Langston Hughes Festival of New Work, David Geffen School of Drama 2025
NOVEMBER 10–15, 2025
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 of Student Life
Anne Erbe and Marcus Gardley, Co-Chairs, Playwriting
PRESENTS
Hot Breakfast at Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites in the Beautiful City of Farville, USA
By Surrey Houlker
Directed by Andrew Rodriguez
PROMOTER HOUSE
By Nia Akilah Robinson
Directed by Héctor Flores Komatsu 小松輝
Other People
By Aaron Magloire
Directed by Amanda Whiteley
Hot Breakfast at Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites in the Beautiful City of Farville, USA
By Surrey Houlker
Directed by Andrew Rodriguez
creative team
Production Dramaturg
Mia Van Deloo
Stage Manager
Rethabile Headbush
Assistant Stage Manager
Ángela Sofía Caro
production team
Commissioned Artist
Mark Yarde
Production Crew
Yun Wu 吳昀
Run Crew
Victoria Barclay
Cat Slanski
cast
Tad Liam Beveridge
Jo Ida Cuttler
Joe
Francisco Morandi Zerpa
Lola
Rebecca Rivera
The Documentarian, Tad swing
Max Sheldon
The Documentarian swing
Christopher Thomas Pow
setting
Farville, USA.
In and around Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites.
No one has a cell phone—so, 2002-ish.
content guidance
This production contains alcoholism, mentions of addiction, and self-harm.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
special thanks: Juice Mackins, Kim Vilbrun-François, Isabel Orobaton, Kieron Anthony, Andrea Miller, Nia Akilah Robinson, and Aaron Magloire
The Heartbeat of Home
What delineates a house versus a home? Who gets to define what a home is? To its residents, the Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites is both a house and a home. Home, however, is not confined to a literal space, but extends throughout the town, becoming the very heartbeat of Farville.
To the Documentarian, to the government, to the world, the Inn & Suites is just a hollow and fragile infrastructure to be capitalized on, ideal for future innovation. But to Lola, Joe, Jo and Tad, this home has one of the strongest foundations and is filled to the brim with memories and love. But is that any match for the government’s definition of a home as a property?
As shockwaves echo across a landscape following an earthquake or a demolition, the warmth of Lola, Joe, Jo and Tad’s communal love expands outward from their collective ‘heartbeat.’ The heartbeat of this play encompasses the ethereal home. The spiritual home. And as we zoom in to find the heart, home appears more tangible. Here home actually begins as we encounter the “Welcome to Farville” sign at the edge of town. This sentiment grows deeper as we enter the orbit of the Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites. Home is then finally fully realized at the breakfast table, where there’s always an open invite and a hot plate waiting.
—Mia Van Deloo, Production Dramaturg
PROMOTER HOUSE
By Nia Akilah Robinson
Directed by Héctor Flores Komatsu 小松輝
creative team
Production Dramaturg
Thando Mangcu
Stage Manager
Jonathan Fong 馮子睿
Assistant Stage Manager
Miranda Vazquez
production team
Production Crew
Mara Bredovskis
Gloria Oladipo
Run Crew
Yun Wu 吳昀
cast
Giggles
Lolade Agunbiade
Kiana
Rosie Victoria
Babz
Kimberly Vilbrun-François
Riley Grace Wissink
Lily Catherine Young
setting
A New York City apartment with bunkbeds, March of 2022.
content guidance
This production contains mature content, coarse language, mentions of suicide, and staged violence.
PROMOTER HOUSE is performed without an intermission.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
special thanks: Inez, Roger, and Maxwell
PARTY LIFE!! (WITH BUNKING)
Reality shows pre-2010s were especially intense for women.
By 2007, shows like The Simple Life and Keeping Up with the Kardashians undressed the messy yet glamorous lives of rich and almost-famous women, albeit stripping them of privacy under constant surveillance. On the flipside was The Bad Girls’ Club (2006–2017), which took the concept of Big Brother to another level, confining groups of outspoken and temperamental women in cramped spaces, specifying that they not ‘throw any punches’ lest they be sent home, all the while watching to see when they would break and be sent packing. The fights were memorable. Audiences ate it up, documenting everything that agitated or got them to finally hit each other. An anthropological experiment.
Here, the year is 2022. The place is hypercompetitive New York City, where the vulnerable are consistently in danger of being pushed out for the more affluent. We are in a ‘Promoter House’, where the most stereotypically beautiful live to draw more people in, to party with them. Aspirations and dreams had been put on hold by the pandemic; development is arrested even as the young women are forced to grow up too soon and lock their youth away in a suitcase. Everything is urgent here; slip, and you will be on the streets, or worse, back home—the place you ran away from to begin with. Everyone’s business creeps into yours—which conversation can you follow? Whom can you trust, and how can you keep your mask on to survive this tiny little hurdle in your young adult life? Will you realize when you are past your prime or will someone have to tell you?
Lip service says everyone is equally important, but only one can thrive. The thriving is dependent on the man—where is he? He is the one who decides what you will wear, eat, drink, when you will sit, stand, go to sleep, wake up, what your day will look like and whether you will have a pillow to rest your head on by the end of it. Who will be upgraded to sleep in his room for the night? Who will be thrown out? You better be gorgeous when he sees you.
Will you stay here forever? Will you die tonight?
—Thando Mangcu, Production Dramaturg
Other People
By Aaron Magloire
Directed by Amanda Whiteley
creative team
Choreographer
Thomas Kannam
Production Dramaturg
Jordan Allyn
Stage Manager
Claire Young
Assistant Stage Manager
Lexi Ashraf
production team
Production Crew
Katie Chance
Mae Mironer
Run Crew
Will Maresco
Gloria Oladipo
cast
Adam
Kieron J. Anthony
Nicholas Juicy B. Jones
Halloran Olamide Oladeji
Rebecca Isabel Orobaton
setting Now.
content guidance
This production contains sexual content.
There will be a 10-minute intermission.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
special thanks: Iyanna Huffington Whitney and family, Thomas Kannam, Karen Champion, Simona De Paolis, Jiawei Pei, Finn Bamber
Before we meet Rebecca and Adam in Other People, the couple has just brought their first child into the world. And having a child requires navigating a web of contradictions. Everyone has strong opinions, and advice often conflicts:
Pain relievers?
Epidurals are a safe way to ease the pain.
Or:
Taking medication could slow down the baby’s breathing.
Breastfeeding?
It boosts the baby’s immune system and establishes trust
Or:
It can inflame the breast tissue, and your baby might bite off your nipple.
Sleeping?
Sleep with your baby to bond and foster secure attachment.
Or:
Sleeping with your baby increases risk of suffocation and sudden death.
Each decision places the health of the parent and the child at odds. Bringing life into the world becomes inextricably tied with death. So, questions pop up. Am I a bad mother for wanting relief? Independence? Nipples?
And then there’s sex—a fraught subject, even before conception. Priscilla Presley wrote in her memoir, “Elvis lost interest in me sexually once Lisa was born.” She added that he was, “never able to make love to a woman who’d had a child.” In his eyes, becoming a mother stripped Priscilla of her sexuality. It turned her into someone who gives rather than desires.
In Other People, Rebecca tries to reject this dichotomy by leaning into her sexual liberation. But given societal expectations, that is not an easy act, even in 2025. It comes with judgment and guilt over every second away from the baby, but also for every day out of the office. Rebecca says, “Everything. Is worst-case. Or one tiny detail away from becoming it.” And throughout the play, we watch as she wrestles with the daunting task of creating new life while maintaining control over her own.
—Jordan Allyn, Production Dramaturg
for the festival production
Technical Supervisor
Cathy Ho 何家寶
Associate Safety Advisors
Mara Bredovskis
Tamara Morris-Thompson
Associate Production Manager
Md Fadzil “Fed” Hanafi Md Saad
Festival Production Crew
Mila Mussatt
administration
Associate Managing Director
Iyanna Huffington Whitney
Assistant Managing Director
Kay Nilest
Management Assistants
Jenn London
Rhayna Poulin
House Manager
Maura Bozeman
Production Photographer
Maza Rey
David Geffen School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.
about content guidance
David Geffen School of Drama at Yale recognizes that audiences may have a variety of needs when engaging with the themes our work examines. If you wish to know more about the content of this play, please contact our box office at (203) 432-1234 or dgsd.shows@yale.edu. We are happy to provide additional information for your visit.
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.
The Studio Projects are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes this process.
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 Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, 1982–1993, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Program from 1993 until his death in 2005.
