If these Winship walls could talk.
Jacqueline E. Lawton’s (MFA 2003) play, The Hampton Years, will receive a world premiere production at Theater J May 29 - June 30, 2013. This play was commissioned as part of Theater J’s Locally Grown Festival.
Lawton is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient. She is a member of Arena Stage’s Playwright’s Arena and the Dramatist Guild of America. And, she is a National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alum and has been nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize and a PONY Fellowship from the Lark New Play Development Center. Since 2010, Lawton has served on Round House Theatre’s Artists’ Roundtable and was named one of 30 of the nation’s leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute.
Photo: Jason Hornick
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
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
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!
Romero’s latest work Of Plastic Things and Butterfly Wings shares the story of Sam, a plastic water bottle who has lost his parents in an ocean landfill. With help from a blue crab with a giant claw, a parrot who thinks she is a seagull, and The Oldest Sea Turtle That Ever Lived, Sam embarks on a family-friendly, music-filled, epic journey to save us all from the lonely, swirling vortex of thrown-away things and lost hope.
There’s still time to see Suzan Zeder’s The Edge of Peace!
Remaining performances run Feb. 8 and 9 at 8:00 p.m. and Feb. 10 at 2:00 p.m. at the B. Iden Payne Theatre.
Produced by UT Austin in partnership with Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Edge of Peace cast includes award-winning professional actors from Seattle, Chicago and Austin. Buy your tickets today!
Further explore the world of Ware on February 9. Abridged readings of Mother Hicks and The Taste of Sunrise will be featured along with insight from playwright Suzan Zeder. Learn more now.
Photo: Josh Rasmussen, The University of Texas at Austin
Over thirty years in the making - Suzan Zeder’s Ware Trilogy captures the pulse of key moments in American History.
Zeder’s first play of the series, Mother Hicks (shown above in the 1995 production), was published in 1986. Set in the 1930s, Mother Hicks introduces us to three outsiders: a Deaf young man, Tuc; a foundling child, known only as Girl, and a mysterious recluse, Mother Hicks, who the townspeople suspect of being a witch.
This month, we get to catch up with Tuc, Girl, Mother Hicks and the community of Ware again in the final installment of the trilogy, The Edge of Peace (shown above in the upcoming 2013 production). Set in the last days of World War II, a young soldier from a small Illinois town is declared missing in action. Buddy, the soldier’s little brother, refuses to believe what seems inevitable. Told through the visual poetry of sign language, Tuc, the town’s Deaf postman, shares the story of one community struggling to make sense of a world at war.
We invite you to meet the townspeople of Ware! The Edge of Peace runs Feb. 1 - 10 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. Produced by UT Austin in partnership with Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Edge of Peace cast includes award-winning professional actors from Seattle, Chicago and Austin. Buy your tickets today!
Further explore the world of Ware on February 9. Abridged readings of Mother Hicks and The Taste of Sunrise will be featured along with insight from playwright Suzan Zeder. Learn more now.
Meet the cast of the world premiere of Suzan Zeder’s THE EDGE OF PEACE coming to the stage February 1-10 —————
This powerhouse of artists makes for a performance you don’t want to miss! There is so much to brag about, we’re sharing it in two galleries! Click to meet other members of the cast.
The Edge of Peace runs Feb. 1-10 at The University of Texas at Austin B. Iden Payne Theatre. Buy your tickets today online or by phone at 477-6060.
