SWIMMERS, Yale School of Drama

Spring Acting Project

SWIMMERS

MARCH 25 AT 4PM MARCH 26 AT 8PM VIA ZOOM 2019–20 STUDIO SERIES

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA James Bundy, Dean Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Assistant Dean

PRESENTS

SWIMMERS

By Rachel Bonds Directed by Jackson Gay Creative Team

Cast

Production Dramaturg

Bill

Lily Haje

Stage Manager

Aisling Galvin

in alphabetical order Anthony Brown Dennis

Samuel DeMuria Vivian

Shimali De Silva George

Patrick Falcón Randy

Rebecca Kent Walter

Manu Kumasi Farrah

Abigail Onwunali Tom

Julian Sanchez Yuri

Adam Shaukat Charlene

Jackeline Torres Cortés Priya

Isuri Wijesundara

Supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.

Setting

Artistic Staff

June 2020. An office building in an office park.

Assistant Director

Swimmers is performed without an intermission.

Stage Management Advisor

Special Thanks Rob Chikar

Leyla Levi

Fabiola Syvel

Production Staff Associate Safety Advisor

Laurie Ortega-Murphy The Studio Series productions are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at Yale School of Drama to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes this process.

Production Manager

Katie Byron

Administration Associate Managing Director

Gwyneth Muller

Assistant Managing Director

Madeline Carey THE BENJAMIN MORDECAI III PRODUCTION FUND, established by a graduate of the School, honors the memory of the Tony Award-winning producer who served as Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, 1982–1993, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Department from 1993 until his death in 2005.

Yale University acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring and continuing relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.

Management Assistants

Samanta Yunuen Cubias Jason Gray Matthew Sonnenfeld House Manager

Madeline Carey Yale School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.

Just Keep Swimming When Swimmers premiered on March 3, 2016, the world faced a number of crises—from climate change to war to Zika. And many of us were becoming newly aware of just how frayed and fragile the social fabric of the United States was as the unthinkable became inevitable when Donald Trump won big on Super Tuesday just two days earlier. Now, four years later, we find ourselves facing coronavirus, a new crisis that calls for a swift and drastic response. We are lost, and confused, and anxious, and in desperate need of connection. In many ways, Swimmers is well suited to our present moment and to our Yale School of Drama community: it tells the story of a group of coworkers who feel isolated, trapped, and afraid that the world may be ending, but who nonetheless keep on trying to make themselves understood.

Swimmers is meant to be set in the near future, specifically during the next June from whenever it is staged. Our near future is uncertain—we don’t yet know when we will be free of Zoom, and quarantines, and social distancing—so the idea of an ordinary-yetominous day at work sounds wonderful in a way we couldn’t have imagined just two weeks ago. We very much hope to see you all in the office (or rehearsal room) this June!

—LILY HAJE, PRODUCTION DRAMATURG