Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, in partnership with Yale Repertory Theatre, trains and advances leaders in the practice of every theatrical discipline, making art to inspire joy, empathy, and understanding in the world.
Artistry
We expand knowledge to nurture creativity and imaginative expression embracing the complexity of the human spirit.
Belonging
We put people first, centering wellbeing, inclusion, and equity for theatermakers and audiences through anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices.
Collaboration
We build our collective work on a foundation of mutual respect, prizing the contributions and accomplishments of the individual and of the team.
Discovery
We wrestle with compelling issues of our time. Energized by curiosity, invention, bravery, and humor, we challenge ourselves to risk and learn from failure and vulnerability.
Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States.
NOVEMBER 15–21, 2025
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean
Florie Seery, Associate Dean
Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean
Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean of Student Life
Liz Diamond, Chair of Directing
PRESENTS
Scenic Designer
Seth Byrum
Costume Designer
Sveta Moroz
Lighting Designer
Finn Bamber
Sound Designer
Xi (Zoey) Lin
Production Dramaturgs
Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas
Daria Kerschenbaum
Technical Director
Judith C. Villalva
Fight and Intimacy Directors
Kelsey Rainwater
Michael Rossmy
Stage Manager
Amanda Blitz
This production is supported by the Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
SEASON SPONSOR
Nadya Dorottya Ilosvai
Yura Ameya Narkar
Lyokha (Alexei) Michael Saguto
Kirill Darius Sakui
setting
Russia, today.
content guidance
Utopia includes violence and substance abuse, herbal cigarettes, haze, and flashing lights.
David Geffen School of Drama at Yale recognizes that audiences may have a variety of needs when engaging with the themes our work examines. If you wish to know more about the content of this play, please contact our box office at (203) 432-1234 or dgsd.shows@yale.edu. We are happy to provide additional information for your visit.
Utopia is performed without an intermission.
In loving memory of Robert M. Wilson (1941–2025).
PORTRAITS OF HOPE EXHIBIT and WRITING TO THE REPRESSED
Russians and Ukrainians in Russia
Stand in solidarity for Human Rights: Write to polital prisoners in Russia. People should not be imprisoned for their opinions, but over 1,000 people in Russia are.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21
4PM–7PM
Center for Collaborative Media (CCAM)
Leeds Studio, Room 103 149 York Street, New Haven
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
“Nobody feels confident in the future in this country, not a single person. And so each person seizes what they can at every opportunity, every moment, because tomorrow… You could end up in poverty or in prison at any moment, so for as long as you’re on top, you need to lead a full life, take everything from life.”
—MIKHAIL DURNENKOV, INTERVIEWED BY J. A. E. CURTIS (2017)
Mikhail Durnenkov is one of the most prolific playwrights within the pioneering New Drama movement in Russia. Created in response to both the chaos of Russia’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s, and the lack of producing opportunities for new plays, the Novaia Drama “privileges new writers, innovation in form and method, a counter-cultural mindset, and a suspicion of official narratives” (New Russian Drama: An Anthology). Durnenkov’s plays capture this spirit by centering those at the margins of contemporary Russian society and tackling taboo political subjects.
In 2021, Durnenkov publicly protested Putin’s invasion of Ukraine; in retaliation, the government accused him of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. He was removed from the Union of Theater Workers, terminated from teaching at the Moscow Art Theater, and then had his theater performances canceled by the Department of Culture of the City of Moscow. He fled to Helsinki, Finland, where he currently resides with his family.
This is the first English-language production of Utopia. Though produced across Europe in a variety of languages, Durnenkov is fairly new to the U.S. theater scene. The first time his work was presented in this country occurred only last year, when the University of Maryland produced Are We at War Yet?, a critique of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Some of his other plays include The Simple(st) Way to Quit Smoking , The Blue Metalworker, Easy People, The Highway, Matador, Junk, and The Drunks.
SEARCHING FOR UTOPIA
The word utopia can be traced back to 1516, with the publication of the novel Utopia by English philosopher and theologian Thomas More. The term is based on ancient Greek, composed of ou, or “not,” and topos, or “place.” Literally speaking, a utopia is a “no-place;” it cannot exist, because it is perfect. Ever since Plato’s Republic, society has been haunted by this dream of an ideal state and its inevitable opposite, the dystopia. Quite often, stories depict the slippage between utopia and dystopia; Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World was inspired by H.G. Wells’s techno-utopias, after all.
