Spring 2026 Newsletter

Dear Theatre + Dance Community,

Join Us For Our Spring Season!

UCSD's Theatre + Dance Department invites you to enjoy our upcoming performances at The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Theatre District!

Wagner New Play Festival

WNPF is our annual festival of new works by MFA playwrights, in collaboration with MFA/PhD directors, actors, designers, stage managers, and dramaturges.

Someone North

Loves You

May 5-16

Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre

Written by Chesed Chap (MFA 1)

Directed by Ian Anthony Coleman (MFA 1)

It’s the early 2000s and Jules is falling for an anonymous stranger she meets on Craigslist. Meanwhile, somewhere else in time, it's the beginning of the Ice Age and caveman Gor is falling for a stranger named Fiv. SOMEONE NORTH LOVES YOU explores the mysteries of friendship and romance at two distant points in human history, asking what it means to fall in love in a cold and dangerous world.

Learn More & Purchase Tickets

Fancy Jungle

May 6-15

Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre

Written by Katie Đỗ (MFA 2)

Directed by Shyama Nithiananda (MFA 2)

Margo Ho, a playwright coming off a hit production, has just landed her dream job writing for a television show about the AAPI experience. It’s a dream come true - or so she thinks until the reality sinks in. As Margo struggles to tell her story and have her voice heard, she’s also got to navigate a difficult boss, a slippery ex, relentless pressure, and unspoken rules. FANCY JUNGLE looks at the price you pay to tell your story, what it means to represent, and who gets the last word.

Learn more & Purchase Tickets

Shattered Dreams

(and where we put them)

May 7-16

Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre

Written by Mack Lawrence (MFA 1)

Directed by Kieran Beccia (MFA 2)

Five teens are putting on a show, an elaborate PSA sponsored by their high school where they’ll recreate a deadly car crash designed to scare away fellow students from drinking and driving. Between theatre games, fake-blood logistics, and a Grim Reaper costume, the teens begin to deal with their secrets and the truth of one fateful night. SHATTERED DREAMS (and where we put them) is an exploration of growing up and the stories we tell about our past and future selves.

Learn more & Purchase Tickets

Dance Productions

New Directions 2026

June 4-6

Epstein Family Amphitheater

Directed by Ana María Álvarez

Featuring Student Choreographers:

Marc Betancourt, Kelly Callejo, Amanda Carroll, Vrisika Chauhan, Juliana Lawscha, Josie Marasco, James Selby, Teresa Velasco, J'Sean Wiley

NEW DIRECTIONS features bold new works by our student choreographers, spotlighting the next generation of embodied storytellers and movement makers.

Learn more & Purchase Tickets

Spring Events

Des McAnuff

Lecture Series

Join Joan & Irwin Jacobs Distinguished Professor of Practice for the following spring lecture series

How We Got Here

Friday, May 8 at 4pm

Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre

Macbeth: The Darkest Journey

Wednesday, May 13 at 4pm

Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre

Unable to attend in person? Join the livesteam

MFA Actor Showcase Class of 2026

New York

Monday, May 4

Playwrights Horizons

Los Angeles

Monday, May 18

Gerry Marshall Theatre

Learn more & RSVP

Honors Thesis Showcase

Alexis Ordonez, Georgia Horton, Annais Scott, Wes Jenson, Madison Novitski, Carmen Stott, and Hannah Gurne (BA Theatre '26), members of the honors thesis cohort, will showcase their performances in the Arthur Wagner Theatre from Week 8 to Finals Week this quarter. Come see the shows and support our undergraduate theatre!

Showcase Schedule

Department + Alumni News

2026 Wagner New Play Festival Debuts Three Original Graduate Student Productions

UC San Diego takes a behind-the-scenes look into WNPF 2026 featuring our MFA playwrights.

MFA Alum Named 2026 Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission Recipient

MFA Playwriting alum, Agyeiwaa Asante, wins IAMA 2026 Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission.

Read the Broadway World article below.

MFA Alum Wins Best Costume Design Award

Alina Bokovikova (Faculty & MFA '11 Costume Design) just won Best Costume Design Award by The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle for Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.

Read the Broadway World article below.

Four Shows Featuring

MFA Playwriting Alumni

Looking for something new to steam? Consider one of the following shows with MFA alumni on their writing staff!

The Miniature Wife - Peacock

Vivian Barnes (MFA Playwriting)

Beef - Netflix

Anna Ouyang Moench (MFA Playwriting)

Margo's Got Money Troubles - Apple TV+

Keiko Green (MFA Playwriting)

Widow's Bay - Apple TV+

Dave Harris (MFA Playwriting)

MFA Alumni Celebrate Opening Night of Mano A Monologue

David Fenner (MFA Acting '93) wrote and starred in Mano A Monologue. Co-directed by Robert Alexander Owens (MFA Acting '93), the world premiere was attended by David Harris (MFA Acting, '93), Chris Flanders (MFA Acting '94), Bruce Smith (MFA Acting '93), Kate Malin (MFA Acting '91), and Lisa Portes (T+D Faculty & MFA Directing '92).

Photo: (left to right: Robert Owens, David Harris, Bruce Smith, David Fenner, Kate Malin, Lisa Portes; kneeling: Chris Flanders)

Drama Desk Awards Nominates MFA Alum's and her Children

Rosie Glen-Lambert (MFA Directing '24) is nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation of her play and her Children.

T+D Faculty's Play Shadows and Light: The M Ensemble Story Featured In The Miami Times

Dr. Mysia Anderson-White's just returned from The Coconut Grove Theatre Festival where her new play Shadows and Light: The M Ensemble Story, received a reading and great press coverage! The play, a continuation of her scholarly research, dramatizes the history of the M Ensemble Company, the oldest continually operating African American theater company in Florida. Here again, the project honors Professor Anderson-White's long-term engagement with a community of people, their artistic and political legacy.

MFA Playwriting Alum Authors Two Films Coming Soon

Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Bennett Fisher (MFA Playwriting 2016) secures a distributor for his film Zealot starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and begins shooting Scorpion starring Clive Owen this spring.

T+D Faculty Premieres Enraizando At Bayview Opera House

Dr Jade Power-Sotomayor premiered Enraizando at the Bayview Opera House. The performance was the result of a beautiful, long-term process during which Professor Power-Sotomayor collaborated with young artists to create a dance piece, write poetry, and explore Bomba, kinship, ancestral roots and political connections to Puerto Rico.

La Jolla Playhouse Welcomes MFA Alum's The Monsters

MFA Acting '13 Ngozi Anyanwu's play, The Monsters, has received four 2026 Lucille Lortel Award nominations (including Outstanding Play). The Monsters makes its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse this June.

MFA Playwright's Love You Long Time (Already) Makes Its London Debut

MFA Playwriting '27 Katie Đỗ's play, Love You Long Time (Already), will run from July 2 - 25 in London at Theatre 503.

A San Diego Musical Theatre Debut

Tyler Martinez (BA Theatre '28) made his San Diego Musical Theatre debut with the cast of Merrily We Roll Along in early April.

MFA Playwriting Alum's No Singing In The Navy Makes New York Magazine

MFA Playwriting alum Milo Cramer's musical, No Singing in the Navy, first presented at Wagner New Play Festival 2024, has been named one of New York Magazine’s top recommendations for March 11-25!

Directed by T+D Professor Aysan Celik, Cramer’s play features MFA 3 Actors Bailey Lee and Elliot Sagay, MFA Acting alum Ellen Nikbakht, Music Director and T+D Professor Kyle Adam Blair, Musical Assistant and Additional Music Arrangements by Sound Design MFA alum Padra Crisafulli, and Assistant Stage Manager MFA alum Huai Huang.