The 2019 Cohen New Works Festival

textured white graphic for THE COHEN NEW WORKS FESTIVAL featuring a yellow water-color light bulb

Texas Theatre and Dance is pleased to present the 2019 Cohen New Works Festival. Featuring over 30 new works across multiple disciplines, The Cohen New Works Festival continues to represent the spirit of creativity, innovation and community. 

In the spirit of playwright and professor David Mark Cohen, the festival celebrates and challenges the meaning of “new” to encourage personal growth and empower the next generation of art-makers and leaders.

View the 2019 Cohen New Works Festival Guide

Guest Artists

During the festival, students are given the unique opportunity to network with professionals from various artistic fields and make lasting connections. These guest artists travel to The University of Texas at Austin from across the city, state, nation and world. They encourage creativity in providing constructive project feedback through panel discussions, and they network with the general student body throughout the Festival.


Suzan Zeder

woman with long silver hear wearing purple rimmed glasses and a purple shirt

Suzan Zeder is a freelance playwright and the former head of the playwriting in the Department of Theatre & Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. Not only is she one of the nation’s leading playwrights of plays for young and family audiences, she also lead the formation of the Cohen New Works Festival in honor of David Mark Cohen.

2019 Executive Committee

The Cohen New Works Festival is entirely student-run, making it unique and empowering. The Executive Committee (EXCOMM) is comprised of graduate students, undergraduate students and faculty producers who are responsible for planning and implementing The Cohen New Works Festival.

PRODUCERS

Rusty Cloyes, Kirk Lynn, Dorothy O'Shea Overbey and Erica Gionfriddo
The Producers oversee all aspects of the festival with the help of the Assistant to the Producers.

ASSISTANT TO THE PRODUCERS

Lane Michael Stanley
The Assistant to the Producers acts as a liaison between the festival producers and the Executive Committee in order to strategize, organize and oversee all aspects of making the festival a reality. This position includes planning and facilitating meetings with the Executive Committee and the Committee-at-Large, overseeing and participating in application selection, assisting in the coordination of production schedules and maintaining festival archives for future use.

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Caite Tijerina
Assistant: Jazmyn Castillo

The Production Managers oversee all aspects of the festival with the help of the Assistant to the Producers. They coordinate each venue and all operations during the festival.

IT and TICKETING

Grayson Rosato
The IT Chair will facilitate all things technological, including but not limited to managing the New Works Festival website, creating a managing festival app, facilitating the online festival selection process and creating a ticketing and reservation system for the week of the festival.

MARKETING and PR

Ginnifer Joe 
The Marketing and Public Relations Chair is responsible for the branding and image of The Cohen New Works Festival. This committee creates a long-range marketing plan and schedule that coordinates all press coverage, social media strategy and marketing materials for events leading up to and during the festival.

EVENTS

Taylor Schmuelgen, Laura Gonzalez and Adam Sussman
The Events Committee Co-Chairs are responsible for organizing, planning and hosting all events affiliated with the festival, including but not limited to: the Go! Grant Application announcement, the Go! Grant showcase, the New Works Festival kick-off party, opening and closing ceremonies the week of the festival and guest artist receptions. These positions are responsible for arranging all logistics including invitations, decorations, food and receptions.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Taylor Travis
The Technical Director will supervise and provide support for all performance spaces prior to and during the festival in order to help create a productive, effective and safe environment for all involved.

APPLICATIONS

Jess Shoemaker, Francesca Ghizzoni and Andrew Rodriguez
The Applications Committee collaborates to form the application and application process that ensures equality and equity in the selection of the festival. The Co-Chairs also answer questions relating to the applications for The Cohen New Works Festival.

GUEST ARTIST

Dan Caffrey and Jessi Rose Lowerre
The Guest Artist Co-Chairs are in charge of booking working professionals in fields related to the projects presented at The Cohen New Works Festival. The co-chairs make sure all festival guests receive the highest quality of treatment, so they may enjoy the festival and provide feedback and perspective for the student artists.

ENGAGING RESEARCH

Elise Peterson, Paul Kruse and Cecelia Raker
The Engaging Research Co-Chairs create programming that reflects the multiple ways we engage in research and fosters new practices of engagement that further promote critical inquiry and collaboration across disciplines.

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2019 Festival Lineup

39 Inside

Music, Dance, Video
Project Lead: Jose Martinez
Location: Oscar G. Brockett Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 16 at 9:00 p.m.
April 17 at 5:30 p.m.
April 18 at 7:00 p.m. 

