Zero Untitled is an experimental theatre troupe that has staged productions and films primarily in South Texas but also in New York City, Boston, San Jose (Ca), Las Vegas, London (England), and Honduras. Zero Untitled views itself as a conduit for creative theatre pieces and it encourage performers, writers, and thespians to utilize Zero Untitled as a vehicle for experimenting in work that transcends typical theatrical mediums.

The company primarily performs stage plays in non-theatrical spaces (hallways, outside, meeting rooms, etc) in an effort to bring theatre to the masses and not be limited by traditional spaces. Zero Untitled also performs fire-breathing showcases on occasion, has an on-going improv comedy troupe called Premature Punchline, an experimental performance group called “Textual Overture”, and a brand new branch of ZU in NYC.

A W A R D S

“Fetch!! A Llama Story” – Official Selection, 2023 Bristol 48H Puppet Film Challenge. Bristol, UK

“Premature Punchline” – Portland’s Got Talent Live! Finalist 2019; performance invite, Portland, Tx.

“Epitaph by Moonlight; Kate Remelius” – The Josephine Foundation Excellence In The Arts Award For The Director Of The Year 2018 (WINNER), New York City

“Epitaph by Moonlight; Cole Walthier” – The Josephine Foundation Excellence In The Arts Award For Best Performance Of 2018 By An Adult Male (Nominee), New York City

“Unending Repetition; Katherine Orozco-Verderber” – The Josephine Foundation Excellence In The Arts Award For Best Performance Of 2017 By An Adult Female (Top Ten Finalist / Nominee), New York City

“Unending Repetition” – The Josephine Foundation Excellence In The Arts Award Production Of The Year 2017 (Top Ten Finalist / Nominee), New York City

“Unending Repetition” – “Best Drama” 2017 Equity Library Theatre Summer Play Festival, New York City

“Treason” – “Best Drama” 2017 Equity Library Theatre Summer Play Festival, New York City

“GPS: Gender’s Problematic Situation” – Best Comedy, 2014 Playwrights Express, Los Angeles

“Eighty Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds” – CC7D Film Festival 2013, Best Ensemble, Corpus Christi

“Eighty Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds” – CC7D Film Festival 2013, Best Original Song, Corpus Christi

*****

Comprehensive spaces/venues ZU has performed at:

Blue Room, Fore Hall, The Pavillion, Cafe 5, Elks Lodge, Angel’s Italian Ice, Blue Ribbon Cafe, MSUB, The Flower Box, The Novel Blend – Kingsville
The Strip – Las Vegas
Residence(s) – San Jose, CA
Various locales – Boston, MA
Louie’s Backyard – South Padre Island, TX
Tango Tea Room, Fresh Cafe, Bella Luna, Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures – Corpus Christi, TX
Ruta Maya’s – Austin, TX
Padington Square – London, England

Belafonte Library Theatre, Queens Library, Hidden Event Venue (127 Tompkins), The Way Station, Manhattan Repertory Theatre  – NY, NY

Various locales – Honduras

The Dusty Boot – Freer, TX

*****

Zero Untitled Timeline

2003 Highlights:

Early 2003 – Zero Untitled Films is birthed as an independent film company.

Summer 2003 – Filming for “The Man Who Walks Alone” begins and ends in collaboration with Dreamchaser Productions.

November 7, 2003 – “The Man Who Walks Alone” is premiered at the Edgeworks Short Film Festival in Corpus Christi, TX.

November 10, 2003 – Zero Untitled Films changes name to Zero Untitled Films / Productions with announcement of upcoming theatrical production of “Freakshow Theatre”.

December 3, 2003 – “Freakshow Theatre” premieres with “I Am The Devil” outside of Little Theatre in collaboration with SIR Inc.

2004 Highlights:

January 15, 2004 – “Domestic Insanity Standup Showcase: Bringin’ In The New Year” opens at Little Theatre.

January 20, 2004 – Great review over “Domestic Insanity…” written in The South Texan.

April 28, 2004 – “Reversed Rhythm: Open Mic Poetry” premieres at The Blue Room in Fore Hall in collaboration with the Language & Lit. dept.

September – October 2004 – “The Unraveling – A Radio Theatre Experiment” , “Flowers In The Fall”, “The Man Who Walks Alone” screening and “Freakshow Theatre II” all announced.

November 1, 2004 – “Flowers In The Fall” premieres at Ben Bailey Art Gallery for Dia De Los Muertos.

November 2004 – “Flowers In The Fall” televised airing announced.

November 2004 – The South Texan reviews Dia De Los Muertos happenings including “Flowers In The Fall.”

