2018-19 Theater Season
Generous support for the New Play Festival, M.F.A. Ones, An Evening of Devised Works and
The Paula Vogel Workshop is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation,
as part of a grant for The Hearst Theater Lab Initiative.
Parking: $12. Structure 3 (245 Charles E. Young Drive East)
SPRING 2019
MAINSTAGE
The New Play Festival 2019
The Answer to Your Prayers
By Jeffrey Limoncelli
On the verge of getting fired, Zachary, a desperate telephone fundraiser for a Catholic school, finds a potential donor in Crow, a multi-millionaire satanic magician. But Zachary must agree to some very personal terms...
Performances
May 23-24, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 25, 2019, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
A Wolf's Mother
By Cary Simowitz
July 1967. The Summer of Love. Spokane, Washington. Forty-seven-year-old Ada "Kathleen" Bower, hardened from more than three decades of ceaselessly outrunning a pack of inner demons, answered an unexpected knock on her front door, only to find her long-lost son poised on the threshold with a hand outstretched. Equal parts disgusted and horrified, she slammed the door on him. Mother and son never saw each other again. What if Kathleen had let Charlie Manson in?
Performances
June 6-7, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 8, 2019, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
Scorched
By Wajdi Mouawad
Translated by Linda Gaboriau
Directed by Aya Saleh
In this epic mystery, twins Janine and Simon receive a surprising request in their late mother's will: To deliver letters to a father they thought was dead and a brother they never knew existed. These tasks lead them on a suspenseful journey to the heart of their mother's war-torn Middle Eastern homeland.
Performances
May 31-June 1, June 4-7, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 8, 2019, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
"Mouawad’s intensely personal, poetic style has proved highly popular… finding a bleak beauty in the darkest moments.”
— Richard Ouzounian, Variety
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
The Undergraduate One-Acts
4.48 Psychosis
By Sarah Kane
Featuring Anusha Shankar and Rey Jarrell
Directed by Mira Winick
Moon River
By Ebony Priddie
Featuring Romy Bavli, Irvin Mason Jr., Ifeanyi Nwonye and Andy Stratton
Directed by Ebony Priddie
Performances
May 9-11, 2019, 7:30 pm.
1330 Macgowan Hall
Atop the Clouds
By Xingzi Chen
Featuring Sean Choi, Alison Park, Patrick Zhang and Paulyne Youri
Directed by Ella Chen
Konvergence
By P.J. Gibson
Featuring Jomiloju Segun-Williams and Aliyah Turner
Directed by Irvin Mason Jr.
Performances
June 6-8, 2019, 7:30 pm.
1330 Macgowan Hall
The 2019 M.F.A. Ones
Original work by M.F.A. playwriting students
Loud Louder
Written by Madeline Mahrer
Directed by Perry Daniel
The Association of Strong Spirited Humans Against
Tyranny…and Stuff OR A Idiot’s Guide to Making a Militia! (sic)
Written by Kyle J McCloskey
Directed by Sara Lyons
Friday, June 7, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
Loud Louder
Written by Madeline Mahrer
Directed by Perry Daniel
19/20 Vision
Written by Daysha Veronica
Directed by Sylvia Blush
Saturday, June 8, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
19/20 Vision
Written by Daysha Veronica
Directed by Sylvia Blush
The Association of Strong Spirited Humans Against
Tyranny…and Stuff OR A Idiot’s Guide to Making a Militia! (sic)
Written by Kyle J McCloskey
Directed by Sara Lyons
Saturday, June 8, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
PRODUCTIONS EARLIER IN THE SEASON
SPRING 2019
MAINSTAGE
Lost Childhood
World Premiere of an Opera commissioned and developed by
American Opera Projects
Music by Janice Hamer, Libretto by Mary Azrael
Based on the memoir “The Lost Childhood” by Yehuda Nir
Conducted by Neal Stulberg
Stage Direction by Peter Kazaras
Costume design by Ruoxuan Li
Lost Childhood follows a Jewish psychiatrist who eluded death as a boy in Poland during the war, and a German colleague born into a family with Nazi sympathies. With searing emotion and heartwarming lyricism, the music recollects the terrors of the Holocaust and inspires a hopeful vision of the future. Featuring scenic and lighting designers from the Department of Theater and performers from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Presented in collaboration with Opera UCLA, UCLA Philharmonia and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Performances
May 17, 21 and 23, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 19, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
Image: © 2008 Miriam Mörsel Nathan. All rights reserved
OFF-MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
An Evening of Devised Works
Collaborative works written and presented by M.F.A. students.
Performances
May 23-24, 2019, 7:30 pm.
Saturday, May 25, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
WINTER 2019
MAINSTAGE
The Kitchen
By Arnold Wesker
Directed by Michael Hackett
The Kitchen spans a day’s work at a chaotic London restaurant. It praises the values of teamwork while criticizing the exploitation of workers. The protagonists are the kitchen staff and food servers who waver between anger and hope for new working conditions.
Performances
March 1-2, 5-8, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 9, 2019, 2:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
“Arnold Wesker's 1959 play The Kitchen helped define an era of English drama." — Karen Fricker, Variety
Rebel Genius
World Premiere Musical
Book, Music and Lyrics by Matthew Puckett
Directed by Brian Kite
Choreographed by Dana Solimando
Musical Direction by Dan Belzer and Jeremy Mann
A new musical from award-winning songwriter and film composer Matthew Puckett, based on the life of the young and highly ambitious Albert Einstein. Rebel Genius crashes physics and love into one another as Albert falls madly in love with Mileva Maric and then risks everything he has to find a perfect Unified Theory of the Universe.
