We missed you. We missed this. We missed the worlds that people in a place and words from mouths can make. Worlds that are our worlds and worlds that aren’t ours; people we love because we know them and people we love because we don’t. People. As we say: good people that might do bad shit from time to time —but what is bad shit anyway? That’s what this play is about. But it’s about a lot more than that, right? It’s about fathers and daughters and what we inherit. Wives and husbands and what we hang onto. Best-best friends and who we roll with. Black and brown joy! And Truth. Of course.
This is also a play about boundaries. Some of those boundaries are drawn in the sand by who it is that’s got and who has not. What you’ve not got can put you in a box, Specially when things get a little bit hot. If you’re short on your suga. But there are other boundaries here too. The natural kind, which are lighter. Sacred. Airy. Fine shining crystalline things… It’s not only space that can separate. Time can. Thought can. Can you feel we, reaching out to you in this note? And just on the other side, there you are. It’s such a simple barrier. And still…so much on the other side. The things you know, the things you don’t know, and the things you don’t know that you don’t know.
Worlds within worlds. Now let us draw your attention: At the very center of the worlds, two ten-year-old Afro-Latinas. Watch them now. They’re some special girls. One of the things that’s true about them: They don’t shy away from what is Don’t try to disappear the systems But say to them, “So what?” “I got things that I need.” “I got things that I want.” Wanting waiting willing; worlds within worlds within worlds—and at that center, maybe also at the outermost boundary, us, here, now. In your head. In this space. What is it that can draw these worlds together?
Green Suga Bloos
Keep an eye out for it.
We’ll see you soon. Got to make our circle, Make the magic, Draw a line that will ask to be crossed, for a cost. Again. As always. When you cross a boundary, you come into a different world; you never stay the same after that. So slow the show shimmers and shines as it shivers. Shush, now. Truth is talking.
—Nicholas Orvis, Production Dramaturg
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2021–22 SEASON
NOVEMBER 16–20, 2021 DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Assistant Dean
PRESENTS
Green Suga Bloos by Rudi
Goblen directed by James L. Fleming
Green Suga Bloos is performed without an intermission. All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater. Our staff, backstage crew, and artists will also be masked at all times. 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.
Production Staff Associate Safety Advisors
Annabel Guevara Eric Walker
Associate Production Manager
Creative Team Production Dramaturg
Nicholas Orvis Stage Manager
Bekah Brown Assistant Stage Manager
Chloe Liu
Cast
in alphabetical order Pa
Malachi Beasley
Aholibama Castañeda González
Siddi/Yovi
Danaya Esperanza* Pops
Administration Emma Rose Perrin
Assistant Managing Director
Matthew Elijah Webb Belli/Yuli
A.J. Roy
Management Assistant House Manager
Chloe Knight
Production Photographer
Leigh Busby
David Geffen School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
*Appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Associate Managing Director
Jacob Santos
Amelia Windom
The Langston Hughes Festival of New Work productions 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.
Run Crew
Abby Entsminger Lucas Iverson Reed Northrup
Truth
Anthony Brown
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.
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.
NOVEMBER 16–20, 2021 DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Assistant Dean
PRESENTS
Green Suga Bloos by Rudi
Goblen directed by James L. Fleming
Green Suga Bloos is performed without an intermission. All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater. Our staff, backstage crew, and artists will also be masked at all times. 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.
Production Staff Associate Safety Advisors
Annabel Guevara Eric Walker
Associate Production Manager
Creative Team Production Dramaturg
Nicholas Orvis Stage Manager
Bekah Brown Assistant Stage Manager
Chloe Liu
Cast
in alphabetical order Pa
Malachi Beasley
Aholibama Castañeda González
Siddi/Yovi
Danaya Esperanza* Pops
Administration Emma Rose Perrin
Assistant Managing Director
Matthew Elijah Webb Belli/Yuli
A.J. Roy
Management Assistant House Manager
Chloe Knight
Production Photographer
Leigh Busby
David Geffen School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
*Appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Associate Managing Director
Jacob Santos
Amelia Windom
The Langston Hughes Festival of New Work productions 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.
Run Crew
Abby Entsminger Lucas Iverson Reed Northrup
Truth
Anthony Brown
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.
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.
We missed you. We missed this. We missed the worlds that people in a place and words from mouths can make. Worlds that are our worlds and worlds that aren’t ours; people we love because we know them and people we love because we don’t. People. As we say: good people that might do bad shit from time to time —but what is bad shit anyway? That’s what this play is about. But it’s about a lot more than that, right? It’s about fathers and daughters and what we inherit. Wives and husbands and what we hang onto. Best-best friends and who we roll with. Black and brown joy! And Truth. Of course.
This is also a play about boundaries. Some of those boundaries are drawn in the sand by who it is that’s got and who has not. What you’ve not got can put you in a box, Specially when things get a little bit hot. If you’re short on your suga. But there are other boundaries here too. The natural kind, which are lighter. Sacred. Airy. Fine shining crystalline things… It’s not only space that can separate. Time can. Thought can. Can you feel we, reaching out to you in this note? And just on the other side, there you are. It’s such a simple barrier. And still…so much on the other side. The things you know, the things you don’t know, and the things you don’t know that you don’t know.
Worlds within worlds. Now let us draw your attention: At the very center of the worlds, two ten-year-old Afro-Latinas. Watch them now. They’re some special girls. One of the things that’s true about them: They don’t shy away from what is Don’t try to disappear the systems But say to them, “So what?” “I got things that I need.” “I got things that I want.” Wanting waiting willing; worlds within worlds within worlds—and at that center, maybe also at the outermost boundary, us, here, now. In your head. In this space. What is it that can draw these worlds together?
Green Suga Bloos
Keep an eye out for it.
We’ll see you soon. Got to make our circle, Make the magic, Draw a line that will ask to be crossed, for a cost. Again. As always. When you cross a boundary, you come into a different world; you never stay the same after that. So slow the show shimmers and shines as it shivers. Shush, now. Truth is talking.
—Nicholas Orvis, Production Dramaturg
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2021–22 SEASON