FALL 2016
MAINSTAGE
The New Play Festival 2016
1340 Macgowan Hall
Cheap Laughs
By Josh Segal, Directed by Roxie Perkins
Van Macaw didn’t kill a guy. The audience loved his response to the heckler during his stand-up. One suicide later, Van’s career is on the skids. Will he seek redemption? Or will he rise above this trivial distraction and focus on what really matters: Getting some cheap laughs?
Performances
Nov. 3-5, 2016 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 at 2 p.m.
Gamers
By Scott Barnhardt, Directed by Jeff Maynard
Violence. Cynicism. Sex. Lithuanian Pastry. The dog-eat-dog world of competitive eSports is not known for its sweetness. But when Paul Elliot Anderson, the world’s most optimistic orphan, is hired…Game Over.
Performances
Nov. 10-12, 2016 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016 at 2 p.m.
Monsters We Imagined
By Paula Vesala, Directed by Eric Hoff
A successful writer is ready to launch her latest novel. A kid straight out of jail with Asperger’s Syndrome is looking for answers. Can someone’s life become somebody else’s fiction? Nobody’s perfect.
Performances
Nov. 17-19, 2016 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016 at 2 p.m.
The Winds of Ariston
By Patrick Hurley, Directed by Casey Kringlen
From Ancient Greece to present-day New York City, one man soars across time and space as untold gay histories collide with one another. Weathering the tragic winds of yesterday, he finally arrives on the cusp of a better tomorrow.
Performances
Dec. 1-3, 2016 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016 at 2 p.m.
Three Sisters
By Anton Chekhov, Adapted by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by J.Ed Araiza
Olga, Masha and Irina long to leave their sleepy, backward provincial town and get back into the glamorous city of Moscow. Contemporary playwright Sarah Ruhl gives a fresh look at the classic drama about big dreams stuck in a small town.
Performances
Nov. 4-12 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016 at 2 p.m.
Little Theater
— San Francisco Chronicle
"Sarah Ruhl's smart new translation...feels just right to contemporary American ears: Lean, colloquial and conversational for us, and true to Chekhov's original." — Cincinnatti Enquirer
"Working with a crisp, breezy new English version by Sarah Ruhl (based on a literal translation)...Chekhov's masterpiece [comes] to life as if it were taking place today. And 110 years ago." — SFGate
Our Country's Good
By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by guest director Monica Payne
This highly theatrical production, set in the midst of the colonization of Australia, examines issues of power, class, and whether or not those who are incarcerated deserve humane treatment.
Performances
Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 2016 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016 at 2 p.m.
Little Theater
“A remarkable celebration of theatre’s potential to regenerate lost souls.” — Evening Standard
“It brings to vivid, splendidly orchestrated life the earthy, scabrous humour amongst the convicts; the brutality of their treatment; and the fractiousness of the naval officers living on their nerves at the other side of the world.” — Paul Taylor for The Independent
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
Project II
Four exciting plays from UCLA TFT M.F.A. second-year directors
Performances
Nov. 17‐19 and Dec. 1-3, 2016 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 19 and Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016 at 2 p.m.
1330 Macgowan Hall
Sunday in the Park with George
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by James Lapine
Directed by Jeremy Mann
Performances
Dec. 5-6, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.
Theater Lab, 1473 Melnitz Hall
WINTER 2016
MAINSTAGE
Opera: Cendrillon
Based on the version of Cinderella by Charles Perrault
Music by Jules Massenet, Libretto by Henri Cain; Conducted by Christopher Ocasek;
Stage Direction by Peter Kazaras;
Choreography by Kevin Williamson
Cinderella takes on a wicked stepmother, lost slippers and a ticking time clock with her fairy godmother, a magic forest and just the right shoe size. This witty opera will charm UCLA audiences with Mother Goose’s magical tale and an enchanting score. Featuring graduate and undergraduate designers from the Department of Theater and undergraduate actors from the School of Music. Presented in collaboration with Opera UCLA, UCLA Philharmonia and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Performed in French with English supertitles
Performances
Feb. 17 and 24, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19 and Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017 at 2 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
Helen
By Euripides
Translation by Carl Mueller
Directed by Michael Hackett
In the aftermath of the Trojan War, the real Helen finds herself stranded in a foreign land with a husband who believes she is an imposter. In this lyrical variation of the myth, Euripides presents a complex portrayal of a misunderstood heroine. Featuring M.F.A. actors from the Department of Theater.
