18 19 August – November
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american repertory theater | expanding the boundaries of theater
The Black Clown Langston Hughes’ Dramatic Monologue Onstage The Life and Legacy of
Langston Hughes A.R.T. Breakout Celebrating Returning and Rising Artists
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THE GUIDE MANAGING EDITOR Ryan McKittrick
Artistic Director’s Welcome
EDITOR Robert Duffley ASSOCIATE EDITORS Elizabeth Amos Rebecca Curtiss Grace Geller Joel Zayac CONTRIBUTORS Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Mario Alberto Zambrano COPY EDITORS Samantha Burns David Libbey Stacey Schutzman
@americanrep
DESIGN Joel Zayac
Welcome to the A.R.T., and welcome to our 2018/19 Season!
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Our productions this season engage vital stories of resistance and resilience from around the globe. These productions, including three world premieres, bring us A.R.T. BOARDS
to the Harlem of Langston Hughes and the streets of contemporary Cairo, and
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Andrew Ory, Chair
Ann Gund, Co-Chair Karen Mueller, Co-Chair
Diane Borger Laurie Burt Paul Buttenwieser RoAnn Costin Michael Feinstein Provost Alan M. Garber Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Catherine Gellert Rebecca Grafstein Lori Gross Ann Gund Sarah Hancock Jonathan Hulbert Steve Johnson Alan K. Jones Jerry Jordan Robin Kelsey Herman “Dutch” Leonard Serena Lese Dennis Masel Thomas B. McGrath Ward Mooney Bob Murchison Dan Nova Diane Paulus Mike Sheehan Fay Shutzer Sid Yog
from a small island in South Korea to the barber shops of Accra, Kampala, and Johannesburg. I am thrilled to celebrate my tenth anniversary at the A.R.T. with a
Paolo Abelli Frances Shtull Adams Amy Brakeman Philip Burling* Greg Carr Antonia Handler Chayes* Lucy Chung Lizabeth Cohen Lisa Coleman Kathleen Connor Ophelia Dahl Rohit Deshpande Susan Edgman-Levitan Shanti Fry Erin Gilligan Jonathan Glazer Candy Kosow Gold Rachael Goldfarb Robert Green Barbara Wallace Grossman Peggy Hanratty Marcia Head James Higgins Linda A. Hill Horace H. Irvine II Brenda Jarrell Emma Torres Johnson Jason Kemper Dean Huntington Lambert Ursula Liff Timothy Patrick McCarthy Irv Plotkin Martin Puchner Ellen Gordon Reeves Pat Romeo-Gilbert Linda U. Sanger Molly Schoeck Maggie Seelig Dina Selkoe John A. Shane Michael Shinagel Lisbeth Tarlow Sarasina Tuchen Susan Ware Michael Yogman Stephen H. Zinner, M.D.
season that embodies our commitment to bold new work. Our season opens with The Black Clown, a new music theater project adapted from Langston Hughes' 1931 poem. Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines and composer Michael Schachter began adapting “The Black Clown” into a song cycle years ago, shortly after graduating from Harvard College. Now, after a series of developmental workshops and convenings, Hughes’ poem is brought to life through stirring music and stunning visuals. The 2018/19 Season also features the launch of A.R.T. Breakout (formerly titled OBERON Presents). If you haven’t already been to OBERON, don’t miss this important extension of the work you see on our mainstage. Featuring Sara Porkalob (Dragon Lady), Diana Oh, Jomama Jones, and more, this series highlights the A.R.T.’s commitment to emerging and boundary-breaking artists. Read on in this Guide to learn more about these productions—including a reflection on Langston Hughes’ legacy by A.R.T. Board of Trustees member and scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.
*Emeriti FOUNDING DIRECTOR
As of August 2018
SEASON SUPPORT
The 2018/19 Season is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cover Photo: Carl Van Vechten © The Van Vechten Trust
Robert Brustein
DIANE PAULUS Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director American Repertory Theater
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org 2018/19 Season 1
August 31– September 23, 2018 LOEB DRAMA CENTER
THE BLACK CLOWN Adapted from LANGSTON HUGHES’ poem by DAVÓNE TINES & MICHAEL SCHACHTER Music by MICHAEL SCHACHTER Music Direction by JARET LANDON Choreographed by CHANEL DASILVA Directed by ZACK WINOKUR The Black Clown is a world premiere music theater production that fuses vaudeville, gospel, opera, jazz, and spirituals to bring Langston Hughes’ verse to life onstage, animating a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression. The production features Davóne Tines (Crossing, Run AMOC! Festival) in the title role, an ensemble of twelve, and a new score by Michael Schachter (Run AMOC! Festival). Production Sponsors
Alison & Bob Murchison Artistic Residency Support of Davóne Tines
Katie & Paul Buttenwieser Additional Production Support
National Endowment for the Arts The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research Corporate Education Sponsor
Photo: Maggie Hall
Bank of America
A MULTITUDE OF VOICES An interview with The Black Clown Co-Adaptors Davóne Tines and Michael Schachter Davóne Tines is an internationally acclaimed bass-baritone who originated the role of Freddie Stowers in Crossing, which premiered in the A.R.T.’s 2014/15 Season and was featured in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2017 Next Wave Festival. Michael Schachter is a composer, pianist, and scholar whose music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles around the country. In this interview, A.R.T. Director of Artistic Programs & Dramaturg Ryan McKittrick talks with them about adapting Langston Hughes’ poem “The Black Clown” for the world premiere production at the A.R.T. Langston Hughes published “The Black Clown” in 1931. What drew you to the poem, and how does it speak to you today? Davóne Tines: When I first read “The Black Clown” it was like receiving a revelation that gave name to the experience of my existence as a Black man in America that I had never been able to articulate. I identified with this clown whose forced role represents a wholesale relegation of Black existence to
