Laure | Boston University CFA School of Theatre Program Book

LAURE WRITTEN BY MYA ISON

DIRECTED BY GIGI JURAS

MUSIC BY BILLY MCCOLL & PETER DIMAGGIO

NOVEMBER 19 - 21, 2021 “JEWELS 1” JULIANE ETHEL LEILANI MILLER STUDIO THEATRE, CFA 352 855 COMMONWEALTH AVE

Artistic Team Director Assistant Director & Movement Director Production Manager Composers Fight Director Intimacy Coordinator Movement Consultant Dramaturgs Scenic Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer Stage Manager Props Master Production Assistant Run Crew Photography

Gigi Juras Julian X Annie Kao Billy McColl Peter DiMaggio Jeb Burris Yo-EL Cassell Isabel Van Natta Edward Sturm Gigi Rodriguez Anna Vidergar Dani Bazan McKenna Ebert Jennie Gorn J. Scott Gaby Tovar Saber Stetson Maya Scott-Luib Ken Yotsukura Henry Braff

Cast Laure Olympia Elie Henri

Mya Ison Anna Riggins Henry Sirota Ernesto Garrido Gonzalez

Ensemble Piano

Billy McColl Peter DiMaggio

A Note from the Director We can never know the real stories or hear the personal voices of the Black women who have been removed from the archive. This play imagines a world that consciously diverges from our past and present. Adapted from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and with characters inspired by Manet’s “Olympia,” we get to experience a different reality for the black model in the painting, Laure.

How often do we explore an atmosphere where the power rooted within a woman is not suppressed by men? When else do we see women trapped inside of a portrait step into their third dimension and break outside of historical frames? What happens when women have complete access to their untapped nuclear selves?

During spring of 2020, I heard the first few exchanges of dialogue between these developing characters in Adaptation. I was struck by their intrinsic voices--how contrasting and elemental they were. It has been thrilling to take the maturing script and dig through all of its dramaturgy, research, complexity, and beauty with new artists and ideas in the space. I feel honored to have been one of many collaborators with our genius playwright, Mya Ison, on the evolution of this play since its conception. I cannot wait for new hearts and minds to engage with this magnificent and challenging piece of art.

There is something undeniably magical about our collective of artistic collaborators. By this point in its lifetime, Laure has been touched by so many brilliant human beings, both inside and outside of the rehearsal space. As this is my debut as a director, I had no way to predict the marvelous spirit of exploration and support that we found as a team. I am riddled with gratitude and humbled by the work we’ve done together. The process, in itself, was a piece of artwork. I never want to stop engaging with theatre in the way we’ve engaged with this play. My hope is that we stay vigilant as artists to continue interrogating and learning from each other, ourselves, and the art we create.

Thank you for sharing the journey with us.

Gigi Juras

Édouard Manet, Olympia (1863) © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

When Édouard Manet exhibited Olympia at the 1865 Paris Salon, the gallery audiences were so provoked that the curators moved the canvas higher on the wall to protect it from defacement. The figure of Olympia shocked viewers from the start. With her challenging gaze and decidedly un-Goddess-like nudity, Manet’s depiction of a prostitute was the talk of the Salon. But viewers practically ignored Olympia’s Black maid, relegated to the background. In more than 150 years of conversations about Manet’s famed painting, Laure—the woman who modeled as the maid—has far too often remained a footnote, a symbol, or an afterthought.

In actuality, Laure was a strikingly modern figure. Curator and scholar Denise Murrell notes the way that Manet’s depiction of her among modern Parisian life signified, “evolution beyond the stock figure of the exotic black serving woman.” While much of Laure’s biography (including her last name) remains unknown, we are keenly aware of her continuance. Laure lived within walking distance of Manet and modeled for three of his major works. She was part of a burgeoning Black population that took hold in the city of Paris following the legal abolition of slavery in France in 1848. This community was especially concentrated in the northern arrondissements of Paris, where Manet also lived.

Both on the canvas and in life, Laure shines through a historical archive intent on erasing her.

In Mya Ison’s play, Laure steps into the foreground. Laure reenvisions the historical record and is capacious in its imagining. During the premiere production process, we have kept in close conversation with historical facts as we know them today. But, like the play itself, we have also taken the opportunity to transcend history. Laure’s dramaturgy includes the visual, the physical, the aural, and the theoretical. In a veritable feat of collaboration, our rehearsal room has explored (among much more) Henri Matisse’s painting of cats and the physical movements of cats, Audre Lorde’s discussion of the erotic and the expressive power of piano music. Laure invites all kinds of exploration. With so many entry points, it is no wonder that Mya Ison’s words have come to live so deeply in the artists working on the play.

Laure loosely adapts Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Published in 1890, the novel tells of a young art model who sees his extraordinary portrait and wishes to sell his soul so that the painting would age, and he would remain young and beautiful. Unbeknownst to him, the wish comes true. The novel’s homoerotic themes caught the attention of authorities at the time—regrettably, sections of the novel were read at Wilde’s trial for “gross indecency.” The themes continue to capture our attention today. Both the plot, the imagery, and the history of The Picture of Dorian Gray inspire central elements of Laure.

Mya Ison’s play engages across disciplines and art forms. It challenges a history that privileges the white, patriarchal gaze and that forgets the Black woman standing to the side. It finds Laure in the background and leaves her with the power and tragedy and ecstaticism which she has always deserved. Laure looks back only for a moment; in full view of a troubled history, it speeds into the future.

Edward Sturm

Upcoming Projects

Where Do Peaches Grow?

NOV 20 First Floor Student Lounge, CFA 102 | 855 Commonwealth Ave

by Rebecca Freeman (CFA’22) | Directed by Ludmila Cardoso De Brito (CFA’24) A New Works Next Stage Workshop, presenting a reading of Rebecca Freeman’s new play.

Admission is free.

Machinal DEC 3-5

“Jewels 2” Juliane Ethel Leilani Miller Studio Theatre, CFA 356 | 855 Commonwealth Ave

by Sophie Treadwell | Directed by Shamus McCarty (CFA’23) A Laboratory Production. Free admission; limited seating.

Passage DEC 9-12 Studio ONE, CFA 104 | 855 Commonwealth Ave

by Christopher Chen | Directed by Malika Oyetimein Tickets are $20; visit www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/season to reserve

For more details, visit www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/season