Many of us arrive by plane, some by car, others cross the river and jump in the back of a semi- trailer to pursue their dream. Based on a true story that happened during the summer of 2017 in San Antonio, Texas, this multimedia and dance collaboration tells one out of many stories about undocumented migration on the Southern border.

Running Time: 35 minutes
Contains Mature Content


A Snake in the Grass

Play
Project Leads: Tanner Hudson and Guinevere Govea
Location: Lab Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 17 at 2:30 p.m.
April 18 at 10:00 a.m. 
April 19 at 1:00 p.m. 

A story about stories. What happens after you die? You go to a drive-in movie theater where the stories on the screen come to life, digging up all of human history.

Running Time: Approximately 70 minutes 
Contains mature content including child abuse, self-harm, violence, scenes of mental illness, animal abuse and prejudice. 


At the Intersection of...

Art Installation, Dance
Project Lead: Ginnifer Joe
Location: WIN 2.116

All performances of At the Intersection of... have been canceled. 

At the Intersection of...​ is a solo dance performance by an American, Chinese, White, gay, grieving, Christian female that explores intersectionality of identity. While social environments and communities often focus on a single check box of identity, this project finds the depth and wholeness in representing the crossover of multiple aspects of identity in one person.

Audience members may choose to sit, stand, or meander throughout the space during the performance.
All audience must take off their shoes prior to entering the space.

Running Time: 30 minutes; Ongoing performance installation


Brutal Imagination

Play
Project Leads: Andrew Rodriguez and Kriston Woodreaux
Location: WIN 2.180

Performance Dates
April 15 at 10:00 a.m. 
April 18 at 7:00 p.m. 
April 19 at 11:00 a.m.

brutal (bro͞odl) adj.
1. savagely violent, vicious, inhuman
Brutal Imagination​ is a solo performance inspired by Cornelius Eady’s poetry anthology of the same name. In 1994, Susan Smith attempted to cover up the murder of her two small sons and that lie gave birth to mister zero: a black man of white invention; a phantom cursed both to exist forever and never at all.

Running Time: 50 minutes 
Contains mature content including depictions of gun violence, abduction and death. 


¿de donde vengo? la mescla

Dance, Performance Art 
Project Lead: Carolina Sirias
Location: Oscar G. Brockett Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 3:30 p.m. 
April 17 at 9:00 p.m. 
April 19 at 9:30 a.m.

¿De donde somos? La mezcla​ is an intersectional dance work showcasing Indigenous, Hispanic, Texan youth of Central American and Mexican origin. The work platforms inclusivity and awareness amongst our ancestral lineages and diasporas, while also alluding to the idea that our “existence precedes [our] essence​.” ​ It explores connections between fluctuating states of being- is our being defined by contextual environments and their limitations, or our autonomous, rightful freedom?

Running Time: 60 minutes


Denial of the Fittest

Dance
Project Leads: Mackenzie Lawrence and Taylor Schmuelgen
Location: Oscar G. Brockett Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 11:00 a.m. 
April 16 at 1:00 p.m. 
April 18 at 12:30 p.m. 

Denial of the Fittest​ is a dance and film work exploring our body and mind’s response to pain, loss and trauma. The cast navigates natural defense mechanisms and questions whether those mechanisms are more harmful or beneficial in the long run. Join the dancers as they explore what it means to be in conversation with yourself and your community when processing emotional stress.

Running Time: 30 minutes 


DOPE FIT!

DOPE FIT!
Project Leads: Michael J. Love and Kaitlyn B. Jones
Location: B. Iden Payne Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 1:30 p.m. 
April 16 at 10:00 a.m. 

Love, Jones and an ensemble of Black artists, thinkers and collaborators use dance, rhythm, music, text and voice to create and live in their own metaphysical Black utopia. ​DOPE FIT!​ mixes rhythm tap and contemporary styles with vernacular sounds and shapes as it reclaims lost archives and visceralizes freedom.

Running Time: Approximately 75 minutes
Contains mature content. 


Existence is Resistance

Interactive Installation
Project Leads: Mario Alberto Ramirez
Location: Winship Circle 

This project has been moved to the B. Iden Payne due to weather. 

Performance Dates
April 17 at 12:00 p.m. 

Existence is Resistance is an all-day event for students to learn about the Native American and indigenous student experience on campus. Students will be invited to share their experiences that involve identity, intersectionalities and cross-cultural differences while celebrating themselves and their communities. This project is made in collaboration with the Native American Indigenous Studies Department, The Native American Indigenous Collective and Indigenous Danza Ollinyollotl.  

Running Time: Ongoing installation
Contains mature content.

No reservation required. 


