YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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ARTS Yale Cabaret stages its first spring play “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” BY TAMAKI KUNO STAFF REPORTER The Yale Cabaret returns with its first in-person production of the semester, “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” written by Harry Davis and directed by Cooper Bruhns DRA ’24 and Lucas Iverson DRA ’24. The play explores the themes of queerness and struggles in human relationships through interactions between two queer characters, both of whom are performed by the directors. The show is the Yale Cabaret’s first production of the spring season and will be open only to fully-vaccinated Yale community members. “One of my goals as an artist is to be unapologetically queer and to not shy away from being loud and proud,” Bruhns said. “I think about my younger self and how much more of a difference it would have made to see myself represented on stage.” Bruhns grew up in a “very, very small town” in Northern California that they felt was homophobic and transphobic. It was not until a trip to San Francisco and a visit to drag-themed bar “Hamburger Mary’s” with friends that Bruhns felt that there was a place for them in the world. “Because of where I grew up, it is still taking me a long time to undo a lot of the self-hatred or internalized homophobia and transphobia … [Through productions], I hope to show the humanness of queer people and destigmatize [queer sex],” Bruhns said. Harry Davis wrote the play’s original script when he was an undergraduate student at UC Santa Barbara. It was initially about a relationship between a man and a woman, yet as Bruhns “fell in love” with the play, the directors adapted the plot into a story between two queer characters. For example, one of the play’s original scenes about a pregnancy scare was replaced by a scene about an HIV scare in hopes of “bringing
these issues into the conversation and making them less taboo.” Iverson joined Bruhns in directing the show because he was “drawn to the
ship between the characters in the play. It references a real phenomenon in which two hedgehogs try to huddle together under cold weather yet must remain apart
COURTESY OF YALE CABARET
nature of the [play’s] relationship,” which he described as “a case study between two specific human beings who are desperately seeking ‘big love’ in their life yet have no clue how to go about that.” The show’s title “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” is a metaphor for the relation-
to avoid hurting one another with their sharp spines. “I think it’s so beautiful that these 19-year-olds are trying to find themselves in the world, despite a complicated mess of what relationships can be like when they’re trying their best and some-
times say the wrong thing,” Bruhns said. Due to University COVID-19 restrictions, a number of changes were made to the show’s initial plan. According to Yale Cabaret artistic director Sarah Cain DRA ’22, “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” was initially supposed to open in mid-January, but was postponed when COVID-19 cases began to spike in December. Cain noted, however, that in the end the change was beneficial not just in public health terms, but also because it allowed the production team more time to “build the world of the play.” While the show is running, the Cabaret will not serve food and drinks as it typically does, and the performers will be masked throughout the performance. Despite these abnormalities, the team came up with ways to ensure a high production quality. Because the show is set entirely in a dorm room, the team placed seats on three sides of the stage to create a sense of intimacy while also reducing audience capacity. Iverson added that “we obey the University’s COVID-19 restrictions, but we put the audience as close as possible to the set so that they can see the details of the scenes — so there’s almost a film-like quality.” Cain added that performing with masks on for a show defined by its intimate moments can be challenging, but the directors did “a fantastic job” of creating palpable chemistry despite the face coverings. “We spent all of the previous school year on Zoom, so there was just this eagerness and hunger to do a show,” Bruhns said, reflecting on the rehearsals. “At the end of the day, we’re just really, really grateful to finally be doing a show live with other people and share the experience with you.” “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” is being staged from Feb. 10-12. Contact TAMAKI KUNO at tamaki.kuno@yale.edu .
Professor Jing Tsu doubles as NBC commentator at Beijing Olympics BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER As Yalies take to the ice at the Winter Olympics, a professor is standing on the sidelines, offering fans context on the Games’ cultural and political significance. Jing Tsu, John M. Schiff Professor of East Asian Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature, is serving as cultural commentator for NBC Olympics in Beijing. Olympic fans in the United States met Tsu last Friday night during the Games’ opening ceremony, a dazzling and politically-weighty spectacle that drew on ancient and modern Chinese symbols. The professor, a specialist on Sinophone culture and literature and a 2016 Guggenheim fellow, filled in the ceremony’s details that might not have been obvious to the average American fan. The ceremony opened, for example, with a countdown from 24. “China has traditionally used a mix of lunar and solar calendars,” Tsu told the network’s 14 million U.S. viewers. “The four seasons are
subdivided into 24 divisions with spring at the start — each division here is presented in the context of a poem or a story. That number was chosen here because of its auspicious coincidence because these are, after all, the 24th Winter Olympic Games.” Over the course of Saturday’s two-hour ceremony, Tsu conversed with fellow hosts Andrew Browne, another China scholar, and NBC Sports anchor Mike Tirico. They were among the few reporting on the ground from Beijing: NBC kept the majority of its broadcast teams in Stamford, Connecticut due to COVID-19 concerns. The trio’s discussion engaged in the Beijing Games’ political meanings amid rising tensions in Eastern Europe as well as China’s repression of its Uyghur minority. The professor’s expertise, however, was called in for the cultural background of the Beijing Olympics. The order of countries in the ceremonial procession, Tsu explained, was determined by the number of strokes required to write the one character in the country’s Chinese name.
Tsu also commented on the historical significance of Taiwan and Hong Kong, and on the repeal of China’s one-child policy and ensuing struggle to boost birth rates. At Yale, Tsu has taught numerous graduate seminars and an undergraduate lecture, “China in the World.” She joined Yale’s faculty in 2006 as an assistant professor, and chaired the Council on East Asian Studies between 2014 and 2021. East Asian Languages & Literature department chair Aaron Gerow said that faculty in his department were “pleasantly surprised” by the announcement of Tsu’s Beijing post. He applauded NBC’s decision of having Tsu, a humanist, as cultural commentator, noting that political science and international relations scholars generally fill the role. “I hope people watching the Olympics get a broader fuller sense of: what is China, and what do these games mean?” Gerow said. “We’re just so happy not only that Jing was selected, but that someone from the humanities is talking about something so crucial.”
Tsu also chaired the Council on East Asian Studies between 2014 and 2021, and became an affiliate scholar of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs last year. She has now authored and co-edited four books, delving into literature, nationalism and globalization. Tsu’s latest book, “Kingdom of Characters”, appeared on the front page of the New York Times’ Book Review on Sunday. Published on Jan. 18, her book tells the stories of the pioneer linguists and scholars who radically transformed Chinese script and language in the 20th century, and thereby transformed China itself. Pericles Lewis, vice president for Global Strategy, called Tsu an “outstanding scholar”. “It is great to have our faculty reach broader audiences through traditional and social media — [it] gives them a chance to elevate popular discourse on important topics,” Lewis wrote in an email to the News. The 2022 Olympic Games began on Feb. 4. Contact ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu .
