the ripple, the wave that carried me home, Yale Repertory Theatre, 2023

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MASKING

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RECORDING AND PHOTO POLICY

FIRE NOTICE

A NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Welcome to Yale Repertory Theatre!

I am delighted you are here today for the ripple, the wave that carried me home by Christina Anderson. Christina’s work has been seen at theaters across the U.S. and Canada; her play Good Goods had its world premiere at Yale Rep in 2012. A recent Tony Award nominee as book writer of the musical Paradise Square, she received the 2022 Horton Foote Prize, awarded to an American playwright for an original work of exceptional quality, for the ripple, the wave that carried me home. It is an honor to share this new play—which already has been seen in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, and Kansas City in less than a year’s time—with New Haven audiences.

Staged by Resident Director Tamilla Woodard, the play travels back and forth through decades of history as a woman reflects on her family’s legacy of activism, fighting for integration and teaching Black children how to swim during the Civil Rights Movement. Tamilla and the incredibly gifted company of actors and creative, technical, and managerial collaborators have brought Christina’s poignant story of justice and forgiveness to life with remarkable artistry and compassion. Even though this play unfolds in the previous century and in Kansas, the issues of segregation, racism, anti-Blackness, and police brutality facing this fictional family are relevant and pressing in our own New Haven and Connecticut communities.

the ripple, the wave that carried me home is the final production of our 2022–23 season. We recently announced our plans for the year ahead. We will open in the fall with Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi, directed by Sivan Battat, who grew up in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The deeply human and humorous portrait of a close-knit circle of girlfriends set during and in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 will run October 5–October 28. The world premiere of The Salvagers by Harrison David Rivers, directed by Mikael Burke, will play November 24–December 16. Yale Rep commissioned this powerfully observed portrait of a father and son who learn to how to navigate the path to second, third, and fourth chances in life.

In the spring will be Escaped Alone, Caryl Churchill’s genre-defying play of afternoon tea and catastrophe. Staged by Resident Director Liz Diamond, it will be performed March 8–30. And the season will conclude with The Far Country by Lloyd Suh, directed by Eric Ting. The intimate and epic passage of an unlikely family from rural China to San Francisco in the wake of the Chinese Exclusion Act, will run April 26-May 18. I hope you will join us: subscriptions will go on sale in May and individual tickets will be available near the end of the summer.

As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts about today’s play, or any of your experiences at Yale Rep. My email address is james.bundy@yale.edu. Whether today marks your first visit to Yale Rep, or if you have been with us all season long, thank you for spending your time with us!

Sincerely,

James Bundy Artistic Director

APRIL 28–MAY 20, 2023

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE

James Bundy, Artistic Director | Florie Seery, Managing Director

PRESENTS

the ripple, the wave that carried me home

by Christina Anderson

directed by Tamilla Woodard

Scenic Designer

Emmie Finckel

Costume Designer

Aidan Griffiths

Lighting Designer

Alan C. Edwards

Projection Designer

Henry Rodriguez

Sound Designer

Evdoxia Ragkou

Hair and Makeup Designers

Krystal Balleza

Will Vicari

Production Dramaturgs

Hannah Fennell Gellman

Eric M. Glover

Technical Director

Nate Angrick

Vocal Coach

Julie Foh

Intimacy and Fight Director

Kelsey Rainwater

Casting Director

Calleri Jensen Davis

Stage Manager

Andrew Petrick

Production support for the ripple, the wave that carried me home is provided by Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre.

the ripple, the wave that carried me home was originally commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

The world premiere was produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley, California (Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director and Susan Medak, Managing Director); and Goodman Theatre (Susan V. Booth, Artistic Director and Roche Schulfer, Executive Director/CEO). Developed with support from The Ground Floor at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley, California.

Yale Repertory Theatre thanks our 2022–23 season funders:

Season Sponsor:

the ripple, the wave that carried me home

Cast

Janice Jennean Farmer

Helen........................................................................................................................ Chalia La Tour

Gayle Adrienne S. Wells

Edwin............................................................................................................. Marcus Henderson

Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman Adrienne S. Wells

Understudy Cast

Janice .............................................................................................................. Whitney Andrews

Helen Chinna Palmer

Gayle/Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman ....................................Messiah Cristine

Edwin Malik James

Assistant Stage Manager ........................................................................ Nakia Shalice Avila

Setting

Time: 1930s–1992 (the first few days of the LA riots)

Place: Beacon, Kansas, and a suburb near a downtown city in Ohio

the ripple, the wave that carried me home is performed without an intermission.

Content Guidance

This play contains themes related to and references of racism and violence towards Black people, including police brutality.

The play includes a reference to sexual assault and the usage of profanity.

Deep Water, Deep Time

Water is the central element of the ripple, the wave that carried me home. It may be water that carries trauma from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the segregation of US public pools, but it is also water that buoys the characters’ activism and provides the healing they are able to find with each other.

Christina Anderson writes plays that ask the audience to hold multiple time periods in their gaze simultaneously to explore the depth of Black experience in the US. She does not separate memory and the present, but instead plays with the idea of multiple presents coexisting. In the ripple, the wave that carried me home, the characters’ past rushes towards them like water, and the distance between moments in history collapses. The layering effect allows the exact moment in which we are watching to become another layer, even when the characters do not literally step into 2023. As director Tamilla Woodard notes, systemic barriers to pool and water access remain for US Black communities. Although this play contains stories from the characters’ past and the US historical past, it is never simply about the problems of the past.

Queer Sensibility

In Anderson’s plays Good Goods (world premiere at Yale Rep in 2012) and How to Catch Creation (2019), women’s love for each other manifests in romantic relationships conventionally labeled as queer. Examining Anderson’s earlier plays prompts the question: How is the ripple, the wave that carried me home thematically queer, even

“ And water, ocean water is the first thing in the unstable confluence of race, nationality, sexuality, and gender I want to imagine here. This wateriness is metaphor, and history too. The brown-skinned, fluid-bodied experiences now called blackness and queerness surfaced in intercontinental, maritime contacts hundreds of years ago: in the seventeenth century, in the Atlantic Ocean. You see, the black Atlantic has always been the queer Atlantic. ”

—Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, “Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic”

if no characters call themselves queer, pursue same sex relationships, or explore nonconforming gender identities? Scholar Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley theorizes queerness by exploring the idea of loving relationships among enslaved African women in the holds of ships across the Atlantic. Tinsley’s writing provides a guide to understanding the queer lens with which Anderson depicts a variety of Black characters and their love for each other amidst injustice.

Black Feminism

Anderson admires and draws on Black feminist sociologist Patricia Hill Collins. In her book Black Feminist Thought, Collins coined the term “safe spaces” to describe gatherings where Black women could talk amongst each other. She writes:

Anderson activates Collins’s vision onstage, exploring and challenging how Collins’s concepts might play out in the characters’ public activism and in the intimacy of their family.

Collins is not the only Black feminist important to Anderson’s work. These characters practice the politics of respectability (Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham), protect themselves through the culture of dissemblance (Darlene Clark Hine), and open up to reveal the tenderness beneath their dissemblance (Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson). Theater is an ideal medium for Anderson to explore this array of ideas because she can allow her characters to do more than theorize. Embodied onstage, Janice, Helen, Edwin, Gayle, and Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman get to define themselves in their own words and actions.

—Hannah Fennell Gellman, Production Dramaturg

“By advancing Black women’s empowerment through selfdefinition, these safe spaces help Black women resist the dominant ideology promulgated not only outside Black civil society but within African American institutions.”

City on Fire

March 3, 1991

A Los Angeleno is awakened by a noise and records four white police officers who beat Rodney King, a Black driver, with their batons. The district attorney files charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force, but largely because of the fact that the video is broadcast across the country and leads to outrage.

March 16, 1991

A Korean-born convenience store owner, Soon Ja Du, shoots and kills Latasha Harlins, a Black customer fifteen years old, for shoplifting—something that Harlins is not doing. Although the perpetrator is convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and the jury recommends she serve sixteen years, the white judge, Joyce Karlin Fahey, exercises her judicial discretion and sentences the perpetrator to no prison time.

April 21, 1992

A California Court of Appeal rules unanimously (3-0) that, in People v. Soon Ja Du (1991), Joyce Karlin Fahey has made the right sentencing decision.

