New Talent, New Plays: The Class of 2008

The University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program class of 2008 performs three new productions in the Dowling Studio. The future of theater starts right here with passions and ideas from a new generation of American actors and playwrights, who combine their talents in the world premieres of three ambitious and daring plays. The new plays play in repertory with an evening of scenes taken from the canon of classic and contemporary drama from April 11 – 27.

Be Here Now
by Carson Kreitzer
directed by Benjamin McGovern

cast: Alia Attallah, Duncan Frost, Hugh Kennedy, Kate Nelson, Joe Newton, Allison Snow

To Moscow! Or New Zealand, a new romance, a home that feels like home. Get away, or find a way to fix what we’ve got. Catch the wave, or the right moment. Breathe it in. A modern-day riff on Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

When I Was a Ghost
by Deborah Stein
directed by Lear deBessonet

cast: Sam Bardwell Gromoll, Grant Heuke, Whitney Hudson, Daniel Jimenez, Kelsey Olson, Courtney Roche, Christine Weber

When a famous singer mysteriously disappears, six strangers are left haunted by her music — and stranded at the airport. In a series of vignettes ranging from the poetic to the absurd, we meet each of these travelers and are reminded that everyone, no matter how quiet, has a story to tell.

The End
by Sheri Wilner
directed by Jackson Gay

cast: Grant Chapman, Rolando Martinez, Chris Peltier, Ashley Peterson, Nikki Rodenburg, Elizabeth Stahlmann

On the eve of their college graduation, six friends gather at a lakeside cabin to read the final installment of a hugely popular book series about fledging superheroes. As they try to predict the fates of their favorite characters, their hopes and fears about post-college life emerge. Before trading in their superhero costumes for caps and gowns, they spend one last weekend avoiding the real world by inventing their own.