OMAHA, Neb. ─ Taylor Swift will be coming to UNO next year – in a fashion.
Swift is a 14-time Grammy Award winner, and according to a 2024 report from Forbes Magazine, is the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time. This Spring, the UNO Theater Department will offer an online class about the superstar, called Taylor Swift and Friends.
The course is taught by playwright and UNO theater professor Charlene Donaghy. Donaghy said that Swift consistently appeals to audiences through both her music and her live shows.
“I started as a Taylor Swift fan through hanging around my nieces and nephews and going, ‘wow, this is like really great storytelling!’,” Donaghy said. “She grabbed me with her storytelling, and then seeing what she does on performance, that spectacle was just mind-blowing to me.”
Besides Swift, the course will also study the careers of Prince, Madonna, and Beyónce. Students will study how Swift and the other superstars revamped core theatrical principles like lighting, set design, and costuming.
UNO senior and avid concert goer Camden Carmichael said that when it comes to arena-size shows, Swift is at the top of her field.
“When you go to these big shows, you do expect a lot of pomp and circumstance, but I think Taylor Swift brings a completely different level to that,” Carmichael said. “She’s got backup dancers, she’s got huge screens and stages and theatrics and fireworks and everything like that, and I think it’s just changed the game recently.”
A portion of the course will focus solely on analyzing lyrics. Donaghy said that students who have already scheduled their classes for the Spring can always audit the course.
With a career spanning almost two decades, Taylor Swift is more popular than ever. You could say that she never goes out of style.
