ASU students to premiere plays during ASU MainStage season

The ASU School of Film, Dance and Theatre has officially announced its 2016-17 MainStage season, which features two world-premieres of plays created by Arizona State University students as well as five dance concerts, two film screenings and theatre productions featuring boats, food and a strange creature.

The annual "Fall Forward!" dance concert kicks off the MainStage season, the official performing arts season of the School of Film, Dance and Theatre, at the end of September. The concert features new works by ASU faculty and guests.

The first theater production of the season is new work written by the MFA theater cohort and directed by Kyra Jackson, Wyatt Kent and Phil Weaver-Stoesz. “Out of Many” examines what it means to call people “American” and how to find unity in a nation divided. This play features stories, images and ideas torn from the American zeitgeist.

Horror comedy “Feathers and Teeth,” which features a mysterious creature, will premiere just in time for Halloween, followed by the Emerging Artists dance series and the Fall Film Capstone Showcase.

In the spring, BFA dance candidates will present diverse pieces in two separate evenings of Transitions Projects.

The theater season will return to Shakespeare for the first time in a decade with “Titus Andronicus.” Director Kristin Hunt will use food to help tell this tale of revenge, betrayal, violence and one very disturbing pie.

In March, audiences will take a trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with “Men on Boats.” Playwright Jaclyn Backhaus retells the raucous adventure of Captain John Wesely Powell and his crew’s expedition. “Men on Boats” features 13 male characters, none of which are played by cisgender male actors. 

The last theater production of the season features another piece written by a student. MFA playwright Marvin González De León’s “Haboob” is a work of magical realism that follows its characters into the desert as they hunt for and fight over a buried inheritance.

The annual “SpringDanceFest” concert will highlight some of the best hits of the dance season alongside new work, and the Spring Film Capstone Showcase will close out the MainStage season with screenings of work by senior film students.

For more information on each event and to purchase tickets, visit season.asu.edu or asuevents.asu.edu.