Feminist scholar Angelika Bammer, attempting to bring utopia into our present world and recenter human agency, instead focuses on what she refers to as the utopian. She defines this as “an approach toward, a movement beyond set limits into the realm of the not-yet-set.” These are glimpses of a better world not yet here but pulled closer by our collective longing.
In Utopia, the play by Mikhail Durnenkov, the characters oscillate between the trap of an impossible ideal and brief flashes of something beyond. The world of the play is bleak, set in a contemporary Russia still suffering from the fall of communism,
or rather, the void created by a newly capitalist society. But as Lyokha, Nadya, and Yura work to reconstruct their old bar, we see moments of the mended family unit, full of promise for a better life. The utopian shows us that love and community are possible—even if only for fleeting seconds.
The characters also turn to other methods of coping in a cruel world: alcohol, drugs, religious fanaticism, and most of all, nostalgia. Nowhere is this better encapsulated than in the bar, also named Utopia. The original bar was built shortly after the dissolution of the USSR, but made in the style of Soviet era ryumochnayas, or affordable watering holes for the average worker. So, when Kirill orders Lyokha to reconstruct Utopia, he is asking him to make a copy of a copy. It calls to mind the concept of generational loss, how with each new copy of a VHS, for example, data gets lost, until all that’s left is static.
Utopia challenges us to keep searching for the utopian, to struggle forward in search of something not yet seen. Because it is only through our sustained, collective desire that we can catch a glimpse of utopia.
—Daria Kerschenbaum, Production Dramaturg
Welcome to Utopia,
by Mikhail Durnenkov.
Although he’s the author of several fantastic plays, he’s not well known in the USA.
When Bong Joon Ho won the Golden Globe for Parasite in 2020, he said, “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
The USA is suffering from cultural isolation. Even its theater: plays produced here are written by artists born inside these borders. Productions of contemporary Latin American, Asian, African, and even European pieces are scarce. There are lots of cultural exports but no exchange. Gatekeeping for international playwrights is huge, and even unions limit how many foreigners you can hire. Theatrical nationalism limits exposure to the complexities of our world, restricting how much U.S. Americans know about others.
This made the work of Durnenkov even more interesting for us. We live in a world that is deeply connected while nationalism is rampant. Theater won’t save us but it is our turf and our house. So we are here taking care of our own grass.
If you don’t even hear our words, can you care about our lives ?
Our play begins in a wasteland. Kirill opens the show with the words “I said Utopia and they told me where to look for you.” This line cuts the darkness to crack open a new world.
The Bible begins with a formless earth, empty and dark. Then, God speaks and the world comes to be. It is the logos that creates. Kirill is no God, but he may be an angel bringing messages from up above. He utters “utopia” to produce a place that shelters our broken selves.
But humans are made of flesh and ideas of air. These don’t belong to the same realm, so we enter the world of the mind as the dust we are. The characters of Utopia seek a world of perfection in their past, desperate to forget about time and its power to make everything rot. This nostalgia takes them back then to a time in which they didn’t deal with people so different from them, where they shared similar codes. But also, in which the future was a blank slate and failure was impossible. Today, the “what ifs” keep us awake at night, with the burden of decisions we can’t change.
Nostalgia desires something that we have already lost. Or something that never existed. And when we chase chimeras, we burn in the fire of their mouths.
—Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas, Production Dramaturg
A PLACE FOR OUR BROKEN SELVES
Biographies are submitted by the artists and edited for common house style by David Geffen
cast in alphabetical order
Dorottya Ilosvai (Nadya) is from Hungary and is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Irina in Three Sisters, You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit as well as The Inspector (understudy) at Yale Rep. She received her B.A. from New York University, Abu Dhabi.
Ameya Narkar (Yura) is a secondyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama, born and raised in Mumbai, India. Ameya’s recent credits include Vershinin in Three Sisters, an understudy in The Inspector at Yale Repertory Theatre, and portraying Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Elm Shakespeare Company. He is immensely grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow alongside such a talented community.
Michael Saguto (Lyokha [Alexei])
is a third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Silence/The Village, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Charity, as well as The Royale and The Day the Butcher Shop Closed (Yale Cabaret). Most recently, Michael was an understudy in Zora Neale Hurston’s Spunk at Yale Rep. Other select theater credits include The Misanthrope (HERE Arts); Lobby Hero (Florida Rep); London Wall, Men Should Weep (Griffin Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre). Select
television and film credits include Easy (Netflix), Tour Bus Legends (pilot), and the series Play by Play. B.F.A., NYU Tisch School of the Arts. michael.saguto.com
Darius Sakui (Kirill) is a thirdyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where he was seen in You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit and Metamorphoses as well as in The Inspector at Yale Rep.
creative team
in alphabetical order
Andreas Andreou (Director) is a theater and film director and writer from Athens, Greece. His work explores stories that lie at the intersection of reality and fiction, focusing on international and unconventional theatrical perspectives. After studying classics at King’s College London on a Schilizzi Foundation Scholarship, he continued his graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and David Geffen School of Drama, where he is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in theater directing. His directing work, showcased in several countries, includes the English-language premiere of Apologiae 4 & 5 by Efthimis Filippou (Yale Cabaret, 2025), the Romanian premiere of Far Away by Caryl Churchill (UNATC 2024, FITS 2025), and the Greek-language premiere of An Oak Tree by Tim Crouch (Bios, Athens; Rialto, Limassol, 2023). In 2022, Andreas wrote and directed his first short film, By Heart,
School of Drama.
adapted from the stage play D.D.D. by Dimitris Dimitriadis. While at Yale, he has directed Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus, as well as new works by Emily Breeze and Andrew Rincón. Other directing credits include A Number (Bios Athens & Theatro Amalia), M.A.Z.I. (Sfumato Sofia), My Death Etc. (National Theatre of Greece and Sfumato Sofia), Lessness (Kavala Architectural Biennial), and In Broad Daylight (International Philippi Festival). Andreas has twice represented the National Theatre of Greece internationally under the auspices of the Union des Théâtres de l’Europe (UTE). Between 2016 and 2020,he worked on several projects with the German theater group Rimini Protokoll at major European institutions. In 2023, he collaborated with Robert Wilson on his productions of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women and Jarry/Miró’s UBU at the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus and The Watermill Center, respectively. In and out of school, Andreas has attended masterclasses with Ian Rickson, Patrick Marber, Thomas Ostermeier, Vassilis Papavassiliou, Lyndsey Turner, Dima Krymov, Shi-Zheng Chen, Bethany Caputo, and others. As a performer, he is trained in the method of Attis Theatre founder Theodoros Terzopoulos.
Finn Bamber (Lighting Designer) is a New England-based lighting designer, photographer, and second-year M.F.A. candidate in lighting design at David Geffen School of Drama. Recent lighting credits include Shark (The
Goat Exchange and Mabou Mines); The Seagull (Quinnipiac University); Antony and Cleopatra (Geffen School); Once Upon a Carnival (Moonbox Productions), OtherWise (Ilya Vidrin and the Harvard Davis Center), Dad Don’t Read This (The Goat Exchange and The Loading Dock Theater); Manic Monologues, Legally Blonde (Moonbox). Finn is the resident designer with The Goat Exchange, an international theater ensemble. finnbamber.com
Amanda Blitz (Stage Manager), hailing from Long Island, is a secondyear M.F.A. candidate in stage management at David Geffen School of Drama. Notable credits at the School include Three Sisters, Sort by Ida Cuttler, Kilele, and Charity by Matthew Chong. A graduate of Ithaca College, she received a B.F.A. in Stage Management as well as a B.S. in television & digital media production. Many thanks to her family, the Utopia team, and ASM to the stars Mackenzie Seewagen for all the love and laughs.
Seth Byrum (Scenic Designer) is thrilled to be collaborating with this amazing team. As an architect, he has worked with the Studio Gang and the Bjarke Ingels Group on projects including proposals for the Delacorte Theater renovation, the National Black Theater in Harlem, and the new home for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival opening next year. His most recent solo architectural project is a new 300-seat theater and nightclub in Brooklyn opening in 2027. Recent set and event designs include Cats
(Casa Mañana), Brandcast (David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center), Youtube at Coachella, and a proposal for Winter Lights at Lincoln Center (assistant to Mimi Lien). Seth is an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, and holds an M. Architecture from Cornell University.
Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas he/they (Production Dramaturg) is a Peruvian theater artist and scholar, author of La Muerte Danza (with Espalda de Bogo), Nunca Estaremos en Broadway (with Rodrigo Yllaric), Fronteiras (with Colectivo Âmbar), Hasta Que Choque El Hueso (with Mario Zanatta), Debut (with Caro Black Tam), Una Historia de (Poli) Amor, Can the Peruvian Speak?, among others. Their academic and artistic work has been presented in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Peru, Taiwan, U.K., and the U.S., receiving awards by institutions as Shakespeare is Dead, IberEscena, The Workshop Theater, Municipalidad de Lima, among others. As a dramaturg, they have worked with such artists as Andreas Andreou, Tirso Causillas, Rachel Chin, Laura Goodenow, Eric Ting, etc. His play A Ranch for the Lost Boys was published by Methuen Drama in the anthology Latin American Plays in Translation (2025), edited by Global Voices Theater. Currently, they are a D.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, with the dissertation “Post-National Dramaturgies of the Américas, or, The Nation Fails,” while a film adaptation of Hasta Que Choque El Hueso is currently in production.
Daria Kerschenbaum (Production Dramaturg) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama. There, she has worked as a production dramaturg on Charity and Ruzante. Additional credits include Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (Yale Rep); True Scum, The Aughts (Yale Cabaret); My Six Therapists (Yale Cabaret/Theater Mu). Her writing has been featured in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre and Theater magazine, where she served as a managing editor. In 2021, she was named an artist-in-residence at the Center at West Park, where she produced her play, Virginia/Poe. Daria holds a B.A. in playwriting and English literature from Fordham University.
Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦 (Sound Designer) is a native of Nanjing, China, and holds a B.A. in theater arts and a B.M. in piano performance from Lawrence University. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Previous credits include original music composition for Morpho Studio’s digital fashion collection releases of「CORAL 珊瑚」and VINCENT at Beijing Fashion Week, sound design and original music for The Far Country at Yale Rep (co-designer), Kilele and Macbeth at the Geffen School, sound design for Apologiae 4&5 at Yale Cabaret, The Mailroom installation with Yale-China at International Festival of Arts & Ideas, and Detroit ’67 at Princeton Summer Theatre. Zoey is also an enthusiast of dance and culinary arts. xizoeylin.com
Sveta Moroz (Costume Designer) is a Russian-born costume designer and scenographer who left Russia for her anti-war stance in 2022. Now based in the U.S., Sveta is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama and holds B.F.A. in costume design from the Moscow Art Theatre School. In 2025, she received the Willa Kim Costume Design Scholarship. Sveta approaches design as a process of discovery, seeking visual metaphors that express emotion, identity, and story—often through cross-cultural or historical lenses. Recent productions include Save the Cave (Yale Summer Cabaret); Dwight/Edgewood Project; A Funny Thing Happened (Yale College Ex!t Players); Tools of Memory, Dance Nation, DIN DIN (Yale Cabaret); A Kind of Knowing, Nightlight, Casi Casa, and House of Sandwich (The Imaginists, Santa Rosa). Work extends to humanrights advocacy, notably support for political prisoners in Russia. svetamoroz.com
Kelsey Rainwater (Fight and Intimacy Director) is an intimacy and fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s work was recently seen in Liberation at Roundabout and Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway. Some of her other credits include Walden at Second Stage; Hot Wing King at Hartford Stage; In the Southern Breeze, Measure for Measure, Jordans, Manahatta, and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Sally and Tom and White Noise at The Public Theater; Blues for an Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; Spunk,
Notes on Killing..., The Inspector, Wish You Were Here, Between Two Knees, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home at Yale Rep. Film and television: Baby Ruby, The Green Veil. She is a Lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaches stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.
