For the 2022-2023 season, Oxy Theater explored contemporary comedy, timely subject matter, a subversive take on a classic and Greek tragedy!
ELEVADA
Written by Sheila Callaghan
Directed by Wanlass Visiting Director Alana Dietze
Assistant Directed by Natalya Nielsen
Scenic & Lighting Design by Xinyuan Li
Costume Design by Aed McMillian
Sound Design by John Zalewski
Projection Design by Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh
Stage Managed by Kai Morfín
Ramona is reinventing herself following her second round of chemotherapy. Khalil has sold his identity to a major telecom and media corporation. June is learning to flirt again, post-divorce, and Owen has replaced his drug addiction with a massive collection of teas.
A romantic comedy about living in the liminal spaces and resisting the urge to disappear. When our world is turned upside down, who do we become? How do we connect when the only constant is change?
ROE
Written by Lisa Loomer
Directed by Wanlass Visiting Theater Artist Khanisha Foster
Scenic & Lighting Design by Xinyuan Li
Costume Design by Aed McMillian
Sound Design by John Zalewski
Projection Design by Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh
Stage Managed by Max Tel
Lisa Loomer's Roe takes us out of the courtroom, introducing us to the real women at the heart of the controversial Supreme Court decision. Powerful, funny, poignant, and inspiring, Roe reflects the polarization in America today while giving us a fast-moving, fair-minded look at the history of our complicated shared humanity. Chosen for this upcoming season for painfully obvious reasons, this vital project speaks directly to the current times.
Read about the show in The Occidental
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Written by Sophocles
Translated by Robert Fagles
Directed by Will Power
Stage Managed by Max Tel
Oedipus at Colonus is the last chapter in the Greek mythological tale of King Oedipus, the once revered ruler of Thebes, who was ostracized for unknowingly killing his own father and marrying his mother. The play shows a complex king attempting to redeem himself, and find some kind of peace in the face of exterior torments and internal feelings of anger and remorse. What follows is not only a single king in torment, but a whole family (and consequently an ancient Greek society) at war with itself, with the stakes being each character’s sanity and existence.
A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2
Written by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Jamie Angell
Stage Managed by Avery Jones
What happens when there’s a knock on the door Nora slammed 15 years ago? Having left behind her domestic “prison” to become an independent self-actualized woman, Nora is now forced to return in order to finish what she started. Lucas Hnath's A Doll’s House, Part 2 stays true to the characters Ibsen created while contemporaneously investigating the meaning and underlying impulses behind Nora’s slammed door.
STUDENT PROJECTS
The Fairy Who Cried Gems
Created and performed by Lily Abha Cratsley '23
April 14 & 15 at 8:00pm at Keck 208
The Fairy Who Cried Gems is a cross-cultural, sometimes verbatim folk-tale, memoir, and celebration of identity, created and performed by Lily Abha Cratsley. She serves as a storyteller, employing dialogue, music, and movement to transport the audience through the oral histories of Desi American women. Through this piece, Lily explores her contradicting identities and discovers how Desi joy can be built out of legacies of trauma.
It Could Have Been Enough
A new play by Zachary Goldsmith '24
March 3 & 5 at 7:30pm behind Keck Theater
Rachel and Asher host their first Passover Seder at their new house, much to Rachel’s chagrin. But when Asher’s friends reveal a surprise Seder in the park, Rachel wants to stop it before there is any potential for a dangerous encounter. Desperate, she accepts the help of the Wicked Son, whose vile plan unleashes the ten plagues onto the house.
How far would someone go to run away from their identity? How can we balance trauma and joy? It Could Have Been Enough investigates what it means to be a Jewish young adult in 2022-2023.
NEW WORK'S FESTIVAL
Produced by Zachary Goldsmith '24, Haowen Luo '24 and Laural Meade
For more than 20 years, the Occidental New Works Festival has paired student playwrights and actors with professional guest directors and performers. Focused on writer-centric rehearsal and performance, the festival provides a real-world experience of new play development as it is practiced in major theaters around the country.