The writing, acting, direction and design are excellent across the board. This is a festival more San Diegans
should attend. It gives us a sense of what young people are thinking and obsessing about these days,
and it isn’t a pretty or positive picture, even though it’s sometimes dryly humorous.

(BNPF ’09, Pat Launer, San Diego News Network)

 

The Baldwin New Play Festival at UC San Diego 2012 features world premiere productions by our talented MFA playwrights, and directed, acted, stage managed and designed by our nationally-acclaimed MFA companies. This year, the plays range in scope from the trials and tribulations of newly minted college graduates to the pains of fatherhood; the search for the truth about the past (while a serial killer is on the loose!); and the danger of dreams and desire in war-torn Haiti.

Filled with passion, insight, humor, and a bit of the mystical, these four plays represent some of the most original and ground-breaking new voices in American theatre. UCSD playwrights have gone on to be produced and commissioned around the country. New plays showcased at BNPF in recent years have had major productions and readings in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Louisville, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C, and the O’Neill Playwrights Conference.

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In the Mandell Weiss FORUM Theatre:

Gas House Baby

by David Myers
Directed by Anthony Luciano

OPENS: Wednesday, 4/18 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/21 at 8 PM Tuesday, 4/24 at 8 PM Wednesday, 4/25 at 8 PM Thursday, 4/26 at 8 PM

Gas House Baby - Cotton just got divorced, lost his job, and is living in a Motel 8. Coming back home to Shreveport, Louisiana, his life is about to change in ways he could never have predicted. In a play about fracking, fatherhood, and family secrets, one man figures out what it means to be a good father and a good son, and what happens when it’s impossible to be both. More ...

Video: Playwright David Myers summarizes the plot of his play Gas House Baby (2:19).

Video: Playwright David Myers shares some insights on his play Gas House Baby. (1:01)

Video: Scenic Designer Chris Murillo talks about his design for Gas House Baby. (1:10)

Buy Tickets Online!  

Please note: All ticket sales are final.
No refunds, no exchanges.

(To Buy tickets by phone or by mail, click HERE.)

 

Santa Barbarians

by Sharif Abu-Hamdeh
Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody

OPENS: Friday 4/20 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/21 at 2 PM Friday, 4/27 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/28 at 2 PM Saturday, 4/28 at 8 PM

Santa Barbarians - 2005: the economy in a downward spiral, Bush in a second term, the war in Iraq. Four friends graduating from college try to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. As they play poker, wait tables, hook up, and get high, the pressures of the world grows until one fateful night when all hell breaks loose. Nothing will be the same afterwards. More ...

Video: Scenic Designer Chris Murillo talks about his design for Santa Barbarians. (1:06).

Buy Tickets Online!  

Please note: All ticket sales are final.
No refunds, no exchanges.

(To Buy tickets by phone or by mail, click HERE.)

 

In the Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre:

Hookman

by Lauren Yee
Directed by Larissa Lury

OPENS: Thursday, 4/19 at 8 PM Friday, 4/20 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/21 at 2 PM Thursday, 4/26 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/28 at 8 PM

Hookman - Freshman year at college is hard: your roommate is weird, you’re feeling homesick, and a serial killer is slashing girls' throats. If Lexi discovers what really happened to her old high school friend on that car ride to the movies, everything will be okay. In this existential slasher comedy, Lexi and her friends learn what it means to grow up – and it’s not pretty. More ...

Video: Playwright Lauren Yee talks about her play Hookman (1:02).

Buy Tickets Online!  

Please note: All ticket sales are final.
No refunds, no exchanges.

(To Buy tickets by phone or by mail, click HERE.)

 

In the Arthur Wagner Theatre:

Cry Old Kingdom

by Jeff Augustin
Directed by Kate Jopson

OPENS: Friday 4/20 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/21 at 10:30 AM Saturday, 4/21 at 8 PM Friday, 4/27 at 8 PM Saturday, 4/28 at 2 PM

Cry Old Kingdom - Haiti, 1964. Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier terrorizes the island, death squads roam the countryside, and rebels plot the overthrow of the regime. In a remote village, a young man builds a boat to escape to America. A painter in hiding paints the young man’s portrait, while the painter’s wife joins a group of revolutionaries. As they each pursue singular dreams, their worlds intersect in dangerous ways, and the painter must make a choice that will change their lives forever. Winner of the 2012 Lorraine Hansberry Award.
More ...

Buy Tickets Online!  

Please note: All ticket sales are final.
No refunds, no exchanges.

(To Buy tickets by phone or by mail, click HERE.)

 

Gossamer - Staged Reading

by Cerstin Johnson, winner of the Sixth annual Dr. Floyd Gaffney Playwriting Competition on the African-American Experience

Saturday, 4/28 at 10:30 AM

Set against the backdrop of a southern town, Gossamer illuminates one family’s struggle with love, betrayal and shame triggered by a father’s infidelity. Written with grace and probing insight, Cerstin Johnson infusing her powerful tale with the music of traditional African-American blues and with the promise of how we nurture filial injury back to life’s remarkable renewal.

Read the Marshall Institue Blog interview with Cerstin Johnson.

This is a FREE event. To order
complimentary seats, CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

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The 2012 Baldwin New Play Festival is made possible by Ken and Ginger Baldwin, whose generous support helped to establish the festival in 1999 and sustain it for more than a decade. Today, the festival is one of Southern California’s premiere showcases of emerging theatre talent. Yet, additional private support from our friends is critical to ensure that the Baldwin New Play Festival continues as a tradition for our campus and our community. To learn how you can make a difference, visit theatre.ucsd.edu/giveNow.html.