Theater Season
2025-2026

November 6-8, 13-15 & 20-22, 2025

Bruin Fringe Festival (BFF) is a festival of short student-generated pieces directed by and featuring department undergraduate students. This workshop setting is modeled after fringe festivals around the world that celebrate new and innovative performance.

Prior BFFs have included original short plays, improv sets, musicals and more!

Faculty Advisor: Professor J. Ed Araiza

in collaboration with the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Directed by Professor James Darrah

Composed by Benjamin Britten

Libretto by Myfanwy Piper

Performance dates: November 20, 21 & 23, 2025

About the show: Based on the Henry James novella of the same name, The Turn of the Screw follows a young, inexperienced governess sent to a country house to care for two children, who she is gradually convinced have been corrupted by the ghosts of a previous manservant and governess.

Directed by MFA student Zenaida Smith

*Title To Be Announced

About the project: In one of the first uses of the newly renovated Macgowan Hall 1330 (see p.23), MFA directing candidate Zenaida Smith will direct her MFA Project I. The focus of the project is to work in depth with the text and the actors, while keeping production design intentionally minimal.

New Play Festival #1

February 19-21, 2026

Written by MFA student Carl(os) Roa

Directed by Velani Dibba

About the show: Co-written by Carl(os) Roa and ChatGPT, a Turner Prize is an exploration of what it means to be an artist under late-stage capitalism. The world is dying, but starving artist &rade only cares about one thing: winning the Turner Prize. Too bad they’re not even eligible. Meanwhile, the more successful Randie faces the scrutiny of dealing with white gallery owners, white art critics, and an artistic landscape that seeks to flatten her work. Jealous, desperate, and spiraling, &rade starts feeding Randie’s art into Zephyr: an AI service that distorts and reshapes art into something unrecognizable. a Turner Prize wrestles with the question: what is the impact of art under the backdrop of our mass extinction?

New Play Festival #2

February 26-28, 2026

Written by MFA student Natalie Grace Lambert

Directed by Diana Wyenn

About the show: Maya, a college freshman studying vocal performance at UT Austin, is desperate to get rid of the stink inside her mouth. When her breath suddenly turns profoundly rank, no one wants to be around her. Not her friends, not her professors, and certainly not her super cute musician boyfriend. Though she routinely brushes, flosses, and uses mouthwash (and never rinses with water after!), the stink persists, leaving even medical professionals perplexed. Oh, also, her dad just died. And he left Maya’s mom pregnant and contemplating an abortion.

March 6-7 & 10-14, 2026

Written by Meghan Brown

Music by Regents Lecturer Sarah Taylor Ellis

Directed by Danielle Kay

About the show: This energetic and contemporary classical adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel explores the necessary risk of feeling your feelings. Emma Woodhouse, handsome and clever and rich, amuses herself by matchmaking for her friends – until she meets her own match. Is opening herself up to the possibility of romance worth the sacrifice of her independence and control? With a fresh book and soaring score, the effervescently-paced EMMA: No One But Herself will charm you with its wit and heart. Welcome to Highbury, people.

May 14-16, 2026

Written by Marina Carr

Directed by MFA student Anna Rajala

About the show: There are no winners of war, only survivors. When Agamemnon sacrifices his young daughter to win the Trojan War, he condemns his relationship with his wife and his kingdom. This new adaptation of the ancient Greek myth focuses on the irreversible damage Agamemnon’s sacrifice brings upon his relationship with Clytemnestra and follows her grief, rage, and search for vengeance after such betrayal. This play reminds audiences that even the wealthiest cannot escape the effects of war, and everything and everyone is impacted by want and cycles of violence.

May 29-30 & June 2-6, 2026

Written by Caryl Churchill

Directed by MFA student Eric Swartz

About the show: Mad Forest depicts a society before, during, and after a violent regime change. Developed with drama students in the immediate aftermath of the Romanian Revolution, Caryl Churchill’s episodic and surreal ensemble drama follows two families of different social classes, interrogating what happens to a people – and a nation – when trust and truth have been eroded beyond recognition.

June 4-6, 2026

Written by Ellen McLaughlin

Directed by MFA student Jit Yang Tung

About the show: Troy has fallen, her women reach out to each other, outward to us. Queen Hecuba and the Chorus attempt to comprehend and remember – reflecting the tragic consequences of war – asking what comes after the dust settles. “Perhaps the greatest antiwar play ever written” – Ellen McLaughlin’s choral, ever-contemporary version of Euripides’ Trojan Women draws together a diverse ensemble “of the most extraordinary roles for women in theatrical literature” as they undertake and endeavor to “transcend even the most terrible pain caused by human divisiveness and rancor.”

June 6, 2026

About the show: This production will showcase an exciting collection of short, one-act plays, each one written, developed, and directed by current MFA students in the department. Audiences can expect a variety of fresh voices and perspectives, highlighting the creativity and craft of emerging theater makers as they experiment with form, story, and staging. A full lineup of plays and creative teams will be announced in 2026, with the final bill reflecting the diverse range of interests, styles, and themes that our MFA cohort brings to the stage.