What in the Actual Fuck!?
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 Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean
What in the Actual Fuck!?
By Christopher Bayes and The Company
Conceived and directed by Christopher Bayes
Creative Team
Music Director
Michael VQ
Lighting Designer
Kyle Stamm
Production Dramaturgs
Timothy Hartel
Thando Mangcu
Stage Manager
Josie Cooper Company
Messiah Cristine
Cindy De La Cruz
Chloe Howard
Ariyan Kassam
Anna Roman
Kamal Sehrawy
Nomè SiDone
What in the Actual Fuck!? is performed without an intermission.
Content Guidance
This production may contain profanity and (of) coarse language.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
Production
Production Manager
Kino Alvarez
Associate Safety Advisors
Jazzmin Bonner, Matteo Lanzarotta,
Alesandra Reto Lopez, Meredith Wilcox
Run Crew
Caleb Krieg, Kyle Stamm
Administration
Associate Managing Director
Adrian Alexander Hernandez
Assistant Managing Director
Sarah Saifi
Management Assistant
Jocelyn Lopez-Hagmann
House Manager
Maura Bozeman
Production Photographer
Maza Rey
David Geffen School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.
Special Thanks
Annie Piper, E, Cosmo.
Yale 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 relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States.
The Studio Projects are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes this process.
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 Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, 1982–1993, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Program from 1993 until his death in 2005.
“What in the Actual Fuck” (Feel free to sing along!)
What in the actual fuck…
What the fuck?
Are you kidding me bruh…
What in the actual god… damned
…ever loving fuck?
What in the actual fuck… What the fuck?
Are you kidding me bruh…
What in the actual god… damned Yabadaba, we are so fucked…
An Orwellian Kafkaesque Nightmare
In an interview with Michael Lewis, Steve Bannon articulated a core facet of current conservative political strategy. Bannon posited that “the Democrats don’t matter; the real opposition is the media…and the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” Flooding the zone has become one of the primary tools of the administration’s attempt to dismantle the federal government, coerce state governments and institutions, and enact foreign policy agendas. Each day brings about another set of astonishing revelations: from bulldozing the Department of Education to deporting students with Green Cards.
This density of activity has made their agenda opaque, less legible. If the goal was to flood the zone, then they have succeeded. We are up to our necks in shit. The smell has desensitized our noses and blinded our watering eyes. People’s lives, safety, and security are under attack. From reading the news to walking down the street, just living under this administration elicits a complex set of reactions. There is frustration, desperation, confusion, anxiety, anger, and discontent. All these feelings swirl together. Helplessness takes hold. This is exactly what they’ve hoped for; this is where What in the Actual Fuck? begins.
Our production asks the question that vibrates under the skin: what in the actual fuck? It is an interrogatory to the universe, and it is an answer to another existential query: how does it feel in this present moment? Understanding how we feel, what this flooding does on the emotional level, is a vital first step in the search for action. Otherwise, we’ll remain paralyzed. So, get moving. Get going. Be brave. Keep trying and wash your dick.
—Timothy Hartel, Production Dramaturg
“When somebody’s wearing a mask, he’s gonna tell you the truth.”
—Bob Dylan
Historically, commedia dell’arte has been a mirror that reflects the crude in society. Its masks have been associated with the seasonal Venetian carnival, a period where society jettisoned some of its filters. Carnival originally took place around February and March, before the Lenten season, which ran between winter and summer (in fact, we are in one right now). This struggle between seasons—between periods of gloom and vibrance—characterizes the struggle between “censorship and freedom of expression” (Rudlin, 32). During carnival, there was a different level of accountability for people behind a mask. Masked persons were even banned from churches and could not bear arms. In the festive yet playfully vulgar conventions of carnival the masked could critique society about its ills. Growing out of this tradition, commedia’s combination of masks and archetypes encourages freedom of expression. The mask as a tool for criticism is crucial today as control and censorship gets tighter in the United States.
Commedia masks not only show archetypes—we see semi-fixed carvings blended with the dynamic humanity of the actors. Music, too, gives form to what we cannot easily express. What in the Actual Fuck? is an opportunity to contemplate the chaos rather than appear neutral. Masks protect and allow us to say what we really want. You can blame the mask. Through the commedia mask, we remove those social masks that hide our feelings, asking us to soldier on.
—Thando Mangcu, Production Dramaturg
Rudlin, J. 2003. Commedia Dell’arte: An Actor’s Handbook. Taylor & Francis e-library.