Now in its 15th season, UTNT (UT New Theatre) serves as an incubator for new work, presenting newly developed plays from playwrights of Texas Theatre and Dance and Michener Center for Writers. In addition to showcasing work by these young writers, UTNT also provides actors, designers and creatives from within and beyond the department with opportunities to collaborate in the development process. This year’s UTNT showcase is no different, with three new plays featuring a wide variety of talent from across the department, the university and Austin.
KJ Sanchez and Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw serve as co-producing artistic directors, with M.F.A. candidate Jenny Lavery serving as associate producer. Ashton Bennett Murphy serves as technical director for all three productions.
UTNT (UT New Theatre) 2022 includes:
Tiny Fingerprints
Opening UTNT (UT New Theatre) is Tiny Fingerprints, an exploration of grief, the nature and power of belief and the lies we all tell ourselves to make life worth living. Written by Michener Center for Writers Fellow Jaymes Sanchez, Tiny Fingerprints features actors Simon Salinas Jr. (Bobby Allen), Raquel Schmidt Ramirez (The Host), Moriah Del Toro (Nancy Carole), Hunter Simon (Richey Otis) and Insha Noorani (Laura Lee), along with an ensemble of “Ghost Children” consisting of Giovanny Castro De La Torre, Amaya Coleman, Angel Hernandez, Jaime Leal and Ava Nielsen.
The creative team, who will help transport audiences to the famous haunted ghost tracks in present-day San Antonio, includes Meagan Beattie (Costume Designer), Sara Chaney (Lighting Designer), Adam Flores (Director), Mia Gomez-Reyes (Stage Manager) Dillon James (Sound Designer), Lisa Laratta (Scenic Designer), Jonah Maughan (Projected Light Show Designer), Tobie Minor (Fight Director) and Frances Smith (Makeup Designer).
Murky as Hell
Next in our showcase of new plays, Murky as Hell is a darkly comic and brutally over-the-top examination of guilt and complicity, written and directed by M.F.A. candidate Andrea L. Hart. Her cast features actors Ryan Wakefield (Maid), Melissa Elkins (Recruiter), Angela Mata (Secretary), Liz Fisher (Voice) and Eliza Moldawer (Vestal Virgin), along with Keeley Bryant, Annie Clepper, Madysen Criss, Katelyn Lopez, Madelyn Martinez, Mariah Mendoza, Bella Morgart and Montserrat Santibáñez in the ensemble.
Helping audiences enter the spine-tingling world of Murky as Hell are creative team members Zoey Crow (Projection Designer), Maxwell Franko (Composer and Sound Designer), Andy Grapko (Intimacy Director), Ari Jamieson (Lighting Designer), Lisa Laratta (Scenic Designer), Katie Miller (Costume Designer), Tobie Minor (Fight Director), Kelsey Oliver (Choreographer), Adam Sornat (Stage Manager) and Emma Catherine Watkins (Dramaturg), with shadow puppet design by Andrea L. Hart.
Jinkies! or The Dog Play
The final new play in this year’s UTNT showcase revisits the members of our favorite Saturday-morning-cartoon teenage-mystery-solving team, 10 years after they went their separate ways. Jinkies! or The Dog Play, written by M.F.A. candidate Josiah Thomas Turner, revitalizes these cartoon characters, portrayed by actors Marissa Angel Barker (Kasey/Quaelee Johnson Jackson), Kairos Looney (Kile/Officer Chet/Ensemble), Jay Suresh (Rick), Shabnam Rasul (Daph), William Cotton Hearne (Norville), Karla Bermudez (Vel), Lylah Taank (Tara/Mara/Ensemble), Sebastian Ojeda (Mayor Blake/Fisherman Phil) and Jasmine Games (Orpah Rivers).
The creative team behind the re-imagined cartoon world of Jinkies! or The Dog Play features Benjamin Cervantes (Associate Director), Jackson Cobb (Projection Designer), Kasey Durham (Sound Designer), Sarah Jean Elliott (Lighting Designer), Leah Hummel (Costume Designer), Lisa Laratta (Scenic Designer), Braxton Rae (Director) and Morgan Randall (Stage Manager).
UTNT (UT New Theatre)
March 3-11, 2022
Oscar G. Brockett Theatre
