Austin Arts Center Launches Relevance Initiative Model After Campus Pipe Burst Incidents

1 of 3 Theater and Dance Majors ’26

Dance Maker in-Residence (Open to Work)

On Monday, March 30th, the Austin Arts Center sent out an email to its board, staff and student workers announcing the immediate rollout of the BURST protocol:

Bring in pipe metaphors

Use student labor

Repeat show themes and messages

Send no-subject emails

Typos are OK

The acronym references the countless number of pipe bursts stories published in the Trinity Tripod during the current academic year. Seemingly modeled after the pipe burst explosion in relevance, the initiative was designed by the theater’s newly elected Director of Relevance, Artemis Thaddeus, who has experience leading attention initiatives for Trinity’s MTC, Hillel, Quest, SJP and Career and Life Design program. In the message, Thaddeus continued: “We understand that no one ever hears about our events, that most tickets go to the staff’s friends and family, and that our shows are so disconnected from campus life they might as well be a footnote in an admissions pamphlet. But we must forget all that and focus on one thing: attention.” The email concludes with a message of unity: “Together, we probably can’t make the AAC relevant, but we can always make it even more annoying.” 

Along with the message, the AAC has added a new entry to their policy section describing the BURST protocol, which is listed as being triggered if the center goes unmentioned on YikYak for fifteen days, or, in the event of not being mentioned in the Tripod for a month. Students across campus remain unaffected by the initiative, with a Tripod investigation finding that most students looked at our freshman reporter awkwardly and walked away, or asked why we’re doing a story on AC units. 

Currently being produced at the AAC is a one-woman play on urban water systems; there is currently no set performance date.