The Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department and the Columbia College Chicago Business and Entrepreneurship Department present the second annual Third Mask Festival, running May 11 through 15 and presented virtually at www.thirdmaskfestival.com. Presented in conjunction with the college’s student-powered 2020 Manifest Urban Arts Festival, the Third Mask Festival is a platform for new performative works promoting ensemble-based, devised performance that de-centers traditional script-first models of theatre-making by showcasing concepts of the poetic body, movement-based theatre, the personal as performative, and ensemble creation. The Third Mask Festival will also include three panels meant to serve as a safe space to learn and discuss relevant themes presented throughout the festival.

Performances and panels will be presented digitally and free to the public. For a schedule of performances and panels, and to access the events, click here or click here.

The 2020 Third Mask Festival will showcase five new performances that double as the thesis projects of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department‘s cutting-edge MFA Program in European Devised Performance Practice candidates. This year, Third Mask Festival is also proud to present a guest performance by the Whisper Theatre Collective, a group of European Devised Performance Practice alumni and Third Mask Festival founders. For more information, click here.

The Columbia College Theatre Department’s European Devised Performance Practice graduate program, launched in 2017, is offered in partnership with the Arthaus Berlin International School for Devised Theatre and Performance (formerly the London International School of Performing Arts). Drawing inspiration from dance, visual arts, and traditional theatre, the program’s MA and MFA tracks both emphasize collaboration as the main expressive tool for the creation of original work. The programs are inspired by the ideas of the famed French movement-theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq, a central figure in mid-20th-century European physical theatre training. The Third Mask Festival’s title is taken from Lecoq’s dictum: