UTNT (UT New Theatre) 2023

THE BODY!

BY ZACHARIAH EZER

PG. 3

VERY BLUE LIGHT

BY DAPHNE SILBIGER

PG. 11

HAROLD

BY JUSTINE GELFMAN

PG. 19

MIRROR, MIRROR

BY MIA GOMEZ-REYES

PG.

19

A NOTE FROM THE CO-PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

Welcome to UTNT — University of Texas New Theatre: a showcase of new plays by graduating M.F.A.candidate playwrights. Now in its sixteenth season, UTNT brings together students from all theatremaking disciplines to develop new plays from script to stage. The final piece of each development process, whether it culminates in a production or a reading, is the chance to share the work with you, the audience.

This festival, you will be the first ever to encounter Address the Body! by Zachariah Ezer, Very Blue Light by Daphne Silbiger and Harold by Justine Gelfman. We are galvanized by these writers and their plays. We are eager to share them with you. We urge you to also read each of their program notes so you can learn about their processes and experience their prowess firsthand as you embark on their new works.

We expanded UTNT’s mission this season to include a play by a recent UT Bachelor of Arts alumna. Mia Gomez-Reyes focused on stage management while at UT Austin, but through the interdisciplinary nature of the B.A. curriculum, she found and nurtured her playwriting voice. We are pleased to showcase a reading of her play mirror, mirror to conclude our festival this year.

The Department of Theatre and Dance is a world-class educational environment that serves as the ultimate creative incubator for the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders in theatre and performance.

Co-Producing Artistic Directors, KJ Sanchez and Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw Associate Producer, Braxton Rae

ADDRESS THE BODY!

BY ZACHARIAH

EZER

DIRECTED BY DOMINIQUE RIDER

FEBRUARY 22, 24-25 AT 7:30 P.M.

FEBRUARY 18 AT 2:00 P.M.

OSCAR G. BROCKETT THEATRE | F. LOREN WINSHIP DRAMA BUILDING

THEATREDANCE.UTEXAS.EDU

Teresa Guerrero C. – Scenic Designer

Bridgette Cliford – Properties Manager

• Demian Gael Chavez – Sound Designer

• Jackson Cobb – Assistant Projection Designer

Katie Concannon – Costume Designer

• Sydny DeMeyer – Properties Supervisor

Zachariah Ezer – Playwright • Clarissa Garcia – Stage Manager • Andy Grapko – Intimacy Director

Renita James – Community Engagement

• Ryan K. Johnson – Choreographer

Lauresther Medina-Jimenez – Assistant Costume Designer

Michael Mobley – Dramaturg

• Tobie Minor – Fight Director

• Aria Morgan – Assistant Director

Tenzing Ortega – Associate Scenic Designer

Braxton Rae – Associate Producer

Sydney Sousa – Projection Designer

Rylee Vines – Production Manager

• Leila Rabah – Assistant Stage Manager

• Dominique Rider – Director

• David Tolin – Technical Director

• Donna Bonnelle Yancey – Lighting Designer

Jacob Zamarripa – Assistant Lighting Designer

CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Dr. Timothy Wagner/William Taylor

Rhodelle Grayson

Burnside

Myers

Allen Porterie

Mackenzie “Mack” Thornton

As a playwright, people ofen ask me to describe my writing. I’m never quite sure how to answer this question. The best thing I’ve come up with so far is that it’s kind of like a bunch of episodes of Scooby Doo, but when they pull the mask of of the monster, it’s slavery every time. My project as an artist (in this moment, if there can even be such a thing) is to aestheticize a philosophy known as Afropessimism. At its core, Afropessimism is the belief that slavery is a world-making event, so—seeing as we are still in the world—it categorically cannot be over and will not be over until this world is ended.

As an Afropessimist, each of my plays hopes to animate a diferent contention of this school of thought into a theatrical form. Address the Body! makes this attempt on multiple fronts, but the one that I have been most connected to as I have begun the UTNT process is the idea (full credit to Frank B. Wilderson III for it) that slavery is not merely horrific and sensational; it is banal and quotidian as well. As the show’s director, Dominique Rider, ofen says, “it happens in broad daylight.” Saidiya Hartman, in her seminal work Scenes of Subjection, among other things, exposes this truth, chronicling the minutiae and ephemera of the realities of slavery. This is the north star that I attempt to follow as I undertake my own work.

As a person, though, I am not nearly as unflinching as she is. Slavery, now and in the past, makes me fearful and enraged and despondent. To me, it is, in many ways, the sun: life-giving to the world, but we in that world are unable to look directly at it. As such, I must cut my sincere statement with genre and humor and some level of detachment. Hence the Scooby Doo of it all. If you’ve ever seen All the Presidents Men, this play pays loving homage to its sleuths who, workmanlike, uncover a grand conspiracy. If you’ve had any experience with midcentury absurdism, this play lightly borrows from many of the greats of the genre. And if you’ve ever been fortunate enough to really share a laugh with a Black person, this play will ideally remind you of some of those back-and-forths.

As a propagandist, I want you to learn something from this play. It is the same thing you would learn from every story about a conspiracy: it goes higher and deeper than you ever imagined. As a repatriation activist, I hope you leave this theatre and look for the stolen bodies near you and you do something about them. As a playwright, I hope you think this play is very funny and very clever and very profound. As an Afropessimist, if you’re not Black, I don’t care what you think.

