THE CARLOTTA FESTIVAL 2024, David Geffen School of Drama

OUR MISSION

David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre train and advance leaders in the practice of every theatrical discipline, making art to inspire joy, empathy, and understanding in the world.

OUR CORE VALUES

Artistry

We expand knowledge to nurture creativity and imaginative expression embracing the complexity of the human spirit.

Belonging

We put people first, centering well-being, inclusion, and equity for theatermakers and audiences through anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices.

Collaboration

We build our collective work on a foundation of mutual respect, prizing the contributions and accomplishments of the individual and of the team.

Discovery

We wrestle with compelling issues of our time. Energized by curiosity, invention, bravery, and humor, we challenge ourselves to risk and learn from failure and vulnerability.

drama.yale.edu

ABOVE: Abigail C. Onwunali ’23, Rebeca Robles ’24, Tyler Cruz ’23, Karen Killeen ’24, Giovanna Drummond ’24, and Whitney Andrews ’24 in Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Leyla Levi ’23. Photo © T. Charles Erickson.

Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.

We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States.

a note from the playwriting chairs

Thank you for joining us!

The Carlotta Festival at David Geffen School of Drama is not only an opportunity to celebrate the work of three emerging writers, but it is also an occasion to experience the incredible talents of artists who (having studied for four years due to the pandemic) have truly profound stories to tell. These playwrights spent months building plays with directors, actors, dramaturgs, designers, technicians, stage managers, and theater managers—many of whom also study at the Geffen School. Others are honored guests who have joined our community to share their talents with you.

In many ways, The Carlotta Festival is not only a community gathering but a sharing of ideas and a feast of artistic expression. This year, in particular, the plays exquisitely grapple with the notion of loss. The loss of place, the loss of a loved one, and even the idea of being surrounded by loss. Characters are flung into incredible worlds—a burial ground, a house full of secrets, and a metropolis in transition. Moreover, these works are not merely about grief but rather plays that remind us that joy and healing are often found in the most unexpected places —in one’s imagination, unlikely friendships, and a road trip with a family member. Perhaps, in this way, our writers are examining ways in which we survive grief. Can a play heal? Can it be medicine?

At the precipice of her career, a successful photographer has her world upended when she invites her protégée to babysit in Danielle Stagger’s rent free. In Doug Robinson’s Cactus Queen, a grieving mother is determined to show her community that miracles are still possible even in the shadows of despair. Finally, in Pearl’s Beauty Salon, written by Stefani Kuo 郭佳怡, a young woman goes on an epic journey of self-discovery in Hong Kong, the United States, in memory, and in the joy of Brazilian waxing sessions.

Although these plays are a culmination of these writers’ work here at the Geffen School, they are merely an introduction to their talents and theatrical imaginations. We are honored to share these plays with you as we salute Danielle, Doug, and Stefani as they begin to write the next chapter of their careers.

Anne Erbe and Marcus Gardley Co-Chairs of the Playwriting program, David Geffen School of Drama

DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE

James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean

Florie Seery, Associate Dean

Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean

Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean

Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean

Anne Erbe and Marcus Gardley, Co-Chairs of Playwriting

PRESENTS

By Danielle Stagger

Directed by Sammy Zeisel

By Doug Robinson

Directed by Bobbin Ramsey

By Stefani Kuo

Directed by Mina Morita

These productions are supported by the Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund and The Burry Fredrik Foundation.

Cover: Danielle Stagger, Doug Robinson, and Stefani Kuo

. © T. Charles Erickson 2024

rent free

Cactus Queen

Pearl’s Beauty Salon

rent free

By Danielle Stagger

Directed by Sammy Zeisel

creative team

Scenic Designer

George Zhou 周亦扬

Costume Designer

Rea J. Brown

Lighting Designer

Yung-Hung Sung 宋永鴻

Sound Designer

Minjae Kim 김민재

Projection Designer

Doaa Ouf

Technical Director

Cian Jaspar Freeman

Production Dramaturg

Hannah Fennell Gellman

Fight Director

Michael Rossmy

Stage Manager

Josie Cooper

content guidance

cast in alphabetical order

Elodie Lolade Agunbiade

BK

Tyler Clarke

Kandice

Mariah Copeland

Bridget Messiah Cristine

Colleen Bella Orobaton

William

Erik Manuel Robles

This production contains themes of death, simulated violence, and bright lights. The herbal cigarettes used in this production are tobacco- and nicotine-free.

rent free will have a 15-minute intermission.

snapshots from the rent free process

I love ghosts so much they make me cry! Darn!

Don’t have many childhood photos because I avoided cameras religiously.

A photograph freezes a moment in time. A portrait flattens a person into an image. And as Dr. Kandice Phellan tells her students in the play, “no matter what you see, our photographer is present.” We all see an inundation of representations, and the closer an image seems to reality, the easier to forget the tricky, tricky artists creating it.

Down the Lunga Ntila rabbit hole: love her striking self-portraits

What ChatGPT would say as a strawberry farmer describing shades of red

Human sense of hygroreception is an illusion composed of falsehoods.

There are more than a few artists behind this production. I’m sorry that you can’t know us and our theatrical process fully, but I have taken some verbal snapshots. Each of the designers, stage managers, actors, playwright, director, and I have written exactly ten words about our favorite research rabbit holes, personal connections to the story, and collaborative conversations during the process.

Neither you nor I will ever truly know these characters, but hopefully you have the chance to spend time with their stories, too. Google a reference that made you curious; play some music with a lot of bass; let the story haunt you. Or pick some other way to stay as long as you like.

Which one are you: Dreamer, Opportunist, or Schemer?

Figuring out how to use mirrors to reflect light precisely

Hannah Fennell Gellman, Production Dramaturg, with contributions from the cast and creative team

Experiencing how magical it is to be in a darkroom.

I love ghosts so much they make me cry! Darn!

Don’t have many childhood photos because I avoided cameras religiously.

Down the Lunga Ntila rabbit hole: love her striking self-portraits

What ChatGPT would say as a strawberry farmer describing shades of red

Human sense of hygroreception is an illusion composed of falsehoods.

Which one are you: Dreamer, Opportunist, or Schemer?

Figuring out how to use mirrors to reflect light precisely

Experiencing how magical it is to be in a darkroom.

I’m reminded of my relationship with my visual arts mentor

The social awkwardness between mom and daughter is so familiar

Red pussy willow is inspired by my mother’s home décor

Motherhood, horror, and art. An excuse to watch great movies!

A horse-centered, would-you-rather question about marriage potential...