Michael Rossmy (Fight and Intimacy Director) is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep, a lecturer in acting and stage management at David Geffen School of Drama. Broadway credits include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose directed by Phylicia Rashad, A Tale of Two Cities, Cymbeline, and Superior Donuts. Regional theater credits include The Public Theater, Roundabout, The Atlantic, Primary Stages, Westport Country Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Paper Mill Playhouse, Asolo Rep, The Old Globe, TheaterWorks Hartford, Princeton University, The Acting Company, Soho Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, and others. He was nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk Award for The Public’s production of Troilus and Cressida and is a 2024 Barrymore Award nominee for Bonez at People’s Light. Recent work: The world premieres of Beau: The Musical and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purple Rain directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.
Judith C. Villalva (Technical Director) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in technical design and production at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include the Carlotta Festival (assistant technical director), Metamorphoses (properties manager), and Kilele (assistant production electrician). She has also worked as a scenic painter apprentice at Theatre Squared and as an electrician and rigger for Southcoast Audio. Judith designed, built, and painted sets at the University of Texas at El Paso. Born along the El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juárez border, she continues to grow as an artist driven by curiosity and collaboration.
Mikhail Durnenkov (Playwright, b. 1978) is a Russian playwright, screenwriter, and theater teacher, currently based in Helsinki. He is the author of more than forty plays, screenplays, and librettos, translated into major European languages and staged in over twenty countries. Winner of The Golden Mask Award (2019) and other prestigious prizes, he served as Artistic Director of the Lyubimovka Festival (2012–19) and taught at leading Russian theater schools. Since 2022, following his emigration from Russia due to antiwar statements, he has been working actively across Europe, including as resident dramaturg at Klockriketeatern in Helsinki.
Sasha Dugdale (Translator) is a poet and translator. Her sixth book of poetry, The Strongbox, was published by Carcanet in 2024 and won the Angle-Hellenic League Runciman Award. Deformations (2020) was
shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot and Derek Walcott Prizes. Her long poem Joy was awarded a Forward Prize in 2016. Dugdale’s translations have won PEN Awards and have been shortlisted for the International Booker, the James Tait Black, and Warwick Prizes for Women’s Writing, among others. Her translation of Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory won the MLA Lois Roth Award. Her translations of new writing for theater have been widely produced, including stagings by the Royal Court Theatre in London, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and The Public Theater. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and former editor of the international magazine Modern Poetry in Translation.
The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund, established by Peggy Cowles ’65, honors the memory of the Tony Award-winning producer who served as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management program at David Geffen School of Drama from 1993 until his death in 2005. During his tenure as Yale Rep’s Managing Director alongside Dean/Artistic Director Lloyd Richards, 1982–1993, he developed a model of professional producing that changed the course of new play development in the American theater. His 25 Broadway credits included Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, as well as work by Anna Deavere Smith, Athol Fugard, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, Robert Schenkkan, and perhaps most significantly August Wilson, with whom he collaborated on each of the ten plays in the epic 20thCentury Cycle.
for this production
artistic
Assistant Scenic Designer
Zendell Addai
Assistant Costume Designer
Mingmei Zhou
Assistant Lighting Designer
Jacob Nguyen
Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer
LT Taylor
Assistant Stage Manager
Mackenzie Seewagen
production
Production Manager
Nat King Taylor
Associate Production Manager
Shannon Dodson