As a person, though, I am incredibly grateful to be able to work on this thing that is so harrowing in a place that made it so I could focus all of my eforts on it, with a group of actors and designers and laborers of all stripes who were united in a common purpose, and with my best friend, without whom this play and all of my others would be far worse.

Enjoy the show—even if you already know what’s under the mask.

SPECIAL THANKS

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Lisa B. Thompson

Alexandra Bassett

Kirk Lynn

Lee Kravchenko

Hannah Ezer

Frank B. Wilderson III & Saidiya Hartman

Alan J. Pakula & William Goldman

"Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.” — W.E.B. Du Bois, “Criteria of Negro Art,” 1926

In a creative field that has long been dominated by a white imaginary wholly focused on maintaining the status quo and perpetuating anti-blackness, it is important to consider art as propaganda instead of pretending it exists in some neutral, apolitical space. If theatre purports to be an art of truth-telling, then we must tell it plainly, intrepidly and in as many diferent ways as we can: ways that challenge what we’ve been told, ways that retool familiar genres towards something greater, ways that reconsider what we think we know, ways that are honest about what we don’t want to see or say. This is where a writer like Zachariah Ezer enters the scene. Artists ofen talk about race and power without ever really talking about it. Zachariah demands that we think past the usual “good feelings” and instead analyze the way the world works and what we might need to do in order to obliterate its current order.

Address the Body! is propaganda for the present; a play that demands we reconsider institutions and their “solutions” to problems that they have helped to engender. In the wake of the bloody summer of 2020, many places made promises about what they would do to “help” Black people. Few of them have followed through with anything other than a few EDI training sessions. Address the Body! reminds us of the bodies that were forced to build and that are still held within places like the one you find yourself in tonight. Can a play raise the dead? Can it breathe life into a pile of bones? Can it raze an institution so that the bones hidden beneath it can finally see the light of day? Of course not, but maybe it can create the conditions for something akin to a revolution. We’ll see.

A NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURG

“The clearer you understand where you came from, the better you know where you’re going. If you recognize your mistakes, you can avoid making them over and over again.” Those are lines said by the character “Rhodelle” in the play, Address the Body!. Zachariah Ezer has crafed a play where we see an educational institution, and the people who teach and learn at the institution, grapple—or to make as if they are grappling—with its participation in the slave economy. We have seen over the last few years American universities acknowledging and atoning for their ties to slavery. Georgetown University recently announced the Reconciliation Fund to support descendants of slavery. The University of Virginia built a $7 million dollar monument to honor the enslaved people that built and maintained the school. Also, Harvard University has recently published a 134-page report on their ties to slavery and has promised to create a $100 million fund to redress their participation. Of course, a few million dollars and a monument are not enough to atone for the irreparable damage of slavery, but it is a great starting place for these institutions to stop the cycle of denial and minimization they have responded with whenever the subject is brought to their institution, like you will see in Address the Body!

Not all is doom and gloom in this play. Address the Body! at its core is an edge-of-your-seat mystery. It is also about restoring a family’s legacy. The character “Rhodelle” is trying to take back what the institution has stolen from her family’s past and present. I hope when you leave the theatre you will wonder about any institutions you hold dear and find out what unacknowledged bodies helped establish those institutions.

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Teresa Guerrero C. (Scenic Designer) is a M.F.A. in Theatre (live design and production) candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. She has a background in theatre and film. Recent credits include production design for the short film A Woman Is Many Things… (2022), set dressing for the short film Fire In The Breeze (2022), art direction for the short documentary NaedeaN (2022) and assistant scenic design for Love and Information (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022).

Demian Gael Chavez (Sound Designer) is a second-year student at The University of Texas at Austin pursuing a B.A. in Latino Studies and a B.A. in Theatre and Dance with an emphasis in playwrighting and directing. Recent credits include sound design for …but you could’ve held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022) and director for Evil Dead The Musical with the University Theatre Guild. Upcoming work includes sound design for The Jungle Book with Austin Scottish Rite Theater.

Bridgette Cliford (Properties Manager) is a third-year B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in design and technology, also pursuing a minor in primatology. She has worked on many Texas Theatre and Dance productions and Butler School of Music operas as a student fabrication assistant at the Texas Performing Arts Fabrication Studios. This is her first production as a properties manager.

Jackson Cobb (Assistant Projection Designer) is a third-year M.F.A. in Theatre (integrated media for live performance) candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent design credits include …but you could have held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022), Jinkies! or The Dog Play (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022) and the Song Reimagined series (Butler Opera Center, 2021). Assistant design and programming credits include Monsoon Wedding (Qatar Creates, 2022) and Thoughts of a Colored Man (Broadway, 2021). jacksoncobb.design

Katie Concannon (Costume Designer) is a first-year M.F.A. in Theatre (costume design)

candidate. She earned her B.A. in Environmental Justice at Middlebury College and is interested in relationships between artificial and biological structures and how to create art in an era of environmental crisis. She began her career as a stitcher before finding her place in design. Credits with Middlebury College include assistant costume designer for She Kills Monsters and The Orphan Muses (2021) and lead designer for Botticelli in the Fire (2022).

