UVA Drama and Dance Performances, Spring 2022
How To Live On Earth
by MJ Kaufman
Directed by Matt Radford Davies
February 24-26 and March 1-3 at 8pm
Ruth Caplin Theatre
Four people are shortlisted for the frontier adventure of a lifetime. The place: Mars. The catch? They can never come home. In this touching story inspired by the Mars One project, the finalists grapple with how this one-way journey will change their loved ones and themselves, exploring our unrelenting focus on the next frontier and the question of giving one’s life for something greater than oneself. For mature audiences. Please be advised that this play contains potentially distressing topics. For detailed information, please read the content warning. Click here for playbill. Read the press release here.
New Works Festival
Produced by Dave Dalton and Doug Grissom
February 25 & 26 at 7pm; February 26 & 27 at 2pm; February 28 at 7pm
Helms Theatre
Five one-act plays written, directed, performed, and created by UVA Students
Please note that some of the plays contain potentially distressing topics. For detailed information, please read the content warning. Click here for playbill. Read the press release here.
Bake for Life by Rainah Gregory, directed by Lexi Christie
It’s shoot day for a celebrity special fundraising episode of a baking show for suicide prevention. As the episode unfolds, Olympic athlete Kara is forced to confront personal realities while in the public eye. For mature audiences.
Born Under a Single Light by Karen Zipor, directed by Max Tankersely
After an invasion of her country and the disappearance of her husband, Krystina and her two daughters hide in a bunker, patiently waiting for the war to end. However, everything changes when her daughters rewire the radio and discover why they’re really there. For mature audiences.
Dinner with the Devil written and directed by Laurel Voss
The daughter of Satan brings her girlfriend home to meet her father. For mature audiences.
This Is Not a Date by Tanaka Maria, directed by Charlie Mooz
This is Not a Date recounts a conversation between two queer people, a confession, and its subsequent aftermath as they navigate and talk through their confusing relationship.
Welcome to Clifton by Avery Erskine, directed by Emilia Couture
Welcome to Clifton moves backwards in time, exploring the lives of four college students as one of them comes to terms with her queerness.
16 Winters, or the Bear’s Tale
by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton
Directed by Kate Eastwood Norris
April 21-23 and 28-30 at 8pm
Culbreth Theatre
Condemned by her husband for infidelity, the queen of Sicilia fakes her death and waits it out in a cabin in the woods in this story that imagines the 16-year interval in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. The king feeds his guilt through rock music and the ghost of his dead son, his abandoned daughter runs away, and everyone is pursued by a bear. Full of mistaken identity and male privilege gone wrong, this comedy-drama explores the reimagining of social constructs and how we create a new path in the wake of repression. For mature audiences. Please be advised that this play contains potentially distressing topics. For detailed information, please read the content warning.
Spring Dance Concert
Kim Brooks Mata, Producer & Artistic Director
April 28-30 at 7:30pm
Ruth Caplin Theatre