UCSB’s New Works Lab is a workshop for plays written & produced by students in the Theater & Dance Department. The three plays here are somewhat related. “Soda Jerks” is about the rocky relationship between 2 recently graduated male high school “best friends” who want to start a soda fountain. They can also act like jerks, an affliction of most boys that age and males in general, especially when a girl (tinder date) walks into the picture. “Fast Food Takeover” is a dystopian drama set in a burger joint (related to a soda fountain) that is distinctly unappetizing for patrons and workers alike who are held prisoner in this Kafka-esque version of a restaurant. In this case the jerks are deadly. The third offering, “My Role, My Role,” circles back to friendship and love as two brothers make fraternal peace after a long estrangement, the elder giving hope and a renewed sense of purpose to his younger sibling following an intense bit of role-playing gamesmanship in Dragons and Dungeons. Perhaps acting like a jerk gets you to a better self eventually?
