UT New Theatre
Featuring new works written by 3rd year M.F.A. playwrights:
Lidless by Frances Ya–Chu Cowhig February 13, 14 at 8:00 PM and February 15 at 2:00 PM
Portrait by Jenny Connell
February 20, 21 at 8:00 PM and February 22* at 2:00 PM
* Join dramaturg Christina Gutierrez for a post show discussion and dialogue immediately following the Sunday performance on February 22. As this is a new work, your feedback is crucial to future iterations of the piece.
Lab Theatre
Admission: Free
Lidless
Written by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Directed by Halena Kays
Lighting Designer Nathan Brittain
Scene Designer Anne McMeeking
Sound Designer Jeff Jones
Dramaturg Carrie Kaplan
Stage Manager Maur Sela
Media and Resources:
Synopsis: In Lidless, a former Guantanamo detainee dying of cirrhosis of the liver journeys to the florist owned by his U.S. Army Interrogator to demand half her liver to compensate for the damage she wreaked on his body and soul during her interrogations.
Lidless will be a highly physical, theatrical and emotional charged show. This is a great opportunity to see a true ensemble cast working with extremely challenging material, and a chance to see a new piece, modified throughout the rehearsal process (right up to the last preview) based on the ensemble's work.
Playwright: Frances Ya–Chu Cowhig
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is a graduate of the International School of Beijing, Brown University, and the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre. She was raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taiwan, and China, and now resides in East Austin.
Halena Kays is a first year M.F.A. directing student. Hailing from Chicago she is the co-founder and former artistic director of Barrel of Monkeys where she directed the majority of their public performances including their long-running show: That's Weird, Grandma, called "the best reason to live in Chicago on a Monday night" by Timeout Chicago. Most recently she directed the critically acclaimed Fake Lake for the Neo-Futurists. She is a Northwestern grad and a member of the Hypocrites theatre company and the Big Apple Circus Clown Care unit. Halena is equally proud to have worked with many respectable and disreputable theater companies in Chicago over the last 11 years; she was most recently seen on stage in Mud and 4.48 Psychosis (The Hypocrites), The Children's Hour (Timeline), The Golden Truffle (Redmoon), and Fair Use and Theatrical Essays (Steppenwolf Garage). Halena has been nominated for a Jefferson Citation for Best Supporting Actress, achieved the Presidential Fitness Award from Ronald Reagan in 1984, and received a signed letter from Mr. Rogers saying she was "special" in 1978.
- Kim Adams as Alice
- Joey LePage as Ali
- Sofia Ruiz as Riva
- Jena Kirmse as Rhiannon
- Miyaka Cochrane as Alistair
Portrait
Written and Directed by Jenny Connell
Assistant Director Avital Bisk
Lighting Designer Nathan Brittain
Dramaturg Christina Gutierrez
Stage Manager Cody Williams
Media and Resources:
Synopsis: How far would you go for your art?
Where does an artist draw the line between creating a legacy and sustaining a family?
Where is the boundary between art and truth, and who gets to decide?
Portrait explores two moments in the career of iconoclast painter Alice Neel, the first woman to receive a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. A portrait artist at a time when art seemed to have moved on, Alice paints a painfully beautiful picture of the “human comedy,” never shying away from the grotesque or the disturbing. Her single self-portrait, however, came just before her death in 1984.
Portrait begins twenty years before the painting, in the summer of 1963, as Alice's son Richard questions the “truth” Alice claims for her canvases. As he struggles to have the final say on his past and the way history will remember him, Richard reveals a family secret that threatens to erase the line and between Alice's dual roles as single mother and struggling bohemian artist, and, ultimately, between art and life.
Playwright and Director Information: Jenny Connell
Connell's previous plays include Chrysalis, which premiered in Aspen and NYC as part of the Theatre Masters program and is a finalist for this year's Heideman award at the Humana Festival, The Snapshot, which won writer's prize at the 2007 Venture Theatre short play festival, and Summer People, which was a finalist for the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, a nominee for the 2008 Arnold L. Weissberger award at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the opening play (with Frances Ya–Chu Cowhig's 410 [Gone] in this year's UT Theatre and Dance mainstage season. Connell's first short film, Unmoored, was co-written with fellow UT M.F.A. (and former UTNT playwright) Erica Saleh; it premieres in film festivals next summer.
- Erin Phillips as Alice
- Chase Van Haselen as Richard
- Michael Bowman as Hartley
- Stevi Baston as Nancy
- Tim Longo as David
