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

Into the Woods

Music and Lyric by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Musical Director Jeremy Mann
Directed by Judith Moreland

The story follows a Baker and his wife, who wish to have a child; Cinderella, who wishes to attend the King's Festival; and Jack, who wishes his cow would give milk. When the Baker and his wife learn that they cannot have a child because of a Witch's curse, the two set off on a journey to break the curse. Everyone's wish is granted, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later with disastrous results.

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 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.

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 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

By Dalia Taha
Directed by Yuval Zehavi

Each of 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

By Aaron Coleman
Directed by David H. 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 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