A NOTE FROM THE CAB LEADERSHIP
Welcome back to Yale Cabaret for My Six Therapists by Julia Izumi. We are excited to be presenting this new work in partnership with Theater Mu for the first time in Yale Cabaret history. We hope this will be a first of many partnerships with outside theaters that will expand our network here at Yale Cabaret for the years to come.
We’ve been lucky to be able to present many new works this season, giving artists a chance to see their work on stage and learn from the process. We’re grateful all for you in the audience for being the most vital final step to that process. Thank you for helping artists explore, experiment, and grow with us.
We hope you will continue to join us for our FINAL two shows of our season here at Yale Cabaret! Out of the box and into our Sandbox!
— Doaa, Kyle, & Annabel
A NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURG
Therapy, and finding the right therapist, is an art. It requires trust; trust in yourself, trust in those around you, and trust in the process. Mina, our protagonist, finds herself in a spot many of us can relate to: feeling that therapy is a good idea but having no idea how to begin. Before she can even begin the work of therapy itself, Mina has to overcome her own doubts and stigma surrounding what therapy is, and whether it can be a helpful tool.
In the depths of Mina’s mind lies an undercurrent of discomfort that she cannot run away from, no matter how hard she tries to pretend she’s fine. Playwright Julia Izumi has created a world inside of Mina’s brain where her thoughts and experiences are refracted, interpreted, and transformed. The memory from an experience long ago has ripple effects through Mina’s life in ways she doesn’t acknowledge or even realize. If you think about yourself as an amalgamation of all of your thoughts and memories and feelings, how would you make sense of all of it? Where would you even start?
Mina, like many of us, has to learn that the goal of therapy isn’t to eradicate pain from her life – it’s about learning to feel pain without letting it drown her. It’s about learning to honor these feelings. When the water is rising, the right therapist cannot and will not drain the lake – but they might be able to teach you how to swim.
— Jane Peña & Shefali Gauri DasABOUT THEATER MU
Located in St. Paul, Minnesota, Theater Mu’s priority has always been to empower and celebrate Asian American artists and the stories of our communities. Over the years, we’ve trained artists, commissioned new plays, and grown our audiences. Theater Mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience.
SPECIAL THANKS
Claudia Campos | Iyanna Huffington Whitney | Cathy Ho | Annie Wang Theater Mu Literary Committee
MY SIX THERAPISTS
Written By Julia IzumiPRODUCTION TEAM
Producer
Adrian Alexander Hernandez Director Kavya Shetty Stage Manager ty ruwe*
Producer Mikayla Michelle Stanley
Producer Maya Louise Shed
Producer Sarah Machiko Haber
Set Designer Silin Chen*
Costume Designer T.F. Dubois
Sound Designer Minjae Kim
Co-Dramaturg Jane Peña
Monday / Sam Roman Sanchez
Thursday / Samara Emilee Biles
Lighting Designer Celia Weiqing Chen
Technical Director Steph Lo
Production Manager Leo Surach
CAST
Mina Sarah Suraiya Saifi*
Tuesday / Sara Daria Kerschenbaum*
Friday / Sam Hiếu Bùi*
Projection Designer Ein Kim
Co-Dramaturg Shefali Gauri Das
Assistant Director Hiếu Bùi*
Wednesday / Sara Matthew Chong*
Saturday / Samara Sage Fortune*
SHOW SPONSORS
Andy & Sandra Hamingson | Audrey Conrad
People of Marginalized Genders (PMG)
“My Six Therapists” is presented in partnership with Theater Mu
*Yale Cabaret Debut
MISSION STATEMENT
Sandbox by definition, is “a shallow box in the ground partly filled with sand for children to play in”. We hope to create a similar sense of curiosity and playfulness, allowing artists to access creativity only possible when given the opportunity to dig and unearth treasures within themselves. Our season will focus on performance arts as a whole, not just script-based plays or musicals, it’s open to ALL. We aim to look at collaborators as they are, without limiting them to the role they hold within the DGSD community. We believe in a theater without labels, where artists are not limited by the hats they wear, but by the experience they bring into the room with them. As a collective, we will create theater that continues to reshape our ever-changing view on the world.
OUR SANDBOX IS...
A Celebration of Ideas: A place where no ideas are bad ideas
Experimental: A space to try, fail, learn, and grow as a community
A Resource: A pool of combined knowledge and artistry
An Outlet: Magnifying unheard voices and underrepresented stories
A Continuum: An application of skills learned
Our Sandbox is a place where you can make your wildest dreams come true.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The state of Connecticut and Yale University occupy the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, Quinnipiac, and other Algonquian speaking peoples. We honor and respect their continued relationship with and stewardship of this land, and we acknowledge that Yale University, Yale Cabaret, and those affiliated have benefited from the oppression of these Nations.
LABOR ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Yale University does not exist independently from the centuries of forced labor and economic extraction of enslaved people, primarily of African descent, on which this country was built. We are indebted to their labor and their unwilling sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the ongoing violence inflicted on Black and brown people and the resulting impact and generational trauma still felt today.
Co-Artistic Director
Doaa Ouf
