Thinking of joining a performing arts group?
Platt House provides advisory support, and programming to the wide array of performing arts groups operating on Penn campus. These student-run organizations operate in tandem (and sometimes collaborate!) with professionally-directed performance opportunities from Penn’s illustrious Theatre Arts Program and its comprehensive coursework, as well as the Department of Music’s coursework, private lessons, and the orchestras, choirs and ensembles hosted under the umbrella of Music 007.
For undergraduates considering making a debut in the student performing arts, we encourage you to scroll through the listings, click around on Facebook and Youtube, and get to know as many of the 70+ groups as you can! The groups listed below offer hundreds of positions where you can hone your craft, find your creative voice, and gain practical experience – not only on stage, but in choreography, producing, music directing, stage managing, and designing for scenery, sound, costumes, props, and lights! Those marked with an icon are members of the Performing Arts Council (PAC) which is organized by subcommittee: ACK, for a cappella groups; DAC, for dance groups; SMAC, a catch-all for accompanied singing, instrumental music, comedy, and spoken word; and TAC-e, for theatre groups. Beyond the Performing Arts Council, over 20 independently registered student performing arts clubs hold auditions, rehearsals, and performances using a melange of resources from across Penn campus.
If you are starting a group, we would love to support you! Reach out to schedule an introduction with the Platt House team, and find more from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) on how to contact, register, and mange student groups.
A Cappella & Choral
A Cappella
Atma [ACK]
Atma is Penn’s all-female South Asian fusion group. Listen to some of their performances!
Counterparts [ACK]
Counterparts is Penn’s premier jazz and pop a cappella group, founded in 1981. Learn more about their music and upcoming performances on their website.
Dischord [ACK]
Founded in 1998, Dischord is the University of Pennsylvania’s premier Pop and R&B co-ed A Cappella group. Check out their website for more details!
Upstage [ACK]
Upstage is a co-ed, community service interest, musical a cappella group performing anything from any musical…think Broadway, movies, and TV shows!
Full Measure [ACK]
Full Measure is constantly seeking to define what it means to be a “Christian” a cappella group. Learn more about their music and mission on their website.
We’re a co-ed student a cappella group under the University of Pennsylvania that performs music spanning across a variety of genres, including pop, indie, alt, and rock. The Keynotes mission is to foster musical talent and creativity, particularly by exclusively using arrangements created by its own members. Keynotes aims to share this creativity with others through performances.
Pennchants [ACK]
Pennchants is the university’s premier all-male a cappella group. More information can be found on their website!
Pennsylvania Six-5000 [ACK]
Penn Six is Penn’s co-ed comedy a cappella group.
PennYo [ACK]
PennYo is Penn’s premier Chinese a cappella group. More information about the group can be found on their website!
Penny Loafers [ACK]
The Penny Loafers, or Loaf, is Penn’s premier all-gender indie/pop a cappella group! Check out their website to learn more about their music and members!
Penn Masala [ACK]
Penn Masala is the world’s first and premier South Asian a cappella group. Check out their website for more information.
Quaker Notes [ACK]
Quaker Notes is a nationally-acclaimed all-female a cappella group, and the first a cappella group established on Penn’s campus.
Shabbatones [ACK]
The Shabbatones are the student-run Jewish a cappella group of Penn.
The Inspiration [ACK]
The Inspiration serves as a musical outlet for individuals with a desire to celebrate the legacy of the African Diaspora.
Choral
Glee Club [SMAC]
The Penn Glee Club is the nation’s longest continually running Glee Club. They perform musical repertoire of all genres in addition to writing and producing two original musicals each year.
New Spirit of Penn Gospel Choir [SMAC]
As a group focused on ministry, the New Spirit of Penn Gospel Choir shall spread the word of the Lord through song and help to serve as a catalyst for change in the spiritual lives of their audience.
See also...
Groups listed under Bands below, as well as Bloomers Comedy, Mask & Wig, and musical theatre clubs, also have vocalists in their organization. See their pages for more!
Bands & Instrumental Music
DJ@P
A student-run club for prospective and current Djs interested in sharing knowledge and collaborating around the University of Pennsylvania.
Kapacity is a undergrad student-led rock band that features electric guitars, bass, keyboard, drums, and vocals. We hold weekly practices and semesterly concerts, as well as performing on cultural events led by KAP and KSA. We feature genres such as but not limited to K-pop, British pop, Rock-Ballad, and Jazz.
Penn Band [SMAC]
The Penn Band, the largest performing arts group at Penn, performs 100+ times a year at athletic and other events on campus and across the region
Penn Jazz Ensemble [SMAC]
The University of Pennsylvania Jazz Ensemble is an 18-piece jazz big band and smaller accompanying ensembles that plays songs from a variety of styles and backgrounds.
Penn Records is a student-run club focused on fostering the live music scene at Penn by functioning as an artist and event promoter. Penn Records provides students with the necessary resources for performing their original music and succeeding in the music industry. Penn Records hosts monthly concerts, open mics, and charity events.
Penn Sargam is the USA’s very first student-groups dedicated to promoting South Asian fusion and classical music. Sargam collaborates closely with Penn Alaap, agraduate & professional student branch of the group.
Polyphonia
Polyphonia is Penn’s first student-led joint Orchestra and Choir, performing works from early music to the modern day. We welcome all musicans; though we primarily are composed of those instruments that make up a classical symphonic orchestra and choir, we look to find creative ways to include nontraditional instruments into our repertoire as well.
The Students of Hip Hop Legacy (SOHHL) club at the University of Pennsylvania is a vibrant and inclusive community dedicated to celebrating and exploring the cultural significance of hip hop. Through workshops, performances, and community engagement, we foster understanding, creativity, and social impact. Join us to honor the past, embrace the present, and shape the future of hip hop at Penn. All are welcome to be part of our diverse and passionate community.
The Songwriters Collective
A diverse group of Penn students whose meetings are a fusion of spiritual gathering and songwriting lab. We support and challenge each other to write songs under strict time conditions to learn to trust and develop our musical instincts.
See also...
Choral groups and Musical & Sketch Comedy groups also have instrumental bands in their organizations. See their pages for more!
Dance Groups
African Rhythms is Penn’s premiere African Drum and Dance troupe. Since 1993, they have been educating the Philadelphia community about West African and Afro-Cuban drum and dance styles. African Rhythms holds a weekly open class series open to all members of the Penn Community.
Penn Ballet was created to allow ballet dancers of any level at the University of Pennsylvania to continue their classical ballet education through classes with professional ballet teachers from the Philadelphia area. The group is dedicated to helping dancers at Penn continue doing what they love despite the stress and time constraints of a rigorous academic environment. Classes are FREE and open to all Penn students looking to maintain or improve their skills, try their hand at choreography, or simply get some exercise without running and crunching for hours on end.
Penn Ballet is also a student-run company. Advanced and committed dancers may audition for our shows to learn and perform challenging repertoire. As Penn’s ONLY student group devoted to ballet, we are committed to improving as ballerinas in technique as well as performance.
The Penn Chinese Dance Club (PCDC) is a student-run, non-profit dance group dedicated to practicing classical and folk chinese dance. Founded in May 2006 as a self-organized group of dance lovers at the University of Pennsylvania, we have flourished into a major performing arts troupe in philadelphia. PCDC’s mission is the enrichment and promotion of traditional chinese arts and culture through dance exercises, instructions, and collaborations.
Penn Hype Dance Crew is a SAC-sponsored, co-ed, hip hop fusion student dance team at the University of Pennsylvania that creatively and uniquely explores various styles of traditional and modern dance. Established in 2005, Hype is comprised of members from various backgrounds, and aims to bridge cultural divides through the fusion of diverse dance styles. Each year, Hype participates in various types of performances, collaborative events with other organizations, and instructional workshops both on campus and in the community. Additionally, Hype presents a full-company show during the spring semester.
k-Beats is the only official undergraduate student dance group on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania that specializes in K-Pop dance. We aim to promote K-Pop culture through various performances on and off campus, on multiple social media channels, as well as through our annual show held on campus. Do you love dancing or jamming to K-Pop 🎧? If so, k-Beats is what you’ve been looking for. Come dance with us!
Penn Latin Ballroom Dance (PLBD)
Rueda Penn Casino
Rueda Penn Casino (RpC) is a Cuban Salsa student dance group of the University of Pennsylvania. RpC offers free, open dance lessons every week. We welcome beginners who have never dance before just the same as experienced dancers. We provide an avenue for students to constructively de-stress, stay active, and learn by participating in our lessons. Above all else, because switching partners is an integral part of Rueda de Casino, students are encouraged to connect with new members of the Penn community, as well as with dancers from the greater Philadelphia area.
Sketch & Musical Comedy
Bloomers Comedy [SMAC]
Bloomers is Penn’s musical sketch comedy troupe for underrepresented gender identities in comedy. It was founded in 1978 as the nation’s first and only collegiate all-female musical sketch comedy troupe.
The Mask and Wig Club
Mask and Wig is one of the nation’s oldest musical comedy groups. Every year, they write and produce a sketch show in the fall, and an all-original musical comedy in the spring
See also...
