If these Winship walls could talk.
Kelly Pechal (BA 2009) is an assistant for the IFA Talent Agency in Los Angeles.
2013 is off to a fabulous start for actor Yesenia Garcia (MFA 2007)! You can catch her in role of “Ms. Hernandez” in Abel’s Field and as “Hilda” in Pit Stop, recently screened at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
UTNT Presents a Free Reading of “The Kingdom,” April 20-28
Written by Andrew Hinderaker
Directed by Sarah Rasmussen
About the play
A Catholic priest of 22 years has stopped taking confession. He has stopped delivering mass. Hiding out in the basement of his church, he seeks to perform miracles of his own making. What becomes of a priest who has lost his faith in us all?
About the playwright
Andrew Hinderaker’s recent work includes the New York premiere of Suicide, Incorporated (Roundabout Theatre) and the world premieres of Dirty (Gift Theatre) and I Am Going to Change the World (Chicago Dramatists) His plays have been produced/developed by the Kennedy Center, Steppenwolf, Manhattan Theatre Club, Rattlestick, Mixed Blood, and numerous others. Hinderaker is a Resident Playwright of Chicago Dramatists, an ensemble member of the Gift Theatre in Chicago, and an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin.
Learn more about the UTNT (UT New Theatre) 2013 series!
Photo: Josh Rasmussen, The University of Texas at Austin
UTNT Presents “70 Secrets of Marmalade Kittens,” April 19-27
Written by Gabrielle Reisman
Directed by Jess Hutchinson
About the play
Seduced by a pair of ceramic figurines, Quinn wrestles with abandoning her husband, her young children, and their lonely life on an Iowa hog confinement farm. Ten years later her now grown children — with the counsel of an aging pet goose — must choose between selling off their father’s business, and tracking down the ghosts of their mother’s desires.
About the playwright
Gabrielle Reisman is a New Orleans based playwright and director. A member of The NOLA Project and former artistic director of The Alamo Underground, she is currently a third year M.F.A. Playwriting candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. Gabrielle’s plays have been produced in New York, New Orleans, Champaign and Chicago — as well as being translated into German. Her first four full length plays are published in the anthology More Pepper by Hot Lead Press. Selected monologues from BRIAN AND SHEVAT are published by Simon and Schuster. She is inspired daily by language, food, impossible things that are true. And by you.
Learn more about the UTNT (UT New Theatre) 2013 series!
Photo: Josh Rasmussen, The University of Texas at Austin
UTNT Presents “Dream of Perfect Sleep,” April 18-27
Written by Kevin Kautzman
Directed by Courtney Sale
About the play
Mary and Gene are old. Mary suffers from severe vertigo and just wants to watch her show, gosh-darn-it. Gene has some big news for their middle-aged kids. When new-ager Melissa and recovering-addict Robert return to a home decorated for the holidays (when it’s not the holidays), the family must make a hard decision about what it means to exit this world with grace.
About the playwright
Kevin Kautzman is a playwright originally from North Dakota pursuing his M.F.A. at the Michener Center, with a screenwriting secondary. In 2012 he premiered six plays (three full-lengths and three shorter works) at theatres in Canton, Dallas, Detroit, Fort Worth, New York, and Saint Paul. Honors include the Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship, the Tennessee Williams Scholarship, and the International Student Playscript award. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Playwrights’ Center, and Scriptworks. He can be found online at kevinkautzman.com.
Learn more about the UTNT (UT New Theatre) 2013 series!
Photo: Josh Rasmussen, The University of Texas at Austin
Alumnus David Baker (BFA 1986) has carved out a successful career as a professional actor based in New York City.
Fans of some of television’s top hits will recognize him from his work in FOX’s The Following (starring Kevin Bacon), Boardwalk Empire, The Big C, Deception, Made in Jersey and Orange is the New Black. Last fall, he shot an independent film titled Blood and Circumstance. Check out highlights on his career!
Come see tomorrow’s plays today! The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents UTNT (UT New Theatre) April 18-28, an annual showcase of new plays from the M.F.A. Playwriting Program.
Now in its sixth iteration, UTNT brings to stage dynamic works by Kevin Kautzman, Gabrielle Reisman, Andrew Hinderaker, and Sarah Saltwick. Curated by Steven Dietz and Brian Kettler, the four stories delve into family, desires, hauntings, faith, and miracles.
Dream of Perfect Sleep
By Kevin Kautzman
April 18, 26 at 8pm and April 21, 27 at 2pm
Tickets $10-15
70 Secrets of Marmalade Kittens
By Gabrielle Reisman
April 19, 24, 27 at 8pm and April 20 at 2pm
Tickets $10-15
Enhanced Reading of The Kingdom
By Andrew Hinderaker
April 20 and 25 at 8pm, April 21 at 7pm, April 28 at 2pm
Free Admission
Presentation of A Perfect Robot
By Sarah Saltwick
April 20 and 27 at 11am
Free Admission
Buy your tickets today online or by phone at 477-6060! For updates on UTNT, including reviews and video highlights, follow us on Facebook.
Photo: Josh Rasmussen and Victoria Goss, The University of Texas at Austin
Travis Tate (BA 2012) is creating a new web series entitled Black Mountain, a show about the trials and smiles of a group of twenty-somethings as they navigate the rugged terrain of post-collegiate life.
YaliniDream (formerly Yalini Thambynayagam) (BA 2000) is a 2013 artist in residence at University of Michigan’s Center for World Performance Studies. One of the South Asian diaspora’s most prominent performance poets, she has toured nationally at hundreds of venues throughout the U.S. as well as Europe and South Asia. Her work has been performed at theater venues such as NYC’s Lincoln Center and New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop), Manchester’s Contact Theater, Houston’s Diverse Works, Chicago’s Vittum Theater; poetry venues such as NYC’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Minneapolis’s The Loft, London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and universities such as Yale (USA), University of Manchester (UK), Loyola College (India), and University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka).
YaliniDream was a 2006 Mid-Atlantic Artists in Community Fellow at the Asian Arts Initiative, a panelist for the Leeway Foundation’s 2007 Transformation Awards, a 2008 Urban Arts Initiative Fellow and a 2010 recipient of the Jerome Foundation’s Travel and Study Award in Literature.
She has facilitated workshops for war-affected communities in Sri Lankan refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, India as well as war-affected communities in Mannar, Vavuniya and Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. In addition, she has worked with survivors of violence from multiple communities including Cambodian-American and communities of African descent in the United States.
UT was well represented in playwright Kristoffer Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-finalist play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, performed at the Dallas Theater Center last fall. Directed by Jaime Castañeda (MFA 2006), the play stars Corey Jones (MFA 2007) as “Chad Deity.” Check out a feature on Good Morning Texas!
