UT New Theatre
Featuring new works written by 3rd year M.F.A. playwrights:
The Chev: Robert Sanchez
Split.: Erica Saleh
Why Koreans Don't Hug: Soo–Jin Lee
Performances: April 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 at 8:00 PM
April 27 at 2:00 PM
Lab Theatre
Admission: Free
About UTNT:
"UTNT (UT New Theatre) is our yearly showcase of the finest ongoing work by our 3rd year M.F.A. playwrights. In this, UTNT's inaugural year, we are proud to present one–act works by Soo–Jin Lee, Robert Sanchez and Erica Saleh. These plays feature vivid characters and compelling stories, told in a wide variety of theatrical styles. New plays are how the art form regenerates, changes and grows. Please join us for the launch of these new works, and these emerging playwrights."– Steven Dietz, professor, curator of UTNT.
UTNT Press and Reviews
The Chev
Written by Robert Sanchez
Directed by Kelly Howe
Dramaturg Jason Tremblay
Media and Resources:
No one pays a higher price for the culture of convenience than the clerk behind the counter. But who will pay the price when he can't take it anymore?
Playwright: Robert Sanchez
Robert Sanchez is a 3rd year M.F.A. playwright in the Theatre and Dance Department. He was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. Robert received his Bachelors degree in Dramatic Arts with an emphasis in Playwriting from the University of California, Santa Barbara. While at UCSB, Robert received the Dilling Yang Fellowship in Dramatic Arts, The Dorothy and Sherrill Corwin award for Full Length Play (Inhale/Exhale), and has been a finalist in the National Ten Minute Play contest for the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Kelly is currently in her last semester of Ph.D. coursework in UT's Performance as Public Practice Program (PPP). She holds a M.A. from UT (also in PPP) and a B.A. in Theatre and English from Muhlenberg College. At UT, she has directed Sarah Myers' God of the Gaps and her own play, Arrested Professional Development: Some Workplace Taboobs. Her writing has appeared in Theatre Journal and Theatre Topics, and she is the artistic director of Plays from Portland, a summer performance devising program affiliated with Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Split.
Written by Erica Saleh
Directed by Marie Brown
Dramaturg Carrie Kaplan
Media and Resources:
A woman's grasp on reality is upset when she realizes that her lover may not be who he says he is. This play examines the ways that identity functions (and dysfunctions) in relationships.
Erica Saleh is a playwright currently pursuing her M.F.A. at UT where she is a Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers. She grew up in Ithaca, NY, and holds a B.A. from Brown University.
Director: Marie Brown
Marie Brown is a first–year M.F.A. Directing candidate in The University of Texas Theatre and Dance Program. She received her B.A. in both Theatre and Music at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA in 2003. She yielded to a study of theatre and music when she realized her original study of anthropology could live within the study of these arts and when the arts in general proved impossible to avoid after an upbringing among sculptors, filmmakers, art professors, and architects. Since graduating she continued her pursuit of being an artist, working at Coyote Central, an educational organization teaching art classes to middle–school children, while she also continued performing, designing, creating, and directing theatre in and around the Seattle Area. She joins us here in Austin from her home state of Massachusetts, where most recently she embarked on her greatest creative collaboration to date: her daughter Morgan Raasay.
- Smaranda Ciceu
- Rodney Richardson
Why Koreans Don't Hug
Written by Soo–Jin Lee
Directed by Luke Leonard
Dramaturg Kristin Leahey
Stage Manager Eamon Corrigan
Media and Resources:
Why Koreans Don't Hug is about a Korean immigrant family who, through an unexpected action from their Reverend, is forced to deal with the elephant in their room.
Playwright: Soo–Jin Lee
Soo–Jin Lee was born in Korea and raised in Virginia. Her plays include: Peaches, which was presented at the Edward Albee New Playwrights Workshop (Houston, 2005), was read at Theater Mu's New Eyes Festival (Minneapolis, 2006), and was awarded the New Work for Young Women Prize (Tulsa, 2007); and Tigers, Dragons, & Other Wise Tails!, which premiered at the Smithsonian Institution's Discovery Theater (DC, 2005). Two short screenplays have been produced in Austin. Lee is a 3rd year M.F.A. playwright at UT.
Director: Luke Leonard
Luke Leonard is a recent Austin–transplant from New York City where he spent the last 12 years acting, directing, writing plays and producing theatre and film works. Recent directing credits include: Mac Wellman's BAD PENNY (The Blanton Museum of Art) and ON THE ROAD WITH THE BEATS (Harry Ransom Center). He holds a B.F.A. in Acting from Brooklyn College and is in his first year of the M.F.A. Directing program at The University of Texas at Austin.
- Linda Czopek as Mom
- James "Face" Yu as Dad
- Rachel Myhill as Harriet
- Xuan Nguyen as Sunshine
- Chase Van Haselen as Denny
- k. terumi shorb as Reverend
