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  • Writer's pictureMolly Adea

Molly Adea CAST in WAGNER NEW PLAY FESTIVAL: How to Defend Yourself by Lily Padilla, directed by Kim



Molly Adea has been cast in one of the full length plays in this year's Wagner New Play Festival: How to Defend Yourself by Lily Padilla directed by Kim Rubinstein. Watch her perform in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre May 11-17!

Copy and paste the link below to get tickets!

http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season/WNPF2018/HowToDefendYourself.htm

About the Wagner New Play Festival

The centerpiece of the UCSD Playwriting MFA is the Wagner New Play Festival, which occurs every spring and in which all MFA playwrights have a play produced. First year students have a workshop production. Second and third year students receive fully-staged productions. Productions are directed by MFA directing students, faculty directors, or guest directors. MFA playwrights have the opportunity to collaborate with MFA actors, designers, and stage managers during the festival. The Wagner New Play Festival has grown to be a nationally recognized showcase and incubator of important new voices. The Festival is attended by artistic directors, literary managers, and producers from across the country as well as agents. Plays that were first produced in the Wagner New Play Festival have gone on to be produced at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New Plays, the Roundabout Underground, the Huntington Theatre, and Second Stage.

About the play

Seven college students gather for a DIY self-defense workshop after a sorority sister is raped. They learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn “not to be a victim.” Learning self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire – lots of desire. HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF explores what you want, how to ask for it, and the insidious ways rape culture steals one's body and sense of belonging.

About the Playwright

Lily Padilla is a third-year MFA Playwriting candidate whose plays have been performed or developed with INTAR Theatre, The 24 Hr Play Company, The Lark Play Development Center, RAW Theatrical, PLG Arts, plumage and Structure 13. She is a 2009 EmergeNYC fellow with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. Lily is co-founder of American Nightcap, a late-night play series which gathered artists from diverse NYC theater communities for condensed, energetic collaborations. Lily holds a BFA from NYU Tisch: Playwrights Horizons and the Experimental Theater Wing.

About the Director

Kim Rubinstein was most recently Long Wharf Theatre's Associate Artistic Director where she directed Guys and Dolls, Midsummer Night's Dream, Private Lives, Santaland Diaries, and The Cocktail Hour. This past summer she directed Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Other regional credits include The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Portland Center Stage and San Jose Rep), Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar (Chicago Shakespeare), Love's Labour's Lost (Next Theatre), The Tempest (Southwest Rep), The American Plan and Eloise and Ray (Roadwoarks), Pan and Boone (Running with Scissors), Baby With The Bathwater (Roundhouse Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival), Beckett Shorts (Berkshire Theatre Festival, Splinter Group's Buckets O'Beckett Festival. She was Associate Director with Michael Mayer and Tour Director of the National Tour of Angels In America. Her other teaching credits include ten years on the acting/directing faculty at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Brown/Trinity Consortium, Wesleyan University, NTI at The O'Neill Center and a ongoing teaching gig with the School at Steppenwolf. Kim has been very active in the development of new plays and has directed many readings and workshops at places like New Dramatists and Long Wharf. Ms. Rubinstein is a recipient of the TCG/NEA directing fellowship and was nominated for the Alan Schneider Directing Award, among other awards for her directing and teaching. Upcoming projects: SANTALAND DIARIES at the Long Wharf, THE AMERICAN PLAN at The Old Globe.

The Creative Team

Director – Kim Rubinstein Scenic Designer – Yi-Chien Lee Costume Designer – Annie Le Lighting Designer – Minjoo Kim Sound Designer – Steven Leffue Dramaturg – Gabe Greene Assistant Director – Hannah Folk Assistant Director – Cassidy Paradis Assistant Lighting Designer – Michael Wogulis Production Stage Manager – Amber R. Dettmers Assistant Stage Manager – Taylor Cajka Production Assistant – Lily Joo

The Cast

BRANDI – Andrea Van Den Boogaard KARA – Mary Rose Branick NIKKI – Molly Adea DIANA – Fedra Ramirez MOJDEH – Ariana Mahalatti ANDY – Garrett Schulte EGGO – Trevor Rinzler

Performances at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse/UC San Diego Theatre District

Friday May 11 @ 7:30PM OPENING

Saturday May 12 @ 2:00PM

Monday May 14 @ 7:30PM

Wednesday May 16 @ 7:30PM

Thursday May 17 @ 7:30PM CLOSING

(Information taken from the UC San Diego Theatre and Dance website)

#LilyPadilla #KimRubinstein #WagnerNewPlayFestival #HowtoDefendYourself #Defend #PlayFestival #MFA #MFAPlaywriting #SheilaandHughesPotikerTheatre #LaJollaPlayhouse

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