2024-2025 Season
Poor Clare
Written by Chiara Atik
Directed by Culley Guest Artist Alana Dietze
Scenic and lighting design by Xinyuan Li
Costume design by Aed McMillian
Sound Design by Jeff Gardner
Clare is just a regular noblewoman living in Assisi, Italy in 1211, gossiping with her ladies’ maids, dreaming up new dresses with her sister, and contemplating her future marriage. When she encounters the eccentric Francis, her worldview is shaken by his unusual views on poverty and privilege. As Clare and Francis’ friendship grows, they wrestle with questions of what it means to be a good person in a devastating world. How can we truly live in service to others? Can we ever do enough? Is there a middle ground? How can we accept the suffering of humanity and, if we cannot, how do we face that suffering head on? Inspired by the true stories of Chiara and Francis di Assisi, Poor Clare introduces us to two radical spiritual leaders who made choices in their time that most of us would find unthinkable today. Simultaneously, it is the story of every person who has wrestled with the Sisyphean problems of our world and tried, despite their unfixable nature, to help.
Antigone
Written by Sophocles
Translated by Robert Fagles
Directed by Will Power
Scenic design by Aubree Cedillo
Lighting design by Xinyuan Li
Costume design by Aed McMillian
Sound Design by John Zalewski
Set in a modern-day, war-torn country, the story of Antigone wrestles with the themes of power/higher power, faith, family, and the tortuous continuation of familial trauma. All set against one brave character (Antigone) who is determined to end the cycle and find resolve, though the stakes could not be higher.
Scapin
Written by Bill Irwin and Mark O'Donnell, adapted from Molière
Directed by Wanlass Visiting Artist Daniel Passer
Scenic and lighting design by Xinyuan Li
Costume design by Aed McMillian
Scapin is a wild rollercoaster ride of a comedy engineered by the title character – a schemer and chaos-maker. The style that inspired Moliere was Commedia dell’Arte, a hugely popular theatrical form that originated in Northern Italy in the 16th Century where stock characters (archetypes) improvised around a loose scenario. Eventually, playwrights scripted the scenarios while leaving space for the actors to improvise bits or Lazzi. This adaptation by Bill Irwin and Mark O’Donnell follows this comedy lineage from Commedia to Vaudeville, Music Hall and even cartoon. Bill Irwin is one of our great contemporary clowns and clearly draws these skills to the page as the anti-hero, Scapin, goes on diversion after diversion on his way toward his goal of deceit and revenge. This is not to say that there aren’t deeper themes at play here. Particularly resonant is the divisiveness of the characters with parents preventing their children from marrying the ones they love in favor of wealth and social status. Much of this division is the result of information that is taken at face value which, when uncovered, proves false. But all of this is secondary to the escapade the characters and audience are taken on in this joyous farce.
Alone Together
Directed by Sarah Kozinn
March 2025 marks 5 years since the lock down. 5 years since zoom rooms. Online school. Online friends. Online plays. N95s. Mask Ordinances. What will/do we remember? What do we want to forget? An ensemble of performers will come together to create an immersive performance that explores the ways COVID has shaped us.
Using a variety of sources—including interviews, music, memes, texts, emails, news articles, TikTok videos, found objects, and photos—we will reflect on these experiences through performance, incorporating acting, dance, and music. The result will be a shared experience that invites our community to engage with and process the unprecedented events of the past five years.
STUDENT PROJECTS
[Title of Show]
Music and Lyrics by Jeff Bowen, Book by Hunter Bell
On March 28th and 29th, Oxy students will be transforming the Fowler 302 lecture hall into a theater to perform [title of show], a Broadway musical about writing a musical! Tickets are free, but must be reserved at this link because they’re selling out fast! This production is produced by Theo Ellis Novotny, directed by Skye Borch, choreographed by Ainsley Shelsta, and features an incredibly talented cast and crew.
The Flick by Annie Baker
The Flick a story about three underpaid employees at a run-down movie theater with the last 35mm projector in Massachusetts, 2012. The performance is going to be on Feb 26th (WED) and 27th (THUR) in the Keck Theater at 7 PM.
NEW WORKS FESTIVAL
Produced by Jacob Trust '27 and Resident Professor Laural Meade
The Plays & Schedule | Playwrights | Student Producer
The Plays & Schedule
All performances are in Keck Theater and will be followed by a brief talk with the writer and director.
Admission is free.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
3:00pm
Silvertrails by Keelyn McDermott
directed by Michael Schlitt
Against the backdrop of 1890’s rural Texas, Bucky Morgan decides to leave his hometown behind for an uncertain life. A secret love affair, unstable parents and a stubborn best friend all come to a head the night before the big cattle drive. Full of classic Western imagery and heart, Silvertrails explores love, family, and learning to live for oneself – learning to become a cowboy.
8:00pm
3 Lads by Aidhan Farley Astrachan
One night three high-school age boys coincidentally meet online while playing video games. 3 Lads explores the complicated and truthful connection that they make with each other and how even when we have the most accessible technology, it can still be just as difficult to form real relationships.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
2:00pm
Ouroboros by Fiona Connor
directed by Darin Anthony
Loosely inspired by Jim Morrison's "The Hitchhiker," Ouroboros follows a troubled young couple as they prepare for the birth of their first child, all the while hassled by the trickster ghost of a recent murder. As the baby's arrival grows nearer, they struggle in a drugged-out haze, tormented by the same series of abusive cycles they've known since childhood.
7:00pm
a double-bill of two short plays:
Sunday in Madison County by Fiona Dosanjh
directed by Amie Farrell
During Sunday mass 10-year old Saoirse announces she doesn't believe in God, much to her best friend Maeve's horror. The news that an elderly woman from their church (“the best Catholic ever!”) has died makes the girls question everything. Does God exist? Does Hell exist? Are they going to Heaven? What kind of cookies are being served at Coffee Hour?
Transplants by Quinn Patwardhan
directed by Rose Portillo
Three over-the-top transplants to Los Angeles comically cagematch to better understand their new city. Maude, a snarky septuagenarian professor, and ArmHammer, a filterless punk rocker with aspirations of activism, wind up rooming with Maude’s 40-something Hollywood veteran son who still can’t get a job, making tensions flare about everything from elitism to glam-rock.
The Playwrights
Aidhan Astrachan '25
Aidhan is a Theater & Performance Studies major and a Media Arts & Culture minor. He grew up in New York City and is half French. Aidhan loves playing sports, seeing shows, and hanging out with friends. 3 Lads is his first production as a playwright.
Fiona Connor ‘27
Fiona is a Theater & Performance Studies major, and an aspiring multidisciplinary artist with primary interests in acting, poetry/short stories, and visual art. Inspired by her love affair with the lyrics of Jim Morrison, Ouroboros (Fiona’s first foray into playwriting) explores some of the subjects she is repeatedly drawn to in her art: life/death, abuse, addiction, parent-child relationships, and the cyclical nature inherent to each..
Fiona Dosanjh ‘27
Fiona is from Hamilton, New York. She is majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Theater & Performance Studies. She hopes to go into comedy. This is her first play and she’s especially excited to develop it in the New Works Festival.
Keelyn McDermott '25
Keelyn is a performer who recently played the titular role in Oxy’s production of Antigone. She’s thrilled to have discovered a love for playwriting in both Professors Will Power and Laural Meade’s classes. She’s extremely grateful for this opportunity to further develop her newfound skills.
Quinn Patwardhan ‘28
Quinn grew up in Kensington, M.D. just outside of Washington DC. He is a first-year student at Oxy, planning on majoring in Computer Science, Media Arts & Culture, and/or Theater & Performance Studies. Quinn is an aspiring comedy writer and stand-up comic.
Student Producer
Jacob Trust '27
Jake is from Boston, Massachusetts and has grown up loving all aspects of theater. He has been studying and practicing theater since he was four years old and hopes to continue to do so for the rest of his life. He also loves film and is a passionate musician.