Ninth Annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays, Yale School of Drama, 2014.

9TH ANNUAL

MAY 9–16

9TH ANNUAL

MAY 9–16

CARLOTTA MONTEREY, the widow of Eugene O’Neill, chose Yale University Press as the publisher of A Long Day’s Journey into Night. It is written on the copyright page of the first paperback edition that the proceeds from this publication of one of America’s greatest plays are to go to playwriting at Yale University.

Thank you, Carlotta.

Photos, front cover, left to right: Hansol Jung, Mary Laws, and Kate Tarker.

MAY 9–16, 2014

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Joan Channick, Associate Dean Jeanie O’Hare, Chair of Playwriting

PRESENTS

9TH ANNUAL

MAY 9–16 CARDBOARD PIANO HANSOL JUNG Directed by COLE LEWIS By

BIRD FIRE FLY

MARY LAWS KATHERINE McGERR

By Directed by

THUNDERBODIES

By KATE TARKER Directed by DUSTIN WILLS

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Welcome!

Welcome to Yale School of Drama’s 9th annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays.

Our graduating playwrights, Hansol Jung, Mary Laws, and Kate Tarker, have spent three valuable years writing and producing plays in the fully immersive conservatory training that the School of Drama offers.

They have worked with innovative sound designers, field leading projection designers, award winning costume and set designers, consummate stage managers, visionary directors, collaborated with fine artists on campus, written songs with composers, and had their minds blown by dramaturgical and producing conversations.

Outside of their class time they have made experimental work for Yale Cabaret, they have run electrics crew, worked front of house tearing tickets, and pushed on through to 2AM striking sets.

Now it is time for them to take up their places in an industry that anticipates and salutes their genius. The Carlotta Festival is a celebration of that coming of age.

We are really pleased you can be here with us.

Yours,

Jeanie O’Hare Chair, Playwriting Department

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festival schedule

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M

T

MAY 2014 12

8PM 8PM THUNDERBODIES CARDBOARD PIANO

W

F

S

09

10

8PM CARDBOARD PIANO

13

14

15

2PM BIRD FIRE FLY

2PM CARDBOARD PIANO

2PM 2PM THUNDERBODIES BIRD FIRE FLY

8PM 8PM THUNDERBODIES BIRD FIRE FLY

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T

8PM CARDBOARD PIANO

16 8PM THUNDERBODIES

8PM BIRD FIRE FLY

Cardboard Piano HANSOL JUNG Directed by COLE LEWIS By

CREATIVE TEAM Scenic Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer Production Dramaturg Stage Manager

JUNGAH HAN STEVEN ROTRAMEL JOEY MORO BRIAN HICKEY WHITNEY DIBO WILL RUCKER

CAST Christina Pika, Paul Soldier, Francis Adiel, Ruth

MELANIE FIELD JONATHAN MAJORS JULIAN ELIJAH MARTINEZ SHAUNETTE RENﾃ右 WILSON

THERE WILL BE ONE TEN-MINUTE INTERMISSION. 3

“Many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us.”

As many of you may know, the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act was signed into law this past February. Same sex relations are now punishable by life in prison, and the bill also includes harsh penalties for anyone who provides services for or seeks to protect gay citizens. Hansol began writing Cardboard Piano before the Anti-Homosexuality law made world news headlines, and its advent has cast a heightened awareness around the project.

Cardboard Piano is set in northern Uganda, a region racked by violence due to the rise of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA has been active since 1986, and is responsible for innumerable human rights abuses— including the abduction of thousands of children then forced into military service. While the LRA conflict ostensibly ended in 2006, human

—DALAI LAMA XIV

rights violations have gone largely unaddressed. Despite this horrific past, the Acholi people of northern Uganda have begun to rebuild, and many families who were displaced during the war have returned to their homes.

But Cardboard Piano is not a history lesson, it’s a play. So while the reality of Uganda looms over the play world, it doesn’t entirely define or subsume the characters. Uganda’s violent past and anti-gay rhetoric are inescapable, but this is also a story about reconciliation, faith, and compassion. It is about how people forgive each other or fail to forgive, how survivors strive to move past trauma and reconcile past with present, and how painful the moment is when we are forced to confront our most strongly held, if flawed, beliefs.

—WHITNEY DIBO, PRODUCTION DRAMATURG

about the playwright: HANSOL JUNG HANSOL JUNG is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama originally from South Korea. Her work has been developed at The Bushwick Starr, Asia Society New York, Lark Play Development Center, OD Musical Theater Company (Seoul), Cultural Conversations New Play Festival, and Yale Cabaret. Her works include Dis/ Oriented: Antonioni in China (with Yin Mei and Bora Yoon), Among the Dead, Still Murky, No More Sad Things, and Cardboard Piano. She has translated over thirty American musicals into Korean, including Evita, Evil Dead The Musical, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, while working on several award winning musical theatre productions as director, lyricist, and translator in Seoul, South Korea. She is the recipient of Playwrights’ Center Core Apprenticeship, the Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, the Pierre-Andre Salim Memorial Scholarship at Yale School of Drama, and was a 2014 finalist for The Ruby Prize.

