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SMU Theatre’s Benard Cummings Talks Challenges, Favorite Shows, and the Path that Led Him to SMU

Photo by Kim Leeson

By Allison Barta

Benard Cummings is an Assistant Professor for the Meadows School of the Arts Division of Theatre. He received his B.F.A in Theatre here at Meadows in 1987. He went on to the Yale School of Drama and later moved to New York City. He starred in the film Raw Nerve in 1999 and the television series New York Undercover in 1996.

He has performed extensively in Off-Broadway productions such as “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and has also tried his hand at playwriting. This fall he will be directing Normalcy by Bennett Windheim, off-broadway, for Theatre East.

What brought you to SMU Meadows?

I was born and raised in East Texas.  I’ve lived in NYC since the early 90s.  I am also a graduate of SMU Theater.  To be honest, my mom wasn’t in good health.  I was […]

2017-06-24T09:36:02-06:00 May 3, 2017|Note, Theatre|
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SMU Guildhall Ranked Number One in World for Game Design

The Princeton Review’s 2017 list honors SMU Guildhall as best of 150 international programs

SMU Guildhall has risen to the top spot among the world’s best graduate game-design programs in The Princeton Review’s eighth annual report, published Tuesday, March 21, 2017.

At No. 1, SMU Guildhall ranks above the No. 2 Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at UCF. Other schools in the top 25 include the University of Utah, Rochester Institute of Technology, USC, NYU, Drexel, Abertay University (Dundee, Scotland), DePaul, Michigan State, Ohio State, MIT, the University of Malta in Msida, and the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition, SMU Guildhall ranks higher than two other top-25 graduate programs in Texas: the University of Texas-Dallas (No. 14) and Texas A&M (No. 17).

“Becoming the No. 1 graduate game-design school is a tribute to faculty with deep experience, bright and […]

2017-03-23T09:01:14-06:00 March 23, 2017|Note|
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The Fall 2016 Semester in Photos

All photos by Kim Leeson Photo by Kim Leeson

From A-to-SYZYGY, it’s been nothing less than a busy year at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

As we continue on to the next academic year and reflect on the inspiring events of fall 2016—which includes Meadows Prize winner New Cities, Future Ruins’ hybrid conference on art and urbanism in America’s Western Sun Belt, the many, electric events of Ignite Arts Dallas, stunning dance premiers, Mayor Rawlings’ Sammons Media Ethics lecture, swing dance, a lighting battle, the election, and much, much more—we present a look at photos we love from the year at SMU Meadows School of the Arts.

The indefatigable photographer Kim Leeson was on hand for many Meadows events. Here are just some of our favorites:

Meadows Division of Dance presented To Have and To Hold, choreographed by Danial <a href=[…]

2016-12-12T13:57:58-06:00 December 6, 2016|Note|
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SMU’s Highly-Ranked Guildhall Wants You to Play Student-Designed Video Games

guildhallplaytestThe SMU Guildhall is Southern Methodist’s video game design school located in Plano, Texas. The graduate school is ranked #2 for video game design and is the only program in the world to offer a Masters in Interactive Technology.

As a part of the master’s program, students are required to create their own game. Students here at SMU will have the opportunity to playtest these games on November 29. It’s free, and there will be doughnuts.

We checked in with Marc Mixon, graduate student specializing in production at SMU Guildhall, to tell us a little bit more before the playtest:

SMU art majors who are pursuing a B.F.A. are eligible to apply for a two-part B.F.A./M.I.T in Digital Game Development.

Can you tell us about the students’ games? Are they first person narrative? Web-based or console? 

They are all […]

2016-11-28T09:16:31-06:00 November 28, 2016|Note|
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