The Department of Theatre and Dance presents Beth Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds in winter quarter 2025. Directed by Granada Artist-in-Residence Peter J. Kuo, the minimalist work of experimental theater that casts the audience as voyeurs in an entertaining adventure that gradually turns more serious. 

The play opens at the Wyatt Pavilion Theatre on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. and performs Feb. 28, March 1, 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. and March 1 and 8 at 2 p.m..

In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect.

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. The New York Times called the play “as funny as it is, uh, quietly moving.”

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.

Adult tickets are $15, faculty/staff tickets are $12, and student/senior tickets are $5. Tickets may be purchased at the UC Davis Ticket Office, located on the north side of Aggie Stadium, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, by phone 530-752-2471 during the same hours, or online at arts.ucdavis.edu/theatre-and-dance.

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.