A Season of Love, Lust and Greed

Love, Lust and Greed

Drama at UC Irvine announces the 2014-2015 Season:
Love, Lust and Greed

Dr. Daniel Gary Busby, Chair of Drama at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, announces the 2014-2015 Drama Season. Featuring works that explore the most basic human instincts: LOVE, LUST and GREED. These elemental issues drive most human interaction and form the basis of all great dramatic works of literature since the time of the Greeks. Following on the heels of the 2013-14, A Season of Justice: An exploration of Citizenship, the Drama faculty has made a turn for next year’s season, choosing a theme which offers both exciting new and fascinating re-telling of classic stories about our shared human condition.  

Fall 2014 Productions

 

The Last Lifeboat -- faculty directed workshop

Written by Luke Yankee
Directed by Don Hill Performances:
Opens: Friday, 14 November at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 15 November at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Sunday, 16 November at 2:00 pm
Thursday, 20 November at 8:00 pm
Friday, 21 November at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 22 November at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Closes: Sunday 23 November at 2:00 pm Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL)
Tickets may be purchased online here. This world premiere of Luke Yankee’s latest play, The Last Lifeboat, reveals the untold story of J. Bruce Ismay, owner of the White Star Line at the time of the sinking of the Titanic. His decision to save himself rather than go down with the ship made him the scapegoat for one of the greatest disasters of all time. An ensemble cast playing multiple roles tells this epic tale which explores not only the tragedy itself, but the sensationalized trials and aftermath of a night that changed the world forever.
 

Metamorphoses

Written by Mary Zimmerman
Directed by Annie Loui Performances:
Opens: Saturday, 15 November at 8:00 pm
Sunday, 16 November at 2:00 pm
Wednesday, 19 November at 7:30 pm
Thursday, 20 November at 8:00 pm
Friday, 21 November at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 22 November at 2:00 pm and 8:00pm
Closes: Sunday, 23 November at 2:00 pm Claire Trevor Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. Metamorphoses is adapted from the classic Ovid poem and was nominated for three Tony awards in 2002, and earned Zimmerman a Tony for Best Direction of a Play. To metamorphose is to change/undergo transformation by enchantment. Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change, and explores links between myth, theatre and therapy. As one character in the play states, “Myth is a public dream!”
 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Written by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Jane Page Performances:
Opens: Saturday, 6 December at 8:00 pm
Sunday, 7 December at 2:00 pm
Wednesday, 10 December at 7:30 pm
Thursday, 11 December at 8:00 pm
Friday, 12 December at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 13 December at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Closes: Sunday, 14 December at 2:00 pm Little Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. Winner of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof explores the complex family relationships of the wealthy cotton tycoon Big Daddy Pollitt. “Cat” embodies the recurring theme of mendacity, especially relative to bowing to the complicated rules of social conduct in Southern society and culture. The recurring line “Wouldn’t it be funny if it was true?,” in response to proclamations of love, says much about the human fascination with “love” and the uncertainty that surrounds it.  

Winter 2015 Productions

 

Passion

Written by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
Directed by Kent Nicholson
Dennis Castellano, Music Director/Conductor Performances:
Opens: Friday, 23 January at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 24 January at 8:00 pm
Closes: Sunday, 25 January at 2:00 pm Claire Trevor Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. This semi-staged concert version of the 1994 Tony Award winner (Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score), adapted from Ettore Scola’s film Passione d’Amore, focuses on the themes of love, sex, obsession, illness, passion, beauty, power and manipulation. Its narrative centers on the impending consequences of the consummation of love, and the repercussions that often follow.
      

The Liquid Plain*

Written by Naomi Wallace
Directed by Jaye Austin Williams Performances:
Opens: Saturday, 31 January at 8:00 pm
Sunday, 1 February at 2:00 pm
Wednesday, 4 February at 7:30 pm
Thursday, 5 February at 8:00 pm
Friday, 6 February at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 7 February at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Closes: Sunday, 8 February at 2:00 pm Robert Cohen Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. Winner of the 2012 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play, The Liquid Plain explores sexuality and the violence of the slave trade as we meet two runaway slaves on the docks of an 18th century Rhode Island port. Finding love and a near-drowned man, the mysteries of Adjua’s and Dembi’s identities come to light, as do the painful truths about the past and the present, which flow into the next generation. *Commissioned through the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
      

The Electra Project

Created and Directed by Mihai Maniutiu Performances:
Opens: Saturday, 7 March at 8:00 pm
Sunday, 8 March at 2:00 pm
Wednesday, 11 March at 7:30 pm
Thursday, 12 March at 8:00 pm
Friday, 13 March at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 14 March at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Closes: Sunday, 15 March at 2:00 pm Claire Trevor Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. This anthropological project acts as a practical artistic experiment, as well as a meditation on the cross-cultural approaches that ancient Greek tragedy generates when performed in our time. Music is performed by Iza Group (Grupul Iza, led by Ioan Pop), who play ancient Romanian folk music assimilated with Ukrainian and Jewish folk music - drawing from the populations with whom they shared land for centuries. This mixture of cultures demonstrates the impact of diversity, and makes us aware that various cultures share the same human values despite apparently different means of expression.  

Spring 2015 Productions

 

Boeing-Boeing

Written by Marc Camoletti
Directed by Eli Simon Performances:
Opens: Saturday, 25 April at 8:00 pm
Sunday, 26 April at 2:00 pm
Wednesday, 29 April at 7:30 pm
Thursday, 30 April at 8:00 pm
Friday, 1 May at 8:00 pm
Saturday, 2 May at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Closes: Suntday, 3 May at 2:00 pm Little Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. This classic farce, translated into English by Beverley Cross, has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most performed French play throughout the world. Set in the 1960s, Boeing-Boeing features swinging bachelor Bernard, who couldn’t be happier: he has a flat in Paris and three gorgeous stewardesses all engaged to him without knowing about each other. However, when the new, speedier Boeing jet throws off all his careful planning, soon all three stewardesses are in town simultaneously. Boeing-Boeing won the Tony Award for Best Revival of play as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play.
      

Sweet Smell of Success - all undergraduate musical

Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Craig Carnelia
Book by John Guare
Directed by Myrona DeLaney
Choreographed by Andrew Palermo
Daniel Gary Busby, Music Director/Conductor Performances:
Opens: Saturday, 30 May at 8:00 pm
Sunday, 31 May at 2:00 pm
Tuesday, 2 June at 7:30 pm
Wednesday, 3 June at 7:30 pm
Thursday, 4 June at 8:00 pm
Friday, 5 June at 8:00 pm
Closes: Saturday, 6 June at 8:00 pm Claire Trevor Theatre
Tickets may be purchased online here. In celebration of the life of late American music theater composer Marvin Hamlisch, Sweet Smell of Success begins thus: Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. America. It’s New York, 1952. Welcome to Broadway, the glamour capital of the universe. Set against the backdrop of elegant and glamorous 1950s New York, various geometric love situations are served up sumptuously in a glorious jazz score that serves to underpin the longing, the desperation, the deceit and the sweet lovemaking and death for which New York High Society is infamous.   Visit the Department of Drama Website For ticket information, please contact the UCI's Claire Trevor School of the Arts Box Office at (949) 824-2787. Purchase Tickets for Performances