2007 New Works Festival

 

The New Works Festival is a student-run festival for which students will create, propose, produce, and perform new theatrical work. It takes the place of regularly scheduled courses and runs April 23 through May 13, 2007.

 

Perfromances all day and night! May 10-12

 

Saturday APRIL 7 - General Auditions

 

Sunday APRIL 8 - Alternate Auditions (for those in reh/tech Sat)

 

Sunday APRIL 15 - Call Backs

 

Monday APRIL 23 - Select rehearsals begin

 

Monday APRIL 30 - Full rehearsals begin

 

Thursday, MAY 10 – Saturday, MAY 12 – New Works Festival Productions and Party

 

Sunday MAY 13 – Strike

 

The New Works Festival 2007 Shows updated as of 4-8-07

 

A Day in December

Writer & Director: Terra Balthrop

Cast: up to 10 M & F

· A short play that takes us into the memory and imagination of a young girl. She attempts to make sense of the mistakes made by her young mother as they escape an abusive situation and how she rationalizes the death of her aunt.

 

A Holy Kiss

Writer & Director: Andrew Gerges

Cast: 1M, 1F (nudity included)

· A short non-verbal movement piece based on Samuel Beckett’s “Silent Play.” Set in a barren post-Eden, a man and a woman come to find one another in absolute solace. Without words, an allegorical story unveils a testimony of faith in a portrait of human desolation.

 

Brainchild or Panthers with Pencils

Leader: Ayana Hampton

Cast: up to 10 M/F

· A collection of short wild plays from the creative minds of Franklin High School artists. Wednesday after Wednesday, David Levine, beloved theatre and film instructor of FHS, opens his door to a team of unstoppable CalArts actors equipped with desire to play and play-make. This production is brought to you with love from the most dynamite classroom in LA, Marissa Chibas, Ayana Hampton, and the letters C*A*P.

 

COME-DOWN

Writer & Director: Jake Mitchell

Cast: 2M, 3F

· The term generation “Y” defines the group of people born in the mid to late 80s that are now in their early 20s. Products of MTV, the Internet, and high-grade pharmaceuticals, they are the heirs to baby boomer capitalism that has joyfully left them to feast upon the fat of the land. Entrepreneurs and marketers have appeased to this narcissistic generation with websites such as MySpace and Facebook to aid them in supporting their beliefs on how attractive, social, and/or intellectual they are. COME-DOWN examines how this generation manages relationships, conflict, and themselves in a world of digital (mis) communication.

 

Cooking Oil

Writer: Deborah Asiimwe – Director: Marlene Beltran

Cast: 4M, 2F

· Deals with corruption in developing countries and how people in power exploit the rest of the masses to acquire wealth. It examines the human desire to keep acquiring wealth and power at the expense of other people by making them poorer and losing any kind of freedom and power. A young girl whose dream is to attain a college education does what it takes to get the money she needs…A politician whose dream is to take his family to the Bahamas on holiday every year deals with whatever and whoever stands in his way by any means possible…

 

Evan Cleaver Shouldn’t Be Talking

Creator & Performer: Evan Cleaver – Director: David Mack

· Evan Cleaver has decided to run for President of the United States. He will announce his candidacy and platform during the New Works Festival. We encourage Americans to vote Evan Cleaver, a candidate who shouldn’t be talking…

 

Jumper

Writer: Porsche McGovern

Cast: 1M, 1F, 3 M/F (puppetry included)

· Follows a couple through their experiences together. When you know someone so well that you can really hurt them…

 

Leonardo and Glass Boy

Writer & Director: Emily Mendelsohn

Cast: 3M, 3M/F

· A drowning man falls in love with a glass boy who falls in love with himself. The old man under the bed can see nothing but the future. Three gossips watch and wait for something to talk about. An exploration of desire and identity that wonders, “What’s a man got to do these days to find a decent picture of himself?” Loosely adapted from Ovid’s, “Echo and Narcissus.”

 

PIRATES and NINJAS

Director: Lissa Sherman

Cast: 4M/F

· Through their similarities, their modes of operation stand out to separate them. Through theatre clowning these two constructs will be explored, as well as the extremities they represent through their compared and contrasted nature. The process will be largely a collaborative experience utilizing mask and improvisation. I am looking for four hard-working men that are interested in being a large part of the creative input.

 

The Runaway

Director: Katherine Shook

Cast: 10 M/F (puppetry included)

· A puppet show about a woman in the wilderness. Employs bunraku-style puppetry, shadow puppetry and object manipulation. A large quilt acts as a shadow screen, snow over mountains, and a hiding place. Two-dimensional cardboard art will be manipulated, such as five-foot tall trees and owl masks. Shiny metal objects will assemble into a collection, to create the night sky. Performers will make these objects come alive…

 

The Sound of Branches Breaking Under the Weight of Too Much Snow

Writer & Director: Sam Deutsch

Cast: 4 M/F

· An experiment in aleatory. Each performance hinges in the roll of a die and so we must be prepared for every eventuality. It will take an open mind and a willingness to make specific, committed choices. It’s a play for thinking actors; the communication is in the silence.

 

Trunk Songs

Writers & Directors: Brian Barrale & Mark Mendelson

Cast: 3M, 3F

· A collage of new and original songs woven through spoken word to create a fresh, new entity. Songs will be tied together by segments of sketch comedy, dramatic monologues, and other styles of performance co-created by the entire ensemble. The culmination of this process will be a presentation of a revue of songs and dramatic vignettes showcasing the many talents of each artist and the joys of storytelling through music and theatre.

 

Violette, Violette

Conceived, adapted and performed by Anne DeAcetis

· Expanded from the life and writings of French author Violette Leduc. Presents a living portrait not content to stay within its dramatic frame. Leduc herself was scarce-contained; contemporaries Jean Genet, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre found her as insufferable as she was gifted. This presentation acknowledges these conflicts, pursuing Leduc in the tension between English and French, movement and song, presenter and watcher.

 

Week 6

Writer & Performer: Diona Reasonover – Director: Joel Egger

· Someone always gets cheated…