A note from the Cab
Welcome to what I’ve affectionally been calling “the first-ever Yale College takeover” of the Yale Cabaret! Admittedly, institutional memory is a bit short with the ever-changing students coming and going from the School of Drama. Whether I and You truly is the first allundergraduate proposed and produced show in Cabaret history isn’t important. Hopefully it’s the start of what will become a deeper relationship within the theater communities across Yale. Having the undergrads in the space has brought excitement, energy, and far too many Gen Z-versus-Millennial jokes. Lauren and Jordi impressed us with their impassioned (and well researched!) proposal. Their commitment to the work was apparent in their writing, and has sustained this group through increased COVID protocols, changing undergraduate production schedules, and denied theatrical rights. They assembled a team from across rival residential colleges to come together at the Cab. Most importantly, though, is the depth, clarity, and connection to Lauren Gunderson’s play that the artists have brought into this process. What is a seemingly simple and sweet story at first, reveals its hidden layers as the façade fades away. - Sarah Ashley Cain, Artistic Director
A note from the show team Dear Caroline, This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.1 I have once been where we find you today: alone in my room, very sick, not really in school anymore, watching friends go on without me, plunging my face into distractions — and trying desperately to pretend otherwise. I was twelve (you are seventeen), but the story rings true. You’re awkward; I was too. Illness can be isolating at any age — but rarely more so than when it strikes early. All you need is somebody to erupt into your room, be a friend, and never leave. It’s life-saving. I had that somebody. And in Anthony — a winsome, Whitman-reciting, and hardworking basketball star — so do you. This wildering and dislocating chapter in your life will come to a close. As an audience, we have been granted special access to an evening alongside you and Anthony, and your meditations on oblivion, friendship, dreams, sex, and poetry. Funny, outrageous, and, at times, a little uncomfortable. Walt Whitman guides us through the night. Will you overcome your vivacious dislike of poetry or the suspicion that there’s nothing in this world for you? Between I and You, I sincerely hope so. Signing off, Joaquín Lara Midkiff Dramaturg 1 From Whitman’s “Songs of Myself” in Leaves of Grass.
I And You
By Lauren Gunderson Proposed by Lauren Marut and Jordi Bertrán Ramírez CREATIVE TEAM Director Scenic Designer Costume Designer Sound Designer Sound Engineer Projections Designer Dramaturgs Producer Technical Director Stage Manager Intimacy Coordinator
Malia Munley* Chiara Hardy* Maya McGrory* Ben Beckman* Samuel Ostrove* Alana Liu* Camille Chang*, Joaquín Lara Midkiff*, and Zaporah Price* Anya van Hoogstraten* JR Im* Olivia Ridley* Kelsey Rainwater
CAST Caroline Lauren Marut* Anthony Jordi Bertrán Ramírez* Special Thanks: James Bundy, Dan Egan, Yale Dramatic Association, Joe Chiang, Rob Chikar, Sydney Garick, Bryn Scharenberg, Eric Lin, Mike Paddock, MK Speth, Purple Crayon, Undergraduate Productions, Winston Venderbush, Brandon Tong, Lily Pérez, Bibiana Torres, Claire Donnellan, Soleil Singh, J21, and E41 Content Transparency: Includes strong language and discussions about death and illness. *Yale Cabaret Debut Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. (www.playscripts.com). I and You was first produced in a rolling world premiere by Marin Theatre Company (California), Olney Theatre (Maryland), and Phoenix Theatre (Indiana) as part of the National New Play Network’s Continued Life program. Originally commissioned and developed by South Coast Repertory.
- xx
Mission
Land Acknowledgement
Yale Cabaret is a beautiful experiment of artistry and process. With every season and iteration, we build a home for David Geffen School of Drama at Yale students to imagine, create, and share their stories alongside our many communities.
The state of Connecticut and Yale University occupy the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, Quinnipiac, and other Algonquian speaking peoples. We honor and respect their continued relationship with and stewardship of this land, and we acknowledge that Yale University, Yale Cabaret, and those affiliated have benefited from the oppression of these Nations.
Values Build Community Community is central to our work at the Cab. We seek to build intentional and nourishing relationships with each other and the communities of Yale, greater New Haven, and beyond. Keep Experimenting The Cab is the place for students to disrupt their process, take risks, and explore within and beyond their disciplines. Make a mess, try again, re-invent, and grow with us. Welcome All We aspire to create a more inclusive and welcoming theater across our many diverse identities and backgrounds. You are invited to show up as your full self at the Cab.