April 29, 1992

A Simi Valley jury that comprises no Black people, one AsianAmerican, one Latine, and ten white people declares the accused police officers who beat Rodney King not guilty. “A riot is the language of the unheard,” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, and Black people take it to the streets of Koreatown, Pico-Union, and South Central in protest.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom (“Bradley Effect”) Bradley declares a state of emergency, and California Governor Pete Wilson deploys 6,000 National Guardsmen by day’s end.

May 1, 1992

President George H. W. Bush sends in 5,000 army troops, marines, and police officers, and the next day he declares Los Angeles a federal disaster area.

May 4, 1992

The civil disobedience starts to wind down after five days of rioting which allows Los Angeles businesses, government, public goods, and schools to reopen.

Even today, King, who was found in his Rialto, California, swimming pool on June 17, 2012, dead by drowning, remains a souvenir. On the second page of her rehearsal script for the ripple, the wave that carried me home, playwright Christina Anderson forewarns production companies against harming both Black constituent audiences and Black participating artists: “The 1991 video footage of the LAPD attacking Rodney King should not appear in the play.” This author’s note questions the ethics of screening such videos of Black victims whose consent to such use has been neither requested nor granted. When white people lynched 3,446 Black people in 1882–1968 in the US according to NAACP records, said white people took body parts from corpses—fingers, genital organs, toes—back home as souvenirs. Police body camera videos, or any other videos of police brutality today for that matter, have become the lynching souvenirs of the digital age. While Black people feel vicariously through the victims what social scientists call the phenomenon linked fate, others feel vicariously through the perpetrators, and get off on seeing violence enacted against Black people. Giving the ocular proof ten years later triggers the precarity, neither life nor death yet both, between better health outcomes and worse health outcomes. By choosing to evoke and not to show the footage of the LAPD in her play, Anderson repairs the late King’s bodily integrity that was taken away from him in an instant.

—Eric M. Glover, Production Dramaturg

Further Reading

Plays

Three Plays

by Christina Anderson

(Tripwire Harlot Press)

Ohio State Murders

by Adrienne Kennedy

Black Feminism

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins

Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

“Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West: Preliminary Thoughts on the Culture of Dissemblance” by Darlene Clark Hine (in a special issue of Signs)

“A Politics of Tenderness: Camille A. Brown and Dancers’ BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play” by Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson (in The Black Scholar)

“Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic: Queer Imaginings of the Middle Passage” by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley (in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies)

Swimming & Segregation

Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America

by Jeff Wiltse

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs

Everyone and How We Can Prosper

Together by Heather McGhee

—compiled by Hannah Fennell Gellman

Swimming in New Haven

Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home dramatizes what is known as “drained-pool politics.” During the Civil Rights Movement, white communities closed their public spaces rather than swim with their Black neighbors, a history Jeff Wiltse chronicles in his book Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America. To maintain segregated spaces, exclusive private swimming clubs arose. While Anderson’s play unfolds in Kansas, Connecticut’s swimming access has been shaped by both de jure and de facto segregation.

We encourage you to seek out these titles, some of which can be found through the New Haven Free Public Library, or purchased through Possible Futures bookspace at 318 Edgewood Avenue.

New Haven’s Parks and Recreation Department suggests that city residents can access a handful of pools, located in public high schools, during select swim hours. Nearby suburban towns have recreation centers with swimming pools; some are open to anyone able to pay a non-resident fee, others are open only to town residents. In New Haven County, private pool clubs like Ridge Top Club, Paradise Country Club, Woodbridge Club, and the New Haven Lawn Club have hefty initiation fees, annual dues, and application processes requiring recommendations. Indoor pools can be found at a handful of local athletic facilities but require membership and monthly fees. Access to swimming lessons, especially after the COVID-19-19 pandemic emergency closed facilities and programs for over a year, requires fast fingers in narrow online

registration windows or diligence to find spaces, timing, and pricing that work.

Connecticut residents might see an immediate connection to the characters in Anderson’s play and the legacy of Edward “Ned” Coll, a Hartford-based activist who died last December. In the 1960s and 1970s, Coll fought to open up the state’s “sand curtain” to Black and brown residents; at that time, only seven miles of the state’s coast was publicly accessible. The rest was privately controlled or under the jurisdiction of predominately white, wealthy towns. Andrew W. Kahrl’s 2018 book, Free the Beach: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline, documents the impressive efforts of Coll’s coalition, including efforts to bus Black and Latine mothers and children to controlled-access beaches. Despite the public attention caused by

this collective action, the state’s town beaches were only opened to nonresidents in 2001 after Connecticut’s Supreme Court took up an appeal of a decision in Leydon v. The Town of Greenwich. But the work still continues as shoreline municipalities find ways to keep beaches exclusive and activists try to subvert these new tactics. Kahrl writes, “In practical terms, town beaches in the state’s wealthiest communities remain as inaccessible as ever, as municipalities have deployed a host of subtle, but no less effective, instruments of exclusion.”

This summer, as you seek the cool relief of the ocean or the pool, think about how you gained access to that body of water. In what ways is our ability to be in the water still limited by forces of racism, segregation, and economic exclusion?

—Amy Boratko, Senior Artistic Producer, Yale Repertory Theatre

Local Lessons

Christina Anderson calls the characters in her play “Aquatic Activists.” While many athletic centers and town pools offer swim lessons in the Greater New Haven area, many prioritize members or residents. Below are two programs that seek to increase access to lessons in our state.

LEAP

Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership, Inc. (LEAP) was founded in 1992 by educators, students, and activists to address the historic disinvestment in young people of color in New Haven. LEAP creates a safe and

encouraging space for children and young adults and ages 7-24 to be in community with one another. Through its multi-tier mentorship model, LEAP employs approximately 200 local high school and college students to work with youth ages 7-12 in a children’s program and youth ages 13-15 in the Leaders in Training program.

LEAP’s free, year-round programming is based on a literacy curriculum in which kids are provided with reading tools and books that they get to take home. LEAP’s programming also includes activities such as swimming,

dance, yoga, theater, photography, and arts. High school students utilize its college access program where students participate in workshops around navigating financial aid, writing personal statements, and other college application resources. LEAP’s programming is rooted in values of community, justice, and mentorship— it is the idea that young people possess incredibly transformative power to be leaders in their communities and beyond.

In addition to the free swim lessons for young people in LEAP’s programs, LEAP offers low-cost swim lessons to children and adults in the community. The cost of adult swim lessons is $100 for five weeks (10 lessons total). The cost of child swim lessons (for ages 5–17) is $80 for five weeks (10 lessons total). The organization also provides swimsuits, swim caps, goggles, towels, and more to relieve financial stress from families. Swimming is a crucial life skill and learning to swim at LEAP not only saves

lives but also helps with mental and physical health.

Learn more at leapforkids.org.

Free Swim Lessons Program through DEEP

In February 2023, Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) issued a press release announcing a $1.5-million program to give free swimming lessons to qualifying children in the state. Lessons will be administered through fourteen YMCA sites, including the New Haven YMCA at 50 Howe Street. The Free Swim Lessons Program is part of DEEP’s DEI in Parks Initiative and is expected to serve up to 3,000 children a year. Interested guardians should learn more about the program through DEEP’s website or by contacting their local YMCA for guidance on eligibility and instructions on how to sign up for lessons.

Jennean Farmer* (Janice) NYC Theater: Cullud Wattah, Ain’t No Mo’ (The Public Theater); Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre).

Regional: Her Portmanteau (George Street Playhouse), Mlima’s Tale (Westport Country Playhouse).

Film: The Good Nurse (co-star), A Thousand and One (co-star), The Secret Art of Human Flight (co-star), How the Light Gets In (co-star). Television: Dead Ringers (recurring), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (guest star), Evil (guest star), That Damn Michael Che (co-star), New Amsterdam (co-star), FBI (costar). M.F.A. in acting from the New School for Drama. U.S. Army Veteran. Jennean is a Beinecke Fellow at David Geffen School of Drama this spring.

Marcus Henderson* (Edwin) is a dynamic thespian from St. Louis, Missouri, who started his drama journey after falling in love with theater at Alabama State University. He went on to graduate school to hone his craft at David Geffen School of Drama. Immediately recognized for his immense talent, he booked a role in Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino, and has enjoyed a blossoming career ever since with roles in Whiplash, John Singleton’s Snowfall, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Today, you can catch him starring in the hilarious TV show Tacoma FD and paying it

forward by teaching and uplifting up-and-coming actors who have committed to the journey of the craft. He is very happy to be welcomed back for his second Yale Rep production, following Romeo and Juliet in 2011. Marcus is a Beinecke Fellow at David Geffen School of Drama this spring.

Chalia La Tour* (Helen) is an actor, educator, and creator. She is a 2020 Tony Award Nominee for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris. Her other theater credits include Cadillac Crew by Tori Sampson (Yale Repertory Theatre, 2019) and The Review or How to Eat Your Opposition by Donetta Lavinia Grays (Women’s Project Theater). Television credits include The Good Fight, The Code, and Elementary on CBS. Film credits include The Future is Bright, The Year Between, and Mother Melancholia. Directing credits include Faster Than a Blink (Portland Center Stage JAW), assistant director for The Brothers Size (Oklahoma City Rep), Savage/Love (Highland Summer Theatre). The Future is Bright screened at the inaugural African American Smithsonian Film Festival. The Year Between is currently available on streaming services and in cinema. Mother Melancholia is in collaboration with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. She maintains a commitment to storytelling that asks the questions of humanity with the fullness of humanity. She has also worked with the anti-racism organization Broadway

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

Advocacy Coalition as a consultant for their Artivism Fellowship. La Tour received an M.F.A. in acting from David Geffen School of Drama. She is also a graduate of the British American Dramatic Academy, Summer in Oxford program and holds a B.A. in theatrical technical design from CSU East Bay. Chalia is a Beinecke Fellow at David Geffen School of Drama this spring.

Instagram: @chalialatour

Adrienne S. Wells* (Gayle/Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman) is excited to be back at her alma mater! Her theater credits include The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center Theater); A Cakewalk (Garage magazine); Girls (Yale Rep); Seven Spots On the Sun; Alice; How Black Girls Get Over Fuckbois, vol. 1; Marty and The Hands That Could; and School Girls: or The African Mean Girls Play (David Geffen School Drama).

TV: Black Monday (Showtime). B.A., Temple University; M.F.A., David Geffen School of Drama. Adrienne is a Beinecke Fellow at David Geffen School of Drama this spring. @adriennewells

UNDERSTUDY

Whitney Andrews she/her (understudy for Janice) is an actor and writer based in New Haven. She is a Connecticut native and currently an M.F.A. candidate in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, where her most recent credits include Marys Seacole. Prior to her performances on the School’s stages, she was seen on Manifest (NBC), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu), Gotham (FOX), and Happy! (Syfy). Today, Whitney tells stories illustrating multifaceted Black women who exist in the fullness of their complexities. She is a fearless feeler and pleasure seeker, who is constantly finding herself through her work.

Messiah Cristine (understudy for Gayle/Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. They hold a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Malik James he/him (understudy for Edwin) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, where he has been seen in Blood Wedding. He holds a B.F.A. in acting from Texas State University, where he performed in The Harvest, The Importance of Being Earnest, We Are Proud to Present…, and The Crucible. He made his professional debut in Choir Boy at Yale Rep last season. maliktjames.com

UNDERSTUDY CAST

in alphabetical order

Chinna Palmer (understudy for Helen) “Rooted in Love; driven with Purpose; in search of Truth,” Chinna is debuting at Yale Repertory Theatre as a first-year student at David Geffen School of Drama. Though this is not her first time to take the stage, thanks to the incredible cast and crews from productions such as Our Town (Shakespeare Theatre Co.), Behind the Sheet (St. Louis Black Rep.), Fairview (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); and in films, Alemanji and The Zeke Sanders Story. Chinna is excited to continue her journey here in the coming years, and beyond. B.F.A., Howard University. Instagram: @chinna.palmer.

CREATIVE TEAM

in alphabetical order

Christina Anderson (Playwright) is a 2022 Tony Award nominee for Outstanding Book of the Broadway musical for Paradise Square. She is a playwright, screenwriter, educator, and creative. Plays include How to Catch Creation, pen/man/ship, Blacktop Sky, and Good Goods. Her work has appeared at the Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre (Good Goods, world premiere, 2012), Kansas City Repertory, and other theaters in the United States and Canada. Awards and honors include: 2022 Arthur Miller Award, 2022 Horton Foote Prize, 2021 Prince Prize,

2020 United States Artists Fellow, MacDowell Fellowship, Lily Awards

Harper Lee Prize, Herb Alpert Award nomination, Barrymore nomination, and New Dramatists Residency. A graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, she has taught playwriting at the Geffen School, Wesleyan University, Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase College, and served as the interim Head of Playwriting at Brown University. christinaandersonwriter.com

Nate Angrick (Technical Director) is in his fourth year of the technical design and production program at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include She Kills Monsters, Twelfth Night, and Affinity. He also recently served as technical director for The Brightest Thing in the World and assistant technical director for The Plot at Yale Rep. He received his B.F.A. in technical theater and design from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. He worked as technical director of Payomet Performing Arts Center in Massachusetts and Peninsula Players in Wisconsin. Before attending Yale, he worked as a scenic carpenter at The Juilliard School.

Nakia Shalice Avila she/they (Assistant Stage Manager) is a black afro-latine abolitionist, dreamer, and multi-hyphenate artist. Credits include Skeleton Crew, Othello (Trinity Repertory Company); Big River (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Familiar, True West (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); I was waiting for the echo of a better day (Fisher Center at Bard); The Tempest (Elm

Shakespeare Company); the father, the son, and the holy spirit (Yale Summer Cabaret); Today Is My Birthday (Yale Rep); love i awethu further, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, and Macbeth (David Geffen School of Drama). Nakia holds a B.A. in psychology from Claflin University. She dedicates her work on this production to her twin sister, Nia.

Krystal Balleza (Hair and Makeup Designer) Opera: Opera Theatre of St. Louis 2023 Season. Off-Broadway: At the Wedding (Lincoln Center); Americano! (New World Stages); Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida (Gingold Group). Regional: Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Yale Rep), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Barrington Stage Company), and Angels in America, Part One (Arena Stage). Krystal is the Hair and Makeup Department Head at SIX: The Musical on Broadway. Krystal holds a B.F.A. in wig and makeup design from Webster Conservatory and is co-owner of The Wig Associates with her design partner, Will Vicari. wigassociates.com 956 por vida

Calleri Jensen Davis (Casting Director) is a creative casting partnership among James Calleri, Erica Jensen, and Paul Davis of over 20 years. They began their collaboration with Yale Rep earlier this season with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles.

Broadway credits: The Piano Lesson, Topdog/Underdog, for colored girls..., Thoughts of a Colored Man, Burn This, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, A Raisin in the

Sun, 33 Variations. Television: Love Life, Queens, Dickinson, and The Path, to name a few. callerijensendavis.com

Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Designer) Work includes the world premieres of Harry Clarke (The Vineyard), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre), and The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall (Signature Theatre Company, winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama). His regional design work includes Sally & Tom (world premiere by SuzanLori Parks at the Guthrie Theatre); Pipeline, Skeleton Crew (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Paradise Blue, and the new musical Lights Out: Nat King Cole (Geffen Playhouse). Additional credits include productions of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Signature and A.R.T.), Smith’s Fires in the Mirror (Signature), Twelfth Night (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Bluebird Memories featuring rap-artist Common (Audible Theatre), and Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge by Greig Sargeant and Elevator Repair Service. Edwards has been honored with awards and nominations for the Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Henry Hewes Awards. His work in dance includes Where We Dwell and Chasing Magic by tap-dancer Ayodele Casel; Rhythm Is Life by Dormeshia SumbryEdwards; and Lifted, choreographed by Christopher Rudd for American Ballet Theatre. On Broadway he was the associate to renowned lighting designer Jennifer Tipton on The Testament of Mary. He is a graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, where he is also an Assistant Professor of Lighting. alancedwards.com

CREATIVE TEAM

in alphabetical order

Emmie Finckel they/them (Scenic Designer) is a queer, Asian-American scenic and production designer. Recent credits include The Comedy of Errors (Public Theater: Mobile Unit), As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse), 53% OF (Second Stage), In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), The Watering Hole (Signature Theatre), Manning (David Geffen School of Drama), In the Penal Colony (NYTW Next Door), Athena (JACK), Riot Antigone (La MaMa). Associate design credits include many productions with Gabriel Hainer Evansohn including KPOP (Broadway) and Empire Travel Agency as a member of Woodshed Collective. Emmie is the Associate Creative Director of the Outside Lands Music Festival and often works on festivals and experiential events in collaboration with Iron Bloom Creative Production. Emmie holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a M.F.A. from David Geffen School of Drama and is currently on the faculty of the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU. Member: Local USA 829. efinckel.com.

