The UC San Diego Department Of Theatre And Dance Presents MOTHERS

The UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance presents Mothers, written by Anna Moench and directed by Bea Basso, as part of the 2018 Wagner New Play Festival.

About the play: Three moms, a stay-at-home dad, and a nanny watch their kids play at Mommy-Baby Meetup. One mom is the queen bee and one is here to shake things up. The dad just wants to fit in, and the nanny doesn't say a word. When catastrophe comes, the five of them have to figure out how to survive a war and each other. Mothers examines the primal heartache of raising children in a disintegrating world.

Mothers runs May 9, 12, 15, and 18 at 7:30pm, and May 19 at 7:00pm. Performances are at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre in the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Theatre District on UC San Diego's campus: 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla, CA. For information about parking, please see the website.

Tickets are $20 for regular performances. Subscriptions and group rates are available. Student tickets are $10 for regular performances. Faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens discounts available as well. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the box office at (858) 534-4574.

The cast features Amara Granderson (Vick), Janet Fiki (Ariana), Nicole Javier (Meg), David Price (Ty), Mo Rodvanich (Gladys), and Erin Li (Christine).

The creative team includes Bea Basso (Director), Yi-Chien Lee (Scenic Designer), Dorottya Vincze (Costume Designer), Justin Beets (Lighting Designer), Steven Leffue (Sound Designer), Ursula Meyer (Vocal Coach), Shirley Fishman (Dramaturg), Nicholas Lambros Smith (Production Stage Manager), Ayla Guttman (Assistant Director), Micaela Martinez (Assistant Director), Maggie Allen (Assistant Stage Manager), Mariah Tobin (Assistant Stage Manager), Chi-wei Lin (Assistant Scenic Designer), and Eunice Kim (Assistant Lighting Designer).

The 2018 Wagner New Play Festival at UC San Diego features world premiere productions written by our talented MFA playwrights, and directed, acted, stage-managed and designed by our nationally-acclaimed MFA companies. The plays produced in the Wagner New Plays Festival represent some of the most original and groundbreaking new voices in American theatre. The plays in this year's festival are Mothers by Anna Moench, How to Defend Yourself by Lily Padilla, SERE by Ava Geyer, 53% Of by Steph Del Rosso, Tambo and Bones by Dave Harris, The Clitorish by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, and Joshua by Ali Viterbi.

About the playwright: Anna Moench's plays have been produced at 59E59, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Flea, NYU Tisch, the Old Vic, Indiana University of PA, Dance Theater Workshop, FringeNYC, and beyond. Awards include a NYFA Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellowship, the Jerome Travel Grant, two EST/Sloan commissions, and residencies at Yaddo, Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE, and BRIC Arts. Current and upcoming productions include The Pillow Book at Baltimore's Cohesion Theatre, coproduced by Strand Theater, and In Quietness at NYC's Walker Space with Dutch Kills Theater.

About the director: Bea Basso is ensemble member with Affinity Project, whose pieces have been presented at CounterPulse, furyFactory, A.C.T.'s Costume Shop, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and one of them named one of "five wildest theatrical moments of 2015" (with Wooster Group and Rude Mechs) by KQED/Theater Junkie. Bea co-devises, performs, and directs an in-process series on migration and dislocation with actress Valentina Emeri, produced at Diasporas Festival and Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. She has launched and dramaturged many new play processes with writers including Julia Cho, Ursula Rani Sarma, and Christina Anderson. As a producer, she recently served as A.C.T.'s Director of New Work, and curates a platform for artists practicing north and south of the Tijuana/San Diego border. Bea's co-translations/adaptations have been produced at A.C.T., Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and OSF. She has taught at Yale University School of Drama, A.C.T., and recently created the UCSD undergraduate class "Collaborative Practices in Contemporary Performance". She is a graduate in theater and classics from the University of Padua, Italy, and of Wesleyan University's Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance.