A note from the CAB TEAM: It’s been a year. It’s our greatest honor to end our season with two extraordinary solo shows: the moment before… and Kitchen of Truth: A Martha Stewart Special. One is about the most universal thing in the world, while the other one is about a very particular individual. But you might ask the same questions watching these shows, since both pieces raise questions about the meaning of a life and where we find justice. We hope you ask more questions than find answers. When these solo shows first came to us, they were each drafts of only a few pages. Witnessing how two fearless artists Matthew Elijah Webb and Madeline Seidman developed them into beautifully fully-fledged performances reminded us what it’s like to create art with hopes, dreams, and collective vision. We deeply admire and congratulate both performer-writers and every collaborator who spent many days and nights behind the scenes to make today’s production possible. Thank you for bringing your passion to the Cab. And thank you to everyone who has joined our journey this year. -Cab 53 Leadership Team
Maeli Goren, Jisun Kim, Nicole E. Lang, and Matthew Sonnenfeld
A note from the Steven Team: Hi there. Welcome to our room. Relax. Take a seat. We know that it’s been a long year. I assume that since you’re here, you might have some questions about death. The good news is that Matthew Elijah Webb’s riveting solo show, the moment before…, has some answers for you. Admittedly, the truth is complicated but how often do we get to meet a demigod? In this room, there’s nothing to be afraid of. This show floats between an automythography and personal narrative. the moment before… invites us in and asks us to consider the origin stories of powers that are seemingly invisible but shape our lives more than we know. We all know death is the only thing guaranteed to us, right? -Ashley M. Thomas
A note from the Martha Team: Remember 2004? This guy Dubya was getting reelected and bombing Afghanistan—now he’s painting portraits!
Usher was serenading us with his confessions—part two!
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/politics/george-w-bush-paintings/index.html
This ~incredible~ movie came out—what a franchise! https://iwantmypopculture.com/2020/06/27/video-review-usher-confessions-pt-ii/
And Martha was getting ready to go to jail for insider trading—stock market and soup stocks, oh my!
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/07/16/martha-stewart-sentenced-for-corporate-fraud-15years-ago.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/mediaviewer/rm915381504/
-xoxo, Nahuel Telleria
the moment before... Written and Proposed by Matthew Elijah Webb
Creative Team Playwright Director Producers Dramaturg Stage Manager Show Operator Video Designer/Editor Scenic Designer Assistant Scenic Designer Sound Desginer/Composer Lighting Designer Costume Designer Production Assistant
Matthew Elijah Webb Alexandra Maurice Emma Perrin Will Gaines Ashley M. Thomas Edmond O’Neal Hannah Tran Camilla Tassi Anna Grigo KIMKIM Mike Winch* Nicole E. Lang David Mitsch Karl Green
CAST Steven
Matthew Elijah Webb
*indicates a Yale Cabaret Debut
Special Thanks: Eloise, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Rudi Goblen, Beth McGuire, Erica Fae, Grace Zandarski, Nicole Brewer, Maal Imani West, Sarah Lyddan, Anthony Holiday, Kevin McDonald, Madeline Seidman, and Kimberly Golding
Kitchen of Truth: A Martha Stewart Special Written and Proposed by Madeline Seidman
Creative Team Playwright Director Producers Dramaturgs
Stage Manager Director of Photography/Editor Show Operator Videographers Sound Designer Costume Designer Greeting Card Designer
Madeline Seidman Kimberly Golding* Will Gaines Emma Perrin Nahuel Telleria Kimberly Golding* Jisun Kim Brandon Lovejoy Hannah Tran Hannah Tran Jisun Kim Nahuel Telleria Noel Nichols Meg Powers Isuri Wijesundara
CAST Martha Voice
Madeline Seidman Thomas Pang
*indicates a Yale Cabaret Debut
Special Thanks: Tarell Alvin McCraney, Rudi Goblen, Catherine Sheehy, Beth McGuire, Jessica Wolf, Chris Bayes, Erica Fae, Grace Zandarski, Nicole Brewer, Julian Sanchez, Tavia Hunt, Brendan George, Reed Northrup, Carolyn Kettig, Terah Ehijiator, Bex Kent, Margaret Douglas, Sarah Lyddan, Sarah Sanders, Joan Sergay, Matthew Elijah Webb, and Alexandra Maurice
Interview with the Creators Madeline Seidman and Matthew Elijah Webb are interviewed by Julian Sanchez Julian: Hello hello you two. You both look gorgeous. My first question—this is a curiosity of mine because I primarily know you both as actors—but have you always known you were writers? Madeline: Writing was one of my favorite parts of growing up. In elementary school, I always really digged writing poems and short stories and would sit in the kitchen and look at the ceiling and think about the stories I wanted to tell. I continued doing that throughout grade school, but sort of got away from that in college, until, my senior year, I took a playwriting course with Basil Kreimendahl, and that’s the first time in a while I had done creative writing again, and that’s actually the class where I wrote an early version of this play. It was a two hander between Martha and her ex-husband. It’s nothing like the current state of the solo show, but that’s where the idea was born. Matthew: I think similarly to Madeline, I enjoyed writing so much growing up-- writing poetry, I did spoken word for a long time. I actually