1973. Los Angeles. A rundown burlesque club.

Chances are, most have never been there. But beginning tonight, the opportunity to experience a gritty mystery set in this location is coming to the UI with Lost Sharks, a new play premièring on stage as the first of eight productions in the UI theater department’s Gallery Series.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to develop and focus a new play while working with a director, actors, and a production team,” said Kevin Artigue, the Lost Sharks playwright and second-year M.F.A. candidate in the Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop. “The process is structured to serve the writing of new work.”

Lost Sharks will début in the Theatre Building’s Theatre B at 8 p.m. today; it will run through Sunday. Admission is free for UI students, $5 for nonstudents.

Artigue met with John Kaufmann, a third-year graduate student in the directing program, last spring to discuss what they might do with a Gallery slot. Among other ideas, Artigue pitched Lost Sharks. Artigue and Kaufmann submitted the idea to Bryon Winn, who selects the department’s Gallery and Workshop seasons.

Gallery shows are performed in Theatre B, a simple black-box environment, and directors are given a limited budget and rehearsal time. For Artigue and Kaufmann, rehearsals also meant development of the show’s script.

“John and I are on the same page,” Artigue said. “We share a philosophy that constraints are a great opportunity to think theatrically and prescribe creativity.”

While many playwrights may be excluded from rehearsals and production in the professional world, Artigue said, the UI is a “playwright-centric” environment for developing new plays.

Because Lost Sharks is a period piece, director Kaufmann had to rely somewhat on props and costumes to create that world with the low budget set for Gallery productions. He and Artigue had to work together to find different ways to be imaginative.

“It’s a step down in budget from Mainstage shows,” Kaufmann said. “But not a step down in awesome theater. And sometimes with money, you don’t have to be as creative.”

But even with the low budget, Gallery directors and actors have many resources at their disposal.

The space, lighting, and sound are provided for them, and directors can tap into the theater deparments costume and prop shops.

Right after the show was selected at the end of the spring, the playwright and director set to work assembling their crew, beginning with the position of stage manager, whom Artigue referred to as the “glue” of the production. Gina Mantione filled the role.

Actors were chosen at the first-semester auditions, one of whom was Deanna Brookens, a first-year UI graduate student. She will make her UI stage début as an Armenian immigrant burlesque dancer. The M.F.A. candidate in acting appreciates having Artigue in the studio for rehearsals.

“I like having the person whose brain the show came from in the room,” she said. “It was fun and exciting and mysterious going to rehearsals each night.”

The collaborative environment of a Gallery show allowed for open discussion on ideas and input, a “creative and fulfilling experience” for Brookens.

“All of us here in the department are advocates for new work,” she said.