UCSD’s Department of Theatre and Dance Winter 2023 season is here! The department has a full line-up including two mainstage shows, a minimalist Shakespeare project, and their biennial Quinn Martin which is a combined theatre and dance piece in lieu of WinterWorks. Check out the details of the shows below!
The quarter began with the Quinn Martin entitled Bunny Bunny which wrapped up performances on February 11. The Quinn Martin is a bi-yearly tradition for the department which allows students to have the opportunity to work with an outsider artist in a dance-theatre work. This year, the project is entitled Bunny Bunny — a devised dance piece written, directed, and choreographed by Broadway choreographer Raja Feather Kelly. This piece explores human desires in their most primitive form. With a central focus on fear, Bunny Bunny follows seven bunnies as they explore the deepest of emotions all while under the scrutiny of social media and surveillance. What I appreciated about the show was the thriller aspect of the show and how it made the audience feel that they were also being watched and followed along with the bunnies in the show. It drew the audience in and forced them to be more than passive observers which was an exciting experience. For more information, check out their website page down below!
Next in the season is A Flea in Her Rear which is an adaptation of the early 20th-century farce A Flea in Her Ear written by Georges Feydeau and directed by Stephen Buescher. This chaotic comedy follows Gisele as she suspects her husband Chandebise is cheating on her with some other woman in the Hotel Paramour — a hotel most famously known for committing acts of adultery. Get ready for countless comedic encounters and exaggerated door slams in a show that embodies the idea of “human pinball.” Dates: March 7 – March 11, 2023
The Winter’s Tale written by William Shakespeare is the Studio Shakes for the quarter. Studio Shakes is part of the second-year MFA Director curriculum in which the directing student does a Shakespeare show that is performed in our black box Arthur Wagner Theater (aka GH 157) without any production or technical support. This minimalist-style show allows for the director and actors to focus on the text and how to craft a new and innovative Shakespeare production without the support of design and technical elements. Don’t miss this incredible production directed by MFA Director Rosie Glen-Lambert this quarter. P.S. I heard there’s square dancing and line dancing! Dates: March 2 – March 11, 2023
The last show of our mainstage season is an MFA thesis project entitled blu by Virginia Grise directed by MFA Cambria Herrera. In times of loss, blu encourages us to explore how we can redefine family in the midst of struggle and grief. Poetry and memory are powerful elements in this play that allow us to see through the lens of people trying to recover following drastic change and to imagine a world before war and conflict ensued. This play of cultural exploration and celebration is so crucial to our world right now and has the power to move audiences in new ways. Dates: March 3 – March 11, 2023
UCSD’s Department of Theatre & Dance Winter 2023 Shows and Tickets
Mia Van-Deloo is an Arts and Culture Writer for The Triton