GHOSTS by Henrik Ibsen, translated from the Norwegian by Paul Walsh, directed by Jacob Basri.

MISSION

CORE VALUES

Collaboration

Discovery

acknowledges that

and

Paugussett

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

Please visit the lower level of the venue for restrooms. There is also a single restroom in the lobby of this theater.

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.

OCTOBER 22–28, 2022

University Theatre, 222 York Street, New Haven, Connecticut

DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE

James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean

Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean

PRESENTS

GHOSTS

By HENRIK IBSEN

Translated from the Norwegian by PAUL WALSH

Directed by JACOB BASRI

Scenic Designer Charles T. Meier

Costume Designer Kiyoshi Shaw

Lighting Designer Yichen Zhou Sound Designer Bryn Scharenberg

Projection Designer John Horzen

Production Dramaturg Madeline (Maddie) Pages

Technical Director Sky Pang

Stage Manager Nakia Shalice Avila

Ghosts was produced by the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July 2019; Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director Producer. This production is supported by the Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.

in alphabetical order:

Regina Engstrand

Shimali De Silva

Pastor Manders

Rebecca Kent

Anthony Grace Mrs. Helene Alving

Jakob Engstrand

Setting

Max Monnig

Mihir Kumar Oswald Alving

The action takes place on the country estate of Mrs. Alving near a great fjord in western Norway. 1881. Ghosts is performed without an intermission.

Understudies for Ghosts

Pastor Manders, Jakob Engstrand, Oswald Alving:

Regina Engstrand, Mrs. Helene Alving:

Michael Allyn Crawford

Janiah François

Ghosts Among Us:

Tomorrow is a momentous day: a public dedication of the new orphanage, constructed by Mrs. Helene Alving in her late husband’s honor. Today, however, decades of reputation-destroying secrets will come to light. What sacrifices have been made to save face? And what are the consequences? In Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, the anonymous specters of “the public” and “authorities” loom just outside the Rosenvold estate, where the small cast of characters is gathered. If you’ve ever agonized over a social media post, or stopped yourself from speaking up in class or a meeting for fear of saying the wrong thing, or been baffled or infuriated by the behavior of a politician or celebrity, I think Ghosts is a play for you. You don’t need to know about Norway in 1881 (the original setting of the play and the setting of our production) to understand the power and tyranny of public opinion—ideologically and practically.

“We can’t risk an unfavorable opinion, and we have no right to cause offense in the community,” admonishes Pastor Manders early in Act 1. Manders is ready to give almost anything to maintain a good reputation among his parishioners and his superiors in the church and State. Mrs. Alving, on the other hand, is haunted by the decisions she made to keep up appearances and do her duty as a wife of the upper-class. Ironically, in its time this play suffered from vehement public opposition—from all sides of the political spectrum—against its treatment of sex, venereal disease, incest, and other “immoral” behavior. The mid-19th century was a fascinating era of transition for biological science,

with new theories changing long-held ideas about things as large as human evolution and as small as germs. Using the language of biological heredity and the framing of a melodrama (the predominant theatrical style of the time), the play breaks into societal assumptions and mores Ibsen felt were stifling to modernization. Despite the playwright’s fearless truth-telling, he felt keenly the public rejection, and subsequent hit to book sales, of his work. Following Ghosts’ release Ibsen wrote frequent, angry letters to friends and publishers, claiming that he anticipated the outcry yet denouncing those who would see in his characters’ actions and beliefs a reflection of the author’s politics. Ibsen has been passed down to us in the theater as the feminist and socially radical author of A Doll’s House and An Enemy of the People. But the Ibsen of these personal letters and speeches denied any association with the nascent liberation movements of the day or with any political party, and he opposed didacticism in his play-craft. The characters, Ibsen claimed, were real first and foremost. Their politics reflect real politics—just not Ibsen’s.

Considering 19th-century Norway from our 21st-century vantage point, one generally sees only a strict moral order and resistance to that order and misses the gray. The characters’ and playwright’s political murkiness, sometimes verging on outright hypocrisy, can be a challenge for the actor, director, and dramaturg in 2022. Or it can be freeing. The area in-between, the area of grand ideas, incremental progress, and frequent backsliding, mistake-making, and

intergenerational conflict, is where the Alvings and their circle can be found. It’s not unfamiliar to us, either.

Who cares about the opinions of others in Ghosts? How much? To what actions— past or present—does that lead? When I find myself struggling with this play, these are some of the questions I come back to. What ghosts, as Mrs. Alving calls those vestiges of “tradition” in Act 2, still walk free and guide human hosts? In Ibsen’s Houses: Architectural Metaphor and the Modern Uncanny, Mark B. Sandberg posits that a character like Mrs. Alving, dissatisfied with the “architectural status quo,” or the social

structure, is given two main alternatives: renovate or raze. It may be a bit simplistic, but the question of whether to remake something on the same foundations or burn it to the ground remains pressing today. Are societies all over the world not grappling at this very moment with the question of which tactic will set them on the path towards a better future? In this way, the play feels meaningful to me in spite of the distance of time and space and aesthetic trends. As you watch our production of Ghosts, I hope that the play will feel meaningful to you.