Assistant Technical Directors
Lilliana Gonzalez
Eli Solis
Properties Manager
Lee Donegan
Production Electrician
Emma Alderman
Scenic Charge
Michaela Meyer
Stage Carpenter
Forrest Rumbaugh
Light Board Programmer
Amanda Burtness
Run Crew
Parker Essex Hardy
Wiktor Freifeld
Skylar Linker
Jenn London
Thomas Nagata
Taylor N. Oliva
Run Crew Swing
Kevin Kenkel
administration
Associate Managing Director
Iyanna Huffington Whitney
Assistant Managing Director
Kay Nilest
Management Assistants
Jenn London
Rhayna Poulin
House Manager
Joy (Xiaoyue) Chen
Production Photographer
T. Charles Erickson
special thanks
Bar Tipota by DAJ, Yura Kordonsky, Polina Peremitina, German Light
Products
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory
Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean/ Yale Rep Artistic Director
James Bundy
Associate Dean/Yale Rep
Managing Director
Florie Seery
Associate Dean/Yale Rep
Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Programs
Chantal Rodriguez
Assistant Dean/Yale Rep
General Manager
Carla L. Jackson
Assistant Dean of Student Life
Nancy Yao
Academic Programs
Chair, Acting Program
Tamilla Woodard
Associate Chair, Acting Program
Grace Zandarski
Co-Chair, Design Program and Head of Set Design Concentration
Riccardo Hernández
Co-Chair, Design Program and Head of Costume Design Concentration
Toni-Leslie James
Head of Sound Design Concentration
Jill BC Du Boff
Head of Projection Design Concentration
Wendall K. Harrington
Head of Lighting Design Concentration
Donald Holder
Chair, Directing Program
Liz Diamond
Associate Chair, Directing Program
Yura Kordonsky
Chair, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program
Catherine Sheehy
Associate Chair, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program
Kimberly Jannarone
Co-Chairs, Playwriting Program
Anne Erbe
Marcus Gardley
Chair, Stage Management Program
Narda E. Alcorn
Associate Chair, Stage Management Program
James Mountcastle
Chair, Technical Design and Production Program
Shaminda Amarakoon
Associate Chair, Technical Design and Production Program
Jennifer McClure
Chair, Theater Management Program
Joshua Borenstein
Artistic
Yale Rep
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
Donald Holder
Projection Design Advisor
Shawn Lovell-Boyle
Sound Design Advisor
Jill BC Du Boff
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 Administration
Production Stage Manager
James Mountcastle
Yale Rep Senior Artistic
Producer
Amy Boratko
Yale Rep Associate Producer
Kay Perdue Meadows
Yale Rep Artistic Fellow
Hannah Fennell Gellman
Yale Rep Artistic Coordinator
Mithra Seyedi
Yale Rep Casting
James Calleri
Erica Jensen
Paul Davis
Editor, Theater Magazine
Tom Sellar
Managing Editor, Theater Magazine
Gabrielle Hoyt
Senior Associate Editor, David Geffen School of Drama
Alumni Magazine
Catherine Sheehy
Senior Executive to the Dean/Artistic Director
Grace O’Brien
Senior Administrative Assistant for Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, Stage Management programs, and Theater magazine
Laurie Coppola
Senior Administrative Assistant, Design Program
Kate Begley Baker
Senior Administrative Assistant, Acting Program
Krista DeVellis
Library Services
Erin Carney
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, Technical Design and Production Program, and Theater Safety
Rachel Zwick
Scenery
Technical Director for Yale Rep and Fall Protection Program Administrator
Neil Mulligan
Technical Directors for David Geffen School of Drama
Latiana “LT” Gourzong
Matt Welander (on leave)
Electro Mechanical Laboratory Supervisor
Eric Lin
Metal Shop Foreperson
Matt Gaffney
Wood Shop Foreperson
Ryan Gardner
Lead Carpenters
Doug Kester
Kat McCarthey
Sharon Reinhart
Abigail Richard
Carpentry Interns
Kai Hancock
Red Wehrmann
Painting
Scenic Charge
Mikah Berky
Lead Scenic Artists
Lia Akkerhuis
Nathan Jasunas
Paint Intern
Michaela Meyer
Properties
Properties Supervisor
Jennifer McClure
Associate Properties Supervisor
Katie Pulling
Properties Craftsperson
Steve Lopez
Properties Associate
Zach Faber
Properties Stock Manager
Mark Dionne
Properties Interns
Lee Donegan
Susan Gibbs
Costumes
Costume Shop Manager
Christine Szczepanski
Senior Drapers
Susan Aziz
Clarissa Wylie Youngberg
Mary Zihal
Senior First Hands
Deborah Bloch
Patricia Van Horn
First Hand
Maria Teodosio
Costume Project Coordinator
Linda Kelley-Dodd
Costume Stock Manager
Jamie Farkas
Costume Technology Intern
Eli Oremland
Electrics
Lighting Supervisor
Donald W. Titus
Senior House Electricians
Price Foster
Linda-Cristal Young
Electricians
