Boston University presents the 25th Fringe Festival at Booth Theatre

2021

E G N I R F FESTIVAL October 15-17

THE INFINITE ENERGY OF ADA LOVELACE

Music by Kamala Sankaram Libretto by Rob Handel

October 22-24

PROVING UP

Music by Missy Mazzoli Libretto by Royce Vavrek

November 4-6

COLOSSAL

by Andrew Hinderaker B

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A NOTE FROM THE DEAN Welcome to the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre!

In the theatre, we gather to witness the telling of a story. We sit side-by-side and embark on a journey together.

The feeling of community that the live arts enables has never been more needed. Nineteen months ago, our face-to-face conversations became face-to-screen chats. We streamed. We Zoomed in response to the challenges of a pandemic.

Thankfully, we are back in person. It is a joy to once again hear and feel the sound of community.

Take a moment to close your eyes and listen. That is the “happy buzz,” as CFA assistant professor Kính Vu calls it, of being together.

Enjoy the 2021 Fringe Festival!

I am thrilled you are here.

- Harvey Young Dean, College of Fine Arts

BU COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS Harvey Young • Dean, College of Fine Arts Dana Clancy • Director, School of Visual Arts Gregory Melchor-Barz •Director, School of Music Susan Mickey • Director, School of Theatre

2021

E G FRIN TIVAL FES

October 15-17

THE INFINITE ENERGY OF ADA LOVELACE Music by Kamala Sankaram Libretto by Rob Handel

Allison Voth, music director Emily Ranii (CFA’13), stage director

October 22-24

PROVING UP

Music by Missy Mazzoli (BUTI’98, CFA’02) Libretto by Royce Vavrek William Lumpkin, conductor Nathan Troup (CFA’04), stage director

November 4-6

COLOSSAL

Written by Andrew Hinderaker Yo-EL Cassell, director

COMING UP THIS SEASON AT BOOTH THEATRE Patterns of Wind December 2 - 5, 2021

If I Were You

Opera by Jake Heggie/Gene Scheer

February 24 - 27, 2022

Shakespeare in Love Spring 2022

More at bu.edu/cfa/season

ABOUT FRINGE FESTIVAL For two and a half decades, the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music’s Opera Institute and School of Theatre have brought unique theatrical performances to the University’s stages. The Schools have worked together to create dozens of diverse and extraordinary productions that combine a masterful blending of drama and music compiled into three main events every fall.

Now in its 25th season, Boston University’s Fringe Festival collaboration lives up to its mission to produce new or rarely performed significant works in the opera and theatre repertoire, bringing performances and audiences together in unique theatrical settings and spare and minimal productions.

Learn more at bu.edu/cfa/fringe.

A NOTE FROM THE OPERA INSTITUTE'S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Welcome (back!) to the 25th Annual Fall Fringe Festival.

We are beyond excited to come back to the rehearsal studio and to our performance space to offer these compelling operas for the Opera Institute’s first live inperson performance since February of 2020.

The energy of our students is invigorating, and we are eager to share their extraordinary talents with you, our devoted audience.

- William Lumpkin

A NOTE FROM THE SCHOOL OF THEATRE DIRECTOR We are so glad to invite you into our theatre again and begin this year with work for the Fringe. In collaboration with the Opera Institute we proudly bring you a first glimpse of exciting new work in music and theatre that will whet your appetite for more. The School of Theatre production of Colossal reminds us that theatre is everywhere. Football as theatre is woven into this powerful narrative of identity, disability, dance, and pathos.

We celebrate these artists both on and off stage who have weathered the pandemic to bring you these first live performances with an audience in attendance. We performed last year, but only for those on Zoom and those on faculty.

Allow us to include you as our collaborator in the process of making great theatre.

Welcome back!

