The Cohen New Works Festival is a biennial, week-long showcase of new work created by students at The University of Texas at Austin. It's not just an event, but a celebration of a continuously ongoing process - the creation of new work.
Everyone at the Atreus Housing Project is anticipating the long-rumored return of GHOST. When he does arrive, it sets off a persistently fatal chain of events. His wife NESSA is suspicious of him, his daughter ALEXUS could care less about him, a kid in the neighborhood, OLLIE, worships him and the girl with kerosene gas dripping from her hands KARA is just wandering trying to find her place in it all. And where in the hell is his son BISHOP anyway? If only they could ask that fake-ass psychic, PIANO MAN. The FURIES watch this all, withholding their verdict on the violence for as long as they see fit. A liberal homage to Aeschylus's Oresteia.
Set in a growing metropolitan city in the midst of an economic transition, Radiance follows the story of a few individuals who want more from the city than it promises to give them: Aria, a high-end escort, orchestrates an escape from her gruesome life in an elite brothel while Dina, a physically disabled young woman, rebels for love that will open her world beyond an isolated bedroom in the middle of a suburban wasteland. As Stanley, an aspiring young entrepreneur, arrives in the city to climb the ladder of a booming textile industry, we witness the consequences of economic progression on the inequity of gender roles in a developing society.
This lyrical play explores what it means to be sad and a woman in this world through the lens of the Greek tragedy, The Trojan Women. Examining trauma, mental health, violence and the internet's role in these things, sad women being sad asks the larger question of how and if we can separate the artist from their art. Be prepared for a comedy!
del corazón nace el enjambre is a virtual retelling of the tale(s) of la cucaracha. Activating the cockroach as a time-traveling hemispheric avatar, this dance-theatre piece interweaves stories of self-metamorphosis, resistance and revolution to wonder how attuning to a theoretical brown commons might expand possibilities of freedom.
On the eve of the anniversary of the COVID-19 global pandemic, a news anchor is preparing for a special transmission commemorating the year that has gone by when she is visited by a tiger who really wants her to get the story straight, no matter what the cost.
UTNT (UT New Theatre) presents newly developed works from playwrights of Texas Theatre and Dance and Michener Center for Writers. Now in its 14th season, this showcase exists as an incubator for new work, with many plays continuing on to be professionally produced across the country. Presented in two parts, UTNT (UT New Theatre) presents work on the cutting edge of the American Stage.
Community Garden is a meditation on self-searching, sacrifice and that lovely glow you get when you feast on the fruits that grow from the graves of dead husbands.
burst! is part of an ongoing investigation by Gesel Mason that seeks to reimagine our identities and create space for individual voices to impact our collective community. Using contemporary dance and movement techniques, burst! is developed as an extension of Mason's project Yes, And.
An investigation of embodiment and our virtual identity, In the Ether is a staged rehearsal of possible cyborg realities. Utilizing live streaming, emergent technologies and performance, In the Ether explores elements of cyborg and queer theories by challenging our core notions of perception and existence in a cybernetic world.