AIN'T NO MO'

April 9 at 7:30 p.m. (PREVIEW) April 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 at 7:30 p.m.

April 12, 19 at 2:00 p.m.

Oscar G. Brockett Theatre F. Loren Winship Drama Building

Theatredance.utexas.edu Juno Adair – Assistant Technical Director • Makayla Adelakun – Assistant Director Brittney Barton – Scenic Designer • Devon Boyd – Sound Designer Alik Clay – Assistant Scenic Designer/Practical Technician Kay Currier-Graves – Lighting Designer • Mikala Gibson – Director Andy Grapko – Intimacy Director • Gabriela Hernandez – Stage Manager Jason Lee Huerta – Technical Director • Allison Normin Johnson – Costume Designer Luna J – Assistant Projection Designer • Jarell Kearney – Dramaturg Giulianna Marchese – Dramaturg • Lorine Mokoro – Assistant Costume Designer Chisom Chantal Obike – Dramaturg • Kallie Pierce – Assistant Lighting Designer Bella Ruffino – Assistant Director • Sydney Tate – Assistant Director Analee Tinajero – Assistant Stage Manager • Desne P. Wharton – Projection Designer

“Ain’t No Mo’” Originally Developed and World Premiere Production by The Public Theater, March 2019 Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director Patrick Willingham, Executive Director Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb Ain’t No Mo’ was created with support from the 2050 Fellowship Program at New York Theatre Workshop and received support from the New York Theatre Workshop annual Usual Suspects summer residency at Dartmouth College.

The Department of Theatre and Dance is a world-class educational environment that serves as the ultimate creative incubator for the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders in theatre and performance.

CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE) Chandler Collins Jordan Hill

Amani Edmond Heavyn Carter Maudejanei Omagbemi Haley Prince Finn Higginbotham Isaiah Jones Durrell Anderson Ava Grottis Chiamaka Igwegbu

Peaches Passenger 2, Pastor Freeman, Damien, Tony, Johnathan, Clerk Passenger 1, Church Folk, Trisha, Kendra, Marie, Lakeisha Passenger 3, Church Folk, Zamata, Rachonda, Susan, Judah Passenger 4, Church Folk, Woman, Tracy, Katie, Officer Brown Passenger 5, Church Folk, Newswoman, Karen, Black, Blue Voice of Producer Peaches Understudy Passenger 2 Understudy Passenger 1, Passenger 3 Understudy Passenger 5 Understudy

Meet the cast and creative team behind Ain’t No Mo’ Scan the QR code to view cast and creative team bios.

https://theatredance.utexas.edu/aint-no-mo-cast-and-creative-team

THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR(S)’S RIGHTS AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: https://concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists

NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR “I find, in being Black, a thing of beauty: a joy, a strength, a secret cup of gladness.”

-Ossie Davis My mama once told me that being Black is a gift from God. Even before I encountered the violence and injustices wielded against me for simply existing, I encountered Black joy!

The joy of walking into a sea of Black saints singing and wailing during praise and worship after a hard week of work. The joy of strutting with my Sorors at a D9 step show after being othered by my fellow classmates at my Predominantly White Institution. The joy of line dancing with my cousins and aunties at the annual family reunion after months of the family fighting against sickness, incarceration and unexpected death. Black joy, generated from a collective of Black souls who transcend space and time, is why we are here today.

Ain’t No Mo’ invites you to partake in this joy while confronting issues surrounding race, gender and class. It challenges our ideas surrounding the Black community, a vibrant and diverse community that cannot be boxed. With the aptly written stage direction “...you know how we do,” Jordan E. Cooper invites us to explore the many complexities of Blackness and abandon the tendency to indulge in respectability politics, politics that have resulted in both intercommunal and intracommunal harm. AND WE DID! We did it with love and respect. We did it with care. We did it with awareness. We did it with Black Joy. And for my non-Black folx…Welcome to the cookout!

