3 ASU theater students test their original work before live audiences

This spring, students in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre at Arizona State University will bring three new plays to the stage.

Part of the New Work Lab, these plays feature a range of topics and styles. The “lab” format allows the students to understand how audiences respond to their work and make adjustments as part of the devising process.

The first New Work Lab of the semester, “The Sixth Session,” is a tragic comedy written by second-year MFA in dramatic writing student Erika Acuna Leyva.

“This play has been in development for about a year, and participating in the New Work Lab felt like the perfect opportunity to present it to an audience,” said Leyva. “Hearing the play out loud and observing how people respond to it is incredibly valuable for the rewriting process. It allows me to better understand where the play connects with audiences and where it might need further refinement.”

The New Work Lab is an extension of the theater program’s “page to the stage” approach, which helps students experience every aspect of writing development. Led by Idris Goodwin, associate professor of dramatic writing, the initiative includes not only the New Work Lab readings, but also guest artist visits, workshops and panel discussions around the process of writing original work. Any ASU student is welcome to submit their work to the New Work Lab.

“New stories provide new opportunities for learning,” said Goodwin. “It can be really liberating for you as an individual to tell your story and watch strangers experience and see themselves, or find connections you can’t see.”

The second New Work Lab play is “While We Wait” by Anastasia Levkun. An MFA student in the theater for youth and community program, Levkun’s work was written in collaboration with other ASU students about their experiences with the war in Ukraine.

The final play of the series this semester, “Universe Under Your Tongue” by Arin Sparrow Dineen, is an experiment in combining digital technology with traditional theater.

“It explores a story from the childhood of Krishna, the god from Hindu mythology, bringing together my childhood experiences of living in India with explorations of this mythology and how we can take new meaning from these very old religious stories,” said Dineen, an MFA student in the interdisciplinary digital media and performance program. “We are really excited to figure out how it’s going to look onstage.”

Audiences can purchase tickets to attend the New Work Lab readings through the Herberger Institute Box Office. All New Work Lab performances this semester will be held in Nelson Fine Arts Center Studio 133.

“The Sixth Session”
By Erika Acuna Leyva
7:30 p.m., March 20–21

“While We Wait”
Directed by Anastasia Levkun
7:30 p.m., March 27–28

“Universe Under Your Tongue”
By Arin Sparrow Dineen
7:30 p.m., April 3–4