Director
105: A Post Apocalyptic Trilogy
by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
(Cohen New Works Festival 2017)
105 is a post-apocalyptic trilogy that follows siblings Jackson and Sybil across the country, into new societies and onto the battlefield. Spanning radio play (WalkingSounds), immersive theatre (HeartWeight) and dance (WarDance), 105 offers an interactive theatrical experience exploring sacrifice and survival and ultimately asks who we become when faced with a broken world.
The Bully Plays
Downhill by Eric Cobble
(UT-Austin 2016)
In association with Austin High School and Anderson High School the UT BFA Theatre Studies class of 2017 presents The Bully Plays.
“Downhill” examines how the wrath of a corporate executive miles away trickles into the distant life of a little girl who wants to color with her brother.
No Llores
by Andrew A. Valdez
(UT Austin 2014)
Without health insurance or the ability to speak english a mother must turn to an assortment of wacky characters to treat her terminally ill son.
SORRY DOESN’T SWEETEN HER TEA
SHORT STORY BY HELEN OYEYEMI (PER AN ARRANGEMENT WITH THE WYLIE AGENCY)
ADAPTED & DIRECTED BY LAUREN JOY FRALEY*
Assistant Director: Andrew A. Valdez
Cleveland Public Theatre: Test Flight ‘18-’19
Journey through interconnecting worlds in this adaptation of a short story from Helen Oyeyemi’s magical realism anthology, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. A teen girl with a peacock’s tail, an ex-shaman-turned-popstar, and others attempt to recover from disillusionment with methods ranging from public apologies and rehab to pet sitting a Siamese fighting fish inside a house of locks.
Br’er Cotton
Written by: Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm.
Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson
Asst. Directed by: Andrew A. Valdez
(Cleveland Public Theatre 2018)
The former site of a thriving cotton mill is now an impoverished neighborhood. Deeply affected by recent killings of young black men like himself, Ruffrino, a 14-year-old “militant,” incites riots at school and online. More and more at odds with his mother and grandfather, the boy’s anger grows beyond containment while the family home literally sinks into a cotton field and no one seems to notice but him.
A National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere
The Rainbow Connection
Devised by cast and crew
(Cohen New Works Festival 2015)
The Rainbow Connection is a play about the importance of maintaining your imagination. We follow a young teen who has lost his “Rainbow Connection”, or the connection to his imagination, due to the death of his abuela; the curator of his creativity. As he attempts to rekindle his imaginative spark by rereading an old fairytale told to him by his Grandmother, we see the story-book come to life on stage. Fairies, foxes, armadillos, porcupines, aliens, witches, knights, queens, and dragons storm out of their respective stories to aid David in reestablishing his Rainbow Connection.
PROSPER
By John Rosa
2019 Marilyn Bianchi Kids Playwriting Festival at Dobama Theatre
The Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival has provided a platform for student writers to express their thoughts, dreams, and creativity since 1979.
