UTNT (UT New Theatre) is a collaborative showcase of new plays and readings by M.F.A. candidate playwrights from Texas Theatre and Dance and the Michener Center for Writers. Now in its 18th season, UTNT (UT New Theatre) continues to serve as a launching pad for the next generation of playwrights and directors. Many of the works debuted here continue on to be professionally produced across the country, giving the audience a special chance to get a taste of the future of theatre, right here in Austin. This year’s UTNT (UT New Theatre) presents works that span centuries and locations, featuring performers, designers and collaborators from The University of Texas at Austin and beyond.
Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw is serving as Producing Artistic Director, with Jose Salcido taking on the role of Production Manager and Gabriela Hernandez serving as Assistant Production Manager.
UTNT (UT NEW THEATRE) 2025 INCLUDES:
ONCE IN A HUNDRED YEARS
It’s 1895. A young writer on a Russian estate recruits his crush to perform his new play. It’s also 2025. A company of actors in Austin, Texas performs a new play for you. It’s a cacophony of animals living and dying before your very eyes. But can anything truly be “new”—art, our lives, our problems? Written by Hal Cosentino and directed by Ellenor Riley-Condit, Once in a Hundred Years features actors Adam Flores Jr. (Treplev/Seagull), Zoey Gonzales (Sorin/Human Being), Emerson Hartman (Paulina/Beetle), Eian Johnson (Nina/Starfish), Isaiah Jones (Medved/Spider), Roman Losa (Dorn/Lion), Mackenzie Mann (Masha/Goose), Oyin Ojomo (Arkadina/Crane), Deigo Rodriguez (Trigorin/Frog) and Esmeralda Treviño (Yakov/Fish).
The troupe of technicians making Once in a Hundred Years a reality includes Rosy Esquenazi Alkabes (Assistant Director), Juno Adair (Assistant Scenic Designer), Benjamin Barclay (Assistant Lighting and Sound Designer), Georgia Beckmann (Dramaturg), Gabriel Brown (Music Producer and Composer), Aaron Flynn (Costume Designer), Layla Isaac (Assistant Costume Designer), Ana Lara (Scenic Designer), Jacqueline Mai (Assistant Stage Manager), KP Pierce (Lighting and Sound Designer), Aomi Seto (Assistant Stage Manager) and Laura Soares (Stage Manager).
THESE. ARE. THE. KEYSTROKES.
A high school typing teacher, who prides himself on never failing a student, has a new student who threatens to end that streak. On top of learning how to use proper typing techniques, the other students in class deal with all the end-of-year obligations as seniors: prom, graduation and the inevitability of adulthood. It’s a play about dealing with the past, and present, so a better future won’t be out of reach. These. Are. The. Keystrokes. is written by Michael Mobley and directed by Mikala Gibson, featuring actors Makayla Adelakun (Mahogany), Heavyn Carter (Tati), Trevor Gatabaki (Isaiah), Howard Hall (Touchless), Haley Prince (Sandra), Khalia Sacko (Reggie) and Jay Smith (Donnie).
The creative team bringing the audience to a 1980s classroom consists of Juno Adair (Assistant Technical Director), Austin Brion (Sound Designer), Alik B. Clay (Assistant Scenic Designer), Violet Clemons (Costume Designer), Manami (Ally) Dolley (Assistant Stage Manager), Oren Ederi (Assistant Director), Sarah Jean Elliott (Lighting Designer), Michelle “Midge” Ferguson (Stage Manager), Al Garrett (Dramaturgical Consultant), Andy Grapko (Intimacy Director), Rachel Green (Assistant Costume Designer), Jason Lee Huerta (Technical Director), Lisa Laratta (Scenic Designer), Kennedy Mclaggan (Assistant Stage Manager), David Olivares (Sound Designer), Charlie Sharpe (Typewriting Consultant), Rain Snyder (Assistant Lighting Designer) and Alison Vasquez (Voice Coach).
THREE EXORCISMS
A group of outcasts inside a medieval convent obsess over a young girl famous for theatrical exorcisms. But as the exorcisms turn more and more violent, the obsessions become a new kind of devil, haunting them all. A play about envy, longing, loneliness and what being trapped does to the soul. Written by Avery Deutsch and directed by Caley Chase, Three Exorcisms features actors Ella Eavenson (Hunna), David Gonima (The Stable Boy), Lana Lesley (Lady Marguerite) and Carlise Rosa (Nicole).
The team creating the world of a medieval convent dungeon in Three Exorcisms includes Juno Adair (Assistant Technical Director), Brittney Barton (Assistant Scenic Designer), Arash Baqipur (Projection Designer), Austin Brion (Sound Designer), Nicole Chacko (Stage Manager), Alik B. Clay (Assistant Scenic Designer), Sarah Jean Elliott (Lighting Designer), Jason Lee Huerta (Technical Director), Alisa Irvin (Assistant Stage Manager), Lisa Laratta (Scenic Designer), Hannah Nelson (Assistant Director), Allison Normin Johnson (Costume Designer), Robin Schuler (Assistant Stage Manager), Rain Snyder (Assistant Lighting Designer), Alison Vasquez (Voice Coach) and Ella Wetmore (Assistant Costume Designer).
UTNT 2025 WILL ALSO FEATURE THE FOLLOWING READINGS:
TRANSCENDENCE
Written by Yuge Ma
Directed Rodolfo Robles Cruz
We are sick and tired. So you know it’s time to believe us when we are ready to talk. To have our words chopped. To taste our tongues as if tasting honey and eyebrow. We do our best to keep our jobs. We do our best to answer all the calls, and stay on top of our friends’ lives. We give up and feel great giving up. So please be quiet. Protract the silence while we find hard ways of making sense of ourselves.
THEN WE’LL REST
Written and directed by Eliya Smith
Penny and Polly are best friends and gymnastics rivals. They like to make up stories and eat donuts in the car. They get in a big fight, grow up, get religious. They’re lonely and in love and still competing over something neither of them can name. Penny gets sad and Polly gets sick. So does a king living elsewhere. Have you read Uncle Vanya? This isn’t like that. This is a play about getting lost at sea and seduced by power; about two friends and how each informs the other; and about beauty, grief, love and ambition.