Sydny DeMeyer (Properties Supervisor) graduated in December 2022 with a B.A. in Theatre and Dance with an emphasis in design and technology. Past credits as a properties manager with Texas Theatre and Dance include In Sisters We Trust, or My F*cked Up American Girl Doll Play (2022) and Tiny Fingerprints (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022).

Zachariah Ezer (Playwright) is a playwright who animates theoretical quandaries through dramaturgical forms. Selected plays include The Freedom Industry (New York Stage and Film, The Playwrights’ Center), An Unclear World (Hi-ARTS) and Black Women in Tech (The Fire This Time Festival). Ezer is a James A. Michener Fellow for the class of 2023 and a Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice, and he is currently under commission by Theater J.

Clarissa Garcia (Stage Manager) is a secondyear B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in stage management. She has a background in stage management, scenic design and lighting design. Credits include stage management for In Sisters We Trust, or My F*cked Up American Girl Doll Play (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022), assistant stage management for Alice's Wonderland (Summer Stock Austin) and wardrobe and special efects makeup for UTNT (UT New Theatre) (2022).

Andy Grapko (Intimacy Director) is a lecturer and resident intimacy director for the Department of Theatre and Dance. Her training includes Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, Theatrical Intimacy Education and Intimacy for Stage and Screen. Her credits include Anna in the

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Tropics (Ground Floor Theatre), Pippin (McCallum Fine Arts Academy), …but you could’ve held my hand and The Tasters (Texas Theatre and Dance; 2022, 2021), Venus in Fur (Way Of Broadway Community Players) and the films Clock and RAPS. andygrapko.com

Renita James (Community Engagement) is a second-year M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in drama and theatre for youth and communities. Her most recent credits include community engagement and dramaturgy for ...but you could've held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022), “Mel” in The Materials that Make Us (museum theatre project) and “Tasia” in “Kimmy” (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2021). She also works as a deviser, director and teaching artist.

Ryan K. Johnson (Choreographer) is a M.F.A. in Dance candidate at The University of Texas at Austin and founding executive artistic director of SOLE Defined Percussive Dance Company. Johnson’s performance credits include performing with Gregory Hines, Marvin Hamlisch, The Beatles LOVE and One Drop by Cirque Du Soleil, STOMP, Step Afrika!, resident tap dancer for The Washington Ballet and featured artist in Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer. soledefined.com | @rkjdance

Tobie Minor (Fight Director) teaches stage combat and movement at Texas State University. He has been a certified Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors for 22 years. He has choreographed violence at Texas State University, UT Austin, St. Edward’s University, ZACH Theatre, Austin Shakespeare, Austin Playhouse, Hidden Room Theatre and Penfold Theatre. He has been nominated and won several awards both locally and internationally, and his choreography has been featured at the Blackfriars Conference and at The Globe Theatre in London.

Michael Mobley (Dramaturg) is a first-year James A. Michener Fellow with a primary concentration in playwriting. His work has

been developed at Quick Silver Theater Company and Echo Theater Company.

Aria Morgan (Assistant Director) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in playwriting and directing at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include serving as assistant director for In Sisters We Trust, or My F*cked Up American Girl Doll Play (2022) and performing as "Young Colleen" in Community Garden (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2021).

Tenzing Ortega (Associate Scenic Designer) was born and raised in Mexico City, where he has been a scenographer for over 10 years. He holds a B.F.A. in Escenografía from the National School of Theatrical Arts (ENAT) in Mexico City. He is currently a first-year M.F.A. in Theatre (scenic design) candidate.

Leila Rabah (Assistant Stage Manager) is a firstyear B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in stage management at The University of Texas at Austin. Address the Body! is her second production with Texas Theatre and Dance, following her work as assistant stage manager for …but you could’ve held my hand (2022).

Braxton Rae (Associate Producer) is an artist whose creative work and scholarship is focused on blackness, queerness, womanism and marginalized identities more broadly. Additionally, Braxton is passionately pursuing the craf of intimacy work. Braxton’s artistic goals are to foster an arts community that focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion. Recently, Braxton directed Always…Patsy Cline at Great River Shakespeare Festival and …but you could’ve held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022). braxtonrae.com

Dominique Rider (Director) is a Brooklynbased director whose work seeks to answer the question: “What is a world unmade by slavery?” while attempting to analyze the layers of anti-blackness that maintain the world we live in. Deploying theatre and performance as tools of Afropessimism, Rider has developed

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and staged work with the Park Avenue Armory, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, Princeton University, The Shed, the National Black Theatre, Two River Theater and Portland Center Stage, among others.

Sydney Sousa (Projection Designer) is a secondyear M.F.A. in Theatre (integrated media for live performance) candidate. She received her B.A. in Lighting Design and Technology from the College of Charleston. Before attending The University of Texas at Austin, she was a touring media technician for Feld Entertainment. Credits include assistant projection designer for The Tasters (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2021), projection designer for Sawubona (PIVOT - Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022) and Shakespeare Gala (Butler Opera Center, 2022).

David Tolin (Technical Director) was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. He received his B.A. in Theatre with a concentration in design/ technology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his M.F.A. in Theatre from The University of Texas at Austin before teaching at Westlake High School for seven years. Tolin works at Texas Performing Arts’ Fabrication Studios as the Project Manager and as faculty in the UT Live Design and Production area.

Rylee Vines (Production Manager) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance and B.S. in Public Relations major at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent credits include In the Heights (Summer Stock Austin, 2022), Alice's Wonderland (Summer Stock Austin, 2022), Jinkies! or The Dog Play (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022) and The Tasters (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2021).

Donna Bonnelle Yancey (Lighting Designer) is a B.A in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in design and technology at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include designing three dance performances as part of Fall For Dance (2022), assisting on Dance Repertory Theatre’s PIVOT (2022) and …but you could’ve held my hand (2022), in addition to Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Butler Opera Center, 2022).

Jacob Zamarripa (Assistant Lighting Designer) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in design and technology at The University of Texas at Austin. He has an extensive background in lighting design in and around Houston, Texas. UTNT (UT New Theatre) is his first assistant lighting design credit with Texas Theatre and Dance. Recent assistant lighting design credits at UT Austin include Songs Reimagined (Butler Opera Center, 2022).

Nolan Myers

Allen Porterie

Mackenzie "Mack" Lizzie Ufomadu

Josephine Thornton Bonnington-Mailisi

Marissa-Angel-Barker Jay Smith

Nolan Myers (Dr. Timothy Wagner/William Taylor) is a third-year B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in performer's process. He has an extensive background in acting and singing. This is his first production with Texas Theatre and Dance. Other credits include several projects with the student organization Take the Wheel, including the staged reading of Hamlet in Space and their 10-minute play festival.

Allen Porterie (Epimetheus; he/they) is a second-year M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in performance as public practice at The University of Texas at Austin. He was most recently seen as “Angel” in Kinky Boots with Uptown Players and as “Lance” in Fire in Dreamland with The Filigree Theatre. Porterie is represented by Collier Talent. allenporterie.com

Mackenzie “Mack” Thornton (Rhodelle Grayson) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in performer’s process at The University of Texas at Austin. She previously performed in the role of “Addy/Jordan” in In Sisters We Trust, or My F*cked Up American Girl Doll Play (2022), her first season production with Texas Theatre and Dance.

Lizzie Ufomadu (Cree Burnside) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in performer's process at The University of Texas at Austin. She has an extensive background in acting and dance. This is her first production with Texas Theatre and Dance, with most recent credits in Summer Shakespeare (Collin Theatre Center) and various devised works and projects within and outside of the department.

Josephine Bonnington-Mailisi (Dr. Grace LevinKwan) is pursuing a B.A. in Theatre and Dance, a B.B.A. in Marketing and a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation. She has recently moved to Austin as an exchange student. Her favorite career highlight thus far has been performing as a soloist (aerialist, dancer and contortionist) at the Sydney Opera House. Her innovation and versatility as a performer have allowed her to perform and travel across the globe. @justdancejosie

Marissa Angel Barker (Blair Woodyard) is a third-year UTeach Theatre major at The University of Texas at Austin. She has an extensive background in the arts. Recent credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include Jinkies! or The Dog Play (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022), Fall the House (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2021) and …but you could have held my hand (2022).

Jay Smith (Dr. Jim Cooper) is a second-year B.A. in Theatre and Dance student with an emphasis in performer’s process also pursuing a degree in human development and family sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. Smith has notable experience in singing, acting and piano. Past credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include kin • song: ode to disability ancestors (2021) and Love and Information (2022).

VERY BLUE LIGHT

BY DAPHNE SILBIGER

DIRECTED BY KRISTEN OSBORN

FEBRUARY 18, 23 AT 7:30 P.M.

FEBRUARY 19, 25 AT 2:00 P.M.

OSCAR G. BROCKETT THEATRE | F. LOREN WINSHIP DRAMA BUILDING

THEATREDANCE.UTEXAS.EDU

Kayla Alonzo – Assistant Stage Manager

Avery Brooks – Assistant Director

• Jacob Benaim – Costume Designer

• Daniel Ruiz Bustos – Associate Scenic Designer

Teresa Guerrero C. – Scenic Designer

Hal Cosentino – Dramaturg

• Jackson Cobb – Assistant Projection Designer

• Sydny DeMeyer – Properties Supervisor

Andy Grapko – Intimacy Consultant

Heekyung Kim – Projection Designer

• Dillon James – Sound Designer

• Kristen Osborn – Director

Yobany Pizano – Assistant Director

Braxton Rae – Associate Producer

• Malena Pennycook – Dramaturg

• Stephen Pruitt – Lighting Designer

• Natalia Martin Rodezno – Properties Manager

Daphne Silbiger – Playwright • David Tolin – Technical Director

Emma Winder – Stage Manager

• Rylee Vines – Production Manager

• Jacob Zamarripa – Assistant Lighting Designer

CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Magna ............................................................................ Ozma Darling

Angela ........................................................................ Angel Hernandez

Coleman ......................................................................... Hal Cosentino

Michigan ...................................................................... Mateo Hernandez

I read a book recently that talks about how in ancient times, people went to temples to hear gods talk. The gods, of course, were statues rigged with long hoses that allowed the voice of a hidden man to come out of the statue's mouth. I think ancient people were aware of this mechanism—but, I don't think they believed that what the god said was any less valid or holy.

This is the point that I find interesting. What happened if those ancient people began to question their god? What happened if their god said something controversial and a room of people had to fix their hearts or die? If those divine talking heads have been replaced by the unobscured talking people that are going to perform a play for you, Very Blue Light is interested in what happens when it appears that the gods cannot be believed.

I’m not implying that I, or anyone else, is a deity. But, when we gather to perform an act of faith and examine a fictional presentation for its relationship to our lived experiences, I feel that moments of disbelief and untruth cue us to look for metaphor, fable and allegory. And when we shout, “That’s not true!” at the person speaking, it usually means that those subterranean meanings have passed us by. This play is tied up in our collective awareness of science fiction—of extraterrestrials, alien abductions and general UFO-related conspiracies. It uses that imagery to talk about gender transition. But, that’s not all it talks about, and I hope that you discover something not of this world hiding in the play’s West Texas mysticism (even if you’ve already figured out how it works).

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Greetings:

I am writing this note from far above you, (presuming, of course, that you are reading it inside the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre at UT Austin,) at a diferent time and in a diferent space.

It is dark. Looking down I can see many little specks of light. I see winding paths, like those that earthworms make when they wriggle through the mud, paths that the little humans and their little lights follow on their journeys to wherever they are going.

I get higher up in the air and those lights become even smaller, clusters amid total darkness. I see flickers that I can’t explain.

“I am beginning to understand the profundity of my insignificance,” Magna says in Very Blue Light. This phrase echoes in my head.

From where I am, 30,000 feet above planet Earth, I am struck by how small we really are.

And yet we go about our days, creating systems and plans and rules by which we navigate from point A to point Z of life, the centers of our own universes, stars of our own dramas and the guest stars of others.

This is why I am drawn to the theatre. It puts life, in the form of stories, onstage so we can marvel at it. It shows us ourselves and facets of humanity that exist beyond our own experiences. It brings us together.

Daphne Silbiger’s Very Blue Light does just this, illuminating the complexities of being human, of having relationships with others over time, of knowing and holding and embodying a truth that you cannot prove. Daphne shines a light on all of this and, of course, on what could exist beyond the Earthly, inviting us into the incredible universe onstage.

Welcome to Very Blue Light – we are glad you’ve landed here.

A NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURGS

Some truths are knowable and provable by common understanding

Like this play is being performed 429.1 miles from Marfa

And Marfa is a town located in the Chihuahuan desert of Southwest Texas  And “light” is a verb which means to come upon by chance, to discover unintentionally.

Some truths are knowable but unprovable by common understanding

Like how one’s body feels in a vast, unbothered wilderness And the supernatural phenomena of glowing orbs referred to as the Marfa lights  And who we are inside of these human skin suits, really. What we yearn for.

For us, Very Blue Light is an intimate meditation on the discovery of one’s own unprovable truths. On the cosmic solitude of light-ing onto oneself. And it explores what happens when limitations in “common understanding” (lack of imagination) disrupt our closest friendships.

The play is an invitation to suspend ourselves in the space between the knowing and the proving. Pull up a chair, it says, crack a beer. This is the place where friends come to talk.

We hope you will.

SPECIAL THANKS

Hal Cosentino and Malena Pennycook  Dramaturgy Team

Bea Tyler Link

Kirk Andrea L. Hart Annie

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Jacob Benaim (Costume Designer) is a second-year B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in design and technology at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include Fall For Dance (2022) and Jinkies! or The Dog Play (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022).

Avery Brooks (Assistant Director) is a fourthyear B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in playwriting and directing. Brooks' recent credits include the role of “Lt. Sawyer” in The Tasters (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2021), assistant director for Love and Information (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022) and writing and directing their own show for the student organization Take the Wheel’s 10-Minute Play Festival.

Daniel Ruiz Bustos (Associate Scenic Designer) is a Mexican M.F.A. in Theatre (scenic design) candidate. He received his B.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in filmmaking. He has collaborated as a producer, writer, director, art director and production designer in several short films. Recent credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include Witchcraf, Failures in Holding the Multiple and Pop Refuge, all performed as part of Fall For Dance (2022). danrubu.com | @danrubu_design

Teresa Guerrero C. (Scenic Designer) is a M.F.A. in Theatre (live design and production) candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. She has a background in theatre and film. Recent credits include production design for the short film A Woman Is Many Things… (2022), set dressing for the short film Fire In The Breeze (2022), art direction for the short documentary NaedeaN (2022) and assistant scenic design for Love and Information (2022).

Jackson Cobb (Assistant Projection Designer) is a third-year M.F.A. in Theatre (integrated media for live performance) candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent design credits include …but you could have held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022), Jinkies! or The Dog Play (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022) and the Song Reimagined series (Butler Opera

Center, 2021). Assistant design and programming credits include Monsoon Wedding (Qatar Creates, 2022) and Thoughts of a Colored Man (Broadway, 2021). jacksoncobb.design

Hal Cosentino (Dramaturg) is a M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in playwriting. Recent credits include Everybody (Brown Paper Box Co.), Family Reunion (Steppenwolf LookOut Series) and 13 Love Songs (Adult Children/Hot Kitchen Collective). Cosentino is a company member with The Syndicate, which produces plays by women, trans+ and queer artists. He holds a B.S. in Theater from Skidmore College.

