UCR’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production presents

NEW WORKS FESTIVAL

by UCR MFA Playwrights and Screenwriters
Megan Tabaque, Artistic Director    

June 4-6, 2025
ARTS Studio Theatre
Free and open to the public
Wheeled devices, including but not limited to skateboards, scooters, and bicycles, are prohibited inside TFDP performance venues and may not be stored in the lobby or adjacent interior spaces.

The New Works Festival proudly presents developmental staged readings of new plays written by our graduating MFA Playwriting Candidates in UCR’s Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts MFA Program. This three night event brings student playwrights, student actors, and student dramaturgs into process with professional directors to model the rigor, curiosity, collaboration, and revision required at a professional level to give new plays life! The New Works Festival celebrates tomorrow’s emerging theater makers TODAY. 

Some works may contain adult subject matter, sexual situations, and strong language.

View or download the program.

Spillville by Ammie Jergenson, Directed by Carly DW Bones // June 4th 2025, 7:00pm | Livestream Link
One would think in an establishment known for extraordinary clocks, time wouldn’t be so chaotic. But at the Bily Clocks Museum and Antonín Dvorak Exhibit in Spillville, Iowa, memories are constantly alive and on display. Three families born years apart navigate love, grief, and illness as they try to hold onto their time together. 
Starring: Josiah Alpher, Kane Austen, Hannah LeBrun, Gwen Williams
Dramaturgy by: Emma Winiarski

The Color Out of Space by Aaron Justvig, Directed by Megan Tabaque  // June 5th 2025, 7:00pm | Livestream Link
A meteor strikes the Earth at the fields of Arkham, Kentucky and over the course of a year a man watches as his neighbors begin to lose their grasp on reality, the animals on their farm taking on new and strange shapes. 
Starring: River Burnash, Elijah Jackson, Sabrina Liu, Sin Sze Man, Chloe Page
Dramaturgy by: Emily La Vine

Ghost Stories by Emma Howard, Directed by Courtney Ulrich // June 6th 2025, 7:00pm | Livestream Link
Ghost Stories is a dark comedy about 11-year-old girls trying to make sense of the world they’re inheriting and the rules that accompany it. We see them at a sleepover, a hospital, and a funeral, asking questions of each other about how to define sexual violence, how to respond to death, and what they should expect or hope for as they grow up.
Starring: Joy Adesida, Sasha Brown, Gabby Chavez, Lesley Galvan, Berrett Huntsman, Emily Luong
Dramaturgy by: Gabby Chavez

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