A five-time Tony Award recipient who grew up in Texas, playwright Terrence McNally (1938-2020) was a defining force in American theatre for six decades through plays such as Master Class, Frankie & Johnny in the Claire de Lune, and Love! Valour! Compassion!

As a continuation of McNally’s legacy of championing bold new voices, the Terrence McNally Foundation – in association with Rattlestick Theater – presents a festival of five new play readings directed and performed by leading talent from Austin and around the country. The weekend will include an academic symposium at UT’s Harry Ransom Center, where the legacy of “the bard of American theater” lives on through his archived papers.

Festival Schedule:

Girl Time by Eliza Frakes (January 29 – 3 pm): Jocelyn has had a really bad night. She needs a little Girl Time. Luckily, she has a thousand dollars to burn and a babysitter with a drinking problem. Total win-win! This real-time play devolves from comedy to horror to drama, using genre shifts to explore class, femininity, and privilege along the way. Eliza is an MFA candidate at UT Austin through the Michener Center for Writers.The Seahorse by Kate Fodor (January 29 – 7 pm): Andrew is the new Seahorse mascot for the Tidal Wave football team, and he loves his job. His wife, Charlie, is less enthusiastic about being married to a seahorse. Meanwhile, Lila is unsure about her new role as the library’s bookworm mascot—but sometimes it’s nice to hide inside a costume. In Kate Fodor’s The Seahorse, mascotery gets messy as identities are assumed, roles are played and truths are revealed. Fodor was named one of “Eight to Watch” in the theater world by The New York Times and has written for four seasons of Amazon’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Rattlestick Theater Artistic Director Will Davis returns to his alma mater to direct.Terrence McNally Symposium at the Harry Ransom Center (January 30 – 9 am): Featuring individual presentations and a symposium roundtable panel.Gulliver’s Travels, adapted and directed by Zack Fine and Bradley Michalakis (January 30 – 3 pm): Jonathan Swift’s beloved satire of human nature, politics and society may be long, old and seemingly irrelevant—but it has never been successfully adapted for the stage. Until now. This bold new adaptation brings Swift’s classic work to life with a fresh theatrical perspective from UT School of Theater & Dance faculty member Zack Fine.Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, presented by Rude Mechs (January 30 – 8 pm): McNally’s Corpus Christi begins with a simple declaration: “We are going to tell you an old and familiar story.” First staged in 1998, the play reimagines the New Testament through Joshua, a Christ figure born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the early 1950s. Set apart because he is gay, Joshua leaves Corpus in search of acceptance and eventually finds a group of disciples drawn to his message of love, tolerance and compassion. Now, the Rude Mechs put their own theatrical take on McNally’s daring work – the only play he ever set in his home state of Texas. (Takes place at Crash Box Theatre)You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit by comfort ifeoma katchy (January 31 – 10:30 am): In Reconstruction-era Texas, Black shoemaker Louis Carter Sr. returns home to his family after an unjust imprisonment, determined to rebuild his business. Knowing how to navigate a system designed to keep him out, Louis invites his Irish immigrant cellmate and his family to move into his home and become the public face of Carter’s Shoe Emporium. Written by Houston native and recent Yale MFA graduate comfort ifeoma katchy, You Can Tell a Tree by Its Fruit is a drama about who gets the opportunity to rise—and what must be sacrificed in pursuit of the American Dream.The Daisies by Tony Meneses (January 31 – 2 pm): Beloved local radio station 107.9 The Abyss is going off the air at the stroke of midnight. It’s the late 1990s, and stations are being bought up by corporate overlords – but DJ Santi is taking a stand. As he plays the same song on repeat, his colleagues rally around him, callers keep calling in, and the clock keeps ticking. The music is forever. That, they can never touch. UT Austin alumnus Tony Meneses returns to campus to debut his new play, a funny and moving exploration of what lasts and what matters.