MARYS SEACOLE, David Geffen School of Drama, 2023

Artistry

OUR MISSION

OUR CORE VALUES

Belonging

Collaboration

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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

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

Please visit the lower level of the venue for restrooms.

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.

JANUARY 21–27, 2023

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

PRESENTS

Marys Seacole

By Jackie Sibblies Drury

Directed by Leyla Levi

Scenic Designer B Entsminger

Costume Designer T.F. Dubois

Lighting Designer Yichen Zhou

Composer and Sound Designer Evdoxia Ragkou

Production Dramaturg

Faith-Marie Zamblé

Technical Director

Miguel Angel Lopez

Stage Manager

Alexus Jade Coney

Marys Seacole is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.

Produced by LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, New York City, 2019.

Marys Seacole was commissioned by The Writer’s Room (Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova).

This production is supported by the Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.

Cast in alphabetical order:

Mamie Whitney Andrews Mary Tyler Cruz

Miriam Giovanna Drummond Merry Karen Killeen

Duppy Mary Abigail C. Onwunali May Rebeca Robles

Swings

May, Miriam, Merry .................................................................... Olivia Cygan Mary, Mamie, Duppy Mary Amelia Windom Marys Seacole is performed without an intermission.

Content Advisory

Marys Seacole depicts instances of physical and emotional trauma associated with racism, colonialism, and war. It contains adult language and situations, as well as fog, haze, strobe, and loud noises. Blood effects are also used in this production.

Seacole is

play about the 19th-century JamaicanScottish businesswomanturned-nurse, Mary Seacole. But sometimes, it’s a play about a woman named Mary who may or may not be channeling the spirit of Mary Seacole. It’s also play about motherhood, about carework, about who gets taken care of and by whom. Sometimes it’s a play about rage and cyclical trauma, and the misdirected misery people vent at each other when they cannot confront their oppressors directly. Sometimes the play is a meditation on forms of racial cluelessness, how presumption and entitlement turn naïveté into colonial malevolence. Most of the time, however, Marys Seacole is a play considering James Baldwin’s assertion that, “Power without a sense of oneself is…another kind of instability.” In Marys Seacole (emphasis on the added “s”), the self is a stage where myriad fictions may be put forth to gain power, but try as we might, these fictions are always subject to the dictates of history—both personal and political.

The story of Jamaica begins in 1494 when Christopher Columbus stumbled upon it and proceeded to enslave the indigenous Arawak tribes who had lived there for millennia. When the Arawak population was pushed to extinction by the inhumane conditions of plantation life, Spain imported enslaved Africans to the island and put them to the task of growing, harvesting, and refining sugar cane. It’s said that slavery in the Caribbean was far worse than anywhere else, illustrated by the fact that the child mortality rate there was particularly high; plantation owners were simply not invested in keeping children alive since it was cheaper to ship more Africans to Jamaica instead. This system of dehumanization and extractive labor was still at play when Mary Seacole was born in the early 1800s.

With this in mind, the fact that a Black biracial woman, born to a woman who was probably born into slavery and a Scottish soldier, traveled from her native Jamaica to nurse wounded British soldiers in the Crimean War—after being told “no”, no less—is incredible. It’s even more astounding that she opened a shop there and managed to feed British officers while working at a neighboring hospital. There’s a world where Marys Seacole is, instead of a surreal nightmarish play, a respectful biography that celebrates Seacole’s many accomplishments. The thing is, Mary Seacole already wrote that book.

Above: Mary Seacole, 1850, British public domain image. Right: After the battle, a scene from the Crimean War. Regional Art Museum, Kaluga, image courtesy of Alamy.

Marys

a

The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole in Many Lands was written and published as a way of garnering financial support from the British public after Mary found herself destitute post-Crimean adventures. In it, Seacole comes across as wellread, witty, a good sport, critical of American racism, courageous, resourceful, and supernaturally capable. At the same time, she is, by various turns, prejudiced, colorist, and an ardent supporter of the British empire despite its investment in the slave trade. Seacole was also prevented from volunteering as a nurse in the Crimean War effort. She also doesn’t mention her illegitimate daughter, much about her own upbringing and marriage, or the racism she likely experienced at the hands of her more famous counterpart, Florence Nightingale. In her Wonderful Adventures, Seacole flattens her life, draining it of blood or unseemly personal truths. But, truth has a way of seeping through the gauze applied.

Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury is interested in the mess and contradiction, in the between-the-lines, behind-the-scenes life we hide out of shame or necessity. Marys Seacole works as marginalia to Seacole’s Wonderful Adventures and asks questions about why women, Black women, Jamaican women especially, become caregivers, and whether giving in these cases is an act of power or an acquiescence to a society that dismisses Black women’s needs. As such, the play jumps back and forth between the past and the present, trying to understand whether anything has changed since Seacole’s time. It asks us who benefits from the structures that happily accepted Mary Seacole’s labor, then discarded her, left her in poverty, and forgot her.

The story of Mary Seacole should be celebrated as incredible and inspirational. But, in so many ways, it is a tragedy about what it means to live in a world where you are needed, but not wanted.

—Faith-Marie Zamblé, Production Dramaturg

Mamie: Whitney Andrews (she/her/hers) is an actor and writer based in New Haven. She is a Connecticut native, and currently an M.F.A. candidate in acting at David Geffen School of Drama. Prior to her performances on the School’s stages, she was seen on Manifest (NBC), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu), Gotham (FOX) and Happy! (Syfy). Today, Whitney tells stories illustrating multifaceted Black women who exist in the fullness of their complexities. She is a fearless feeler and pleasure seeker, who is constantly finding herself through her work.

Mary: Tyler Cruz (she/her) is a CaribbeanAmerican fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Acting credits include rent free, Affinity, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Bodas de Sangre at the Geffen School; The Tempest at Elm Shakespeare Company; The Master’s Tools at Yale Cabaret; and Our Town, Baltimore, and Intimate Apparel at the University of Pittsburgh. She was also the co-producing artistic director of the Yale Summer Cabaret 2022 Summer of Love Season.

Miriam: Giovanna Drummond is a BrazilianAmerican acting candidate in her third year at David Geffen School of Drama. She most recently debuted at Yale Rep, understudying and performing for Martha in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Past productions at the Geffen School include Affinity and Blood Wedding, as well as Dear 2020, With Love: A Euphoric Play at Yale Cabaret. She holds a B.F.A. in theater and journalism from NYU, where she studied at the Experimental Theater Wing.

Merry: Karen Killeen is an Irish actor from Dublin, currently in her middle year at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Recent work includes The Cherry Orchard directed by Joan MacIntosh and Esme as part of the Langston Hughes Festival. Here at the School, Karen was also seen in Affinity and Blood Wedding. Recent television work includes KIN for AMC and Taken Down for RTÉ. Karen was nominated for ‘Best Emerging Irish Female Director’ at the IndieCork Festival along with her collaborator Laura O’Shea for her debut short film Hold The Line. An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas más é do thoil é?

Duppy Mary: Abigail C. Onwunali is a multifaceted Nigerian-American theater maker currently in her fourth year at David Geffen School of Drama. Her acting credits include Charly Evon Simpson’s it’s not a trip it’s a journey at the Chautauqua Theater Conservatory; Valor at the Guthrie; rent free, The Cherry Orchard, Swimmers, love i awethu further, and Love’s Labor’s Lost at the Geffen School of Drama; Is God Is and BURNBABYBURN: an american dream at Yale Cabaret; Twelfth Night with the Shakesperience Theater Company. She

is a graduated acting fellow of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Program. She was the 2022 John Gore Princess Grace Award winner. She served as the Associate Artistic Director of the 2021-22 Yale Cabaret where, in addition to performing, she has directed projects and a number of plays she has written have been produced including #4, In Between Bitches, and Ikenga in Wahalaland Abigail’s play, Jewel, was one of the 2021 Red Bull Theater’s Short New Play Festival winners, and her slam poems have been viewed worldwide.

May: Rebeca Robles (she/her) is a third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. Select theater credits include Paula Vogel’s Indecent (Chautauqua Theatre Company), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (U/S, Yale Repertory Theatre), Affinity (Geffen School), The Wolves (Horizon Theatre Company), and The Hero’s Wife (Synchronicity Theatre). Rebeca has been seen on Hulu’s Reprisal, FX’s Better Things, Netflix’s Insatiable, and OWN’s Ambitions. Most recently, Rebeca and her co-star were awarded Best Cast at the Brooklyn Horror Festival for their work in the film Old Flame.

Swings

May, Miriam, Merry: Olivia Cygan (she/her) is a fourthyear M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where credits include The Winter’s Tale (upcoming),

Next to Normal, Affinity, and She Kills Monsters. A proud native of Chicago, Olivia originated roles in The Burials at Steppenwolf Theatre and Feathers and Teeth at Goodman Theatre. She’s had the pleasure of working with Yale Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, The Gift Theatre at Steppenwolf, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, TimeLine Theatre, Piven Theatre, and others. Olivia received her B.S. in theater from Northwestern University. Mary, Mamie, Duppy Mary: Amelia Windom (she/her) is in her third year at David Geffen School of Drama, where she was seen in Affinity. Previous theater credits include A Christmas Carol, Wonderous Strange, Coffee Break (Actors Theatre of Louisville); and The Piano Teacher (Kitchen Theatre Company). Television credits include Law and Order: SVU, The Sinner, High Fidelity, and The Flight Attendant. Amelia received her B.F.A. in acting from Ball State University.

Creative Team

Stage Manager: Alexus Jade Coney (she/her) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in stage management. She is endlessly thankful for Ellora Venkat and Adam Foster, whose patience and grace made all the difference. Her work on this production is dedicated to her mom, Jackie Coney—a matriarch, caretaker, and breast cancer survivor who deserves the universe and every one of its stars.

Costume Designer: T.F. Dubois is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where their selected credits include 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

Scenic Designer: B Entsminger (they/them) is a scenic designer and theater maker currently pursuing their M.F.A. at David Geffen School of Drama. Scenic design credits include Sleeping Car Porters, Chroma Key (The Brick); The Tulsa Swinton Variety Hour (Flux Factory); L.A. Pretty Boy (Playwrights Horizons Theater School); and The Gas Heart (McNay Museum SATX). Assistant/ associate credits include Affinity (the Geffen School), True West (Tobin Center SATX). B holds a B.A. from Trinity University San Antonio.

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

Technical Director: Miguel Angel Lopez a third-year graduate student at David Geffen School of Drama. In addition to his work as a draftsman for manufacturing, installation, and corporate events, Miguel has worked at various colleges, regional theaters, and summer stocks across the country. Selected credits include: JR Clancy, Hargrove by Encore, Agam Group, the Olney Theatre Center, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Phoenix Theatre, and the Monomoy Theatre.

Composer and Sound Designer: Evdoxia Ragkou (she/her/hers) is a New Haven-based sound artist and composer. She has worked in venues such as Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Cabaret, and Yale Repertory Theatre. She has also written music for various dance projects and short films. She also wears the hat of a solo artist, and you can say that she is overall a person of a sound mind.

Production Dramaturg: Faith-Marie Zamblé 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. Her most recent credits include Choir Boy at Yale Rep (assistant director) and In the Southern Breeze at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (co-dramaturg).

Lighting Designer: Yichen Zhou (she/her/hers) 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 Ghosts (the Geffen School), 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

Jackie Sibblies Drury is a Brooklyn based playwright. Her other plays include We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, Really; Social Creatures; and Fairview, for which she was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Jackie’s plays have been presented by New York City Players and Abrons Arts Center, Soho Rep, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Matrix Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Available Light, Company One, and The Bush Theatre in London, among others. Her work has been developed at Sundance, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova, A.C.T., The Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, PRELUDE.11&14, The Civilians, The Bushwick Starr, The LARK, The Magic Theatre, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival and The MacDowell Colony.

Jackie was a dramaturg for Futurity by Cesar Alvarez and The Lisps, Zero Cost House by Pig Iron Theatre Company & Toshiki Okada and The Garden by Nichole Canuso Dance Company. She received a 2015 Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama, a 2012-2013 Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, and was the inaugural recipient of the 2012-2014 Jerome Fellowship at The LARK. Jackie is a NYTW Usual Suspect and a 2015 United States Artists Gracie Fellow. She is a member of the Playwriting faculty at David Geffen School of Drama.

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

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

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

Additional Costume Staff: Judianne Wallace

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

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

Administration

General Management Associate Managing Directors: Sarah Scafidi Matthew Sonnenfeld

Assistant Managing Director: Natalie King

Management Assistants: Anne Ciarlone Maya Louise Shed

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

Company Manager: Chloe Knight

Assistant Company Managers: Mikayla Stanley Andrew Aaron Valdez

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 Assistant: Adrian Hernandez

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: Aditya Agarwal Moriah Clarke Andrea Valcourt

Business Office Assistant: Asberry Thomas

Digital Technology Associates: Edison Dule Garry Heyward (on leave)

Interim Digital Technology Associate: Shontay Jones

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

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

Marketing Assistant: Roman Sanchez

Publications Manager: Marguerite Elliott

Publications Assistant: Patrick Ball

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, 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 Advisors: Megan Birdsong Jeremy Landes

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

Marys Seacole, January 21–27, 2023. Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 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.