December 2, 2004 – “Freakshow Theatre II” premieres in front of Little Theatre in collaboration with Art Association.

2005 Highlights:

April 2005 – An announcement for “Ankur Adrift” aired on Corpus Christi radio show.

April 20, 2005 – “Ankur Adrift” premieres in the SUB room 221 A&B.

April 2005 – Great supportive review for “Ankur Adrift” written in The South Texan.

August 2005 – “The Suicide Note” premieres via the internet on www.spartacus-web.com (now defunct).

October 12-13, 2005 – “Voices In The Air” premieres at The Blue Room.

October 19, 2005 – An awesome 1/2 page review over “Voices in the Air” written in The South Texan.

October 26, 2005 – A great ’student spotlight’ on Zero Untitled’s Verderber, Ruiz, Vargas, and Guzman in The South Texan.

2006 Highlights:

April 11-12, 2006 – “Scars of War” performed in the SUB Ballroom A.

April 2006 – “The Man Who Walks Alone”screened at South Texas Filmmakers film festival.

June 2006 – Zero Untitled Films / Productions debuts on our first social media site – MySpace.

June 12, 2006 – “The Telegration Experiment: A Happening” premieres in front of the Jernigan Library and MSUB at TAMUK.

July 12, 2006 – “Mimeumentary” premieres at “Kult Klassics 2” and runs until July 14, 2006.

September 2006 – “Mimeumentary” scheduled to air on Channel 2 in Kingsville.

September 20, 2006 – “Double Dose: No One is Listening & House Party Pix Up” premieres in the Little Theatre and runs until September 21.

October 2006 – “Mimeumentary” airs on Ch. 2 in Kingsville, TX

October 26, 2006 – “Night By The River” performed in College Station, TX as part of the Southwestern Writers and Artists Festival

November 2, 2006 – “A Trance of Death” premiered around the TAMUK campus.

December 3, 2006 – “Fishin’ in the Rite Hole” premieres at the Kleberg County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

December 2006 – Production of DJ Oringe music videos announced.

2007 Highlights:

January 2007 – ZUF’s first music video “In Regards” completed and set to premiere.

January 2007 – Production for a staged adaptation (called “Once Enslaved”) of Frederick Douglass’s seminal work “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” begins in collaboration with Texas A&M University – Kingsville.

February 2007 – “Once Enslaved” opens at Texas A&M University – Kingsville.

March 2007 – Writing and rehearsals begin on “Final Examination”, the company’s first one man show. The show premieres the same month starring company founder, Gabriel Ruiz.

June 2007 – Our 2007 summer show, entitled “Ends of the Spectrum” begins rehearsals in collaboration with upstart company Bloodline GEMZ.

July 2007 – “Ends of the Spectrum” premieres at the Little Theatre.

August 2007 – “Amputation” accepted at the Pop Culture Conference in Boston, MA.

2008 Highlights:

March 2008 – “Quickies: A Collection of Comedies” premieres at the Blue Room. Attendance for the three nights were remarkably high despite the tiny venue – 54, 65, 82 for the three nights.

April 2008 – “Quickies” receives coverage on Channel 2 in Kingsville and surrounding areas.

November 2008 – Re-editing of “Over White Wine” for a complete film project begins under the editorial direction of Megan Saenz.

November 2008 – “Fractured” premieres at the Blue Room. The shows featured a play set mostly in complete darkness, a staging of a short story and a violent hybrid Reader’s Theatre piece.

2009 Highlights:

February 2009 – The ZUF Film Festival premieres several short films (18 different entries). This also marked the premiere of the Zuffy awards for the filmmakers and their work.

February 2009 – The happening “13°: The Political Climate of Freemasonry” premieres on the campus of Texas A&M in Kingsville, TX.

March 2009 – Another happening premiered called “Surprise Flash Bang!” under the vision on producer Chad Wallace. This show returned Zero Untitled to its carnivalesque roots by having three ZU crew firebreathing at the Spring Fling.

April 2009 – Writing and production begins on Zero Untitled’s second one-man show called “Random Thoughts and Unfinished Songs”. The show goes on to premiere in April and have the longest run of any Zero Untitled show (with seven show spanning two months). It also premiered in Corpus Christi, TX at Wiseguys Club.

May 2009 – “Safety Critters” premieres at the Marc Cisneros Center for Young Children.

June 2009 – “Women Scorned” is premiered at the Blue Room. The series included a ghostly Don Nigro play, a one-woman show, and a tortured romance.

July 2009 – The Fall/Spring season is announced tentatively featuring: “The Run Around”, an improv show, a Christmas play, a new adaptation by ZU founder Gabriel Ruiz, and Verderber’s original adaptation to Euripides’s classic, reinvented as “Medea: Cerberus.”

October 2009 –”Our Gift from Prometheus” (a fire breathing show) is performed at TAMUK’s Fall Carnival.

November 1, 2009 – “Epitaph by Moonlight” (a short play) opens in collaboration with TAMUK’s annual Day of the Dead art exhibit.

December 2009 – “Twas the FLOP Before Christmas” is performed in the Memorial Student Union Building.

2010 Highlights:

January 2010 – Filming, postproduction and release for the short film “Pilo, the Neverending” occurs in northern California.

February 2010 – Our 38th production, the interactive “Into Hell: A Trek Through Dante’s Inferno” is performed to over 300 people.

June 2010 – The spoof of the Greek tragedy “Antigone,” entitled “Anti-Gone Wrong” is announced and also performed.

July 2010 – Meetings and filming in Boston begin for a new music video called “Saltie” by DJ Oringe.

September 2010 – “When Mimes Invade” sweeps the Kingsville Downtown ArtWalk. Preparations began for “Madness in Wonderland”.

October 2010 – The fire breathing show “Ignis Duo” occurs in conjunction with TAMUK’s Fall Carnival. Another fire breathing show, “Flight of the Fireflies: Take Off/The Migration” was performed behind Cousins Hall. The radio show mystery, “The Unraveling” was also performed

December 2010 – Filming for DJ Oringe’s next video “Floormatted” began.

2011 Highlights:

February 2011 – The second installment of “Flight of the Fireflies: Exit Diapause” occurs during GATO-Con.

March 2011 – “A Vague Absence” is performed. Zero’s spring fire breathing show, “Amber & Ashes” occurs.

May 2011 – Shakespeare’s “The Rape of Lucrece” premieres as Zero’s 50th show.

Summer 2011 – “Premature Punchline” shows occur once a week throughout the summer, in TAMUK’s Blue Room and Corpus Christi’s Tango Tea Room.

December 2011 – Zero Untitled went to Vegas to perform “Gamblin’ Mime” along the Strip.

2012 Highlights:

• International production “All The World’s a Stage” (Texas, Korea, London) all happen at the same time
• Several one-act plays premiere

2013 Highlights

• Our Corpus Christi Seven-Day Film project “Eighty Six Thousand…” brings home several awards
• About ten productions went up

2014 Highlights

• The Dark Tours “The Factory” and “The Wonderland Massacre” premieres
• ZU invited to perform at Shake38, a major Shakespeare festival in St Louis, MO
• Experimental live Facebook/film/improv project “The Mindless Men” premieres online

2015 Highlights

• “The Taming of the Shrew” is produced
• Collaboration with San Antonio poet Octavio Quintanilla continue with several poetry videos being produced
• We film our first book trailer

2016 Highlights

• We staged our first Greek adaptation of Medea called Medea:Cerberus 
• We staged Doctor Faustus with a young female playing the role of the elderly doctor
• #ZeroLife series premieres several ultra short works online
• Neverland Lost Dark Tour premieres

2017 Highlights

• Dark tour A Night at the Opal, an immersive noir crime show premieres
• We perform at two simultaneous proms (HM King’s Cirque de Soleil theme & PPAS’s Alice in Wonderland theme)
• On-going series of Shakespearean sonnet videos that work both individually and collectively as multiple stories
• Two plays will be produced Off Off Broadway in August: Treason and Unending Repetition 

2018 Highlights

• Katherine Orozco-Verderber became a finalist for the Josephine Awards for Best Actress in NYC
• Zero Untitled – NY continues with more productions
• Katherine Orozco-Verderber releases an album of Christmas cover songs
• “Hybrid Theatre”, a new book of Zero Untitled plays and poetry is published by Local Gems Press
• (updated soon!)