Performances
March 8-9, 12-15, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 16, 2019, 2:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
Medea
By Euripides
Translated by Michael Collier and Georgia Machemer
Directed by Sylvia Blush
Medea follows a wife’s calculated desire for revenge against her unfaithful husband. Euripedes' play uncovers our worst fears, and when combined with its psychological plausibility, makes it as terrifying today as it was almost 2,500 years ago.
Performances
Feb. 1-2, 5-8, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, 2:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
“Medea's acts may be monstrous, but the woman who performs them is a mass of confused impulses and thwarted drives that elude easy categorization.” — Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“Of all the scary characters in Greek tragedy, Medea is surely the most terrifying and the one who gets most disturbingly under our skin.” — Charles Spencer, The Telegraph
OFF-MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
The Lainie Kazan Project
Directed by Lainie Kazan
A studio presentation of songs.
Performances
March 18-19, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
Project III
Two exciting plays from UCLA TFT M.F.A. second-year directors
Unseen
By Mona Mansour
Directed by Jean Carlo Yunen
Conflict photographer Mia wakes up in the Istanbul apartment of Derya, her on-again, off-again girlfriend, after being found unconscious at the scene of a massacre she was photographing. When Mia's well-meaning Californian mother arrives, we discover some of the dynamics between all three women, and how they navigate the difficulties of the worlds they encounter.
Performances
February 28 and March 1, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 2, 2019, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
“Mansour’s play provides a face for those brave photojournalists who risk their lives everyday using their cameras to tell dangerous, true stories set in exotic locales.” — Colin Douglas, Chicago Theatre Review
“Unseen was riveting…it looks at the morality of Mia’s job, the privilege of living in America, and the relativity of struggle.”
— Marielle Shaw, Third Coast Review
Bent
By Martin Sherman
Directed by Mark Anthony Vallejo
Bent follows the life of Max, a gay man living in Germany in the 1930s. The play explores the loss of humanity and individuality of all people during World War II.
Performances
March 14-15, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 16, 2019, 2:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
“The open sound of dismay that washed across the auditorium on the night I saw Bent was one I have never quite heard before — belief, disbelief, shock, and half-understanding all mixed together.”
— Walter Kerr, The New York Times
“Bent exhibits enduring power of love, courage and identity.”
— Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE
The Sun Ladies
A Maria Bello Experience
Directed by Aya Saleh
VR sequence directed by Christian Stephen and Celine Tricart
This immersive live-action/virtual reality documentary brings you face-to-face with a troop of Yazidi women fighters. After ISIS soldiers invaded the Yazidi community of Sinjar, killing all of the men and taking the women and girls as sex slaves, these brave women escaped and started a female-only fighting unit called the Sun Ladies. Together, their goal is to bring back their sisters and protect the honor and dignity of their people.
Performances
Friday, January 11, 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 12, 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
The Paula Vogel Workshop: Cressida on Top
Directed by Jennifer Chambers
A staged reading.
Performance
Thursday, Jan. 31, 7:00 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
FALL 2018
MAINSTAGE
The Long Christmas Ride Home
By Paula Vogel
Directed by Dominic Taylor
Two parents take their three young children on a road trip to visit their grandparents for the Christmas holiday. A breathtaking work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of How I Learned to Drive and The Baltimore Waltz, in which a single, sudden act of violence shatters the lives of three siblings — and also unites them.
Performances
November 14-16, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 17, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 18, 2:00 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
“Profoundly sad and shot through with fiercely beautiful writing…with its adventurous blend of puppets, live actors and Japanese theatrical elements, it’s also Vogel’s most daring work — and one of her best.”
— Markland Taylor, Variety
Measure for Measure
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Tom O’Connor
Vienna is beset with brothels and loose morality, but the Duke is unwilling to use his authority to clean up the city and departs, leaving his deputy, Angelo, in charge, who begins to make changes. Measure for Measure explores how human nature and the law often collide.
Performances
November 29-30, Dec 4-7, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 1 and 8, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m..
Little Theater
“[Measure for Measure] includes some of the finest moral argumentation in the canon: thrilling back-and-forths between well-matched antagonists with a great deal on the line." — Jesse Green, The New York Times
The Mineola Twins
By Paula Vogel
Directed by Judith Moreland
A satire of the women’s movement during the Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan/Bush years is told through the lives of battling identical twins, Myra and Myrna, from Mineola, New York.
Performances
December 4-7, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 8, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
“The Mineola Twins strikes a fine balance between humor and drama…it's one of [Vogel’s] most appealing, accessible plays." — Nick Green, Chicago Reader
“Vogel comments on a world in which rules hem in women while there are, as Myrna says with placid acceptance, ''no absolutes for guys.'"
— Ben Brantley, The New York Times
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
Freshman Fall Performance Workshop: The Book of Liz
Directed by Jeff Maynard
Sister Elizabeth Donderstock is Squeamish, has been her whole life. She makes cheese balls (traditional and smoky) that sustain the existence of her entire religious community, Clusterhaven. However, she feels unappreciated among her Squeamish brethren, and she decides to try her luck in the outside world.
Performances
December 6-8, 7:30 p.m.
The Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall