The Spotlight Project

Event Date: 

Saturday, June 13, 2020 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Event Date Details: 

Standing on My Head / 6 pm PST

The Catastrophe Committee / 7 pm PST

Cick HERE to watch!

Event Location: 

  • https://bit.ly/2Aj4ZaK

Event Price: 

FREE

  1. The Spotlight Project
  2. Standing on My Head
  3. The Catastrophe Committee
  4. Nancy Hower
  5. Lynn Rosen
  6. Annie Torsiglieri
  7. Gallery

by Nancy Hower and Lynn Rosen        directed by Annie Torsiglieri

Each year the UCSB BFA Acting seniors share their work with Industry professionals in an LA showcase. This year that live event was cancelled due to the pandemic, and so the Department of Theater and Dance reimagined a way for the actors to be “seen” by agents, managers, casting directors and theaters, all while creating meaningful art by the name of The Spotlight Project.
 
Director of BFA Acting, Annie Torsiglieri commissioned two writers to each create an original “virtual” play specifically for the nine graduating seniors. The Catastrophe Committee, by Lynn Rosen (Darwin:
The Series, Washed Up on the Potomac, The Firebirds Take the Field) and Standing on My Head by Nancy Hower (Memron, Quickdraw, 10 Items or Less) will be shared in a live ZOOM event on Saturday, June 13th and then shared digitally with the Industry.
 

Standing on My Head

by Nancy Hower

Watch the performance

 

The Catastrophe Committee

by Lynn Rosen

 
Watch the performance
 

Nancy Hower's Biography

Nancy Hower has directed over 60 episodes of television, countless sizzle reels, and an award winning movie. Here’s the whole story…
 
Hower graduated from The Julliard School and moved to Los Angeles to play Yitzak in Hedwig And The Angry Inch opposite Tony Winner, Michael Cerveris. There she landed a recurring role playing Ensign Wildman on UPN’s Star Trek, and went on to guest star in various television shows and independent films. 
 
During this time, Nancy also started a band called Wench, which opened for Tenacious D, and later performed a solo act opening for Meatloaf on his European tour. Her song Prozak Grandma, is on The Curve soundtrack; and Fernando, a song which was co-written with John Patrick Shanley, was sold to An Alan Smithee Film
 
Hower went on to write and direct her first feature film titled Memron, which won Audience Awards at both Slamdance and The Taos Film Festival. This was her first collaboration with star John Lehr, with whom she later formed Howler Productions. Hower and Lehr created the television series 10 Items Or Less for Sony, which ran for three seasons on TBS. Hower served as co-creator, executive producer, writer and director for all episodes on the half-hour comedy. Since that time Nancy has directed over 50 episodes of network television.
 
She served as the co-creator, writer and director of the Imagine Television/Fox pilot Take Me to Your Leader, and wrote a horror musical titled The Craving with composer Steven Argila produced by Jenno Topping.
Hower and Lehr have co-created several shows since forming Howler Monkey Productions, including Team McPhearson, an animated show for Fox revolving around the world of Nascar, starring Jeff Foxworthy; a pilot for TBS titled, John Lehr’s Movie Club; a half-hour single-camera comedy titled Let It Ride, which was shot on location in Las Vegas for Comedy Central; and Jailbait, a web series for Sony’s Crackle Channel. Life on Mars for Sony and the BBC; King of Beers, a comedy set in a brewery for EUE/Screengems; and Retreat!, a half-hour comedy set in a corporate retreat with EUE/Screengems for NBC. Hower directed all episodes of those shows.
 
Nancy directed all episodes of seasons one and two of the 1/2 hour western comedy series Quickdraw for Hulu.
 
