Welcome to Performing and Media Arts!
We are excited to welcome you to Cornell or welcome you back! All of us here in Performing and Media Arts (PMA) look forward to meeting you and helping you find opportunities to make your time in Ithaca more enriching, whether you are a budding performer, a seasoned auteur, an aspiring critic, or just a curious observer. Please use this page as a springboard to the wealth of opportunities available to you in the Schwartz Center!
Meet Associate Professor Samantha Noelle Sheppard, Department Chair
Latest Developments
Meet Associate Professor Jeffrey Palmer as he shares the latest exciting updates about PMA’s film and video production courses.
Transcript of Film Program Video
Meet PMA Dance Faculty Assistant Professor Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz, and Assistant Professor of the Practice Danielle Russo
Schwartz Center Video Tour
Watch the video tour of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, introduced by Katie Kim ’28. This video was created in collaboration with PMA 3571: Documentary Filmmaking.
Opportunities to Participate
Find out how you can become involved in PMA’s live and mediated work at a general information session, Projects & Participation Kick-off, on Wednesday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre. You’ll meet directors and filmmakers who will describe their project and casting needs. There are many opportunities for behind-the-scenes work, too. PMA faculty will describe opportunities to work in the scenery/props shop, costume shop, electrics, and on backstage or film crews. There’s a place for everyone at PMA!
Missed our Spring 2026 Projects and Participation Kick-off? Watch the recorded session on PMA YouTube channel.
Start Your PMA Education
Whether you choose to major, minor or enroll in select classes, we provide opportunities for you to explore theatre, film, and dance as distinct art forms, and to combine these disciplines in exciting ways.
The departmental curriculum offers a robust selection of courses, from introductory to advanced levels and from creative and critical perspectives. Visit our Academics page for an overview of all the options, or jump right into the Minor or the Major.
Wondering where to start? We encourage you to consider these as options for your entry into PMA in Fall 2026:
| 1410: Media Production Lab | 1610: Production Technology Lab |
| 2100: Introduction to Performing and Media Arts | 2560: American Cinema |
| 2800: Introduction to Acting | 3226: Global Dance and Decolonizing Movement |
| 3550: Global Cinema and Media Studies | 3533: Screen & Story |
See all PMA courses for the Spring 2026 semester: https://pma.cornell.edu/courses
Read the PMA Undergraduate Guide
Upcoming Productions and Events
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Auditions
Tuesday, April 14, 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Black Box Theatre
Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, will be produced in the Fall 2026 semester with performances on October 23-24 and 30-31. All are welcome to audition!
Audition Requirements: Please choose a 10–25-line speech from the audition material available here.
Film Screening and Conversation: “The Culture Industry of War”
Tuesday, April 21, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Film Forum
Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
In the 2013 essay-film The Culture Industry of War (27 min), art historian and filmmaker Hamed Yousefi explores the role of images in Iran’s modern political culture. Focusing on the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), he argues that image-making was a central force behind the production of “an industry of martyrdom.” Other accounts of the war tend to focus on the centrality of religious iconography in the ideology of the Islamic Republic. This film, however, recenters the conversation around the modernity of the war's cultural industry, its use of technological modes of reproduction, and the adaption of avant-garde techniques of immediacy and spontaneity in war propaganda. Post-Screening Conversation with Hamed Yousefi (Near Eastern Studies) and Natasha Raheja (Anthropology and Performing and Media Arts)
From the Arctic to Broadway and Back: A Conversation with Playwright Carson Kreitzer
Wednesday, April 22, 5:00 pm, Reading Room 124
Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
During this conversation, Kreitzer will discuss her work as a playwright, including her ongoing series of plays related to the climate crisis, and bringing her musical, Lempicka, to Broadway. This event is part of the Professional Directions series. It will be moderated by PMA Associate Professor Beth F. Milles, and will include a Q&A with students.
See our complete line-up of productions and events for this semester.
Cornell Cinema
Established in 1970 as a university film society, Cornell Cinema is a celebrated and long-standing film exhibition program located on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Each semester, we present a wide variety of films, including Hollywood films, documentaries, silent films, international, art-house, and experimental media work, cult classics, and other repertory titles. We also offer regular opportunities for audiences to discuss films and the relevant social, political, and artistic questions they raise in conversation with filmmakers, scholars, community leaders, and cinema staff.
Student Groups at PMA
Helpful Department Contacts
Director of Undergraduate Studies: David Feldshuh - PMA-DUS@cornell.edu
Undergraduate Field Assistant: Donna Miller - dm246@cornell.edu