Labor Acknowledgement Yale University does not exist independently from the centuries of forced labor and economic extraction of enslaved people, primarily of African descent, on which this country was built. We are indebted to their labor and their unwilling sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the ongoing violence inflicted on Black and brown people and the resulting impact and generational trauma still felt today.
Leadership Team Artistic Director Sarah Ashley Cain
Co-Managing Director Natalie King
Associate Artistic Director Abigail C. Onwunali
Co-Managing Director A.J. Roy
Production Manager Rob Chikar
Collaborators Graphic Designer Mikayla Johnson
Cabaret Assistant Jake Hurwitz
Website Designer Laura Copenhaver
Videographer Andre Griffith
Artistic Associates Community Engagement Kayodè Soyemi
Lighting Riva Fairhall
Scenic Marcelo Martínez García
Costumes Kitty Cassetti
New Work Danielle Stagger
Sound Bryn Scharenberg
Directing James Fleming
Performance Cooper Bruhns Isuri Wijesundara
Stage Management Brandon Lovejoy
Dramaturgy Nicholas Orvis
Technical Direction Cam Camden
Projections Hannah Tran
Inclusivity Jacob Santos
Board of Directors Matthew Suttor, Chair Benjamin Benne Samanta Yunuen Cubias Kelvin Dinkins, Jr.
Reed Northrup Linda Stone Linda-Cristal Young
Our Supporters In 1968, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale students established a basement performance venue in the former home of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at 217 Park Street. Envisioned as an alternative outlet for drama school students’ creativity and experimentation, Yale Cabaret became a forum for our expanded New Haven communities, whom we invite to gather around food, drink, conversation, fellowship, and artistry. Since its founding, the Cabaret has remained in continuous operation, including pivoting to virtual performance during the 2020/21 season. The Cab has produced hundreds of plays, old and new, alongside musicals and musical revues, comedy shows, dance, performance art, and genre-defying performance. Our supporters have made this storied history happen. With their partnership, we continue this tradition into 2022 and beyond.
Partners ($1,000-$2,499) Santino Blumetti Ann Judd & Bennett Pudlin Matthew Suttor R. Lee Stump & Abigail Roth Clifford Lee Warner Show Sponsors ($500-$999) Nina R. Adams & Dr. Moreson Kaplan Joan Channick & Ruth Hein Schmitt Latiana “LT” Gourzong Andrew D. Hamingson & Sarah A. McLellan Bill & Sharon Reynolds Paul Walsh Yaro Yarashevich Grace Zandarski Enthusiasts ($250-$499) Audrey Conrad Pamela Jordan Jim & Eileen Mydosh Florie Seery James Sinclair & Sylvia Van Sinderen
Supporters ($100-$249) Shaminda Amarakoon Anne Danenberg Cornelia Evans Jerry & Donna Lodynsky Bonnie L. Kramm Edwin Martin Advocates ($50-$99) Katherine & Chava Burgueño Donna K. Doherty Mercedes Eugenia Matthew Sonnenfeld Rosalie Stemer Jessica Wolf
Thank You To Our Sponsors!
$8 crafted drinks during late night happy hour!
What’s Next Soft Apples By Doug Robinson Directed by Gabrielle Hoyt March 10-12 One week. Seven performances. $1 million. Ambitious, but your favorite theatre has one thing going for it: you. In Soft Apples, you take on the role of a patron of the arts, generously supporting the best of causes. After all, this is theatre! No dream is too big. No ask is too ambitious. No sacrifice is too costly…right?
Felon A solo performance by Reginald Dwayne Betts March 31 - April 2 New Haven local poet, Yale Law School Ph.D. candidate, and MacArthur Genius Fellow Reginald Dwayne Betts adapts his critically-acclaimed book of poetry, Felon, into a solo performance about re-imaging paper. Felon: An America Washi Tale begins with the pages of a book being slid into a cell, traverses stoves made of toilet paper, kites from a father, handwritten affidavits, legal complaints, handmade paper, certificates of pardon, & 1,000 squares fashioned from the clothing of men serving life sentences. Betts weaves traditional theater, poetry, fine art, and Japanese paper-making aesthetic principles into a meditation on his own experiences of incarceration and his legal work to free friends that are still in prison.
217 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-1566 || yalecabaret.org