Theatrix, the student-operated theatre organization under the auspices of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, continues its “Season of Fire” with a show consisting of five world premiers plays, The New Artist’s Festival.
The New Artist’s Festival is a collection of five short plays written by local students at the University of Nebraska. Each playwright was giving the challenge of writing a short play that could be tied in with the theme of “fire,” find a way to use an oil lamp as a significant prop within the show, and could work in a small theatrical space.

The five shows will work together and be presented together as a whole show. The short plays being presented as part of The New Artist’s Festival are "In the Name of Fire" by theater performance senior Cathrine Dvorak, "Short Stories, Short Scenes" by theater performance senior Nate Ruleaux, "Mama Boy" by theater performance and directing/management senior Patrick Zatloukal, "An Original Cliché" by theater performance and directing/management senior Emily Martinez, and "Nobody Puts Debbie in a Corner" by junior math and Russian major Corbin Groothuis.

Theatrix has chosen five students in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film to direct each short play. Directors include first-year directing graduate student Dennis Henry, senior Emily Martinez, Junior Brittanie Witter, Junior Billy Jones, and Sophomore Maggie Austin. The scenic design of newcomer Travis Jensen coupled with the lighting design by experienced technical theater junior Michael Fortcamp establish five different worlds of each play with ease.

Junior film major Ryan Hammack’s sound design enhances the mood of the play and creates an ambience that brings the audience into the world of each distinct play. Costume design by senior theater performance major Jessie Tidball emphasizes the class and status of the characters in the show.

Alma Cerretta, the properties master for the production, shows great attention to detail and brings an extra magical spark to the shows with special electrical lighting. Projections and media design by junior film major Justin Richards incorporate multimedia that is essential to each play in The New Artist Festival. Technical director, junior technical theater major Christopher Stepank, supervises the entire operation with ease.

Together, this technical team transports you from a chair in the theater into five different and distinct worlds.

The New Artist’s Festival will run March 8 through March 10 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee performance on March 11 at 2 p.m. in the Lab Theatre, located on the 3rd floor of the Temple Building, 12th and R St. This show is for mature audiences only.

Individual show tickets are $6 via credit card (some user fees may be applied) at http://unltheatretickets.com or at the door the evening of the events (subject to availability).

Alisa Belflower and Musical Theatre students will premiere a new musical in a reading on Sunday, March 11 at 7:30 pm in Kimball Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

BIG RED SUN is a new musical about a young musician being raised by a single mom. When the imaginary heroes of his childhood can no longer fill the void, the son searches for his long-lost father in post-WWII America. His questions unearth a dark family secret. The war carved a silent divide between those who fought and those who waited––a truth unshared. Their son’s unrelenting quest shatters the silence. While the dizzying energy of jazz and the noise of rock-and-roll replaced the simple melodies of Kern and Berlin, an American innocence vanished.

The performance is immediately followed by
A TALKBACK with the creative forces behind this new musical, guest artists Georgia Stitt and John Jiler.

GEORGIA STITT (BIG RED SUN’s composer) is a composer and a lyricist. Her musicals include: Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival 2010, Harold Arlen Award in 2005, written with playwright John Jiler); Hello! My Baby (a “new-fashioned” musical written with Emmy Award winner Cheri Steinkellner using the great American songbook), The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT New Voices in American Musical Theatre), written with Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko); Sing Me A Happy Song (a musical revue); and Mosaic (commissioned for Off-Broadway in 2010, written with Cheri Steinkellner). In 2007 she released her first album, This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt. With lyricist Marcy Heisler she wrote and recorded Alphabet City Cycle, a song cycle for soprano and violin, featuring vocalist Kate Baldwin. Georgia’s latest album, My Lifelong Love, was released in 2011, featuring performances by Anika Noni Rose, Brian D’Arcy James, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Shoshana Bean, Susan Egan, Heidi Blickenstaff, Michael Arden, Christopher Jackson, Laura Osnes, Kate Baldwin and Michael McElroy. Her records are on the PSClassics and Sh-K-Boom labels. Also a music director, Georgia was the vocal coach for the 2008 season of the NBC hit "America's Got Talent." She was the assistant music director for the NBC TV special “Clash of the Choirs,” the on-camera vocal coach for the NBC reality TV show “Grease: You’re The One That I Want,” and the Production Music Coordinator for the Disney/ABC TV musical “Once Upon A Mattress” starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett. On Broadway she was the assistant conductor of Little Shop of Horrors and the associate conductor of the Encores! production of Can-Can starring Patti LuPone. Also on Broadway: Avenue Q, Sweet Smell of Success, The Music Man, Titanic, Annie, and the national tour of Parade. Georgia received her M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University and her B.Mus. in Music Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is a recipient of the ASCAP Frederick Loewe Fellowship, the Harold Arlen Award, and the Sue Brewer Award for excellence in music composition. Georgia lives in Los Angeles and New York with her husband, composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown, and their two daughters.

JOHN JILER (BIG RED SUN’s bookwriter & lyricist) is a writer of both drama and prose. He was the recipient of both the Richard Rodgers Award and the Kleban Librettists' Award for his musical Avenue X, which played in New York at Playwrights' Horizons and on stages around the world. He was a runner-up for the Weissberger Prize for his first full-length play Sour Springs. His work has been seen coast to coast, from the Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference to the Kennedy Center to Seattle Rep and many places in between. His most recent book, Sleeping With The Mayor, was named a New York Times' "Most Notable Book." The Village Voice called his first book, Dark Wind, "a classic." As a journalist he has also written for the NY Times, The Nation, and The Village Voice, where the stories that led to Avenue X and Sleeping With The Mayor first appeared. Among his current theatrical projects are Big Red Sun, a World War Two era story with composer Georgia Stitt seen at last year’s NAMT festival, and Explicit Vows, a one-man show at both Playwrights Horizons and the Flea Theatre. In his former life as an actor he appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Hartford Stage Company, and Chicago's Body Politic, where he won the Chicago Drama Critic's Best Actor Award. He has just completed his first novel, North Of Here, and three new plays; Channel, seen last year at Labyrinth Theatre, Sirocco, recently unveiled at the Actors Studio, and a brand new play, Revolution. A native New Yorker, John Jiler graduated from the University of Hartford.

There will be a discussion with the composer Georgia Stitt and playwright John Jiler following the performance.