The Carlotta Festival 2023, David Geffen School of Drama

OUR MISSION

David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre train and advance leaders in the practice of every theatrical discipline, making art to inspire joy, empathy, and understanding in the world.

OUR CORE VALUES

Artistry

We expand knowledge to nurture creativity and imaginative expression embracing the complexity of the human spirit.

Belonging

We put people first, centering well-being, inclusion, and equity for theatermakers and audiences through anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices.

Collaboration

We build our collective work on a foundation of mutual respect, prizing the contributions and accomplishments of the individual and of the team.

Discovery

We wrestle with compelling issues of our time. Energized by curiosity, invention, bravery, and humor, we challenge ourselves to risk and learn from failure and vulnerability.

Tyler Cruz ’23, Janiah François ’24, Tavia Elise Hunt ’23, Maggie McCaffery ’23, Giovanna Drummond ’24, and Caro Riverita ’24 in Affinity by Rebecca Adelsheim ’22 and Alex Keegan ’22, based on the novel by Sarah Waters, directed by Alex Keegan. scenery: Cat Raynor ’23; costumes: Aidan Griffiths ’23; sound: Bryn Scharenberg ’23; lighting: Graham Zellers ’23; projections: Hannah Tran ’23; dramaturgy: Rebecca Adelsheim; technical director: Kelly O’Loughlin ’22; stage manager: Aisling Galvin ’23. Photo © T. Charles Erickson, 2022.

Yale University acknowledges that Indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan , Mashantucket

Pequot , Eastern Pequot , Schaghticoke , Golden Hill

Paugussett , Niantic , and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples , have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring and continuing relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.

MASKING

All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater except when eating or drinking. Our staff, backstage crew, and artists (when not performing on stage) will also be masked at all times.

FIRE NOTICE

Illuminated signs above each door indicate emergency exits. Please check for the nearest exit. In the event of emergency, you will be notified by theater personnel and assisted in the evacuation of the building.

RESTROOMS

Facilities are on the same level of the venue as the theater, though the lobby and into Yale School of Art.

PHOTO POLICY

The taking of photographs or the use of recording devices of any kind in the theater without the written permission of the management is prohibited.

a note from the playwriting chairs

Welcome!

The Carlotta Festival at David Geffen School of Drama, traditionally, is a culmination of practice for three emerging writers. This year, three graduating playwrights have engaged with dynamic directors, technicians, designers, dramaturgs, stage managers, actors, and theater managers—many who are fellow artists in training at the Geffen School, others are prized former members of the community, and some are honored guests—to arrive at this auspicious occasion: sharing the plays with you.

In previous iterations, the festival took on different forms to ebb with the oncein-a-lifetime global crisis and its intimate effect on us all. We thank you for joining us as we reignite the festival in its traditional form with three powerful artists and community leaders. Under their tenure, the playwriting program had to change. Unprecedented growth was achieved as they have endured, with you, years of deep reflection and grief. With these works they have found their way towards celebration even while they still do mourn. These three plays all ask us to consider: what is healing and how do we find it?

We watch two brothers wrestle towards curing their past in Rudi Goblen’s littleboy/littleman as two cousins mourn and forge freedom in Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne. In Color Boy by Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel, a young boy shows up to remind a young man that the path towards healing is made by ‘marching.’

While these plays are a culmination of their endeavors here at the School, they are only the beginning of what’s to come for these writers. We are grateful to share these works and celebrate a.k, Esperanza, and Rudi, as they journey into the next phase of their careers.

Sincerely,

Anne Erbe and Tarell Alvin McCraney

Co-Chairs of the Playwriting program, David Geffen School of Drama

DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE

James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean

Florie Seery, Associate Dean

Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean

Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean

Anne Erbe and Tarell Alvin McCraney, Co-Chairs of Playwriting

PRESENTS

littleboy/littleman

By Rudi Goblen

Directed by Jacob Basri

Furlough’s Paradise

By a.k. payne

Directed by Leyla Levi

Color Boy

By Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel

Directed by Jecamiah Ybañez

These productions are supported by the Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.

littleboy/littleman

By Rudi Goblen

Directed by Jacob Basri

creative team

Music Director and Choreographer

Rudi Goblen

Scenic Designer

Léa Louna Tubiana

Costume Designer

T.F. Dubois

Lighting Designer

David Anthony-Ken DeCarolis

Sound Designer

Joyce Ciesil

Technical Director

Eugenio Sáenz Flores

Production Dramaturgs

Lily Haje

Faith-Marie Zamblé

Stage Manager

Charlie Lovejoy

setting

Sweetwater.

cast in alphabetical order

Bastian/Menocal

Andhy Mendez

Fíto/Miss Clark

Marlon Alexander Vargas

musicians

Drummer

Jorge Banuelos

Bassist

Jaylon Jamal (JJ)

littleboy/littleman is performed without an intermission.

littleboy/littleman was originally developed during Yale Cabaret’s 52nd Season (Jaime Totti, Managing Director; Zachry Bailey, Brandon E. Burton, and Alex Vermillion, Artistic Directors).

content guidance

This production contains profanity, racially charged language, loud noises, and flashing lights, as well as descriptions and non-graphic depictions of violence.

To watch a play by Rudi Goblen is to plunge yourself into a world where language—its tonality, its rhythm, its music—is a character as fully dimensional as the people on stage. In the dialogue between the two brothers of littleboy/ littleman, poetry and prose breathe into each other until you can’t tell who’s singing whose song. And, maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the play’s the thing, or rather, play-ing: the act of re-imagining the present to create new ways into the past. Or future. Blurred boundaries between places, spaces, dimensions, and genres are part of Rudi’s aesthetic as an artist, and as such, are the foundation of littleboy/littleman. And, from this foundation, a play about race, colorism, and Nicaraguan latinidad emerges to ask you if you know what time it is.

