UC San Diego Department Of Theatre And Dance Presents MFA One-Acts

The UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance presents the MFA One-Acts as part of the 2018 Wagner New Play Festival. The MFA One-Acts include The Clitorish, written by Mara Nelson-Greenberg and directed by Nicholas Rapp; Joshua, written by Ali Viterbi and directed by Vanessa Stalling; and Tambo and Bones, written by Dave Harris and directed by Joseph Hendel.

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 plays:

Ted and his wife hire a vagina tutor to teach their son Marty about the vagina after they discover Marty has confused a diagram of the vagina for a map of the Middle East. Marty isn't home yet when the vagina tutor arrives, but Ted is and it soon becomes clear that Ted is just as clueless as his son is about all things vagina-related. THE CLITORISH explores "truthiness," vaginas, and how certain people manage to dictate the rules of the world.

Anya's boyfriend was Caleb's best friend. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of his death, Anya and Caleb ditch school to go to the desert. And maybe fall in love. And maybe conjure a ghost. JOSHUA looks at that moment in time where life moves us from a place of youth and innocence into the place that will shape our adult selves. As we look back, how do we reconcile the missed opportunities, the things we didn't say, the paths we didn't take? And will they even matter to our older selves?

Tambo and Bones are two characters in a minstrel show. They soon come to realize that they are, in fact, just two characters in a minstrel show. This realization brings them great distress. All they want is some quarters and a nap. They decide that there is only one solution: they must find and kill the source of all their troubles. TAMBO & BONES interrogates the intersection of race and capitalism, and the connection between pain, profit, and audience.

The MFA One Acts run May 12, 16, 17, and 18 at 7:30pm, with a 10:30am performance on May 19. Performances are at the Arthur Wagner 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 of Tambo and Bones includes Michael Rishawn (Tambo) and Xavier Clark (Bones). The cast of Joshua includes Max Singer (Caleb) and Assata Hefner (Anya). The cast of The Clitorish includes Enrico Nassi (Ted) and Max Singer (Stephen).

The creative team includes Joseph Hendel (Director, Tambo and Bones), Nicholas Rapp (Director, The Clitorish), Vanessa Stalling (Director, Joshua), Samantha Rojales (Scenic Designer), Brandon H. Rosen (Lighting Designer), Steven Leffue (Sound Designer), Jaime Newcomb (Violence/Gore Consultant), Gabe Greene (Dramaturg, Joshua and The Clitorish), Shirley Fishman (Dramaturg, Tambo and Bones), Bryan P. Clements (Production Stage Manager), Sasha King (Assistant Stage Manager), and Timothy Niupalau (Assistant Stage Manager).

About the playwrights:

Mara Nelson-Greenberg is a first-year MFA Playwriting student who grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been developed at Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theater Intime, and WildWind Performance Lab, among others. Her short plays have been produced by Little Theater at Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, TinyRhino, Yes Noise, Communal Spaces, #serials at The Flea and Hansel and Gretel Pocket Utopia. She is a member of EST/Youngblood, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers Group.

Ali Viterbi is a first-year MFA playwright, television writer, and educator. Her plays have been produced across the globe, from New York City to Melbourne, Australia. Her play Period Sisters is a Finalist for the 2018 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. She graduated from Yale in 2014 and received Yale's top playwriting prize. Ali's work has been developed, produced, or commissioned by Roundhouse Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, The Drama League, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, The Barrow Group, The Owl and Cat Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Horizon Theater Company, TinyRhino, Wildacres Residency, Yale College, and The Centropa Institute. Ali also completed a graduate certificate in Television Writing from UCLA, and she is the associate producer of the annual Lipinsky San Diego Jewish Arts Festival.

Dave Harris is a first-year MFA Playwright from West Philly. His plays have been featured at Theater503 in London, Cherry Lane Theater, Great Plains Theater Conference, The Kennedy Center, Lesser America, SPACE on Ryder Farm, UMASS Amherst, Fault Line Theater Company, The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, and Yale College. He is a member of The Working Farm at SPACE, a two-time finalist for the O'Neill Theater Conference, and a semi-finalist for The Relentless Award. Dave has received commissions and awards from The American Playwriting Foundation, The Kennedy Center, Cave Canem, Callaloo, Yale University, UC San Diego, and New Haven Arts and Humanities Co-Op High School. His debut collection of poetry is set to be published in early 2019.

About the directors:

Nicholas Rapp is a is a first-year MFA Directing student. He grew up in Prince George's County, MD, and holds a BA in Theater from UCLA. He has trained with Grzegorz Bral of Song of the Goat, and has attended the La Mama Umbria Directors Symposium. Past credits: RavDogs (Dabney West), CHURCH (Highways Performance Space), Big White Devil (Highways Performance Space), Faustus (UCLA 1350). In New York, Nicholas has worked for Mabou Mines and assisted Lee Breuer.

Vanessa Stalling is Assistant Professor of Directing at UCSD's Department of Theatre & Dance. Most recently she directed Sarah DeLappe's The Wolvesat Goodman Theatre. Previous to that she directed United Flight 232, an award winning show she adapted and directed for The House Theatre from Laurence Gonzales' book Flight 232. Stalling is also known from her work as Associate Artistic Director of Redmoon Theatre. She's was recently named as one of New City's top fifty 2018 Players, is a company member of The House Theatre of Chicago, and was the 2016 Michael Maggio Directing Fellow at The Goodman.

Joseph Hendel is a first-year MFA Directing student from the NYC area. He is a writer, director, musician, and occasional performer. As a writer/director, his recent plays include The Tasty Karp Hotel (Teatr Fredry in Gniezno, Poland), Playing with Masculinity (Have Art: Will Travel! Inc.), and Beware the Ides of Monday (the cell). Other directing credits: The Inner Circle (opera about Alfred Kinsey at the Brick Theater's F*ckfest), AVoid2Remember (Title:Point's?! Festival), and works by Brecht, Ionesco, Pirandello, and Gilbert and Sullivan. He is a resident artist at the cell, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab (2011 and 2012), and is trained in clown and commedia by master clown teacher Christopher Bayes. He is the co-bookwriter of the musical Open Road (NYSAF), an avid computer music composer, and holds a B.A. in Music from Yale College.