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cast: Cardboard Piano MELANIE FIELD (CHRISTINA) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She recently made her Yale Cabaret debut in The Defendant. Her professional credits include the Broadway companies of The Phantom of the Opera and Evita (2012 revival), as well as the first national tour of Wicked.

Melanie received her BM in vocal performance from NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Favorite NYU credits include The Light in the Piazza (Margaret), A Little Night Music (Petra), and Twelfth Night (Olivia).

JONATHAN MAJORS (PIKA, PAUL) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. His most recent credits include the world premiere of Cry Old Kingdom at the 2013 Humana Festival of New American Plays and the August Wilson’s American Century Cycle recordings of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences at the Greene Space. Jonathan holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

JULIAN ELIJAH MARTINEZ (SOLDIER, FRANCIS) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. His credits include The Brothers Size, We Fight We Die, The Defendant (Yale Cabaret); 9 Circles (Forum Theatre, Helen Hayes Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Play nomination); Locomotion (The John F. Kennedy Center); The Hampton Years (Theater J); Jekyll & Hyde (Synetic Theater); Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cymbeline (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); Man of La Mancha (Hangar Theater); Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well (Orlando Shakespeare Theater); and Flyboy (Unstrung Harpist Theater Company, Best of Fringe at the Capital Fringe Festival). Julian holds a BFA from Elon University.

SHAUNETTE RENÉE WILSON (ADIEL, RUTH) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She appeared in The Defendant at Yale Cabaret. Other credits include The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Undone, Macbeth, A Dybbuk, and Romeo and Juliet (Queens College). Shaunette is a part of the acting ensemble of this summer’s 40th anniversary season of Yale Summer Cabaret.

creative team: Cardboard Piano WHITNEY DIBO (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a third-year year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her dramaturgy credits include Fox Play, No More Sad Things, and Romeo and Juliet. She is also one of the CoArtistic Directors of Yale Cabaret, where her credits include The Twins Would Like to Say (co-director) and The Yiddish King Lear (co-creator, director). Prior to Yale, she worked in the education and literary departments at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she served as program assistant on First Look 5

creative team: Cardboard Piano Repertory of New Work. She has also worked in artistic capacities at The Gift Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, and TimeLine Theatre, among others. Her writing has appeared in Time Out Chicago, Newcity: Street Smart Chicago, Women in Theatre magazine, 2nd Story, and The Blood Orange Review.

JUNGAH HAN (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has designed Measure for Measure. Her other design credits include Gone Missing (USD Studio Theatre); The Diviners, The Good Body (LBCC Auditorium); Henry the Tenth/Julius and Cleopatra (LBCC Studio Theatre); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (MiraCosta Theatre); Re-Drowning Ophelia (San Diego Repertory Theatre); Cabaret (USD Shiley Theatre); The Little Dog Laughed, No Exit (Diversionary Theatre); If I Were Your Superhero (Old Town Theatre); Big Money (Director’s Studio Williamstown Theatre Festival); A Number (Cygnet Rolando Theatre); Flight of the Lawnchair Man, The Cherry Orchard, Nickel and Dimed (Don Powell Theatre, San Diego State University); Massie/Kahahawai and Heads by Harry (Kumu Kahua Thatre). Previously, she assisted set designers including Ralph Funicello, Tobin Ost, Allen Moyer, Takeshi Kata, and Gerry Hariton. She has also assisted at Williamstown Theatre Festival and Denver Center Theatre Company. She has designed for film and television including The Colonel (Idyllwild Award, 2009) and Prodigal. Before coming to New Haven, she lived in San Diego and Los Angeles and taught classes at University of San Diego and Long Beach City College. Jungah holds a BA in business from Kangwon National University and a MFA in set design from San Diego State University.

BRIAN HICKEY (SOUND DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he designed the sound for The Visit earlier this season.

Brian was the assistant sound designer for Hedda Gabler, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Yale School of Drama); Dear Elizabeth and In a Year with 13 Moons (Yale Repertory Theatre). Brian is also a musician and electronic music composer. He is a native of Long Island, New York, and holds a BA from Hofstra University.

COLE LEWIS (DIRECTOR), a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, is a director, writer, and performer from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

She is a graduate of Brock University’s theatre program and attended the National Theatre School of Canada, where she studied playwriting. Cole is a founding member of the award winning Suitcase In Point Theatre Company (SIP) in St. Catharines, a group of like-minded artists who strive to engage and excite through collaborative play development. As an artistic associate of SIP for ten years, she worked on 23 original cabarets and directed six original productions, including BeWearing Wolf at Harbourfront Hatch Festival, Emily Chesley at SummerWorks Festival, and The Keith Richards One Woman 6

Show at Fixt Point in Toronto. She also directed Ministry of Love, an original adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 for Theatre Rien Pantoute in Edmonton, Alberta. In Calgary, she worked as an ensemble member at Theatre Junction, where she performed in Archaeology and assisted Artistic Director Mark Lawes throughout the season. Other credits include And All for Love (assistant director, National Arts Centre of Canada); the world premiere of Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses (assistant director, Yale Repertory Theatre); The Visit

by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Mexico Play (A Farmer’s Almanac) by Kate Tarker, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Yale School of Drama); and Marius von Mayenburg’s The Ugly One (Yale Cabaret). She has also launched a new company, Guilty By Association, and directed its first devised piece, Ain’t Gonna Make It, which will participate in Ars Nova’s 2014 AntFest.

JOEY MORO (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Peter Pan and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He has also designed The Defendant, We Fight We Die, The Mystery Boy, Dutchman, The Most Beautiful Thing in the World, Radio Hour, Lindbergh’s Flight, and Beginners by Raymond Carver, or What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Yale Cabaret). Other credits include El Monte Cavlo (Yale College); the senior dance concert at Connecticut College; Glam Kitty Squad: a new musical (Pantachino Productions); and Adult Roy’s Badland: A Rave Opera (Cornell). He served as the assistant technical director and master electrician for Yale Summer Cabaret’s 2013 season. Joey holds a BA, cum laude, from Cornell University and is the recipient of the Stanley R. McCandless Scholarship for lighting design.

STEVEN ROTRAMEL (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he designed costumes for Platonov.

Other credits include Bound to Burn and The Twins Would Like To Say (Yale Cabaret). Before arriving at Yale, he was the Costume Shop Director at the University of Wyoming and was the resident costume designer for the Snowy Range Summer Theatre. He holds a BFA in theatre from the University of Wyoming.

WILL RUCKER (STAGE MANAGER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Platonov and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. At Yale Repertory Theatre, he was the assistant stage manager for Accidental Death of an Anarchist. He has also worked at Yale Cabaret; directed for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina; served as the interim production manager at the University of Virginia; and taught theatre in Virginia juvenile detention centers. Will is a graduate of the University of Virginia.

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Bird Fire Fly

By MARY LAWS Directed by KATHERINE McGERR

CREATIVE TEAM Scenic Designer Projection Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Composer and Sound Designer Production Dramaturg Stage Manager

ADRIAN MARTINEZ FRAUSTO SHAWN BOYLE GRIER COLEMAN JOEY MORO STEVEN BRUSH DAVID E. BRUIN EMILY DeNARDO

CAST Jay Finch Wren

AARON BARTZ TOM PECINKA BRADLEY JAMES TEJEDA

Jay, Wren, and Finch are not their Part One selves in Part Two or their Part Two selves in Part Three.

BIRD FIRE FLY IS PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION.

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“Best of any song is BIRD song in the quiet, but first you must have the quiet.”

—WENDELL BERRY, A TIMBERED CHOIR: THE SABBATH POEMS, 1979–1997

“A war is a huge FIRE; the ashes from it drift far, and settle slowly.”

—MARGARET ATWOOD, THE BLIND ASSASSIN

“You wanna FLY, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”

—TONI MORRISON, SONG OF SOLOMON

about the playwright: MARY LAWS MARY LAWS is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama originally from Texas. Her plays include Bird Fire Fly, Blueberry Toast (Yale School of Drama); Wonderful, The Drive (Tympanic Theatre Company); What A Very Pretty Pageant!; Stand (an autumn play) (The American Laboratory); The Trapeze Artist (Baylor University); and This. (Yale Cabaret). Her work has been read/developed by Baylor University, the Theater Masters National MFA Playwrights Festival, the American Laboratory, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the Endstation Theatre Playwrights Initiative, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Le Pavé d’Orsay in Paris, and The Horton Foote American Playwrights Festival. For three years she served as literary associate at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York. Awards include the Howard Stern Scholarship and UR/SA Grant for Playwriting. She mentors for the Yale Co-Op Eugene O’Neill Playwriting Program, the Dwight/Edgewood Project in New Haven, and taught playwriting at Wesleyan University. She currently serves as a Deacon at the University Church in Yale. She received her BFA from Baylor University.

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cast: Bird Fire Fly AARON BARTZ (JAY) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Peter Pan, King Richard 2, and Platonov. Other credits include Have I None, Beginners by Raymond Carver, or What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Yale Cabaret); Hamlet, The Beaux’ Stratagem (Texas Shakespeare Festival); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey LIVE! tour); King Lear (Southwest Shakespeare Festival); To Kill a Mockingbird (Montana Repertory Theatre). Aaron received his BFA from the University of Montana.

TOM PECINKA (FINCH) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he performed in Peter Pan, Platonov, and Measure for Measure.

Other credits include The Soldier’s Tale (Yale in New York series at Carnegie Hall); The Germ Project (New Georges); Losing Tom Pecinka (HERE Arts); Exquisite Corpse (Clubbed Thumb); There Will Be Snacks, The Watermelon Wars (Incubator Arts Project); Dar and Matey’s Christmas SpectaculARGH! (Vampire Cowboys); Richard 3 (New York International Fringe Festival); The Martian Chronicles (Fordham Alumni Company); As You Like It (Shakespeare on the Sound); and The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theatre Festival). Upcoming: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare on the Sound) and Design for Living (Berkshire Theatre Festival). Tom is a graduate of Fordham University.

BRADLEY JAMES TEJEDA (WREN) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. This production marks his Yale School of Drama debut. Recent work includes We Fight We Die, The Defendant (Yale Cabaret); Italian American Reconciliation for which he received an Alamo Theatre Arts Council Award for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy (University of the Incarnate Word); and King John (Marin Shakespeare Company). Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, he holds a BA in theatre arts from the University of the Incarnate Word.

creative team: Bird Fire Fly SHAWN BOYLE (PROJECTION DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Previous designs include Pierrot Lunaire (Yale Cabaret); La Boite a Jouxoux, Spiegel im Spiegel (Yale School of Music); City of Angels (Goodspeed Musicals); The Who’s Tommy, K2, Red Remembers (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Singing in the Rain, and My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (Merry Go Round Playhouse). He holds a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

DAVID E. BRUIN (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Dramaturgy credits include Derivatives (Yale Cabaret) and Handbook for an American Revolutionary (Gym at Judson). He also contributed dramaturgy to The Orphans’ Home Cycle and Angels in America (both 10

at Signature Theatre). Directing credits include The Crazy Shepherds of Rebellion (Yale Cabaret); a reading of Little Children Dream of God (Snapdragon); and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Boston College). He co-founded and served as CoProducing Artistic Director of Snapdragon, where he developed and produced new work, including the world premiere of The Imaginary Life of Millo St. Jean by Jeff Augustin. David served as the Campaign Associate at Signature Theatre, and has also worked with Atlantic Theater Company, Immediate Medium, Gold No Trade, and Rising Circle Theater Collective. David holds a BA in philosophy and theatre from Boston College.

STEVEN BRUSH (COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama and an award winning composer and sound designer working in theatre, film, and video games. He is a two-time winner of the Best Orchestration Award at the Garden State Film Festival, first for his score to the short animated film Wally and Zip in 2012 and again for his music in Star Trek Phoenix: Cloak and Dagger in 2013. His score for the short film Dolci was nominated for best music at the 2012 Action on Film Festival. His theatre credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (Yale Repertory Theatre); Hedda Gabler, Lottie in the Late Afternoon, Iphigenia Among the Stars (Yale School of Drama); Radio Hour, Ain’t Gonna Make It, Ermyntrude & Esmeralda, The Ugly One (Yale Cabaret); Tartuffe (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Last Witch, The Mystery Plays, The Love Talker (University of Washington); and The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theatre Festival).

GRIER COLEMAN (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she designed the costumes for Peter Pan. Previous credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Enchanted, The Girl From Maxim’s, Ionescopade, Under Milk Wood (The Juilliard School); Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Woyzeck, Sonia Flew, Alice: The Looking Glass Girl, Yikes!, and Triangle, an original piece based on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (New York University); Have I None, We Know Edie La Minx Had a Gun, and all of what you love and none of what you hate (Yale Cabaret). She has worked as a crafts artisan for The Public Theater, Ringling Bros.

Circus, Hair (Broadway and London tours), Disney on Ice, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and as a stylist for Live! With Regis and Kelly. This summer she will design costumes for Shakespeare on the Sound’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Grier holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina.

She is the recipient of the Donald and Zorka Oenslager Scholarship in Stage Design. griercoleman.com

EMILY DeNARDO (STAGE MANAGER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Visit, Blueberry Toast, Cloud Nine, and King Richard 2. Her other credits include Crave (Yale Cabaret); The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (assistant stage manager, Yale Repertory 11

creative team: Bird Fire Fly Theatre); American Buffalo, Macbeth, Julius Caesar (Elm Shakespeare Company); My Fair Lady, Tarzan, Legally Blonde, The King and I, A Christmas Carol, and Footloose (North Shore Music Theatre). Emily graduated summa cum laude from Ramapo College of New Jersey with a BA in theatre.

ADRIAN MARTINEZ FRAUSTO (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Hedda Gabler.

Originally from Mexico City, Adrian studied interior architecture at CENTRO de Cine Diseño y Television before moving to scenic design. He assisted scenic designer Sergio Villegas during the Mexican Independence Bicentennial and Revolution Centennial celebrations. He also assisted scenic designer Edyta Rzewuska on a number of plays and operas. Adrian was the lead designer in the XXV Alarcónian Theatrical Festival in the city of Taxco, Guerrero. Some of his credits include Dutchman directed by Katherine McGerr and The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs directed by Cole Lewis at Yale Cabaret.

KATHERINE McGERR (DIRECTOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she previously directed Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, and No More Sad Things

by Hansol Jung. At Yale Cabaret she directed Dutchman by Amiri Baraka, Chamber Music by Arthur Kopit, and Christie in Love by Howard Brenton. This summer Katherine will return for her second summer as a director for the Dwight/Edgewood Project. She will also return for her eighth season with Chautauqua Theater Company as the associate director for Go West, an inter-arts collaboration among Chautauqua’s theatre, opera, ballet, and music programs. At Chautauqua she previously served as artistic associate and literary manager, directed workshops of An Incident by Anna Ziegler and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates, and associate directed The Romeo and Juliet Project. Katherine has been the directing fellow at Shakespeare Theatre Company, artistic resident at Long Wharf Theatre, artistic coordinator at Playwrights Realm, and artistic assistant at Yale Repertory Theatre. Other directing credits include Caryl Churchill’s Seagulls (Long Wharf Next Stage) and Gertrude Stein’s Listen To Me (Barnard College). She has assistant directed for Tina Landau, Ethan McSweeny, Vivienne Benesch, David Muse, Maria Aitken, Gordon Edelstein, and Eric Ting, among others. As a dramaturg, she has worked on numerous regional and New York productions, including the east coast premiere of Donald Margulies’s Shipwrecked, the world premiere of Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy (script assistant), and the Broadway revival of South Pacific (research assistant). A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Katherine grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and Bloomington, Indiana. She is a graduate of the O’Neill National Theater Institute and Columbia University.

JOEY MORO (LIGHTING DESIGNER) Please see page 7.

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THUNDERBODIES KATE TARKER Directed by DUSTIN WILLS By

CREATIVE TEAM Scenic Designer Projection Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer Production Dramaturg Stage Manager

KURTIS BOETCHER SHAWN BOYLE MONTANA LEVI BLANCO CAITLIN SMITH RAPOPORT SAMUEL FERGUSON HELEN C. JAKSCH SHANNON L. GAUGHF

CAST President Grotilde Nancy Swan Boy (Son Swan) Michail Itterod Girl

YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II CELESTE ARIAS JAMES CUSATI-MOYER CHRISTOPHER GEARY ANNIE HÄGG

SETTING Time: The Medieval Now Place: Exploded America. Home & Abroad

THUNDERBODIES IS PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION.

“The grotesque body is not separate from the rest of the world.

It is not a closed, completed unit; it is unfinished, outgrows itself, transgresses its own limits.”

—MIKHAIL BAKHTIN, RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD

gro•tesque| gro

‘tesk |

adjective Exploded American slang for cool!

“Wow! That’s so grotesque!”

“We live in war time with permanent discomfort, for in war time we see things so grotesque and fantastic that they seem beyond human comprehension. War turns human reality into a bizarre carnival that does not seem part of our experience.

It knocks us off balance.”

—CHRIS HEDGES, WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING

“The only real laughter comes from despair.”

—GROUCHO MARX

about the playwright: KATE TARKER KATE TARKER is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Her plays include THUNDERBODIES, The Green, Laura and the Sea, An Almanac for Farmers and Lovers in Mexico, Concertina, and Paper Cut. At Yale Cabaret, she recently directed all of what you love and none of what you hate, and performed an improvised, clown inspired show, The Most Beautiful Thing in the World. Her work has been produced or developed by Yale School of Drama, Primary Stages/ ESPA at 59E59 Theaters, LOCAL Lab in Boulder, the Theater Masters National MFA Playwrights Festival in Aspen and NYC, and the National New Play Network MFA Workshop at the Kennedy Center. She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center’s 2012 National Science Playwriting Award, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, two Stephen B. Timbers Scholarships (Yale), and the Kaspar T. Locher Scholarship (Reed).

She has mentored playwrights at the New Haven Co-Op High School and taught playwriting at Wesleyan. Kate is a member of the Dramatists Guild and received a BA from Reed College.

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cast: THUNDERBODIES YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II (PRESIDENT) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has appeared in Sagittarius Ponderosa, Romeo and Juliet, Platonov, Tiny Boyfriend, and Twelfth Night. Other credits include the west coast premiere of Christina Anderson’s Good Goods (Crowded Fire Theater, San Francisco); He Left Quietly (Yale Cabaret); Ivan Turgenev in Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia: Voyage (Shotgun Players, Berkeley, CA). He is a recipient of the 2013–14 Lloyd Richards Scholarship in Acting and a native of New Orleans, Louisiana.

CELESTE ARIAS (GROTILDE NANCY SWAN) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has performed in The Visit and Sagittarius Ponderosa. Other credits include Katya in The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Repertory Theatre); Tartuffe, Miss Julie, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, Heart’s Desire (Yale Summer Cabaret); Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA! (HERE); Demon Dreams (Magic Futurebox, NYIT Award Best Featured Actress); and Motherfucker with a Social Life (Old Vic/ New Voices, London). Celeste holds a BFA from New York University.

JAMES CUSATI-MOYER (BOY, SON SWAN) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has appeared in Measure for Measure, Tiny Boyfriend, Platonov, and House Beast. Most recently he appeared in The Soldier’s Tale, directed by Liz Diamond, part of the Yale in New York series at Carnegie Hall. Other credits include Pierrot Lunaire, We Know Edie La Minx Had a Gun, A New Saint For A New World (Yale Cabaret); The Pits directed by Sarah Krohn and Loving v. Virginia directed by Patricia McGregor (Williamstown Theatre Festival Non-Equity Fellowship Company). He holds a BA in theatre performance from Marymount Manhattan College and is the recipient of the Constance Welch Memorial Scholarship. Upcoming: Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them at Yale Summer Cabaret.

CHRISTOPHER GEARY (MICHAIL ITTEROD) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he was seen in Peter Pan, The Visit, and Sagittarius Ponderosa. His other credits include These Paper Bullets! (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Small Things, We Know Edie La Minx Had a Gun, A New Saint For A New World (Yale Cabaret); The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theatre Group); Losing Tom Pecinka (HERE Arts); and Elephant in the Room (New York International Fringe Festival). Christopher received his BA in theatre performance from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. He is a graduate of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and has also studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Upcoming: Design for Living at Berkshire Theatre Group.

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cast: THUNDERBODIES ANNIE HÄGG (GIRL) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Her New York credits include Dancing at Lughnasa (Irish Repertory Theatre), Mama’s Boys (The Payan Theatre), and The Most Happy Fella (The Acorn Theatre).

Regional: Boeing-Boeing (New Harmony Theatre, IN). Most recently, she appeared in A New Saint for a New World at Yale Cabaret. Annie received a BA in history from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

creative team: THUNDERBODIES MONTANA LEVI BLANCO (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he designed the costumes for The Visit earlier this season. Previously he worked in the curatorial departments of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the RISD Museum of Art, and the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. In the summer of 2013, Montana was awarded the Presidential Public Service Fellowship for his work with the Dwight/Edgewood Project and is the recipient of the Donald and Zorka Oenslager Scholarship in Stage Design. Montana holds degrees from Brown University and Oberlin College.

KURTIS BOETCHER (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Previously he worked as a freelance and resident scenic designer in Los Angeles and Chicago. In 2011 Kurtis was awarded the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Career Achievement in Set Design, as well as the LA Weekly Award for Best Production Design for the west coast premiere of Gregory Moss’s House of Gold. He holds a BFA in scenic design from the Theatre School of DePaul University. kurtisb.com

SHAWN BOYLE (PROJECTION DESIGNER) Please see page 10.

SAMUEL FERGUSON (SOUND DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Cloud Nine, Measure for Measure, and Romeo and Juliet. He was born in Toronto and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia when he was seventeen to train with acclaimed electro-acoustic music composer, Barry Truax. Upon returning to his hometown, Sam became involved in theatre professionally with Freedom 85, which went on to the New York International Fringe Festival and won the Audience Choice and See It Twice awards.

SHANNON L. GAUGHF (STAGE MANAGER) is a second-year MFA candidate at

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Yale School of Drama, where she has stage managed Hedda Gabler and Romeo and Juliet and served as assistant stage manager for Sunday in the Park with George and House Beast. Her other credits include Owners (assistant stage manager, Yale Repertory Theatre), Cowboy Mouth (Yale Cabaret), and Hello Dolly! (production assistant, Goodspeed Musicals). Shannon graduated magna cum laude from St. Mary’s College of California, where she earned a BA in technical theatre and design.

HELEN C. JAKSCH (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she served as dramaturg for Dead Ends., Sagittarius Ponderosa, and abominable. Other dramaturgy credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (Yale Repertory Theatre); We Know Edie La Minx Had a Gun, Radio Hour, A New Saint for a New World, all of what you love and none of what you hate, Pierrot Lunaire (Yale Cabaret); Red (Southern Rep); and Le Concierge Solitaire (St. Francisville Transitory Theatre). She recently co-directed and performed in the ensemble of The Mystery Boy at the Yale Cabaret. Helen has worked as an Artistic Associate for Women’s Project in New York and currently serves as the Associate Artistic Director of the St. Francisville Transitory Theatre and as managing editor for Theater magazine. Her writings on theatre and performance studies have been featured in in Theater magazine, TDR, The NOLA Defender, and Performing Fiction.

She received her MA in performance studies from New York University and a BA in theatre and English from Tulane University.

CAITLIN SMITH RAPOPORT (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Hedda Gabler, Romeo and Juliet, and The Visit. She has designed lighting for theatre, dance, music, and circus. Other recent collaborations include The Dwight/Edgewood Project, Strong Coffee Stage, Berkshire Fringe Festival, SUNY College at Oneonta, Nimble Arts Circus, Sandglass Puppet Theater, New World Theater, and The National Asian American Theater Festival. She holds a BA in theatre and English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

DUSTIN WILLS (DIRECTOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has directed Peter Pan, Shakespeare’s King Richard 2, and Blueberry Toast by Mary Laws. He directed reWilding by Martyna Majok, as well as an original adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Fatal Eggs at Yale Cabaret. Dustin served as Artistic Director for the 2013 Yale Summer Cabaret, where he directed Tartuffe, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, Heart’s Desire, and Drunk Enough to Say I Love You. After graduating from the University of Texas in 2006, Dustin split his time between Austin, Texas, and Rome, Italy, directing for the English Theatre of Rome (Ophelia, Le Falene, Cinque), Salvage Vanguard Theater (Heddatron), Texas Performing Arts (Ashes, Ashes),and Tutto Theatre Company (Black Snow). While in Rome, he worked as a tour guide for the Vatican Museums. In Austin, he founded the company Paper Chairs for which he directed Baal, Machinal, and the original musicals Murder Ballad Murder Mystery and Hillcountry Underbelly. He is the 2013 recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation Lynn Wyatt Theatre Award. His productions twice have earned him the distinction of Best Director from the Austin Critics’ Table. For the NEA-recognized organization Creative Action, Dustin developed educational touring shows for youth and created and directed numerous city-wide outreach projects.

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YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA STAFF James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Joan Channick, Associte Dean

ARTISTIC Jennifer Kiger, Associate Artistic Director Director of New Play Programs Amy Boratko, Literary Manager Ruth M. Feldman, Director of Education and Accessibility Services Kay Perdue Meadows, Artistic Associate Benjamin Fainstein, Artistic Coordinator Dana Tanner-Kennedy, Literary Associate Lindsay King, Teresa Mensz, Library Services Josie Brown, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director Laurie Coppola, Senior Administrative Assistant for the Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, and Stage Management Departments Mary Volk, Senior Administrative Assistant for the Design, Sound Design, and Projection Departments

ADMINISTRATION Caitie Hannon, Lauren Wainwright, Associate Managing Directors Molly Hennighausen, Assistant Managing Director Annie Middleton, Gretchen Wright, Management Assistants Emalie Mayo, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Managing Director Sarah Williams, Company Manager Sooyoung Hwang, Assistant Company Manager

Development and Alumni Affairs Deborah S. Berman, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs Janice Muirhead, Senior Associate Director of Development Alyssa Simmons, Associate Director of Development Barry Kaplan, Senior Staff Writer Susan C. Clark, Development and Alumni Affairs Officer Jane Youngberg, Development Associate Belene Day, Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Marketing & Communications Steven C. Koernig, Development Assistant

Finance and Information Technology Katherine D. BurgueĂąo, Director of Finance and Human Resources Cristal Coleman, Joanna Romberg, Business Office Specialists Giana Cusanelli, Ashlie Russell, Business Office Assistants Sarah Stevens-Morling, Interim Director of Information and Communication Systems Daryl Brereton, Associate Information Technology Director Janna J. Ellis, Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium Toni Ann Simiola, Senior Administrative Assistant to Business Office, Information Technology, Operations, and Tessitura

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Marketing, Communications, and Audience Services Anne Trites, Director of Marketing and Communications Steven Padla, Senior Associate Director of Communications Daniel Cress, Senior Associate Director of Marketing Rachel Smith, Associate Director of Marketing Brittany Behrens, Associate Director of Marketing Marguerite Elliott, Publications Manager Kathleen Martin, Online Communications Assistant T. Charles Erickson, Production Photographer Laura Kirk, Associate Director of Audience Services Shane Quinn, Interim Assistant Director of Audience Services Tracy Baldini, Subscriptions Coordinator Evan Beck, Paul Cook, Anthony Jasper, Katie Metcalf, Andrew Moore, Sophie Nethercut , Emily Sanna, Peter Schattauer, Elena Sokol, Box Office Assistants

Operations

Diane Galt, Director of Facility Operations Ian Dunn, Operations Associate Joe Proto, Arts and Drama Zone Superintendent VonDeen Ricks, Sherry Stanley, Team Leaders Marcia Riley, Facility Steward Lucille Bochert, Ty Frost, Kathy Langston, Warren Lyde, Patrick Martin, Louis Moore, Mark Roy, Custodians

Theater Safety and Occupational Health William J. Reynolds, Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health Jacob Thompson, Security Officer Ed Jooss, Audience Safety Officer Kevin Delaney, Fred Geier, Patrick Grant, John Marquez, Customer Service and Safety Officers

PRODUCTION Bronislaw J. Sammler, Head of Production James Mountcastle, Production Stage Manager Jonathan Reed, Production Manager Steven Schmidt, Associate Head of Production and Work-Study Supervisor Grace O’Brien, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Production and Theater Safety and Occupational Health Departments

Scenery Neil Mulligan, Matt Welander, Technical Directors Alan Hendrickson, Electro Mechanical Laboratory Supervisor Eric Sparks, Shop Foreman Matt Gaffney, Ryan Gardner Sharon Reinhart, Master Shop Carpenters Brandon Fuller, Shop Carpenter, Kelly Rae Fayton, Alexandra Reynolds, Assistants to the Technical Director

Painting Ru-Jun Wang, Scenic Charge Lia Akkerhuis, Nathan Jasunas, Assistant Scenic Artists Kevin Klakouski, Assistant to the Painting Supervisor

Properties Brian Cookson, Properties Master David P. Schrader, Properties Craftsperson Jennifer McClure, Master Properties Assistant Bill Batschelet, Properties Stock Manager Elizabeth Zevin, Assistant to the Properties Manager

Costumes Tom McAlister, Costume Shop Manager Robin Hirsch, Associate Costume Shop Manager Clarissa Wylie Youngberg, Mary Zihal, Senior Drapers Deborah Bloch, Harry Johnson, Senior First Hands Linda Kelley-Dodd, Costume Project Coordinator Denise O’Brien, Wig and Hair Design Barbara Bodine, Company Hairdresser Linda Wingerter, Costume Stock Manager

Electrics Donald W. Titus, Lighting Supervisor Linda-Cristal Young, Brian Quiricone, Senior Head Electricians Daniel Hutchinson, Assistant to the Lighting Supervisor

Sound Mike Backhaus, Sound Supervisor Monica Avila, Staff Sound Engineer Gahyae Ryu, Stephanie Smith, Assistants to the Sound Supervisor

Projections Erich Bolton, Projection Supervisor

ADDITIONAL STAFF, CARLOTTA FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Molly Hennighausen, Stephanie Rolland, House Managers

FOR CARDBOARD PIANO Emeley Zepeda, Assistant Stage Manager Kate Marvin, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Jiréh Breon Holder, Deck/Props Soule Golden, Wardrobe Brendan Pelsue, Light Board Operator James Lanius III, Sound Board Operator

FOR BIRD FIRE FLY Victoria Whooper, Assistant Stage Manager Joel Abbott, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Kate Newman, Deck/Props Phillip Howze, Wardrobe Emily Zemba, Light Board Operator Ryan Campbell, Sound Board Operator

FOR THUNDERBODIES Avery Trunko, Assistant Stage Manager Tyler Kieffer, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Rosalie Bochansky, Deck/Props Fabian Aguilar, Wardrobe Lindsey Ferrentino, Light Board Operator Rachel Carpman, Sound Board Operator

SPECIAL THANKS

Denis Abuu, Muusa Bukenya, David Clauson, Emily Carson Coates, Ben Fainstein, Luke Harlan, Merlin Huff, Pastor Jongwan Je and family, Hanbyul Jung, Jongbin Jung, Dr. Steven Marans, NOVACHEM, Dan O’Brien, Blake Segal, Faye Simpson, Mickey Theis

PRODUCTION STAFF Anne Erbe, Festival Producer Emily Erdman, Associate Production Manager Carolynn Richer, Production Stage Manager Christopher Thompson, Alexander Woodward, Assistant Scenic Designers Andrew Griffin, Elizabeth Mak, Assistant Lighting Designers Joey Brennan, Technical Director Mitch Massaro, Kat Wepler, Jeong Sik Yoo, Assistant Technical Directors Kevin Klakouski, Scenic Charge Sean K. Walters, Properties Master Nick Vogelpohl, Assistant Properties Master Krystin Matsumoto, Master Electrician Elise Masur, Assistant Master Electrician Sinan Zafar, Production Sound Engineer Lee O’Reilly, Stage Carpenter Mitchell Cramond, Andrew Knauff, Tommy Rose, Scenic Crew Chika Shimizu, Paint Crew Elizabeth Zevin, Properties Crew Kelly Rae Fayton, Sanghun Joung, Pat Lawrence, Jonathan Seiler, Jacqueline Deniz Young, Electrics Crew Michael K. Best, Mitchell Cramond, Pat Lawrence, Alexandra Reynolds, Changeover Crew

THE TAKING OF PHOTOGRAPHS OR THE USE OF RECORDING DEVICES OF ANY KIND IN THE THEATRE WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE MANAGEMENT IS PROHIBITED.

OPENING NIGHT SPONSOR

Carlotta Festival of New Plays May 9–16, 2014 Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel Street

drama.yale.edu/carlotta 19

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