Performances
March 9‐11 and 14-18, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Saturdays, March 11 and 18, 2017 at 2 p.m.
Little Theater
Sonnets For An Old Century
By Jose Rivera
Directed by Angela Lopez
Between life and afterlife, individuals tell their tales of sunsets, lovemaking and hallucinatory visions. Funny, lyrical and poignant, Jose Rivera’s monologues create a meditative dreamscape of existence. Interactively and experientially presented in a non-traditional performance space.
Performances
Dates TBD
Location TBD
“Now we have a Spoon River Anthology to call our own, a work whose scope and insights begin to suggest an Our Town for our generation.” — Byron Woods, The Independent
“This is a deceptively simple work. Yet it builds in its intensity as each storyteller brings his or her own story to life. These are people that we would meet on the street; they are ordinary souls. But their stories are not.” — Alan R. Hall, Front Row Center
OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, online reservations)
Project III
Four exciting plays from M.F.A. second-year directors
Performances
Feb. 23-25; March 2-4; 9‐11 and 16-18, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Saturdays, Feb. 25, March 4, 11 and 18, 2017 at 2 p.m.
1340 Macgowan Hall
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
Directing Continuum
A showing of work from undergraduate directing students.
Performances
Feb. 15-17 and March 15-17, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.
1330 Macgowan Hall
SPRING 2017
MAINSTAGE
Stupid F#@king Bird
By Aaron Posner; Sort of adapted from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Original Music by James Sugg; Directed by Michelle Gong
A young director and a young actor rage against an older generation of artists and everyone discovers just how disappointing love, art and growing up can be. In this funny, irreverent new remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull, the timeless battle between young and old searches for the meaning of it all.
Performances
April 21‐22; 25-29, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 2 p.m.
Little Theater
“The show is smart enough to have it both ways: It mines The Seagull for classical heft even while giving it the bird.” — Washington Post
“Angsty, raw, and real, this play does not shy away from the hard, but well-discussed philosophical questions about art, reality, love and life and what it all means.” — BroadwayWorld.com
“…an accessible and unfailingly delightful jaunt into misery (or maybe we should say compromised happiness)…It’s absorbing in its every glance and revealing in its every sigh.” — Washington City Paper
Carrie the Musical
Music by Michael Gore, Lyrics by Dean Pitchford; Book by Lawrence D. Cohen, based on the Stephen King novel
Musical Direction by Dan Belzer, Stage Direction by Nick Degruccio
Choreography by Lee Martino
Plagued by bullies at school and an oppressive mother at home, an awkward teenager finds her telekinetic powers and discovers she has the final revenge. Based on the smash novel, this musical delivers the legend of Carrie in a new and exciting way.
Performances
June 2-3, 6-10, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 3 and Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 2 p.m.
Little Theater
“A thrill ride…the musical version of a haunted house” — TheaterMania
“A full-throttle theatrical experience — Cirque du Soleil meets Disneyland, with pig’s blood” — Los Angeles Times
OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, online reservations)
An Evening of Devised Work
Collaborative works written and presented by the first-year M.F.A. artists.
Performances
Dates TBD
1340 Macgowan Hall
OFF-OFF MAINSTAGE
(non-ticketed, no reservations)
Project II
Two exciting plays from M.F.A. first-year directors
Performances
June 8-10, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 2 p.m.
1330 Macgowan Hall
M.F.A. Ones
Performances
Dates TBD
Location TBD
The Recruiting Officer
By George Farquhar
Directed by Joe Olivieri
A class presentation of the Restoration play about randy officers on a mission to recruit new soldiers and their misadventures in a small town.
Performances
Dates TBD
Location TBD
A Movement Project
Directed by Tom O’Connor
A class presentation of movement and its impact in theatrical work.
Performances
Dates TBD
Location TBD
TICKET AND PARKING INFO
Tickets: CTO (310) 825–2101; www.tft.ucla.edu/theatertickets
Parking: $12. Structure 3 (245 Charles E. Young Drive East)
2015-16 Theater Season Archive
2014-15 Theater Season Archive