| Drama Department Performances at UCI New Musical Theatre Festival |
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The new season starts with great good news: The Academy for New Musical Theatre/UCIrvine alliance has begun! Two new musicals are being created by ANMT artists for UCI Drama right now. These new works will receive staged readings this September at UCIrvine, launching a seasonal event called The New Musical Theatre Festival. Come see the two inaugural musicals that will be featured this fall! Aging Out Through this deeply touching musical we follow the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of young people who have spent their lives in the foster care system and are about to "graduate" into adult life with little or no emotional or financial support. As happens in our nation each day, they have aged out of the system, and are now utterly and frighteningly on their own in a world that doesn't want them. e-$cape Inspired by real events in which virtual-world game players invest their life savings in cyber real estate, e-$cape tells the amazing story of Matthew Holchek, a 19-year-old computer programmer who gets in over his head when the social network of his new digital world spins out of control and bloodthirsty gamers come after him, seeking money, revenge, and someone to blame. This rock musical captures the driving force of our technological age. New Musical Theatre Festival Opens September 18 e-$cape: September 18, 8pm Single new musical admission: $6. Admission to both new musicals: $10 Audience feedback is a crucial component of developing new work. To this end, post-show discussions will be held after each performance. |
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| Fall 2009 Productions | |
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The Laramie Project
A powerful look at the aftermath of the 1998 kidnapping, savage beating, and murder of gay University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, The Laramie Project instantly captured the attention of audiences and critics alike. Acclaimed by Time magazine as "One of the ten best plays of the year" when it premiered in 2000. The Associated Press called it "Astonishing," the New York Post found it "An amazing piece of theater," and The Village Voice noted that "Few playwrights have cut to the heart of tragedy so unerringly." Now, ten years later, UCIrvine helps our nation envision where we're going by looking at where we've been. Come see what the San Francisco Chronicle called "A bracing, wholly original, and deeply affecting piece of theatre. It radiates integrity, an aching collective need to understand incomprehensible events. It portrays an American town with grace, truth, theatrical economy, compassion, wit, despair and love. It proves that theatre can serve as witness to our deeds. It's we who must answer one by one, for what we create and what we destroy together."
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The Threepenny Opera According to Newsweek's Jack Kroll, Bert Brecht's The Threepenny Opera (1928) is simply "the greatest musical of all time." Composer Kurt Weill's street-smart score, ranging from lyrical arias and tangos to stirring anthems and bawdy ballads (and the extraordinary "Mack the Knife"!) sets fingers snapping and pulses pounding. This is UCIrvine's third revival of this Tony Award-winning show, a clear testament to its local esteem. Threepenny is the jazz masterpiece of Weimar Kultur, the trailblazing grand-daddy of modern musicals, and the forerunner of the delectable decadence of Cabaret, Chicago, Sweeny Todd, and countless brash and brassy spinoffs. Set in late Victorian London and based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, this subversive saga of Soho tells the tale of the bandit and lady killer, Capt. MacHeath, who elopes with Polly, the only daughter of J.J. Peachum. Peachum, a businessman who organizes the City's beggars, wants his son-in-law arrested-despite the fact that MacHeath's protector is the corrupt Police Commissioner, "Tiger" Brown. When Peachum threatens to disrupt Queen Victoria's procession by loosing hordes of beggars into the streets, MacHeath is finally captured-and must face the dreaded gallows.
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Escape from Happiness You think your family is wild? Wait until you meet this one! George F. Walker's Escape from Happiness revolves around a single family in their kitchen, and the journey's unique "black comedy" blend of humor and drama speaks to every one of us as it examines the complicated bonds that make us family. Can we come to forgiveness-both within ourselves and with others? How do we fight for what's right in a dire situation, even while dealing with the basic struggles of getting by-or while we're fighting for a way to make "getting by" easier for the community at large? Walker's thick glaze of humor makes tackling the questions of an unresolved past surprising and fun as a mother and her daughters face unexpected discoveries at every turn! Never before seen at UCIrvine, Walker's absurd, hilarious, and dark comedy will truly warm your heart-even as it supplies its dynamic characters with full ammunition to produce violence, tears, laughter, and everything in between. Escape from Happiness will get your blood pumping!
