz, gospel, ragtime and the blues, The Color Purple is a triumphant musical adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker. In the early 1900s in rural Georgia, a teenage Celie is ripped from her life and forced into an abusive marriage. Despite her anguishing circumstances, Celie comes to discover her voice, find herself, and celebrate life. Directed by Timothy Pigess, this Village Theatre production is a stirring and inspiring show that explodes with music, beauty, and hope.
All’s Well That Ends Well is one of Shakespeare’s wittiest comedies, brought to life on the Old Globe’s outdoor stage. Helena is in love with the aristocrat Bertram, while he’s more interested in running off to war than in romance. But strong-willed Helena can’t be deterred, and as she moves mountains and conjures miracles to gain his affection, the play winds into flights of hilarity and passion.
Merriment and mayhem rule in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, an uproarious comedy last produced at The Old Globe in 2015. Immediately after arriving in a new town, a young man and his sidekick are mistaken for their own long-lost twins, and everyone’s lives are turned upside down as mistaken identities, confused lovers, and all kinds of shenanigans ensue.
Monica Payne
Monica Payne
Hedda Gabler
Director: The Artistic Home (Chicago, IL), 2025 | By Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Mark O’Rowe
With Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen’s genius continues to withstand time, resonating with contemporary audiences on a personal and political level. The only daughter of a general, Hedda Gabler finds herself trapped in a boring, loveless marriage, unable to bear the small life that she’s required to live. Charming, well-mannered, and cunning, Hedda strains the perception of what a woman is capable of and stuns the audience with her actions in the second act. Monica Payne directs this notoriously challenging play, whose lead role is often referred to as the “female Hamlet” for the intensity it requires an actress to undertake.