Gay Bootcamp

Play
Project Leads: Libby Carr and Ijeoma Chinedo
Location: Lab Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 7:30 p.m. 
April 16 at 9:00 p.m. 
April 18 at 6:00 p.m. 

Set in 2008 Wisconsin, ​Gay Bootcamp​ is a romantic comedy about a high school hockey team showing their tomboy goalie how to ask a girl on a date. It centers around the lives of two teenage girls and how their queerness interacts with heterosexual masculinity.

Running Time: 70 minutes
Contains mature content.


Good Country

Music, Opera
Project Leads: Keith Allegretti and Cecelia Raker
Location: Lab Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 4:00 p.m. 
April 16 at 5:30 p.m. 

Good Country​ is an opera based on the historical account Charley Parkhurst, a famous trans man in the California Gold Rush. Performed by opera singer and trans activist Holden Madagame, this performance brings together music, drama, history and colorful Western slang in an evening of saloon revelry, followed by tense conflict and revealed secrets.

Running Time: 60 minutes
Contains mature content including scenes of violence, abuse, abortion and homophobia. 


In Light

Music, Opera
Project Lead: Michael Zapruder
Location: B. Iden Payne Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 18 at 7:00 p.m. 
April 19 at 2:00 p.m. 

In Light​ is an opera and light show that explores the disconnection between perception and reality, between human consciousness and physical light. Composed for soprano, flute, acoustic and electric guitar, percussion and electronics, this production uses projections and architectural instruments of light to tell the story of what might happen if one of us suddenly evolved a quantum-accurate sense of light.

Running Time: 50 minutes 
Contains mature content including scenes of abduction and mental illness. 


Land of Opportunity

Play
Project Lead: Jeremiah Abdullah and Sahil Bhutani
Location: B. Iden Payne Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 16 at 3:30 p.m. 
April 17 at 7:30 p.m. 

Land of Opportunity​ is a romantic comedy that follows the experiences of Syed and Ali, two Pakistani immigrant brothers. The play is framed through the postures of Namaz (Salah), which parallels the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the journey of the brothers as they try to find their place in America. ​Land of Opportunity​ uses comedy and satire to provide a social commentary on Islamophobia, racism, South Asian representation in art and media and the "American Dream."

Running Time: 90 minutes 
Contains mature content including scenes of violence, racism and depictions of gun violence. 


Lloronx

Musical 
Project Lead: Anna Skidis Vargas
Location: WIN 2.180

Performance Dates
April 15 at 3:30 p.m. 
April 16 at 9:00 p.m. 
April 17 at 3:30 p.m. 

Lloronx​ is a play with music and movement that upends the Latinx stereotypes of La Virgen, La Madre y La Puta, through the lens of the folktale ​La Llorona​ and its origins.

Running Time: Approximately 60 minutes 
Contains mature content including strong sexual themes. 


MIDNIGHT IN MALAYA

Site-Specific
Project Lead: Jeffrey Gan
Location: MRH 3.306

Performance Dates
April 18, 6:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Part meditative ritual, part feat of physical endurance, ​MIDNIGHT IN MALAYA​ is a kaleidoscopic study of time zones, diaspora and building community despite our differences. Unfolding over 12 consecutive hours of performance, audiences are invited to come and go throughout the course of the installation as a diverse team of performers activate the Javanese Gamelan room in the Butler School of Music, where cycles of movement collide with streams of text and the sounds of chimes and gongs over the course of one Indonesian night/Texan day.

Running Time: Ongoing installation

No reservation required. 


More as Needed

Dance
Project Leads: Sarah Maggard and Alice Stanley
Location: Oscar G. Brockett Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 8:00 p.m.
April 16 at 5:30 p.m. 
April 17 at 2:00 p.m. 

More as Needed​ examines the current opioid crisis through a blending of dance and theatre. With a focus on the origins of prescription drug abuse, ​More as Needed​ aims to shed a light on our current medical care system and the users it creates.

Running Time: 60 minutes 
Contains mature content including scenes of self-harm, suicide, drug abuse and mental illness. 


Noises and Voices: A Collection of Ghost Stories

Play
Project Leads: Alexandria Armbruster and Carlie Schoultz
Location: WIN 2.180

Performance Dates
April 16 at 5:00 p.m.
April 17 at 9:00 p.m. 
April 18 at 2:30 p.m. 

Noises and Voices: A Collection of Ghost Stories​ is an anthology that follows five true stories of mental illness, both personal and from friends and family, told as ghost stories. ​Noises and Voices​ works to confront the stigma of mental illnesses and their symptoms as scary or unreal by examining them through those very contexts.