have my undergraduate degree in writing too—got my written communications degree. It was a lot of academic writing, but in the curriculum was a lot of creative writing, prose, poetry—stuff like that. Then I got to grad school and I was like: Okay, I’m interested in using these skills that I’m learning as an actor, and putting them into my own practice as a writer. To build worlds and characters that I dream of myself being in. Julian: I know parts of these pieces were workshopped and presented in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Solo Performance” class in the fall, but where did the idea actually come from originally? Was it an image, a theme, a character, a fucking dream? I’m curious about the kernel of the thing. Madeline: I guess I would say I was thinking about prison abolition being a part of the national conversation, and the events of the summer during quarantine, and thinking about white privilege within the criminal justice system-- that was an initial thing I wanted to explore through this character who I had already written about and who had lived in my hometown before she went to prison, I think there was a connection there. I think she’s a very ripe figure to explore those privileges through. Matthew: I’m not sure if it was solely because of the pandemic, but there was a fascination I had with the idea of death. Fantasies about death as an idea, death as this very inevitable thing, death as a character. There have been so many senseless deaths in the black community, so many deaths because of this pandemic, suicide, all these different forms of this very
Matthew cont.: inevitable thing, I’m so curious how the character of Death lives inside of all of that. How this Grim Reaper as a person, or a god, or demi-god, exists within all this. I had an idea: what if I could sit down and talk to them, I wonder what they would say? I wonder if they like their job, or if it hurts them. Maybe both. Julian: You’re both working with directors who are also friends of yours. Matthew you’re directed by Alexandra [Maurice], and Maddie you’re working with a friend from Williams [Kimberly Golding]. I’m wondering, did those relationships freely translate to the rehearsals? Madeline: Yes, Kim was a friend of mine from college. She’s a director and producer in New York currently working for Clubbed Thumb. I asked her if she wanted to come on board over winter break, and she became my third dramaturg as well as director. We had meetings once every few weeks before we got into the virtual rehearsal room to check in about the script and see where it was heading. Kim and I did improv and sketch comedy in college, as well as some theatre, so I thought of her as a wonderful person to collaborate with because it’s a satire and it was gonna be a little clownish and off-kilter. It’s been really fun. She has such an amazing eye for staging and design, and it’s just great to have someone who can be objective about that from the outside. Matthew: I was so fortunate to have Alexandra join the team. I love Alexandra, probably more than I love a lot of things in the world. She was there for the inception of the idea [in Tarell’s class]. I originally reached out for her to be a sort of associate director, like an outside eye, because I had the idea of directing it myself, and then once we started to get drafts out, I thought: I don’t want to direct this, and because I had worked with Alexandra before on the human is sad; let’s start a band in the Black Theatre Festival, I knew that I loved how she ran the room and how inspired her vision for new works was. I think there’s something so special about actors who direct, because they have a different way of communicating to actors. There’s a sensitivity about their vision that honors the actors and their acting more than just the holistic view of the piece. I was so grateful for the chance to sit intimately with the text and try to figure out the actions. What are the objectives? Can we answer the big questions? Alexandra has known my work as an actor for two and a half years now, so that was another benefit in our collaboration. Julian: I feel like as a class we’ve all gone through so many states of mourning about having to do what we do over this medium [Zoom, the digital realm], and I’m wondering, through the rehearsal process, what’s excited you about working in this form? Matthew: This was all new for me—I mean I’ve done some film stuff before, but not a lot of it at all. This was a new and fun and challenging, very challenging thing to accomplish. Especially because I wasn’t able to be in space with anyone, so it was like doing an extended self-tape of sorts, and self-tapes can be frustrating, you know? There were moments of liberty where I was like: I feel like I’m leaning into a choice, but I’m not sure if I’m being too small or too big because the camera’s over there and no one’s watching it. There’s no one watching on a monitor to tell me what my scales are, what can be seen, so it’s a lot of minutiae to navigate
Matthew cont.: around on top of trying to navigate my lines and be present virtually. In that challenge, I found a lightness, like: “I don’t know what I’m doing, so let’s just play”. Madeline: I think knowing that it was gonna be on Zoom really informed how I wrote the piece. I think going with the concept that this is Martha’s last episode after the show’s been canceled that she’s self-producing really fits with what I’m literally doing. (laughs) I am alone with no crew in my own kitchen. So that really informed the loneliness that she’s experiencing, and the desperation to connect with an audience that’s not even really there-- I could quite literally put that into the piece. I would say because it’s a comedy, it’s definitely really hard to [perform solo] without anyone in the room giving you laughter or immediate feedback, so it’s been nice during the rehearsal to have people keep their cameras on just to be able to check in with how they’re reacting. Julian: Something I noticed reading your pieces back to back is that they have such different relationships to genre: Madeline, your play presents as a comedy but has dramatic implications, and Matthew, your play [being about death] obviously presents more as a drama, but has very dark humor inside of it. What do you want audience members to get out of the experience of watching both these pieces in the same night? Is there anything you think they have in common? Matthew: Having sat in on Madeline’s rehearsal, the word that keeps coming to mind is: the inevitable. There’s a level of inevitability in both pieces, something you won’t be able to change, something is going to happen, something’s impending. I’m eager for the audience to feel that moment of suspension, existing in this liminal space. This is all the moment before, right? Like the title of my piece speaks to the moment before something happens, and I think it’s the same thing for Maddie’s piece too. I wonder if that will be apparent or not, but that’s definitely a commonality that’s come up for me. Madeline: One of my favorite commonalities between the two is they’re both about iconic figures. Everybody knows death, most people have their own imagery from pop culture and religion and myths. And a lot of people know Martha Stewart, she’s like an American icon because of how she’s been able to publicize herself. She has a certain image around her trial and around her success that she’s able to sort of stand behind, and I think both of our pieces ask audiences to re-examine and to dig underneath how they hold these two figures in their ethical mind space, how these cultural figures are considered. One might be deemed a loveable figure and one might be deemed something to be very scared of, and maybe at the end of these two pieces that should be reversed. Julian: Well thank you both. I’m so excited to watch. There’s something so heartening about watching peers explore outside their discipline. I can’t wait for your play, and your play, and for Alexandra’s direction. All hail Alexandra. (laughs). Matthew: Also we are uplifting black female directors! Kim and Alexandra are really in here showing up. Julian: Absolutely---- Break a leg both of you. I wish you the best.
Organizations working towards equity and Justice in the carceral system Critical REsistance http://criticalresistance.org/ Incarcerated workers organizing committee https://incarceratedworkers.org/ Drug Policy Alliance https://drugpolicy.org/ additional information about efforts for cannabis justice The MORE Act - Read about this Act recently passed by the House on the ACLU’s page https://www.cannabisvoter.info - To check your representatives cannabis voting records
More to Explore Community Spotlight- Love Fed New Haven For our final Cab 53 Community Spotlight, we are proud to feature Love Fed New Haven, a project feeding communities with love and empowering people through food. Visit the spotlight page on our website to learn about their mission and check out our recent interview with Founder and Visionary Raven A. Blake. Visit www.yalecabaret.org/community-spotlight for more information! Cab Gallery- Rough Drafts Gallery Featuring multimedia performances, visual art, music, production renderings and more! Visit the Rough Drafts Gallery today to see contributions by writer/performer Maal Imani West, studetns at ATLAS Middle School, designers from the Yale School of Drama, composer Samantha Wolf, Vox Machina, and comopser Edward Elgar. The Rough Drafts Gallery is free and open to all! Visit www.yalecabaret.org/RDFHUB for more information!
Mission and Values Yale Cabaret is an artistic community that invites students from the Yale School of Drama and our neighbors throughout greater Yale University and New Haven to imagine utopia. We artist-explorers join in spirit and space to make theater that manifests our wildest collaborative visions. Fueled by the values of symbiotic collaboration, neighborliness, accountability, and wonder, we discover how much we can make, experience, and imagine together. The state of Connecticut and Yale University occupy the ancestral lands of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples. We honor and respect their stewardship of this land. Symbiotic Collaboration.
Neighborliness.
We approach each collaboration in pursuit of our utopian ideal- that every team member is fed and fulfilled artistically, intellectually, and spiritually. We will pursue new channels of collaboration and support artists in our community to develop sustainable and generative ways to work together, because that creates JOY.
The Cab is a space for learning, growth, and the joy of storytelling for current YSD students as well as for our neighbors at greater Yale and throughout New Haven. The stories and artistic approaches on our stage will be inclusive and accessible to all in our community.
Accountability. The Cab has a responsibility to foster open and direct communication between our leadership, artists, and the communities we serve. Each member of our community is empowered to contribute to its betterment, and every member makes a difference.
Wonder. The Cab will cultivate surprise and artistic innovation. We are explorers in search of “wow”. Pushing the boundaries of theatrical expression and innovation with a well-proportioned season of courageous new plays, reinventions of established plays, and devised and multidisciplinary works, design-driven explorations, and work that is non-text-driven, The Cab strives to ignite our community’s imagination.
Please visit our website to see more about our advocacy work including our community spotlight and our features on Black Women and TGNBGNC playwrights www.yalecabaret.org
Leadership Team Co-Artistic Directors Maeli Goren Jisun Kim Nicole E. Lang
Managing Director Matthew Sonnenfeld
Staff Technical Supervisors Nic Benavides Cameron Waitkun
Cabaret Assistants Chloe Knight Allie Delaney
Graphic Design Mikayla Johnson
Website Design Camilla Tassi
Accessibility Assistant Whitney Andrews Accessibility Researcher Madeline Charne
Preshow Design John Horzen
Artistic Associates Collaborative Leadership Maeli Goren
Design- Lighting Graham Zellers
New Works Benjamin Benne
Communication Management Edmond O’Neal
Design- Projections Henry Rodriguez
Performance Tavia Hunt
Community Collaboration Madeline Charne Eliza Orleans
Design- Scenic Miguel Urbino
Producing Annabel Guevara
Design- Sound Bailey Trierweiler
Storytelling Faith Zamblé
Design- Costumes Phuong Nguyen
Imagination Manifestor Laura Copenhaver
Board of Directors Matthew Suttor, Chair Benjamin Benne Sami Cubias
Kelvin Dinkins, Jr. Anna Glover Reed Northrup Linda-Cristal Young
To our beloved Cabaret audience, Thank you for your trust, support, and willingness to dive with us into the unknown. As we wrap up our season, we are deeply grateful to you for coming on the Cab 53 journey. Please join us at 8pm on Saturday March 22 to celebrate our season and welcome the incoming Cab 54 team! More details to come. With love always, Maeli, Jisun, Nicole, and Matthew
Giving Levels Our Donors Make this virtual season possible! Make your donation today! Cabaret Season Sponsors $5000 • • •
Cabaret Enthusiasts $250
Recognition in the footer of our website Recognition in all pre-show reels Plus, all the perks below
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Cabaret Champions $2500 • • •
Cabaret Supporters $100
One Full Season Membership Dinner virtually with the Artistic Directors and Managing Director Plus, all the perks below
Cabaret Partners $1000 • •
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Invitation to all Cabaret donor parties throughout the season Plus, all the perks below
Cabaret Friends $20 • •
Recognition in all pre-show reels Plus, all the perks below
Listing in the Cabaret progams Plus, all the perks below
Cabaret contributors <$20
Cabaret Show Sponsors $500 •
Personalized thank you video from the Artistic Directors and Managing Director Plus, all the perks below
Recognition during your show’s curtain speech & preshow reel Plus, all the perks below
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Listing on the Cabaret website
**Corporate matching gifts are also a great way for you to double your contribution to Yale Cabaret. Check to see if your company has a gift matching program.
For more information, please visit our website, www.yalecabaret.org or call the Managing Director at 203-432-8338.
What’s Next May 22nd at 8pm est Cab Potluck- Cab 53 Edition Cab Potluck is a community-centered event focusing on connection through nourishment of body and soul. Come into the kitchen and converse with a group of cooks attempting to create a delicious, edible meal from a basket of secret ingredients. In true Potluck fashion, we ask you to bring a contribution for the table: your art, your words, your photos, your stories, your videos, your music, anything that fits with the monthly theme! This event is open to all!
Our Donors Since its founding in 1968, the Yale Cabaret has been a place where Yale School of Drama students can experiment with new theatrical forms and develop our artistry outside of the classroom. With the generous support of our donors, we build on our rich legacy to make space for students and the greater New Haven community to grow together through self-expression and artistic exploration.
Cabaret PartnerS Nina Adams & Moreson Kaplan Santino Blumetti Ann Judd & Bennett Pudlin Eric Nold & Ramond Curtis Kenneth Sonnenfeld & Peg Brivanlou Matthew Suttor Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration Cabaret Show Sponsors Asian Potluck Beyond Borders David Budries Wendy Davies Joan Channick & Ruth Hein Schmitt Betty & Josh Goldberg Molly & Matthew Goren Latiana “LT” Gourzong Armando Huipe Bill & Sharon Reynolds Abby Roth & Lee Stump^ Sylvia Van Sinderen & James Sinclair Paul Walsh Yale MacMillian Center Council on East Asian Studies ^ indicates the show sponsor(s) for this Live Production
Cabaret Enthusiasts Sonja Berggren & Patrick T. Seaver Donald & Mary Brown Pamela C. Jordan Ellen Lange Cabaret Supporters Liz Diamond Leon & Megan Doyon Andrea Graham Lockheed Martin Amy Povich & David Agus Kevin P. Rogers Bob & Theresa Simon Anne Tofflemire & James Bundy
Our Donors Continued Cabaret Friends Jessica Armstrong Theodore M. Cruz Joanie Banks-Hunt Lissa M. Drewniak James Ball Hugh D. Farrell, Jr. Christine Barker Monica Fennell Laurie Beitz Dianne Moira Hamilton Martha O. Boateng James Hannaham Rhona Ceppos Ethan Heard Katherine & Chava Burgueño Colleen M. Hyche John Carlson Danielle Karliner Gretchen Carvajal Jordan Katz Katie E. Chipungu Benjamin Kent Maggie Lally
Ann Lobdell Mary-Margaret McLeod Amy Marotta Katz Janet Miller Jim & Eileen Mydosh Jenny Nelson Shawn Polizzi Katherine Ann Profetta Oakton A. Reynolds Andrew Scharenberg Bryn Scharenberg Jonathan Schwartz
Cabaret Contributors Erica Adarkwa Claire Dunnett Raphael Lecat Terrease Aiken Katherine Dymek Melissa Lemons Igor Akimushkin Jaylen De’Andre Eashmond Thaihera LeSian Nurse Amy Angelastro Ilana Eichinger Xuan Li Leong Alexandra L. Anthony Elizabeth Emmanuel Andrew Lodynsky Dani Barlow Christopher Ewell Samuel Lopez Eric Bednarski Hugh D. Farrell, Jr. Petra Lord Chad S. Birmingham Cassie Fraser-Ball Mengxian Ma Elizabeth Bolster Gordon C. Gaynor Erin MacDonnell Amy Boratko & Alex Speiser Carlos Godoy Parejo Joan MacIntosh Brian Boyd Emily Gordon Hannah Marsh Molly Boyle Christopher Gottschalk Amanda Martinez Nicole Brewer Helen Haje Gary Marx & Ruth A. Brown Maurice L. Harris Donna Sonnenfeld Sharon Brown Laurie Heineman Giulia Mascali Edwin Buckingham Sanelma Heinonen Jacqueline Ann Mastrianni Bobby Burvant Robert Homer Bryan Mcgill Paulo Cabral Winston Hovekamp Ms. Miranda Z. McGuireKatina Calakos Melanie Adele Hyche Schwartz Yomi Calloway Gabrielle Jackson Vestak McIntyre Aaron Calrderon Maria Jiang Jennifer McTiernan Carla E. Chappel Angeline Jones Daphne Milner Rebecca Cramer Beth A. Jones Stephanie Mitchell Carol Cui Susan Kalt Max Monnig Roze Czekala Melissa A. Kaplan Kenneth Morford Janet E. Davidson Fran Karliner Walter Lynn Mosley Jen DiBella Katherine A. Kay Vivien Ng Katherine M. DiGiulio Rachel Kent Ellen Novack LaRaisha Dionne Laura Kirk Jane Nowosadko Moira Donovan Karen A. Killeen Cleo M. O’Brien-Udry Irwin Krieger Joshua Olin Ernest Kwarteng Rene Manuel Otero
Rachel Shuey Jennifer Sims Audrey Sostak Evelyn Spann R. Lee Stump Carolee Walker Jenny Weiss Walton Wilson Jessica Wolf Marilyn G. Zieserl Mary Zihal
Andrew Paton Sarah Paoletti Ryan Richard Petersburg David Porter Nora Proops Suzanne Sherman Propp Nabil R Maggie Ramseur Gabi Rubenstein Mayur Saigal Elizabeth Schell Thomas Seller & Gideon Lester Lois Shaukat Nomè SiDone Laura Silvestri Robert Stubbs Annie Stutzman Michael Tayag Ricarda Tomlin Philip Toop Hannah Tran Suzanne Tucker Elizabeth A. Tullis Brad Waters Michelle Welsh Noelle Wiggins Sarah P. Wilson Darron Leigh Wolf Chloe Zimmerman Scott Zotto Rachel Zwick
Thank you for your generous contributions!
217 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06511 203-432-1566 www.yalecabaret.org