As the 2016-2017 academic year draws to an end, the cumulation of a year's work for students and mentorship for faculty is presented in the Capstone Festivals. During this time each academic department at NYU Abu Dhabi showcases the findings and final products of the academic inquiry of graduating students. The festivals allow these students to present their work to the wider NYUAD community. Each division hosts its own Capstone Festival, and the Arts and Humanities division has placed interdisciplinarity at the center of its program.

Reflecting on his own experience as a Theatre graduate from the class of 2014, Attilio Rigotti, Assistant Instructor in Production, described the nature of the Arts and Humanities Capstone Festival.

“[The Capstone Festival] was always envisioned as an interdisciplinary space,” said Rigotti. “It wasn’t just a Theater festival and a Film festival, but rather a night where you would come in and you could see two plays followed by two films and then see a music concert afterwards.”

Now, under the roof of The Arts Center, all of the arts are showcased together.

Students also noted how attendees can move between the different art forms.

“Here, [in the Arts Center] there are more locations — the screening room is downstairs … then after, those who sign up, [can] come up for the Black Box,” said Gergő Varga, a Film and New Media major. Varga’s capstone is an 8 minute 47 second long narrative short film that tells the story of a 20-something cynophile trying to make his first short film.

Both Varga and Lucas Olscamp, a Theatre major, agreed that their work is being presented in spaces that are professional, and provide incredible resources and collaboration with an incredible team. Olscamp described his project as a “bio-psychic dissection of queerness and monstrosity through theater design,” or a “living portfolio,” as he prefers to call it.

Describing the experience of attending the Festival in his first year when NYUAD still occupied the Downtown Campus, Varga noted the how the stage was quickly transformed.

“There was one multipurpose room where they put in stairs and pulled up a huge canvas and they showed the films there. And when it was theater, they pulled out the canvas and opened the back of the room to create a stage. I remember, as part of the Capstone festival, they played two films and it was a break and there were two theater shows,” reminisced Varga.

“I think that’s the magical thing about capstones which is a chance to really articulate your vision … as an artist who is about to step out into the world,” said Rigotti. For him it was fascinating to observe that, even with the change in campuses and spaces in the past three to four years, the essence of the festival has remained rooted and unchanged.

RSVP to the Festival here.