something less than human, a farce of a being, a fool only playing at being real. Hughes names this existence, then situates it within the larger context of history to show that the oppression of the present is inextricably linked to the failures of the past. Hughes’ clown is able to transcend his oppression by calling on the strength and spirit of his entire ancestry. He connects to a greater mandate from all of time and the universe that humanity is inexorably his to claim. This was a story I knew I needed to live and relive and share. How did you two start working together on this project? DT: I was singing for the choir of The National Shrine in Washington, DC. It’s a Catholic church with a professional choir, and they sing a lot of beautiful, old liturgical music. It was not the most inspiring job in terms of personal connection. So I sent Mike a note saying I really want to sing something that I feel deeply connected to. Not something that is just beautiful in an aesthetic way or wonderful
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org 2018/19 Season 3
Where did you first encounter the poem? Michael Schachter: Davóne and I had been talking about Hughes years earlier when we were undergraduates together at Harvard, and when I got his email from church I flipped through a collection of Hughes’ poems that my then-girlfriend, now-wife had given me. I was struck by two things about “The Black Clown.” The first was its immediacy—it seemed as if it had been written yesterday. The word choices, the issues Hughes writes about, the false promise of what freedom means to marginalized Others in this country seemed just as palpable in 2010 as they did in 1931— and I would argue even more palpable in 2018. And the second thing that struck me was the poem’s experimental form. On the right side of the page, Hughes wrote the poetic text, “THE POEM,” and on the left side he wrote an italicized side bar, “THE MOOD,” in which he explicitly described an imagined dramatic presentation with musical accompaniment. So it felt like this project would be fulfilling something that was originally envisioned by its creator. We were really struck by the form of the poem, which partly came out of Hughes’ frequenting the speakeasies in Harlem at the time and seeing spoken word performances. Early on in the development of this piece you were thinking about the presence of a chorus, and one of the central elements of this production is a twelve-member ensemble. Why was the idea of a chorus important to you, and what role does the ensemble play in the show?
MS: In the poem, Hughes fleshes out his character by connecting his feeling of himself with the experiences of a multitude. So we thought that it was crucial to animate that in the show with the interplay of one voice and many voices. And sonically it just enriches the experience.
country; so many things of a terrible sort have happened; and now we can actually celebrate. And through many different styles of dance— whether that’s the cakewalk or the jitterbug or tap—we can joyously and directly celebrate. And then she’s able to shade that through movement and ideas that subvert that joy.
DT: The “Black experience” is very complex because it’s the meeting point of a multitude of things. It’s not one idea; it’s not one way of being or having been present in this country; and it can’t be explained or expressed as a monolith. We have other people in the show to reveal different facets of what it is to exist in this context. Langston Hughes was deeply a people person and interacted with a multitude of the movers, shakers, and makers of his day, especially in Harlem. His work catalogues the brilliance and complex humanity of the people around him. So the character of the Black Clown, in bringing this poem to life, activates a symbolic multitude of voices of people who have traveled these paths and are also on this journey along with him in order to further explicate it.
Mike, what musical traditions have you drawn from and been inspired by in composing the score? What instruments are you using in the orchestra?
Davóne, could you describe the work that choreographer Chanel DaSilva has been doing in the rehearsal room with you and the ensemble? What’s it been like to work with her? DT: It’s been amazing working with Chanel because she really is able to activate through movement the complexity of the idea of what it is to joyfully express oneself, but then also enact other aspects of life that are atrocities or byproducts of oppression. For example, one of the big numbers, “Freedom,” is an honest engagement of the promise of emancipation, expressed as real exuberance of what that moment could have been: you are here in this
MS: The blues is a major influence. In certain moments I made references in both the music and the orchestrations to performers from the Harlem Renaissance, specifically Josephine Baker, Cab Calloway, and Bessie Smith. “Three Hundred Years” is set as a work song, and “Say to All Foemen,” which is an exuberant, uplifting number towards the end, is set as a gospel number. Others songs come from New Orleans second line, the spiritual tradition, and Black choral traditions from the late-nineteenth into much of the twentieth century. The orchestra is modeled on the theater orchestras that were common in the 20s and 30s. So it has three reed players who are doubling on flutes, clarinets, and saxophones; two trumpets; a trombone; a pianist, Jaret Landon, who is also the conductor and Music Director of the show; and a rhythm section of bass, tuba, drums/ percussion, and banjo. Is there anything you’ve been reading or watching recently that’s inspired your thinking about the show? MS: Most recently Childish Gambino’s music video “This is America,” which was deeply troubling for the violence it portrayed, and also fascinating for how he used music and very distinct cuts between different styles and sonic palettes to amplify and illustrate that. Also, the podcast Still Processing, with Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham at the New York Times, which examines critical approaches to what it means to be an American through the lens of race and from the perspective of Black America. DT: In terms of popular culture, the film Get Out is a very strong touchstone for a character who is finding themself in the context of a trap and trying to escape it. Similarly, the Black Clown character finds themself in the trap of the ongoing trajectory of oppression of Black people in America, and finds a way to escape it by connecting to the strength and legacy of his community. Interview by Ryan McKittrick, A.R.T. Director of Artistic Programs & Dramaturg.