Penn Six-5000 A Cappella also centers comedy in their mission. See their page for more!
Spoken Word
Excelano Project [SMAC]
The Excelano Project is the University of Pennsylvania’s first and premier spoken word group. This group is about finding voice and breaking down barriers. It’s about holding a speaker up to life’s white noise, to find that every one of us can be heard
Theatre & Musicals
African American Arts Alliance [TAC-e]
The African American Arts Alliance (4A) serves as one of the premier performing arts organizations on Penn’s campus. Our mission is to promote an awareness of Black culture through the arts, specifically focusing on theatre.
Front Row Theatre Company [TAC-e]
Front Row Theatre Company (FTC) is the University of Pennsylvania’s only student theatre group dedicated to performing socially relevant theatre.
iNtuitons Experimental Theatre [TAC-e]
iNtuitons Experimental Theatre is the University of Pennsylvania’s only student-run experimental theatre group. iNtuitons comes from two words: intuition and automaton. The group was chartered to “attract people with diverse artistic interests and in order to provide an outlet for creative people whose ideas are too Classical or Avant-Garde to be supported by existing groups.”
Penn Chinese Theatre [TAC-e]
Penn Chinese Theatre, founded in 2012, is the University of Pennsylvania’s only Chinese drama troupe. Their productions, mounted each semester, mark bold experiments in genre and style.
Penn Monologues
Penn Monologues, born out of the Penn V-Day Campaign, is a social justice movement launching panel discussions, workshops, local events, and educational marketing campaigns on campus and online. Penn Monologues has become the catalyst for mobilizing people to heighten awareness of violence against female-identifying and non-binary people of all ages, as well as the force that empowers individuals and the public-at-large to bring that violence to an end. Each year, a diverse community of warriors help spread the message to thousands more throughout the greater Penn community.
Over its history, Penn Monologues has raised money for Women Organized Against Rape (WOAR) and strives to motivate Penn students, faculty and staff to find their collective voice and demand an end to the violence.
Penn Players [TAC-e]
The University of Pennsylvania’s only professionally-directed student theatre group! Performing a musical in the fall and a play in the spring, we aim to hire talented directors from the Philadelphia area to give our students the opportunity to learn from the pros.
Penn Singers [SMAC]
Penn Singers Light Opera Co. is a close-knit company that produces a Broadway-style musical in the fall semester and a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera in the spring semester.
Quadramics Theatre Co. [TAC-e]
Quadramics is a student theatre company at the glorious University of Pennsylvan-i-a. Students are our directors, producers, actors, singers, band members and board. Quadramics is also the theatre group focused on enjoying life and getting the best experience possible out of running and working on a production. We are fun-loving, hardworking-more-often-than-not, ridiculous, zany people who share a passion for good times and great theatre, so come join us for the fun, madness, and, as always, the drama! Quadramics performs one play and one musical each academic year.
Stimulus Children’s Theatre [TAC-e]
Stimulus Children’s Theatre Company is the University of Pennsylvania’s premier children-oriented theatre group. We perform for elementary schools, community centers, day care centers, hospitals, and elderly care facilities. We supplement our program with classroom workshops before and after each performance, in which we teach our audiences about theater. Stimulus performs a mix of plays and musicals.
Visual Arts Groups
Platt House provides support and guidance to Penn’s student visual art organizations, which host regular art-making and art appreciation events and programs benefiting the Penn Community.
Penn Art Club
Art-making events, speaker events, public arts initiatives, community outreach, and a studio space make the Penn Art Club the go-to student organization for those interested in visual arts at Penn.
Penn Create
Monolith
Women in Art Initiative
Community Service Groups
The Performing Arts Council is committed to engaging and interacting with the Philadelphia community at large, and particularly with West Philadelphia and University City neighborhoods. To that end, we support a number of organizations committed to encouraging community participation in the arts, particularly for youth. Below are three PAC organizations dedicated to community service:
After School Arts @ Penn
Emily Sachs Dance Benefit Show
Penn MINHUET
Penn Music Mentoring Program
Songwriting for Smiles
If you enjoy music, enjoy songwriting, and enjoy working with and listening to kids whose voices aren’t heard nearly enough, this is the club for you! As a student-run group at Penn, our goal is to utilize music therapy in a group setting, particularly among marginalized youth, in order to elevate their moods, promote healthy dialogue, and help foster group communication and cohesion.
See also...
Many performing groups also have a community service or teaching component to their work. Check out our list of recipients of the Francis Johnson Baton community Service award to learn about them!
Didn’t find what you were looking for?
Browse the full list of registered student clubs (performing arts and otherwise) on Penn Clubs.
Or, look for the groups associated with academic departments and schools: