University of North Texas 
The Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Texas is home to the Performance Interest Group. Affectionately known as the PIGs, the members of the Performance Interest Group are students and faculty members interested in performance, either through participation or evaluation--though, frankly, we have some members who, in the words of Chauncey Gardener, just "like to watch." PIGs love to get together to create performances, discuss performances, or just enjoy each other's efforts and company.
Our primary forum for these activities is the Texts in Performance Series. Each long semester the series spotlights work from the Performance Studies emphasis within the Department of Communication Studies, as well as other creative projects that fall within the "performance" genre. PIGs also travel around the nation to festivals and conferences, representing the University and the Department.
Each year, the PIGs serve as hosts for the Petit Jean Performance Festival. A national performance festival, Petit Jean attracts participants from colleges and universities from across the nation. Participants present individual and group performances and, over the two days of the festival, participate in a small group to create a performance for presentation to all festival participants.
The Performance Interest Group is the present-day incarnation of the North Texas Reader's Theatre founded by Dr. Ted Colson. In 1989, Dr. Jay Allison took over leadership of the group and changed the name to the Performance Interest Group. The name change represented an expanding focus that included a wider range of performance forms.
2025-2026 Officers
- President: Ibim Cheetham-West
- Vice President: Helen Saunders
- Treasurer: Jackson Anderson
- Events & Graphics/Social Media Coordinator: Thomas Earthman
- Faculty Advisor: Dr. Justin Trudeau
PIGs Weekly Meetings
Join the Performance Interest Group - also known as the PIGs - to discuss and create performances with other students.
- When: Tuesdays at 5 PM
- Where: GAB 321, the Black Box Theater
Combiographical Acts: Co-creating ourselves as story
Join guest artist Dr. Lisa Flanagan and the UNT Performance Interest Group for a three-part workshop exploring stories of self. The first session will take place over Zoom to prepare students for the remaining in-person workshop sessions.
Stories are communal acts both shaped by and shaping one's experiences in the world and interactions with others. We can extend this notion to the stories we tell about ourselves. Autobiographies are acts of invention, composing and embodying narratives of self in how we reconstruct and reinterpret lives through memories, experiences, and identities that change and morph and are affected by time and space, individual goals, social roles, and cultural scripts and practices.
For this 3 session workshop, we will expand on the Mystory notion of the writerly stance towards the composition and performance of stories of self that focus on invention, play, and discovery over representational reproduction. Our investigations will also extend beyond Mystory, emphasizing the social, cultural, and collective nature and power of stories, including stories of self. Our stories are flexible, fragmented, interconnected, and expressed in malleable forms to multiple audiences. Together, we can learn how to adapt our life stories to reflect and refract various contexts, content, and collaborators in combiographical acts that create our stories of selves through our relational dynamics.
Session 1:
- When: Friday, October 3 , 1 PM - 2 PM
- Where: Zoom (Click here to join the meeting)
Session 2:
- When: Thursday, October 9, 4 PM - 6 PM
- Where: Black Box Theatre, GAB 321
Session 3:
- When: Friday, October 10, 12 PM - 3 PM
- Where: Black Box Theatre, GAB 321
