“Nothing is more inexplicable than friendship in childhood. It is not companionship, though the two are often confused... A child does not seek to bond with another child. The bond, defying knowledge and understanding, either is there, or is not; once a bond comes into existence, no child knows how to break from it until the setting is changed... Childhood friendship, much more fatal [than love at first sight], simply happens.”
In Wake, we get to watch young actors play at being girls, teenagers, and adults. This playing is fun, but it is also a serious provocation. The actors and their bodies bring their characters’ young selves with them as they move through time. They hold tight to their grief and their bonds to those who know the same griefs and joys. Watching them, we can challenge ourselves to cast our imaginations into the future and the past along with them.
—The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
The motion of Wake is watery. Sometimes the scenes are a tide moving in and out gently, and sometimes they crash onto shore. And in all the ways water is beautiful and dangerous, so are these four people’s relationships to each other.
“Tidalectics entangles the before and after of chronic time and offers an alternative to linear, futureoriented progress. The Maori proverb “Ka mura, Ka muri” emphasizes this view. Translating as ‘walking backward into the future,’ it does not simply reverse the arrow of time but deeply enmeshes the past and future with each other. While we cannot see the futures we are moving into, we keep an eye on our ancestors’ past, which shapes our every step.” —Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic View Through Art and Science by Stefanie Hessler
WAKE
Wake explores the distinction between a generation of parents who emigrated from Asia and children who grew up Asian American. When the right bodies inhabit the roles, it’s clear why they are who they are. — Hannah Fennell Gellman, Production Dramaturg
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2022–23 SEASON
Production Staff
NOVEMBER 15–19, 2022
Associate Safety Advisor
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
Megan Birdsong
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Associate Production Manager
Kino Alvarez
Technical Supervisor
John Simone
PRESENTS
Production Stage Manager
WAKE
Charlie Lovejoy Production Crew
Jason Dixon
by Stefani
Kuo 郭佳怡 directed by Bobbin Ramsey
Run Crew
Alexus Coney Caroline Tyson
Administration Creative Team
Cast
Production Dramaturg
Eloise
Wing (rehearsal and development)
Stage Manager
Wing
Wing (workshop)
Hannah Fennell Gellman Colleen Rooney Assistant Stage Manager
Hannah Louise Jones
Lucas Iverson
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.
Associate Managing Director
Matthew Sonnenfeld
in alphabetical order
Talya Ahrin Hadari
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.
yao
Patrick Falcón
Anna
Mikayla Ashanti Mizell Corrie
Isuri Wijesundara
WAKE is performed without an intermission.
Management Assistants
Jeremy Landes Roman Sanchez House Manager
Spencer Knoll 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.
Special Thanks
Netta Hadari, Tina Hadari, Christine Tong, Yoruba Mizell, Nakia Shalice Avila, Caro Riverita
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
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.
All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater except when eating or drinking. 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
NOVEMBER 15–19, 2022
Associate Safety Advisor
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
Megan Birdsong
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Associate Production Manager
Kino Alvarez
Technical Supervisor
John Simone
PRESENTS
Production Stage Manager
WAKE
Charlie Lovejoy Production Crew
Jason Dixon
by Stefani
Kuo 郭佳怡 directed by Bobbin Ramsey
Run Crew
Alexus Coney Caroline Tyson
Administration Creative Team
Cast
Production Dramaturg
Eloise
Wing (rehearsal and development)
Stage Manager
Wing
Wing (workshop)
Hannah Fennell Gellman Colleen Rooney Assistant Stage Manager
Hannah Louise Jones
Lucas Iverson
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.
Associate Managing Director
Matthew Sonnenfeld
in alphabetical order
Talya Ahrin Hadari
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.
yao
Patrick Falcón
Anna
Mikayla Ashanti Mizell Corrie
Isuri Wijesundara
WAKE is performed without an intermission.
Management Assistants
Jeremy Landes Roman Sanchez House Manager
Spencer Knoll 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.
Special Thanks
Netta Hadari, Tina Hadari, Christine Tong, Yoruba Mizell, Nakia Shalice Avila, Caro Riverita
This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
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.
All patrons must wear masks at all times while inside the theater except when eating or drinking. 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.
“Nothing is more inexplicable than friendship in childhood. It is not companionship, though the two are often confused... A child does not seek to bond with another child. The bond, defying knowledge and understanding, either is there, or is not; once a bond comes into existence, no child knows how to break from it until the setting is changed... Childhood friendship, much more fatal [than love at first sight], simply happens.”
In Wake, we get to watch young actors play at being girls, teenagers, and adults. This playing is fun, but it is also a serious provocation. The actors and their bodies bring their characters’ young selves with them as they move through time. They hold tight to their grief and their bonds to those who know the same griefs and joys. Watching them, we can challenge ourselves to cast our imaginations into the future and the past along with them.
—The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
The motion of Wake is watery. Sometimes the scenes are a tide moving in and out gently, and sometimes they crash onto shore. And in all the ways water is beautiful and dangerous, so are these four people’s relationships to each other.
“Tidalectics entangles the before and after of chronic time and offers an alternative to linear, futureoriented progress. The Maori proverb “Ka mura, Ka muri” emphasizes this view. Translating as ‘walking backward into the future,’ it does not simply reverse the arrow of time but deeply enmeshes the past and future with each other. While we cannot see the futures we are moving into, we keep an eye on our ancestors’ past, which shapes our every step.” —Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic View Through Art and Science by Stefanie Hessler
WAKE
Wake explores the distinction between a generation of parents who emigrated from Asia and children who grew up Asian American. When the right bodies inhabit the roles, it’s clear why they are who they are. — Hannah Fennell Gellman, Production Dramaturg
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2022–23 SEASON