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Winter 2010 Productions |
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Blue Light In Silverado Canyon, not far from UCIrvine, lies the abandoned Blue Light Silver Mine. Rich in silver and in local lore, it has long drawn the hearts of miners and adventurers alike, and now it calls to you. Blue Light, a world premiere multi-media performance piece, brings to life the true story of thrills and tragedy deep inside the Santa Ana mountains of Orange County. Entwining narratives, projection, music and movement, Blue Light will carry you on a youthful journey of adventure and loss somewhere between abandon and control, all fueled by rock and roll and the lure of risk taking. Blue Light is created in collaboration by director Annie Loui, L.A. video designer Greg Pacificar, award winning author Michelle Latiolais, and a team of UCIrvine Drama actors, designers, and stage managers.
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Cyrano de Bergerac Ah... Sweet love! If only it was easy. How do you go on when you can't declare your love? What happens to the noble heart that aches? Cyrano de Bergerac courts the dreamer inside us all, drawing us into a world of wit, mischief, passion and panache. Valiant hearts pursue ideals - courage, beauty, and, above all, love - without compromise and despite enormous hardship. In Cyrano we meet a "superb, heroic maniac," a swashbuckling master poet, whose actions and sacrifice speak louder than words to the transcendent capacity of the human spirit. One of the world's greatest tales of idealism, longing, and desire, Cyrano de Bergerac comes alive again in Ranjit Bolt's brilliant new translation of the celebrated classic!
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Guest Artist: Herbert Siguenza "Multi-talented!" "Brilliant!" and "FUNNY!" Herbert Siguenza is these and much, much more! A founder of Culture Clash, America's leading Latino comedy troupe, Mr. Siguenza is a writer, actor, and director with a keen eye for spotting the things that make our world curious, and delightful. Together with Richard Montoya and Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza has for the past fifteen years been focusing on site-specific art, building theater from the stories of people in individual communities. Successes in Miami, San Diego, New York, Boston, and San Francisco have been heralded by the Miami Herald as "wicked, observant comedy," and by the Los Angeles Times as "sharp, cutting, and on the edge." American Theatre Magazine described Culture Clash as "the Marx Brothers meet the Rolling Stones," and at last Herbert Siguenza is bringing the company's zany, provocative humor to UCIrvine! A team of actors, designers, and stage managers will partner with Mr. Siguenza for ten weeks to create a brand new performance piece that reflects our own community. Drawing on interviews with friends, neighbors-and maybe you!-the team will weave a tapestry of personal narratives as diverse as we really are. Don't miss it!
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Spring 2010 Productions |
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Cymbeline Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare's most complex and interesting works, is coming to the UCIrvine stage for the first time! This rarely performed treasure takes us to a land of death and rebirth, where miracles can happen in front of our very own eyes. We follow a group of parents, lovers, and lost siblings that are, like us, hopeful, ambitious, and majorly flawed. Through their faults, we connect to their innocence and jealousy, finding fellow human beings who make mistakes and struggle for redemption. Most importantly, Cymbeline tells us the story of enduring love: passionate, soul-shattering, tear-your-hair-out love, bursting out of a storybook and into the reality of our world with all its stumbles and complications. Our heroes and heroines aren't handed love, they have to fight for it. And the effort only makes our 'Happily Ever After' the sweeter.
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The Wild Party
Andrew Lippa shows us what happens when all of these characters collide at the party-to-end-all-parties. The Wild Party spins us into a world of power, control, consumption, sexuality, and violence. Lippa has written a jazzy, compelling, and melancholy score that highlights the feeling of the 1920s: a time of freedom that borders on reckless abandon, when every part of social life has break-neck dynamism. Everyone has excess time and money to spend, an "I want more" attitude, and devil-may-care behavior. The Wild Party is a UCIrvine Premiere that is not to be missed. |
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| New Musical Theatre Festival | Fall 2009 Productions | Winter 2010 Productions |
| Spring 2010 Productions |