So, what time is it? Those of us who have taken the New York City subway might say, “Showtime,” in honor of the street performers who make a living offering their songs, dances and poems to the public. In the world of littleboy/ littleman, it is showtime, yes, but it is also time for brothers Bastian and Fíto to examine the ways they perform their respective identities, in relation to each and to the broader world. These brothers, one Afro-Latinx and one white-passing, are caught in the grip of what theorist José Esteban Muñoz calls a “rigged game,” one that “block[s] access to freedom to those who cannot inhabit or at least mimic certain affective rhythms that have been preordained as acceptable.” A freedom predicated on an ability to replicate whiteness is not real freedom, one brother argues. A freedom predicated on your linguistic dexterity in a world determined not to hear you isn’t real freedom either, the other replies.

It would be easy to get caught up in the tennis match of the argument, as the tension ratchets up, and hidden wounds are revealed. Ultimately, however, instead of keeping score or trying to decided who is right, we would be better served by looking directly at the hydra of colorism, racism and colonization that turns brothers against instead of towards each other. In the maw of American imperialism, love often seems to perish first. And love is what both these brothers need most—from each other, from the women they’ve lost, and above all, from themselves. bell hooks writes in The Will to Change, her seminal work on masculinity, that while women can guide and nurture the men in their lives, at the end of the day, “boys and men save themselves when they learn the art of loving.” By learning how to love and embracing the joy and play of boyhood, Fíto and Bastian might find a way to become men, and in that becoming, might find a way to get free.

—Lily Haje and Faith-Marie Zamblé, Production Dramaturgs

about the playwright

Rudi Goblen (also Music Director and Choreographer) is a playwright, poet, and performer who creates solo theater and devised theater works. As an acclaimed dancer, he has toured internationally, competing, adjudicating, and teaching with his award-winning group Flipside Kings.

Rudi is a three-time recipient of playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center, the Distinguished Achievement for the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting; as well as the Future Aesthetics Artist Re-grant, two Miami-Dade County Choreographer Awards, a FEAST Award for his book of poems “A Bag of Halos and Horns,” and a Theater Masters’ TAKE TEN Playwright.

He is a founding member of Teo Castellanos/D-Projects and Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre. And he has trained and worked with Cirque De Soleil and DV8 Physical Theater.

Publications include Theater magazine, Imagined Theatres: Writing for a Theoretical Stage, and Samuel French/ Concord Theatricals.

Rudi will receive his M.F.A. in playwriting from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale in May 2023.

rudigoblen.com

cast in alphabetical order

Andhy Mendez* (Bastian, Menocal) is a Cuban-born American actor. Most recently, he portrayed Manny Diaz in Rogelio Martinez’s Elian at Miami New Drama and Fidel Castro in Eduardo Machado’s Celia and Fidel at Arena Stage. Selected theater credits include Macbeth,Timon of Athens (Folger Shakespeare Theatre); Shakespeare in Love (Cleveland Playhouse); Sotto Voce (Theater for the New City), and Hamlet: Prince of Cuba (Asolo Repertory Theatre). He has appeared in numerous film and television programs such as Tulsa King, Scrapper, FBI, Bull, Chicago

P.D., Orange Is the New Black, and Blue Bloods, to name a few. He resides in Miami, Florida.

Marlon Alexander Vargas (Fíto, Miss Clark) is a Dominican actor from the Bronx, New York. He is in his first year at David Geffen School of Drama and is thrilled to be a part of this production of littleboy/littleman. This is a play that he believes is able to redefine what it looks like to be at the theater by creating a new kind of way of approaching storytelling. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a degree in journalism in 2020.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

creative team

in alphabetical order

Jacob Basri (Director) is a fourthyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where he has directed Ghosts, Love’s Labor’s Lost, a.k. payne’s love i awethu further in the Langston Hughes Festival, Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel’s If the Dancer Does Not Dance as part of the New Play Lab, and served as Assistant Director to Carl Cofield on A Raisin in the Sun at Yale Rep (canceled due to COVID-19). He is an alumnus of the Williamstown Theatre Festival

Directing Corps, SDC Observership program, the 2017/2018 Van Lier Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. His work has also been seen at Sarah Lawrence College, Wow Haus, The Tank, The Flea, Dixon Place, Columbia University School of the Arts, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater, Bedlam, and Lincoln Center. He has assisted directors Lila Neugebauer, Robert O’Hara, David Cromer, Rebecca Taichman, and Pam MacKinnon. Jacob also directed The Survival by Achiro P. Olwoch for the Criminal Queerness Festival at Lincoln Center, BURNBABYBURN: an american dream by a.k. payne for Yale Summer Cabaret, and wrote and directed the animated short film Phosphor.

Joyce Ciesil (Sound Designer)

Originally from the suburbs of Illinois, Joyce is a Jeff Award-nominated sound designer and a member of the David Geffen School of Drama class of 2025. Recent design credits include Hurricane Diane (Theater Wit), Seven Days at Sea (Light and Sound Productions), and SPAY (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble). Joyce holds a B.F.A. in sound design from the Theater School at DePaul University and is excited to be concluding her first year at Yale with such a talented group of artists.

David Anthony-Ken DeCarolis

(Lighting Designer) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Love’s Labor’s Lost and Next to Normal. Other design credits include The Hedgehog’s Dilemma (Yale Cabaret) and Form of a Girl Unknown (Salt Lake Acting Company). David has assisted on Saturday’s Voyeur, Three Little Pigs (SLAC); Today is My Birthday, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Yale Repertory Theatre); and Seize the King (The Classic Theatre of Harlem). He would like to thank his family for all their support. @thedecarolis daviddecarolislighting.com

T.F. Dubois (Costume Designer)

is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where their selected credits include Marys Seacole as well as Over Easy and Can the Peruvian Speak? (…) at Yale Cabaret. Other selected credits include Nodus Tollens, A Tender

Reflection, and Amuse Bouche at Grace Street Theater; Blue Camp with Rainbow Theatre project; and Sins of the Father with Oxford Comma Productions. tfdubois.com

Lily Haje (Production Dramaturg) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama.

Charlie Lovejoy (Stage Manager) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama.

