Every two years the Department of Theatre and Dance suspends classes and is taken over by the University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival. 2005's festival ran for ten days and featured over 30 brand–new, genre–bending, thought–provoking works, all created by UT students. The focus of this festival is not just on an intriguing final production, but on student collaboration at every stage of the process. To that end, the University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival spotlights work at every phase of development, from readings to full productions, and everything in between.
University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival
The University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival was started by playwright and UT Professor Suzan Zeder. "I felt there was huge need for student generated work to be created, shared, and celebrated by the Department [of Theatre and Dance], the University and the Austin community as a whole," she says. The first festival was held in 2001, and named after David Mark Cohen, former head of playwriting, who died in a car accident in 1997. The first festival lasted for nearly a month, had minimal financial support from the department, and took quite a toll on students who were trying to work on their festival pieces in addition to course work. But the excitement and energy generated by the festival was contagious. With the lessons of University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival '01 firmly in mind, it was decided the festival would be a bi–annual event with departmental support.
"The fact that the Department suspends or integrates classes for a week is amazing,"Zeder says. "That level of commitment is unheard of in most academic departments. That single fact is what makes our festival possible." In turn, the University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival committee, composed of student and faculty volunteers who plan and organize the entire festival, decided it was important to find curricular ties for festival participants. Students have the opportunity to register to receive credit for their work, and many projects find their genesis in a class. A recent class on solo performance sparked the decision to dedicate a day of the 2007 festival to that very genre.
Though the festival is broadly inclusive, there is an application process. The University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival not only provides rehearsal and performance space for the selected projects, but a budget as well. The committee must choose the applications that will ultimately be supported by the University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival. The festival's budget has grown over the years, due to the generous support of the University Co–op. But the costs and logistics of producing a festival of this scope are daunting. The festival uses every available space in the Winship Building that could possibly serve for performance, including classrooms and even the storage space underneath the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre stage. Each University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival also features an impressive list of guest artists who are brought in to share their expertise with students. "I know of no other festival that brings in so many guest artists to work in so many different capacities,"Zeder says. "Many have guest respondents and a few have guest directors, maybe even a few guest dramaturgs, but no other festival brings in so many. I'm not aware of any that have master classes by their guests." A few guests who have been invited to participate in this year's festival include the Cornerstone Theatre Company, Director Tina Landau, playwright Naomi Wallace, actor and director Joan Shirley of Dell'Arte Theatre Company, and dramaturg Lue Douthit of Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Despite the numbers of A–list guests, Zeder is still most proud of University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival's diversity and commitment to collaboration. "No other festival has the variety of new work or the emphasis on interdisciplinary work and collaboration that our festival has." With each successive festival, the range of styles and participants increases. Both undergraduate and graduate students from the schools of Music, Radio/Television/Film, Art and Art History, Architecture and the LBJ School have all participated—and with amazing results.
University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival
After seeing a staged reading of playwright Steve Moore's Nightswim at University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival 2003, Scott Kanoff, former artistic director of the State Theatre in downtown Austin, decided to give the script its professional world premiere. One of Zeder's favorite University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival memories illustrates the palpable excitement generated by the festival work. "I remember one time, I think it was in the '03 Festival, when there were lines outside of every venue when about five shows were going on simultaneously. I remember when angry audience members demanded that we add performances of Bathosphere. It was a play that was set largely underwater and took the audience down on the lift of the Payne Theatre stage when the diving bell went down. We added about three performances at the very last minute so we didn't have a riot on our hands of people who had been waiting most of the day. Can you imagine that? People demanding to be able to see a new play!"
The University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival's mission statement states: The Festival provides a safe place for artists to take risks. In fact, one of the fortunate consequences of the environment created by the festival is a change in what Zeder refers to as ‘the ecosystem’ of the department. By experiencing the thrill of challenging their own perceptions and the sense of self–empowerment that comes with the festival's self–styled raison d'etre, students have carried that perspective forward and affected a sea change toward exploration and collaboration within the department itself.
University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival
The 2007 Festival is shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet. Zeder and co–producers David Justin and Denise Martel, along with a diligent committee of students and faculty charged with coordinating every aspect of the festival, are already a year into the planning of the next University Co–op presents Cohen New Works Festival. An informational kick–off event to help students understand the festival and application process will take place September 15, and the announcement of the University Co&nash;op presents Cohen New Works Festival line–up will take place in October of 2006. An anonymous, one–time donation of $100,000 has allowed the committee to expand the programming for the upcoming festival.
It's easy to forget that, at one point in time, all work—whether it be a play by Shakespeare or a piece of choreography by Alvin Ailey—was ‘new’ work In fact, there are some who prefer the term ‘now’ work. Whatever you call it, it's underway and indeed happening now at the University of Texas.