Julie Foh (Vocal Coach) is a voice, text, and dialect coach and is an Assistant Professor of Acting at David Geffen School of Drama. Previous coaching credits include The Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus (Next Chapter Podcasts); The Caretaker, A Child’s Christmas in Wales (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Belfast Girls (Irish Rep); Mlima’s Tale (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Westport Country Playhouse);

Ride the Cyclone: The Musical, Sleuth (McCarter Theatre Center); Wolverine: The Lost Trail (Marvel podcast); As You Like It, King Charles III (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Sherwood (Cleveland Play House); Pygmalion (BEDLAM); Familiar (Woolly Mammoth); Trans Scripts, Cardenio (American Repertory Theater); The Tallest Tree in the Forest (Tectonic Theater Project); and others. She is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, a Master Teacher of KnightThompson Speechwork, and co-author of Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training

Hannah Fennell Gellman she/ her (Production Dramaturg) is a teaching artist and dramaturg who is passionate about queer stories, movement, and poetry. Her production dramaturgy credits include Wake by Stefani Kuo; Twelfth Night, Hedda Gabler (David Geffen School of Drama); and Dr. Ride’s American Beach House and soft apples (Yale Cabaret). She has also collaborated on developing dance pieces with BODYSONNET and Qualia Dance Collective 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 third-year M.F.A. candidate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Geffen School.

Eric M. Glover (Production Dramaturg) is an Assistant Professor Adjunct at David Geffen School of Drama where he practices. Eric

has also worked as a production dramaturg for Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (canceled due to COVID-19) at Yale Rep.

Aidan Griffiths (Costume Designer) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama and a graduate of University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Aidan has been working in the field of costumes for the last 13 years. As a freelance costume designer and illustrator, she has designed for theater, opera, and dance. Her work has been seen internationally with The Bang Group. Her most recent credits are Affinity (Geffen School), The Rite of Spring (Schwarzman Center), Lovesick: The Rock Opera (National Sawdust), and There’s a Strange Thing at the End of the Loop and Radiant Vermin (Yale Cabaret). She has worked with directors Gaye Taylor Upchurch, Carl Forsman, Tamilla Woodard, Alex Keegan, James Matthew Daniels, Christina Franklin, and Jacob Basri. She has collaborated on dance pieces with David Parker, Jeff Kazin, Emily Coates, and Lasso Coulibaly. aidangriffithsdesign.com

Andrew Petrick* (Stage Manager) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Manning and Measure for Measure, both directed by Alex Keegan, and In His Hands, or the gay christian play, directed by Maeli Goren. Other stage management credits include The Brightest Thing in the World (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Blacker the Berry, directed by Stew,

and Harmless, directed by Dan Hurlin (Sarah Lawrence College); Pride and Prejudice, directed by Christopher Edwards, and Cry It Out, directed by Marc Masterson (Dorset Theatre Festival); Jack and the Beanstalk, directed by Julie Atlas Muz (Abrons Art Center); and When We Were Young and Unafraid, directed by Spencer Knoll (Downstage Theatre Company). B.A., Sarah Lawrence College. Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Evdoxia Ragkou she/her/hers

(Sound Designer) is a New Havenbased sound artist and composer. She is keenly interested in the nature of sound, using it as her primary medium for composition, and strongly believes in its storytelling powers. She writes all sorts of music and is oriented towards creative ways to tell stories. She has worked in venues such as Rattlestick Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Cabaret, and Yale Repertory Theatre. She has also written music for various dance projects and short films. She also wears the hat of a solo artist. You can say that she is overall a person of a sound mind.

Kelsey Rainwater (Intimacy and Fight Director) is an intimacy coach, fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s most recent work was seen in the premiere of Sally and Tom at The Guthrie. Some of her other credits include In the Southern Breeze at Rattlestick, The Public Theater’s Measure for

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

CREATIVE TEAM

in alphabetical order

Measure and White Noise by SuzanLori Parks, directed by Oskar Eustis; 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 at Yale Rep; Blues for An Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; and Bess Wohl’s film, Baby Ruby. She is a Lecturer in Acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaching stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.

Henry Rodriguez (Projection Designer) is a multi-disciplinary projections and media designer. His recent credits include She Kills Monsters (David Geffen School of Drama), L’elisir d’amore (Yale School of Music), Dragaret (Yale Cabaret), and This Place is a Message (Yale Schwarzman Center). Henry is a Mexican American, Las Vegas native, and holds a bachelor’s degree in projection design from the University of Northern Colorado. In his final year at David Geffen School of Drama, Henry looks forward to future projects including, but not limited to projection design, live media, and virtual production.

Will Vicari (Hair and Makeup Designer) NYC: Parade (Broadway, Associate Hair Design); Washington Square (Axis Theatre Company); At the Wedding (Lincoln Center), Americano! (New World Stages); Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Gingold Group). Regional: Sunset Boulevard (Associate, Kennedy Center); Angels in America, Part One (Arena Stage); Ain’t Misbehavin’

(Barrington, Geva, Westport); Guys and Dolls (ACT); Opera Theatre of St. Louis (2023 season design). Will holds a B.F.A. in wig and makeup design from Webster University and is a licensed cosmetologist. He is coowner of The Wig Associates with his design partner, Krystal Balleza. See thewigassociates.com for more.

Tamilla Woodard (Director) is Chair of the Acting program at David Geffen School of Drama and a Resident Director at Yale Rep. She is the co-founder of the sitespecific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics, proudly served as the co-Artistic Director of Working Theater in New York, and she was the Associate Director of the Tony Awardwinning Hadestown on Broadway in its premiere season. Prior to joining Working Theater, Tamilla was the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Tamilla has directed at theaters nationally and internationally, including at WP Theater, The Alliance, Baltimore Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Classical Theater of Harlem, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts with TheaterWorksUSA, and The Cleveland Public Theatre, among others. Recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, Tamilla is also a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and a proud board member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. She received her M.F.A. in acting from David Geffen School of Drama.

for this production

artistic Assistant Director

Juliana Morales Carreño

Assistant Scenic Designer

Silin Chen

Assistant Costume Designer

Caroline Tyson

Associate Lighting Designer

Max Doolittle

Assistant Projection Designer

Doaa Ouf

Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer

Mike Winch

Wigs provided by The Wig Associates

Recorded Voices

Whitney Andrews, Messiah Cristine, Shimali De Silva, Malik James

Standby for the role of Edwin LAW

production

Associate Production Manager

Luanne Jubsee

Assistant Technical Directors

Nickie Dubick

Erik Keating

Sky Pang

Assistant Properties Manager

Megan Birdsong

Production Electrician

Alex Theisen

Projection Engineer

Sydney Raine Garick

Light Board Programmer

Mark Fortunato

Light Board Operator

Alary Sutherland

FOH Mix Engineer

Joe Krempetz

Tailoring Giliberto Designs

Run Crew

Michael Allyn Crawford, Sarah

Machiko Haber, Aura Michelle, Roman Sanchez, Kiyoshi Shaw, Danielle

Stagger, Lauren Walker, Giovanna

Drummond (swing)

administration

Associate Managing Director

Sarah Scafidi

Assistant Managing Director

Natalie King

Management Assistants

Sarah Machiko Haber, Adrian

Hernandez, Roman Sanchez, Mikayla Stanley

Company Manager

Chloe Knight

Assistant Company Managers

Fanny Abib-Rozenberg, Roman Sanchez, Jeremy Landes

House Managers

Maya Louise Shed

Matthew Sonnenfeld

Special Thanks

Andy DelVecchio and Kate Meikle at the Town of North Haven (The Walter J. Gawrych North Haven Community Pool);

Carlos Pinela and the YPWG; Marjorie

F. B. Lemmon; AVP Ronnell Higgins and the Yale Office of Public Safety; Ryan

Rooks and Nicole Jefferson of LEAP; Bryn Scharenberg; Melissa Smith; Paul Jacques and everyone at Little Flippers Swim School in Natick, Massachusetts.

The playwright would like to thank Kari; KC Rep; Olivier; Jackson & Madeleine & Johanna.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE STAFF

Artistic Director

James Bundy

Managing Director

Florie Seery

Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Programs

Jennifer Kiger

General Manager

Carla L. Jackson

ARTISTIC

Resident Artists

Playwright in Residence

Tarell Alvin McCraney

Resident Directors

Lileana Blain-Cruz

Liz Diamond

Tamilla Woodard

Dramaturgy Advisor

Amy Boratko

Resident Dramaturg

Catherine Sheehy

Set Design Advisor

Riccardo Hernández

Resident Set Designer

Michael Yeargan

Costume Design Advisors

Oana Botez

Ilona Somogyi

Resident Costume Designer

Toni-Leslie James

Lighting Design Advisors

Alan C. Edwards

Stephen Strawbridge

Sound Design Advisor

Mikaal Sulaiman

Voice and Text Advisor

Grace Zandarski

Resident Fight and Intimacy Directors

Kelsey Rainwater

Michael Rossmy

Stage Management Advisor

Narda E. Alcorn

Associate Artists

52nd Street Project, Kama Ginkas, Mark Lamos, MTYZ Theatre/Moscow New Generation Theatre, Bill Rauch, Sarah Ruhl, Henrietta Yanovskaya

Artistic Management

Production Stage Manager

James Mountcastle

Senior Artistic Producer

Amy Boratko

Associate Producer

Kay Perdue Meadows

Artistic Fellow

Jisun Kim

Casting

James Calleri

Erica Jensen

Paul Davis

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director

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

Tess Colwell

PRODUCTION Production Management Director of Production

Shaminda Amarakoon

Production Manager

Jonathan Reed

Production Manager for Studio Projects and Special Events

C. Nikki Mills

Senior Administrative Assistant to Production and Theater Safety

Grace O’Brien

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

Kat McCarthey

Sharon Reinhart

Carpenters

Barrett Doyle

Doug Kester

Painting

Paint Shop Supervisor

Ru-Jun Wang

Scenic Artists

Lia Akkerhuis

Nathan Jasunas

Painter

Kathleen Kennan Properties

Properties Supervisor

Jennifer McClure

Properties Craftsperson

David P. Schrader

Properties Associate

Zach Faber

Properties Stock Manager

Mark Dionne

Properties Intern

Bennet Goldberg

Costumes

Costume Shop Manager

Christine Szczepanski

Senior Drapers

Clarissa Wylie Youngberg

Mary Zihal

Senior First Hands

Deborah Bloch

Patricia Van Horn

Costume Project Coordinator

Linda Kelley-Dodd

Costume Stock Manager

Jamie Farkas

Additional Costume Staff

Soule Golden

Judianne Wallace

Electrics

Lighting Supervisor

Donald W. Titus

Senior House Electricians

Jennifer Carlson

Linda-Cristal Young

Electricians

Alary Sutherland

Racheal Daigneault

Eitan Acks

Electrics Intern

Jasmine Moore

Sound Sound Supervisor

Mike Backhaus

Lead Sound Engineer

Stephanie Smith

Sound Interns

Saida Joshua-Smith

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦

Projections

Acting Projection Supervisor

Eric Lin

Projection Intern

Erin Sims

Stage Operations

Stage Carpenter

Janet Cunningham

Lead Wardrobe Supervisor

Elizabeth Bolster

Lead Properties Runner

William Ordynowicz

FOH Mix Engineer

Abe Joyner-Meyers

ADMINISTRATION

General Management

Associate Managing Directors

Sarah Scafidi

Matthew Sonnenfeld

Assistant Managing Director

Natalie King

Senior Administrative

Assistant to the Managing Director and General Manager

Emalie Mayo

Management Assistants

Sarah Machiko Haber

Adrian Hernandez

Roman Sanchez

Mikayla Stanley

Company Manager

Chloe Knight

Assistant Company Managers

Fanny Abib-Rozenberg

Jeremy Landes

Roman Sanchez

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

Casey Grambo

Senior Writer and Development and Alumni Affairs Officer

Robert DiGioia

Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Alumni Affairs

Jennifer E. Alzona

Development Associate

Delaney Kelley

Development Assistant

Ramona Li

Finance, Human Resources, and Digital Technology

Director of Finance and Business Administration/Lead Administrator

Nicola Blake

Finance Consultants

Regina Bejnerowicz

Katherine D. Burgueño

Denise Zaczek

Director of Human Resources

Trinh DiNoto

Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium, and Web Technology

Janna J. Ellis

Manager, Business Operations

Martha Boateng

Digital Communications Associate

George Tinari

Business Office Specialists

Moriah Clarke

Andrea Valcourt

Business Office Assistant

Asberry Thomas

Digital Technology Associates

Edison Dule

Garry Heyward

Interim Digital Technology Associate

Shontay Jones

Senior Administrative Assistant to Business Office, Digital and Web Technology, Operations, and Tessitura

Shainn Reaves

Database Application Consultants

Ben Silvert

Erich Bolton

Bo Du

Marketing, Communications, and Audience Services

Director of Marketing

Daniel Cress

Director of Communications

Steven Padla

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE STAFF

Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Caitlin Griffin

Senior Administrative Assistant for Marketing and Communications

Mishelle Raza

Marketing and Communications Assistants

Adrian Hernandez

Rachel Zwick

Publications Manager

Marguerite Elliott

Production Photographer

Joan Marcus

Art and Design

Paul Evan Jeffrey/ Passage Design

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

John Marquez—on leave

Box Office Assistants

Jordi Bertrán Ramírez

Sydney Raine Garick

Jordan Graf

Daliya Habib

Aaron Magloire

Kenneth Murray

a.k. payne

Dominic Sullivan

Jessica Wang

Ushers

Tracy Bennett

Danielys Batista

Maura Bozeman

Regina Carson

Amalia Crevani

Gerson Espinoza Campos

Nina Gaither

Madi Garfinkle

Lydia Gompper

Şeyma Kaya

Spencer Knoll

Di’Jhon McCoy

Justin Meadows

Keenan Miller

Bonnie Moeller

William Romain

Jana Ross

Joe Webb

Larsson Youngberg

Theater Safety and Occupational Health

Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health/ COVID Compliance Manager

Anna Glover

Assistant Director of Theater Safety

Kelly O’Loughlin

COVID Compliance Coordinator

Amy Stern

Associate Safety Advisor

Aholibama Castañeda

Gonzalez

Operations

Director of Facility Operations

Nadir Balan

Operations Associate

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

Rodney Heard

Andrew Martino

James Hansberry

Sybil Bell

Jerome Sonia

Willia Grant

Melloney Lucas

Tylon Frost

the ripple, the wave that carried me home, April 28–May 20, 2023, Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut.

Yale Repertory Theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers in LORT are represented by United Artists Local USA-829, IATSE.

ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES

For this production:

May 13 at 2PM

Audio Description

Pre-show description begins at 1:45PM

A live narration of the play’s action, sets, and costumes for patrons who are blind or have low vision.

May 13 at 8PM

American Sign Language (ASL)

An ASL-interpreted performance for patrons who are deaf or have hearing loss.

May 20 at 2PM

Open Captioning

A digital display of the play’s dialogue as it’s spoken for patrons who are deaf or have hearing loss.

Assistive listening devices as well as Braille and large print programs are available at the concierge desk in the theater lobby:

ACCESSIBILITY TEAM in alphabetical order

Gracy Brown (Audio Describer) is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, and a New Haven-based actor, director, and educator. Elm Shakespeare Company: The Tempest (Sebastian), The Comedy of Errors (Emilia), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Boyet), Romeo and Juliet (Nurse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Egeus), Pericles (Gower); Long Wharf Theatre: The Good Person of New Haven (Taiwa/ Taiwo); Great Lakes Theater Festival: Peter Pan (Adult Wendy); Edinburgh

Yale Repertory Theatre gratefully acknowledges the Carol L. Sirot Foundation for underwriting the assistive listening systems in our theaters.

For more about Yale Rep’s accessibility services, please contact Laura Kirk, Director of Audience Services: 203.432.1522 | laura.kirk@yale.edu

Fringe Festival: A Clockwork Orange (Dr. Brodsky), Fahrenheit 451 (Mildred); Cornerstone Theater Company: An Antigone Story (Ismene); Mark Taper Forum: For Here or to Go? (Luce); Collective Consciousness Theatre: Rasheeda Speaking (Jaclyn); and Claudia in the web series, Ringer$. Gracy is a proud alumni of Southern Connecticut State University, where she earned a B.A. in theater and is an adjunct faculty member in the theater department. She recently co-directed Out of Bounds, an original play devised by a company of SCSU students. This production gained national recognition, receiving 14 awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival including the Citizen Artist Award, Special Achievement in Direction by Faculty Artists, and Special Achievement in a Company Generated (Devised) Production. A proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Rorri Burton (ASL Interpreter) is a former Teacher of the Deaf, and current mother of a Deaf adult-turned ASL Interpreter. Based now in Southern California, she has been called upon by

everyone from the mayor of Los Angeles, to Levi’s Apparel, the Academy Awards, and Black Lives Matter to provide ASL access for the Deaf community. Currently, she oversees a group of Deaf and hearing BIPOC and queer ASL interpreters, providing advocacy, access and trainings. For more information, go to @probonoasl on all social media, or probonoasl.com.

David Chu/c2inc-caption coalition (Open Captioner) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit consultant and the leading provider of professional Live Performance Captioning (sm) for theatrical and cultural presentations. c2 members hold the distinction of being the very first to caption live theater (the Paper Mill Playhouse, NJ), the first to debut on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and have introduced open captioning in prestigious theaters across the country and in London. Captioning in theater has gained momentum and acceptance by theatergoers since its debut in 1996. It addresses the needs of a far larger audience of hard of hearing and deaf people, which includes those who do not use sign language, are late deafened, not self-identified with hearing loss, and those who simply might have missed a punch line.

Rodney LeBon he/any (ASL Interpreter) is a nationally certified trilingual (Haitian Creole/ASL/English) interpreter who finds his joy mainly in performing arts and concert spaces. Some of the plays he’s interpreted include Tambo & Bones at Playwrights Horizons in New York City; The Wiz, Death of a Salesman, and Twelve Angry Men at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.; Madea’s Farewell Tour at the MGM National Harbor; SOUL: The Stax Musical at Baltimore Center Stage; and A Drag Christmas at Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. He has also interpreted for major concerts and festivals for the Apollo, AfroPunk, Roots Picnic, Broccoli City Festival, Life is Beautiful, Global Citizens Festival, and Pride (D.C., Baltimore, Miami Beach, Wilton Manors, NYC, and Stonewall). Some of his favorite artists that’s he’s been fortunate to interpret include City Girls, Billie Eilish, Jazmine Sullivan, Beyoncé, Chloe x Halle, Mary J. Blige, Kehlani, Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendez, and Drake, just to name a few. He has a bachelor’s degree in interpretation from Gallaudet University—the only university in the world where students live and learn using American Sign Language— and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree.

YOUTH PROGRAMS

WILL POWER! is Yale Rep’s annual educational initiative, designed to bring middle and high school students to see live theater. Since our 2003–04 season, WILL POWER! has served more than 20,000 Connecticut students and educators. In 2022–23, we offered programming centered on Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles to New Haven Public Schools students and educators. The program has included early schooltime matinees, free or heavily subsidized tickets, study guides, and post-performance discussions with actors and members of the creative teams. WILL POWER! is committed to giving teachers curricular support through free workshops and professional development about the content and themes of the plays.

THE DWIGHT/EDGEWOOD PROJECT (D/EP) is a community engagement program of Yale Rep and David Geffen School of Drama for middle school-aged students from Barnard Environmental Science and Technology Magnet School, a K-8 school located on the edge of the Dwight and Edgewood neighborhoods in New Haven. The students are paired with mentors from the Geffen School to write their own plays. The month-long program begins in late May, culminating in fully produced plays performed by the Yale mentors and presented for the New Haven community in late June.

DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA BOARD

OF ADVISORS

John B. Beinecke YC ’69, Chair

Jeremy Smith ’76, Vice Chair

Nina Adams MS ’69, NUR ’77

Rudy Aragon LAW ’79

Amy Aquino ’86

John Badham ’63, YC ’61

Pun Bandhu ’01

Sonja Berggren

Special Research Fellow ’13

Frances Black ’09

Carmine Boccuzzi YC ’90, LAW ’94

Lynne Bolton

Clare Brinkley

Sterling B. Brinkley, Jr. YC ’74

Kate Burton ’82

James Chen ’08

Lois Chiles

Patricia Clarkson ’85

Edgar M. Cullman III ’02, YC ’97

LEADERSHIP SOCIETY

($50,000+)

Anonymous

John B. Beinecke

Sonja Berggren and Patrick Seaver

Lois Chiles

Connecticut Department of Economic and Community

Development

Estate of Nicholas Diggs*

Estate of Richard Diggs*

The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation

Anita Pamintuan Fusco and Dino Fusco

David Geffen Foundation

The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation

David G. Johnson

Victoria B. Mars

Neil Mazzella

Estate of June M. Rosenblatt

Talia Shire Schwartzman

The Shubert Foundation

Jeremy Smith

Woody Taft

Stephen Timbers

Edward Trach

Esme Usdan

Donald R. Ware

Michael David ’68

Wendy Davies

Michael Diamond ’90

Polly Draper ’80, YC ’77

Charles S. (Roc) Dutton ’83

Sasha Emerson ’84

Lily Fan YC ’01, LAW ’04

Terry Fitzpatrick ’83

Marc Flanagan ’70

Anita Pamintuan Fusco YC ’90

David Marshall Grant ’78

David Alan Grier ’81

Sally Horchow YC ’92

Ellen Iseman YC ’76

David G. Johnson YC ’78

Rolin Jones ’04

Sarah Long ’92, YC ’85

Cathy MacNeil-Hollinger ’86

Brian Mann ’79

Drew McCoy

GUARANTORS

($25,000–$49,999)

Rudy Aragon

Reginald J. Brown and Tiffeny F. Sanchez

Sarah Long

National Endowment for the Arts

Estate of Eugene Shewmaker*

The Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation

BENEFACTORS

($10,000–$24,999)

Nina Adams and Moreson Kaplan

Americana Arts Foundation

Carmine Boccuzzi and Bernard Lumpkin

Lynne and Roger Bolton

Estate of James T. Brown*

James and Deborah Burrows Foundation

Burry Fredrik Foundation

Wendy Davies

Michael Diamond

In honor of Neville and Dorothy Etwaroo

Mabel Burchard Fischer Grant Foundation

Abby Kenigsberg

David Milch YC ’66

Jennifer Harrison Newman ’11

Richard Ostreicher ’79

Carol Ostrow ’80

Tracy Chutorian Semler YC ’86

Tony Shalhoub ’80

Michael Sheehan ’76

Anna Deavere Smith HON ’14

Andrew Tisdale

Edward Trach ’58

Esme Usdan YC ’77

Courtney B. Vance ’86

Donald R. Ware YC ’71

Shana C. Waterman YC ’94, LAW ’00

Kim Williams

Henry Winkler ’70

Amanda Wallace Woods ’03

Lucille Lortel Foundation

Cathy MacNeil-Hollinger and Mark Hollinger

Princess Grace Foundation

Tracy Chutorian Semler

Michael and Riki Sheehan

Estate of Merrill L. Sindler*

Carol L. Sirot

Trust for Mutual Understanding

PATRONS

($5,000–$9,999)

Chuck Adomanis

Foster Bam

Pun Bandhu

Richard C. Beacham

Santino Blumetti

James Bundy and Anne Tofflemire

CT Humanities

Michael S. David

Terry Fitzpatrick

Howard Gilman Foundation

Bigelow Greene

James Guerry Hood

The Jesse & Dorothy Hartman Foundation

Brian Tyree Henry

Sally Horchow

Ellen Iseman in memory of Marjorie Frankenthaler Iseman

Rolin Jones

Rocco Landesman

Tien-Tsung Ma

Tarell Alvin McCraney

David and Leni Moore Family Foundation

Neil Mulligan

James Munson

Jason Najjoum

NewAlliance Foundation

Carol Ostrow

PRODUCER’S

CIRCLE

($2,500–$4,999)

Shaminda Amarakoon Anonymous

Frances Black

Ian Calderon

Lily Fan

JANA Foundation

Ann Judd and Bennett Pudlin

Fred Gorelick and Cheryl MacLachlan

Eric Lin

George Lindsay, Jr.

Richard Ostreicher

Bill and Sharon Reynolds

Thank you to the generous contributors to David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre

Thank you to the generous contributors to David Geffen School

Abby Roth and R. Lee Stump

Ben and Laraine

Sammler

Julie Turaj

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE ($1,000–$2,499)

Donna Alexander

Laura and Victor Altshul

Anonymous

Debby Applegate and Bruce Tulgan

Amy Aquino and Drew McCoy

Paula Armbruster

Mamoudou N. Athie

Richard and Alice Baxter

John Lee Beatty

Kate Burton

Anne and Guido Calabresi

Joan Channick

James Chen

Audrey Conrad

Brett Dalton

Elwood and Catherine Davis

Ramon Delgado

Anne S. Erbe

ERJ Fund

Tony Forman

Will Gaines

Melanie Ginter

Jon Farley

Marc Flanagan

Eric M. Glover

Rob Greenberg

Jane Head

Amy Herzog

Dale and Stephen Hoffman

Suzanne Jackson

Pam Jordan

Elizabeth Kaiden

Elizabeth Katz and Reed Hundt

Helen Kauder and Barry Nalebuff

Fran Kumin

The Ethel & Abe Lapides Foundation

Charles Letts

Kenneth Lewis

Jennifer Lindstrom

Brian Mann

Jim and Eileen Mydosh

Barbara and William Nordhaus

Jacob G. Padrón

Pam and Jeff Rank

Lance Reddick*

Elaine Ring

Douglas and Terri Robinson

Russ Rosensweig

Slotznick Family Fund, a charitable fund of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities

Shepard and Marlene Stone

Matthew Suttor

Estate of William Swan*

John Thomas III

Courtney B. Vance

Carol M. Waaser

Clifford L. Warner

Shana C. Waterman

George C. White

Carolyn Seely Wiener

Steven Waxler

PARTNERS ($500–$999)

Donna Alexander

David J. Berendes

Ashley Bishop

John and Suzanne Bourdeaux

Joy Carlin

Lawrence Casey

Sarah Bartlo Chaplin

Daniel Cooperman and Mariel Harris

Laura Copenhaver

Sean Cullen

Bob and Priscilla Dannies

Robert Dealy

Aziz Dehkan and Barbara Moss

Kelvin Dinkins, Jr. and Alexis Rodda

Sasha Emerson

Peter Entin

Glen R. Fasman

Geballe Family

Peter Gerwe

Betty and Joshua Goldberg

LT Gourzong

Bill and Marcy Grambo

Eduardo Groisman

Regina Guggenheim

William B. Halbert

Andy Hamingson

Judy Hansen

Carl Holvick

David Henry Hwang

Roger Kenvin

Blair Kohan

Harvey Kliman and Sandra Stein

Corby S. Kummer

Nancy F. Lyon

Virginia (Wendy) Riggs Lyons in memory of Robert W. Lyons

John McAndrew

Susie Medak and Greg Murphy

Jonathan Miller

Janice Muirhead

Vicki Nolan and Clark Crolius

Janet Oetinger

Arthur Oliner

F. Richard Pappas

Jonathan Pellow

Dw Phineas Perkins

Louise Perkins and Jeff Glans

Amy Povich

Jeffrey Powell and Adalgisa Caccone

Kathy and George Priest

Alec Purves

Faye and Asghar Rastegar

Jon and Sarah Reed

Anne Renner

Howard Rogut

Robin Sauerteig

Florie Seery

Anna Deavere Smith

Matthew Specter and Marjan Mashhadi

Dr. and Mrs. Dennis D.

Spencer

James Steerman

Kenneth J. Stein

David Sword

Matthew Tanico

John Turturro and Katherine Borowitz

Sylvia Van Sinderen and James Sinclair

Paul Walsh

Stephanie Waaser

Nathaniel Wells

Vera Wells

Ray Werner

Walton Wilson

Steven Wolff

Amanda Wallace Woods

Yaro Yarashevich

Albert Zuckerman

Robert Zoland

INVESTORS ($250–$499)

Bruce Ackerman and Susan Rose-Ackerman

Actors’ Equity Foundation

Narda E. Alcorn

Alexander Bagnall

Michael Bianco

Georg’Ann Bona

Susan Brady and Mark Loeffler

Tom Broecker

Nancy and Stephen Brown

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Buckholz

David Budries

Jonathan Busky

Sarah Cain

Paul Cleary

William Connor

Robert Cotnoir

Claire A. Criscuolo

William Cuddy

John W. Cunningham

William Curran

F. Mitchell Dana

Laura Davis and David Soper

Rick Davis

Kem and Phoebe Edwards

Dr. Marc Eisenberg

Michael Fain

Richard and Barbara Feldman

Joel Fontaine

David Freeman

Richard Fuhrman

Randy Fullerton

Eric Gershman and Katie Liberman

Lindy Lee Gold

Shaina Graboyes

Linda Greenhouse

Emmy Grinwis

Michael Gross

Karen Hansen and Andrew Bundy

Barbara Hauptman

Jennifer Hershey

Casey Grambo

Chuck Hughes

John Huntington

Candace Jackson

Joanna and Lee A. Jacobus

Chris Jaehnig

Bruce Katzman

Edward Kaye

Alan Kibbe

Amir Kishon

Mitchell Kurtz

Maryanne Lavan and Larry Harris

Roberta and Lawrence

Harris

Bona Lee

Irene Lewis

Matthew H. Lewis

Jerry Lodynsky

Charles H. Long

Mary Lloyd

of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre

Adam Man

Peter Marshall

Edwin Martin

Thomas G. Masse and James M. Perlotto, MD

Deborah McGraw

Pamela and Donald

Michaelis

David Muse

Regina and Thomas Neville

Adam O’Byrne

Kevin and Margaret

O’Halloran

Edward and Frances

O’Neill

Gamal Palmer

Bruce Payne and Jack Thomas

Michael Posnick

Dr. Michael Rigsby and Prof. Richard Lalli

Ted Robb

Steve Robman

Erin Rocha

Constanza Romero

Nan Ross

Jean and Ron Rozett

Sarah Ruhl

Robert Sandberg

Suzanne Sato

Robin Sauerteig

Kenneth Schlesinger

Georg Schreiber

Kathleen McElfresh Scott

Paul Selfa

William Skipper

Kenneth Stein

Susan Stevens

Erich Stratmann

Wilma and Williams Summers

Bernard Sundstedt

Richard B. Trousdell

Deb Trout

Guy and Judith Yale

FRIENDS ($100–$249)