“Maybe he just likes her. It can be that simple”

Like Colleen I have also been questioning representationwhite as neutrality

None of the characters have a lament for their blackness

about the playwright

Danielle Stagger (Playwright) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she wrote 27 Metaphors and rent free. Danielle’s work largely interrogates the performance of identity, morality, and self as it intersects with the norms and agreements of society.

Her play Content was a selection for the 2021 Judith Champion Butler Reading Series at Second Stage. She is an inaugural recipient of the Lilly’s Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Fellowship and is a current research fellow at The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Danielle has been a finalist for the O’Neill’s National Playwright Conference, the Ollie New Play Award, and The Lark’s Venturous Playwright Fellowship and has been commissioned by Second Stage Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club.

B.A., Stanford University, theater and performance studies.

cast in alphabetical order

Lolade Agunbiade (Elodie) is a Nigerian-American first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. This is her production debut at the school, and she is grateful to be able to uplift this story. She dedicates her performance to all the misunderstood weird black girls who battle between revealing and protecting their REAL selves from the world’s gaze. Lolade would like to send a special thank you to God, her parents, and her sisters.

Tyler Clarke (BK) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, and is filled with immense joy and gratitude to be performing in her first production at the school. She would like to extend a special thanks to her mother (Lauren) for being the first person to give her love, her best friend (Javon) for being the first person to give her sisterhood, and her father for being the first person to give her shadows—without the dark we can’t appreciate the light. Her highest thanks goes to God, the one who always leads her back home, back to love.

Mariah Copeland she/her (Kandice) is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has worked on Measure for Measure, Fucking A, Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne, as well as play at Yale Summer Cabaret and The Salvagers at Yale Repertory Theatre). Mariah has acted in productions at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Northlight

Theatre, About Face Theatre, BoHo Theatre, and others in her hometown of Chicago. She graduated from Northwestern University, where she received a B.A. in theater. mariahcopeland.com

Messiah Cristine (Bridget) is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where credits include Measure for Measure. Messiah holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Bella Orobaton (Colleen) is excited and honored to make her David Geffen School of Drama debut! Bella is an actor, playwright, and educator. She trained at Cornish College of the Arts where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Original Work. Previous theater credits include Returning the Bones (National Association for Campus Activities); Tiara’s Hat Parade (Book-It Repertory Theatre’s educational tour); A Scythe and Sandglass the Skeleton Bore and A Pond as Deep as Hell (Shaxberd, script development); This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Arts West); Auntie Val (Freehold Theatre); A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes, Descendants, Trojan Women, Men on Boats, and others (Cornish College of the Arts). Big thanks to her family, friends, and teachers!

Erik Manuel Robles (William) is a proud Afro-Latino first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. Recent credits: Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Sweat, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Ironbound (Gamm Theatre), Burning Patience

(Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse). Erik is honored to be making his Geffen School debut with this amazing play alongside such inspiring artists and collaborators. “Bienaventurado el que sabe que compartir un dolor es dividirlo y compartir una alegría es multiplicarla. Bienaventurado este lugar y este momento, amigo mío, porque la vida es aquí y ahora y contigo.”

—Facundo Cabral

creative team in alphabetical order

Rea J. Brown they/them (Costume Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where their credits include Cleansed. They received their B.A. in theater and performance studies and visual arts from The University of Chicago (2022). Recent design credits include We F*cked Up (Yale Cabaret), Rasheeda Speaking (Shattered Globe Theater), WHITE (Definition Theater). Assistant credits include Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Yale Rep), Macbeth (David Geffen School of Drama), The Snow Queen (The House Theater), America V 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro (Definition Theater). reajamesdesigns.com

Josie Cooper she/her (Stage Manager) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Select stage management credits include The Salvagers (Yale Rep); for the honey, you gotta say when. (New York Theatre Workshop/Frances Black Projects, the Geffen School); Grand Concourse, Color

Boy, Julius Caesar, Esme (the Geffen School); Mean Girls, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, Spring Awakening (Weston Drama Workshop); She Kills Monsters (Mount Holyoke College).

Josie holds a B.A. in theater arts with a minor in mathematics from Mount Holyoke College. She sends love and gratitude to her friends and family for their joyous support. A big shout out to her fantastic teammate—Associate Stage Manager, Rethabile Headbush— for making everything possible.

Cian Jaspar Freeman they/ he (Festival Technical Director) is a second-year student pursuing their M.F.A. in technical design and production at David Geffen School of Drama, where his other credits include serving as an Assistant Technical Director for Ghosts, as well as The Salvagers at Yale Repertory Theatre. Prior to Yale, Cian worked as the Assistant Technical Director at the McGlothlin Center for the Arts, while pursuing their B.F.A. in theatrical design and production from Emory & Henry College. Cian is incredibly grateful for everyone who has had the patience to help guide him through this process.

Hannah Fennell Gellman she/her (Production Dramaturg) is a teaching artist and dramaturg who loves queer stories, movement, and poetry. Her production dramaturgy credits include Wish You Were Here and the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep); Cleansed, Wake by Stefani Kuo, Twelfth Night, Hedda Gabler (David

Geffen School of Drama); Arlington, Dr. Ride’s American Beach House and soft apples (Yale Cabaret). She has also collaborated on developing new dance and theater work with reid tang (The Alcove at the Lortel), Cameron Barnett, Qualia Dance Collective, and BODYSONNET, and worked as an educator at Elm Shakespeare Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Lookingglass Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company. She holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College and is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Geffen School.

Minjae Kim 김민재 he/him (Sound Designer) is a Korean-Canadian theater artist and a second-year M.F.A. design candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. He was introduced to theater design as an undergraduate student at Princeton University and is incredibly excited to continue his explorations with rent free. Recent select sound credits include Cleansed, Fucking A (the Geffen School, assistant sound designer and engineer); Ghost Quartet (Princeton Summer Theater); The Match Girl (Cellunova), Mary Stuart—A New Translation (Princeton); and The Hello Girls (Princeton McCarter). He hopes to continue exploring his artistry as a designer, director, playwright, and performer. mondayminjae.com

Doaa Ouf (Projection Designer) is the Co-Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret Season 56: Sandbox and a secondyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Before starting her M.F.A., Doaa worked as a director,

producer, and projection designer for both theater and film. Select credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fucking A (the Geffen School); the betrayal project (Yale Summer Cabaret, projection designer), the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep, assistant projection designer); Gypsy (Yale Arts Coalition, associate projections designer); Dragaret (Yale Cabaret, projection designer); Popcorn Falls (Walnut Street Theatre, associate director); The 5 Stages (producer/ director); Murder by Midnight (Rutgers, director); The Spitfire Grill (Rutgers, associate director); Summer Play Fest (producer). She is a graduate of Rutgers University and is originally from Cairo, Egypt. doaaouf.com

Michael Rossmy (Fight Director) is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep, a lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, and the Stage Combat and Intimacy Advisor for Yale College. Broadway credits include A Tale of Two Cities, Cymbeline, and Superior Donuts. Regional theater credits include The Public Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Paper Mill Playhouse, Asolo Rep, The Old Globe, TheaterWorks Hartford, Princeton University, The Acting Company, Soho Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, and others. He was nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk Award for his work on Troilus and Cressida for The

Public Theater’s production in Central Park. Recent credits include Cyrano de Bergerac at Kansas City Rep directed by Nelson T. Eusebio III and the world premiere of Bonez written and directed by Steve Broadnax III. Upcoming is the New York premiere of Sally & Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks.

Yung-Hung Sung 宋永鴻 he/ him (Lighting Designer) Originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, YungHung Sung is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in design at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his B.F.A. in theater arts from National Sun Yat-Sen University. His design footprints have been seen around several nations and major theaters in Taiwan, such as National Theater of Taiwan, National Taichung Theater, and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). Also, Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, Migration Matters Festival (UK); Beijing Dance Festival, Shanghai International Festival of Arts (China); Changmu Performing Arts Festival (Korea); Festival Off Avignon (France). Selected awards include Ten Lines of Poetry to NK, which received third place for Professional Lighting Design at the World Stage Design Exhibition 2022 in Calgary, Canada. Recent work includes Moonie and Every Brilliant Thing at Yale Cabaret as well as Cleansed and Macbeth at the Geffen School. yhslightingdesign.com

Sammy Zeisel (Director) is a fourthyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where he has directed Uncle Vanya, The Winter’s Tale, Danielle Stagger’s rent free in the Langston Hughes Festival, and Doug Robinson’s The Figs as a part of the New Play Lab. Before pursuing his M.F.A., Sammy lived and worked in Chicago where select credits include the Chicago premieres of The Late Wedding and Home Invasion by Christopher Chen; the solo work of performance artist John Michael (Steppenwolf LookOut, WINNER: Best Solo Performance Ottawa Fringe Festival); inventive new work by playwrights Beth Hyland, Laura Winters, and others; and devised youth circus performance with the Actors Gymnasium. Sammy has assisted directors including Les Waters, Lee Sunday Evans, Jessica Thebus, Meredith McDonough, Michael Patrick Thornton, John Vreeke, Devon DeMayo, and Marti Lyons, and worked at institutions including Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and The

Actors Theatre of Louisville. Sammy is also a filmmaker whose short films have screened at festivals across the country. He graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University with a degree in theater. Sammy is grateful for the way this play has bookended his time at school and would like to especially thank the original cast and crew of the Langston Hughes production of rent free, his family, and, of course, Ella P.

George Zhou 周亦扬 (Scenic Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Cleansed. He received his bachelor’s degree in set design from the University of the Arts in London. His credits include The Importance of Being Earnest at Wimbledon College of Arts, Ghosts (assistant) at the Geffen School, and Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (assistant) at Yale Rep. He worked as an assistant for Ao Li (’19) in several productions in China including Li Zi Zhou in 1929, Sherlock Holmes: Secret of the Anderson Family, and the 15th FIRST International Film Festival Ceremony. zhouyiyangdesign.com

Cactus Queen

By Doug Robinson

Directed by Bobbin Ramsey

creative team

Scenic Designer

Silin Chen

Costume Designer

Arthur Wilson

Lighting Designer

Kyle Stamm

Puppet Designer

Matt Acheson

Sound Designer

Mike Winch

Projection Designer

Sam Skynner

Technical Director

Cian Jaspar Freeman

Production Dramaturg

Gabrielle Hoyt

Fight Director

Kelsey Rainwater

Stage Manager

Hannah Louise Jones

setting

Act I: Days 1–39

15-minute intermission

Act II: Day 40

cast in alphabetical order

Ordell/Ordell Puppeteer

Juice Mackins

Isabell/Reality

Chinna Palmer

Jay/Reality (Vin) Tré Scott

Queeny

Henita Telo

Alina/Reality

Lauren F. Walker

content guidance

This production contains themes of police brutality and anti-Black violence; loss of a child; haze, fog, and onstage cigarettes.

MAGIC &

Fantasy hovers in the space between reality and imagination. There, where the might-be strains to reach the never-could, storytellers spin tales that twist, transform, and defy the everyday. For this reason, the genre of fantasy is often termed escapist. But as novelist Marlon James contests, fantasy cannot be disentangled from the context in which it’s created.

“The distinction between the real and surreal isn’t there,” he says. “I guess people call it magical realism, but nobody who practiced magical realism called it that. Gabriel García Márquez wasn’t writing magical realism—he was writing reality.”

Doug Robinson isn’t writing magical realism. His new play, Cactus Queen, depicts the murder of a Black teenager by the police, his mother’s grief, and their community’s devastation with unflinching specificity. Magic, when it enters this narrative, behaves much like water, dripping, seeping, soaking, and finally sweeping old truths away, until at last the world is saturated and made new. In this way, Cactus Queen performs what Christina Sharpe, a scholar of Black studies and literature, calls “wake work”: the play’s watery relationship to the real both reflects an all-too-familiar tragedy and disturbs that reflection with rippling, distorting force.

Cactus Queen began in 2018. The idea started, as Doug’s ideas often do, with a game, during which he asked himself, “What couldn’t my mother do?” (If you know Doug’s mom, you know…not much.)

To search for an answer, Doug turned to Antigone and the Bible, to Caitlin Doughty’s From Here to Eternity and N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, to Shakespeare’s King John and the memoir of Mamie Till-Mobley. From these sources and many more, he’s carved out a stark yet tender narrative, one that is driven by the overriding need of a mother for her son but still takes time for lemons and plums, cigarettes and cinnamon, warmed-over quiches and Kodak cameras. With such inclusions, Cactus Queen refuses to distinguish between the epic and the intimate. This play depicts grief so big that it threatens to drown the world. Yet, in its details, Doug has inscribed joy, belief, and faith.

Cactus Queen does not embrace naïve, myopic optimism. Magic, after all, represents a profound rupture, a breakage after which things can never be what they once were. When magic finally floods the theatrical landscape of Cactus Queen, its characters’ circumstances change forever. By the end of the play, their reality has been rendered unrecognizable, as all traces of their old world—the world that so closely resembled our own—have washed out to sea. These characters have passed over. They stand on a new shore, in a new land. Cactus Queen’s audience, meanwhile, is left to wonder: what would it take for us to do the same?

Gabrielle Hoyt, Production Dramaturg

Cactus Queen

about the playwright

Doug Robinson he/him from Virginia, is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where he wrote The Tragedy of Esme and Story in Our Blood. Other writing credits include The Figs (American Stage Theatre Company), Pride of Doves (Yale Cabaret), Love Like Tuesday (Faction of Fools Theatre Company), Soft Apples (Yale Cabaret), Distance Frequencies (Rorschach Theatre Company), and Welcome to Sis’s (Ally Theatre Company). He served as Co-Artistic Director of Yale Summer Cabaret 2021. His play Capture the Flag was a recipient of the 2021 inaugural ReImagine New Plays in Theatre for a Young Audiences award. He has been commissioned by The Kennedy Center, Faction of Fools, Imagination Stage, and Ally Theatre Company.

cast in alphabetical order

Juice Mackins (Ordell/Ordell Puppeteer) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama.

Chinna Palmer (Isabell/Reality) is thrilled to be wrapping up her second year with this play process that has both pushed and held her like no other. Her previous credits include Measure for Measure, Behind the Sheet (St. Louis Black Rep, and Fairview (Woolly Mammoth Theatre). Her hope as an artist is that every step is rooted in love, driven with purpose in search of truth. @chinna.palmer.

(Vin) Tré Scott he/him (Jay/Reality) is a multi-hyphenate artist from West Oakland, California. He is in his second year of the acting program at David Geffen School of Drama, where he was seen as “Robin” in Cleansed and as “Monster” in Fucking A

Henita Telo she/her (Queeny) is a first-generation Liberian-American actress, making her David Geffen School of Drama debut. She’s thrilled to be working alongside such wonderful and talented collaborators. Her previous theater credits include The Seagull, Ibsen’s The Master Builder, Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, Fucking A, and Carol Churchill’s Vinegar Tom. OffBroadway credits include The Hendrix Project directed by Roger Guenveur Smith at the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival (2018). Film and television: Lifetime Movie Network’s

The Baby Stealer, CBS’s American Auto, and various regional and national commercials. She obtained her B.F.A. in acting from California Institute of the Arts.

Lauren F. Walker (Alina/Reality) is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Cleansed, The Alley, and Furlough’s Paradise. As an artist who is dedicated to telling stories that make space for the complexities of humanity, Lauren is honored to uplift this story. Lauren’s previous credits include Charmed (MCC), Cullud Wattah (The Public Theater), That Damn Michael Che (HBO), and Bad Monkey (Apple TV+). Lauren would like to send a special thank you to God, her family, and her support system here at Yale. LaurenFWalker.com | @lovevolvz.

creative team in alphabetical order

Matt Acheson (Puppet Designer) is a founder of AchesonWalsh Studios, a kinetic creation studio providing design, fabrication, and direction services, whose clients include Amazon Studios, Broadway, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center Theater, The Alliance Theater, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Long Wharf Theatre, Disney Cruise Lines, Cirque du Soleil, and David Geffen School of Drama. Matt has had the pleasure of working with many exceptional artists including Basil Twist, Dan Hurlin, Mabou Mines, Lee Breuer, Paula Vogel, Sarah Ruhl,

Metropolitan Opera, The Swedish Marionette Cottage, MTV, Lake Simons and Nami Yamamoto. Matt directed and curated The Puppet Lab, an experimental puppet festival at St. Ann’s Warehouse for over a decade and served as Puppetry Director for Warhorse, during its run at Lincoln Center Theater and for the North American tour. Matt designed, built, and directed the marionettes for Rinna Groff’s Compulsion, and the recently remounted production directed by Johanna Gruenhut at Theater J in Washington, DC.

Silin Chen (Scenic Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she recently designed Uncle Vanya. She designs for stage and exhibitions. @de.silin | silindesign.com

Cian Jaspar Freeman they/he (Festival Technical Director) Please see page 7 for their bio.

Gabrielle Hoyt she/her (Production Dramaturg) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she researches and writes about the nexus of Jewishness and musical theater. She has published with Hey Alma, American Theatre, Theater magazine, and Studies in Musical Theatre and will serve as the Associate Editor of Theater magazine for the 2024–25 academic year. Gabrielle is the recipient of the 2023 John W. Gassner Memorial Prize for her essay “Reviving Jewishness.” A graduate of Yale College, she

Cactus Queen

previously worked as a literary manager at Round House Theatre. Gabrielle is deeply grateful to complete her M.F.A. with the Cactus Queen team.

Hannah Louise Jones she/her (Stage Manager) is a black queer stage manager from Baltimore, Maryland. She is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in the stage management program at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include, The Misanthrope, Uncle Vanya, Julius Caesar, Dwight/ Edgewood Project, WAKE, the betrayal project, and Furlough’s Paradise. She received a B.A. from Hampshire College in 2020. Hannah wishes to thank her teammate Thomas, her family and friends, theater mentors, her partner, and the Cactus Queen team for their trust, love, and space-holding. “Grief is just love with no place to go.” For EM, BJM, and MLJ.

Kelsey Rainwater (Fight Director) is an intimacy coach, fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s work was recently seen in the premiere of Sally & Tom at the Guthrie. Some of her other credits include In the Southern Breeze at Rattlestick, The Public Theater’s Measure for Measure and White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Oskar Eustis; Blues for an Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; Bess Wohl’s film, Baby Ruby; Wish You Were Here, A Raisin in the Sun (canceled due to COVID-19), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home

at Yale Rep; She is a Lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, coteaching stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.

Bobbin Ramsey (Director) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Through visceral theatricality, the creation of communal experiences, and complex stories Bobbin aims to create a more just, connected, and compassionate world through art. Recent work includes Fucking A, Macbeth, Wake (the Geffen School); the betrayal project (Yale Summer Cabaret); and UDO (Yale Cabaret). Other notable productions include Charise Castro Smith’s Feathers and Teeth; Clare Barron’s Dance Nation; Jennifer Haley’s The Nether; Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.; BrechtFest, an original mash-up of Brecht plays served over a three-course brunch; and a sitespecific Waiting for Godot performed on a Seattle pier. Bobbin is so grateful to be ending her time at the Geffen School with this remarkable group of collaborators and has immense gratitude for them.