- Susan Mickey

THE INFINITE ENERGY OF ADA LOVELACE Music by Kamala Sankaram Libretto by Rob Handel Commissioned by Opera Ithaca

October 15-17, 2021 Allison Voth, music director Emily Ranii, stage director

CAST Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace Charles Babbage Harriet Beecher Stowe

+ Gabrielle Barkidjija * Danielle Alexis Smith + Edgar Ricaud * Marcus Huber + Yunus Akbaş * Ryan P. Mewhorter + Sarah Rogers * Kira Kaplan

A Nanny

+ Allison Holloway * Lena Costello

A Butler

Anthony Pilcher

+Friday evening, Saturday matinee * Saturday Evening and Sunday matinee

ENSEMBLE 1st Violin 2nd Violin Viola Cello Piano

Huiying Ma Clara Montes Jessica Cooper Alexander Norberg Allison Voth

PRODUCTION TEAM Opera Institute Managing Director Production Manager Associate Production Manager Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager

Oshin Gregorian Eric Sprosty James Templeton Lawren Gregory Katelyn Thompson

DESIGN & TECHNICAL TEAM Scenic Designer Assistant Scenic Designer Costume Designer Assistant Costume Designer Lighting Designer Assistant Lighting Designer Moving Lights Programmer Props Master Sound Engineer Master Electrician Assistant Master Electrician Technical Director Assistant Technical Director Scenic Charge Supertitles

Anika Reichelt Marc Andrea Vento Logan Samuels Dante Gonzalez McKenna Ebert Angus Goodearl Isaak Olson Marc Andrea Vento Jonathan Beals Isaak Olson Molly Beall Marco Liguori Autumn Munsell Noah Dunlap Guthrie Morgan Allison Voth

THE INFINITE ENERGY PRODUCTION CREW Drapers

Jesse Azevedo Sasha Marlene Nemi Lato Stacy Brannan

Wardrobe

Saber E. Stetson Davin J. Martin Rachel Schladenhauffen

Run Crew

Haley C. Lynch Jack S. Greenberg

Light Board Operator Sound Board Operator

Maya L. Bailey Maya A. Sabatini Esther L. O’Shea

Video Operator

Imayah S. Hawkins

Front of House

Herbert Jones Luke A. Capello Ambria M. Benjamin Emery E. Genga Jennifer D. Platt Lana A. Sage Macy E. McGrail Kamran S. Bina Maya B. Scott-Luib Evan Brown Serena Arora

A production of Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music: Opera Institute and School of Theatre

OF ADA LOVELACE ABOUT THE COMPOSER

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raised as “strikingly original” (NY Times) and a “new voice from whom we will surely be hearing more” (LA Times), Kamala Sankaram writes highly theatrical music that defies categorization. Recent commissions include the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Opera on Tap, among others.

Awards, grants, and residencies include: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, NY IT Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, the Civilians, HERE, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center. Known for her work with emerging technologies, her recent genre-defying hit Looking at You (with collaborators Rob Handel and Kristin Marting) featured live data mining of the audience and a chorus of 25 singing tablet computers. Sankaram, Handel, and Marting also created all decisions will be made by consensus, a short absurdist opera performed live over Zoom and featured on NBC and the BBC3. With librettist Jerre Dye and Opera on Tap, she created The Parksville Murders, the world’s first virtual reality opera (Samsung VR, Jaunt VR, Kennedy Center Reach Festival, “Best Virtual Reality Video” NY Independent Film Festival, Future of Storytelling, Salem Horror Festival and the Topanga Film Festival.)

