Theater Season 2022-23

FALL 2022

MAINSTAGE (tickets available through CTO)

Antigone

By Sophokles
Translated by Anne Carson
Directed by Staci Mize

This 21st century spin on a classic Greek myth zeroes in on the battle between what we are being told to see versus what is actually in front of us. This fresh take on Antigone’s story centers around the tension between media, government and the people — as well as the war over bodily autonomy and rights.

Performances
November 17-18, 21-22, 2022, 8:00 p.m.
November 19, 2022, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater

OFF MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)

Happy Birthday Mars Rover

By Preston Choi
Directed by Joe Olivieri

This other-worldly unpublished play takes a scathing and hysterical look at our universe and the meaning of life itself. The Mars Rover sings “Happy Birthday” to itself as it searches for life on Mars as humans back on Earth search to understand what life is. A medley of snapshots, from cave people naming abstract concepts, bubbles that scream when popped, housewives battling existential dread, cows trying to get to heaven, and the last human on Earth collecting jars of hair.

Performances
November 12 and 19, 2022, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
November 17-18, 2022, 8:00 p.m.
Macgowan 1340

Fringe Fest

A festival of short student-generated pieces directed by and featuring undergraduate students from UCLA Department of Theater. This workshop setting is modeled after fringe festivals around the world that celebrate new and innovative art.

Performances
Weeks 5-7
Dates and Times TBA
Macgowan 1330

WINTER 2023

MAINSTAGE (tickets available through CTO)

SuperAmerica (New Play Festival #1)

By Malick Ceasay
Directed by Bruce Lemon Jr.

Lamin is a young musician who can’t wait to quit his day job at SuperAmerica gas station. When he gets invited to an industry recording session, he learns how things really work in the music business.

Performances
February 23-24, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
February 25, 2023, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Macgowan 1340

Assassins

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Directed by Paul Wagar

This Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman flips the American Dream on its head by telling the stories of nine men and women who assassinated or attempted to assassinate the President of the United States. Sondheim’s score is the perfect complex thread to weave together the lives of nine individuals throughout American history who come together on stage to share their stories.

Performances
March 3-4, 7-10, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
March 11, 2023, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater

A List of Happenings
(New Play Festival #2)

By Anna Watts
Directed by Alana Dietze

A List of Happenings opens the window on an apartment occupied by of a group of women studying at the University of Colorado, Boulder during the 1955-1956 school year. Inspired by source material discovered in the belongings of the playwright’s great aunt, this slice-of-life style piece is a hyper-naturalistic, high-energy portrayal of a short moment of freedom for these “strange women” living in a time that was hostile to strange women. Exploring themes of friendship, sexuality, gender roles, intellectualism and ambition, A List of Happenings is a playful gift that returns life to a group of people who were historically undermined, forgotten and oppressed.
stories.

Performances
March 16-17, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
March 18, 2023, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Macgowan 1340

SPRING 2023

MAINSTAGE (tickets available through CTO)

Opera/Double Bill

Quake by Kay Rhie
Les mamelles de Tiresias by Francis Poulenc
Directed by Mary Birnbaum

In collaboration with the Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Department of Theater presents two vastly different and unique one-act operas. The first, Quake, is a chamber opera for four singers, a four-member choir and chamber orchestra written by UCLA professor Kay Rhie. This will be followed by Les Mamelles de Tiresias, a French comedy or opera bouffe that is a based on the surrealist play by poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

Performances
June 2-3, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
June 4, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse

OFF MAINSTAGE (non-ticketed, no reservations)

Keffiyeh/Made in China (Project III)

By Dalia Taha
Directed by Yuval Zehavi

Seven vignettes depict slices of everyday Palestinian life, which become surreal as they try to cope with the oppressive forces of colonialism and capitalism — an inseparable part of life under this five-decades-long occupation.

Performances
May 18-19, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
May 20, 2023, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Macgowan 1340

Tell Me I’m Gorgeous at the End of the World: The Last Gay Play (Project III)

By Aaron Coleman
Directed by David Parker

The Fire Island Pines, an intensely hedonistic and sexually liberated scene, welcomes gay men from all over — as long as they blend in. Tell Me I’m Gorgeous at the End of the World: The Last Gay Play by Aaron Coleman is about the (sometimes literal) earth-moving influence that Black and brown queer people have when they try to exist in white spaces not only unintended for them, but in which they are rendered completely invisible.

Performances
June 8-9, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
June 10, 2023, 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Macgowan 1340

MFA Ones (Two plays)

Original work by M.F.A. playwriting students. More info TBA.

Performances
June 10, 2023, 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Macgowan 1330

Undergrad One Acts (Three shows/One bill)

A series of one-acts directed and featuring undergraduate actors from UCLA Department of Theater.

Performances
May 11-13, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
Macgowan 1330