Yale Cabaret: Every Brilliant Thing

A Note from the Cab Team

One of our values as part of this 55th season is to create a “space for fellowship.” We’ve nurtured this in many ways: collaborating with a local restaurant to bring back the kitchen, opening DGSD night to all, making more performances available to the New Haven community, and selecting a season of new work and new approaches that allows us to engage with performances in new ways. EveryBrilliantThingis one of those shows that only works when the audience is prepared to participate; it relies heavily on active engagement. We hope you all will feel encouraged to join in the creation of this piece!

From the moment you enter the space, you’ll notice an emphasis on immersion The lighting is practical; you can sit on the couch that also serves as a set piece. You may be asked to read a passage from that book on the shelf behind you. You may even have a conversation and find that conversation appear in the show Whether or not you step on the stage, you will play a character in the story, not only because of how relatable it is, but also because this kind of engagement is worth living for.

-Jason, Kayodè & Ashley

A Note from the Director

It is often assumed that every theatre artist will one day transition to film for any number of reasons: Money, Fame, Artistic Interest. When I maintain to family and friends that my hope is to always remain in the theatre, I speak about the individualized temporal nature of the theatre. The deep collaboration, ensemble building, and joy that we strive to accomplish in every process. And now, more specifically, I can point them here EveryBrilliantThing . We meet our Narrator on his journey to find hope and meaning in life while dealing with trauma and depression – but he can’t do it alone! He needs you. EveryBrilliantThing so actively does each of the many things that I have always loved about the craft of theatre.

1. Individualized Temporal Experience: The people around you here, matter right now. You complete the play.

2. Collaboration: The world that you stepped in after walking into this building is the result of the tireless work of so many brilliant artists. It contains a little bit of us all, that we now get to share with you.

3. Ensemble: Each night we get to make a little community with you. You are the plays ensemble the cast of characters!

4. Joy: Part of our rehearsal ritual is making our own small list of Brilliant Things every day. Because of this, I notice a little bit more brilliance every day. For instance:

- Events that let you spend time with people you love who live far from you.

- Belly Laughs at 4am. Like LOUD Belly Laughs that you’re afraid will wake up your neighbors.

- Lavender Chai Tea with Oat Milk (specifically, from The Graduate)

- Opening Nights!

I hope this makes your day a little more brilliant too.

-Alexis Kulani Woodard

A Note from the Dramaturg brilliant (adj.)

1. full of light, shining, bright in color; luminous

2. exceptionally clever or talented

3. very good, excellent, or marvelous; eliciting joy

The brilliance of EveryBrilliantThinglives in a space of And. “The idea that a list of nice things could combat hardwired depression was embarrassingly naïve,” the show’s narrator tells us. Those of us who create art—that is to say, all of us—are subject to the realization that there are some things the art we make simply cannot do. Without broader structural change and specific, individualized care, a work of art like a play or a list of brilliant things is insufficient to meet our needs and those of our communities.

Yes, and

This play reminds us that imagination, human connection, the ability to bring things into being by speaking them aloud—the very building blocks of theater—are the things that make life bearable, even brilliant. Theater does things.

With in-house lights and direct engagement that illuminate both audience and performer alike, this show makes the invisibilized visible. We as audience members are so often asked to forget that we exist or, at least, forget that we exist in this space at this time with this community of people sitting around us. EveryBrilliantThinginvites us to remember. In this production, audience members may be invited to enter into the world of the play as family members, lecturers, or sock dogs, and always as themselves.

These days, we often find ourselves in a position of being necessary, but not sufficient. We feel the pressure to make those we love happy, and more often than not find we can’t do it alone.

And maybe that’s okay. The installation of sticky notes, receipts, napkins, and notebook pages papering the entrance to the Cabaret was created by Julie Davis using hundreds of brilliant things contributed by dozens of individuals from across the New Haven community. Despite how it may seem at first, EveryBrilliantThingis not a one-person show.

EveryBrilliantThinghelps us to see that multiple things can be true at the same time. One does not always have to be enough. Thank you for being part of this production. You’re brilliant.

EveryBrilliantThing

By Duncan MacMillan

PRODUCED BY

Matthew Sonnenfeld & Julie Davis*

Associate Producer Fanny Abib-Rozenberg

CREATIVE TEAM

Director Alexis Kulani Woodard

Associate Director Carson White

Stage Manager Regina Carson

Production Dramaturg Sophia Carey*

Scenic Designer Kim Zhou

Assistant Scenic Designer Patti Panyakaew

Lighting Designer Yung-Hung Sung

Sound Designer Mike Winch

Props Manager Bennet Goldberg

Technical Director Shawn Poellet*

Ritual Consultant JaQuan Beachem*

Lobby Display Julie Davis

Show Sponsor L.T. Gourzong

CAST

Malachi dré Beasley

*Yale Cabaret Debut Special Thanks

Atticus Market, Donut Crazy, Jasmine Moore, Don Titus, Allyse Corbin, Jennifer McClure, Ankit Pandey

Mission

Yale Cabaret 55 is a transition; a space to place your art and watch it transform. We do not suggest that your art begins or ends with us, but it will change with us. We invite our community to take risks with us. Failure is not an option; it is an illusion. Like Pantone Color of the Year: Very Peri, we know that “as we emerge from an intense period of isolation, our notions and standards are changing, and our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways.” We seek to be a holding space to explore these changes. Cabaret 55 is a shared experiment of what it means to come back to theater.

Values

• The Cab is a studio

• The Cab is a space for trial and error

• The Cab is a space for fellowship

• There is no utopia, only risk and commitment

• There are no assignments, only invitations

Land Acknowledgement

The state of Connecticut and Yale University occupy the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, Quinnipiac, and other Algonquian speaking peoples. We honor and respect their continued relationship with and stewardship of this land, and we acknowledge that Yale University, Yale Cabaret, and those affiliated have benefited from the oppression of these Nations.

Labor Acknowledgement

Yale University does not exist independently from the centuries of forced labor and economic extraction of enslaved people, primarily of African descent, on which this country was built. We are indebted to their labor and their unwilling sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the ongoing violence inflicted on Black and brown people and the resulting impact and generational trauma still felt today.

Leadership Team

Executive Artistic Director

Jason Gray

Producing Artistic Director

Kayodè Soyemi

Production Managers

Producing Artistic Director

Ashley M. Thomas

Leo Surach & Cameron Waitkun

Collaborators

Graphic Designer

Mikayla Johnson

Website Designer

Kayodè Soyemi

Community Engagement a.k. payne

Anchor Spa x Yale Cabaret

Chef Kendall Thigpen

Stage Management

Nakia Avila

Theater Management

Fanny Abib-Rozenberg

Dramaturgy

Lily Haje

Playwriting

Danielle Stagger

Marketing Associate

Roman Sanchez Cabaret Assistant(s)

Maya Shed

Andrew Valdez

Advisory Board

Sound Evdoxia Ragkou

Scenic

Cat Raynor

Projections

John Horzen

Acting

Lucas Iverson

Technical Design

Eugenio Saenz Flores

Lighting

Jiahao (Neil) Qui

Directing

Garrett Allen

Costumes

Kyle Artone

Board of Directors

Chair

Wendy Davies

Jacob Basri

Samanta Yunuen Cubias

Eric M. Glover

L.T. Gourzong

Linda-Cristal Young

About the Cab

In 1968, the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale students established a basement performance venue in the former home of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at 217 Park Street. Envisioned as an alternative outlet for drama school students’ creativity and experimentation, Yale Cabaret became a forum for our expanded New Haven communities, whom we invite to gather around food, drink, conversation, fellowship, and artistry.

Since its founding, the Cabaret has remained in continuous operation, including pivoting to virtual performance during the 2020/21 season. The Cab has produced hundreds of plays, old and new, alongside musicals and musical revues, comedy shows, dance, performance art, and genre-defying performance.

Our supporters have made this storied history happen. With their partnership, we continue this tradition into 2023 and beyond.

Our Supporters

Honorary Season Producer ($7,500+)

Indira Etwaroo & Apple

Parachuter ($5,000-$7,499)

Santino Blumetti

Brian Tyree Henry Champion ($2,500-$4,999)

Wendy Davies

Tarell Alvin McCraney

R. Lee Stump

Partners ($1,000-$2,499)

Nina Adams & Moreson Kaplan

Joan Channick

Eric M. Glover, PhD

James G. Hood

Bennett Pudlin & Ann Judd

Bill & Sharon Reynolds

Elaine Ring

Show Sponsors ($500-$999)

Audrey Conrad

Betty & Josh Goldberg

L.T. Gourzong

Jim & Eileen Mydosh

Anne Renner

Enthusiasts ($250-$499)

James A. Bundy & Anne Tofflemire

Sarah Cain

Pamela C. Jordan

Corby S. Kummer

Erin Rocha

Florie Seery