“All real living is meeting.” In I and Thou (1920) Jewish theologian and philosopher Martin Buber identifies two distinct modes in which we interact with the world around us: in a relationship of “I-It” or “I-Thou.” Most of the time, we exist, by necessity, in a state of I-It, the world and others held separate from ourselves, to be engaged with at the level of transaction. Every now and then, it is possible to enter into a state of I-Thou, to be fully present with our whole selves, in complete and perfect relation to the world, to another, to God. These are moments of miracle or grace, of dropping into a state of flow. This is love in its simplest, most profound sense, precious and inevitably fleeting. *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
From early on in our process, Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field has been a touchstone for us. This sprawling piece of land art in the high desert of New Mexico is made out of 400 stainless steel rods arranged in a large grid, all spaced 220 feet apart. Each rod comes to an identical, pointed tip, all at the same height, each equally ready to be struck, should lightning come. These points stand ready, waiting for a miraculous and cataclysmic jolt of electricity. *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
In the fall of 1592, plague broke out in London. By even the most conservative estimates, roughly 10% of the city’s population died over the next two years, as the theaters sat empty. Romeo and Juliet was one of the first plays, maybe the first play, to be performed at The Theatre in Shoreditch after it reopened in 1594. The audience must have been full of people who had lost someone, lost friends and foes, neighbors and acquaintances, parents and children. In Romeo and Juliet—and Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris—they didn’t see iconic roles, they saw young people (those most likely to have died of plague) and the institutions of
ROMEO AND JULIET
Church, State, and Patriarchy that proved themselves again and again incapable of protecting their children. They were meeting these characters on stage for the first time. They were meeting themselves anew.
—Lily Haje, Production Dramaturg
View The Lightning Field:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92912701@N07/sets/72157632978689248/with/8486718845/
SHAKESPEARE REPERTORY PROJECTS | 2021–22 SEASON
APRIL 21–23, 2022
Artistic
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Assistant Dean
Andrew Petrick
PRESENTS
Production
Mike Winch
Assistant Stage Manager
Associate Safety Advisors
Romeo and Juliet
Jacob Santos Eric Walker
by William
Shakespeare directed by Leyla Levi
Associate Production Manager
Joe Hsun Chiang
Assistant Technical Director
Eugenio Sáenz Flores
Creative Team Scenic Designer
KIMKIM (Juhee Kim) Costume Designer
Kitty Cassetti
Lighting Designer
Jiahao (Neil) Qiu 邱嘉皓 Sound Designer
Stan Mathabane Production Dramaturg
Lily Haje
Cast
Production Electrician
Cameron Waitkun
in alphabetical order Montague/Peter
Patrick Ball
Romeo/Abram
Daniel Liu
Paris/Benvolio
Friar Laurance/Sampson
Nurse/Prince/Friar John
Lady Capulet
Tybalt
Capulet
Malachi Beasley Nefesh Cordero Pino Samuel DeMuria Juliet
Tavia Elise Hunt
Thomas Pang (yao) Madeline Seidman Kayodè Soyemi Mercutio/Gregory
m. imani west
Technical Director
Dani Mader
Stage Manager
Charlie Lovejoy
Administration Associate Managing Director
Emma Rose Perrin
Assistant Managing Director
Chloe Knight
Management Assistant
Annabel Guevara
Fight and Intimacy Directors
Kelsey Rainwater Michael Rossmy
Run Crew
Travis Chinick Sydney Garick Shaoqian Lu Stephen Marks Marcelo Martínez García
Setting Verona
Romeo and Juliet is performed without an intermission.
House Manager
Gabrielle Hoyt 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.
All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater. Our staff, backstage crew, and artists (when not performing on stage) 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.
Land Acknowledgment
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 Shakespeare Repertory Project 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. 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, 1982–93, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Program from 1993 until his death in 2005.
APRIL 21–23, 2022
Artistic
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Assistant Dean
Andrew Petrick
PRESENTS
Production
Mike Winch
Assistant Stage Manager
Associate Safety Advisors
Romeo and Juliet
Jacob Santos Eric Walker
by William
Shakespeare directed by Leyla Levi
Associate Production Manager
Joe Hsun Chiang
Assistant Technical Director
Eugenio Sáenz Flores
Creative Team Scenic Designer
KIMKIM (Juhee Kim) Costume Designer
Kitty Cassetti
Lighting Designer
Jiahao (Neil) Qiu 邱嘉皓 Sound Designer
Stan Mathabane Production Dramaturg
Lily Haje
Cast
Production Electrician
Cameron Waitkun
in alphabetical order Montague/Peter
Patrick Ball
Romeo/Abram
Daniel Liu
Paris/Benvolio
Friar Laurance/Sampson
Nurse/Prince/Friar John
Lady Capulet
Tybalt
Capulet
Malachi Beasley Nefesh Cordero Pino Samuel DeMuria Juliet
Tavia Elise Hunt
Thomas Pang (yao) Madeline Seidman Kayodè Soyemi Mercutio/Gregory
m. imani west
Technical Director
Dani Mader
Stage Manager
Charlie Lovejoy
Administration Associate Managing Director
Emma Rose Perrin
Assistant Managing Director
Chloe Knight
Management Assistant
Annabel Guevara
Fight and Intimacy Directors
Kelsey Rainwater Michael Rossmy
Run Crew
Travis Chinick Sydney Garick Shaoqian Lu Stephen Marks Marcelo Martínez García
Setting Verona
Romeo and Juliet is performed without an intermission.
House Manager
Gabrielle Hoyt 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.
All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater. Our staff, backstage crew, and artists (when not performing on stage) 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.
Land Acknowledgment
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 Shakespeare Repertory Project 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. 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, 1982–93, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Program from 1993 until his death in 2005.
“All real living is meeting.” In I and Thou (1920) Jewish theologian and philosopher Martin Buber identifies two distinct modes in which we interact with the world around us: in a relationship of “I-It” or “I-Thou.” Most of the time, we exist, by necessity, in a state of I-It, the world and others held separate from ourselves, to be engaged with at the level of transaction. Every now and then, it is possible to enter into a state of I-Thou, to be fully present with our whole selves, in complete and perfect relation to the world, to another, to God. These are moments of miracle or grace, of dropping into a state of flow. This is love in its simplest, most profound sense, precious and inevitably fleeting. *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
From early on in our process, Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field has been a touchstone for us. This sprawling piece of land art in the high desert of New Mexico is made out of 400 stainless steel rods arranged in a large grid, all spaced 220 feet apart. Each rod comes to an identical, pointed tip, all at the same height, each equally ready to be struck, should lightning come. These points stand ready, waiting for a miraculous and cataclysmic jolt of electricity. *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
In the fall of 1592, plague broke out in London. By even the most conservative estimates, roughly 10% of the city’s population died over the next two years, as the theaters sat empty. Romeo and Juliet was one of the first plays, maybe the first play, to be performed at The Theatre in Shoreditch after it reopened in 1594. The audience must have been full of people who had lost someone, lost friends and foes, neighbors and acquaintances, parents and children. In Romeo and Juliet—and Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris—they didn’t see iconic roles, they saw young people (those most likely to have died of plague) and the institutions of
ROMEO AND JULIET
Church, State, and Patriarchy that proved themselves again and again incapable of protecting their children. They were meeting these characters on stage for the first time. They were meeting themselves anew.
—Lily Haje, Production Dramaturg
View The Lightning Field:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92912701@N07/sets/72157632978689248/with/8486718845/
SHAKESPEARE REPERTORY PROJECTS | 2021–22 SEASON