—Madeline Pages, Production Dramaturg

Vilhelm Hammershøi, A Room in the Artist’s Home in Strandgade, Copenhagen, with the Artist’s Wife, 1901, Statens Museum for Kunst/National Gallery of Denmark.

Regina Engstrand:

Shimali De Silva is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has performed in Swimmers by Rachel Bonds as well as A Doll’s House adapted by Tanika Gupta, and more more more by Stefani Kuo at Yale Cabaret, among other credits. Prior to Yale, Shimali obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in English literature at the University of Cambridge where she discovered a love of acting through many student shows and participated in the original production of Six: The Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Pastor Manders:

Anthony Grace (he/X) is a fourth year M.F.A. acting candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. At the School, X has been seen in Hedda Gabler, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Rudi Goblen’s Green Suga Bloos, and Swimmers. Other credits include Passing Strange (Long Wharf Theatre); Is God Is (Yale Cabaret); BURNBABYBURN: an american dream; the father the son, and the holy spirit (Yale Summer Cabaret); Buried Child (Stocker Arts); In the Blood, and Neighbors (Convergence-Continuum). Peace.

Mrs. Helene Alving:

Rebecca Kent is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she was seen in Affinity, She Kills Monsters, and Love’s Labor’s Lost

Jakob Engstrand: Mihir Kumar (he/him) is a fourth-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. Credits include Richard III (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Cymbeline,

Romeo and Juliet (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Girls (understudy, Yale Repertory Theatre). International: The Comedy of Errors (Australian Shakespeare Company). Yale credits: Hedda Gabler, Love’s Labor’s Lost, She Kills Monsters, The Shift (David Geffen School of Drama); A Doll’s House, The Van Gogh Café (Yale Cabaret). Education: M.F.A. candidate, David Geffen School of Drama; B.A., UCLA.

Oswald Alving: Max Monnig is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where he was seen in Bodas de sangre. Credits include Law and Order: SVU; Glory of the World (B.A.M.); Dracula, High Lonesome Sound, The Glory of the World (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Treasure Island (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tantrum Theater). He received his B.F.A. from Ohio University and is an alumnus of the Actor Apprentice Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Understudy Bios

Understudy for Pastor Manders, Jakob Engstrand, Oswald Alving: Michael Allyn Crawford is a third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. Credits at the School include Bodas de sangre and soft apples at Yale Cabaret.

Understudy for Regina Engstrand, Mrs. Helene Alving: Janiah François is a third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where she most recently appeared in Affinity and a.k. payne’s love i awethu further. She is a graduate of Harvard

University, where she studied novels and performed with A.R.T., Hyperion Shakespeare Company, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players. She sends all her gratitude to Christ and her awesome family.

Creative Team Bios

Stage Manager:

Nakia Shalice Avila is black she/ they from the South. Their most recent credits include The Tempest (Elm Shakespeare Company); the father, the son, and the holy spirit (Yale Summer Cabaret); and Today Is My Birthday (Yale Repertory Theatre). Nakia holds a B.A. in psychology and is a proud alum of Claflin University. She dedicates her work on this production to her sweet-faced kitty, Noodle.

Director:

Jacob Basri is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where he has directed Love’s Labor’s Lost, a.k. payne’s love i awethu further in the Langston Hughes Festival, Esperanza Rosales’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. Most recently, Jacob 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.

Projection Designer:

John Horzen (he/him) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in projection design at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his bachelors degree in violin performance from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, and is constantly examining the connective tissue that binds his rhyming loves of producing, designing, and communal music-making in order to find new ways of storytelling. John’s selected projection credits include The Planets (Woolsey Hall, Co-Projection Designer), Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage/Long Wharf Theatre, Assistant Projections), Affinity (David Geffen School of Drama, Assistant Projections), and The Kite Runner (The Hayes Theater, 3D Animator). johnhorzen.com | @johnhorzen

Scenic Designer:

Charles T. Meier (he/him) is a thirdyear scenic designer at David Geffen School of Drama. He holds a B.A. from Wheaton College, Illinois, and an M.A. in Shakespeare Studies from the University of Birmingham, UK. Charles is an award-winning designer for the Rose Parade® in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day. Select

Creative Team Bios

clients include: Amazon Prime Video, PBS Masterpiece, The Los Angeles Lakers, Zappos, and The UPS Store.

Production Dramaturg: Madeline (Maddie) Pages (she/ her/hers) is a dramaturg and fourthyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Since March 2020, she has devoted herself (with varying degrees of rigor) to a variety of study areas, including: roller skating; Alan Turing and artificial intelligence; the history of astronomy and the invention of astronomical devices; cat parenting; physical therapy; Futurism and futurism; British and American women playwrights of the 18th century; medieval art; representations of human space travel; reckonings and disasters and grief; the science of creativity; teaching high-schoolers; and, now, Henrik Ibsen’s drama. Earlier this year, her essay “Theatre of Isolation” appeared in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT). She holds a B.A. in English literature from Barnard College.

