Last year’s production, “From Passion to Page”, was a short two-day festival of plays written by novice playwrights in collaboration with Texas A&M University – Kingsville’s ENGL 3300 Playwriting course.  Due to the connection to the university, the college has requested that this year’s festival, “From Passion 2013”  be under the helm of the Department of Language and Literature.

Respecting their request, ZU will not lead this project.  However, our actors, directors, and crew will still be assisting in any way possible.  The eleven short, ten-minute plays have already begun rehearsal. ZU will still help advertise and promote the production, premiering November 22nd and 26th.  Pictures coming soon.

 (pictured: Director C.J. Lillie offering insight to actor Mario Ramos for the play “Shrink”)

Zero Untitled celebrates its 10th Anniversary and the publication of the [nonspace] book with a series of plays from the text and a party on Thursday, October 24th at 7:00.

The event will feature three plays and a live performance from Corpus Christi rockers The Blind Owls.  Join us for the food, friends, plays, and live music!

Anyone who has EVER performed or worked with ZU is invited!

What do you do with your final twenty-four hours of life? One young man figures it out with the help of his friends in our short film, Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds, which is now viewable on YouTube and here at Zero Untitled!

An eight-minute version of the film was originally created as part of the Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project, where it received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Aaron Salinas), Best Supporting Actress (Megan Saenz), Best Ensemble Cast, First-Time Filmmaker, and won the award for Best Original Song (Caleb Bonitz).

Catch the movie on YouTube, or after the break by clicking “Read More.”

Read more

Plenty in store: First up is Textual Overture on Thursday night at the Kingsville Visitors Center on Corral Street.  For those unfamiliar, Textual Overture is an open-mic variety show of poetry, plays, live music, and other oddities.  This event FREE to the public.  The show begins at 7:00 on the 19th, so bring your work or instruments!

Keeping with the messy “ransom note” theme of previous Textual Overture flyers, here is the latest flyer:

And also: For those who could not make it to Corpus Christi for the CC 7-Day Film Festival screening of “Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds“, you will get a chance to see the screening of the multi-nominated and award-winning film, now is your chance.  On Friday, September 20th at 8:00pm, the film will be screened at the Blue Room in Fore Hall along with a “Live Commentary” with the cast and crew.  Click “Read More” to see the latest trailer after the break.  Read more

Zero Untitled’s latest endeavor, an educational program, gets launched this week.  ZU Education is an 8-class series of workshops that assist in various aspects of theatre, film, writing, and editing.  Classes will be taught be local educators and ZU crew that have extensive experience in their respective fields. 

The workshops are designed to introduce both new and veteran actors to new exercises, techniques, and abilities to further strengthen the community within ZU.  Additionally, all workshops are absolutely free and will be held in various rooms in Sam Fore Hall at the TAMUK campus.

Here is the list of forthcoming workshops.

Sept 12 – “Acting 101 & Meisner Technique” with James Taylor Maupin IV, M.A. (UT Pan American), B.A. (TAMUK) @ 8:00 in the Blue Room.

 (pictured Mr. Maupin)

Oct 10 – “Voice and Facial Expression” with Aaron Salinas (Best Supporting Actor Nominee, CC7D) and Luis Zaragosa.

Oct 25 – “Improvisational Basics” with Heraclio Gonzalez, Jr., B.A. (TAMUK), H.M. King HS Theatre teacher

Nov 20 – “Mime Basics” with Michael Verderber, M.A. (TAMUK), Lecturer at TAMUK

Dec 4 – “Poetic Writing” with Julio Martinez, B.A. (TAMUK)

 (pictured, Mr. Verderber’s Mime Class first held in the summer)

SPRING

February – “Movement” with Katherine Orozco, B.A. (Best Actress Nominee, San Antonio Horrific Film Festival)

March – “Proper Presentation” with Nicholas Zaragosa

TBA – “Flyer Design and Production” with Anissa Medina, Photography for play anthologies

Zero Untitled had a successful run at the Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Festival at the Harbor Playhouse on Saturday, September 31.  At the award ceremony held at the House of Rock a few hours after the close of the screenings, ZU brought in several nominations and a win at the festival:

Caleb Bonitz – Best Original Song (WINNER)

Megan Saenz – Best Supporting Actress (nominee)

Aaron Salinas – Best Supporting Actor (nominee)

Heraclio Gonzalez, Jr – Best First-Time Leader Award (nominee)

Full Cast – Best Ensemble (nominee)

The Kingsville premiere of the extended version will be held soon, but for now you can watch the trailer on YouTube and hear an excerpt from the award-winning song. Read more to see the video right here!

Read more

In true Zero Untitled fashion, we have a handful of productions all coming up in a short amount of time.  Here is a quick run-down:

August 29 – Premature Punchline’s “Fishnado!”, Blue Room, 8:00

August 31 – Film premiere of “Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds” at CC7D, Harbor Playhouse, 4:00

September 6-7 – Don Nigro’s “Glamorgan”, Blue Room, 8:00

In addition to the above, be on the lookout for a promotional mime trailer for our in-house mime troupe, Forward MIMEntum, produced by Kingsville Now.  Also, the film “Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds” will have a trailer out very soon as well.  Likewise, the other mainstage production, “The Merchant of Venice” is in the rough-cut phase of editing and should be out in the next month or so.

For more information, visit the individual pages:

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/fishnado

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/eighty-six-thousand-four-hundred-seconds-coming-soon/

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/glamorgan/ 

“Glamorgan” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

Here is a picture from our two-day mime workshop.  Thanks to all of the participants:

Jose, Luis, Rebekah, Dustin, Trey, Heraclio, Christina, CJ, Olivia, Aaron, and others!

Here is a pic from our crowd at OmniCon right at the start of the show.  After about 5-10 minutes, several other people trickled in and we about filled up the first four to five rows!  Also, a pic of the cast and crew!

Cast and crew are (from left to right): Rebekah Ramos, Christina Saldivar, Katy Orozco, Debbie Gerd, Beth Cantu, Aaron Salinas, Heraclio Gonzalez, Jr, Michael Verderber, and Julio Martinez.

Here are three of the four prizes from our recent Premature Punchline performance at OmniCon!

We gave away a Pokemon keychain (thanks to a local vendor), a copy of The Witcher 2 for XBox 360 (thanks to Gamestop), an AUTOGRAPHED Wolverine print signed by artist Sam de la Rosa (given by the artist), and an autographed John DiMaggio coffee mug (thanks to the UTPA Cartoon Club).