Aspen Rogers
Alary Sutherland
Electrics Interns
Toni Carleston
Gabriel Landes
Sound
Sound Supervisor
Mike Backhaus
Lead Sound Engineer
Mariah Keener
Sound Interns
Jay Korter
Skylar Linker
Projections
Projection Supervisor
Anja Powell
Lead Projection Technician
Solomon Sheffield
Projection Interns
Naomi Rodriguez
Sarah Webb
Stage Operations
Stage Carpenter
Janet Cunningham
Lead Wardrobe Supervisor
Elizabeth Bolster
Lead Properties Runner
William Ordynowicz
Light Board Programmer
Sabrina Idom
Lead Front of House
Mix Engineer
Keirsten Lamora
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory
Administration
General Management
Associate Managing Directors
Joy (Xiaoyue) Chen
Victoria McNaughton
Kavya Shetty
Iyanna Huffington Whitney
Assistant Managing Director
Kay Nilest
Senior Administrative Assistant to the Managing Director, General Manager, and Theater Management Program
Sarah Masotta
Interim Senior Administrative
Assistant to the Managing Director,General Manager, and Theater Management Program
Carolina Tandayamo
Management Assistants
Jenn London
Rhayna Poulin
Company Manager
Gaby Rodriguez
Assistant Company Manager
Roberto Di Donato
Development & Alumni Affairs
Senior Director of Development and Alumni Affairs and Editor, David Geffen School of Drama
Alumni Magazine
Deborah S. Berman
Deputy Director of Operations for Development and Alumni Affairs
Susan C. Clark
Senior Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Scott Bartelson
Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Claudia Campos
Alumni Affairs Officer and Senior Writer
Cayenne Douglass
Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Alumni Affairs
Jennifer E. Alzona
Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Alesandra Reto Lopez
Development and Alumni Affairs Assistant
Chanel Johnson
Finance, Human Resources, & Digital Technology
Director of Finance and Business Administration/Lead Administrator
Nicola Blake
Human Resources Business Partner
Trinh DiNoto
Manager, Staff and Faculty Affairs
Malaika Green El Hamel
Director of Theater and Information Technology
Eric Lin
Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium, and Web Technology
Janna J. Ellis
Manager, Business Operations
Martha O. Boateng
Business Office Analyst
Shainn Reaves
Financial Analyst
Juliana Norman
Web Technology Assistant
Kenneth Murray
Business Office Specialists
Moriah Clarke
Karem Orellana-Flores
Digital Technology Associates
Edison Dule
Garry Heyward
Database Application Consultants
Ben Silvert
Erich Bolton
Financial Aid, Admissions, and Student Services
Financial Aid Officer
Andre Massiah
Registrar/Admissions Administrator
Ariel Yan
Non-Clinical Counselor
Krista Dobson
Senior Administrative Assistant to Financial Aid and Registrar/Admissions Administrator
Laura Torino
Marketing, Communications, & Audience Services
Director of Marketing
Daniel Cress
Director of Communications
Steven Padla
Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Caitlin Griffin
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Taylor Ybarra
Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications
Jazzmin Bonner
Senior Administrative Assistant to Marketing and Communications
Mishelle Raza
Publications Manager, Artwork, and Program Designer
Marguerite Elliott
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
Teo Baldwin
Ralph Black, Jr.
Kevin Delaney
Box Office Assistants
Pilar Bylinsky, Emma Fusco, Mel Hornyak, Aaron Magloire, Diana Shyshkova
Accessibility Assistants
Abigail Murphy
Prentiss Patrick-Carter
Theater Safety and Occupational Health
Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health
Anna Glover
Assistant Director of Theater Safety
Kelly O’Loughlin
Associate Safety Advisors
Mara Bredovskis
Tamara Morris-Thompson
Nat King Taylor
Operations Director of Facility
Operations
Nadir Balan
Associate Director of Operations
Brandon Fuller
Interim Associate Director of Facility Operations
Aleks Landolfi
Operations Assistant
Devon Reaves
Facilities Area Manager
Joey Adcock
Arts and Graduate Studies Superintendents
Jennifer Draughn, Francisco
Eduardo Pimentel
Custodial Team Leaders
Andrew Mastriano
Sherry Stanley
Facility Stewards
Ronald Douglas, Marcia Riley
Custodians
Leo Torres, Sulema Hamilton, Rodney Heard, Jessica Hernandez, Cassandra Hobby, Wendy Jerez, Melloney Lucas, Shanna Ramos, Johnny Stanley, Jerome Sonia
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre are supported by the work of over 150 faculty members. For a complete faculty listing by program and department, please visit drama.yale.edu/about-us