Michael Schachter (L) and Davóne Tines (R) in a developmental workshop for The Black Clown.
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Photo: Courtesy of The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
in its artistic merits, but something that I feel a personal connection to expressing. So we started on this journey of what it would be to realize Langston Hughes’ words in song..
THE BLACK CLOWN by Langston Hughes PLEASE NOTE: This work contains the use of a racial slur.
A dramatic monologue to be spoken by a pure-blooded Negro in the white suit and hat of a clown, to the music of a piano, or an orchestra. THE MOOD
THE POEM
A gay and low-down blues. Comic entrance like the clowns in the circus. Humorous defiance. Melancholy jazz. Then defiance again followed by loud joy. A burst of music. Strutting and dancing. Then sudden sadness again. Back bent as in the fields. The slow step. The bowed head. “Nobody knows de trouble I’ve had.” Flinching under the whip. The spiritual syncopated. Determined to laugh. A bugle call. Gay, martial music. Walking proudly, almost prancing. But gradually subdued to a slow, heavy pace. “Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile.” Turning futilely from one side to the other. But now a harsh and bitter note
You laugh Because I’m poor and black and funny— Not the same as you— Because my mind is dull And dice instead of books will do For me to play with When the day is through. I am the fool of the whole world. Laugh and push me down. Only in song and laughter I rise again—a black clown. Strike up the music. Let it be gay. Only in joy Can a clown have his day. Three hundred years In the cotton and the cane, Plowing and reaping With no gain— Empty handed as I began. A slave—under the whip, Beaten and sore. God! Give me laughter That I can stand more. God! Give me the spotted Garments of a clown So that the pain and the shame Will not pull me down. Freedom! Abe Lincoln done set me free— One little moment To dance with glee. Then sadness again— No land, no house, no job, No place to go. Black—in a white world Where cold winds blow. The long struggle for life: No schools, no work— Not wanted here; not needed there— Black—you can die. Nobody will care—
Langston Hughes, “The Black Clown.” In, The Negro Mother, and other dramatic recitations. New York: Golden Stair Press, 1931.
creeps into the music. Over-burdened. Backing away angrily. Frantic with humiliation and helplessness. The music is like a mournful tom-tom in the dark! But out of sadness it rises to defiance and determination. A hymn of faith echoes the fighting “Marseillaise.” Tearing off his clown’s suit, throwing down the hat of a fool, and standing forth, straight and strong, in the clothes of a modern man, he proclaims himself.
Yet clinging to the ladder, Round by round, Trying to climb up, Forever pushed down. Day after day White spit in my face— Worker and clown am I For the “civilized” race. Nigger! Nigger! Nigger! Scorn crushing me down. Laugh at me! Laugh at me! Just a black clown! Laugh at me then, All the world round— From Africa to Georgia I’m only a clown! But no! Not forever Like this will I be: Here are my hands That can really make me free! Suffer and struggle. Work, pray, and fight. Smash my way through To Manhood’s true right. Say to all foemen: You can’t keep me down! Tear off the garments That make me a clown! Rise from the bottom, Out of the slime! Look at the stars yonder Calling through time! Cry to the world That all might understand: I was once a black clown But now— I’m a man!
SPOTLIGHT: CHANEL DASILVA Choreographer of The Black Clown by Mario Alberto Zambrano
The doors were closed when I wanted to meet her. Chanel DaSilva and the dancers were having a discussion during the creative process of a new dance piece she was working on. The topic at hand: sexual harassment and physical assault.
PUBLIC/Private premiered last season with the Harvard Dance Project, part of Harvard’s undergraduate concentration in Theater, Dance & Media, and circled the indisputable habits of male gaze, objectification, and the slips in physical gesture that fall outside of civilized etiquette. The choreography could’ve been lighter, could’ve centered around an issue less intimidating to students at the undergraduate level, but that’s precisely why it was an issue that needed to be discussed. Chanel DaSilva isn’t making art in order to be nice—she’s in it to have a real conversation through performance. Now, she brings this commitment to the A.R.T.’s world premiere production of The Black Clown. Raised in Brooklyn, Chanel graduated
from Juilliard and pursued a career as a dancer and choreographer. She danced with the Trey McIntyre Project for six years before taking a faculty position at the acclaimed LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. She is the co-founder and co-director of MOVE(NYC), a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to revolutionize the dance field by creating greater diversity and equity in the dance profession. The cornerstone of the organization is the Young Professionals Program, which provides tuition-free, highcaliber dance and leadership training to the talented and motivated youth of New York City who would otherwise not have access to this education. In an interview with student directors in Dance on Camera, an undergraduate course offered at Harvard last spring, Chanel shared her point of view on what choreography is capable of, and how it can be perceived as a tool to change the world. After explaining how the lens through which she makes choreography is not necessarily the lens through which an audience will experience it, she said, “I love that art has the power to be so beautifully subjective. Everyone leaves with a different meaning.” Mario Alberto Zambrano is a Lecturer in Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard University. A Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a Princess Grace Fellow, and an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has been a soloist and principal dancer for Nederlands Dans Theater, Batsheva Dance Company, Ballett Frankfurt, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
The Black Clown ensemble in a rehearsal.
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LANGSTON HUGHES (1902–1967)
Photos: Chanel DaSilva, courtesy of MOVE(NYC); The Black Clown cast in rehearsal, Maggie Hall
by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
With a career that spanned the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties and the Black Arts movement of the sixties, Langston Hughes was the most prolific black poet of his era. Between 1926, when he published his pioneering The Weary Blues, to 1967, the year of his death, when he published The Panther and the Lash, Hughes would write 16 books of poems, two novels, seven collections of short stories, two autobiographies, five works of nonfiction, and nine children’s books; he would edit nine anthologies of poetry, folklore, short fiction, and humor. He also translated Jacques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén, Gabriela Mistral, and Federico García Lorca, and wrote at least thirty plays. It is not surprising, then, that Hughes was known, variously, as “Shakespeare in Harlem” and as the “poet laureate of the Negro.” Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. His father, James Nathaniel, was a businessman, and his mother, Carrie Langston Mercer, was a teacher. Hughes attended Columbia University between 1921 and 1922, and received his A.B. from Lincoln in 1929. His dramatically unorthodox career included stints as a laundry boy, an assistant cook, and a busboy; he also served as a seaman on voyages to Europe and Africa. Fluent in French and Spanish, he lived for various periods in Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Among the “New Negro” writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes had no peer as an internationalist, a citizen of the world. And yet his cosmopolitanism, rare for any American in his time, never displaced his passionate engagement with, and commitment to, African-American vernacular culture. Hughes knew everybody, although almost no one knew him, or was able to penetrate the veils and masks that the truly vulnerable fabricate to present public personae to the world. Hughes’s public faces—despite the fact that he sought and found refuge in his beloved Harlem, he was certainly our most public poet, speaking in one week alone to some ten thousand people—were crafted in such a way that his human substance could not be perceived from among his carefully manufactured shadows. He was apparently a lonely man, and he suffered this isolation in the most private ways, almost never voicing it, despite the fact that he was such a public person. This irony did not escape him; he fondly quoted Dickinson’s famous lines How public—like a Frog— To tell your name—the livelong June— To an admiring Bog! to express his own sense of his predicament. His acquaintances were a veritable “who’s who” of twentieth-century art, from Stella Adler and Toshiko Akiyoshi, Thomas Mann and Dorothy Maynor, to Ezra Pound and Allen Tate, to Mark Van Doren, Kurt Weill, Max Yergan, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In so many ways and to so many people, Hughes was “the Negro,” or at least “Negro literature,” its public face, its spoken voice, its cocktail party embodiment as well as its printed texts. What Arnold Rampersad’s definitive biography of Hughes makes clear is how deeply ingrained American Negro literature was in the larger American tradition—even if scholars, until very, very recently, had bracketed it, kept it a ghetto apart, as the Harlem of the American canon.
Hughes’s books were reviewed widely in mainstream journals by mainstream writers, even if few understood his experiments with black vernacular forms, such as blues, jazz, and dialect. His concern for these forms were shared by his remarkably popular newspaper character, Jesse B. Semple (a.k.a. “Simple”), whose musings and exploits were published in the Chicago Defender. Simple's discussion of the nature of be-bop is an example of how rich Hughes’s columns were; when juxtaposed against Hughes’s comments about the ways that jazz informed his poetry, we begin to understand that we must learn to read Hughes in new ways, both “through” and “against” the AfricanAmerican vernacular. Hughes excels in the creation of “images, analogical, melodious, and rhythmical, with assonance and alliteration,” Léopold Sédar Senghor remarks. “You will find this rhythm in French poetry; you will find it in Péguy, you will find it in Claudel, you will find this rhythm in St. John Perse…. And it is this that Langston Hughes has left us with, this model of the perfect work of art.” In these and other respects, Hughes’s best work was his vernacular poetry, cast in “the idiom of the black folk,” and found especially in The Weary Blues, Fine Clothes to the Jew, and Ask Your Mama. Hughes, well before his compeers, Sterling Brown and Zora Neale Hurston, demonstrated how to use black vernacular language and music—especially the blues and jazz—as a poetic diction, a formal language of poetry, and at a moment when other black writers thought the task fruitless at best, detrimental at worst. Indeed, so much of the best of the African-American literary tradition— Brown, Hurston, Ellison, Morrison—grows out of his transmutation of the vernacular into the very stuff of literature. Hughes, in other words, undertook the project of constructing an entire literary tradition upon the actual spoken language of the black working and rural classes—the same vernacular language that the growing and mobile black middle classes considered embarrassing and demeaning, the linguistic legacy of slavery. Ironically, we may fail to recognize the sheer boldness of his innovation, in large part because of the very success of Hughes’s venture, as it has been adopted, accepted, and naturalized by his literary successors. Even aside from Hughes’s range of interests, his command of so many genres, it is in virtue of this signal contribution that Hughes’s place in American letters is secure. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or co-authored 21 books and created 15 documentary films. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the A.R.T. Excerpted from Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (Amistad Literary Series), ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Harper Collins, 2000), ix-xi. [Preface © 1993 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.].
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org 2018/19 Season 7
September 13–23, 2018 OBERON
BORROWED CASH: THE BUSTED TOUR Written and Performed by DANIEL JENKINS and MELISSA VAN DER SCHYFF
A.R.T. Breakout
Featuring the songs of RANDY NEWMAN and LUCINDA WILLIAMS Borrowed Cash is back! The band you know and love with hit songs “Can’t Let Go,” “Passionate Kisses,” “When She Loved Me,” and “Leave Your Hat On.”* Ann Marie Mayfield and Harper Stanton skyrocketed to international popularity with their first hit record Passionate Kisses, but their careers came to a screeching and scandalous halt when the world discovered the shocking truth behind their success. After years of not speaking to each other, living out of cars, bouts of incarceration, appearing as celebrity judges on Japanese game shows, and frequent emotional breakdowns, the dynamic duo is hoping to win back the love and trust of their embittered fans in Borrowed Cash: the Busted Tour. See them together again, for the first time, in this multi-media live concert event featuring surprising and revealing documentary footage of the meteoric rise and fall of America’s sweethearts. *We are currently unable to comment on claims that these songs are actually by Randy Newman or Lucinda Williams.
January 11–27, 2019 OBERON
MISS YOU LIKE HELL Book & Lyrics by QUIARA ALEGRÍA HUDES Music & Lyrics by ERIN MCKEOWN Directed by SUMMER L. WILLIAMS Presented in collaboration with COMPANY ONE THEATRE A daughter who gets to stay. A mother who may have to go. The border wall that may come between them. Join this passionate, wild, and unforgettable female duo and the unexpected cadre of American originals they meet en route to mom’s immigration hearing. Miss You Like Hell is a powerful new musical that explores how many miles we can travel with the help of courageous neighbors and beautiful strangers. ADVANCED ACCESS NOW
Subscribers & Members save $5 on single tickets. PUBLIC ON SALE
November 20 at noon.
Borrowed Cash: the Busted Tour reunites Ann Marie Mayfield and Harper Stanton onstage for the first time since a scandal halted their meteoric rise.
RETURNING AND RISING ARTISTS IN A.R.T. BREAKOUT
Photos (L-R): Borrowed Cash, Gina Rattan; Wig Out!, Liza Voll
by Robert Duffley
Launching this fall, the A.R.T. Breakout series brings the work of experimental and rising artists to OBERON and other venues beyond the Loeb mainstage. With new productions by returning artists including Sara Porkalob (Dragon Lady) and Company One Theatre (We’re Gonna Die, Wig Out!), as well as Cambridge debuts by Diana Oh, Daniel Alexander Jones, and others, A.R.T. Breakout represents an expansion of the previously titled OBERON Presents series. “From my first day as Artistic Director,” said Diane Paulus at A.R.T.’s 2018/19 Season Preview event on June 9, “I wondered how we could increase access to the A.R.T., and be a home for more artists. This series reflects that aim.” The series begins in September with Borrowed Cash: the Busted Tour. The production showcases music legends Ann Marie Mayfield and Harper Stanton (who claim that their versions of Randy Newman and Lucinda Williams hits are more original than the originals) onstage together for the first time in 15 years. Their reunion concert will be accompanied by a documentary screening, charting their meteoric rise and scandalous fall. Throughout the autumn, the A.R.T. will host Diana Oh, whose 2017 work {my lingerie play} culminated in a staged “concert and call to arms” following a nine-part series of public performances mixing installation art and protest. The series brought Oh and
Summer L. Williams, director of last season's production of Wig Out! (pictured), returns this season to direct Miss You Like Hell, presented in collaboration with Company One Theatre.
collaborators from Times Square to New Orleans’ Bourbon Street to Washington, DC in theatrical celebrations of queer people of color and protests against sexual assault. Oh, who also marched with A.R.T. staff and members of the Jagged Little Pill cast in Boston’s 2018 Pride Parade, will create a similar series of performances around greater Boston,
beginning with a public performance in Teresita Fernández's installation Autumn (...Nothing Personal) in Harvard Yard on September 23. Then, in April 2019, Oh will premiere a new work, Clairvoyance, at OBERON. “A.R.T. Breakout also represents the A.R.T.'s commitment to disrupting oppression and marginalization,” said Artistic Producer
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org 2018/19 Season 9
Robert Duffley is A.R.T. Editor & Assistant Dramaturg.
From top: Sara Porkalob, Justice Ameer and Chrysanthemum Tran (L-R), Diana Oh, Daniel Alexander Jones (as Jomama Jones).
Photos: Robert Wade/Courtesy of Intiman Theatre (Seattle, Washington); Courtesy of Chrysanthemum Tran; Courtesy of Diana Oh; Joan Marcus.