Sydny DeMeyer (Properties Supervisor) graduated in December 2022 with a B.A. in Theatre and Dance with an emphasis in design and technology. Past credits as a properties manager with Texas Theatre and Dance include In Sisters We Trust, or My F*cked Up American Girl Doll Play (2022) and Tiny Fingerprints (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022).

Andy Grapko (Intimacy Consultant) is a lecturer and resident intimacy director for the Department of Theatre and Dance. Her training includes Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, Theatrical Intimacy Education and Intimacy for Stage and Screen. Her credits include Anna in the Tropics (Ground Floor Theatre), Pippin (McCallum Fine Arts Academy), …but you could’ve held my hand and The Tasters (Texas Theatre and Dance; 2022, 2021), Venus in Fur (Way Of Broadway Community Players) and the films Clock and RAPS. andygrapko.com

Dillon James (Sound Designer) is a B.S. in Arts and Entertainment Technologies. He specializes in electronic music production and composition. James has worked on multiple projects with Texas Theatre and Dance, with past credits including “Kimmy” (2021), Love and Information (2022), Fall For Dance (2022) and a few plays at past UTNT (UT New Theatre) showcases.

Heekyung Kim (Projection Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. in Theatre (integrated media for live performance) candidate. She earned

her B.F.A. in Theater Directing at Chung-Ang University and then began exploring media design. She has an immense background in the live performance industry. Recent credits include The Orchard (Baryshnikov Arts Center, 2022), …but you could’ve held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022), This Little Light of Mine (Santa Fe Opera, 2022) and the Beetlejuice The Musical tour in Korea (2021-2022).

Kristen Osborn (Director) is an Austin-based director and storyteller who is passionate about nurturing human connection through embodied gathering. She has worked in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York with the Gefen Playhouse, Daryl Roth Theatre, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Northlight Theatre and Ojai Playwrights Conference. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, a M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in directing at UT Austin and an explorer with the Texas Immersive Institute. kristenosborn.com

Malena Pennycook (Dramaturg; she/they) is a writer-performer pursuing a M.F.A. in Theatre with a specialization in playwriting. Their plays include Diving Board (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist; CRASHBOX Austin); Two Apprentices (KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award, Rosa Parks Playwriting Award) and their solo show Am I Busy Yet? (Cosmic Cherry Arts Festival; Oregon Fringe Festival). Pennycook has been a New Harmony Project resident, a Richie Jackson Artistic Fellow and a Santa Cruz Shakespeare Acting Fellow. B.F.A.: NYU Tisch School of Arts. malenapennycook.com

Yobany Pizano (Assistant Director) is a UTeach Theatre major at The University of Texas at Austin. This is his first production as part of UTNT (UT New Theatre). He was previously involved with the director’s studio project 9/10 beds in the Department of Theatre and Dance and is currently working as a project lead for The Cohen New Works Festival.

for over thirty years and has designed and collaborated with many of Austin’s most innovative performance companies as well as nationally and internationally. He is currently the resident production designer with Forklif Danceworks, Tapestry Dance, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company and A’lante Flamenco; a company member with the Rude Mechs and consulting designer for Austin’s Blue Lapis Light, Honolulu Theatre for Youth and London’s Old Kent Road Tap Company.

Braxton Rae (Associate Producer) is an artist whose creative work and scholarship is focused on blackness, queerness, womanism and marginalized identities more broadly. Additionally, Braxton is passionately pursuing the craf of intimacy work. Braxton’s artistic goals are to foster an arts community that focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion. Recently, Braxton directed Always…Patsy Cline at Great River Shakespeare Festival and …but you could’ve held my hand (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2022). braxtonrae.com

Natalia Martin Rodezno (Properties Manager) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in design and technology at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a third-year student with a background in scenic fabrication and design. She is also pursuing a minor in business.

Daphne Silbiger (Playwright) is a third-year M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in playwriting. Credits with The University of Texas at Austin include 9/10 beds (director’s studio) and O, the Humanity (M.F.A. Salon Series), in addition to Dirtbag Stacks (CRASHBOX). Their other plays include Call Me Venus (Time Capsule Project), Six Years Old (Corkscrew Theater Festival) and Pound (Relentless Award SemiFinalist, 2019.) They play in the bands Go Home and Mothercat and release music as sa_phne.

Stephen Pruitt (Lighting Designer) has been making work as an artist, designer and performer

David Tolin (Technical Director) was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. He received his B.A. in Theatre with a concentration in design/ technology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his M.F.A. in Theatre from The University of Texas at Austin before teaching

at Westlake High School for seven years. Tolin works at Texas Performing Arts’ Fabrication Studios as the Project Manager and as faculty in the UT Live Design and Production area.

Rylee Vines (Production Manager) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance and B.S. in Public Relations major at The University of Texas at Austin. Recent credits include In the Heights (Summer Stock Austin, 2022), Alice's Wonderland (Summer Stock Austin, 2022), Jinkies! or The Dog Play (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022) and The Tasters (Texas Theatre and Dance, 2021).

