‘One of our more magical seasons’: ASU theater brings stories to life in this year’s productions
Illustration courtesy of ASU's School of Music, Dance and Theatre
The theater program at Arizona State University will tell a range of stories in this year’s production season.
"Storytelling is an important element of this year's season, both in terms of weaving fantastical tales and also in fomenting new play development, as the season culminates with two new plays written by our graduate playwrights,” said Guillermo Reyes, professor in ASU's School of Music, Dance and Theatre, who served as artistic director and led the selection panel for this season’s plays.
“All of these plays share strong and unique approaches to weaving stories that verge into fantasy and surrealism, and I believe it'll be one of our more magical seasons."
The season begins with “Eva Luna,” an adaptation of the novel by Isabel Allende. It is the story of a young woman growing up in a South American country as she weaves tales and gains firsthand experience of love and loss.
“This is a tremendous feminist story of resilience. It is the story of the strength of a woman and the complexity of her identities,” said Micha Espinosa, play director and professor of theater. “I think one of the things we can take away from ‘Eva Luna’ is that we should all be standing up for injustice, big or small.”
This will be the first time this play, written by OBIE-winning playwright Caridad Svich, will be presented in English. The opening of “Eva Luna” will coincide with a colloquium celebrating 20 years of the Theatre and Performance of the Americas doctoral degree and the Performance in the Borderlands program at ASU.
In the next show of the season, “The Gradient” imagines a futuristic company that seeks to rehabilitate men who've committed sexual violence. It’s told from the point of view of a young woman who seeks justice, but who finds the process of rehabilitation lacking and insufficient. Directed by ASU Assistant Teaching Professor Joya Scott, this satirical tale examines systems of power and addresses complex issues with a humorous edge.
“Even our hero doesn’t remember what the boundaries are supposed to be sometimes,” Scott said. “There’s no one in the play who is a perfect hero or who doesn’t screw up. In the messiness of human relationships, we all struggle to know what our boundaries should be.”
In the third play of the season, “Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea,” the world of Hans Christian Andersen is depicted through the tale of a cloud who falls in love with a human. The play portrays unrequited love as a parallel to Andersen's own personal story.
At the end of the season, graduate playwrights Claire Dettloff and Dane Futrell will present full productions of their new plays. Dettloff depicts a growing-up tale of young women at a sleepover in “over my dead body there'll be a pillow fight (or the sleepover play)” and Dane Futrell addresses the story of alcoholics in a bar where the world blurs into surreal events of passion and murder in “Soul Magnet Beneath the Limestone.”
Tickets can be purchased online through the Herberger Institute Box Office, starting three weeks prior to show openings.
“Eva Luna”
7:30 p.m. Sept. 27–28, Oct. 3–5
2 p.m. Sept. 29, Oct. 6
Galvin Playhouse Theatre
“The Gradient”
7:30 p.m. Nov 8–9, 15–16
2 p.m. Nov. 10, 17
Lyceum Theatre
“Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea”
7:30 p.m. Feb. 14–15, 21–22, 2025
2 p.m. Feb. 16. 23, 2025
Galvin Playhouse Theatre
“Soul Magnet Beneath the Limestone”
7:30 p.m. April 12, 17–18, 2025
2 p.m. April 13, 2025
Nelson Fine Arts Center, room 133
“over my dead body there’ll be a pillow fight (the sleepover play)”
7:30 p.m. April 10–11, 19, 2025
2 p.m. April 20, 2025
Nelson Fine Arts Center, room 133
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