2019 Highlights

• Cole and Kate R nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress in “Epitaph By Moonlight” in NYC
• All branches book gigs at Bella Luna Downtown in Corpus (Dramatica, Textual, PrePunch)
• Premature Punchline FINALISTS in Portland’s Got Talent Live event

2020 Highlights
– Our first short film in New Orleans completed
– Several digital and online productions begin due to pandemic
– We begin out first online serial – “The Job Interviews”

2021 Highlights
– Online-exclusive productions continue, including “Backroom Karaoke”, Textual Overture, and music videos for dark classical / dungeon synth artist Down Chamber

2022 Highlights
– We return to in-person shows with our Premature Punchline New Face Showcase
– We mount our first production at the Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures – “Planetes: Extinction”
– Our first multi-country combo video project premieres “The Indefatigiable / Halara” (Greece, Italy)
– The Dark Tour is back with “The Curse of Rangda”

2023 Highlights
– Our new murder mystery show is fully realized and the murders commence for a long run of performances “Death In The Aisles” in both Corpus and Kingsville.
– Several Down Chamber-related projects release
– Our film “Fetch! A Llama Story” is an Official Selection for the Bristol 48H Puppetry Film Festival
– 2023’s Dark Tour was the Lovecraftian “The Eldritch Seven”
– We release a short series of TikTok horror stories inspired by infamous online short stories and filmed in an actual haunted location

2024 Highlights
– “Death In The Aisles” is revived
– We begin work on kamishiabai style plays with “Ba Pot-Bellied Pigs”
– (UPDATED SOON!)

******

Zero Untitled is proud to have an ever-growing list of over 140 World Premieres:

Freakshow Theatre
Freakshow Theatre II
Flowers in the Fall
Ankur Adrift
Concrete Hearts
Ms. Negativity
Amputation
A Winter’s Harvest
House Party Mix Up
No One is Listening
Night by the River
Fishin’ in the Rite Hole
Final Examination
Excerpts from a Life Once Lived
Over White Wine
These Last Words
Regrets of Idiocy
Taming of the Fleas: Act One
Before We Met
Red Roses All Over Me
Through Glass
Random Thoughts and Unfinished Songs
Safety Critters
Hemlock
Twas the FLOP Before Christmas
Into Hell: A Trek Through Dante’s Inferno
Heart and Stole
Anti-Gone Wrong
The Unraveling
Madness in Wonderland
Sidetalk
Three Hours
The Rape of Lucrece (new adaptation)
Relapse in Wonderland
Shattered
Broken Wheels
GPS: Gender’s Problematic Situation
Flight 1862
Haiku of a Madman
Unconditional
Consequences
Canvas
Clerks: Shakespeare Edition
Acoustical
True College Learning
Forest
Wandering Blvd
Violin
Nightmare of Oz
Pot and Kettle
An Early Mourning
Scarred
Only Slightly Mad
No Regrets
Too Young To Die
The Bachelorette Party
It’s Not Very Effective
A Kidnapping
Lolita And The Fox
There’s a Hotel at the End
The Walls Have Faces
Manikin
A Glass Veil
Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds
A Winter’s Harvest
Injection
Pinko’s Pirouette
Coming Out Party
Dependents
Fucking Karma
Leave a Message at the Beep
Truth
Coach
Brothers
Too Little, Too Late
Don’t Forget
Torn
Shrink
The Factory
Dual Sex
Cafe Triste (video)
Catchweight
Mal de Ojo (video)
All Tied Up
From Inside
The Graveyard Shift
Wolfe of the West
Orale!
Reflections
The Wonderland Massacre
Message (video)
Charon’s Speech
Those Present at the Time of My Death
Oxidized Coal
Rearview
Serenity
I’ll See You At Heaven’s Gate
The Burning of Mary
Wish
A Girl and her Monster
This One
Medea: Cerberus
Doctor Faustus (adaptation)
I Wanna Try That!
Empathy: A Mom Blog
Thr33 H0ur Th3atr3 plays
Tiny Forest
Neverland Lost
Christmas OFF The Shelf
A Night at the Opal
Treason
Unending Repetition
The Devil’s Haven
Dogleg: A Golf Comedy
The Hunt of the ScareCROWs
Three Cells
Captive Pilgrim
Welcome Home
Zellen: A Soundscape (video)
Autumn Leaves… Twice!
Mimes at the Library!
In[SOMNIA]
A Merry Delta Christmas, pts 1-3
Rekindled
The Remains of Neverland
Brush the Concrete Gently (video)
A Slower Exitstence
The Job Interviews (video)
The (Almost) Kindergarten Fire (video)
Wait Wait, You Did What? (video)
Innocuous (video)
For Those Soft and Lonesome Times (video)
The Church of Winter (video)
People Pleaser
Chronically Single (video)
Planetes: Extinction
The Curse of Rangda
A Targeted Gift Exchange
Carol of the Beds
Moober, The Well Dressed Dog (video)
Experiment No. 3 – Headless (video)
Fetch: A Llama Story (video)
The Eldritch Seven
Chanel’s Christmas Monologue
The Perfect Gift Wrapping
Ba Pot-Bellied Pigs
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