Technical Director: Sky Pang is a technical and production manager from Hong Kong, currently residing in New Haven, Connecticut. She is pursuing an M.F.A. in technical design and production from David Geffen School of Drama. She has worked with a wide variety of projects in the performing arts and event field over the years.

Sound Designer: Bryn Scharenberg is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in sound design, where her credits include Affinity. She grew up in Seattle, where the sound of

rain is near-constant. This is likely when her obsession with the melodramatic began. She received a B.S. in music and technology from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and her professional credits include a mix of designing/assistant designing/ engineering for Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Front Porch Theatricals, the New Ohio Theatre, and Yale Cabaret, among others. brynscharenberg.org

Costume Designer:

Kiyoshi Shaw (he/him) is a thirdyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his B.F.A. in costume design and technology from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he designed costumes for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Assistant credits include Fly at Ford’s Theatre, Bodas de sangre at David Geffen School of Drama, and Choir Boy at Yale Repertory Theatre. Ghosts is his main stage design debut at the School.

Translator:

Paul Walsh Professor in the Practice of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama, Walsh has worked as dramaturg, translator, and co-author with theater companies across the country, including nine years as dramaturg at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Six of his translations of plays by Henrik Ibsen (A Doll’s House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, and John Gabriel Borkman) have been produced at such theaters as the Yale Repertory Theatre, the American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and

the Stratford Festival. With Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis, he collaborated on such award-winning productions as Children of Paradise: Shooting a Dream, 1789, Don Juan Giovanni, Germinal, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Walsh received a Ph.D. from the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama at the University of Toronto.

Lighting Designer: Yichen Zhou (she/her/hers) is a theater designer born and raised in China, and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in lighting design 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: BURNBABYBURN: an american dream (Yale Summer Cabaret), Twelfth Night (David Geffen School of Drama), 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

Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF)

Since 1955, Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought America’s finest actors, directors, designers, and playwrights to the Berkshires, engaging a loyal audience of both residents and summer visitors. Each WTF season is designed to present unique opportunities for artists and audience alike, revisiting classic plays with innovative productions, developing and nurturing bold new plays and musicals, and offering a rich array of accompanying cultural events including COMMUNITY WORKS, Late-Night Cabarets, readings, workshops, and educational programs. While best known for acclaimed productions, WTF is also home to one of the nation’s top training and professional development programs for new generations of aspiring theater artists and administrators. WTF was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 2002 and the Commonwealth Award for Achievement in 2011.

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.

David Geffen School of Drama Staff

Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean: James Bundy

Associate Dean: Florie Seery

Associate Dean: Chantal Rodriguez

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

Artistic Associate, 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

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 Libby JollyStone

Painting

Paint Shop Supervisor: Ru-Jun Wang

Scenic Artists: Lia Akkerhuis Nathan Jasunas

Scenic Painting Intern: Marcus Fort 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 Electrics Intern: Jasmine Moore

Sound Sound Supervisor: Mike Backhaus

Lead Sound Engineer: Stephanie Smith Sound Interns: Saida Joshua-Smith Zoey Lin

Projections

Acting Projection Supervisor: Eric Lin

Projection Engineer: Mike Paddock

Projection Intern: Erin Sims

Stage Operations Stage Carpenter: Janet Cunningham

Lead Wardrobe Supervisor: Elizabeth Bolster

Lead Properties Runner: William Ordynowicz

Lead Light Board Programmer: David Willmore

Interim FOH Mix Engineer: Stephanie Smith

Administration

General Management

Associate Managing Directors: Sarah Scafidi Matthew Sonnenfeld

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Associate Dean: Emalie Mayo

Management Assistant: Fanny Abib-Rozenberg

Company Manager: Annabel Guevara

David Geffen School of Drama Staff

Assistant Company Managers: Anne Ciarlone Ramona Li Development and Alumni Affairs

Director of Development and Alumni Affairs: Deborah S. Berman

Senior Associate Director of Institutional Giving: Janice Muirhead

Senior Associate Director of Operations for Development and Alumni Affairs: Susan C. Clark

Associate Director of Development Communications and Alumni Affairs: Casey Grambo

Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Alumni Affairs: Jennifer E. Alzona

Development Associate: Delaney Kelley

Development Assistants: Anne Ciarlone Maya Louise Shed

Finance, Human Resources, and Digital Technology 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

Interim Business Office Analyst: Win Knowles

Business Office Specialists: Aditya Agarwal Moriah Clarke Andrea Valcourt

Digital Technology Associates: Edison Dule Garry Heyward

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

Database 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

Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications: Jacob Santos

Senior Administrative Assistant for Marketing and Communications and the Associate Dean: Mishelle Raza

Publications Assistant: Patrick Ball Marketing Assistant: Sarah Machiko Haber

Production Photographer: T. Charles Erickson

Videographer: David Kane

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, Lucy Harvey, Aaron Magloire, Kenneth Murray, a.k. payne, Dominic Sullivan, Jessica Wang

Theater Safety and Occupational Health

Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health and COVID Compliance Manager: Anna Glover

COVID Compliance Coordinator: Amy Stern

Associate Safety Advisor: Megan Birdsong 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