Sam Skynner she/her (Projection Designer) is a designer, educator, and researcher working between New York City and Toronto. Sam is interested in theater, dance, opera, film, and installation. Selected credits include Wish You Were Here (Yale Rep, projection designer); X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (The Metropolitan Opera, 2D animator);

DIANA ROSS DREAM (Dancemakers, lighting designer); Highway Patrol (The Goodman Theater, 2D Animator), Alice’s Wonderland (South Coast Rep, Content Creator); Reflections of Native Voices Festival (LaMaMa and New York Theatre Workshop, video editor), Family Pictures (USA x Syracuse); Everson Art Gallery (video consultant); Rebecca Love (Mixtape Projects, lighting designer); Next To Normal (the Geffen School, projection designer); Soft Apples (Yale Cabaret, lighting designer); Brubeck and Not With a Bang… But a Whimper (TMU, Projection Designer). Sam was awarded a 2023 Beinecke Fellowship for her ongoing research project Technology, Experimentation, and Theatrical Consciousness in the work of Mary Ellen Bute, conducting research at the Beinecke Library at Yale and the LACMA in Los Angeles. In July 2024, Sam will begin her appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor of film, media, and theater at Mount Holyoke College. samskynner.com

Kyle Stamm (Lighting Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in lighting design and a Co-Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret Season 56: Sandbox. Select lighting design credits include Ruzante, Uncle Vanya, Julius Caesar (the Geffen School); S’MORES, Arlington, The Royale, Read for Filth: Dragaret 2024, We Fucked Up [a gameshow], Four Meddling Kids and One Dumb Dog (Yale Cabaret); the betrayal project (Yale Summer Cabaret); for the honey, you gotta say

when (New York Theatre Workshop/ Frances Black Projects); Bat Boy, Grease, Something Rotten, Young Frankenstein, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Indecent, Metamorphoses, The Wolves, Cabaret (Weston Drama Workshop); and Rent, Trojan Women (Ithaca College). Kyle graduated from Ithaca College with a B.F.A. in theater production and design in the spring of 2022 and is originally from Framingham, Massachusetts. kylestammdesign.com

Arthur Wilson (Costume Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Recent costume design credits include Uncle Vanya (the Geffen School) and Scenes from Beckett at Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES). Assistant design credits include Candide (Glimmerglass Opera Festival) and Jane Austen’s Emma: The Musical (Chance Theater Anaheim, California and Ensemble Theater in Santa Barbara). Arthur holds a double B.A. in music and theater, California State University, Fullerton.

Mike Winch (Sound Design and Additional Original Music) is a fourthyear M.F.A. candidate in sound design at David Geffen School of Drama. He has been a sound designer and composer for the past decade in Washington, DC. He is a four-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, with a tenured background in Irish fiddle and music technology.

Pearl’s Beauty Salon

By Stefani Kuo 郭佳怡

Directed by Mina

Morita

creative team

Scenic Designer

Patrick Blanchard

Costume Designer

Caroline Tyson

Lighting Designer

Ankit Pandey

Composer and Sound Designer

Tojo Rasedoara

Projection Designer

Christian Killada

Technical Director

Cian Jaspar Freeman

Production Dramaturg

Shyama Iyer

Intimacy Director

Kelsey Rainwater

Stage Manager

Aura Michelle

setting

2023. 1967. & in between.

cast in alphabetical order

Bells

Caroline Campos

Christine/Dramaturg

Shimali De Silva

Pearl/Edna Wai Ching Ho

Dad

Kenneth Lee

Maru

Sarah Lo

FatCheeks

Emma Steiner

Which is to say, everything in this play is now, now, now. Even when it is in the past. Even if it is in the imaginary or the memory or the history. We are always now.

Pearl’s Beauty Salon will have a 10-minute intermission.

content guidance

Pearl’s Beauty Salon contains scenes with partial undressing, fog, haze, and flashing lights.

A Note About Pearls

Cities are a bit like oysters; they require a shell to keep themselves safe and their culture distinct. And like oysters, not all cities can yield a pearl—only one in ten thousand wild oysters naturally produces that perfect white sphere. In that rare case, a foreign grain of sand must enter the oyster’s shell and force the animal to secrete layers of nacre around the grain. Over time, the layers build, transforming the tiny unwelcome guest into a lustrous pearl.

In January of 1841, the British entered the city of Hong Kong. And like an oyster under attack, the city’s inhabitants learned to protect themselves with layers of culture, language, history, and sometimes, fantasy. This was not the first, nor the last organized power to claim ownership of the city’s shores. In July of 1997, Hong Kong was handed back to the People’s Republic of China, and the city’s inhabitants were forced to find new layers of protection. Over the last several centuries, Hong Kong’s people have found a sense of self only in the constant ability to change and adapt—like water. The city has been polished to be as smooth as a hairless body, as delectable as a chicken delicacy, and as alluring as a “naturally” formed pearl. Hong Kong has become one in ten thousand: the “Pearl of the Orient.”

Maru is desperate to hold this city, this pearl, in her fingers. But the city’s shell is as sharp as an oyster knife. After all, Hong Kong is more than just a valuable commodity, it is Maru’s home. A place made up of her childhood memories, playful fantasies, fascinating discoveries, and troubling realities. A place she left when she was too young to realize what she was leaving.

Now, she thrusts her hand into the fleshy membrane and searches for that round, delicate object.

What emerges is this play.

—Shyama Iyer, Production Dramaturg

Pearl’s Beauty Salon about the playwright

Stefani Kuo 郭佳怡 she/her, from Hong Kong and Taiwan, is a fourthyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she wrote Form One and Wake. Other writing and performance credits include more more more (Yale Cabaret), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Elm Shakespeare Company), the betrayal project (Yale Summer Cabaret), Moonie (Yale Cabaret), Arlington (Yale Cabaret), delicacy of a puffin heart (Corkscrew Theater Festival), and Architecture of Rain (Yale Dramatic Association), in addition to serving as Co-Artistic Director of the Yale Summer Cabaret 2021 season.

Her play Final Boarding Call was the Winner of the 2021 Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers Prize. She was a member of Interstate-73, Page 73’s Writers Group, in 2019. She has been commissioned by Roundhouse Theatre, Yangtze Repertory Theater, and the Rubin Museum. B.A., Yale University, Theater studies. stefanikuo.com

Stefani is eternally grateful to this team, her family, communities, mentors, and collaborators. Thank you to Jisun Kim, dramaturg, director, lifelong collaborator, for making this play and production possible.

For more on Hong Kong: parachute.substack.com

cast in alphabetical order

Caroline Campos she/her (Bells) is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Grand Concourse and Moe’s A D*ck. She has also appeared in Hot and Cold Showers at Yale Cabaret. Caroline graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in English. She dedicates this performance to her 婆婆 Bo Sun Wong, to her mother Pamela Wong, and to those still searching for a place to land.

Shimali De Silva (Christine/ Dramaturg) is a 2023 graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits included The Winters Tale, Next to Normal, Ghosts, and Swimmers. Prior to Yale she read English at Cambridge University in the UK, where she was in many plays, including the original Edinburgh Fringe production of SiX: The Musical.

Wai Ching Ho* (Pearl/Edna)

Select New York credits include Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company), Endlings (New York Theatre Workshop), Henry VI (NAATCO), No Foreigners Beyond This Point (MaYi), and The Joy Luck Club (Pan Asian Rep). Regionally she has worked extensively with prestigious theater companies such as the American Repertory Theater, Steppenwolf, Long Wharf, Denver Center for Performing Arts, the Goodman Theatre, Palo Theatre Theatre Works, and the Lookingglass Theatre. Her film credits include

Hustlers in which she played opposite Jennifer Lopez, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starring Nicolas Cage. In 2003 she won a Best Actress award for her performance in Robot Stories in the sci-fi film festivals in Madrid, St. Louis, and Puchon, South Korea. She voiced the character of Grandma in Turning Red, a 2023 Oscar-nominated animated film. Her television credits include Only Murders in the Building, New Amsterdam, Awkwafina is Nora From Queens, and all four series of Law & Order. She appeared in numerous episodes as Madame Gao in Marvel’s Daredevil, Iron Fist, and The Defenders.

Kenneth Lee* (Dad) Theater credits include originating the leading role of Hsu in Matt Charman’s The Machine at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, London’s Donmar Warehouse, and the Manchester International Festival; Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company); Hamlet, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (The Shakespeare Theatre); M.Butterfly (Arena Stage); Hamlet (The Pearl Theatre); You Never Touched the Dirt (Clubbed Thumb); The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest, (American Players Theatre); Chimerica (The Studio Theatre); Snow Falling on Cedars (Baltimore Centerstage); The Cherry Orchard (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Luna Gale (Cleveland Playhouse). Film and television: Search Party, FBI, The Affair, Mr. Robot, Madam Secretary, Unforgettable, The

Following, Delocated, Deception, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Second Act. He last recurred on The Blacklist and can currently be seen in Power Book 3: Raising Kanan. Kenneth is a founding member of the Tony awardwinning AAPAC (Asian American Performer’s Action Coalition). B.F.A., NY; the Public Theater Shakespeare Lab; M.F.A., American Conservatory Theater. Thanks to Stefani for the chance to perform in the language of my foremothers. For mom, who never wavered. ikennethlee.com

Sarah Lo (Maru) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. Regional credits: Today is My Birthday (Yale Repertory Theatre) and In Every Generation (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). Chicago credits: Murder on the Orient Express and South Pacific (Drury Lane Oakbrook), In Every Generation and Cambodian Rock Band (Victory Gardens Theatre), Deck the Hallmark (The Second City), Mlima’s Tale (Griffin Theatre), and M. Butterfly (Court Theatre). Television and film: The Chair (Netflix), Candyman (Monkeypaw), Chicago Med (NBC), Utopia (Amazon), Christmas Again (Disney Channel), and Station Eleven (Max). Sarah is a proud graduate of the University of Chicago. This one is for Mom, Dad, Eric, Wes, Stefani, and for you. Enjoy the show!

Emma Steiner (FatCheeks) is a firstyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama. In 2021, she graduated with

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Pearl’s Beauty Salon

a B.F.A. in acting from the University of Michigan. Thanks and love to her family, friends, and the entire Pearl’s Beauty Salon team. emmasteiner.me

creative team in alphabetical order

Patrick Blanchard (Scenic Designer) is a second-year designer at David Geffen School of Drama.

Cian Jaspar Freeman they/he (Festival Technical Director) Please see page 7 for their bio.

Mina Morita she/her (Director) Directing credits include: Vietgone (The Guthrie); Today is My Birthday (Yale Rep); English (Berkeley Rep); The Chinese Lady (Magic Theater); Sisters Matsumoto (Center Rep) On Grace (Anna Deavere Smith); Both Your Houses (ACT’s M.F.A. Program); Crowded Fire; Shotgun Players; Campo Santo; Ferocious Lotus; Just Theater; Playwrights Foundation; Playwrights Center; and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. Other: Artistic Director of Crowded Fire Theater Company; Artistic Associate of Berkeley Rep; Board President of Shotgun Players; Interim Executive Director of Bay Area Children’s Theatre; Community Arts Panelist for Zellerbach Family Foundation; Guest Artist at UC Berkeley and Stanford University; and Playwriting Australia. Awards: Inaugural 2023 FrontOffice Mid-Career Women Director’s Award; YBCA100; Theater Bay Area Best Director; Theater Bay Area’s Bay Area Impact; Beinecke Fellowship; Bret C.

Harte Fellowship; and Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. In 2015, Mina was honored to share her story on TEDx, and in 2016, she was chosen as one of the YBCA100, for “asking questions and making provocations that will shape the future of culture.”

Shyama Iyer (Production Dramaturg), a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, is a scholar/artist whose work blends Indian and American theater styles. Her recent dramaturgy credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (co-adaptor, the Geffen School) and for the honey, you gotta Say when. Her recent performance and writing credits include Arlington, The Rasa Jar (Yale Cabaret); Journeys: A Bharathanatyam Dance-Play (Kentucky Center, Yale Cabaret); Not Lonely Anymore (54 Below). She serves as the co-director of the Louisville-based Indian arts festival, The Geeva Arts Festival. shyamaiyer.com

Christian Killada (Projection Designer) is an Egyptian transmedia designer and a second-year M.F.A. candidate in projection design at David Geffen School of Drama. He holds a degree in set and costume design. His research is dedicated to exploring the synergy between technology, interactive media, and live performance arts. Chris’s selected credits include De la cave au grenier (French Cultural Center, Egypt, projection designer), Fantasia (Alhosabir Theater, scenic designer), and Gymnastics World Challenge Cup 2021 (Cairo Stadium, 3D video designer). @cnwk122

Aura Michelle (Stage Manager) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate from Canada. Her recent stage management credits include Fucking A, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, rent free (David Geffen School of Drama); Romeo et Juliette and Kiss Me, Kate (Central City Opera); Shakespeare’s Women, Love and Information, and Dead Man’s Cell Phone (University of Victoria, Phoenix Theatre, her alma mater). She has immense artistic passion for unconventional, multi-lingual, multi-generational, and politically evocative work, each ignited through the Pearl’s process. Aura is especially grateful to Stefani for creating and sharing this incredible story and her stage management associate ty ruwe.

Ankit Pandey (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer, theater practitioner, and educator originally based in New Delhi, India, and a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. They have worked in and designed for a wide gamut of performances including but not limited to theater, music, dance recitals, films, exhibitions, and installations. Notable among these are Fucking A, The Winter’s Tale, Dastaan LIVE, Table Radica, Green Room, and ‘Love, Prufrock’. Ankit has also served as the technical and art director for various performing arts festivals. They are also a co-founder of Tech Quartet—a technical design and production company based in New Delhi.

Kelsey Rainwater (Intimacy Director)

Please see page 15 for her bio.

Tojo Rasedoara (Composer and Sound Designer) is a second-year sound designer and a 2025 M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Measure for Measure and Furlough’s Paradise. He received his bachelor in Entertainment Technology degree in 2017 at City Tech Brooklyn. His previous and most current works include Macbeth, Ghosts (assistant sound designer, the Geffen School); the world premiere of Off-Peak (Hudson Stage); Sandblasted (Vineyard Theatre); Is There Still Sex In the City? (Daryl Roth Theatre); The Gradient (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Being/ With (Nichole Canuso Dance Company); Soft Jade (Yale Summer Cabaret); Citizen (Duke University); Burning Church (New Ohio Theatre); Harriet Tubman (Hi-Arts). He also worked in various New York Fashion Week shows as a Production Assistant with designers such as Prabal Gurung, Oscar de la Renta, R13, Zadig & Voltaire, ADEAM, Self Portrait, the Monse Show, and the Victoria Beckham AW18 Pre-collection.

Caroline Tyson (Costume Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where credits include Fucking A. Other recent costume design credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Weston Drama Workshop), Marry Me A Little (Yale Cabaret), and Twelfth Night (The Public Theater Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble). Assistant/associate design credits include productions at The Juilliard School, Cincinnati Opera, Barrington Stage, Berkeley Rep, and Lincoln Center Theater. B.A., University of Maryland, Baltimore County. carolinetyson.com

The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund, established by a graduate of the School, honors the memory of the Tony Award-winning producer who served as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management program at David Geffen School of Drama from 1993 until his death in 2005. During his tenure as Yale Rep’s Managing Director, alongside Dean/Artistic Director Lloyd Richards from 1982–1993, Mordecai developed a model of professional producing that changed the course of new play development in the American theatre. His 25 Broadway credits included Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, as well as work by Anna Deavere Smith, Athol Fugard, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, Robert Schenkkan, and perhaps most significantly August Wilson, with whom he collaborated on each of the ten plays in the epic 20th-Century Cycle.

The Carlotta Festival is also supported by The Burry Fredrik Foundation. The Foundation was established by Tony Award-winning producer, director, and stage manager Burry Fredrik to champion the growth and health of Connecticut’s professional theaters, especially those that are developing and producing new work. The Foundation also provides funding for designers at David Geffen School of Drama through the Burry Fredrik Design Fellowship, which helps launch their early careers at theaters across Connecticut.

Carlotta Monterey, the widow of Eugene O’Neill, chose Yale University Press as the publisher of Long Day’s Journey Into Night. It is written on the copyright page of the first paperback edition that the proceeds from its publication are to go to playwriting at Yale University.

See All Three Plays Through May 10!

rent free

Cactus Queen MAY 03 | 8PM MAY 05 | 8PM MAY 08 | 8PM MAY 10 | 2PM

MAY 02 | 8PM MAY 05 | 2PM MAY 06 | 8PM MAY 09 | 8PM drama.yale.edu/carlotta

Pearl’s Beauty Salon MAY 04 | 8PM MAY 06 | 2PM MAY 09 | 2PM MAY 10 | 8PM

artistic

Festival Producer

Anne Erbe

Associate Festival Producer

Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel

Production Consultant

Pearl’s Beauty Salon

Jisun Kim

Assistant Scenic Designers

Jessie Baldinger

Karen Loewy Movilla

Assistant Lighting Designers

Celia Chen

Larry Ortiz

Assistant Projection Designer

Wiktor Freifeld

Assistant Sound Designers and Engineers

Constant Dzah (rent free)

Joyce Ciesil (Cactus Queen)

Kino Alvarez (Pearl’s Beauty Salon)

Production Stage Manager

Colleen Rooney

Assistant Stage Managers

Rethabile Headbush (rent free)

Thomas Nagata (Cactus Queen)

ty ruwe (Pearl’s Beauty Salon)

production

Production Manager

Ro Burnett

Associate Production Manager

Miguel Angel Lopez

Assistant Technical Directors

Mara Bredovskis

Katie Chance

Erik Keating

Properties Manager

Destany Langfield

Assistant Properties Manager

Steph Burke

Production Electricians

Tom Minucci

Cameron Waitkun

Production Sound Engineer

Emilee Biles

Projection Engineer

T Morris-Thompson

Projection Content Creators

Wiktor Freifeld

Doaa Ouf

Sam Skynner

Projection Programmers

Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas

Eugenio Sáenz Flores

Scenic Charges

Nicole Goldstein

Laam Tsang

Stage Carpenters

Matthew Phillips

Leo Surach

Light Board Programmers

Ankit Pandey

Kyle Stamm

Yung-Hung Sung

Run Crew

Jessie Baldinger

Tricie Bergmann

Aholibama Castañeda González

Ida Cuttler

Nicole Goldstein

Ariyan Kurmaly Kassam

Isaac Lau

Laize Qin

ML Roberts

Kamal Sehrawy

Mithra Seyedi

Kristen Taylor

Changeover Crew

Adam Taylor Foster

Patti Panyakaew

Anthony Robles

administration

Associate Managing Director

A.J. Roy

Assistant Managing Director

Jeremy Landes

Management Assistants

Mithra Seyedi

Iyanna Huffington Whitney

Festival House Manager

Adrian Hernandez

special thanks

For rent free: Aura Michelle, Adam Taylor Foster, Gabrielle Hoyt, Whitney Andrews, Michael Allyn Crawford, Tyler Cruz, JaniahCamile François, Tavia Hunt, Abigail Onwunali, Benjamin Donaldson, Garrett Allen, Bobbin Ramsey, Rivka Gorelick

For Cactus Queen: Christina Anderson, Genevieve Dornemann, Jennifer Kiger, Dustin Wills, Garrett Allen, Sammy Zeisel

For Pearl’s Beauty Salon: Stanford Kuo, Shirley Lin, Carmen Kuo, Samantha Kuo, Sam Leung, Monique Ng, Rizalinia Cadangen, ML Roberts, Ida Cuttler, Matthew Chong, Andrew Rincón, Yuen Ning Chang, Garrett Allen

David Geffen School of Drama Staff

Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean

James Bundy

Associate Dean

Florie Seery

Associate Dean

Chantal Rodriguez

Assistant Dean

Carla L. Jackson

Assistant Dean

Nancy Yao academic programs

Chair, Acting Program

Tamilla Woodard

Co-Chairs, Design Program

Riccardo Hernández

Toni-Leslie James

Chair, Directing Program

Liz Diamond

Chair, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program

Catherine Sheehy

Co-Chairs, Playwriting Program

Anne Erbe

Marcus Gardley

Chair, Stage Management Program

Narda E. Alcorn (on leave)

