Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

IU Theatre & Dance will present new works from the three MFA playwrights in the upcoming 8^th annual At First Sight Festival. This year the festival will culminate in two productions of new plays by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and Christin Eve Cato, and will include a staged reading of a new play by the first year MFA playwright, Jayne Deely. The festival will also showcase Undergrad Shorts featuring short plays, scenes, and songs written by undergraduate playwrights.

Tiger Beat, 3^rd year playwright Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s thesis play, follows the Girls Next Door, a pop group rising to fame in 2003 pop music. As the band juggles choreography, awards shows, and crushes on teen heartthrobs, Asian American singer/songwriter Tess navigates her identity within the framework of the entertainment industry. This play with music is a coming of age story about pop stardom, questionable 2003 fashion choices, and finding one's identity through art. The production is directed by Acting and Directing faculty member Jenny McKnight.

In Christin Eve Cato’s jelly beans, a tech savvy 10 year old named Jaden develops an app that scans brains for memories. When Jaden’s older tween-sister Julissa gets a hold of it, she's transported into a whole other world inside of her very own brain. Things go haywire when Julissa is trapped in a vortex of dreams and fantasies and it's up to Jaden and their friends to bring her back! jelly beans is a play for the family, dealing with loss, grief, healing, and moving on. Leraldo Anzaldua, Acting and Directing faculty member, directs this production.

In Jayne Deely’s 30 Seconds, a precocious kid, Max, starts receiving mysterious threatening notes at school. Max embarks on her own hunt for the culprit, which leads her down a path from which she might never find her way back, as a simple whodunit threatens to leave us all wondering what it means to be a kid in a chaotic world. Deely’s play asks if we’re all just seeing what we want to see and challenges us to look at who we’re willing to believe and why. Martha Jacobs, instructor in Acting, directs this staged reading.

Details

WHAT: At First Sight Festival of New Plays, featuring:
Tiger Beat by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
jelly beans by Christin Eve Cato
30 Seconds by Jayne Deely

Undergrad Shorts by our undergraduate playwrights

WHEN: February 21–29
Tiger Beat – February 21–29 at 7:30pm and February 29 at 2pm (in the Wells-Metz Theatre)
jelly beans – February 26–29 at 7:30pm (in the Studio Theatre)
Undergrad Shorts – February 28 at 5pm (Room A200)
30 Seconds – February 29 at 2pm (in the Studio Theatre)

WHERE: Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center, 275 North Jordan Avenue

TICKETS: Tiger Beat and jelly beans: Regular admission is $20 for adults, $10 for students. The Undergrad Shorts event and 30 Seconds staged reading are free of charge.

To contact the box office, call 812.855.1103 or email theatre.indiana.edu. For more info and interview requests, please email Madison Colquette at mcolquet@indiana.edu.