YALE CABARET: And the Beetle Hums

A NOTE FROM THE CAB LEADERSHIP

Happy New Year, and welcome back to the Yale Cabaret! We’re excited to kick off the new year with And The Beetle Hums, a play written by set designer Kim Zhou ‘24. This play wonderfully places us all in a limbo state, a place between reality and the dream world.

Forcing us to face our biggest fears and examine what things stay with us as we start to drift away.

Please continue to join us as we build a season of exploration, experimentation, and pushing boundaries at Yale Cabaret. Out of the box and into our Sandbox!

— Doaa, Kyle, & Annabel

A NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURG

What’s so scary about not being able to fall asleep? Insomnia represents a loss of bodily autonomy. When we remain awake despite our fatigue, our tips and tricks, our desire for rest, we begin to wonder: If I’m not controlling what my body does, who or what is? Polish sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman said in a 2011 interview that “No one is in control. That is the major source of contemporary fear. The fears are scattered. We can’t pinpoint the sources wherefrom they are coming.” The characters of And the Beetle Hums feel these ambient fears as they search their dry and lonely world for sleep’s source.

In the words of Kim Zhou, “the curtain never falls” for these characters— not in this contemporary constellation of cities that never sleep. Our urban habitats are defined by “progress,” philosopher Bauman writes, yet “instead of great expectations and sweet dreams, ‘progress’ evokes insomnia full of nightmares of ‘being left behind,’ of missing the train or falling out of the window from the fast-accelerating vehicle.”

Sleep isolates. However we spend our waking hours, when we dream we dream alone. Yet as we seek sleep different characters emerge— the part of us that wants sleep and the part that’s keeping it at bay; the day and the night versions of ourselves; the grown-up self and the inner-child.

And where there’s conflict and characters, there’s soon to be a story.

Bedtime stories combat the night’s power to isolate. They help children transition through the stages of the day. They send us to sleep by awakening our imaginations. And the Beetle Hums is this kind of story, one that can bring us briefly together before we go our separate ways into the land of dreams.

– Sophia Carey, Production Dramaturg

SPECIAL THANKS B Entsminger

Kiyoshi Shaw

Anthony Robles

Karen Loewy Movilla

Anja Powell

AND THE BEETLE HUMS

WRITTEN BY: KIM ZHOU

PRODUCTION TEAM Stage Manager / Producer

Director

Scenic Designer

Hope Ding*

John Horzen

Patti Panyakaew

Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Projection Designer

Sound Designer

Technical Director

Technical Director

Ankit Pandey

Caroline Tyson Joe Krempetz

Ke Xu

Luanne Jubsee Dramaturg

Sophia Carey

Tom Minucci*

Producing Consultant

Ramona Li

PERFORMERS Gardener

Max Sheldon* Thief

Samuel Douglas

Stranger

Tyler Lahren Poet

Giovanna Drummond*

ADDITIONAL CREDITS Solemn Hour by Rainer Maria Rilke Humming (1972) by Annea Lockwood

SHOW SPONSORS Santino Blumetti *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 Hernandez

Graphic Designer

Cab Assistant

Iyanna Huffington-Whitney

Production Manager

Michelle Foley

Mara Bredovskis

Restaurant Partner

The Anchor Spa

ADVISORY BOARD Acting

Costume Design

Directing

Grayson Richmond

Caroline Tyson

Alexis Kulani Woodard

Dramaturgy

Lighting Design

Playwriting

Karoline Vielemeyer

David DeCarolis

Doug Robinson

Projection Design

Scenic Design

Kim Zhou

Sound Design

Joe Krempetz

Stage Managment

Technical Design

Theatre Management

John Horzen

Colleen Rooney

Leo Surach

Natalie King

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair

Wendy Davies Eric M. Glover

L.T. Gourzong

Linda-Cristal Young

Samanta Cubias

Gabrielle Hoyt

LAW

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!

JOIN US AT THE BAR Yale Cabaret will have a bar open 30 minutes before all performances including at intermission and after the show. You can find a range of alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, and snacks for sale at the bar.

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 Bennett Pudlin & Ann Judd R. Lee Stump & Abigail Roth Show Sponsor ($500 - $999) Shawn Boyle Audrey Conrad Josh & Betty Goldberg L.T. Gourzong Andy & Sarah Hamingson Eileen & Jim Mydosh The Mooney Basile Family Bill & Sharon Reynolds Matthew Sonnenfeld Josh & Erin Taylor Paul Walsh Enthusiast ($250 - $499) Chris Brindley Suzanne Bruhn & Michael Kane James Bundy & Anne Tofflemire Ramiro Daniel Diaz Kenneth Elliott

Pamela Jordan Chantal Rodriguez Florie Seery Supporter ($100 - $249) Ikenna Aberdeen Frances Anne Black Shaminda Amarakoon Donald & Mary Brown Geoff Cohen Jennifer Corman Robert Emmons Carol Gallagher & Delmar Doucette Alicia Guevara Chloe Knight Jerry Lodynsky Sarah Masotta Max Okst Chris E Wall Advocate ($50 - $99) Anonymous Casey Grambo & Nathaniel Gagnon Carla L. Jackson Cathy & Matthew Levesque In Honor of Edgar Melgar Steven Padla Susan & Michael Ryan Jacob Daniel Santos Henry & Socorro Stamm Nicole Stamm Ariel Welch Grace Zandarski

THANKS TO OUR TECH WEEK SPONSORS

WHAT’S NEXT! CAN THE PERUVIAN SPEAK? January 25th - 27th By: Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas

Two queer migrants date and have a blast on the streets of New York City. They may have found someone who finally gets them in this strange land. But are they really connecting? A testimonial rom-com about connecting far away from home.

SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR UPCOMING SHOWS

February 9th & 10th

February 22nd - 24th

IT NOT TOO LATE TO GET YOUR SEASON PASS Flex passes can be used throughout the season to attend any Cabaret Season 56 production (excluding Dragaret).

See our website for more information.

YALE CABARET 217 PARK STREET | 203.432.1566 YALECABARET.ORG