SPECIAL THANKS Professor Ya’Ke Smith, Zuberi Smith, Rev. Michael and Carolyn Gibson, Professor Alexandra Bassiakou, Professor Marcus McQuirter, Dawn Burnside and the Carver ATX Foundation, Joe Anderson, Makayla Adelakun, Cidney Anthony, Wynter Winston, Professor Corey Allen, Dr. Lisa B. Thompson, Professor Virginia Grise, Jenny Lavery, Professor Luke Williams, Calvin Walker, Nadine Marissa, Kaia L, Latrice Kelley, the UT Theatre and Dance community, Black Lens, UT Black students, the Austin Black community, UT Black Alumni, the Black Austin LGBTQIA+ community. Ain’t No Mo’ cast and crew, my family and friends, my ancestors, God. NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURGS Home. What is it? Where is it? How do we experience it?

These questions are not just philosophical; they echo through the history of Black migration and civic engagement in the United States.

From the Northward surge of the Great Migration that saw masses of African-Americans move to Northern U.S. states in search of broader horizons and financial possibilities to the daily navigation of domestic and public spaces, the search for “home” and the freedom it allows has always been political. Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’ pushes these questions to satirical and high-stakes lengths, asking “what if the Great Migration became a final, outward flight toward ancestral belonging?”

This production is a living archive–a sharp, non-linear testament to the grit, joy and grief it takes to survive. Unfolding through a series of vignettes, the play makes satirical gestures that draw from the experiences, culture and theatre of Black life. As a result, each vignette becomes a moment of reckoning that unpacks the heavy suitcase of the American past and life to decide what can be carried along and what must be left behind.

At its core, Ain’t No Mo’ explores the possibility of radical self-liberation, asking where true freedom and home can be found. Are they here, on this soil, in this nation, or are they out there and in the act of leaving? This play invites us into this speculative moment of transition, asking us to consider the weight of the luggage we and its characters carry. What is worth saving in the search for home? What is the cost of staying? And what is the price of freedom?

CREW TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS FABRICATION STUDIO

PROPS ARTISAN TERE GUERRERO

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR KAREN MANESS

PRODUCTION PROPERTIES MANAGER LEAH AUSTIN

PROJECT MANAGER DAVID TOLIN

ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER KYLE TREHERN

FABRICATION TECHNICAL MANAGER JASON LEE HUERTA

SCENERY/PROPS CREW VIVIAN CHAUZA IMANI MILLER

LEAD FABRICATOR HANK SCHWEMMER PROPERTIES MANAGER ASHTON BENNETT MURPHY CHARGE SCENIC ARTIST BRIDGETTE CLIFFORD EMERGING ARTS PROFESSIONAL – SCENIC ART JULIA YELVINGTON EMERGING ARTS PROFESSIONAL – PROPS LEAH AUSTIN SENIOR TECHNICAL DIRECTOR SCOTT BUSSEY GRADUATE PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS ALIK CLAY GALA DEMARIN JOSHUA MARTIN GUSTAVO HERNANDEZ PINZON ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS GABI HERNANDEZ MADISON JACKSON PRODUCTION LEADS JUNO ADAIR VALERIA NUNEZ ESTRADA FABRICATION STUDENT ASSISTANTS EVELYN BECERRA JULIANA BRANDAO SARAH EWING ERIN GLASSCOCK ALISA IRVIN DYLAN LEBENSFELD CODIE LIGHTFOOT MASON OUSLEY JOSE SALCIDO ZOE SALDANA JADEN WEST 314Q/324P FABRICATION PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS CONNOR BURK SOPHIA CARTER ANGELENA LEMMERMAN NATHANIAL MOTES CARLISE ROSA JESUS SERRANO PROP STOCK MANAGERS JACKI MAI LAURA SOARES

COSTUME PRODUCTION AND FABRICATION STUDIO COSTUME PRODUCTION DIRECTOR NANETTE ACOSTA PRODUCTION ASSOCIATES DESIREÉ HUMPHRIES JONATHAN WATERS DRAPERS SARAH BARBOUR POUA YANG FIRST HANDS JENNIFER BALL EMILY EOFF ASSISTANT PROJECT MANAGERS JACOB BENAIM RACHEL GREEN STUDENT DRAPERS CALLIE MCDONOUGH RILEY O’SULLIVAN STUDENT STITCHERS LAYLA CREAR ALLISON NORMAN JOHNSON RILEY O’SULLIVAN AVA SETTOON COSTUME CRAFTS ARTISAN TANYA OLALDE COSTUME CRAFTS ASSISTANTS VIOLET CLEMMONS LAYLA ISAAC STUDIO ASSISTANTS STELLA GILL YUHENG JIANG COSTUME PRODUCTION CREW SUPERVISORS OLGA SHEVELKINA CALIFORNIA THORSON COSTUME PRODUCTION CREW MASYN CARAMELLO ALICIA CRICHTON-AMAYA EMMA DODDS DEE FITZGERALD AVA GASSEN STELLA GILL EMERSON HARTMAN DAISHA MANOR ERICKA PUGLIESE

