Bruins, get ready for an eventful spring filled with on-campus theater performances that will keep you entertained throughout the month of May and into June. From fresh student-written pieces to reimagined classics, this season promises boundary-pushing storytelling, dynamic design and unforgettable performances.
Whether you’re a seasoned theatergoer or just looking for a night of thought-provoking entertainment, spring’s productions invite you to witness the creative pulse of UCLA’s theater community.
Stay tuned for show dates, ticket info and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks. This is your chance to support student artists and experience the future of performance right here on campus.
Rodrigo
📅 May 16–18
📍 Little Theater
A yearly collaboration between the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the Herb Alpert School of Music, Rodrigo is a fully staged, professional-level opera production that showcases the extraordinary talents of UCLA’s emerging vocalists, instrumentalists and theater artists. This season’s production brings Handel’s rarely performed masterpiece to life with stunning costumes, evocative set design and a live orchestra—offering audiences a powerful fusion of dramatic storytelling and musical brilliance. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the next generation of opera talent in an unforgettable evening of art, passion and song.
Xanadu
📅 May 15-23
📍 The Freud Playhouse
Produced by Jeff Burke and developed under the Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance, or REMAP, Xanadu is an immersive, AI-adaptive musical experience that redefines what live theater can be. Utilizing augmented and extended reality technologies, each performance is uniquely shaped in real time by the audience’s interaction with the story.
More than a show, Xanadu invites you on a journey to explore the evolving intersection of art and technology. Come see how AI is shaping the future of live performance—right before your final exams begin.
Frontières Sans Frontières
📅 May 22–24
📍 Macgowan Hall, Room 1340
“Here, at the corner of a country that feels both foreign and familiar, three orphaned, stateless youth have built a simple life out of recreation and mischief-making. Their world is rocked as a parade of immodest strangers slowly invades, offering gifts of language, medicine, art, and commerce…”
In this satirical and surreal spectacle, Frontières Sans Frontières challenges the boundaries between altruism and self-interest, questioning the promises of globalization, language and civilization. Who benefits when generosity begins to resemble domination? What happens to people and places caught in the tide of imposed change?
Directed by second-year MFA directing candidate Eric Swartz, this fully student-led production features undergraduate performers and graduate designers. Through multilingualism, music, humor and environmental themes, the production thoughtfully confronts the legacy of colonialism while showcasing the collaborative talent nurtured within UCLA Theater, Film and Television, or TFT.
Undergraduate One Acts
📅 May 28–29
📍 Nimoy Theater
Directed by senior undergraduate directing students, the One Acts represent the culmination of rigorous training in TFT’s Directing Continuum—a three-quarter sequence that emphasizes critical skills such as blocking, text analysis and collaboration. These short plays mark the final UCLA performances for many of our graduating student directors and offer a vibrant, diverse showcase of undergraduate creative work.
MFA Ones
📅 June 7
📍 Macgowan Hall, Room 1340
Need a break from finals? Come enjoy MFA Ones, a night of original one-act plays written and staged by first-year Master of Fine Arts, or MFA, playwrights at UCLA TFT. This intimate and informal evening provides audiences a chance to be the very first to experience new theatrical work and engage directly with the artists in post-show conversations about their creative process.
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Featured Image: Chaynce Henderson’s character, an orphaned, stateless child named Pan peeks out of his tent to watch the rain with his teddy bear. “Rainy Season” is one of the many scenes in which Henderson portrays his character, Pan, in Frontières Sans Frontières. Photographed by Regan Rhodes/BruinLife