Also a performer (hailed as "an impassioned soprano with blazing high notes" (Wall Street Journal)), Kamala moves freely between the worlds of experimental music, creative music, and contemporary opera. Kamala recently sang the role of Gwen St. Clair in the revival of Meredith Monk’s ATLAS with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A frequent collaborator with Anthony Braxton, she has premiered his operas Trillium E and Trillium J, as well as appearing on his 12-hour recording GTM (Syntax) 2017. Other notable collaborations include The Wooster Group’s LA DIDONE (Kaaitheater, Brussels, Edinburgh International Festival, Rotterdam Schouberg, Grand Théâtre de la Ville, Luxembourg, St. Anne’s Warehouse, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles), the PROTOTYPE Festival’s THUMBPRINT (Baruch Performing Arts, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles), and appearances with John Zorn, the Philip Glass Ensemble, and Petr Kotik, among others. Kamala is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood surf ensemble whose accolades include two awards for Best Eclectic Album from the Independent Music Awards, the 2018 Mid-Atlantic touring grant, and appearances on WFMU and NPR. Bombay Rickey’s opera-cabaret on the life of Yma Sumac premiered in the 2016 PROTOTYPE Festival and was presented in London at Tête-à-Tête Opera’s Cubitt Sessions.

Dr. Sankaram holds a PhD from the New School and is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase.

THE INFINITE ENERGY ABOUT THE LIBRETTIST

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ob Handel is a librettist and playwright. His collaborations with composer Kamala Sankaram include Enchantress (American Lyric Theatre, Opera Ithaca), Bombay Rickey (Meets The Psychology of Desire) (Prototype festival at HERE, Tête à Tête in London), and Looking At You (developed at Opera America and BRIC Arts Media). The Artwork of the Future, with composer Eric Moe, was developed at New Dramatists, where Rob was a resident playwright from 2008-2015. Handel’s plays include Millicent Scowlworthy, Aphrodisiac, A Maze, and I Want to Destroy You. Productions: New York Stage and Film, Long Wharf, Target Margin, Theatre Vertigo (Portland, OR), Rorschach Theatre (DC), Just Theater/Shotgun Players (Berkeley), Theatre Battery (Kent, WA), City Lights (San Jose), Curious Theatre (Denver), Theater Ninjas (Cleveland), Half Moon (Poughkeepsie), 99 Stock (San Francisco), and many others.

Residencies: The Civilians R&D Group, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Soho Rep, Portland Center Stage, The MacDowell Colony, Todd Mountain Theater Project, and a ‘pataphysics retreat. Handel served on the board of the MacDowell Colony and was a founding member of 13P. He studied at Williams College and with Paula Vogel at Brown University. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, poet Joy Katz, and their son.

OF ADA LOVELACE SYNOPSIS The best stories are often true stories, in this case, a story in four scenes set in Victorian England featuring Ada Lovelace, a brilliant mathematician and only legitimate child of the romantic poet Lord Byron.

Intertwined in her life are Charles Babbage; the inventor of the Analytical Engine - the world’s first digital computer; Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin who was a close friend of Ada’s mother, Lady Byron, and fierce advocate of social justice and women wronged; and finally, Ada’s husband, William King-Noel (Lord King), 1st Earl of Lovelace FRS, nobleman and architect.

What brought them together? What kept them apart? What did they ultimately choose to fight for: passion, family, or truth?

- Emily Ranii & Allison Voth

THE INFINITE ENERGY NOTE FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR AND STAGE DIRECTOR “Creativity and imagination are the basic ingredients for the scientist, as in the arts, because science is an art.” Ángeles Alvariño (1916-2005) Early oceanography researcher and first woman appointed as scientist aboard British & Spanish exploration ships.

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da Lovelace was a mathematician whose creative mind saw the infinite possibilities of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine — far beyond what he or his fellow scientists envisioned.

In a letter to Charles Babbage from July 1843, Ada Lovelace wrote: “Before ten years are over, the Devil’s in it if I have not sucked out some of the life-blood from the mysteries of this universe, in a way that no purely mortal lips or brains could do.”

This line becomes a turning point in The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace, an opera that examines what happens when your dreams are bigger than what the world expects of you based solely on your identity; in Ada’s case, the world’s limited expectations of her were due to her gender. Nevertheless, Ada had the biggest dreams of all, to unlock “the mysteries of the universe.”

And She Persisted.

OF ADA LOVELACE Babbage was ahead of his time, designing the first calculator (the difference engine) and the first computer (the Analytical Engine). Ada, by contrast, was visionary as she imagined the applications of the Analytical Engine outside of mathematics to poetry and music: “…it might act upon other things besides number…Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity and extent.”

And so, it is fitting that Ada’s mathematical quest be set to music, composed, not by the Analytical Engine, but by Kamala Sankaram, a fearless, cutting-edge composer whose career is awhirl in the world of opera, and we are proud to present her opera, The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace.

The music propels the journey of Ada Lovelace forward, at times relentless as an engine in motion, at others, reflective and suspended in time. This opera is a celebration of her creativity and imagination, but also a testimony of her struggle to choose between a life of creative passion or one of social expectation and quiet love. One thing is certain, the incessant workings of her analytical and mathematical mind resonated with all who knew her and continues to resonate with us today.

We invite you to join us as the art of science and the science of art collide in a big bang in The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace.

- Emily Ranii & Allison Voth

PROVING UP

Composed by Missy Mazzoli Libretto by Royce Vavrek based on the short story by Karen Russell

October 22-24, 2021 Nathan Troup, director William Lumpkin, conductor Setting A homestead in Nebraska, Circa 1877

CAST Miles Zegner Mr. Johannes “Pa” Zegner Mrs. Johannes “Ma” Zegner

+ Ryan Lustgarten * Jangho Lee + Hyungjin Son * Devon Russo + Caroline Corrales * Stephanie Pfundt

Littler Sister

+ Danielle Pribyl * Savannah Panah

Taller Sister

+ Alexis Peart * Olivia Schurke

The Sodbuster Peter Zegner

+ Jacob O’Shea * Aleksandar Reupert + Jangho Lee * Ryan Lustgarten

+ Friday evening & Saturday matinee * Saturday Evening and Sunday matinee

ENSEMBLE 1st Violin 2nd Violin Viola Cello Bass Flute/Piccolo/Harmonica Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Harmonica Bassoon/Contrabassoon /Harmonica Horn Trumpet/Harmonica Percussion Harp Piano/Harpsichord

Yeonji Shim Kuan-Pei Chen Emily Rideout Tyla Axelrod Lillian Young Jessica Wu Brandon Von Quentin Kamieniecki Timothy Moy Caleb Menkhus Jack Rutledge Katie Lyon-Pingree Angela Gooch

PRODUCTION TEAM Coach/Music Preparation

Matthew Larson

Opera Institute Managing Director

Oshin Gregorian

Production Manager Associate Production Manager Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Production Assistant

Eric Sprosty James Templeton Elliot Dupcak Ash Strange Addison Pattillo

Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli presented under license from G. Schirmer Inc. and Associated Music Publishers, copyright owners. A production of Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music: Opera Institute and School of Theatre

PROVING UP

DESIGN & TECHNICAL TEAM Scenic Designer Asst. Scenic Designer Costume Designer Asst. Costume Designer Lighting Designer Asst. Lighting Designer Moving Light Programmer Props Master Sound Engineer Master Electrician Asst. Master Electrician Technical Director Asst. Technical Director Scenic Charge Scenic Painter Supertitles

Jace Jayoung Hong Madeline Riddick-Seals Alison Miranda Daniel Vigil Angus Goodearl McKenna Ebert John Holmes Madeline Riddick-Seals Jonathan Beals Isaak Olson Celeste Delgadillo Marco Liguori Autumn Munsell Noah Dunlap Guthrie Morgan Allison Voth

PRODUCTION CREW Drapers

Wardrobe Run Crew Light Board Operator Sound Board Operator Video Operator Front of House

Liza Ryus Evan Petrow Quinn Barnes Gabrielle Calden-James Alexandria Balduzzi Zachary R. Kautter Mia S. Bregman Valerie Y. Zhao Maya A. Sabatini Esther O’Shea Kaden P. Mays Herbert Jones Zachary A. Mallgrave Owen L. Sloane Alexandra R. Dagen Lila G. English Shai A. Vaknine Ava Jane C. Laroche Mateen Bizar Annika Bolton Caleb Collins Kathryn Hayes

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

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ecently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times), “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), and praised for her “apocalyptic imagination” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), Missy Mazzoli (CFA’02, BUTI’98) has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Scottish Opera and many others.

In 2018 she became, along with Jeanine Tesori, one of the first women to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of “Best Classical Composition”. She is currently the Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-inResidence with Opera Philadelphia.

Her 2018 opera Proving Up, created with longtime collaborator librettist Royce Vavrek and based on a short story by Karen Russell, is a surreal commentary on the American dream. It was commissioned and premiered

by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and Miller Theatre, and was deemed “harrowing… a true opera for its time” by The Washington Post. Her 2016 opera Breaking the Waves, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects, was called “one of the best 21st-century American operas yet” by Opera News. Breaking the Waves received its European premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival; future performances are planned at LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Adelaide Festival.

Her next opera, The Listeners, will premiere in 2021 at the Norwegian National Opera and Opera Philadelphia. In 2016, Missy and composer Ellen Reid founded Luna Lab, a mentorship program for young female composers created in partnership with the Kaufman Music Center.

Missy attended the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Boston University. She has studied with (in no particular order) David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Martijn Padding, Richard Ayres, John Harbison, Charles Fussell, Martin Amlin, Marco Stroppa, Ladislav Kubik, Louis DeLise, and Richard Cornell.

Her works are published by G. Schirmer. Learn more at missymazzoli.com

PROVING UP PROGRAM NOTE

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hen Washington National Opera first asked me to create a new chamber opera, my librettist Royce Vavrek and I set out to find a story that was timely, unusual, and uniquely American. We found the perfect inspiration in the writing of Karen Russell, who in 2013 published the short story on which the opera is based.

Russell’s story is a surreal and haunting commentary on the American dream as experienced by the Zegners, a fictional family of 1860s homesteaders. This narrative feels newly relevant at this fraught moment in my nation’s history, when people are examining and reevaluating the achievability of the American Dream. The Zegners are a family that does everything “right” and are still undermined by forces beyond their control.

These characters have parallels in our contemporary world: a mother who tries to maintain control through domestic order, a father who turns to the bottle under the pressures of supporting a family, children forced to take on responsibilities beyond their years, a lone, deranged man who resorts to violence and destruction. These are ordinary people in an impossible situation, a brutal world where dead children sing, pigs and horses become the audience for one’s deepest secrets, and zombie-like sodbusters wander the desolate prairie. Pushed to the edge by poverty and ultimately undermined by fate, the Zegners’ fixation on “proving up” never wanes.

The story’s surrealism suggested to me a music unmoored from time; the score includes imagined fiddle tunes, Baroque gestures, scrap metal percussion, seven acoustic guitars, eight harmonicas and harpsichord in addition to the chamber ensemble.

- Missy Mazzoli

ABOUT THE LIBRETTIST

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oyce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote Song from the Uproar, premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, premiered at Opera Philadelphia, co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, and directed by James Darrah to critical acclaim in September of 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2017 International Opera Awards.

A new production premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in the summer of 2019, produced by Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Tom Morris and earned star Sydney Mancasola a coveted Herald Angel Award for her performance. Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story Proving Up, was commissioned and presented by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and The Miller Theatre in 2018, was a finalist for the MCANA Best New Opera Award of that year. They are currently developing a grand opera for Opera Philadelphia and the Norwegian National Opera based on an original story by two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Jordan Tannahill, as well as an adaptation of George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo for The Metropolitan Opera.

COLOSSAL Written by Andrew Hinderaker November 4-6, 2021

CAST Mike Young Mike

Jacques Matellus Bishop Edwards

Marcus

Travis Doughty

Damon Shaw

Donovan Black

Jerry Coach Players

Santiago Arenas Declan Schliesmann Lachlan Boyle Will Choy Edelson Alan Kuang Jojo Kendall McShane Jacob Schmitt Tyler Statkevicus Nicolas Zuluaga

PRODUCTION TEAM Director, Movement Director, Choreographer, Intimacy Coordinator Stage Violence Co-Choreographer/Consultant Co-Choreographer, Half-time Show

Yo-EL Cassell Jeb Burris Melodie Jeffery-Cassell

Lead Assistant Director, Football Culture Consultant

Emma Cavage

Assistant Director, Movement Rehearsal Director, On-field and Audience Support

Emma Weller Tommy Vines

Assistant Director, Football Movement Rehearsal Director, On-field and Audience Support Football Culture Consultant Movement Captains Drumline Band Leader/ Drumming Consultant Drumline Contributor Vocal Performance Stadium Entrance “Memory Lane” Photography Installation

Frankie Otis

Steven Shapiro Will Choy Edelson Jacob Schmitt Johnny Saylor Sam Bliss Donovan Black Toni Pepe Jayda Aldrich Madelyn Battcock-Emerson Charlotte Biancardi Ghalia Ghuniem Yaming Jiang Eva Lewis Jason Lipow Isabella Lopez Meghan Murray Madeline Norton David Petrak Anastasiia Eremina Susan Swirsley

COLOSSAL

PRODUCTION TEAM continued

Drumming Consultant Production Manager Associate Production Manager Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Production Assistant

David Hero Eric Sprosty Hannah Eckert Nicole Hartshorn Sara Gorelkin Emily Cady

DESIGN & TECHNICAL TEAM Scenic Designer Assistant Scenic Designer/ Props Master Costume Designer Assistant Costume Designer Lighting Designer

Danielle DelaFuente Sarah Lloyd Anna Vidergar Maia Soltis Olivia Blackmer Kevin Fulton

Moving Light Programmer

Angus Goodearl

Assistant Lighting Designer

Spencer Morgan

Sound Designer Assistant Sound Designer Technical Director Assistant Technical Director Scenic Painter Scenic Paint Charge

Jennie Gorn Sam Bliss Marco Liguori Autumn Munsell Noah Dunlap Guthrie Morgan

Master Electrician

Isaak Olson

Assistant Master Electrician

Anjeli Smith

PRODUCTION CREW Craft Team Wardrobe Crew Run Crew

Grace d’Eustachio Jordan Kreindler Lena Broach Shea Rory Brandon Nnoli Jaden Bridges

Light Board Operator

Rebecca Kleeman

Sound Board Operator

Zoe Charbonneau

Front of House

Herbert Jones Jesse Kodma Aaron Lamm Keishona Weekes Jason Roberlo Alexa Connors Theodore Doyle Josephine Goldfarb Savannah Scott Emma Neary Mario Robinson

SPECIAL THANKS Boston University Disability and Access Services The New England Patriots Olivia Dumaine VonDerrick Taylor Gary Falkowitz Jeffrey Falkowitz and to so many who helped provide enthusiastic and revealing research insights for this production

COLOSSAL DIRECTOR'S NOTE

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“Your body is a vehicle for language” - Damon Shaw, Colossal

s I think about this line above, I think about one of the many messages this multi-disciplinary, multi-layered “colossal” of a play highlight.

There is nothing more potent than allowing the body—our skeletal instrument of expression—to reveal our inner thoughts, sensations, desires, hope, acceptance, poetry, realism and memories—memories that can feel so present yet also feels like it is in the rearview mirror.