Off-Broadway and NYC: Kimberly Akimbo (Atlantic Theater Company), The Seagull (Elevator Repair Service).

Regional: The Brightest Thing in the World (Yale Repertory Theatre).

Chicago: The Santaland Diaries, Incendiary, graveyard shift (Goodman Theatre); Miracle: A Musical 108 Years in the Making (Royal George Theater); La Ronde (American Theater Company); Corduroy, Fantastic Mr. Fox (Emerald City Theatre); Hooded, Two Mile Hollow, American Hero (First Floor Theater); You on the Moors Now (The Hypocrites). Academic: BURNBABYBURN: an american dream (Yale Cabaret); Romeo and Juliet, Bodas de sangre (the Geffen School). B.A., University of Chicago. Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Eugenio Sáenz Flores (Technical Director) A Mexican-Canadian, Eugenio is a third-year technical design and production student at David Geffen School of Drama.

Before coming to Yale, he served as a technical director for Calgary Opera, The Arts Club Theatre, and Vertigo Theatre. As an associate technical director, Eugenio spent a few summers at the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show and will be at The Stratford Festival again this summer. Eugenio would like to thank the Technical Design Team: Cameron, Kino, Twaha, Ryan, and LT, for their work and support. Eugenio is a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada. Eugenio dedicates his work on this production to his mum, who passed away last year, and everyone who misses their mum every day.

Léa Louna Tubiana (Scenic Designer) is a French-Tunisian scenic designer and architect. Her recent credits include Julius Caesar (David Geffen School of Drama), and housing projects in France and Greece. Léa holds a degree in architecture with a specialization in interior design from the Istituto Europeo di Design of Milan (Italy) and is currently in her third year pursuing an M.F.A. in theater design at the Geffen School. Upcoming works include Mangerontils (Théâtre du Lucernaire in Paris).

Faith-Marie Zamblé (Production Dramaturg) is a writer, dramaturg, and interdisciplinary artist originally from Waukegan, Illinois. She graduated in 2017 with a B.A. in media studies from North Park University after

years of arguing with the Chicago Tribune’s film reviews. Zamblé is currently in her fourth year at David Geffen School of Drama, where she was the production dramaturg for Marys Seacole. Other credits include Choir Boy at Yale Rep (assistant director) and In the Southern Breeze at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (codramaturg).

musicians in alphabetical order

Jorge Banuelos (Drummer) Jorge Banuelos (he/they) is a doctoral student in the departments of Religious Studies and AfricanAmerican Studies at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Jorge’s doctoral work investigates the significance of slavery and colonization on the formation of Africana religious experience. Originally from Wichita, KS, Jorge

graduated from Carleton College in 2020. As a free-lance musician, Jorge performed with Carleton’s Jazz Ensemble, various jazz chamber groups at Carleton, and, most recently, Yale’s Legacy Jazz Ensemble.

Jaylon Jamal (JJ) he/him (Bassist) is an actor and musician originally from Dallas, Texas and a recent graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Acting Conservatory. His credits there include Henry IV, Sweat, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Victoria Station, The Seagull amongst others. After graduating, he understudied at The Fire This Time Festival, directed by Zhailon Levingston and will next be joining the ensemble of Hamlet directed by Kenny Leon in this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater. JJ is very excited to join the David Geffen School of Drama team for the first time of hopefully many!

Color Boy

By Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel

Directed by

Jecamiah Ybañez

creative team

Choreographer

Jecamiah Ybañez

Movement Director

Jake Ryan Lozano

Scenic Designer

Suzu Sakai

Costume Designer

Yu-Jung Shen 沈毓融

Lighting Designer

David Anthony-Ken DeCarolis

Sound Designer

Stan Mathabane

Projection Designer

Hannah Tran

Technical Director

Eugenio Sáenz Flores

Production Dramaturg

Madeline Pages

Stage Manager

Colleen Rooney

setting

cast in alphabetical order

Estela/Christina

Cindy De La Cruz

Miguel

Karl Green

Darwin/Coach

LAW

Young Miguel/Ángel

Jahsiah Mussig

swings

Estela/Christina

Caroline Campos

Darwin/Coach, Miguel/ Young Miguel/Ángel

(Vin) Tré Scott

A high school gymnasium and small apartment in Stamford, Connecticut | A middle school ELA classroom and small apartment in Huntington Park, Los Angeles County, California | Past and present meeting in a single psychic space

Color Boy is performed without an intermission.

content guidance

This play explores the impact of child sexual abuse on individuals, families, relationships, and communities over time. The production contains depictions of grooming, though no sexual violence is represented onstage. It also contains profanity, sexual situations, and depictions of alcoholism, as well as mentions of domestic violence and self harm. Production effects include flashing lights, haze, fog, and loud noises.

Dramaturg’s Note

Before we begin the play you are about to see, Color Boy by Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel, I want to check in with you. Or, rather, I’d like to request that you check in with yourself, guided by some questions and thoughts I’m about to share with you. Get ready. Here they are:

Take a moment to remember your body. Maybe do this by closing your eyes and taking your metaphoric temperature: How does it feel to be in your body at this moment? How does the external world—the chair you’re sitting in, the air in the room, the auditorium lights, the energy of the person next to you—feel brushing up against your body?

Now, you may be actively ignoring this request to engage with your body. If you are like me, you may prefer to spend as little time thinking about your body as possible. Like me, you may suffer from physical pains, the physical symptoms of emotional pains, gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, the sheer weight of being fully dimensional in the world…. Breathe.

What if you imagine you are not of your body in this moment but that you are a flag, made of silk in your favorite color, fluttering in the air. You are going to see many such flags in this production–they are integral to the performance. This is Color Guard, an athletic and artistic performance

form, derived from military pageantry, that combines dance, gymnastics, and drama with the coordinated spinning of flags, rifles, and sabers. Color Guard is both a highly technical and physically demanding sport and an abstract form of storytelling. Shape, movement, and color have meaning… just as they do with the human body.

In Color Boy, theatrical dialogue and flag spinning combine to tell one story of an artist–Miguel–moving through memory towards healing from a trauma that is inextricably linked to his body and the embodied expression of spinning. Our bodies are magical in that they are capable of containing so much hurt and so much power to express and expel that pain through artistry. In this play, healing means coming to terms with those juxtapositions, of pleasure and pain, creation and stasis, moving from resistance to acceptance, particularly within the framework that is the body.

How’s that chair you’re sitting in?

I want to leave you, before you see this play, with some words and thoughts from Jericho Brown, poet, a great inspiration for Esperanza’s writing. For his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, The Tradition, Brown invented a poetic form that “is black and queer and Southern1,” called the “duplex.” His poems, and the duplex form, echo through Color Boy:

Duplex

I begin with love, hoping to end there. I don’t want to leave a messy corpse.

I don’t want to leave a messy corpse

Full of medicines that turn in the sun.

Some of my medicines turn in the sun. Some of us don’t need hell to be good.

Those who need most, need hell to be good. What are the symptoms of your sickness?

Here is one symptom of my sickness: Men who love me are men who miss me.

Men who leave me are men who miss me In the dream where I am an island.

In the dream where I am an island, I grow green with hope. I’d like to end there.2

How do these words feel in your body?

I hope they fill you with questions, which might stick to you as you watch this play. As you watch this play, I hope those questions become sensations, which continue to buzz inside you as you walk out of this theater and into your nights and days away from here. How long will those sensations last?

I’ll end here.

—Madeline Pages, Production Dramaturg

from our playwright

Dear Edwin,

You are thirteen years old and in a world of pain. You are angry, you are sad, you are hurt—you are confused. Where can you put all of this pain?

You will search for an answer for years. You will try to put this pain in places that won’t be able to hold it. You will run from the pain, for years and years.

One day, you will arrive at a place where you can slow down. You will stop running. You will sit. You will rest.

Look up. Close your eyes. And breathe. Peace will come, but only if you exhale the pain. Exhale.

Young Edwin, you are now Esperanza writing this note to you in advance of your thesis play at the school of your dreams.

Young Edwin, you are also old Esperanza, looking back on this moment, years from now, thanking your younger self for taking the risk to share this truth—your wound, and you path towards healing.

This is your exhale. Don’t you feel lighter?

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Don’t you feel lighter?

Dear Audience,

Thank you for sharing this moment with us. An incredibly brave group of artists came together and put their minds, bodies, and hearts into the telling of this story. These were only words on a page before these artists created this space to offer you the journey you are about to experience. I am forever changed as an artist due to their bravery—they are my other me.

1. Brown, Jericho. “Invention,” The Poetry Foundation. 18 March 2019. poetryfoundation.org/harrietbooks/2019/03/invention-brown

2. Brown, Jericho. The Tradition. Port Townsend, WA, USA: Copper Canyon Press, 2019. 49.

My only hope is that this play holds you, and that when you leave our theater, this play’s embrace becomes an invitation for you to hold your younger selves.

Speak love to them, and they will speak right back.

I hope you feel lighter.

about the playwright

Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel they/them is a trans GuatemalanAmerican artist, born in Guatemala City and raised in Norwalk, Connecticut. Selected plays include Spring on Fire: A Guatemalan Story, Crashing, Lupe Finds Me in the Garden of Dreams, and When the Party’s Over (TheatreWorks Next Generation Festival). Esperanza’s plays have been supported by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Roundabout Theatre, Princeton University Lewis Center for the Arts, and the Stanford Department of Theater and Performance Studies. They have worked with The Public Theater, HBO, United Talent Agency, and are a former Teach For America corps member. They formed a collective with other Queer Black and Latinx artists as Producing Artistic Directors for the 2022 Yale Summer Cabaret Summer of Love. Esperanza is the recipient of the Princeton Ward Prize for Fiction, the A. Scott Berg Fellowship for English Research, the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Scholarship, the Paul Greene Award from the National Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and Latinx Playwriting Award. They hold a degree in English Literature from Princeton University.

cast in alphabetical order

Cindy De La Cruz (Estela/Christina) is a Bronx-bred first generation, Dominican-American artist and producer and a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. She is an Artistic Producer of the Dominican Artists Collective which is one of three current companies in residence at New York Theatre Workshop. Producing credits include Sharing Sessions and Sharing Sessions with Los Pros (Dominican Artists Collective); Tools for an Artist in Process (creator and co-produced with NYTW and Oye Group); Aqui ’Tamos and Vessel of Woman (The Tank). She has worked as an actor at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Olney Theatre Center, Peoples Light Theater, Atlantic Theater, Florida Studio Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, Arden Theatre, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, among others. Television: Blue Bloods (CBS), The Village (NBC), Blindspot (NBC). She is the lead in the short film Ro & The Stardust which has been seen throughout this film festival season including at Urbanworld, Reel Sisters, American Black Film Festival. She is honored to be a part of this healing story with this beautiful community.

Karl Green he/him (Miguel) is a thirdyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where he was seen in Julius Caesar, The Cherry Orchard, and Esme. He has originated roles in the world premieres of Eve’s Song by Patricia Ione Lloyd, Socrates by Tim Blake Nelson

(The Public Theater); and runboyrun by Mfoniso Udofia (New York Theatre Workshop). He holds a B.F.A. in acting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he also studied at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and NYU Florence.

LAW (Coach/Darwin) is excited that Color Boy is his first play at David Geffen School of Drama. He’s been most recently seen on Broadway in Girl from the North Country (u/s Joe Scott) and Waitress as Cal. Some of his regional credits are Sex with Strangers, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Seminar. His film and television credits are Little Voice on Apple TV and Miles Ahead. He’s grateful for his beautiful daughter and the opportunity to be at the Geffen School.

Jahsiah Mussig (Young Miguel/ Ángel) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama making his debut. He is a native New Yorker and former company member of the Flea Theater. He received his B.F.A. at The Mason Gross School of the Arts. During that time, he was also given the opportunity to perform as Rosalind in As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. He wants to thank the playwright for their poetry and their love.

swings in alphabetical order

Caroline Campos (Swing for Estela/ Christina) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where she most recently appeared in Hot and Cold Showers (Yale Cabaret). She received her B.A. in English from Kenyon College.

Color Boy

(Vin) Tré Scott (Swing for Darwin/ Coach, Miguel/ Young Miguel/Ángel) is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama.

creative team in alphabetical order

David Anthony-Ken DeCarolis

(Lighting Designer) Please see page 9.

Jake Ryan Lozano they/he (Movement Director) is a Chicanx/ Mestizx multi-hyphenate artist based in Brooklyn and originally from San Antonio, Texas. When they’re not acting, dancing, or writing, they’re shamelessly reading and watching hours upon hours of manga/anime. His work is dedicated to his grandparents and all the queer kids of color figuring it out. Besos, pura vida, y comunidad. Theater: the bandaged place (Roundabout), American Dream (LATEA), Rinse, Repeat (Signature). TV: Law & Order: SVU, Evil, New Amsterdam, When They See Us. M.F.A.: David Geffen School of Drama.

@jakeryanlozano

Stan Mathabane (Sound Designer) is a sound designer/audio engineer/ composer/multi-instrumentalist/ DJ/actor based in NYC, by way of Portland, Oregon—the coastal opposite of his birthplace, High Point, North Carolina. Stan’s work spans theater, film, dance, virtual/augmented reality, video games, installation, and live performance. His design has resonated with audiences of The Public Theater: Under the Radar Festival, The Juilliard School, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Stanford Live, and more. Stan is excited to be making his Carlotta Festival Debut and

is looking forward to one more year at David Geffen School of Drama before graduating in May of 2024. Upcoming: sound design of the U.S. National Exhibition produced in collaboration with USITT, to be presented June 2023 at the Prague Quadrennial.

@stanmathabane |stanmathabane.com

Madeline Pages she/her/hers

(Production Dramaturg) is a fourthyear M.F.A. candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama. Previously, she served as production dramaturg for Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, directed by Jacob Basri at the School. Before coming to Yale, she was the Artistic Fellow at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Her scholarly work has appeared in such publications as The Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT). She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College in New York City.

Colleen Rooney they/she (Stage Manager) is a first-year M.F.A. candidate in the stage management program at David Geffen School of Drama. They are delighted to be a part of the re-inauguration of The Carlotta Festival. They are incredibly grateful for the amazingly open team of collaborators and the acting company for creating such a beautiful development process. Other work at Yale includes stage management on WAKE for the Langston Hughes Festival and UDO at Yale Cabaret. Prior to moving to New Haven, Colleen lived in Oregon and worked as the production stage manager for Oregon Contemporary Theatre.

Eugenio Sáenz Flores (Technical

Director) Please see page 10.

Suzu Sakai (Scenic Designer) is a NYC- and Tokyo-based freelance stage and production designer. Working and having experience in NYC, Tokyo, and other large cities, she has a passion for all aspects of artistic development and collaboration, as well as storytelling through new mediums in digital art and media. Recent productions include Constellations (Forestburgh Playhouse, NY), more more more (Yale Cabaret), and Straight White Men (Southwark Playhouse, London), including festival shows in New York as well as working in production management at PARCO Inc. and installation space design in the digital art and media industry in Tokyo. She has assisted Broadway designer Anna Louizos, as well as other off-Broadway designers in both set and lighting. Suzu is a 2024 M.F.A. candidate in design at David Geffen School of Drama.

Yu-Jung Shen 沈毓融 (Costume Designer) is a painter artist from Taiwan and a 2024 M.F.A. design candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. His/ta-de current focus is dramatic art and design, specializing in costume design. He received a 2017 World Stage Design award for Pool (No water), award-sponsored by OISTAT (International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians), with his Taiwan

Taipei National University of the Arts undergrad colleagues. Yujung is very grateful to have this chance to work with his Yale cohort in this festival. It’s such an honor that his costume design ideas become a part of this new play, Color Boy. He is sharing much love and healing to everyone from Color Boy.

Hannah Tran (Projection Designer) is a stage designer for live performance. Originally from Pomona, California, she currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut. She obtained a B.A. in theater from University of California, Irvine. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, studying projection design.

Jecamiah Ybañez (Director and Choreographer) is a Tejano from Poteet, Texas. Credits: Once on This Island (Southern Connecticut State University); Love’s Labor’s Lost (Island Shakespeare Festival); Jeremy O. Harris’s YELL: a “documentary” of my time here, Martín Zimmerman’s Seven Spots On The Sun, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Christopher Núñez’s In the Palm of a Giant, Wladimiro Woyno Rodriguez’s Pier, Alex Lubischer’s Blood Play (David Geffen School of Drama); Sean Devine’s Re:Union (Yale Cabaret); María Irene Fornes’s The Conduct of Life and Emilio Rodriguez’s Latinos Who Look Like Ricky Martin at Yale Summer Cabaret where they served as Artistic Director. Jecamiah assisted director Evan Yionoulis on Kiss at Yale Rep. As the Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, Jecamiah assisted Artistic Director Molly Smith on Oliver!, and guest directors Jose Luis Valenzuela, Doug Hughes, and Timothy Douglas. They were awarded a yearlong Artistic Assistantship at Woolly Mammoth, where they assisted former Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz on the world premiere of Stupid F##king Bird. B.F.A., Texas State University; M.F.A., The Geffen School. They reside in Harlem, New York.

Furlough’s Paradise

By a.k. payne

Directed by Leyla Levi cast in alphabetical order

Movement Director

Josiah Davis

Scenic Designer

Omid Akbari

Costume Designer

Risa Ando

Lighting Designer

Yichen Zhou

Sound Designer

Tojo Rasedoara

Projection Designer

Hannah Tran

Technical Director

Eugenio Sáenz Flores

Production Dramaturg

Ashley M. Thomas

Stage Manager

Alexus Jade Coney

creative team setting

Late 2017.

