The Sweet Science of The Sweet Science of BRUISING
A NOTE FROM THE SCHOOL OF THEATRE DIRECTOR
Welcome to our Season!
The School of Theatre at Boston University is delighted and honored for you to join us as we present our work to the world–all of the rehearsal hours, production meetings, technical rehearsals culminate in an experience that is not complete without you, our audience. The theatre is one of the only spaces in our lives where we gather in witness together, be it in joy, grief, curiosity, or even anger. In this, the theatre is a special space, a sacred space, and we invite your imagination to take flight with us during these performances, and hope you will return again (and again) to witness all of what makes us human as it is expressed on our stages.
With warmth and gratitude,
Kirsten Greenidge Director, BU College of Fine Arts School of Theatre
Runtime
2 hours and 30 minutes, including a 10-minute intermission
Caution
Please note that the production contains intimacy, mention and acts of abuse, domestic violence, gendered violence, and female genital mutilation Directed
JOY WILKINSON
SARAH SHIN
JULIANE ETHEL LEILANI MILLER STUDIO THEATRE
CAST
AUNT GEORGE
PAUL/CAPTAIN DANBY
PROFESSOR CHARLIE SHARP
GABRIEL LAMB/LORD CAVENDISH
VIOLET HUNTER
EMILY/NANCY
DR. JAMES BELL/DR.FORSTER/REFEREE
MATILDA “MATTY” BLACKWELL
POLLY STOKES
ANNA LAMB
Ambria Benjamin
Luigi Bianchi
Mateen Bizar
Zachary Kautter
Lucy Leahy
Natalia Martinez
Kaden Mays
Macy McGrail
Maya Scott-Luib
Kennedi Young
DESIGN & PRODUCTION TEAM
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
COSTUME DESIGNER
LIGHTING DESIGNER
SCENE DESIGNER
PROPS COORDINATOR
STAGE MANAGER
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
BOXING CONSULTANT
INTIMACY AND STAGE
VIOLENCE CHOREOGRAPHER
Gabriela Tovar-Borghini
Merrik Giesen
Frankie Kraus
Jacklyn Cinnamon
Jacklyn Cinnamon
Hannah Johnson
Emma Weller
Dena Lawton
Yo-El Cassell
PRODUCTION CREW
LIGHTING BOARD OPERATOR
LIGHTING CREW
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Jakob Baur
Jakob Baur
Simone Crowder
Sofi Rosales
DIRECTOR & PLAYWRIGHT
Sarah Shin (DIRECTOR)
Sarah Shin (she/her/hers) is a Schwenksville-raised, Boston-trained, Brooklyn-based Korean American theatre artist. Recent Directing Credits: Wolf Play (Brandeis University), The Chinese Lady (Central Square Theater, Greater Boston Premiere, Boston Globe Top 10 of 2022 Pick, 5 Eliott Norton Award Nominations), The Sitayana (or “How to Make An Exit”) (The Tank, NY Premiere). Associate/Assistant Credits: Empire Records (McCarter Theater Center), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway, SDC Observer), The Wanderers (Roundabout Theatre Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare & Company), The Oh Family Concert (PBS All Arts), Endlings (NYTW), Moby Dick (ART), MY H8 Letter 2 The Gr8 American Theatre (Ma-Yi/The Public Theater) Select performing credits include OriGen Story (Pan Asian Rep), The Tempest (Catskill Mountain Shakespeare), Specially Processed American Me (Ping Chong & Co.), Sea Longing (The Parsnip Ship). Co-Founding Producing Director of Queer Asian Babes and Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston, Roundabout Directors Group Cohort 4 Member, A4 Virtual Resident Artist (2020-2021), Public Theater/Brooklyn College Artist in Residence 2024, SDC Associate Member and Sanguine Theatre Company Associate Artist! BFA Theatre Arts Boston University www.sarah-shin.com IG: @shinnysarah
Joy Wilkinson (PLAYWRIGHT)
Joy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer and director working across film, television, theatre, radio and fiction. Her debut feature as writer-director was the London-set thriller 7 KEYS, which premiered at SXSW in 2024 and won nominations for Best Film and Best Actress in Frightfest’s Total FilmAwards. Joy’s prize-winning short THE EVERLASTING CLUB played at genre festivals world-wide, while her first short MA’AM was funded by the Female Film Force and had an award-winning international festival run. Joy's theatre work has been produced worldwide, including her much-loved play THE SWEET SCIENCE OF BRUISING, which is regularly revived following the original production’s five-star run at Wilton’s Music Hall and Southwark Playhouse. She is a published author and a prolific radio dramatist, on both original works and adaptations, including multiple Agatha Christie titles for BBC Radio 4 early in her career. She is also a Verity Bargate Award winner, one of Den Of Geek’s ‘50 Brilliant Screenwriters To Watch Out For’, and was mentored by Sir Kenneth Branagh through the BFI's Guiding Lights scheme. (Berlin Associates)
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Welcome to the Angel Amphitheatre! It is my deepest honor to be working with these brilliant students, now as an SOT alum. It was in this building where I expanded my creativity and perspective on what I thought was possible as an artist - and telling this story was my chance to pour my lessons back. Join us in London 1869, where everyone is fighting for survival, protection, and success - where the expectations of man and woman are so tightly bound that it is within the ring, and the dangerous underground culture of boxing - where they also expand. A common space for the marginalized felt welcome, out fighters come to realize their own power, the feeling of freedom, and the possibility to even have a dream you can work towards.
The action of women getting in the ring in 1869 is a powerful metaphor for the state of mind many of us are in today in 2024. 1869 marks the middle of the Second Industrial Revolution, with the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad just finished being built by the first Chinese immigrants in America. Today in 2024, we are in an AI revolution, and abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and women’s rights are all at risk, especially based on the 2024 US. Presidential Election results. Technology has evolved to a point where we can have close access to war, terrorism, and destruction in different countries, causing us to disassociate, and lose our sense of security and focus. The lack of control and power we feel takes us to the raves and clubs, where we party away our worries, and also pushes us to enter the ring as well, where we can learn how to defend ourselves and take matters into our own hands. We are tired of the debates over human rights, and so now, women are “waking up and choosing violence.”
As the fight continues and we experience the wins, losses, rewards, and damages, this play also reminds us to find community. With community you have your team to celebrate with, and also to lean on for support. I’m grateful for the support of this community within the show, and the theatre community at large has granted me. I offer this show as my gift of gratitude to you all.
Sarah Shin, Director
London, 1869 Four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring. As their lives begin to intertwine, their journey takes us through grand drawing rooms, bustling theatres and rowdy Southwark pubs, where the women fight inequality as well as each other. But with the final showdown approaching, only one can become the Lady Boxing Champion of the World. An epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism.
ABOUTBOSTONUNIVERSITYCOLLEGEOFFINEARTSSCHOOLOFTHEATRE
TheSchoolofTheatreatBostonUniversityCollegeofFineArtsofferseducationforthestudyofacting,stage management,design,production,andallaspectsofthetheatreprofessionwithinthesettingofamajorresearch university TheSchoolofTheatreseekstoprovidestudentswithopportunitiesforartisticgrowththrough rigorouscurriculum,professionalconnections,andanemphasisoncollaborationandnewwork Learnmore aboutthecurrentBUSchoolofTheatreproductionseasonatbu.edu/cfa/theatre/season.
Learnmoreatbuedu/cfa/theatre
Andfindusonsocialmedia@buarts,@bu schooloftheatre