UC San Diego Theatre And Dance Presents DUCHESS! DUCHESS! DUCHESS!

The UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance presents Duchess! Duchess! Duchess!, written by Vivian Barnes and directed by Juliana Kleist-Méndez, as part of the 2019 Wagner New Play Festival.

About the play: A Royal Wedding is looming. The Duchess and The Soon-to-be-Duchess are meeting face to face for the first time to go over everything you ever needed to know to become a duchess. There are rules. There's a way of doing things. Remember, everybody is watching. And you don't want to know what happens if you step out of line. Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! looks at the hidden costs of being the "luckiest girl in the world."

Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! runs May 11 and 17 at 7 pm, May 9, 15, and 16 at 7:30 pm, and May 18 at 10:30 am. Performances are at the Arthur Wagner Theatre in Galbraith Hall on UC San Diego's campus: 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla, CA. For information about parking, please see the website.

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 Janet Fiki (The Duchess) and India Gurley (The Soon-to-be Duchess).

The creative team includes Juliana Kleist-Méndez (Director), Hsi-An Chen (Co-Scenic Designer), Samuel Keamy-Minor (Co-Scenic Designer), Dorottya Vincze (Costume Designer), Dean Collins (Lighting Designer), Andrew Lynch (Sound Designer), Sam Bedford (Production Stage Manager), Hope Ding (Assistant Stage Manager), and Sasha King (Assistant Stage Manager).

The 2019 Wagner New Play Festival at UC San Diego features world premiere productions written by our talented MFA playwrights, and directed, acted, stage-managed and designed by our nationally-acclaimed MFA companies. The plays produced in the Wagner New Plays Festival represent some of the most original and groundbreaking new voices in American theatre. The plays in this year's festival are Monster by Ava Geyer, The Gradient by Steph Del Rosso, Shame Spiral by Ali Viterbi, a reading of Incendiary by Dave Harris, The Jefferson Middle School Monthly by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, and Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! by Vivian Barnes.

About the playwright: Vivian Barnes is a first year MFA Playwriting candidate from Virginia. Her play Jezebels was a finalist for both the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Her short plays have been presented at the inaugural Ain't I a Woman Festival, Hearts on the Wall at Dixon Place, and Firehouse Theatre. Recently, she received Clubbed Thumb's biennial commission.

About the director: Juliana Kleist-Méndez is a first-year MFA Directing student previously based in Brooklyn, NY. She is an Iowa-born Cuban American committed to embodied storytelling collaborations. Selected credits: Far From Canterbury (Winner of Best Musical: New York International Fringe Festival; Encores! at The SoHo Playhouse); La hija del pirata/The Pirate's Daughter (La Pirata Productions); Club Silenciowith the Cuban Cultural Center of New York (Manhattan Theater Company); Elvira: The Immigration Play with Si Se Puede Productions (Lehman College, Collaboraction Theatre Company, Chicago); King Lear: A Radio Play (The Framework Theatre, Chicago). BA in Theater for Social Change from Cornell University.

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