Running Time: 60 minutes 
Contains mature content including allusions to self-harm and violence. 


oUr rooTs

Instillation, Site-Specific
Project Leads: Diana Guizado, Molly Martinez-Collins, Kialond Bronson-Smith, Anaya Green
Location: Southend Courtyard of Gearing Hall

Performance Dates
April 16, 17 at 6:00 p.m. 
April 18 at 5:00 p.m. 

Can the future of our university be different if we unearth the roots of our own histories? Can we feed forgiveness and healing into the seeds of our own roots after decades of injustice? ​oUr rooTs​ is a site-specific devised piece and installation that explores the racial history of The University of Texas from the 1960s up to now through a collection of stories from people of color.

Running Time: 40 minutes 
Contains mature content. 


Reverie

Devised, Interactive
Project Leads: Haley Brower, Miranda Perkins
Location: WIN 1.134

Performance Dates
April 15 at 12:00 p.m.
April 17 at 8:00 p.m.
April 19 at 9:30 a.m. 

Reverie explores the importance of play in education through an interactive experience in which the members of the audience will witness, first-hand, the effectiveness of drama based pedagogy in the classroom. A creative analyzation of traditional educational practices, Reverie provides the audience an opportunity to discover new, more engaging modalities of learning by inviting them to imagine a reinvigorated classroom alongside one another. Through Reverie, our community will be brought together in the name of play in order to more fully understand how we can creatively inform and educate the minds of students for the betterment of their learning and lives.

Running Time: 60 Minutes
Family Friendly


Roll For...

Interactive
Project Leads: Henry Wheatley-Rutner and Diamante Martinez
Location: WIN 1.108

Performance Dates
April 15 at 3:00 p.m.
April 16 at 6:00 p.m.
April 17 at 1:00 p.m. 

Roll For...​ is an interactive experience combining the fantasy of ​Dungeons and Dragons​ and the reality of marginalized groups' experiences in the United States. The audience will be invited to participate in improvised ​Dungeons and Dragons​ role-play (regardless of their experience level) translated from real stories of UT students within marginalized communities. Audiences will then have the opportunity to read the stories behind the fantasy in the people's own words.Running Time: Approximately two hours 
Contains mature content including scenes of racism, mental illness, sexism, classism and hateful language against religious groups. 


The Sacrament of Matrimony

Play
Project Leads: Paul Kruse and Kimmothy Cole
Location: WIN 1.134

Performance Dates
April 16 at 12:30pm
April 18 at 1:30 p.m.

Why isn't there a way to celebrate our friendships the same way that we celebrate romantic partners? The Sacrament of Matrimony​ reclaims weddings as a ritual celebration of friendship, celebrating two groups of friends through the things that bring them together. From food to ​Dungeons and Dragons,​ ​The Sacrament of Matrimony​ invites all of us to think about the important ways we connect with our friends.

Running Time: Approximately 40 minutes 


SPILLAGE 

Dance 
Project Leads: Emily Tolson, Becky Nam, Isaac Fuentes, Hsiao-Wei Chen, Bill Rios 
Location: WIN 2.180

Performance Dates
April 15 at 8:00 p.m. 
April 16 at 1:00 p.m. 
April 17 at 11:30 a.m. 

SPILLAGE is a contemporary dance work about Asian American women grappling with identity, specifically our relationship to whiteness and patriarchy. SPILLAGE asks how we internalize and perform societal expectations of our identity, what it means to reject certain cultural narratives and what it looks like to engage yellow female bodies in an amplification of personal/collective voice. 

Run Time: Approximately 20 minutes 


Surviving Gombert

Choral Cantata
Project Lead: Alexander Johnson
Location: B. Iden Payne Theatre

Performance Dates
April 15-16 at 8:00 p.m. 

When a renowned artist is accused of committing an unforgivable act, what is to become of their body of work? Can you separate the art from the artist? This choral cantata explores these questions by focusing on the documented abuse by 16th century composer, Nicolas Gombert, whose musical legacy will forever bear the mark of his crime.

Running Time: 40 minutes 
Contains mature content including scenes of sexual assault and child abuse. 


The Pool

Art Installation
Project Lead: Nathan Nokes
Location: Oscar G. Brockett Theatre, Dressing Room B

Performance Dates
April 15 at 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 
April 16 at 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
April 17 at 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
April 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

The Pool is an interactive art exhibit that explores ritualism surrounding water. This piece is a multi-sensory experience featuring digital projections and audio that invites participants to enter and wade in a pool of water. It examines vulnerability, reliance and meditation - asking participants to consider how they interact with the water and how the water, in turn, interacts with them. 

Running Time: Ongoing Installation

No reservation required. 


