The three plays in this year’s THIRDeYE Theatre Festival address the human condition with questions about life and death, love and happiness.

Undergraduates are the primary drivers of the festival—writing, staging and directing the plays, and performing in them. The festival is presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance; organizers said all three plays will be presented back to back at each performance: 8 p.m. Jan. 27 to 30, and 2 p.m. Jan. 31 (see details below).

Characters searching for meaningful answers in Empty All the Boxes are driven to mend broken relationships and find new appreciation of life.

Playwright Jazz Trice, a fourth-year dramatic art-psychology double major, explained: “Sometimes searching for answers from others forces us to reflect upon our own flaws and ask questions of ourselves. The play is based on my own such questions following the death of my grandfather.”

Weaving real events from his life into his script, Trice said, proved to be his biggest writing challenge.

“In the end, I decided the story was worth telling, and it's important to put painful topics or information out there in order to have a deeper effect on the audience.”

In Fools Afloat, by Kristopher Ide, a fourth-year comparative literature major, a re-entry student and a Regents Scholar, a young writer deals with love and loss, experiences the power of forgiveness, and goes for a ghostly boat ride with Ernest Hemingway and Adolph Hitler.

Ide said the premise occurred to him several months after his father died.

“Feeling somewhat unhitched from my own reality, I had a vision of a young man sitting in a dreamlike boat as it sailed to a beach where he found his father, a conversation ensued, and a relationship developed,” Ide said.

“I didn’t know who the young man was, how he felt about his father, or if there was even a story to be had, but I knew I had something through which I could engage that slippery reality of my own.”

Ide developed the story from there in a theater class last fall quarter. The teacher was Philip Kan Gotanda, the internationally renowned playwright who came to UC Davis as a Granada artist in residence.

Professor Peter Lichtenfels, artistic director for the THIRDeEYE Theatre festival, mentored Ide through his final rewrites.

The Blue Jay’s Song by Daniel Jordan also originated in Gotanda’s playwriting class.

“Philip pushed me and inspired me to be a little crazy with my piece that concerns a broken man’s search for meaning,” said Jordan, a fourth-year dramatic art major.

“The drama derives from my own romantic crisis. The writing process helped me to heal. Now that I can make sense of what happened, the once painful situation seems kind of beautiful.”

Mark Ferrando said acting in a student-written piece is very exciting.

“It's a really special process to be able to ask the writer about parts of the text I don’t understand," said Ferrando, who performs in The Blue Jay's Song. "This opportunity does not present itself much in the world of theater. It’s helping me perfect the challenging split personality role of Isaac.”

The writers are not the only ones giving guidance.

Michael Daivison, a first-year Master of Fine Arts acting candidate, assistant artistic director, said: “I enjoy pulling an actor or two aside and being able to give them some general ideas about what they are offering their director.

"This is not so much about me directing the scene and telling them what to do, but more about informing the actor what their job is in the rehearsal process and how they can best offer their talent to the director.

"Creating a festival is a challenging task and its success is often dependent on process as much as the end product.”

Empty All the Boxes director Tasha Cooke, like many of the undergraduate participants in the THIRDeYE Theatre Festival, are performing their assigned tasks for the first time. Cooke is a fourth-year dramatic art and film studies double major, with an art studio minor.

“Professor Lichtenfels instilled a passion in me for directing," Cooke said. "After taking his class, I just couldn't get enough—playing and imagining.

"It is different from the films I’ve directed, because, in theater the audience is the most important cast member. They get to play, dream and wonder into the story, right along with the actors. It’s fantastical.”

All three plays reflect our culture and youth today, and all aim to deliver important contemporary messages.

“I'd love the audience to take away the idea that it's never too late to connect to someone you love," said Trice, who wrote Empty All the Boxes. "Don't let filters get in the way of saying what's in your heart while you still have the opportunity to do so.”

Ide described a similar objective: “I would love nothing better than if Fools Afloat reflects an individual heart to itself or brings two hearts closer together.”

Jordan added: “We can all relate to the emotions and feelings in The Blue Jay's Song. It just may help the audience understand why we do what we do.”

Reporting by Janice Bisgaard, publicity manager for the Department of Theatre and Dance.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: THIRDeYE Theatre Festival, three original one-act plays—primarily the work of undergraduates—and presented back to back during each performance.

• Empty All the Boxes, written by Jazz Trice and directed by Tasha Cooke

• Fools Afloat, written by Kristopher Ide and directed by Olufunmilayo Alabi

• The Blue Jay’s Song, written by Daniel Jordan and directed by William MacInnis

WHEN: 8 p.m. Jan. 27-30, and 2 p.m. Jan. 31

WHERE: Wyatt Pavilion Theatre

TICKETS are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org.

ADVISORY: This production contains sexual content and adult language.