Mark Lunsford. “We’re lifting up voices of color, trans perspectives, pieces that speak out against gender violence—these artists are leaders in a national conversation about protest and positive change.” The series continues with work by a number of returning A.R.T. artists. In January, Summer L. Williams (Wig Out!) will direct Miss You Like Hell in a co-production with Boston’s Company One Theatre (Wig Out!, We’re Gonna Die). Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Water by the Spoonful, In the Heights) and genre-breaking singer/songwriter Erin McKeown, the show follows a road trip undertaken by an undocumented mother and her estranged daughter. In February, Providence-based poets Chrysanthemum Tran and Justice Ameer return to OBERON following their performances with Kit Yan in 2018. This season, Tran and Ameer are developing a production bringing their poetry to OBERON's unique club-theater environment. In March, Seattle-based artist Sara Porkalob returns with a reprise of her onewoman show Dragon Lady and the premiere of a companion piece, Dragon Mama. Dragon Lady follows the story of Porkalob’s grandmother, tracing the incredible events that led her from the Philippines to the Pacific Northwest. Dragon Mama takes place a generation later, telling the story of Porkalob’s mother, and her journey from Washington state to Alaska in hopes of discovering a “gayer, more POC-filled life than Bremerton, WA can offer.” A.R.T. Breakout culminates in May with Black Light. As his acclaimed drag persona Jomama Jones, interdisciplinary artist Daniel Alexander Jones draws musical influence from Prince, Sade, Diana Ross, and Tina Turner in his exploration of the Black American Freedom movement, Afromysticism, goddess mythology, and divination. “These shows at OBERON, as much as the work on the mainstage,” said Paulus, “represent what makes us tick as a theater.”
AFTERGLOW @ OBERON
Featuring solo playwrights, cabaret performers, and artists in a collaborative series curated by Quinn Cox, founder of Provincetown’s annual Afterglow Festival.
Tori Scott: Tori Scott is #Thirsty October 11, 2018 A shameless musical journey of slurred autobiographical stories (and songs written by other people). Join this “soulbaring singer and sharp comedian” (Huffington Post) as she celebrates poor life choices and an unconditional love of vodka to the music of Aretha Franklin, Judy Garland, Miley Cyrus, and more. Taja Lindley: The Bag Lady Manifesta November 15, 2018 In a world that treats Black life as if it is disposable, The Bag Lady Manifesta is an urgent reckoning and revelation. Through dynamic movement, burlesque, text, soundscapes, ritual, and projection, Lindley adorns and activates her Black, queer, female body with trash bags to traverse the dumping grounds and shadow side(s) of herself, the audience, and the United States. Dan Fishback: Dan Fishback Alone! January 17, 2019 Playwright Dan Fishback returns to his performing songwriter roots in Dan Fishback Alone!, a concert with no collaborators, and therefore no emailing. Before building a life in theater, Fishback was known in the East Village’s anti-folk scene for his mousy voice, wordy songs, and queer politics. After developing a string of ambitious musicals and a series of queer community performance festivals, Fishback is performing Dan Fishback Alone! to escape the manic frenzy of coordination.
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LIVE @ OBERON
An eclectic lineup of music artists making original performances for OBERON's intimate club theater space. Spring 2019 dates to be announced soon. STL GLD August 3, 2018 Emcee Moe Pope and producer The Arcitype are STL GLD, one of New England’s most exciting up-andcoming acts. Camino 84: MOB RULE September 7, 2018 MOB RULE puts local disco/funk band and 2017 Boston Music Awards performers Camino 84 at the mercy of the OBERON audience via real-time voting. You choose the songs, hire (and fire) band members, give feedback, and control the ultimate fates of Camino 84 and special guests that include rapper/producer Latrell James, indie rock upstarts Cosmic Johnny, and DJ Nick Minieri. Think you and your fellow audience members will pull off a great show? Or will it devolve into MOB RULE? Samora Pinderhughes: The Transformations Suite October 6 & 7, 2018 Moving through five sections— Transformation, History, Cycles, Momentum (Parts 1 and 2), and Ascension—this jazz suite connects contemporary issues such as the prison industrial complex and the Black Lives Matter movement with the history of revolutionary movements of color as it builds a bridge between the past and the future. Billy Dean Thomas November 2, 2018 Also known as “The Queer B.I.G.,” Billy Dean is a musician who challenges the hip hop game with lyrics that align with #BlackLivesMatter and intersectional feminism. Their musical career began at age eight, playing congas and participating in an advanced poetry/ performance program where they were mentored by Pharoahe Monch, Rosie Perez, and DMC. The Sweetback Sisters: Country Christmas Singalong Spectacular December 14 & 15, 2018 This wildly popular show, back at OBERON for a third year, requires a bit of audience participation and a love for all genres of holiday music. (Fear not! Songbooks are provided.) Add in a healthy dose of trivia, prizes, and matching outfits, and we think it’s safe to say you’ve got yourself a bona fide spectacular!
All performances on sale now: AmericanRepertoryTheater.org AmericanRepertoryTheater.org 2018/19 Season 11
Support A.R.T. today and access new and exclusive benefits!
Closing Weekend Toast Celebrate each groundbreaking production at a champagne toast with the cast and creative team during the closing weekend. Invitations for this unique event begin at the Supporter Level ($250+).
Technical Rehearsals Come behind the scenes to see the physical production elements come to life with a visit to a technical rehearsal. Invitations for this event begin at the Contributor Level ($500+). Sitzprobe Rehearsal Observe the intricate process of the cast and musicians coming together for the very first time. Invitations begin at the Partner Level ($5,000+).
A.R.T. Subscription Season The Black Clown, ExtraOrdinary, Barber Shop Chronicles, Othello, Endlings, and We Live in Cairo
Producer $10,000 +
Partner $5,000 – $9,999
Sponsor $2,500 – $4,999
Patron $1,000 – $2,499
Contributor $500 – $999
Supporter $250 – $499
Discounted tickets
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Unlimited discounted parking in Harvard Square
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Two complimentary drinks at the Loeb Drama Center
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Donor acknowledgement in A.R.T. program books
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Invitation to the annual Gala
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Invitation to a Closing Weekend Toast
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Invitation to season preview event with Diane Paulus
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Invitation to a Technical Rehearsal
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Cast members of Carousel on Broadway hold a talkback with participants of A.R.T. Travels after seeing the show in NYC. Priority access to single tickets
Concierge ticketing services
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Recognition on the Donor plaque in the Loeb Drama Center
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Invitation to a Backstage Event
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Invitation to annual Season Launch with a pre-performance reception
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Early access to renew your subscription
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Invitation to an Opening Night pre-show reception with the creative team
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Exclusive early access to curated trips
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Access to purchase house tickets to A.R.T. productions in New York (subject to availability)
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Invitation to a featured discussion and/or performance by leading artists in the field
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Invitation to the Patron Seminar If you have questions or would like to make a contribution, contact the Development office at 617.496.8000 x 8826 or email Sean_Cummings@harvard.edu.
12 2018/19 Season AmericanRepertoryTheater.org
OC - OPEN CAPTIONED
REGULAR RUN
- AUDIO DESCRIBED
- POST-SHOW TALKBACKS
- ASL INTERPRETED
For more information about A.R.T. accessibility services, visit us online at: americanrepertorytheater.org/access
$50 – $249
Member
PREVIEWS OPENING NIGHT
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STUDENT MATINEES We offer 11AM matinees of select productions for student and community groups. Barber Shop Chronicles: DEC 12 Othello: JAN 30 & FEB 6 Endlings: MAR 13 We Live in Cairo: MAY 29
Enhance your experience! A.R.T. Subscribers and Members get discounts on additional programming all year long. A.R.T. BREAKOUT Formerly known as OBERON Presents, the A.R.T. Breakout series presents cutting-edge performances that push theatrical boundaries at OBERON and beyond. AFTERGLOW @ OBERON Featuring solo playwrights, cabaret performers, and solo artists in a collaborative series with Provincetown’s annual Afterglow Festival. LIVE @ OBERON An eclectic array of music artists deliver exceptional original performances at OBERON’s intimate club theater environment. Spring artists will be announced at a later date.
MEMBER EVENTS Donors to A.R.T. experience many benefits, including invitations to our Season Launch Party, Opening Night celebrations, backstage tours, discussions with creative teams, and first access to the season onsale.
Photo: Rachel Hannon
Discounted Parking Unlimited discounted parking at University Place Garage when you visit Harvard Square (as available) begins at the Member Level ($50+).
See what's next in the A.R.T. 2018/19 Season.
LIVE @ OBERON — STL GLD OBERON - August 3, 2018 at 9:30PM
BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES Loeb Drama Center - Starts December 5, 2018
THE BLACK CLOWN Loeb Drama Center - Starts August 31, 2018 SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
8/31 9/1 7:30PM 7:30PM
SUN
12/18 7:30PM
12/19 12/20 12/21 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
9/16 2PM *
9/18 9/19 9/20 9/21 9/22 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
12/30 2PM
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
9/16 7:30PM
THU
FRI
SAT
9/13 9/14 7:30PM 7:30PM
9/15 7PM
9/20 9/21 7:30PM 7:30PM
9/22 7PM
9/23 7:30PM
12/26 7:30PM 12/31 2PM 7:30PM
12/22 2PM 7:30PM
12/29 12/27 12/28 7:30PM 2PM 2PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
1/2 1/3 1/4 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
MON
TUE
WED
1/13 2PM
1/15 7PM
1/16 7PM
1/20 2PM
1/22 7PM
1/23 7PM
THU
1/24 7PM
FRI
SAT
1/11 7PM
1/12 7PM
1/18 7PM
1/19 2PM 7PM
1/25 7PM
1/26 2PM 7PM
1/27 2PM
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
1/20 2PM 7:30PM
1/22 7:30PM
1/23 1/24 1/25 1/26 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM
1/27 2PM
1/29 7:30PM
1/30 1/31 2/1 11AM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