Emma Winder (Stage Manager) is a secondyear B.A. in History major also pursuing a B.A. in Theatre and Dance with an emphasis in playwriting and directing. Recently, she directed the world premiere of A Queen’s Goodbye and RENT School Edition at the Abbey Theater of Dublin and served as stage manager for Matilda The Musical JR. with New Albany Youth Theatre. She is on the executive committee for the upcoming Cohen New Works Festival this spring.

Jacob Zamarripa (Assistant Lighting Designer) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in design and technology at The University of Texas at Austin. He has an extensive background in lighting design in and around Houston, Texas. UTNT (UT New Theatre) is his first assistant lighting design credit with Texas Theatre and Dance. Recent assistant lighting design credits at UT Austin include Songs Reimagined (Butler Opera Center, 2022).

Ozma Darling Angel Hernandez

Hal Cosentino Mateo Hernandez

Ozma Darling (Magna) is an artist living in San Marcos, Texas. Recent credits include TRANSom and Trans Lives/Trans Voices with Ground Floor Theatre, in addition to script readings with Austin Film Festival.

Angel Hernandez (Angela) is a B.A. in Theatre and Dance major with an emphasis in playwriting and directing. They have an extensive background in both movement and acting. Recent credits with Texas Theatre and Dance include Tiny Fingerprints (UTNT (UT New Theatre), 2022). Additional credits include Hamlet in Space (Take the Wheel), The 40th Annual Madrigal Dinner: A Ballad of The Past & Future (Campus Events, Entertainment Creative Arts + Theatre) and some graduate projects.

Hal Cosentino (Coleman) is a M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in playwriting. Recent credits include Everybody (Brown Paper Box Co.), Family Reunion (Steppenwolf LookOut Series) and 13 Love Songs (Adult Children/Hot Kitchen Collective). Cosentino is a company member with The Syndicate, which produces plays by women, trans+ and queer artists. He holds a B.S. in Theater from Skidmore College.

Mateo Hernandez (Michigan) is a M.F.A. in Theatre candidate with a specialization in drama and theatre for youth and communities at The University of Texas at Austin. Acting credits include Luna (Filament Theatre), Back In The Day (UrbanTheater Co.), I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (u/s Steppenwolf Theatre) and Billy To His Friends (Broken Nose Theatre). Hernandez is a member of FYI (For Youth Inquiry), a performance company making participatory experiences for youth around issues of reproductive justice.

READINGS HAROLD

BY JUSTINE GELFMAN

DIRECTED

BY

SUSANNA WOLK

READING

FEBRUARY 26 AT 3:00 P.M.

Harold follows a college improv team that is disqualified from a national competition because of foul play. When a new member joins the team, she ofers an unconventional opportunity to compete. As the team rehearses, they struggle to agree on the same base reality. Harold is a play about long-form improv, consent, saying yes-and, and the thorny complications of saying no.

mirror, mirror

BY MIA GOMEZ-REYES

DIRECTED BY SIMON SALINAS

READING

FEBRUARY 26 AT 5:30 P.M.

Girls will imitate, girls will learn. What are you teaching them? What have you learned? Stuck in the abstract (or is it?) of a no-woman's-land, the women in mirror, mirror must push you to the brink until you end up exactly where the world won't allow you: Angry.

HAIR AND MAKEUP SPECIALIST (ADDRESS THE BODY!)

DESIREE TOWNES

ASSISTANT MAKEUP SPECIALIST (ADDRESS THE BODY!)

LAURESTHER MEDINAJIMENEZ

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FACILITATOR (VERY BLUE LIGHT)

