Yale School of Drama to Present 10th Annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays, 5/8-15

Yale School of Drama presents the tenth annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays, May 8-15 at the Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street,). The Carlotta Festival is comprised of three fully-produced plays by graduating playwrights performed in repertory of twelve performances over eight days.

The plays featured in the tenth annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays are Deer and the Lovers by Emily Zemba, Preston Montfort -- An American Tragedy by Ryan Campbell, and The Children, a musical by Phillip Howze.

The Carlotta Festival is named for Carlotta Monterey, the widow of Eugene O'Neill, who chose Yale University Press as the publisher of her late husband's masterpiece Long Day's Journey into Night. The proceeds from this publication support playwriting at Yale University.

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ABOUT THE PLAYS AND THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Deer and the Lovers
By Emily Zemba
Directed by Sara Holdren

Set Design by Izmir Ickbal
Costume Design by Sydney Gallas
Lighting Design by Elizabeth Mak
Sound Design by Tyler Kieffer
Dramaturgy by Kelly Kerwin
Stage Management by Victoria Whooper

Cast: Juliana Canfield, Anna Crivelli, Edmund Donovan, Dylan Frederick, Sean Patrick Higgins

Qiana and Peter slip away to New Hampshire for a romantic weekend only to come face-to-face with a gruesome and astonishing sight. Why is Qiana so perturbed? Why is her untamed nature rising to the surface? And what is drawing her towards the trees? Deer and the Lovers is a comedy about being lost in love, lost in the woods, and searching for one's purpose when life veers off track.

Emily Zemba is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Her plays include Uninviting Margaret; Have You Been There?, But if the Train Comes to Her, I'm Sorry I Brought Up God (Yale School of Drama); We Know Edie La Minx Had a Gun and Look up, Speak Nicely, and Don't Twiddle Your Fingers All the Time (Yale Cabaret). This year at Yale Cabaret she co-produced and co-hosted the Third Annual Yale School of Drag. She is a founding member of Guided Tour, a collective that devises and performs site-specific, fairly ridiculous, participatory theatrical tours. Her work has been developed with The Middle Voice (Rattlestick Theater's Apprentice Company), Labyrinth Theater Company (One-Act Experiment, 2014), the Theater Masters National MFA Playwright's Festival, and she is currently a Core Apprentice with The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. She has mentored with the Yale Co-Op Eugene O'Neill Playwriting Program, MCC Theater's Freshplay Festival, and taught playwriting at Wesleyan University. Emily is a recipient of The Shubert Scholarship and holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Preston Montfort -- An American Tragedy
By Ryan Campbell
Directed by Andrej Visky

Set Design by Christopher Thompson
Costume Design by Fabian Aguilar
Lighting Design by Elizabeth Mak
Sound Design by Jing (Annie) Yin
Dramaturgy by Hugh Farrell
Stage Management by Emely Zepeda

Cast: Sebastian Arboleda, Andrew Burnap, Baize Buzan, Brontë England-Nelson, Eston Fung, Anne Katherine Hägg, Jonathan Higgenbotham, Annelise Lawson, Julian Elijah Martinez

Preston Montfort, a decorated soldier and local hero, has been missing on America's foreign battlefields for the last ten years. Set in Texas as his family awaits his return, this American tragedy tracks the growing tension of a community stretched to its breaking point. What is the true cost of war, and can we afford it?

Ryan Campbell is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. His plays include Dead Ends. (Yale School of Drama); A New Saint for a New World, The Zero Scenario (Yale Cabaret); and Fourteen Flights (2011 NYC International Fringe Festival Encore Series). Ryan holds a degree in theatre and liberal Arts from the University of Texas at Austin.

The Children
Music, Book, and Lyrics by Phillip Howze
Directed by Jessica Holt

Musical Direction by Avi Amon
Choreography by Jennifer Newman
Set Design by Alexander Woodward
Costume Design by Alexae Visel
Lighting Design by Andrew F. Griffin
Sound Design by Brian Hickey
Dramaturgy by Taylor Barfield
Stage Management by Anita Shastri

Cast: Avi Amon, Timothy Creavin, Ricardo Davila, Leland Fowler, Galen Kane, Chalia Ayers La Tour, Sydney Lemmon, Jonathan Majors, Bradley James Tejeda, Cara Washington, Shaunette Renee Wilson, Malenky Welsh

A teenage boy escapes his fraught home in search of a place to belong. Lost and alone in New York City he discovers a restless tribe of young people defying a world that refuses to let them be themselves. Set in and around a makeshift shelter, this fierce and funny contemporary musical upends our perceptions of family and celebrates community in the most unlikely of places.

Phillip Howze is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. His plays include Tiny Boyfriend (Yale School of Drama), all of what you love and none of what you hate (Yale Cabaret), and abominable (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2014). He has been a finalist for the National New Play Network/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop and the 2014 G.A.P. Award at Aurora Theatre Company. His plays have been developed at The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, Theater Masters National MFA Playwrights Festival, and Playwrights Foundation. He is also a lyricist and composer. Prior to attending Yale, he worked in advocacy at the Open Society Foundations where he managed grant projects that intersect arts, culture, and education across Southeast Asia. He worked as an educator at the US Embassy's cultural center in Rangoon, Burma from 2005-2007. He is the recipient of the Stephen B. Timbers Scholarship and is a member of the board of directors of freeDimensional.org and Yale Cabaret. BA: NYU.

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Tickets for individual Carlotta Festival plays start at $25.00 ($15.00 for students), and are available online at drama.yale.edu/carlotta, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Repertory Theatre Box Office at 1120 Chapel Street (at York Street).

The Carlotta Festival productions will be performed in rotating repertory so that all three plays can be seen in as little as two days. The schedule is as follows:

Friday, May 8, 8PM Deer and the Lovers
Saturday, May 9, 8PM Preston Montfort
Sunday, May 10, 8PM The Children
Monday, May 11, 8PM Deer and the Lovers
Tuesday, May 12, 2PM Preston Montfort
Tuesday, May 12, 8PM The Children
Wednesday, May 13, 2PM Deer and the Lovers
Wednesday, May 13, 8PM Preston Montfort
Thursday, May 14, 2PM The Children
Thursday, May 14, 8PM Deer and the Lovers
Friday, May 15, 2PM Preston Montfort
Friday, May 15, 8PM The Children