2/3 2PM
2/5 7:30PM
2/8 2/9 2/6 2/7 7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM 11AM 7:30PM 7:30PM
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
11/18 7:30P 11/25 2PM 7:30PM
11/19 11/20 7:30PM 7:30PM
11/21 2PM
11/23 7:30PM
1/19 2PM 7:30PM
2/2 2PM * 7:30PM
AFTERGLOW — DAN FISHBACK OBERON - January 17, 2019 at 8PM
SAT
11/16 11/17 7:30PM 7:30PM 11/24 2PM 7:30PM
WED
THU
3/28 3/29 7:30PM 7:30PM
3/30 7PM
4/2 4/3 4/4 4/5 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
4/6 2PM 7PM
WED
THU
FRI
3/2 2PM * 7:30PM
3/3 2PM 7:30PM
3/5 7:30PM
3/6 3/7 3/8 3/9 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM
3/10 2PM
3/12 7:30PM
3/13 3/14 3/15 11AM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
3/17 2PM
FRI
SAT 4/27 7PM
4/28 7:30PM
WE LIVE IN CAIRO Loeb Drama Center - Starts May 14, 2019 MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
5/14 5/15 5/16 5/17 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
5/18 2PM 7:30PM
5/19 7:30PM
5/21 5/22 5/23 5/24 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
5/25 2PM * 7:30PM
5/26 2PM 7:30PM
5/28 7:30PM
5/29 5/30 5/31 6/1 11AM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM
6/2 2PM
6/4 7:30PM
6/5 6/6 6/7 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
6/9 2PM
6/11 7:30PM
6/14 6/15 6/12 6/13 7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM 2PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
6/8 2PM * 7:30PM
6/16 2PM
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT 5/18 9PM
5/19 7:30PM
SAT
2/26 2/27 2/28 3/1 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
11/27 11/30 11/28 11/29 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
THU
5/15 5/16 5/17 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
ENDLINGS Loeb Drama Center - Starts February 26, 2019 TUE
WED
4/24 4/25 4/26 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
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AFTERGLOW — THE ILLUSTRIOUS BLACKS OBERON - February 21, 2019 at 8PM
MON
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A.R.T. BREAKOUT — BLACK LIGHT OBERON - Starts May 15, 2019
A.R.T. BREAKOUT — AN EVENING WITH JUSTICE AMEER & CHRYSANTHEMUM TRAN OBERON - Feb. 8 at 8PM & Feb. 9 at 7PM
SUN
MON
SAT 3/23 7PM
DRAGON MAMA
SUN
FRI
3/20 3/21 3/22 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
DRAGON LADY
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LIVE @ OBERON — SAMORA PINDERHUGHES OBERON - Oct. 6 at 7PM & Oct. 7 at 8PM
EXTRAORDINARY Loeb Drama Center - Starts November 16, 2018
TUE
A.R.T. BREAKOUT — CLAIRVOYANCE OBERON - Starts April 24, 2019
1/15 1/16 1/17 1/18 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
AFTERGLOW — TAJA LINDLEY OBERON - November 15, 2018 at 8PM
MON
A.R.T. BREAKOUT — MISS YOU LIKE HELL OBERON - Starts January 11, 2019
1/13 7:30PM
EDUCATION — PROCLAMATION 6: UNITE OBERON - November 3 & 4, 2018
SUN
AFTERGLOW — SVEN RATZKE OBERON - April 18, 2019 at 8PM
A.R.T. TRAVELS: LONDON A curated theater trip: September 23-27, 2018
LIVE @ OBERON — BILLY DEAN THOMAS OBERON - November 2, 2018 at 10PM
A.R.T. BREAKOUT — DRAGON CYCLE OBERON - Starts March 20, 2019
1/5 2PM * 7:30PM
OTHELLO Loeb Drama Center - Starts January 13, 2019
AFTERGLOW — TORI SCOTT OBERON - October 11, 2018 at 8PM
AFTERGLOW — THE BEARDED LADIES CABARET OBERON - March 14, 2019 at 8PM
LIVE @ OBERON — THE SWEETBACK SISTERS OBERON - Dec. 14 at 8PM & Dec. 15 at 7:30PM
SUN
A.R.T. BREAKOUT — BORROWED CASH OBERON - Starts September 13, 2018
SAT 12/8 2PM * 7:30PM
12/16 2PM
12/23 2PM
LIVE @ OBERON — CAMINO 84 OBERON - September 7, 2018 at 10PM
FRI
12/13 12/12 12/14 12/15 11AM * 7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM * 7:30PM 7:30PM
9/11 9/12 9/13 9/14 9/15 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
SEASON LAUNCH PARTY Loeb Drama Center - September 12, 2018
THU
12/11 7:30PM
9/9 2PM *
9/23 2PM
WED
12/9 2PM 7:30PM
9/4 9/5 9/6 9/7 9/8 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
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TUE
12/5 12/6 12/7 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM
9/2 2PM
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MON
THE A.R.T. GALA Our annual celebration to be held in early 2019
A.R.T. TRAVELS: JAPAN Join A.R.T. staff on a curated trip in June 2019 THE DONKEY SHOW OBERON - Every Saturday Night!
3/16 2PM * 7:30PM All information is as of August 20, 2018. Details are published in good faith, but changes may occasionally occur. Check online at americanrepertorytheater.org for the most up-to-date information.
AmericanRepertoryTheater.org 2018/19 Season 13
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CURRENT CGA RATES
• Guaranteed fixed income for life, a portion of which may be tax-free
AGE 60: 4.9%
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Your gift advances our work to alleviate human suffering caused by disease Calculate your fixed income for life using our free online gift calculator at
hms.harvard.edu/art You may also contact a member of the Gift Planning team in confidence at 1-800-922-1782 or giftplanning@hms.harvard.edu 14 2018/19 Season AmericanRepertoryTheater.org