UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:

9 PARTS OF DESIRE
Caplan Studio Theater
By Heather Raffo
Directed by Rick Stoppleworth
4/29/2010 - 5/2/2010

As topical as today's newspaper headlines, these rich monologues bring to life nine distinct Iraqi women whose very different stories convey the complex and harrowing reality of being female in modern-day Iraq. Their monologues quickly become a series of overlapping conversations leading to a breakdown in communication as the chaos of Iraq intensifies. "Heather Raffo … brings us closer to the inner life of Iraq than a thousand slick-surfaced TV reports." – Terry Teachout

2009-2010 SEASON:

THE DINING ROOM
Caplan Studio Theater
By A.R. Gurney
Directed by Gene Terruso
10/29/2009 - 11/1/2009

Humor and humanity are on the menu when playwright A. R. Gurney peers into the heart of the American home, the dining room. Six actors portray more than 60 characters in a mosaic of inter-related scenes – some funny, some touching, some rueful – which, taken together, depict seismic changes in American family life. A richly comic portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP.

EQUINOX
Gershman Hall Black Box Theater
11/5/2009 – 11/8/2009

A playground for new ideas, fresh young writers and creative risks, the EQUINOX one-act festival is written, produced, designed and directed by students.

MORT
Caplan Studio Theater
Created by New Paradise Laboratories
in residence at the University of the Arts
Directed by Whit MacLaughlin and Mary McCool
2/18/2010 - 2/21/2010

Thursday 2/18 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Friday 2/19 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Saturday 2/20 at 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Sunday 2/21 at 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Thursday 2/25 at 8 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Friday 2/26 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Saturday 2/27 at 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Sunday 2/28 at 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m.

New Paradise Laboratories (NPL), the Obie award-winning Philadelphia theatrical think-tank, was founded to create surprising and wholly distinctive experimental theatre productions that investigate physical expression, on-stage and in life. NPL joins the University of the Arts in residence to create MORT, which will explore the rituals by which the living celebrate the departed, using a collaborative creative process that will engage the UArts community intellectually, emotionally and digitally.

Justin Gauser, Alli Kelly (left) and Allison Caw (right) star in the University - New Paradise Laboratories collaboration "Mort." (Photo: Andrew Beal)

THE UMBRELLA PLAY
Gershman Hall Black Box Theater
By P. Seth Bauer
2/25/2010 – 2/28/2010

As couples caught in the rain seek the shelter of an umbrella, unexpected proximity leads to surprising moments of intimacy in THE UMBRELLA PLAY. Playwright Seth Bauer, a member of the Brind School faculty, had work presented in Philadelphia (THE KARMA COOKIE at 1812 Productions) and New York (DAHLIA at John Jay College) last season, and was named one of nytheater.com’s "People of the Year" for the significant contribution he has made to the cultural landscape of New York.