Theresa Aldamlouji

Michael Albano

Sarah Albertson

Jeffrey Alexander

Kaitlin Anderson

Michael Annand

Anonymous

William Armstrong

Clayton Austin

Nancy Babington

Michael Banta

Warren Bass

Michael Baumgarten

Richard Beals

Karen BedrosianRichardson

James Bender

Ned Blackhawk

Mark Bly

Joseph Brennan

Amy Brewer and David Sacco

Linda Broker

Arvin Brown

Donald and Mary Brown

Stephen and Nancy Brown

Oscar Brownstein

Colin Buckhurst

Stephen Bundy

Katherine and Chava Burgueño

Richard Butler

Susan Byck

Barbara Bzdyra

David Calica

Kathryn A. Calnan

Juliana Canfield

H. Lloyd Carbaugh

Vincent Cardinal

Andrew Carson

Sami Joan Casler

Zoe Z. Chance

Gus Christiansen

King-Fai Chung

Nicholas Cimmino

Cynthia Clair

Aaron Copp

Jane Cox

Douglas and Roseline Crowley

William Cuddy

Anne Danenberg

Timothy Davidson

Cathy Davies-Harmon

Mr. and Mrs. Paul DeCoster

Penney Detchon

Connie and Peter Dickinson

Derek DiGregorio

Melinda DiVicino

Dennis Dorn

Megan and Leon Doyon

Samuel Duncan

John Duran

Terry Dwyer

Ann D’Zmura

Laura Eckelman

William Eckerd

Fran Egler

Robert Einenkel

Nancy Reeder El Bouhali

Janann Eldredge

Samantha Else

Donald Engelman

Dirk Epperson

David Epstein

Dustin Eshenroder

Frank and Ellen Estes

Femi Euba

Connie Evans

Jerry Evans

John D. Ezell

Ann Farris

Paul Fiedler and Susan

Birke Fiedler

Terry S. Flagg

Sarah Fornia

Raymond Forton

Keith Fowler

Adam Frank

Walter M. Frankenberger III

Gerald E. Gaab

Don and Margery Galluzzi

Leah C. Gardiner

Stephen Gefroh

Carol Gibson-Prugh

Lorraine Golan

Carol Goldberg

Robert Goldsby

Naomi Grabel

Charles Grammer

Hannah Grannemann

Stephen R. Grecco

David Hale

Stephanie Halene

Amanda Haley

Marion Hampton

Alexander Hammond

Ann Hanley

Scott Hansen

John Harnagel

Charlene Harrington

Babo Harrison

Brian Hastert

James Hazen

Al Heartley

Beth Heller

Robert Heller

Ann Hellerman

Steve Hendrickson

Chris Henry

Thomas Herman

Brian Herrera

Jeffrey Herrmann

Caite Hevner

Ashton Heyl

Elizabeth Holloway*

Nicholas Hormann

Susan Horrowitz

Bruce Horton

Kathleen Houle

Kevin Hourigan

John Howland

Evelyn Huffman

Charles Hughes

Derek Hunt

Peter H. Hunt

Tatsuya Ito

John W. Jacobsen

Eliot and Lois Jameson

Elizabeth Johnson

Jonathan Kalb

Carol Kaplan

Edward Lapine

Jay B. Keene

Samuel Kelley

Kiernan Kelly

Roger Kenvin

Peter Kim

Amir Kishon

William Kleb

Lawrence Klein, Ed.D.

Fredrica Klemm

Deborah Kochevar

Steve Koernig

Daniel Koetting

David and Julie Koppel

Bonnie Kramm

Brenda and Justin Kreuzer

David Kriebs

Joan Kron

Azan Kung

Mitchell Kurtz

Ojin Kwon

Susan Laity

Marie Landry and Peter Aronson

Robert Langdon

Michael Lassell

James and Cynthia Lawler

Clare Leinweber

Martha Lidji Lazar

Drew Lichtenberg

Elizabeth Lewis

Fred Lindauer

Benjamin Lloyd

Thornton Lockwood

Jerry Lodynsky

Robert H. Long II

Everett Lunning

Andi Lyons

Wendy MacLeod

Peter Malbuisson

Marvin March

Jonathan Marks

Edwin Martin

Maria Matasar-Padilla

Amy McCauley

Robert McCaw

Robert McDonald

Deborah McGraw

Bill McGuire

Patricia McMahon

Kathryn Milano

George Miller

Jane Ann Miller

Jonathan Miller

Cheryl Mintz

Lawrence Mirkin

Jennifer Moeller

Marta Moret

Richard Mone

Beth Morrison

Jay Mullen

Kevin Muzin

Thank you to the generous

contributors to David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre

James Naughton

Tina Navarro

Kaye Neale

Netalia Neparidze

Jennifer Harrison

Newman

Kate Newman

Ruth Hunt Newman

Jane Nowosadko

Mark Novom

Deb and Ron Nudel

Adam O’Byrne

Eileen O’Connor

Richard Olson

Alex Organ

Kendric T. Packer

Steven Padla

Michael Parrella

Jeffrey Park

Dr. and Mrs. Michael Parry

Amanda Peiffer

Ruth Perlman

William Peters

Joel Polis

Lisa Porter

Gladys Powers

Robert Provenza

Peter and Linda Perdue

William Purves

Norman Redlich

Ralph Redpath

Gail Reen

Barbara Reid

Oakton Reynolds

Lisa Richardson

Elizabeth Riedemann

Joan Robbins

Nathan Roberts

Peter S. Roberts

Brian Robinson

Lori Robishaw

Chantal Rodriguez

Kevin Rogers

Stu Rohrer

Robert Rooy

Melissa Rose

Robin Rose

Joseph Ross

Donald Rossler

Rebecca Rugg

Janet Ruppert

John Barry Ryan

Dr. Robert and Marcia

Safirstein

Steven Saklad

Robert Sandberg

Donald Sanders

Cynthia Santos-DeCure

Adam Saunders

Peggy Sasso

Joel Schechter

Anne Schenck

Kenneth Schlesinger

Jennifer Schwartz

Alexander Scribner

Patrick Seeley

Ellen Seltzer

Subrata K. Sen

Paul Serenbetz

Suzanne Sessions

Sandra Shaner

Morris Sheehan

Catherine Sheehy

Lorraine Siggins

William and Elizabeth Sledge

Gilbert and Ruth Small

E. Gray Smith, Jr.

George Smith

Helena L. Sokoloff

Suzanne Solensky and Jay Rozgonyi

Charles Steckler

Louise Stein

Howard Steinman

John Stevens

Mark Stevens

Michael Strickland

Mark Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan

Erik Sunderman

Jane Suttell

Michelle Tattenbaum

Douglas Taylor

Jane Savitt Tennen

Muriel Test

David F. Toser

Russell L. Treyz

Lloyd Tucker

Carrie Van Hallgren

Elaine Wackerly

Adin Walker

Jaylene Wallace

Erik Walstad

Brad Ward

David Ward

Joan Waricha

Jon West

Peter White

Robert Wildman

Sarah Williams

Walton Wilson

Annick Winokur and Peter Gilbert

Alexandra Witchel

Barbara Wohlsen

June Yearwood

EMPLOYER MATCHING GIFTS

Aetna Foundation

Ameriprise Financial

Chevron Corporation

Covidien

General Electric Corporation

IBM

Mobil Foundation, Inc.

Pfizer

Procter & Gamble

The Prospect Hill Foundation

Gifts to the For Humanity campaign and David Geffen School of Drama New Facility Fund

Anonymous (3)

Nina Adams and Moreson Kaplan

Amy Aquino and Drew McCoy

Rudy Aragon

John Badham

Pun Bandhu

Frances and Ed Barlow

John B. Beinecke

Sonja Berggren and Patrick Seaver

Carmine Boccuzszi and Bernard Lumpkin

James Bundy and Anne Tofflemire

Lois Chiles

Michael David and Lauren Mitchell

Scott Delman

Michael Diamond and Amy Miller

Estate of Nicholas Diggs*

Estate of Richard Diggs*

Lily Fan

Terry Fitzpatrick

Anita Pamintuan Fusco and Dino Fusco

David Marshall Grant

Gilder Foundation

The Hastings and Barcone Trust

Lane Heard and Margaret Bauer

Cheryl Henson

Ellen Iseman

David G. Johnson

Rolin Jones

Jane Kaczmarek

Cathy MacNeil-Hollinger and Mark Hollinger

Brian Mann

Jennifer Harrison Newman

Richard Ostreicher

Julie Turaj and Rob Pohly

Tracy Chutorian Semler

Michael and Riki

Sheehan

Frances Black and Matthew Strauss

Andrew and Nesrin

Tisdale

Ed Trach

Esme Usdan

Shana C. Waterman

Amanda Wallace Woods and Eric Wasserstrom

The Prospect Hill Foundation

Jeremy Smith

Courtney B. Vance

Donald and Susan Ware

Henry Winkler

*deceased

These lists includes current pledges, gifts, and grants received from January 1, 2022 through April 13, 2023.

MAKE A GIFT! When you make a gift to Yale Rep’s Annual Fund, you support the creative work on our stage and our education programs in Greater New Haven. For more information, or to make a donation, please call Susan C. Clark, 203.432.1559. You can also give online at yalerep.org/support.