New Works Lab

Event Date: 

Thursday, May 11, 2017 - 8:00pm to Saturday, May 13, 2017 - 8:00pm
Thursday, May 18, 2017 - 8:00pm to Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 8:00pm
Saturday, May 13, 2017 - 2:00pm
Saturday, May 20, 2017 - 2:00pm to Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 2:00pm

Event Date Details: 

PART A - MAY 11, 19, 20 / 8PM

                MAY 13, 21 / 2 PM

PART B - MAY 12, 13, 18, 21 / 8PM

                MAY 20 / 2 PM

These plays contain strong language, sexually explicit content, moments of violence and references to sexual assault that may potentially be disturbing to audiences. Please be advised.

Event Location: 

  • Performing Arts Theater

Event Price: 

$17 General Admission

$13 UCSB Student/Faculty/Staff/Alumni, Non UCSB Student/Senior/Child

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  1. Program
  2. Gang Sines
  3. The Last Video Game
  4. The Couch
  5. In His Hands
  6. Mentors
  7. Playwrights 
  8. Press
  9. Gallery 

mentored by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and Vickie J. Scott

New Works Lab provides original student projects with a year of developmental support culminating in workshop productions in the Performing Arts Theater. This year’s inaugural lab showcases new plays by undergraduates Miriam Dance, Malique Guinn, and Andalusia Kear, and a devised work by grad student Tristan Newcomb.

These plays contain strong language, sexually explicit content, moments of violence and references to sexual assault that may potentially be disturbing to audiences. Please be advised.  

PROGRAM A:

 

Gang Sines, by Malique Guinn

The Last Video Game, by Tristan Newcomb

 

PROGRAM B:

 

The Couch, by Andalusia Kear

In His Hands, by Miriam Dance

 

Gang Sines

written by Malique Guinn / directed by Rebecca Wear

 

We're back from break and Carle has been anything but chill. He's trying to solve this old equation worth half a mil. It'd be great to see him blossom, buuuut his middle school bully has come back to haunt him. This dude sports tattoos and leather black shoes. He's apart of some gang called the Booboo the Fools? Carle approaches limits like asymptotes, surpassing those. For him, the dilemmas are evolving. What's the real root of the problem?

 

The Last Video Game

written / directed by Tristan Newcomb

Tonight we remember Ben, a good friend - and a young, hopeful game designer. The death of a student is often a sad business, but what if that death could bring everlasting fame and renown? In the crowded landscape of media products, a creator's death can be a major advantage. We gratefully indulge your patience as we present to you, for investment opportunity, Ben's last video game project.

 

The Couch

written by Andalusia Kear / directed by Tyler Koontz

"Between you, me, and the couch," takes on a new meaning in this drama. The internal battle of being perfect, happy, and loving is tested for Wendy and Lucy. In the living room of the couple's one bedroom apartment, the two mend and tear at their relationship. It is beautifully, and alarmingly relate-able.

 

In His Hands

written by Miriam Dance / Directed by Sian Harden

A story of a girl who begins to question the religious culture that she is growing up in. She is surrounded by a brainwashed congregation who put their faith in a man who calls himself the apostle of God.  At her very young age, she learns a hard truth that opens her eyes and forces her to make a dangerous decision.

 

Mentors

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s professional credits include productions at the National Theatre of Great Britain, Manhattan Theater Club, the Goodman Theatre, Trafalgar Studios 2 [West End], Crowded Fire, Page 73 Productions, Interact Theatre, Borderlands Theatre and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Her plays have been awarded the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. Frances has received artist residencies from Yaddo, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Ragdale, the Sundance Playwright Retreats at Ucross and Flying Point and the Santa Fe Art Institute. She is currently under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club, the Goodman Theatre and the National Theatre. Her work has been published by Yale University Press, Glimmer Train, Methuen Drama, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. She is a member of the Dramatist's Guild of America.

Vickie J. Scott is a Lighting and Scenic Designer for Dance, Theatre, and Themed Entertainment, and is the Executive Producer for Dramatic Women, founded in 1993 to explore and promote the participation of women in all areas of theatre and to produce original scripts for the theater by Santa Barbara, California based writers.   She is also the Resident Lighting Designer and the Production Coordinator for the Ojai Playwright’s Conference in beautiful Ojai, California and the Director of the Design in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she teaches lighting design for theater and dance, designs lights and mentors students.

 

Playwrights

Malique Guinn was born in Lancaster, CA on June 16, 1996. He picked up writing as a hobby in the first grade, when he would write short stories in his free time and share them with his teachers. Back then, he didn't think much of it as anything more than something he liked to do. Today, he stands as an individual who aspires to become a playwright, TV writer, and songwriter. His favorite writers are Oscar Wilde, Lynn Nottage, and J.K. Rowling. Other creative figures he looks up to are Donald Glover and Frank Ocean. His other hobbies are basketball, Rubiks cubes, and sudoku. He has two older sisters, one older brother, and one younger brother. 

Tristan Newcomb is a 3rd-year PhD candidate in Theater, but in his other life he makes very peculiar feature-length movies, occasionally with puppets, but often with humans.  His most notable films include Summer of the Chew Toy Soul (2011), Jesus Hates You Now (2013), and Velvet Stardom (2016).  His theater credits include performing in Middletown, sound design for The Importance of Being Earnest and Bloody Poetry, and, most recently, Assistant Director to Anne Torsiglieri on Bernhard, and to Tom Whitaker on Mr. Burns, a post-electric play.

Andalusia Kear started playwriting when she transferred to UCSB in the Fall of 2015. Prior to beginning at UCSB she was nominated for the Irene Ryans at ACTF, and has now veered away from acting on to writing. The 2017 New Works Festival is the first time any of her work has been on stage. This is her senior year, and she is currently applying to playwriting masters programs in the U.K.

 

Miriam Dance discovered her love for theatre in elementary school when she was cast in her very first role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.  Since then, she has gone on to perform in and direct numerous plays and musicals. Some recent credits include Maureen in Rent (Arête Productions), Sister Chantelle in Bare (Out the Box Theatre Co.)  And featured singer in musical revues such as Smokey Joe’s Café, Swing, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Saville Theatre). Miriam is a senior studying theatre with a concentration in both directing and playwriting at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She works for the Santa Barbara School of performing Arts and STAR Education teaching theatre and dance.  Miriam also enjoys songwriting, sight-seeing, singing with her band, and party planning.

Press

We are proud to say that our media partner is Noozhawk.

"Don't miss the opportunity to discover what Daniel Stein describes as, "a roller coaster of the human condition, that doesn't come without its responsibilities and consequences." Let your senses be amazed by our budding theatric artists, who will make you laugh, cry, and deeply ponder the complexity of the human condition."

- BroadwayWorld

Gallery

The department's productions are not targeted to children. | Please contact 805-893-3022 with special needs.
Season schedule subject to change.