YALE CABARET: Pride of Doves

A NOTE FROM THE CAB LEADERSHIP

Welcome back to Yale Cabaret for Pride of Doves by Doug Robinson. We are excited to produce the work of Doug Robinson, a 4th year playwright, as our second to last show of the season. Doug’s journey at the School started with this play. Pride of Doves is the play he submitted in his application for admission, and we’re excited to share this work with you as he prepares for graduation. This piece exemplifies the place that art has in helping us grapple with events around us. It’s a piece about finding community through the thick of it all.

We’ve been lucky 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 shows of our season at the Yale Cabaret next week! Out of the box and into our Sandbox!

— Doaa, Kyle, & Annabel

A NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURGS

A murder of crows; a flamboyance of flamingos; varied are the nouns used to render birds a collective. Where one evokes tragedy—or threat thereof; another promises style—a welcome distraction. Through various mythological channels, crows become metonyms for impending doom, and flamingos, with their heads buried in the sand, emblems of the avoidant responder.

As symbols, doves are slippery. They resist a singular mythology, simultaneously standing for war and peace, destruction and protection, occupation and liberation. Our production’s use of origami conveys additional meaning. This medium gestures towards Sadako Sasaki, a victim of radiation poisoning caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Japanese tradition, a thousand paper cranes will grant one wish: for Sadako it was her health restored. Those in her wake continue to fold—an act of peace and remembrance.

Pride of Doves by Doug Robinson is alive to death—alive to the embeddedness of violence in our daily lives and the myriad ways we are kept—and keep ourselves—from facing it. This play’s post-apocalyptic world is absurdly similar to our own. A world in which mass shootings are routine, sea levels are rising, the law is rarely on the side of truth, and Reason apparently has no relationship with Action. Where a history of real-world anti-Black violence resounds in Emmett’s lines, “killed by a Blue Man” and “I can’t breathe.”

Murder, flamboyance, and pride are words reserved, in this case, for birds. But birds, we are not. Collectively, humans form choirs, teams, juries, audiences.

Distraction is a tool used by individuals and institutions intent on enacting horrific acts of violence. The Israeli government deliberately chose the dates of the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards to escalate their genocidal bombings of Gaza, capitalizing on the fact that most American audiences would have their gaze directed elsewhere.

Pride of Doves is a play whose spectacles of revelation disorient, reminding us of what’s always right before our eyes, imploring us to pay attention, again and again and again.

— Sophia Carey & Lara Sachdeva

PRIDE OF DOVES

Written By Doug Robinson

PRODUCTION TEAM Director

Producer

Jasmine Brooks

Producer

Natalie King

Dramaturg

Mikayla Stanley Set Designer

Dramaturg

Sophia Carey

Lara Sachdeva

Lighting Designer

Costume Designer

Jessie Baldinger* Sound Designer

Stan Mathabane

Kristen Taylor*

David DeCarolis Stage Manager

Technical Director

Charlie Lovejoy

Aholibama Castañeda González

CAST Sylvia

Emmett

Claudia Campos

comfort katchy

Viktor

D

A.J. Roy

Georgia Petersen*

SHOW SPONSORS Eileen and Jim Mydosh | Season 55: Parachute Kelvin Dinkins, Jr. | Anne Erbe | Al and Jocelyn C. Heartley

CONTENT GUIDANCE

Contains gunshot sound effects, explosion sound effects and flashing lights. *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.

LEADERSHIP TEAM Co-Artistic Director

Co-Artistic Director

Doaa Ouf

Kyle Stamm

Managing Director

Annabel Guevara

COLLABORATORS Associate Managing Director

Adrian Alexander Hernandez Graphic Designer

Production Manager

Aholibama Castañeda González Cab Assistant

Restaurant Partner

Michelle Foley

Taylor Ybarra

The Anchor Spa

ADVISORY BOARD Acting

Grayson Richmond Dramaturgy

Costume Design

Caroline Tyson Lighting Design

Directing

Alexis Kulani Woodard Playwriting

Karoline Vielemeyer

David DeCarolis

Projection Design

Scenic Design

Kim Zhou

Joe Krempetz

Stage Management

Technical Design

Theatre Management

John Horzen

Colleen Rooney

Leo Surach

Doug Robinson Sound Design

Natalie King

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair

Wendy Davies Eric M. Glover

L.T. Gourzong

Linda-Cristal Young

Samanta Cubias

Gabrielle Hoyt

Lawrence Henry

ABOUT THE CAB

In 1968, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale students established a basement performance venue in the former home of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at 217 Park Street. Envisioned as an alternative outlet for drama school students’ creativity and experimentation, Yale Cabaret became a forum for our expanded New Haven communities, whom we invite to gather around food, drink, conversation, fellowship, and artistry.

Since its founding, the Cabaret has remained in continuous operation, including pivoting to virtual performance during the 2020/21 season. The Cab has produced hundreds of plays, old and new, alongside musicals and musical revues, comedy shows, dance, performance art, and genre-defying performance.

Our supporters have made this storied history happen. With their partnership, we continue this tradition into 2024 and beyond.

JOIN US FOR DINNER The Anchor Spa at Yale Cabaret will be offering a dinner service for our 8pm Thursday through Saturday performances accepting orders from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

at Yale Cabaret

The Anchor Spa boasts a pan-Caribbean menu and an outstanding cocktail program that represents a voyage around the world, including some unique international spirits rarely sampled in the U.S. From picking herbs a la minute from their garden to brewing up syrups and roasting their designer garnishes, The Anchor Spa applies the highest level of craft bartending principles in the pursuit of fun like no one else.

Chef Kendall Thigpen welcomes you!

THANKS TO OUR TECH WEEK SPONSORS

OUR SUPPORTERS

Yale Cabaret is DGSD’s student-run theater and operates with the support of our generous donors. Your donation goes a long way to support the many artists that work in our theater. Please consider making a donation today and help us create in our Sandbox!

Season Sponsor ($5,000 - $7,499) Santino Blumetti Champion ($2,500 - $4,999) Wendy Davies Partner ($1,000 - $2,499) Nina Adams & Moreson Kaplan Joan Channick Lynn Doucette-Stamm John McAndrew Eileen & Jim Mydosh Bennett Pudlin & Ann Judd R. Lee Stump & Abigail Roth Show Sponsor ($500 - $999) ActOUT Miles Benickes Shawn Boyle Donald & Mary Brown Audrey Conrad Kelvin Dinkins Jr. Anne Erbe Eric Glover Josh & Betty Goldberg L.T. Gourzong Andy & Sarah Hamingson Al and Jocelyn C. Heartley The Mooney Basile Family Season 55: Parachute People of Marginalized Genders (PMG) Bill & Sharon Reynolds Matthew Sonnenfeld Josh & Erin Taylor Paul Walsh Nancy Yao Enthusiast ($250 - $499) Chris Brindley Suzanne Bruhn & Michael Kane

James Bundy & Anne Tofflemire Ramiro Daniel Diaz Kenneth Elliott Pamela Jordan Tlaloc and Megan Rivas Chantal Rodriguez Florie Seery Supporter ($100 - $249) Ikenna Aberdeen Frances Anne Black Shaminda Amarakoon Geoff Cohen Jennifer Corman Carla L. Jackson Samanta Cubias & Ben Jones Robert Emmons Carol Gallagher & Delmar Doucette Alicia Guevara Galen Kane Chloe Knight Jerry Lodynsky Sarah Masotta Max Okst A.J. Roy Chris E Wall Advocate ($50 - $99) Casey Grambo & Nathaniel Gagnon Scott Keith Cathy & Matthew Levesque In Honor of Edgar Melgar Steven Padla Susan & Michael Ryan Jacob Daniel Santos Patrick Seeley Henry & Socorro Stamm Nicole Stamm Ariel Welch Grace Zandarski

ONE MORE SHOW! S’MORES

April 18th - 20th Written By Augustine Lorrie Directed By Doaa Ouf Buried in the ungovernable wilderness of the Sierra Nevada pines, two strangers on solo camping-trips kindle an unconventional bond around a flickering campfire.

Sheltered only by their own secrets, this night at a glacial lake becomes a transformative exploration of love, grief, and the ineffable bond between two Queer souls longing for connection.

THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR SANDBOX SEASON!

One of our show sponsors, Al Heartley, is a partner at Evolution Management Consultants (EMC). EMC is a new consulting firm working to support the development of a non-profit sector that is increasingly healthy, inclusive, expansive, and forward-thinking. EMC places clients as a top priority by providing a highly individualized and boutique experience throughout its process. Check out their website, emcforward.com, to learn more about their offerings including search, strategic planning, interim management, and coaching.

YALE CABARET 217 PARK STREET | 203.432.1566 YALECABARET.ORG