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Brick Oven Pizza Freshly Brewed Beer dancing

254 Crown Street, New Haven

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JANUARY 31–FEBRUARY 4, 2017

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Joan Channick, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Assistant Dean

PRESENTS

JOHN FORD Directed by JESSE RASMUSSEN By

Choreographer Scenic Designer

EMILY LUTIN AO LI

Costume Designer

SARAH WOODHAM

Lighting Designer

ERIN EARLE FLEMING

Sound Designer

FREDERICK KENNEDY

Projection and Video Designer Production Dramaturg Technical Director Stage Manager

SEASON SPONSOR

JOHN MICHAEL (JOHNNY) MORENO DAVINA MOSS TANNIS BOYAJIAN SARAH THOMPSON

OPENING NIGHT SPONSOR

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photograph by David Ottenstein

printing and mailing 475 heffernan drive, west haven, connecticut 06516 t 203 479 7500 f 203 479 7575 www.ghpmedia.com


Cast in alphabetical order

Grimaldi, Cardinal

BEN ANDERSON

Hippolita LAUREN E. BANKS

Giovanni

Annabella

Putana

EDMUND DONOVAN BRONTË ENGLAND-NELSON PATRICIA FA’ASUA

Friar PATRICK FOLEY Lady of the Night

ISABELLA GIOVANNINI

Soranzo GEORGE HAMPE Florio SEAN BOYCE JOHNSON Cardinal’s Man

CHRISTIAN PROBST

Vasques SETAREKI WAINIQOLO

Setting Parma There will be one fifteen-minute intermission.

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What’s the most radical act of love imaginable? To defy one’s society, one’s God? To defy human nature itself? In ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, our sinful siblings do all of the above. They crash and burn through taboo and law, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. Welcome to Parma. “The disorderly city and the disorderly body ravaged by lust and murder are closely interlinked,” critic Sonia Massai argues of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore. We enter a world of lascivious men and commodified women, a world where money and the Church vie for supremacy. John Ford places a sickness at the center of a sick world—the attraction that develops between the siblings Annabella and Giovanni is a symptom, not a cause, of the filth around them. They are what Parma has created. They are what Parma has become. The brutality of Parma, in this play, is painted onto the bodies of its women. We meet three clichés of womanhood—the virgin, the whore, and the “lusty widow.” This play is their collective tragedy; it is the tragedy of a society that mistreats and distrusts women, that uses women as pawns in men’s business, as sex objects and properties, as sites of violence. This is a society in which men are trained to perpetuate the 4


system, even against their own innate will. A society where violence is a symptom. A society, director Jesse Rasmussen argues, not so far from our own. Violence against women is rife in contemporary America. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama offered the horrifying statistic that nearly 20% of women in the U.S. have been raped or faced attempted rape. The sexual violence prevention charity RAINN claims that every two minutes an American is sexually assaulted, nearly 90% of whom are women. We continue to raise some men who see women as less than human, who consider themselves to have ownership over women’s bodies— who believe that women owe them something. In ’Tis Pity, the men pigeonhole the women into these clichés in order to dehumanize them and hence possess them. The view of women as either innocently virginal or sexually rapacious (‘frigid’ or ‘slutty,’ in modern parlance) persists strongly in our society. This production of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore plays into our collective, contemporary bloodlust; we are a society that both creates and consumes the most horrific horror films, the most violent videogames, the most extreme pornography. The audience of ’Tis Pity is offered as much voyeuristic access to the dark underbelly of this “imagined” society as they may desire. Maybe it’s all just a game until someone loses. —DAVINA MOSS, PRODUCTION DRAMATURG 5 PHOTO BY JOHN MICHAEL (JOHNNY) MORENO.


Cast BEN ANDERSON (GRIMALDI, CARDINAL) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Bulgaria! Revolt!, The Dog Pack Play, New Domestic Architecture, and Our Lady of 121st Street. He is a member of the critically acclaimed The Road Theatre and Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles. At The New Harmony Project, Ben has worked with playwrights Lee Blessing, John Pielmeier, and MJ Kaufman. He holds a BFA in theatre performance from the University of Evansville. LAUREN E. BANKS (HIPPOLITA) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Wrong River, Blood Wedding, Some Bodies Travel, Macbeth, This Land Was Made, Fucking A, and Clybourne Park. Other credits include Harriet Tells It Like It Is (Capital Rep), Edgar and Annabel (Studio Theatre), and The Container (Center Stage). Lauren received a BFA in acting from Howard University, and trained in Balinese Mask and Taksu with Aole Miller and Wayan Dibia. laurenbanks.com

EDMUND DONOVAN (GIOVANNI) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in The Three Sisters, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, The Oresteia, and Deer and the Lovers. Other credits include Mrs. Galveston, Dutch Masters, We Are All Here, Leonce and Lena, and Quartet (Yale Cabaret); The Snow Geese (Manhattan Theatre Club); Hot Fun in the Summertime (Cherry Lane Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew and In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Chautauqua Theater Company); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Shakespeare & Company). Television and film credits include Orange Is the New Black, Unforgettable, and Akron. He received his BFA from Boston University.

BRONTË ENGLAND-NELSON (ANNABELLA) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she was seen in Othello, Women Beware Women, Best Lesbian Erotica 1995 and Preston Montfort—An American Tragedy. Other credits include Phaedra’s Love and Alice in Wonderland at Yale Summer Cabaret; Collisions, We Are All Here and Roberto Zucco at Yale Cabaret; As You Like It at Hudson Shakespeare Company; The Three Musketeers and Henry IV at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; The Seagull and The Comedy of Errors at University of California, Santa Cruz, where she received a BA in theatre arts.

PATRICIA FA’ASUA (PUTANA) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Wrong River, Blood Wedding, and New Domestic Architecture. Other credits include Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Yale Cabaret). Originally from California, she played Helena in Shakespeare Orange County’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Patricia studied acting at MiraCosta College and the Gately/Poole Acting Conservatory. 6


PATRICK FOLEY (FRIAR) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Three Sisters and Our Lady of 121st Street. He holds a BFA in drama from NYU, Tisch. His credits include Lake Kelsey (Yale Cabaret); Alice In Wonderland, and Antarctica, which is to say Nowhere (Yale Summer Cabaret). Other credits include Sleep No More (The McKittrick Hotel); Chang in a Void Moon (Incubator Arts Project); Lake Victory (Judson Memorial Church); Edward II (The Tank); All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare on the Sound); Wallenstein, Coriolanus (Shakespeare Theatre Company); and Shakespeare’s R&J (Signature Theatre).

ISABELLA GIOVANNINI (LADY OF THE NIGHT) is a senior studying English at Yale College. She regularly performs with her improv comedy troupe, The Viola Question, and has trained with The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, and the iO Theater in Chicago. Favorite Yale acting credits: As You Like It; Henry IV; Why We Have Winter; Twelfth Night; New and Improved; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Eurydice; Doubt; and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play. Upcoming: Romeo and Juliet with Yale Drama Coalition

GEORGE HAMPE (SORANZO) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Three Sisters, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Tiny, and Clybourne Park. Yale Cabaret: Episode 121: Catfight, Boris Yeltsin, and Mrs. Galveston. Regional/Off-Broadway: Dead Metaphor (American Conservatory Theater), Regrets (Manhattan Theatre Club), Another Day, Another Dream, and Geography of a Horse Dreamer (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks). Television: Unforgettable, Blue Bloods, and One Tree Hill. georgehampe.com SEAN BOYCE JOHNSON (FLORIO) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Wrong River, The Three Sisters, and Some Bodies Travel. He holds a BA in speech communications from SUNY Potsdam. He has appeared in Adam Geist, Phaedra’s Love (Yale Summer Cabaret); Edward II (Mercury Glass); As You Like It (Alchemical Theatre Lab); Topdog/Underdog (SUNY Potsdam); Gym Shorts (777 Theatre); Standing on Ceremony (Pendragon Company and Tectonic Theater Company); and Chains (The Players Theatre), among others. CHRISTIAN PROBST (CARDINAL’S MAN) is a senior majoring in theatre studies and economics at Yale College, where he has performed in numerous productions with the Yale Dramatic Association, including The Wild Party, The Drowsy Chaperone, Parade, Icarus, A Chorus Line, and The Rocky Horror Show. Other credits include Bulgaria! Revolt! (choreographer, Yale School of Drama); Avenue Q, Gypsy, the original musical Giovanni’s Room (Yale Drama 7


Cast Coalition); and the national tour of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Also a member of Yaledancers, Christian choreographed Yale Dramatic Associations musical Merrily We Roll Along. Upcoming: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Yale Drama Coalition), and an original musical, Tenn, based on the life of Tennessee Williams. Christian is a proud member of AEA.

