Generous support for the New Play Festival, 'Camp Song,' the M.F.A. Ones
and An Evening of Devised Works is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation,
as part of a grant for The Hearst Theater Lab Initiative.
VISIT THE UCLA CENTRAL TICKET OFFICE
Parking: $13. Structure 3 (245 Charles E. Young Drive East)
SPRING 2020
MAINSTAGE (tickets available through CTO)
HAIR
*POSTPONED — Check back later for updated performance dates*
Music by Galt MacDermot
Book and Lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni
Directed by Jeremy Mann, Musical Direction by Dan Belzer
The kids in Washington Square have something to say about their hair. The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical returns to the UCLA TFT stage in this celebration of counterculture and the sexual revolution.
A Ray Bolger Musical Theater Production.
Performances
May 22-23 and 26-29, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
May 30, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
“HAIR is a timeless portrait of a movement that changed the world.” — Broadway World
“…a social and cultural phenomenon, a jubilant assertion of life and freedom and a cry of protest against politicians”
— Michael Billington, The Guardian
BRAND
*POSTPONED*
By Henrik Ibsen
Directed by Jean Carlo Yunen
The village pastor has dedicated his life to doing the right thing but at what price? A play of vision, idealism, sacrifice and uncompromising morality from one of the founders of modern theater.
Performances
May 29-30 and June 2-5, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
June 6, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
“…a harsh parable about a self-made martyr who forces himself beyond compromise.” — Mel Gussow, The New York Times
OFF MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)
AN EVENING OF DEVISED WORK
*POSTPONED*
Collaborative works written and presented by the M.F.A. artists.
Performances
May 21-22, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
May 23, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Theater 1340 Macgowan Hall
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)
THE 2020 M.F.A. ONES
*POSTPONED*
Original work by M.F.A. playwriting students
Performances
June 5, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
June 6, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Theater 1340 Macgowan Hall
EARLIER IN THE SEASON
WINTER 2020
MAINSTAGE (tickets available through CTO)
THE ROVER
By Aphra Behn
Directed by Emily Chase
Amorous adventures and salty exploits abound in this uproarious comedy from England’s greatest female playwright of the Restoration in which fun-loving English cavaliers frolic in faraway Naples during their exile from home. Featuring M.F.A. acting students from the Department of Theater.
Performances
March 6-7 and 10-13, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
March 14, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
“an unashamed celebration of the cavaliers banished during the Cromwellian revolution” — Michael Billington, The Guardian
OFF-MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)
PROJECT IIs
Directed by Clarie Edmonds and Congxiao Fei
Two exciting plays directed by M.F.A. directing students.
Performances
March 12-14, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Theater 1330, Macgowan Hall
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Rob Clare
In the course of a deadlocked, questionable war, a young woman yields to a princely suitor only to find herself traded between the two opposing camps. Shakespeare's play — a dark, satirical take on the tensions between armed conflict, love and honor — has peculiar resonance for our times.
Performances
February 21-22 and 25-28, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
February 29, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Theater 1340 Macgowan Hall
“Heroism takes a quite beating in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, the playwright’s shrewdly satirical take on the Trojan War and its many characters.” — Rosemary Waugh, The Stage
Lydia
By Octavio Solis
Directed by Mark Anthony Vallejo
The Flores family of El Paso, Texas picks up the pieces of their lives after a terrible car accident and attempts to live out the American Dream.
Performances
February 28-29 and March 3-6, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
March 7, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
“Octavio Solis fearlessly — exuberantly — plunges theater audiences into the sacred and profane by way of the Texas-Mexico border.”
— Neda Ulaby, NPR
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)
Quad I & II
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Michael Hackett
Samuel Beckett's distillation of the human journey in an interplay of sound, light and movement has been described as "four hooded wanders engaged in a quest for an Other" and "a progress towards the separation between the conscious and unconscious mind." Presented in association with Los Angeles Opera and as a part of the Eurydice Found Festival.
Performances
January 23-24, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
January 25, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Presented at the Hammer Museum
FALL 2019
MAINSTAGE
New Play Festival
THE LAST LIVING GUN
By Ryan Stevens
Directed by Sara Lyons
In a distant-future America, guns, bullets and anything metal are just a memory. When rumors surface of a firearm up for grabs somewhere in the country, a mercenary embarks on a journey into the dark heart of violence at the center of our nation's history. A post-gun Western for the modern age.
Performances
December 5-6, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
December 7, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Theater 1340 Macgowan Hall
Content Advisory: This production contains themes surrounding and actions depicting gun violence, death and psychological trauma, as well as graphic imagery of gunshot wounds.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
By Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Angela Scott
In The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Bertolt Brecht, one of modern theater’s most important playwrights, satirizes the rise of Nazi Party in pre-WWII Germany, placing the story of mobster Arturo Ui in 1930s Chicago, where he attempts to control the cauliflower racket.
Performances
November 15-16 and 19-22, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
November 23, 2019 at 2 pm and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
“The American gangster movie meets Richard III” — The Guardian
“…few people are likely to leave ‘Arturo Ui’ thinking how scary it is in its topicality.” — Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Opera
JUANA
Music by Carla Lucero
Libretto by Carla Lucero and Gaspar de Alba
Conducted by Mary Chun
Stage Direction by Sara E. Widzer
Based on the novel Sor Juana’s Second Dream by UCLA Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba, the opera tells the story of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a 17th-century feminist genius, theologian, poet, author, composer, artist and architect whose life was marked by repeated conflict with men of the Inquisition. This event is made possible through the generous support of Judith L. Smith, GRoW @ Annenberg and Alan W. Kornberg & Harold Koda. Additional support is provided by the David and Irmgard Dobrow Fund. Classical music was a passion of the Dobrows, who established a generous endowment at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music to make programs like this possible. We are proud to celebrate this program as part of the 2019-2020 Dobrow Series. This opera features designers from the Department of Theater and performers from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Presented in collaboration with Opera UCLA and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Performances
Friday, November 22, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 24, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
“…her story is so extraordinary that it risks eclipsing her creations.”
— Katie Baker, The Daily Beast
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)
CAMP SONG
Book by Danielle Koenig
Music and Lyrics by Scott Senior and Naama Shaham
With additional materials by Michael Fajardo,
Samuel Linkowski and Michael Wells
Directed by Irvin Mason Jr.
The campers of Lake Winnoca return to spread the ashes of an old friend and to reconcile with what it means to be a young person dealing with loss, growing up and redefining "home." A presentation of an original musical work by graduating undergraduate Musical Theater students.
Performances
November 1, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
November 2, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
November 3, 2019 at 1:00 p.m.
Theater 1340 Macgowan Hall
La Victima: A Play with Music
By El Teatro De La Esperanza
Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela
In a story spanning four decades, the Mendoza and the Villa families come to the United States with dreams of a better life. The Latino Theater Company, in collaboration with UCLA TFT and the Theater Arts Department at East Los Angeles College, present this touring production throughout greater Los Angeles, November 7-December 8, in response to the recent spate of deportations and separations of families. Written in 1976 and one of the most important plays of the Chicano Theater canon, La Victima is as relevant today as it was when it was written. Featuring students from UCLA TFT and East Los Angeles College.
Performance at UCLA TFT
November 14, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
Theater 1340 Macgowan Hall
“…stylistically La Victima, written by El Teatro de la Esperanza in 1976, approaches its material with the polemical gusto of its era's social-studies filmstrips.” — Margaret Gray, Los Angeles Times