A Midsummer Night’s Dream
MARCH 29–30, 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
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean
Florie Seery, Associate Dean
Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean
Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean
Adapted by Kemar Jewel and Shyama Iyer
Directed and Choreographed by Kemar Jewel
Creative Team
Sound Designer, Composer, and Music Director, Stan Mathabane
Scenic Designer
Patti Panyakaew
Costume Designer
Micah Ohno
Lighting Designer
Larry Ortiz
Projection Designer
Doaa Ouf
Production Dramaturg
Shyama Iyer
Technical Director
John Simone
Fight Directors
Kelsey Rainwater
Michael Rossmy
Stage Manager
Caileigh Potter
Cast in alphabetical order
Hippolyta/Titania
Whitney Andrews
Theseus/Oberon
Edoardo Benzoni
Bottom
Michael Allyn Crawford
Demetrius/Starveling Sufiyan Farmer
Helena/Snout
Janiah-Camile François
Lysander/Flute Ariyan Kassam
Egeus/Quince Karen Killeen
Puck/Philostrate Jahsiah Mussig
Hermia/Snug Rebeca Robles
Content Guidance
This production contains haze, fog, strobe, flashing lights, and loud sound.
A Midsummer’s Night Dream is performed without an intermission.
This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is performed in loving memory of O’Shae Sibley.
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
Artistic
Additional Choreography
Juice Mackins
Assistant Costume Designer
Annie Wang
Lighting Design Advisor
David Anthony Ken
DeCarolis
Assistant Projection Designer
Sam Skynner
Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer
Constant Dzah
Hair and Wig Consultant
Lauren F. Walker
Recorded Solo Vocalist
Janiah-Camile François
Assistant Stage Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
emission.
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
Production
Associate Safety Advisor
Timothy “TJ” Wildow
Production Manager
Yun Wu 吳昀
Production Electrician
Cathy Ho 何家寶
Lightboard Programmer
Shawn Poellet
Projection Content Creator
Ein Kim
Projection Programmer
Christian Killada
Projection Engineer
Jason Dixon
Properties Manager
Twaha Abdul Majeed
Run Crew
Hiếu Bùi, Joyce Ciesil, Shawn Poellet, Kristen Taylor
Administration
Associate Managing Director
A.J. Roy
Assistant Managing Director
Jeremy Landes
Management Assistant
Taylor Ybarra
House Manager
Mikayla Stanley
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.
Pyle, Beyoncé, Joseph Solomon, Steph Burke, Tricie Bergmann, Simona De Paolis.
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 Shakespeare Repertory 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.
FUND, established by a graduate of the School, honors the memory of the Tony Awardwinning 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.
reality and imagination, thought and perception, power and powerlessness.
In our dreary Athenian court, Theseus desires to wed Hippolyta, while Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. These men in power have no need for dreams, but for those who are powerless, dreams are desperately necessary. Hermia, for instance, has long dreamed of a life with Lysander, while Helena, a life with Demetrius. In another part of the city, Mistress Quince leads her troop of unlikely actors in the dream of presenting a magnificent new production of Pyramus and Thisbe. To make these dreams a reality, the lovers and actors will risk everything, even a journey into the dark woods that surround the city.
Our forest outside Athens is home to impossible dreams, glittering with the magic of contemporary Vogue, Ballroom, and Drag performance. It is a counterculture commanded by fairies who also have dreams of their own. Oberon, the king of the fairies, dreams of taking care of a young boy entrusted to him. But Titania, queen of the fairies, is far too formidable to let that happen. After all, she wields the power of iconic poses, daring fashion, and alluring music—and can change the fate of all who enter her enchanted land. With the help of her loyal Puck, she bends reality and imagination, thought and perception, power and powerlessness, becoming an arbiter of new dreams. With the lovers’ passions swapped and one of Mistress Quince’s actors disfigured, can the mortals carry new dreams back to Athens?
And can you, our audience, carry a piece of this new dream back to your “Real world?” Can you find that place between…
power and powerlessness, thought and perception, reality and imagination.