The University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts has announced its 2014-15 Mainstage season, a run that will feature one of the Western world's greatest comedies, a piece inspired by a work by Hans Christian Andersen, and a party incident gone wrong in the modern age of social networks and viral content.

The slate kicks off Oct. 9 with Iowa Partnership in the Arts: The Mask and Jazz Project, and concludes April 26, 2015, with an adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s The Liar.

Tickets will be available through the Hancher Box Office at the beginning of the fall semester. Until then, let’s take a closer look at the productions…

Iowa Partnership in the Arts: The Mask and Jazz Project
Created by Paul Kalina, John Rapson, Paola Coletto, Matteo Destro, and David Bills
Directed by Paola Coletto and Matteo Destro
Oct. 9-12 and 15-19
David Thayer Theatre, UI Theatre Building

Using the Italian mask tradition based in Commedia dell’Arte, this funny and touching new piece explores how the Industrial Revolution and its technical evolution affect the educational system and how the individual talents of each student are sacrificed to data sheets, standardized testing, and mandates.

Joining together a new form of masks, created by Italian mask maker Matteo Destro, and the great American improvisational form, jazz, this piece will feature original compositions by UI School of Music Professor John Rapson and by students from the Department of Theatre Arts and School of Music, and professional performers from around the world.

The Iowa Partnership in the Arts program was established in 1992 to support the creation of major new works of theatrical art. Nationally and internationally respected guest artists collaborate with students and faculty to present adventuresome new works, many of which have gone on to be productions throughout the country. This program is part of a long tradition of UI faculty and students collaborating with professional artists to develop new work.

This project has been made possible by the University of Iowa Internal Funding Initiatives, the University of Iowa Arts and Humanities Initiatives, and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Excellence and Innovation Fund.

Striking 12
By Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin, and Valerie Vigoda
Directed by John Cameron
Dec. 5-7 and 10-13
E.C. Mabie Theatre, UI Theatre Building

Inspired, in part, by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl, Striking 12 tells the story of a grumpy, overworked New Yorker who resolves to spend New Year's Eve alone in his apartment when an unexpected visitor brings some much-needed cheer. The evening springs to life through an eclectic score that combines pop, rock, jazz, show tunes, and more.

Good Kids
By Naomi Iizuka
Directed by Alan MacVey
Feb. 5-8 and 11-15
David Thayer Theatre, UI Theatre Building

Something happened to Chloe after that party last Saturday night. Something she says she can’t remember. Something everybody at school is talking about. Was she raped? Did she ask for it? How could those boys do that to her? Or did they? Set in a high school in the American Midwest, in a world of Facebook and Twitter, smart phones and YouTube, Good Kids explores a casual sexual encounter gone wrong and its very public aftermath. Who’s telling the truth? Whose version of the story do you believe? And what does that say about you?

This production is part of a rolling premiere commissioned by the Big Ten Theatre Consortium.

Luck of the Irish
By Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Tlaloc Rivas
March 5-8 and 11-14
David Thayer Theatre, UI Theatre Building

When an upwardly mobile African-American couple wants to buy a home in an all-white neighborhood of 1950s Boston, they pay a struggling Irish family to “ghost-buy” a house on their behalf. Fifty-two years later, the Irish family wants “their” house back. Moving across two eras, Luck of the Irish explores our legacy of racial and class issues and the long-held secrets that tie two families and one house together.

The Liar
By David Ives
Adapted from the comedy by Pierre Corneille
Directed by Eric Forsythe
April 16-19 and 22-26
Mabie Theatre, UI Theatre Building

Paris, 1643. Dorante is a charming young man newly arrived in the capital, and he has but a single flaw: He cannot tell the truth. In quick succession he meets Cliton, a manservant who cannot tell a lie, and falls in love with Clarice, a charming young woman whom he unfortunately mistakes for her friend Lucrece. What our hero regrettably does not know is that Clarice is secretly engaged to his best friend Alcippe. Nor is he aware that his father is trying to get him married to Clarice, whom he thinks is Lucrece, who actually is in love with him. From all these misunderstandings and a series of breathtakingly intricate lies springs one of the Western world's greatest comedies, a sparkling urban romance as fresh as the day Pierre Corneille wrote it, brilliantly adapted for today by All in the Timing's David Ives.

The Department of Theatre Arts is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, contact the Department of Theatre Arts in advance at 319-335-2700.