New Play Festival to Showcase More Than a Dozen Scripts

The Iowa New Play Festival will present more than a dozen new scripts from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and the department's undergraduate playwrights in productions and readings from Monday through Saturday, May 5–10, in the UI Theatre Building.

Five new plays, written by students in the Master of Fine Arts program in playwriting, will be premiered with performances at 5:30 and 9 p.m. each day except Thursday (click here for descriptions of the plays):

• Monday, May 5: The Toymaker's War by Jennifer Fawcett, directed by Brandon Bruce, in David Thayer Theatre.
• Tuesday, May 6: Seven Dreams of Her by Sarah Sander, directed by Sarah Ballema, in E.C. Mabie Theatre.
• Wednesday, May 7: A History of Bad Ideas by Greg Machlin, directed by Joe Luis Cedillo, in Theatre B.
• Friday, May 9: We Three by Mary Hamilton, directed by John Kaufmann, in David Thayer Theatre.
• Saturday, May 10: Dust Town by Morgan Sheehan-Bubla, directed by Anthony Nelson, in E.C. Mabie Theatre.

Tickets for all the evening productions are $6 ($4 for UI students, senior citizens, and youth) and will be on sale one hour before each of the performances. Tickets will also be on sale from noon to 1:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, May 5–9, at the Theatre Building box office. Festival packages are also available that offer all five plays for the price of four.

Daytime readings are free and the public is invited to attend. The readings will take place in the Cosmo Catalano Acting Studio, room 172 of the Theatre Building, unless otherwise noted.

• Monday, May 5, 2 p.m.: Bajo Augua by Tony Meneses.
• Tuesday, May 6, 2 p.m.: Why Love Doesn't Even Know Its Name by Lisa Leaverton.
• Thursday, May 8, 2 p.m.: The House of Grateful by Sheela Kangal.
• Thursday, May 8, 5:30 p.m.: selections from the Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop.
• Friday, May 9, 2 p.m.: Mourning Aletheia by Joshua Casteel.
• Saturday, May 10, 1:30 p.m.: Painted Skin by Joe Luis Cedillo.

The Department of Theatre Arts is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

prepared by Arts Center Relations