Acting Chair, Stage Management Program

James Mountcastle

Chair, Technical Design and Production Program

Shaminda Amarakoon

Chair, Theater Management Program

Joan Channick

artistic management

Production Stage Manager

James Mountcastle

Senior Artistic Producer, Yale Repertory Theatre

Amy Boratko

Associate Producer, Yale Repertory Theatre

Kay Perdue Meadows

Artistic Fellows

Jisun Kim

Madeline Pages

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Dean and Associate Dean

Josie Brown

Senior Administrative

Assistant for Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, and Stage Management

Laurie Coppola

Senior Administrative Assistant for Design

Kate Begley Baker

Senior Administrative Assistant for the Acting Program

Krista DeVellis

Library Services

Erin Carney

production

Production Management Director of Production

Shaminda Amarakoon

Production Manager

Jonathan Reed

Production Manager for Studio Projects and Special Events

C. Nikki Mills

Scenery

Technical Director for Yale Rep

Neil Mulligan

Technical Directors for David Geffen School of Drama

Latiana “LT” Gourzong

Matt Welander

Electro Mechanical

Laboratory Supervisor

Eric Lin

Scene Shop Supervisor

Eric Sparks

Senior Lead Carpenter

Matt Gaffney

Lead Carpenters

Ryan Gardner

Doug Kester

Kat McCarthey

Sharon Reinhart

Carpenter

David Di Fabio

Carpentry Intern

Isaac Lau

Painting

Scenic Charge

Mikah Berky

Scenic Artists

Lia Akkerhuis

Nathan Jasunas

Paint Interns

Nicole Goldstein

Laam Tsang

Properties

Properties Supervisor

Jennifer McClure

Properties Craftsperson

David P. Schrader

Properties Associate

Zach Faber

Properties Stock Manager

Mark Dionne

Properties Intern

Destany Langfield

Costumes

Costume Shop Manager

Christine Szczepanski

Senior Drapers

Clarissa Wylie Youngberg

Mary Zihal

Interim Senior Draper

Susan Aziz

Senior First Hands

Deborah Bloch

Patricia Van Horn

David Geffen School of Drama Staff

Costume Project Coordinator

Linda Kelley-Dodd

Costume Stock Manager

Jamie Farkas

Costume Shop Assistant

Eugenio Sáenz Flores

Costume Interns

Amani Jaramoga

Annie Wang

Electrics

Lighting Supervisor

Donald W. Titus

Senior House Electricians

Jennifer Carlson

Linda-Cristal Young

Electricians

Katie Brown

Alary Sutherland

Ryan White

Sound

Sound Supervisor

Mike Backhaus

Senior Lead Sound Engineer

Stephanie Smith

Sound Intern

Robert Salerno

Projections

Projection Supervisor

Anja Powell

Projection Technician

Erinn Pleake

Stage Operations

Stage Carpenter

Janet Cunningham

Lead Wardrobe Supervisor

Elizabeth Bolster

Lead Properties Runner

William Ordynowicz

Lead Light Board Programmer

Sabrina Idom

administration

General Management

Associate Managing Directors

Jake Hurwitz

Chloe Knight

A.J. Roy

Assistant Managing Director

Jeremy Landes

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Managing Director and General Manager

Sarah Masotta

Management Assistant

Kavya Shetty

Company Manager

Sarah Haber

Assistant Company Managers

Claudia Campos

Mithra Seyedi

Development and Alumni Affairs

Senior Director of Development and Alumni Affairs

Deborah S. Berman

Deputy Director of Operations for Development and Alumni Affairs

Susan C. Clark

Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs

Jacob Santos

Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Affairs

Mikayla Stanley

Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Alumni Affairs

Jennifer E. Alzona

Development Associate

Delaney Kelley

Finance, Human Resources, and Digital Technology

Director of Finance and Business Administration/Lead Administrator

Nicola Blake

Human Resources Business Partner

Trinh DiNoto

Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium and Web Technology

Janna J. Ellis

Manager, Business Operations

Martha Boateng

Business Office Analyst

Shainn Reaves

Digital Communications Associate

George Tinari

Business Office Specialists

Moriah Clarke

Karem Orellana-Flores

Business Office Assistant

Asberry Thomas

Digital Technology Associates

Edison Dule

Garry Heyward

Senior Administrative Assistant to Finance, Web Technology, Tessituria, and Human Resources

Monique Moore

Database Application Consultants

Ben Silvert

Erich Bolton

Bo Du

Financial Aid and Admissions

Financial Aid Officer

Andre Messiah

Registrar/Admissions

Administrator

Ariel Yan

Assistant to Financial Aid and Admissions

Laura Torino

Marketing, Communications, and Audience Services

Director of Marketing

Daniel Cress

Director of Communications

Steven Padla

Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Caitlin Griffin

Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Samanta Cubias

Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications

Roman Sanchez

Marketing and Communcations Assistant

Claudia Campos

Community Engagement

Associate

a.k. payne

Senior Administrative Assistant for Marketing and Communications

Mishelle Raza

Interim Senior Administrative Assistant for Marketing and Communications

Rachel Zwick

Publications Manager

Marguerite Elliott

Production Photographer

T. Charles Erickson

Videographer

David Kane

Director of Audience Services

Laura Kirk

Assistant Director of Audience Services

Shane Quinn

Subscriptions Coordinator

Tracy Baldini

Audience Services Associate Molly Leona

Customer Service and Safety Officers

Ralph Black, Jr. Kevin Delaney

Ed Jooss

Box Office Assistants

Pilar Bylinsky

Jordi Bertrán Ramírez

Emma Fusco

Sydney Raine Garick

Jordan Graf

Elliot Valentine

Kenneth Murray

Accessibility Assistant

Prentiss Patrick-Carter

theater safety and occupational health

Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health

Anna Glover

Assistant Director of Theater Safety

Kelly O’Loughlin

Associate Safety Advisors

Cian Jaspar Freeman

Luanne Jubsee operations

Director of Facility Operations

Nadir Balan

Associate Director of Operations

Brandon Fuller

Operations Assistant

Kelvin Essilfie

Arts and Graduate Studies

Superintendents

Jennifer Draughn

Francisco Eduardo Pimentel

Custodial Team Leaders

Andrew Mastriano

Sherry Stanley

Facility Stewards

Ronald Douglas

Marcia Riley

Custodians

Tylon Frost

Willia Grant

Cassandra Hobby

Melloney Lucas

Shanna Ramos

Jerome Sonia

The Carlotta Festival, May 2–10, 2024, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut.