NOVEMBER 12–16, 2024
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
Anne Erbe and Marcus Gardley, Co-Chairs, Playwriting
By Matthew Chong
Directed by Jasmine Brooks
Creative Team
Production Dramaturg
Daria Kerschenbaum
Fight and Intimacy Director
Kelsey Rainwater
Stage Manager ty ruwe
Cast
Charity Cindy De La Cruz
Lydia Gretta Marston-Lari
Greg
Jahsiah Mussig
John Michael Saguto
Bonnie/Debbie
Emma Steiner
There will be a 10-minute intermission.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
Production Stage Manager
Adam Taylor Foster
Assistant Stage Manager
Amanda Blitz
Production
Technical Supervisor
Meredith Wilcox
Properties Manager
Shannon Dodson
Associate Safety Advisors
Steph Lo 盧胤沂
Kay Nilest
Associate Production Manager
Bryant Heatherly
Production Crew
Steph Lo 盧胤沂
Run Crew
Lawrence Henry
Aaron Magloire
Administration
Associate Managing Director
Jeremy Landes
Assistant Managing Director
Mithra Seyedi
Management Assistant
Alesandra Reto Lopez
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
Hannah Jones, Tyler Clarke, and Henita Telo
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.
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.
All the characters in Charity are facing extinction. Like us, they’re living on the brink of environmental catastrophe, which, without swift intervention, will end life on Earth. When we think about the death of humanity, we are quick to envision the dramatic finale rather than the many collapses that precede it. The extinction of future careers, marriages, family lines, collectivity, and power—these comparatively minor crises are tied to the greatest existential threat of our day. But they so easily distract us from the urgent matter of our planetary survival. (Of course, distraction isn’t available for all. Climate change has already wreaked havoc on many marginalized communities.)
In Charity, warnings of impending doom proliferate in the characters’ lives, both on an individual scale and in major climate disasters. Many of the characters in Charity interact with the death care industry, for example, operating funeral homes or managing large mortuary companies. For some, this constant reminder of death motivates community care; for others, death is something else to commodify, and ultimately ignore. The world of Charity is also marked by extreme environmental disasters, similar to the recent destruction of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene. These come in the form of raging wildfires, constantly looming in the background of affluent Ventura County, California.
These wildfires, like all climate events, cast the haves and have-nots into sharp relief. Charity is about the collision between those with the most privilege and those with the least. Privilege is not solely correlated with race and class (although these are the most important factors, directly
linked to climate crisis impact), but also with who gets to control their circumstances, and who gets to decide the future of our planet. For those who are not part of that wealthy few, life is a constant fight to survive by any means necessary.
But not all extinction is a bad thing. These white supremacist, capitalist hierarchies are the very reasons for global inaction on climate change. It is no accident that the protagonist Charity—a young biracial woman, navigating her relationship with her Black identity and displaced by environmental disaster—delivers the following line: “I think sometimes things are just meant to just die off.” Systems that perpetuate environmental racism must die for us to have a future, and quickly too. It’s time for those struggling to survive to actually get to live.
—Daria Kerschenbaum,
Please consider supporting the New Haven Climate Movement and Gather New Haven, two local organizations committed to environmental justice.Visit newhavenclimatemovement.org and gathernewhaven.org to learn more.
Photo: Reuters/Kristi McCluer