By Chelsea L. McDowell

Reporter

 Student playwrights got the chance to have their words come to life at CSU Bakersfield for the tenth biannual Theatre of New Voices.

 The Theatre of New Voices showcased a collection of one act plays written, directed by, and starring CSUB students. The plays were selected in a script writing contest held the year before that determined which plays would go on to production.

 Music and Theatre Department Chair Mandy Rees said the Theatre of New Voices was inspired by a playwriting class that yielded talented students.

 “We had a play writing class and students were writing plays, and we saw some talent. And we thought, ‘Why don’t we mount it as part of our season?’” Rees said.

 Once the script is selected, playwrights watch as their play comes to life with the help of student directors and actors. Student directors receive the scripts and then apply for the ones they want. The short plays call for a cast of different actors, some whom may be experiencing their first theatre production.

 “We get a lot of people, who are maybe intimidated to audition, coming here because the students are directors,” said Rees. “We welcome everybody and encourage people to become involved.”  

 This year’s production featured six plays from five CSUB students: Julia Edith Rios, Mateo Lara, Anthony Jauregui, Robert Vazquez, and Jorge Lopez. While the Theatre of New Voices had no set theme, each play was chosen based on its ability to overlap well with the others.

 “In some of these ‘What is real? What is illusion?’ that theme goes through a lot of them. We tied them together visually with the screen,” Rees said.

 The play opened with Junior English major Julia Edith Rios’ “Soda for My Brain” directed by senior theatre major Mariela Sanchez. An intense drama about a traditional Mexican mother and her depressed daughter, Rios’ relationship with her own mother was the bases of her play.

 “The characters and this story means a lot to me, especially because I know that there are a lot of other people that will relate to it,” Rios said. “I know that isn’t solely my story.”

 Writing her play gave Rios the opportunity to reflect on her own life and to see things from her mom’s perspective.

 The second play opened to eerie music, a screen projection that depicted a late night open field in the American south and two demons that glowed under the black lights. Senior English major Mateo Lara’s “Gasoline” was directed by theatre and communications major Dakota Nash and dealt with hellish entities that competed for the souls of two friends, one who loves the other to no avail.

 “I’m excited to see what people think of the play and what they can get from it,” Lara said.

 2018 marked Lara’s third Theatre of New Voices that he participated in. While usually he acts as playwright, he has also stage managed and acted—Lara plays one of the characters in “Gasoline.”

 The third play began with news coverage of Hurricane Harvey and featured a therapist and her patient, who were stranded alone. The patient had a fanny pack filled with real figs, and the play delivered a twist ending. “Figments” was written by Senior Theatre and English major Anthony Jauregui and directed by Dakota Nash.

 “[Theatre of New Voices] produced three plays of mine. It’s let me direct, it’s let me act. Theatre of New Voices is the reason I’m acting now, and pursuing a career in writing,” Jauregui said.

 After a brief intermission to clean mashed figs off the stage, the fourth play began with the breakup of characters Sam and Alex. English and theatre major Robert Vazquez wrote “Deleted” and senior theatre major Kathy Tinoco directed it. Vazquez drew on his own experience breaking up in the digital age to write his one act play.

 “The break up happened the beginning of May, and I wrote it out. I started writing it three days before, and turned it in right on the deadline, and then about a month later I got told I was accepted,” Vazquez said.

 Vazquez would like to encourage students to pay attention to what the theatre department is putting on and get involved.

 Jauregui’s “There’s no such thing as diet soda,” directed by senior theatre major Phoebe Pyne, answered the question of ‘What would happen if you gave a robot therapy?’

 “There’s no such thing as diet soda is an absurdist spectacle that I wrote that incorporates a lot of the things that I’m into, in terms of lighting design, costume design, acting, and writing,” Jauregui said.

 The show closed with junior English major Jorge Lopez’s “47%” that was directed by senior theatre major, and staff member of The Runner, Magdiel Carranza about a video game enthusiast that must win a trial against a too tough lawyer to pass through the gates of heaven. Inspired by a scene from “It’s always sunny in Philadelphia” in which a simple character must act as a lawyer despite not knowing what he’s doing, Lopez wanted to create something funny and relatable.

 “I wanted to make something funny and interesting,” Lopez said. “Probably something people can relate to in a sense, maybe they aren’t the best person and they want to be the best person somehow.”

 Lopez credits his creative writing professor with encouraging him to write plays. “47%” is the first play Lopez has written, but since then he has written another one that he has submitted to the Betty Creative Writing Awards.

 “After I wrote [47%] I fell in love with writing plays,” said Lopez.

 After the final act concluded, cast members returned to the stage to accept their applause and take their bows. For more information about being a part of 2020’s Theatre of New Voices, contact Mandy Rees at (661) 654-2240.