Colossal, as playwright Andrew Hinderaker once remarked, highlights the body as a vehicle for silent expression, identity, movement, violence, and disability. Encompassing a variety of theatrical forms to tell its story, the play embraces the word duality. What is real, what is memory? What is strength, what is softness? What is brutal, what is beauty? What is heard, what is seen, and how does a story reveal what is not being said? How do we see, feel, and hear duality? Particularly in this play, the focus is on the male body—can a male be expressive and how much courage does it take for a male to reveal their expressivity? What are the consequences? Personally and professionally? Embracing the culture of Football as its container, the story goes beyond the game itself to embrace what it means to be expressive, to be human and to truly reveal. How much does it take to reveal and, when we do so, what does it feel like? What does it feel like to let go of the old normal and begin to embrace and embody the new normal?

“The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.” - Terry Pratchett As part of Boston University’s School of Theatre InMotion Theatre Initiative, a performative extension of the movement curriculum, which embraces storytelling primarily via the use

of the body in action, the entire Colossal creative family is interested in exploring how we see, hear and feel duality—via embodied usage of text, sound (live and recorded), movement (literally and impressionistically via a variety of expressive forms) and architecture (air and earth, poetic and real). This production aims to embrace what it means to embody words. Words hidden and words eventually revealed. And after the reveal, do we choose to move forward or stay in the past? This is something I shared with the cast on the first day of rehearsal:

“When you move, you reveal and eventually, heal.”

Speaking on behalf of the entire creative, design, and production family, we welcome you to Colossal and thank you for sharing your time, your voice, your imagination, your curiosity and your vehicle of expression with us. Lastly, I want to personally and deeply thank the incredible, tireless, multidimensional cast and creative crew for their revealing efforts to ensure we share this story truthfully, imaginatively, and generously with all of you. As a personal witness and champion to their playful and soul-baring process thus far, I am sure you will agree how special theatrical storytelling-making is—let us keep curious, imaginative, and truthful—keep moving. It’s time for “kick off.”

Sending joy to each of you,

Yo-EL Cassell Director/Movement Director/Choreographer P.S. I would like to personally dedicate the creation of this production to my son Keaton James Cassell and to all of the young Mikes out there in the world. This is for you you – keep embodying your truth.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY JOAN & EDGAR BOOTH THEATRE Since its inaugural season in 2018, this bold, state-of-theart structure encourages innovation, conversation, and collaboration. The flexible design of Booth Theatre allows for the inventive evolution of performances and a deep engagement with audiences. Research is at the core of Boston University, and BU College of Fine Arts practices it every day in the form of creative experimentation. Booth Theatre and the adjacent CFA Production Center are laboratories for such research, and in every detail, they are purpose-built for discovery.

Recent productions include Angels in America (Parts I and II), The Rake’s Progress, Mansfield Park, Dolores Claiborne, The Lathe of Heaven, The Exonerated, ...and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, and Antigone.

Learn more at bu.edu/booth.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS

Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a community of artist-scholars and scholarartists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in music, theatre, and visual arts, CFA prepares students for a meaningful creative life by developing their intellectual capacity to create art, shift perspective, think broadly, and master essential 21st-century skills. CFA offers a wide array of precollege, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, as well as a range of online degrees and certificates. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF MUSIC: OPERA INSTITUTE

The Opera Institute at CFA School of Music is an intensive, highly selective two-year performance-based training program for emerging operatic artists. A professional faculty and renowned guest artists provide personal support and training in all areas pertinent to a career in opera, including voice, acting, languages, and movement styles. Additionally, the Opera Institute also selects undergraduate and graduate singers from the School of Music who demonstrate true operatic potential and have mastered an intermediate integration of acting, vocal, and movement skills for the Opera Theater, Opera Workshop, and Opera Project programs.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF THEATRE

The School of Theatre at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University is a leading conservatory for the study of acting, stage management, design, production, and all aspects of the theatre profession. These programs of study are enriched by the School’s access to the greater liberal arts programs at Boston University. The School of Theatre values the notion of “the new conservatory” and seeks to provide students with opportunities for artistic growth through a rigorous curriculum, professional connections, and an emphasis on collaboration and new work.

bu.edu/cfa

@buarts

#myCFA