The UC San Diego Department Of Theatre And Dance Presents LIFE IS A DREAM

The UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance presents Life is a Dream, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca and directed by Joseph Hendel.

About the play: When Prince Segismundo is prophesized to bring disgrace to Poland, his father King Basilio imprisons him. Segismundo is later freed from prison but told it may in fact be a dream. Life is a Dream is a philosophical allegory on the mystery of life and dreams, and a masterpiece of the Spanish Golden Age of drama.

The preview for Life is a Dream will be February 6 at 7 pm. The show runs February 8, 9, 15, and 16 at 7:30 pm with an additional 2 pm matinee performance on February 9.

Tickets are $20 for regular performances. Subscriptions and group rates are available. Student tickets are $10 for regular performances. Faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens discounts available as well. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the box office at (858) 534-4574.

The cast features Garrett Schulte (Segismundo), Max Singer (Basilio), August Robinson (Clotaldo), Levani Korganashvili (Astolfo), Mary Rose Branick (Rosaura), Hannah Finn (Clarin), Savanna Padilla (Estrella), Trevor Rinzler (Chorus Leader), Juliana Scheding (Soprano Ensemble), Ally McGreevy (Alto Ensemble), Roberto Perez Kempton (Tenor Ensemble), Adrian Chan (Bass Ensemble).

The production staff includes Joseph Hendel (Director), Jeffrey Sims (Assistant Director), Isabella Calabrese (Assistant Director), Sam Keamy-Minor (Scenic Designer), Nick Ponting (Assistant Scenic Designer), Justin Beets (Lighting Designer), Lindsay Stevens (Assistant Lighting Designer), Christopher Flagstad (Costume Designer), Natalie Barshow (Assistant Costume Designer), MaeAnn Ross (Sound Designer), Justin Livengood (Assistant Sound Designer), Eva Barnes (Vocal Coach), Stephen Buescher (Movement Consultant), Natalie Griffith Robichaux (Violence and Intimacy Consultant), Jamie Newcomb (Violence Choreographer), Nicholas Lambros Smith (Production Stage Manager), Topaz Cooks (Assistant Stage Manager), and Sam Bedford (Assistant Stage Manager).

About the playwright: Pedro Calderón de la Barca is considered the finest dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. Some of his most notable works include The Phantom Lady, The Mayor of Zalamea, and Life is a Dream.

About the director: Joseph Hendel is a second-year MFA Directing student from New York. He is a writer, director, and composer whose plays include Katzelmacher, USA (inspired by Fassbinder's Katzelmacher, the cell), The Tasty Karp Hotel (Teatr Fredry in Gniezno, Poland), Playing with Masculinity (Have Art: Will Travel! Inc.), and Beware the Ides of Monday (the cell). Other directing credits: The Inner Circle (opera about Alfred Kinsey at the Brick Theater's F*ckfest), AVoid2Remember (Title:Point's?! Festival), Appendage (1st Irish Theater Fest) and works by Brecht, Ionesco, Pirandello, and Gilbert and Sullivan. He is a resident artist at the cell, a two-time member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and is trained in clown and Commedia by master clown teacher Christopher Bayes. He enjoys synthesizers, German-Jewish critical theory, and playing with his pet chihuahua, Molière. UC San Diego credits: Tambo and Bones for WNPF 2018, A Raisin in the Sun (AD).