HANNAH THOMAS MAKEUP, HAIR AND WIG DESIGNER STEPHANIE WILLIAMS MAKEUP, HAIR AND WIG ASSISTANT ANGEL MACIAS WARDROBE SUPERVISOR TANIA HERNANDEZ WARDROBE CREW GRACE CARNEY ZOEY GONZALES ZOE HAMPTON COSTUME STOCK SUPERVISOR DESIREÉ HUMPHRIES

ASSISTANT AUDIO VIDEO SUPERVISOR K. ELIOT HAYNES TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS AUDIO CREW KALEB AZIZ CLAIRE MILLET AUDIO BOARD OPERATOR CECILIA SPENCE MEDIA PROGRAMMER NITSAN SCHARF MEDIA GRADUATE ASSISTANTS ARASH BAQIPUR JOE MORALES DESNE WHARTON

ACADEMIC PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY MANAGER EARNEST MAZIQUE

MEDIA SHOP CREW ANNA JO BUNDY SYDNEY-ALIZABETH FRANCIS LIZZ HAN THOMAS LUONG VALERIA MORALES ETHAN REYES KHALIA SACKO RACHEL WRIGHT

ASSISTANT LIGHTING SUPERVISOR MICHAEL SHANKS

CREW SUPERVISOR AUSTIN SHIRLEY

ASSISTANT SUPERVISING ELECTRICIAN HADDON BRITT SENIOR LIGHTING TECHNICIAN PATRICK SCHOEN

PRODUCTION ADVISORS

COSTUME STOCK ASSISTANTS AMANDA ROSE GEYER MICAH MEDELLIN LIGHTING/SOUND/MEDIA

324P LIGHTING FACULTY SUPERVISOR DAVID “SEB” BOONE

STAGE MANAGEMENT RUSTY CLOYES DIRECTING KJ SANCHEZ ALEXANDRA BASSIAKOU SHAW

324P THEATRE AND DANCE LIGHTING CREW ABELARDO AGUILAR MIYA CHAVIS MAX CHENG CHANDLER COLLINS ISABEL DEROUEN MEERA LASKAR ANDRE LIRA ABIGAIL PADILLA EMERSON WELCH ABIGAIL WILLIAMS RAMIRO ZAPATA

COSTUME DESIGN RAQUEL BARRETO

TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS LIGHTING CREW ABELARDO AGUILAR DOMENICA CALLARO JOSE CALVILLO MIYA CHAVIS PJ JETTON RILEY KNECHT BLAKE PERSYN ERIC RAMIREZ RAIN SNYDER

SCENIC DESIGN JOSAFATH REYNOSO

LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR HENRY BORHAM

RESIDENT INTIMACY DIRECTOR ANDY GRAPKO

COSTUME TECHNOLOGY DAVID AREVALO SARAH JAMES LIGHTING DESIGN MICHELLE HABECK INTEGRATED MEDIA FOR LIVE PERFORMANCE KATE FREER

SOUND DESIGN PHILLIP OWEN DRAMATURGY MADGE DARLINGTON ACTING COREY ALLEN

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION RUSTY CLOYES TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS DIRECTOR OF FABRICATION AND ACADEMIC PRODUCTION JEFF GRAPKO FRONT OF HOUSE MANAGEMENT AND TICKETING DANA MCLAUGHLIN

LEARN ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE

PR/MARKETING SYDNEY PATTILLO KATY WIGGINS PHOTOGRAPHERS ESSENTIALS CREATIVE SARAH A. NAVARRETE GRAPHIC DESIGNER MONICA GRIFFIN MARZENA KRUPA

WHAT’S ON STAGE

LOCATION, DIRECTIONS, PARKING