BEATRICE HIRSCH

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO

J.E. JOHNSON

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO KAREN MANESS

TPA* SENIOR TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BUSSEY

PROJECT MANAGER, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO

DAVID TOLIN

OPERATIONS MANAGER, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO

JASON LEE HUERTA

PROPERTIES MANAGER, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO

CAROLYN HARDIN

LEAD FABRICATOR, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO

HANK SCHWEMMER

PROJECT SPECIALIST, TPA* FABRICATION STUDIO

ASHTON BENNETT MURPHY

GRADUATE PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS

DANIEL RUIZ BUSTO

TERE GUERRRO CARDOSO

INJI HA

TENZING ORTEGA

ALEXANDER ROCKEY

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS

KATHRYN CLARK

MORGAN RANDALL

PRODUCTION LEADS

ZOE BIHAN

SYDNY DEMEYER

DANIEL GELD

ISABELLA HOLLIS

ROXOLANA KRYWONOS

FABRICATION PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS

LEAH AUSTIN

NAHLA BELTRAN

BENJAMIN CERVANTES

BRIDGETTE CLIFFORD

MARI DALTON

GABRIEL GOMEZ REYES

ESTELLE N ISAAC

VICTORIA JEFFERSON

AUSTIN C LIVINGSTON

AUSTIN LUCHAK

JONAH MAUGHAN

FAITH C MITCHELL

DEZMON B MYERS

BEN NUNN

HANNAH NELSON

NATHAN JOSHUA RAMOS

NATALIA RODENZO

HANNAH SHEPARD

VICTORIA V VARGAS

CASSIDY MADALYN WEN

JULIA YELVINGTON

PROP STOCK MANAGERS

EZRA-ROSE BOLENDER

LEILA RABAH

SCENERY/PROPS CREW

CHANTALL C. GONZALEZ

KATIE JONES

HUNTER SIMON

JADEN WEST

PROPS FINISH LAUREN HEAD

MELODY LUNA

COSTUME PRODUCTION

DIRECTOR

NANETTE ACOSTA

COSTUME PRODUCTION AND FABRICATION STUDIO

PRODUCTION ASSOCIATES

SAMANTHA GASHETTE  DESIREÉ HUMPHRIES

DRAPERS

SARAH BARBOUR  POUA YANG

FIRST HANDS  LUCIA CALLENDER  KATIE CONCANNON

MARISA LAWRENCE

STITCHERS

JACOB BENIAM

SOPHIE DIETERLEN  RACHEL GREEN

SAVANNAH HOLLOWAY  RAYCE RISCH

COSTUME CRAFTS ARTISAN

TANYA OLALDE

COSTUME CRAFTS ASSISTANTS

ARIES LIMON

JULIE WEBB

COSTUME PRODUCTION AND FABRICATION STUDIO ASSISTANTS

MEAGAN BEATTIE  AMANI TURNER

COSTUME PRODUCTION AND FABRICATION STUDIO

CREW SUPERVISOR

CALIFORNIA THORSON

COSTUME PRODUCTION AND FABRICATION STUDIO

CREW

LILY FALCONER

DYLAN MARINEZ FIGUERO

ANGEL HERNANDEZ

MEGGIE HUNT

KATYA LOPEZ

MOLLY MASSON

ERICKA PUGLIESE  OLIVIA SALDANA

WARDROBE SUPERVISOR  DESIREE TOWNES

WARDROBE CREW CHIEFS

ELLA GOTWAY

KATIE MILLER

WARDROBE CREW

VALENTINA REYES

MORIA SMALL

KATHERINE ST. JEAN

CHLOE WHITEHEAD

WYNTER WINSTON

COSTUME STOCK

SUPERVISOR  DESIREÉ HUMPHRIES

COSTUME STOCK ASSISTANTS

MEGGIE HUNT

LAYLA ISAAC

TPA * LIGHTING

SUPERVISOR

SARAH CANTU

TPA* ASSOCIATE LIGHTING

SUPERVISOR

MICHAEL SHANKS

ASSISTANT SUPERVISING

ELECTRICIANS

REESE HERNDON MATTHEW SMITH

SENIOR LIGHTING TECHNICIANS  ARI JAMIESON  GAVIN STRAWN  ZACH YOUNG

324P TECH LIGHTING

FACULTY SEB BOONE

324P THEATRE AND DANCE

LIGHTING CREW

EDUARDO BENAVIDES

MACY BUTLER

SOPHIA CAMPBELL

ADAM CORONADO

REBECA FERGUSON

ANDREW KUSMAN

EDWARD LOPEZ-JIMENEZ

MADDIE LOY

KENNEDY MCLAGGAN

STEPHANIE SHAW

ABDOLHAY TALEBI AUSTIN TAYLOR

TPA* LIGHTING CREW CARLA GARCIA   GILBERT MARTINEZ   ZACKARY READ   MATTHEW E. SMITH  SHELLY UPHAM   JACOB ZAMARRIPA

LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR

SIAH MASLO

TPA* AUDIO/VIDEO SUPERVISOR ANDREW MILLAY

TPA* ASSISTANT AUDIO/ VIDEO SUPERVISOR CHRIS BRAUDT

TPA*AUDIO CREW DEMIAN CHAVEZ LUCY KULZICK

ELIAS MERLO BRYCE RIGGLE

AUDIO BOARD OPERATOR ZACH MARTIN

INTEGRATED MEDIA SHOP SUPERVISOR  EARNEST MAZIQUE

MEDIA GRADUATE ASSISTANTS

JACKSON COBB  AJ HURTADO  HEEKYUNG KIM  SYDNEY SOUSA

MEDIA SHOP INTERN AMBER HUCHTON

MEDIA SHOP CREW FAITH BOUCHELLE  ANA AYALA GASCA

STEPHANIE KELLER  CAMILA LLORENTE  ZACK MARTIN  CIELO ORTIZ

ALEXANDRIA RODRIGUEZ  JULIA SALAZAR

MONSE SANDOVALMALHERBE  KARINA TREJO

MEDIA OPERATOR

VICTORIA LOPEZ

CREW SUPERVISOR

AUSTIN SHIRLEY

STAGE MANAGEMENT

ADVISOR

RUSTY CLOYES

DIRECTING ADVISORS

KJ SANCHEZ

ALEXANDRA BASSIAKOU SHAW

COSTUME DESIGN ADVISOR  RAQUEL BARRETO

COSTUME TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR

DAVID AREVALO

LIGHTING DESIGN ADVISOR  MICHELLE HABECK

INTEGRATED MEDIA

DESIGN ADVISOR KATE FREER

SCENIC DESIGN ADVISOR

JOSAFATH REYNOSO

SOUND DESIGN ADVISOR PHILLIP OWEN

DRAMATURGY ADVISOR

MADGE DARLINGTON

TPA* DIRECTOR OF FABRICATION AND ACADEMIC PRODUCTION

JEFF GRAPKO

PHOTOGRAPHER

THOMAS ALLISON

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

JEFF GRAY

*TPA = Texas Performing Arts BECOME