The Department of Theatre and Dance is holding auditions on Dec. 2 and 3 for the 2025 winter quarter production of Beth Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds. Directed by Granada Artist-in-Residence Peter J. Kuo, the play centers on six runaways from city life who embark on a silent rustic retreat, but their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect. 

Open to all UC Davis students, auditions will be 6-9 p.m. in the Arena Theatre. 

Filled with awkward and insightful humor, Small Mouth Sounds is the unique and compassionate new play that asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us. 

To audition, please prepare a contemporary monologue (comedic or dramatic) of your choosing, no longer than two minutes. Auditioners will have a seven-minute time slot. 

Callbacks will be Dec. 4.

Kuo is a theatre director, producer, writer, and educator focusing on raising the visibility of marginalized communities. Born and raised in Southern California, he resides in San Francisco where he is the Director of the Conservatory at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.). At A.C.T. he remounted the production’s annual A Christmas Carol, and for the MFA program, directing The Pliant Girls, Medea, and the Live Video Theater production of In Love and Warcraft, during the pandemic. He earned his MFA in Directing at The New School for Drama in New York City. Named as one of TCG’s Rising Leaders of Color in the Round 3 cohort, he is also a co-founder of Artists at Play, an Asian American theatre collective that produces Los Angeles premieres of works for Asian Americans. He directed the world premiere of ESSPY at New Jersey Repertory Company, Washer/Dryer at East West Players.

The Department of Theatre and Dance is part of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. For information about other department productions, visit theatredance.ucdavis.edu.