Yale Cabaret 12: Dragaret 54 (2022)

A note from the Cab

Dragaret is BACK! When we started this season, we really weren’t sure whether we would make it to this point. A fun fact about drag: the fabulous make-up and lip-syncing that the art form is synonymous for…doesn’t really translate well under masks. It was with crossed fingers that we set this year’s Dragaret far into the Spring with the hopes that protocols may change and that we could safely do the show with unmasked performers! And here we are! WHEW! We are so excited to welcome back the hostess-with-the-mostest Kiki Lucia and the fantastic Connecticut queens and kings for the Friday performances! This year’s Saturday performances also welcome back the one-and-only Tipsy von Tart as host, new and familiar faces from the School of Drama, as well as performers from Yale College and the Divinity School!

What better time than our 54th season to pay homage to the infamous Studio 54 for this year’s theme! In an ode to the late 1970s and the debauchery of the famed nightclub, we have on our sequined best to serve up a wild, sexy show. Meet us under the disco ball!

-Sarah Ashley Cain, Artistic Director

A note from the show team THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY IS REQUESTED FOR THE PREMIERE OF STUDIO FIFTY-FOUR TUESDAY EVENING THE TWENTY-SIXTH OF APRIL NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTY-SEVEN AT NINE O’CLOCK ATTIRE-SPECTACULAR

These words were printed on every invitation, along with Gilbert Lesser’s Art Deco-inspired logo, sent

by Studio 54 club owners Stephen Rubell and Ian Schrager to all the disco divas of Manhattan. Their “premiere” was one of the most infamous and iconic nights of fashion and debauchery in New York City history. The original club operated for just 33 months between 1977 and 1979 in an abandoned opera house in the theater district, before Rubell and Schrager were jailed for tax evasion. When they were released from prison after 13 months, disco was dead and so was their short-lived discotheque.

Studio 54 is remembered for its theatrical production value. The club’s creators were inspired by the venue’s origins to create a space that put the luxuriously dressed, disco-dancing guests center stage and wowed them with flown-in scenic effects and a wash of neon lights. From the outside, as one journalist described the crowd hoping to get in, it was like “the damned looking into Paradise.” The real star of the show was disco. A musical culture that began in Black, Brown, and queer club spaces in New York City and Philly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, disco was a celebration of dance (reacting to the stigmatization of dance music in the previous, rock heavy decade). By the early 80s, the AIDS crisis and “Disco Sucks” campaigns beat down disco in the U.S. and shuttered the decade-defining discotheques like Studio 54. But its glinting essence lives on in every mirror ball.

- Madeline Pages, Production Dramaturg

Dragaret 54 s

In partnership with ActOUT CREATIVE TEAM Creative Director Scenic Designer Scenic Designer Costume Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Associate Lighting Designer Associate Lighting Designer Sound Designer Associate Sound Designer Projections Designer Dramaturg Technical Director Assistant Technical Director

Sarah Ashley Cain A.B. Entsminger Marcelo Martínez García Kyle Artone* T.F. Dubois Nicole E. Lang Rob Chikar Sydney Raine Garick* Evdoxia Ragkou Ro Burnett Henry Rodriguez Madeline Pages Libby JollyStone Doug Kester

Friday, April 22: Connecticut Performers Hosted by Kiki Lucia Saturday, April 23: School of Drama Performers Hosted by Tipsy Von Tart Pre-show DJ: Reed Northrup Special Thanks: New Haven Pride Center, Nic Benavides, Neil Mulligan, Alary Sutherland, Matt Welander, and Graham Zellers *Yale Cabaret debut

- xx

Mission

Land Acknowledgement

Yale Cabaret is a beautiful experiment of artistry and process. With every season and iteration, we build a home for David Geffen School of Drama at Yale students to imagine, create, and share their stories alongside our many communities.

The state of Connecticut and Yale University occupy the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, Quinnipiac, and other Algonquian speaking peoples. We honor and respect their continued relationship with and stewardship of this land, and we acknowledge that Yale University, Yale Cabaret, and those affiliated have benefited from the oppression of these Nations.

Values Build Community Community is central to our work at the Cab. We seek to build intentional and nourishing relationships with each other and the communities of Yale, greater New Haven, and beyond.

Keep Experimenting The Cab is the place for students to disrupt their process, take risks, and explore within and beyond their disciplines. Make a mess, try again, re-invent, and grow with us.

Welcome All We aspire to create a more inclusive and welcoming theater across our many diverse identities and backgrounds. You are invited to show up as your full self at the Cab.

Labor Acknowledgement Yale University does not exist independently from the centuries of forced labor and economic extraction of enslaved people, primarily of African descent, on which this country was built. We are indebted to their labor and their unwilling sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the ongoing violence inflicted on Black and brown people and the resulting impact and generational trauma still felt today.

Leadership Team Artistic Director Sarah Ashley Cain

Co-Managing Director Natalie King

Associate Artistic Director Abigail C. Onwunali

Co-Managing Director A.J. Roy

Production Manager Sydney Raine Garick

Collaborators Graphic Designer Mikayla Johnson

Box Office Assistants Annabel Guevara & Bobbin Ramsey

Website Designer Laura Copenhaver

Videographer Andre Griffith

Artistic Associates Community Engagement Kayodè Soyemi

Inclusivity Jacob Santos

Scenic Marcelo Martínez García

Costumes Kitty Cassetti

Lighting Riva Fairhall

Sound Bryn Scharenberg

Directing James Fleming

New Work Danielle Stagger

Stage Management Brandon Lovejoy

Dramaturgy Nicholas Orvis

Performance Cooper Bruhns Isuri Wijesundara

Technical Direction Cam Camden

Projections Hannah Tran

Board of Directors Matthew Suttor, Chair Benjamin Benne Samanta Yunuen Cubias Kelvin Dinkins, Jr.

Libby JollyStone Reed Northrup Linda-Cristal Young

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

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

Our supporters have made this storied history happen. With their partnership, we continue this tradition into 2022 and beyond.

Partners ($1,000-$2,499) ActOUT Santino Blumetti Ann Judd & Bennett Pudlin Matthew Suttor R. Lee Stump & Abigail Roth Clifford Lee Warner Show Sponsors ($500-$999) Nina R. Adams & Dr. Moreson Kaplan Joan Channick & Ruth Hein Schmitt Audrey Conrad Kelvin Dinkins, Jr. & Alexis Rodda Dr. Semih Gork Latiana “LT” Gourzong Andrew D. Hamingson & Sarah A. McLellan Jim & Eileen Mydosh Bill & Sharon Reynolds Florie Seery Paul Walsh Yale Law School Yaro Yarashevich Grace Zandarski

Enthusiasts ($250-$499) Pamela Jordan James Sinclair & Sylvia Van Sinderen Matthew Tanico Supporters ($100-$249) Shaminda Amarakoon Anne Danenberg Cornelia Evans Jerry & Donna Lodynsky Bonnie L. Kramm Edwin Martin Advocates ($50-$99) Katherine & Chava Burgueño Donna K. Doherty Mercedes Eugenia Matthew Sonnenfeld Rosalie Stemer Jessica Wolf

Thank You To Our Sponsors!

$8 crafted drinks during late night happy hour!

Finishing the Season We’re Gonna Die

By Young Jean Lee Directed by James Fleming May 5 - 7 We’re gonna hurt, love, lose, win, leap, fall, feel, DIE… But we don’t have to do it alone. Shimali De Silva performs Young Jean Lee’s life-affirming show about the things that keep us up at night and the strength that sees us through the day. Featuring live musical accompaniment, this play meets confessional meets rock concert will remind you that you’re not alone.

more more more

By Stefani Kuo Directed by Jisun Kim In partnership with New Leaf student affinity group May 12 - 14 It is the eve of Gravel’s 39th birthday, and he wants to celebrate. Desperate to escape the loneliness, Gravel invites two hikers he has met to his cabin in the woods. Now that they are together, things feel like they could be different. But as Gravel’s birthday hour approaches, companionship turns cruel and possessive. What will happen to them when daylight comes?

217 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-1566 || yalecabaret.org