Standing in front of nine directors with three monologues running through her mind, Maura Tang began the audition that would lead her to a role alongside professional actors.

The UW School of Drama, in partnership with the Seattle Repertory Theatre, selected Tang, Heather Rash and Camille Thornton to work on a collaborative play entitled Lidless.

Tang is a first-year graduate student in the Professional Actor Training Program, which leads to a master’s of fine arts in action, and says that working jointly with the Seattle Repertory Theatre has broadened her experience.

She graduated from UC Berkley with a double major in theater and dance and performance theory, and she participated in countless plays and musical performances.

“Most of my performing experience is probably based on what I learned as an undergrad,” she said.

The audition process was competitive.

“In my audition, I had to do three monologues in front of about nine to 10 directors,” she said. “A week later, Braden Abraham, the director for Lidless, called me back for callbacks, and then I was cast. It’s actually my first time in a stage reading rather than a full-on production.”

Lidless is a play about an ex-Guantanamo Bay interrogator, who comes across a man she encountered when she worked with detainees at the prison. Tang will play the role of Riva, a U.S. Army medic.

“This is probably the first time that we are officially working with the Seattle Repertory Theatre on a production,” said Kris Bain, director of communications at the UW School of Drama. “Official, in that we are performing for the general public and making a public announcement of the play.”

This play is set be the first of many collaborative productions.

“There are alums and graduates that end up on their scene. Design students and acting students from our program,” Bain said. “The faculty and the program are working on establishing relationships with theater organizations in town in order to pursue and support the growing theater scene here.”

The play will not be a typical performance but a stage reading.

“Stage reading is basically inviting actors to participate in a public reading and performance of new works or plays. It will include minimal design ethics, like lights and costumes and scenes,” said Monique Robinson, a first-year graduate student in acting.

The production was different from what Tang had previously experienced.

“It’s very minimalistic — no special props and costumes,” she said. “We will have scripts in hand. It’s basically you, the script, your role and interaction with the other characters.”

Because of the style of the play, her rehearsals were shorter than the four-to-five months of production she usually endured.

“I’d say rehearsals have been running for two weeks maximum, maybe a week-and-a-half,” she said.

Through this experience, Tang feels she has learned a lot of the equities outside the program and of the outside world. This experience was different from the work that she had done in the past, but it was definitely an educational experience.

“Working with professional actors as well as with both the scriptwriter and director is a new experience, especially because they aren’t from my faculty,” Tang said. “Also, I get to broaden my network through the production and gain knowledge about the dynamic of the professional field.”

In contrast to the acting scene in California, Tang said that Seattle is “very small but has an active theater community,” a quality that has captured her attention.

Rash, a second-year graduate student, has worked on several projects with the School of Drama, including The Tempest, which was performed during fall quarter of this past year.

“I’ve previously worked on a stage reading, but this is more developed,” she said. “We’re off the book for some scenes because we are very familiar with the script. Compared to my previously experience, this is a lot more developed and farther from the process.”

This is Rash’s first performance with a professional company in Seattle. She will play the main character Alice, a 25-year-old interrogator at Guantanamo Bay.

“[Alice is] a tragic hero who goes through a lot,” she said. “She takes medication to forget her past and her role as an interrogator, and the play fast-forwards to 15 years later where she is married and has her own family. She encounters one of her detainees and her life goes downhill.”

Apart from having a director who doesn’t know her as closely as her professors, a scriptwriter who directly gives her input about her character, and acting alongside professional actors, Rash’s experience with working with the Seattle Repertory Theatre is not that different from working with the faculty members in the drama department.

“It’s not at all that different compared to school, so not much of a culture shock,” Rash said.

Thornton has performed in seven UW productions, including Lidless. This is her first time working with professionals in Seattle.

“The process of working with professionals is always the same, but working with different directors and actors makes the process slightly different, because every director has a unique style,” she said.

Thornton will be playing the role of Rhiannon and Vakiyah, Alice’s daughters.

Thornton says working with Abraham has been a great opportunity.

“Braden is a great director, and the actors are amazing to work with,” she said. “It’s great to work with people outside the program.”

Reach contributing writer So Hyoung An at development@dailyuw.com.