SEASON 37 | july 2025
Jinkies! or The (currently) Untitled Dog Play
July 18-26, 2025
Thursday-Saturday 8pm
Sunday, July 20 6pm
ASL-interpreted: July 19, 2025 – Free for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing
The VORTEX Summer Youth Theatre proudly presents the world premiere of a new play: Jinkies! or The (currently) Untitled Dog Play by Josiah Thomas Turner.
When a gang of meddling mystery-solvers is reunited after a botched case, can they overcome their differences for one last hurrah? Jinkies! takes a beloved cultural juggernaut and re-envisions it with modern themes and characters that reflect our diverse society. This campy, Scooby Doo-style whodunnit about a spree of local kidnappings is infused with political commentary on gentrification and corruption; race, class, and power; intersectional feminism; justice reform; and environmentalism.
Alongside a healthy dose of nostalgia, this play asks: What does community healing look like? How much do our actions (or inactions) define us? How do you move forward after making a tragic mistake? At its heart, Jinkies! is a story about growing up, confronting hard truths, and accepting the uncertainties that life throws our way.
PRODUCTION TEAM: Directed by Jacqui Calloway. Assistant Director, Faith Sanders. Dramaturgy, Caili Crow. Stage Managers: Estelle Isaac and Mel Denison. Scenic Design by CB Feller. Lighting Design by Amy Lewis. Costume Design by Tater Williams. Sound Design by Johann Solo. Prop Design by Steph Vasquez Fonseca. Fight/Stunt Coordinator, Dane Parker. Intimacy Coordinator, Andy Grapko. Assistant Prop Design, Ebone Crayton. Technical Associates, Daniel Hernandez and Tamara L. Farley.
CAST/ENSEMBLE: Evanna Crayton, Sabrina Alcorn, Meghan Lindberg, Eliot Donmoyer, Bella Olsen, Sharky Meehan, Alexandria Collins, Avital Cuevas, Django Somera, Cami Edrich, Amsterdam Love.
STUDENT PRODUCTION/DESIGN TEAM: Izi Griffin, Evanna Crayton, Cate Deinlein, Ethan York, Bijou Bond, Ziggy Danielson-LaGrone, Cal Burnes.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: Jacqui Calloway is a performer, educator, and theatre maker. She is a company member at The VORTEX who has won four B. Iden Payne Awards for her performances. You may have recently seen her as Chris in Jarrott Productions’ POTUS. Last summer, Jacqui assistant directed Thrive, or What You Will (The VORTEX) and served as an artist mentor for Ground Floor Theatre’s inaugural Queer Camp. Jacqui works at Creative Action as director of the Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble, where she guides teenage artists through a devising and playwriting process that culminates in the annual tour of a play to prevent interpersonal violence. She is also an instructor at The Actor’s School, a teaching artist for the Paramount Story Wranglers, and a guest lecturer at Texas State University. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College and has studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop, and the Relativity School.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Josiah Thomas Turner is a queer, Black artist, musician, and theater-maker born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He earned his MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. Josiah’s work has been developed with and seen at Fade To Black Theatre Fest, Wild Winds Texas, the constructivists, Breaking & Entering, The Fled, and The Kennedy Center. Turner was a finalist for Magic in Rough Spaces at Rorschach Theatre, winner of the Kennedy Center’s Planet Earth Prize, Ken Ludwig Playwriting Scholarship, and National Undergraduate Theatre award as well as being a Semifinalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Playwright’s Conference, and the Playwright’s Realm’s Scratchpad Series. He is currently a 2023-2025 Many Voices Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center.
ABOUT THE VORTEX’S SUMMER YOUTH THEATRE: Since 1991, SYT has provided high-caliber theatrical productions created by Central Texas teens as a jewel of The VORTEX’s educational and community programming. The SYT program teaches students ages 13-17, spanning middle and high school. Summer Youth Theatre students receive instruction in theatre arts, equivalent to 3 credits under the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Fine Arts, Theatre Levels 117.64, 65, 66, 67. By TEKS standards, this program is equivalent to or higher than High School Theatre Arts II, Technical Theatre I, and Theatre Production II. The VORTEX has developed this curriculum over more than thirty years. The Austin Chronicle has named SYT “Best Theatre for Kids That Treats Kids Like Grownups.”
Every year, students work with adult artists who are among Austin’s most celebrated theatre professionals. SYT has previously received B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding productions of Youth Theatre for The Commedia of Errors and Machinal; Outstanding Acting in Youth Theatre for The Memo, The Physicists and Moby Dick; Outstanding Direction of Youth Theatre for The Commedia of Errors, The Physicists, Moby Dick, and The Frogs; Outstanding Original Song for Pandemdem Edition: Another Great Depression; Outstanding Sound Design for Machinal. VORTEX Producing Artistic Director Bonnie Cullum founded SYT in 1991 and was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2009
Summer Youth Theatre 2025 is funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company, Six Square-Austin’s Black Cultural District, a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, The City of Austin Economic Development Department, Tapestry Dance, Berkeley United Methodist Church, and ATX Theatre.
Sponsorships and community donations also help keep this program tuition-free. To support Summer Youth Theatre as a donor, please contact vortex@vortexrep.org.
In Loving Memory of J Mwaki.