Mina Janiah François

Sade Lauren Walker

Mariah Copeland

Furlough’s Paradise is performed without an intermission.

content guidance

This production contains profanity, flashing lights, and loud noises.

Over the past four years a.k. payne has been writing plays that deal with love, liberation, and ancestral lineage. We, at the School of Drama, have been already blessed by a.k.’s work time and time again, so if you’re just now experiencing her writing—welcome. Welcome to rich language with insatiable curiosity. Welcome to tender characters with exposed edges. Welcome to intricate universes with generous possibilities. At the same time, I invite you to welcome in discomfort. Welcome in healing. Welcome in dreaming aloud again. Dreaming anew.

For Furlough’s Paradise, a.k. dreams up Mina and Sade, two cousins who are reuniting under life’s unkind circumstances.

Three days. Lots of grief.

It’s an Afro-Surrealist/Afro-Futurist journey where we sink deep into our unconscious in order to reimagine a more dynamic future.

adrienne maree brown offers that “utopia is always built on top of dystopia,” and a.k.’s work strikes such a balance— helping reach for a more equitable tomorrow while never letting us forget the turmoil that brought us here. a.k.’s work points out the space between our dreams and our present situation.

By the end, both the characters and we, the audience, are left vulnerable. We’re exposed to the deepest parts of humanity. We must recognize the high cost we have all paid for our past in order to redeem a more liberated future.

—Ashley M. Thomas, Production Dramaturg

please enjoy some works from our rehearsal room library

Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown | Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans | for colored girls who have considered suicide who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange | Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | In Search of Our Mother’s Garden by Alice Walker | The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor | THICK by Tressie McMillan Cottom | Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde | In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe | Daughters of the Dust (film) by Julie Dash | All About Love by bell hooks | Fabulation: or, The Re-Education of Undine by Lynn Nottage

Furlough’s Paradise

about the playwright

a.k. payne is from Great Migration, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their credits include AMANI (National Black Theater and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), “blooms” (Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 38th Marathon of One-Act Plays), BURNBABYBURN: an american dream (Yale Summer Cabaret), Filling Basins (Yale Dramat & Heritage Theater Ensemble), Ain’t No Dead Thing (Yale Cabaret), love i awethu further, and Where Pathways Meet (David Geffen School of Drama). a.k. uplifts the community-oriented theaters and ensembles which produced her earliest plays, and her public arts magnet school which provided space for her to discover this transformative work as she was growing up: City Theatre, Pittsburgh CAPA, Alumni Theater Company, and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Their work has been finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, winner of the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award and the Alliance/ Kendeda Prize, and three-time semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. Her work has been developed with the New Harmony Project, Great Plains Theater Conference, and Manhattan Theater Club’s “Groundworks Lab.” They hold a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Yale College.

akpayne.com

cast in alphabetical order

Janiah François (Mina) is a thirdyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama. She is an alumna of Harvard University and the British American Drama Academy. She sends all her gratitude to Christ and her awesome family.

Lauren Walker (Sade) (pronounced Luh-Ren) is thrilled to make her David Geffen School of Drama debut in Furlough’s Paradise. As an artist who is dedicated to telling stories that make space for the complexities of humanity, Lauren is honored to uplift this story. Lauren’s previous credits include Charmed (MCC), Cullud Wattah (The Public Theater), That Damn Michael Che (HBO), and Marcel (coming to Apple TV+ this year). To learn more, please visit LaurenFWalker.com or follow Lauren on Instagram @lovevolvz. Lauren would like to send a special thank you to God, her family, and her support system here at Yale.

Mariah Copeland is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, and has worked in productions at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Northlight Theatre, About Face Theatre, Boho Theatre, and others in her hometown of Chicago. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she received a B.A. in theater. Mariah is represented by Grossman and Jack Talent. mariahcopeland.com

creative

team in alphabetical order

Omid Akbari (Scenic Designer) is a scenic designer and costume concept artist. He is currently a third year pursuing an M.F.A in set design at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his bachelor’s degree in set design from the University of Art in Tehran, Iran. His recent credits include Macbeth at the Geffen School. He has done many productions in Iran as a set and costume designer and was nominated for the Best Set Designer at the Intentional Theatre Festival in Iran. omidakbari.com

Risa Ando (Costume Designer) is a third-year M.F.A candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she designed the costumes for Next to Normal. She was born and raised in Japan, and has worked in the US, Japan, and Ireland. She received a B.F.A. in costume design from Purchase College, SUNY. Selected credits include Mamma Mia! (Forestburgh Playhouse); #4 (Yale Cabaret); Dracula, Otoko-kai (Gekidan Ijin-Butai, Japan); The Best Place For Love (Fire & Ice Production, Ireland); Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles (Wonderland Productions, Ireland).

Alexus Jade Coney (Stage Manager) is a rising fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in Stage Management at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Marys Seacole, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Manning, and Bodas de sangre. Other credits

include Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Between Two Knees at Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as BURNBABYBURN: an american dream and BAKKHAI for Yale Summer Cabaret. Alexus proudly holds a B.A. in English from Yale University. She is grateful to Hannah Jones, a spectacular ASM and human, for supporting this journey. Thank you, a.k., for this beautiful story and for sisterhood— what a joy it’s been!

Josiah Davis he/him (Movement Director) is a director, choreographer, performer, designer whose work intersects expressive movement, live music, emerging technology, and ritual to breathe new life into physical storytelling. He is the Associate Artistic Director of On The Verge Theatre Company, Santa Barbara, a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellow, Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Soul Directing Resident with the National Black Theatre. He received an M.F.A. from Brown/Trinity Rep in directing and a B.A. from UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Recent work: AMANI (NBT/Rattlestick), Clyde’s (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (TheatreWorksUSA), Omar Offrendum’s Little Syria (BAM), Mr. Saturday Night (assistant director, Broadway). josiahdavis.net

Leyla Levi (Director) is an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama from Istanbul, Turkey. Her recent directing projects include Marys Seacole and Romeo and Juliet at the Geffen School and Song from the

Furlough’s Paradise

Uproar, a new opera by Missy Mazzoli, in collaboration with Yale Schwarzman Center and Yale Opera. Previously, Leyla served as the artistic director of Gakko, an international educational organization, devising and directing interdisciplinary arts programs for young adults in Japan, France, Romania, Indonesia and the US. She received a B.A. in architecture from Yale College.

Tojo Rasedoara (Sound Designer) is a first-year sound designer and a 2025 M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his bachelor in Entertainment Technology degree in 2017 at City Tech Brooklyn. His previous and most current works include Macbeth, Ghosts (assistant sound designer, the Geffen School); the world premiere of Off-Peak (Hudson Stage); Sandblasted (Vineyard Theatre); Is There Still Sex In the City? (Daryl Roth Theatre); The Gradient (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Being/With (Nichole Canuso Dance Company); Soft Jade (Yale Summer Cabaret); Citizen (Duke University); Burning Church (New Ohio Theatre); Harriet Tubman (Hi-Arts). He also worked in various New York Fashion Week shows as a Production Assistant with designers such as Prabal Gurung, Oscar de la Renta, R13, Zadig & Voltaire, ADEAM, Self Portrait, the Monse Show, and the Victoria Beckham AW18 Pre-collection.

Ashley M. Thomas (Production

Dramaturg) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. She is currently the Producing Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret 55: Parachute. Ashley served as codramaturg for A Raisin in the Sun at Yale Repertory Theatre (canceled due to COVID). She has also worked as a dramaturg at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and National Queer Theater. Ashley was born and raised in Harlem, New York. As a writer and researcher, she is interested in exploring the intersections of culture, politics, and Beyoncé through a Black feminist lens. A proud alumna of the First Wave Urban Arts Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ashley graduated with her Bachelor of Social Work.

Hannah Tran (Projection Designer)

Please see page 17.

Yichen Zhou (Lighting Designer) is a theater designer born and raised in China, and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. at David Geffen School of Drama. In her practice of scenography, she is deeply fascinated by the stories told through space and the truth one can find through imagination. Selected recent credits include Marys Seacole, Ghosts (the Geffen School);

Eugenio Sáenz Flores (Technical Director) Please see page 10.

BURNBABYBURN: an american dream (Yale Summer Cabaret); If We Could Turn Back Time (Connecticut College); Peter and the Starcatcher (Smith College); and A Number (Beijing Inside-Out Theatre). zhouyichen.design | @yichen.zhou design

artistic Festival Producer

Anne Erbe

Assistant Scenic Designers

Patrick Blanchard

Patti Panyakaew

Assistant Lighting Designers

Ankit Pandey

Kyle Stamm

Yung-Hung Sung

Assistant Projection Designer

Christian Killada

Assistant Sound Designers and Engineers

Saida Joshua-Smith (littleboy/littleman)

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦 (Furlough’s Paradise)

Bryn Scharenberg (Color Boy)

Assistant Stage Managers

Josie Cooper (Color Boy)

Hannah Louise Jones (Furlough’s Paradise)

Ellora Venkat (littleboy/littleman)

production

Production Manager

Mia Sara Haiman

Associate Production Manager

Luanne Jubsee

Assistant Technical Directors

Twaha Abdul Majeed

Kino Alvarez

Cameron Waitkun

Properties Manager

Nic Benavides

Associate Properties Manager

Joe Chiang

Production Electrician

Jasmine Moore

Associate Production Electrician

Keira Jacobs

Production Sound Engineer

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦

Projection Engineer

TJ Wildow

Stage Carpenters

Steph Burke

Matteo Lanzarotta

Light Board Programmer

Ro Burnett

Run Crew

Garrett Allen

Rea J. Brown

Sophia Carey

Ida Cuttler

KT Farmer

Bennet Goldberg

Kemar Jewel

comfort ifeoma katchy

Charles T. Meier

A.B. Orme

Alexis Kulani Woodard

Changeover Crew

Jason Dixon

Constanza Etchechury López

Shawn Pollet

John Simone

Projection Content Creators

Elizabeth Barrett

Ein Kim

Projection Programmer

Erin Sims administration

Associate Managing Director

Matthew Sonnenfeld

Assistant Managing Director

Natalie King

Management Assistants

Adrian Hernandez

Mikayla Stanley

House Managers

Natalie King

Andrew Aaron Valdez

special thanks

Ty; the company of the ripple, the wave that carried me home at Yale Repertory Theatre; Aura

Michelle; Matthew Elijah Webb; Anthony Holiday; Mikayla

Stanley; Elation Professional

Lighting; MAIN LIGHT

For the set of Color Boy: From The Plains II by Georgia O’Keeffe © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Used with permission.

See All Three Plays Through May 12!

David Geffen School of Drama Staff

Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean

James Bundy

Associate Dean

Florie Seery

Associate Dean

Chantal Rodriguez

Assistant Dean

Carla L. Jackson

Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Programs, Yale Repertory Theatre

Jennifer Kiger

Production Stage Manager

James Mountcastle

Senior Artistic Producer, Yale Repertory Theatre

Amy Boratko

Associate Producer, Yale Repertory Theatre

Kay Perdue Meadows

Artistic Fellow

Jisun Kim

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Dean

Josie Brown

Senior Administrative Assistant for Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, and Stage Management Programs

Laurie Coppola

Senior Administrative Assistant for the Design program

Kate Begley Baker

Senior Administrative Assistant for the Acting program

Krista DeVellis

Library Services

Erin Carney

Tess Colwell

production

Production Management Director of Production

Shaminda Amarakoon

Production Manager

Jonathan Reed

Production Manager for Studio Projects and Special Events

C. Nikki Mills

Senior Administrative Assistant to Production, Theater Safety, and the Technical Design and Production Program

Grace O’Brien

Scenery

Technical Director for Yale Rep

Neil Mulligan

Technical Directors for David Geffen School of Drama

Latiana “LT” Gourzong

Matt Welander

Electro Mechanical Laboratory Supervisor

Eric Lin

Scene Shop Supervisor

Eric Sparks

Senior Lead Carpenter

Matt Gaffney

Lead Carpenters

Ryan Gardner

Kat McCarthey

Sharon Reinhart

Painting

Paint Shop Supervisor

Ru-Jun Wang

Scenic Artists

Lia Akkerhuis

Nathan Jasunas

Properties

Properties Supervisor

Jennifer McClure

Properties Craftsperson

David P. Schrader

Properties Associate

Zach Faber

Properties Stock Manager

Mark Dionne

Properties Intern

Bennet Goldberg

Costumes

Costume Shop Manager

Christine Szczepanski

Senior Drapers

Clarissa Wylie Youngberg

Mary Zihal

Senior First Hands

Deborah Bloch

Patricia Van Horn

Costume Project Coordinator

Linda Kelley-Dodd

Costume Stock Manager

Jamie Farkas

Electrics

Lighting Supervisor

Donald W. Titus

Senior House Electricians

Jennifer Carlson

Linda-Cristal Young

Electricians

Alary Sutherland

Racheal Daigneault

Eitan Acks

Electrics Intern

Jasmine Moore

Sound Sound Supervisor

Mike Backhaus

Lead Sound Engineer

Stephanie Smith

Sound Interns

Saida Joshua-Smith

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦

Projections

Acting Projection Supervisor

Eric Lin

Projection Intern

Erin Sims

David Geffen School of Drama Staff

Stage Operations

Stage Carpenter

Janet Cunningham

Lead Wardrobe Supervisor

Elizabeth Bolster

Lead Properties Runner

William Ordynowicz

FOH Mix Engineer

Abe Joyner-Meyers

administration

General Management

Associate Managing Directors

Sarah Scafidi

Matthew Sonnenfeld

Assistant Managing Director

Natalie King

Management Assistants

Adrian Hernandez

Roman Sanchez

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, and Theater Management Program

Emalie Mayo

Company Manager

Chloe Knight

Assistant Company Manager

Fanny Abib-Rozenberg

Jeremy Landes

Roman Sanchez

Development and Alumni Affairs

Senior Director of Development and Alumni Affairs

Deborah S. Berman

Deputy Director of Operations for Development and Alumni Affairs

Susan C. Clark

Associate Director of Development

Casey Grambo

Senior Writer and Development and Alumni Affairs Officer

Robert DiGioia

Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Alumni Affairs

Jennifer E. Alzona

Development Associate

Delaney Kelley

Development Assistant

Ramona Li

Finance, Human Resources, and Digital Technology

Director of Finance and Business Administration/Lead Administrator

Nicola Blake

Finance Consultants

Regina Bejnerowicz

Katherine D. Burgueño

Denise Zaczek

Director of Human Resources

Trinh DiNoto

Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium, and Web Technology

Janna J. Ellis

Manager, Business Operations

Martha Boateng

Digital Communications Associate

George Tinari

Business Office Specialists

Moriah Clarke

Andrea Valcourt

Business Office Assistant

Asberry Thomas

Digital Technology Associates

Edison Dule

Garry Heyward

Interim Digital Technology Associate

Shontay Jones

Senior Administrative Assistant to Business Office, Digital and Web Technology, Operations, and Tessitura

Shainn Reaves

e Application Consultants

Ben Silvert

Erich Bolton

Bo Du

Financial Aid and Registrar

Financial Aid Officer

Andre Massiah

Registrar/Admissions Administrator

Ariel Yan

Senior Administrative Assistant to Financial Aid and Admissions

Laura Torino

Marketing, Communications, and Audience Services

Director of Marketing

Daniel Cress

Director of Communications

Steven Padla

Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Caitlin Griffin

Senior Administrative Assistant for Marketing and Communications and the Associate Dean

Mishelle Raza

Marketing and Communications Assistants

Adrian Hernandez

Rachel Zwick

Publications Manager

Marguerite Elliott

Production Photographer

T. Charles Erickson

Director of Audience Services

Laura Kirk

Assistant Director of Audience Services

Shane Quinn

Subscriptions Coordinator

Tracy Baldini

Audience Services Associate

Molly Leona

Customer Service and Safety Officers

Ralph Black, Jr.

Kevin Delaney

Ed Jooss

John Marquez (on leave)

Box Office Assistants

Sydney Raine Garick

Jordan Graf

Aaron Magloire

Kenneth Murray

a.k. payne

Dominic Sullivan

Jessica Wang

Theater Safety and Occupational Health

Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health/COVID

Compliance Manager

Anna Glover

Assistant Director of Theater Safety

Kelly O’Loughlin

COVID Compliance Coordinator

Amy Stern

Associate Safety Advisor

Aholibama Castañeda

Gonzalez

Operations Director of Facility Operations

Nadir Balan

Operations Associate

Brandon Fuller

Operations Assistant

Kelvin Essilfie

Arts and Graduate Studies Superintendents

Jennifer Draughn

Francisco Eduardo Pimentel

Custodial Team Leaders

Andrew Mastriano

Sherry Stanley

Facility Stewards

Ronald Douglas

Marcia Riley

Custodians

Rodney Heard

Andrew Martino

James Hansberry

Sybil Bell

Jerome Sonia, Willia Grant

Melloney Lucas

Tylon Frost

The Carlotta Festival, May 4–12, 2023, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut.

The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund, established by a graduate of the School, honors the memory of the Tony Award-winning producer who served as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management program at David Geffen School of Drama from 1993 until his death in 2005. During his tenure as Yale Rep’s Managing Director alongside Dean/Artistic Director Lloyd Richards, 1982–1993, he developed a model of professional producing that changed the course of new play development in the American theatre. His 25 Broadway credits included Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, as well as work by Anna Deavere Smith, Athol Fugard, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, Robert Schenkkan, and perhaps most significantly August Wilson, with whom he collaborated on each of the ten plays in the epic 20th-Century Cycle.

Carlotta Monterey, the widow of Eugene O’Neill, chose Yale University Press as the publisher of Long Day’s Journey Into Night. It is written on the copyright page of the first paperback edition that the proceeds from its publication are to go to playwriting at Yale University.