Hower and Lehr sold a show to HBO and another to MTV. Since then she has also directed 4 episodes of Those Who Can’t for TruTv and a comedic series for ABCDigital based on Jenny Mollen's best selling book, I Love You Just The Way I Am. She directed a late night talk show pilot for Pop TV starring Arden Myrin and Kate Walsh called Get In My Van
 
In 2018 Hower directed two episodes of Hulu's ALL NIGHT: GRAD NIGHT with Awesomeness TV, a new show for Youtube Prime: Kat & June Think Stuff, and two episodes (including the season finale) of Teachers for Tv Land. 
 
Last year she worked in development on two shows, for TBS and E1 with Kirstie Alley and Tommy Chong attached. She directed Insatiable (an hour long comedy) for Netflix and 2 episodes of Tacoma FD by the makers of Super Troopers. She is also the host of a podcast about Healers: My Number One, (on Itunes and Stitcher) and is writing a comedic detective novel: The Tall Detective.

Lynn Rosen's Biography

Lynn writes tragedies disguised as comedies which reveal her affection for the strivers and outsiders of the world. Recent plays include: The Imperialists, a farce for our times (Theatreworks New Works Festival, Silicon Valley, 2019); Washed Up On The Potomac (San Francisco Playhouse; The Pool, NYC); Legerdemain, a three-hander about magic, faith, and chain restaurants (New Georges Audrey Residency 2018); The Firebirds Take The Field, inspired by the story of the ticking girls of LeRoy, NY (EST/Sloan Commission; Rivendell Theatre, Chicago); Bernhard: A Refugee Story (UCSB LAUNCH PAD commission and production).
 
She’s also worked with: Women’s Project (Apple Cove), New Georges (Goldor $ Mythyka: A Hero is Born), Working Theater (Back From The Front); Playing On Air (I Love You), Studio Theatre D.C./Willow Cabin (Nighthawks); Theatreworks (Man and Beast), ATL, EST, Baltimore Centerstage, Barrington Stage,Fault Line, New Group, Geva, New Harmony Project, SPACE, The Lark. 
 
Current commissions: A musical about Helen Gurley Brown and Betty Friedan, Theatreworks Silicon Valley; The Overview Effect, EST/Sloan commission; The Claudias: A Revenge Play, Red Bull Theatre inaugural new play commission. 
 
Lynn is currently developing a pilot with Milestone TV & Film; recently sold a pilot to Warner Brothers Horizon. Co-creator of the award-winning web series Darwin, directed by Carrie Preston. Also, proud co-founder of The Pool, a playwright-driven pop-up theatre company.
 
Lynn grew up in Gary, Indiana, has a B.A. in Theater Arts from Brandeis University, and resides in NYC. She is a Resident Playwright at New Dramatists.

Annie Torsiglieri's Biography

Annie has been seen on Broadway in Top
 Girls, Parade, Blood Brothers and Miss Saigon as well as in the National Tour of Les Misérables as Fantine. Off-Broadway and regionally she's performed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY Stage and Film, Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, The Huntington, The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Festival, Sundance Theatre Lab, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Northern Stage and others.
 
She is the recipient of Back Stage West/Drama Logue and Garland Awards for her performance as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (Berkeley Rep) and the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as the titular role in The Drowsy Chaperone. TV and film include Seagull, Law & Order, Kidnapped, Gossip Girl and the award winning Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa. Recent performances include Shakespeare's Falstaff in The Death of Kings, Rose in Gypsy, Donna in Mamma Mia, and Emma in Stupid F*ing Bird (Santa Barbara Independent Award for Outstanding Actor). Her autobiographical play "A" TRAIN was awarded Best Production at the United Solo Festival in 2017, Best Encore there in 2018 and a Santa Barbara Independent Award in 2019. It has also been performed at The Los
Angeles Skirball Center and at Playmakers Rep in NC.
 
Annie is a Professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at UCSB. She is a graduate of Princeton University and The Juilliard School.

Gallery

Cooper Burns and Martin Wong in The Spotlight Project
 
Kat Cleave in The Spotlight Project
 

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Season schedule subject to change.