SETAREKI WAINIQOLO (VASQUES) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama where his credits include The Three Sisters and Our Lady of 121st Street. Originally from Fiji, he holds a BA in theatre arts from California Lutheran University.

Creative Team TANNIS BOYAJIAN (TECHNICAL DIRECTOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Fucking A (technical director), Carlotta Festival 2015 (assistant technical director), The Three Sisters (Projections Engineer), and The Master and Margarita (stage carpenter). Other credits include The Moors (assistant technical director), Happy Days (master electrician), and Familiar (assistant properties master) all at Yale Repertory Theatre; Dorset Theatre Festival 2016 Summer Season (technical director); and Theatre at Monmouth 2015 Summer Season (assistant technical director). Tannis has her BFA in technical theatre from Salem State University.

ERIN EARLE FLEMING (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Blood Wedding and Macbeth. Other credits include MoonSong, Current Location, Kaspar (Yale Cabaret); Les Enfants Terribles (Butler Opera Center); Bus Stop, Love and Information (Mary Moody Northern Theatre); Pinocchio, ScienceTricks (ZACH Theatre); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Doctuh Mistuh Production); How I Became a Pirate (Main Street Theatre); and The Attic Space (Palindrome Theatre). She holds a BA with an emphasis in design from St. Edward’s University.

FREDERICK KENNEDY (SOUND DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama where his credits include Othello. He recently wrote, co-directed, and performed in Collisions at Yale Cabaret and was the associate sound designer for Yale Rep’s Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince. Other credits include Adam Geist, Alice In Wonderland, Envy: the Concert (Yale Summer Cabaret); Lake Kelsey, Vignette of a Recollection, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens, How We Died of Disease-Related Illnesses, and I’m With You In Rockland (Yale 8


Cabaret). Prior to Yale, Frederick worked full time as a musician, producer, and educator in New York City, where he taught music production at City University of New York and appeared as a drummer on more than 50 albums. His diverse musical career has taken him on tours throughout North America and Europe, as well as to parts of South America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific.

AO LI (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama from Shanghai, China. His designs include Styx Songs (Yale Cabaret); Cao Zhi, and Everything in the Garden (Shanghai Theatre Academy); Blind (Sightline Theatre); and Seven Senses (Yibo Gallery), among others. He holds a BFA in stage design from Shanghai Theatre Academy, and his artwork has received three solo exhibitions. EMILY LUTIN (CHOREOGRAPHER) is a dancer, choreographer, and yoga teacher. She has performed throughout the US and abroad with Mabou Mines, Time Lapse Dance, Catapult Entertainment, and many more. She has recently worked on Macbeth at Yale School of Drama, as well as Alice in Wonderland, Adam Geist, and Phaedra’s Love at Yale Summer Cabaret. Emily has been working at Choate Rosemary Hall as a dance teacher, choreographer, and artistic director since 2009. She holds a BA in dance performance, choreography, and arts in education from William Smith College, and an MALS in arts from Wesleyan University. themovementality.com JOHN MICHAEL (JOHNNY) MORENO (PROJECTION AND VIDEO DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Fucking A and Othello. He also designed Adam Geist for Yale Summer Cabaret. He is a producer and cameraman on the upcoming feature film Seagull and is a proud member of The Lake Lucille Project, an artist collaborative exploring the works of Anton Chekhov. Johnny continues to work as a concert video director, lighting, and video designer with multi Grammy Award-winning singer Lila Downs. Previous design work includes The Merchant of Venice (Cornell University); The Wiz (associate designer, La Jolla Playhouse); Tiffany & Co mapping installation (Guggenheim Museum); and As Above So Below (Manhattan Bridge mapping installation, DUMBO Arts Festival). Film and television credits include work for HBO Films, NBC Universal, Sony Music, Partizan, and MTV, among others. johnnymoreno.com

DAVINA MOSS (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Macbeth, The Oresteia, Tiny, and Clybourne Park. Other credits include The Merchant of Venice (Compagnia de’ Colombari); Mrs. Galveston, Knives in Hens, and Rose and the Rime (Yale 9


Creative Team Cabaret) and Alice in Wonderland (Yale Summer Cabaret). She is an Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret’s 49th season, and an associate artist of the Londonbased Deus Ex Machina Productions. She holds a BA in English literature from the University of Cambridge.

JESSE RASMUSSEN (DIRECTOR) is a director, writer, and lyricist. She is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she directed Macbeth and This Land Was Made. Other credits include Knives in Hens (Yale Cabaret). Jesse served as Co-Artistic Director of Yale Summer Cabaret’s 2016 season, where she directed the Manhattan Theatre Project’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love. Jesse is a founding member of award-winning theatrical collective Four Larks, where her credits include Orpheus, Undine, and The Temptation of St. Antony. She has created pieces with Four Larks in the USA and Australia, with residencies including the Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), and the Getty Villa (Los Angeles). She holds a BA from the University of Melbourne and a postgraduate diploma in Theatre Creation from The Victorian College of the Arts.

SARAH THOMPSON (STAGE MANAGER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Merchant of Venice, Bluebeard’s Wife, Tiny, Amy and the Orphans, and Fucking A. Additional credits include Styx Songs, And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens, Dutch Masters, Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Yale Cabaret); Evita (Olney Theatre Center); The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); and Mrs. Mannerly (Paper Lantern Theatre Company), among others. Sarah holds a BA in collaborative theatre and sociology from High Point University.

SARAH WOODHAM (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Amy and the Orphans. She holds a BFA in fashion and design from The University of Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean Academy of Fashion and Design), where she designed An Echo in the Bone for The Trinidad Theatre Workshop. She is a past winner of the Meiling Designer Critique Award, a freelance storyboard artist, graphic designer, and co-director of her own fashion print house, A Memory Emerging New (A.M.E.N.) Print House.

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’Tis Pity She’s a Whore Staff ARTISTIC

PRODUCTION

John Bondi-Ernoehazy, Assistant Scenic Designer Beatrice Vena, Assistant Costume Designer Matt Davis, Assistant Lighting Designer Andrew Rovner, Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer Yaara Bar, Assistant Projection Designer Abby Gandy, Assistant Stage Manager

Production Management Bronislaw J. Sammler, Head of Production Jonathan Reed, Production Manager C. Nikki Mills, Associate Head of Production and Student Labor Supervisor Grace O’Brien, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Production and Theater Safety and Occupational Health Departments

PRODUCTION

Scenery

Harry Beauregard, Associate Production Manager Jeongah Heo, Sayantee Sahoo, Assistant Technical Directors Lia Akkerhuis, Scenic Charge Valerie Tu, Properties Master Lydia Pustell, Master Electrician Chimmy Anne Gunn, Stage Carpenter Samuel Kwan Chi Chan, Elizabeth Dinkova, Josh Goulding, Mayumi Nishiyama, Ian Scott, Krista Smith, Emona Stoykova, Olga Tyurikova, Run Crew

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 Alex McNamara, Shop Carpenter

ADMINISTRATION

Bryanna Kim, Brian Pacelli, Assistants to the Technical Director

Painting

SPECIAL THANKS

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

Ginna Doyle and Evan Smith for additional music contributions.

Properties

Sam Linden, House Manager

Yale School of Drama Staff James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Joan Channick, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Assistant Dean

ARTISTIC MANAGEMENT Jennifer Kiger, Associate Artistic Director Director of New Play Programs James Mountcastle, Production Stage Manager Amy Boratko, Literary Manager Kay Perdue Meadows, Artistic Associate Jocelyn Prince, Artistic Coordinator Rachel Carpman, Literary Associate Josie Brown, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Dean and Associate Artistic Director Laurie Coppola, Senior Administrative Assistant for the Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, and Stage Management Departments Kate Begley Baker, Interim Senior Administrative Assistant for the Design and Sound Design Departments Lindsay King, Library Services 12

Trent Davis, Interim Shop Carpenter

Jennifer McClure, Properties Master David P. Schrader, Properties Craftsperson Ashley Flowers, Properties Assistant Bill Batschelet, Properties Stock Manager Logan Baker, Michael Schermann, Assistants to the Properties Master

Costumes Tom McAlister, Costume Shop Manager Harry Johnson, Clarissa Wylie Youngberg, Mary Zihal, Senior Drapers Deborah Bloch, Patricia Van Horn, Senior First Hands Linda Kelley-Dodd, Costume Project Coordinator Denise O’Brien, Wig and Hair Design Barbara Bodine, Company Hairdresser Elizabeth Beale, Costume Stock Manager Jamie Farkas, Rachel Gregory, Assistants to the Costume Shop Manager

Electrics Donald W. Titus, Lighting Supervisor Jennifer Carlson, Linda-Cristal Young, Senior Head Electricians Mayumi Nishiyama, Assistant to the Lighting Supervisor


Sound Mike Backhaus, Sound Supervisor Stephanie Smith, Staff Sound Engineer Roxy Jia, Haley Wolf, Assistants to the Sound Supervisor

Projections Erich Bolton, Projection Supervisor Mike Paddock, Head Projection Technician

Stage Operations Janet Cunningham, Stage Carpenter Elizabeth Bolster, Wardrobe Supervisor Jacob Riley, FOH Mix Engineer Mark Bailey, Light Board Programmer

ADMINISTRATION

General Management Flo Low, Gretchen Wright, Associate Managing Directors Melissa Rose, Sylvia Xiaomeng Zhang, Assistant Managing Directors Emalie Mayo, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Deputy Dean Jaime Totti, Management Assistant Al Heartley, Company Manager Leandro A. Zaneti, Assistant Company Manager

Development and Alumni Affairs Deborah S. Berman, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
 Janice Muirhead, Senior Associate Director of Institutional Giving
 Susan C. Clark, Senior Associate Director of Operations for Development and Alumni Affairs
 Joanna Romberg, Senior Associate Director of Annual Giving and Special Projects
 Chiara Klein, Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
 Jennifer E. Alzona, Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Marketing & Communications
 Alice Kenney, Development Associate
 Caitlin Crombleholme, Rebecca Hampe, Jaime Totti, Development Assistants

Finance and Human Resources Katherine D. Burgueño, Director of Finance and Human Resources Erin Ethier, Business Manager Janna J. Ellis, Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium Chris Fuller, Preston Mock, Business Office Specialists Shainn Reaves, Senior Administrative Assistant to Business Office, Digital Technology, Operations, and Tessitura Susan Ireland, Ashlie Russell, Business Office Assistants

Marketing, Communications, and Audience Services Daniel Cress, Director of Marketing Steven Padla, Director of Communications Caitlin Griffin, Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Emily Reeder, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Gwyneth Muller, Malenky Welsh, Marketing and Communications Assistants Laura Kirk, Director of Audience Services Shane Quinn, Assistant Director of Audience Services Tracy Baldini, Subscriptions Coordinator Roger-Paul Snell, Audience Services Assistant Alexandra Cadena, Sara Cho, Jordan Graf, Nicolette Mántica, Kenneth Murray, Alexis Payne, Tarleton Watkins, Box Office Assistants T. Charles Erickson, Production Photographer

Operations Diane Galt, Director of Facility Operations Nadir Balan, Operations Associate Jennifer Draughn, Arts and Graduate Studies Superintendent Sherry Stanley, Team Leader Michael Humbert, Facility Steward Donell DiGioia, Ty Frost, Kathy Langston, Mark Roy, Jerome Sonia, Custodians

Digital Technology Chris Kilbourne, Director of Digital Technology Luis Serrano, Web and Email Services Associate Joe Whalley, Interim Digital Technology Assistant Don Harvey, Ron Rode, Ben Silvert, Database Application Consultants

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, John Marquez, Customer Service and Safety Officers

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.

’Tis Pity She’s a Whore January 31–February 4, 2017 University Theatre, 222 York Street 13


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