The Rest I Make Up

Film
Director and Producer: Michelle Memran
Producer: Katie Pearl

Performance Dates
Tuesday, April 16 at 1:00 p.m.
Q&A with the filmmakers will immediately follow the screening (B. Iden Payne Theatre)

Wednesday, April 17 at 2:00 p.m (WIN 2.112)
Thursday, April 18 at 2:00 p.m (WIN 2.112)

Michelle Memran's The Rest I Make Up celebrates the fierce and unquenchable spontaneity that is Maria Irene Fornes—a virtuosic theater artist and educator whose plays and writing workshops helped shape American theatre. When Memran began spending time with her for the film, it became clear that Irene—then in her 70s—was suffering from an undiagnosed dementia. Weaving together footage of the present with archival from the past, the documentary moves mentor and student towards an ever-deepening connection in the face of forgetting. 

Running Time: 80 minutes

http://therestimakeup.com/


The Things We Can't Hear in Silence

Play
Project Lead: Rebekah Urban
Location: Lab Theatre

Performance Dates
April 17 at 11:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. 
April 18 at 9:30 p.m. 

The Things We Can’t Hear in Silence​ is partially devised, partially pre-scripted play that dissects empathy in today’s digital age and amidst the epidemic of social isolation. By following a post-trauma narrative, focusing on the point of view of the individuals and communities, we can explore authenticity in society in relation to traumatic events. In devising characters through our personal experiences with elements of magical realism, we find a way to shed light on the ways trauma can be both lonely and enlightening.

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes 
Contains mature content including scenes of self-harm, suicide, violence, death, mental illness, sexism and misogyny. 


Throw Your Future Away

Art Installation
Project Leads: Jason Buchanan and Qi Jiajing
Location: B. Iden Payne Theatre, Lobby

Performance Dates
April 15, 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
April 16 at 9:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
April 17 at 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
April 19 at 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Throw Your Future Away​ us an interactive art installation. Your future is a physical object in the form of a letter sized piece of paper with the words "your future" printed on it. It is also a mental object that could consist of—among other things—your desires, fears, goals, hopes, angers and joys.

Running Time: Ongoing installation

No reservation required. 


.traces

Site-Specific
Project Leads: Delena Bradley, Stephanie Fischer, Tucker Goodman
Location: F. Loren Winship Drama Building 

.traces​ is a series of installations that exhibit a physical manifestation of the spirit left behind in the passion, success, failure, heartbreak, struggle and humor put forth by artists making work. This building sees a slice of many growing artists’ incredible life journeys. If the walls of Winship could talk, what would it remember about the people that pass through it?

Running Time: Ongoing Installation

No reservation required. 


Unboxed: Life in Verse

Performance, Poetry
Project Lead: Spoorthi Krishnaraj
Location: WIN 2.112

Performance Dates
April 16 at 7:00 p.m.
April 17 at 5:00 p.m.
April 19 at 9:30 a.m.

Unboxed: Life in Verse​ is a visual take on spoken word poetry. Inspired by real stories written by real people about issues prevalent to our community, ​Unboxed​ seeks to bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds by uniting us through the magic of performative storytelling.

Running Time: 60 minutes 
Contains mature content. 


Video Game Therapy

Art Installation, Interactive 
Project Lead: Jake Brinks
Location: Light Lab

Performance Dates
April 15 at 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
April 16, 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
April 17 at 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
April 19 at 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Video Game Therapy​ is an art installation that aims to teach participants a new way to play video games- a way that caters to our mental health needs. Reserve a slot to receive personal instructions and dedicated playing time, or just stop by to see what others are playing.

Running Time: Ongoing Installation


XOR

Music, Opera
Project Leads: Christian Clark, Jessy Eubanks, Brian Ellis
Location: Lab Theatre 

Performance Dates
April 15 at 10:00 a.m.
April 16, 18 at 2:00 p.m. 

XOR​ (“ex-or”) is a chamber opera incorporating ​computer-generated, Shakespearian-style text and live electronics in an epic science fiction melodrama​. ​A love triangle, death and artificial-intelligence are center stage as audiences explore the impact of humanity’s imperfection on machines.

Running Time: 90 minutes 


Yellow Breeze

Art Installation
Project Lead: Mingxiang Ya
Location: F. Loren Winship Drama Building, Atrium

Performance Dates
April 15, 17, 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. 
April 16 at 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
April 19 at 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Yellow Breeze​ is an attempt to utilize hand drawings to find the connection between Eastern Asian culture with contemporary America Pop culture in our society.

Running Time: Ongoing Installation

No reservation required. 

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