The Nevada Conservatory Theatre is proud to open its 2024-25 season celebrating the 10th anniversary of Anne Washburn's brilliant dark comedy Mr. Burns, a Post-electric Play Sept. 11-21 in the Judy Bayley Theatre. Music by Michael Friedman. Directed by Kirsten Brandt, NCT executive director and theatre department chair.
Tickets are $30, with a special pay-what-you-can preview performance Sept. 11. Tickets are available at the PAC Box Office. Content advisory: This play contains adult language, adult situations, death, and gun violence.
After the collapse of civilization, a group of survivors share a campfire and begin to piece together the plot of The Simpsons episode “Cape Feare” entirely from memory. Seven years later, this and other snippets of pop culture (sitcom plots, commercials, jingles and pop songs) have become the live entertainment of a post-apocalyptic society, sincerely trying to hold onto its past. Seventy-five years later, these are the myths and legends from which new forms of performance are created.
A paean to live theater, and the resilience of Bart Simpson through the ages, Mr. Burns is an animated exploration of how the pop culture of one era might evolve into the mythology of another.
“During the Covid lockdown, the arts sustained us and reminded us we are a community," said Brandt. "This is a play, albeit of a post-electric time, that reminds us that stories reflect, shape, and can impact our world. I have wanted to direct this since the moment it came out."
The cast includes Andrew Mikhael Caleb Trevino as Matt; JoAnn Birt as Jenny; Autumn Simone Morgan as Maria; Andrew Scott Bullard as Sam; Kate Critchfield as Colleen; Nick Case as Gibson; and Sofia Virden as Quincey.
The creative team also includes music director Colte Julian, scenic designer Dana Moran Williams, costume designer JD Anderson, lighting designer Paige Borak, sound designer Mary Alice Dirienzo, fight and intimacy director Sean Boyd, production stage manager M. William Shiner, and calling stage manager Cameron Cox.
About Kirsten Brandt
Brandt is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. An award-winning playwright and director, she served for six seasons as Artistic Director of the experimental theatre company Sledgehammer Theatre where she directed over a dozen plays and musicals and wrote Berzerkergäng, The Frankenstein Project and NU. She was the Associate Artistic Director of San Jose Repertory Theatre, where she directed Dr. Faustus, Next Fall, The Big Meal, Legacy of Light, Rabbit Hole, and Groundswell, among others. As a director, Ms. Brandt’s work has been seen at The Old Globe, TheatreWorks, La Jolla Playhouse, Utah Shakespeare Festival, African-American Shakespeare Company, San Diego Repertory, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, City Light Theatre Company, North Coast Repertory, Marin Theatre Company, Jewel Theatre, Jagriti (India). and Arizona Theatre Company. She is the co-adapter of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (with AC Harvey), which had its world premiere at the Old Globe Theatre. Her telematic, multi-site play The Thinning Veil was produced at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The world premiere of her play about women in computer gaming, CODED, opened at City Lights in 2021. She is the co-author of the rock musical The Snow Queen which has enjoyed international and national productions.
Prior to joining UNLV, Brandt taught at San Jose State University in the Department of Film & Theatre where she served as Artistic Director of Theatre and Associate Chair of the program. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, The Dramatists Guild of America, and the National Theatre Conference. Brandt is Consent-Forward Artist, a Public Voices Fellow with the Op-Ed Project, and an Extramural Affiliate at the Center for Monster Studies. She has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts (performance technologies, climate justice, gender in performance) from Goddard College.
About the UNLV College of Fine Arts
The College of Fine Arts educates, empowers, and engages creative people to become visionary change-makers in the arts through acts of imagination. At UNLV we believe the arts are an essential good for society. We make education relevant and accessible through our programs and outreach. We create new knowledge in the arts. We celebrate independent thought and the power of bringing people together to foster creativity.
