The two-person musical, co-directed and performed by Lucas Oland ’26 and Ava-Riley Miles ’26, is based on the classic novel by Jean Webster. The musical follows Jerusha — played by Miles — as she navigates a transition between her orphanage and college. Throughout the story, she writes letters to her mysterious benefactor “Daddy Long Legs,” whom the audience knows as Jervis, played by Oland. As the two begin to fall in love, a comedic romance of dramatic irony ensues.

“Our show should be one where people are leaving really excited to be involved with theater,” Oland said. “It’s a celebration of musical theater and the work we put into the show.”

This musical is a passion project for Miles, an English and theater double major, and Oland, a neuroscience major. The two began working on the project together in January when Miles approached Oland with the score.

After Oland listened to the soundtrack and fell in love with it, the pair decided to pursue the project together. 

Since the two make up the entire cast, their directorial approach was more conversational than instructional. 

“We come into every rehearsal, kind of like, ‘okay, what feels natural?’ and then we work from there,” Miles said. “It’s much less having someone tell you ‘And now you stand here, and you walk here.’ It’s more like figuring it out.”

The show’s intimacy is supported by the technical elements of the production. The set is fairly simple. It uses moveable trunks on one side and office furniture on another to “split” the set down the middle, differentiating between Jerusha’s environment and Jervis’s office. 

Lighting is also used to distinguish between environments.

There are no blackouts in between scenes, so characters move set pieces while engaging in dialogue. Miles rearranges the trunks in unique ways to establish settings like a log cabin, mountain or her college room.

“We’re really using the suspension of disbelief,” Miles said.

Additionally, most of the show involves Jerusha writing letters to her benefactor, which she does by singing out and facing the audience. This results in the production having the feel of a three-person cast comprising Jerusha, Jervis and the audience itself. 

Music plays a distinct role in the production. Music not only plays during elements where cast members are singing, but it also underscores many of the dialogue scenes.

The varying presence of music in the show allows for originality and inventiveness. 

“There’s so much room for your own creativity,” said musical director Lauren Kim ’26. “It can be challenging, but also a really cool experience.”

The musical ensemble is also intimate, consisting of a piano, cello and guitar. 

Though the cast is small, the laughter and love in this show will be big, according to the directors.

“I think it’s nice every once in a while to see a show that just leaves you feeling good,” said Miles.

Daddy Long Legs will play March 29 and 30 in the Saybrook Underbrook.

The post Lots of love in Daddy Long Legs appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The Yale Student Film Festival screens student films from around the world. Submissions are sorted into five categories: narrative, experimental, documentary, animation and high school. Films are then reviewed by a panel of judges, including industry professionals and Yale faculty members. The festival will include screenings of submissions and a featured screening of a film from David Hemingson ’86.

This festival is “an opportunity to see some of the best shorts that are being made around the world in one auditorium,” said co-director of the festival Gabrielle Burrus Bustamante ’26.

The submission team received over 600 films from 20 countries. Out of that pool, only 50 were selected for awards and screenings. The festival itself will include screening blocks for those films that were chosen, award ceremonies and parties.

This film festival is unique in the sense that it is curated specially for college filmmakers, giving them the opportunity to gain production and critical skills in filmmaking.

In addition to student screenings, the festival will host renowned film industry professionals to lead Q&A-style talks and workshops.

Big Apple Film Festival’s Women Filmmakers Short Film 2019 winner, Patrice Bowman ’15, will lead a color grading workshop. Producer of “Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind,” Anthony Bregman ’88, and producer of “Past Lives,” Pamela Koffler ’87, will lead a session on independent producing. Writer and co-executive producer of “The Boys,” Michael Saltzman ’86, will lead a talk on TV writing and producing.

A full list of the festival’s workshops and networking events can be found on their website.

With the appearance of talented Yale alumni, in addition to films by Yale students, the festival team hopes to bring light to the artistic talent of the Yale community.

“I’m interested in making a community for young filmmakers,” said director of programming Marissa Blum ’24, “and to give a name to Yale as a place for student filmmaking.”

The festival will host three feature screenings. The Connecticut premiere of the documentary “Roleplay,” a film following a group of Tulane students as they confront sexual violence on their campus, will include a post-screening conversation moderated by Yale Communication and Consent Educators. The film’s producer Jenny Mercein ’95 and director Katie Matthews will be present for the screening.

The sci-fi mystery “Karmalink” will be screened and joined by producer Valerie Steinberg — producer of the 2022 Cannes festival Caméra D’Or award-winner, “War Pony.”

The festival’s “spotlight screening” of “The Holdovers” will be joined by writer and producer of the Oscar-nominated film, David Hemmingson.

The festival is a “center for student filmmaking in the northeast” and aims to “celebrate the next generation of filmmakers,” said festival co-director Eli Berliner ’26.

Because the festival boasts submissions from across the world, some events will have the option of virtual attendance.

The festival’s goal is to bring together filmmakers and film lovers alike. It is open to all students, regardless of major. 

“​​One of our main missions is making the Yale Student Film Festival as accessible as possible,” wrote director of publicity Miette Maoulidi ’25 in an email to the News. “This means our tickets are free and available to anyone, no matter their academic institution or major. We are screening so many great films that the public deserves to see!”

The festival will be hosted April 11-14 in various locations across Yale’s campus.

The post Yale Student Film festival to feature award-winning speakers appeared first on Yale Daily News.

“I consider this show to just be flawless,” said Reed Sigmund, a resident actor at the CTC and Goede’s co-star. “It’s hilarious and has so much heart. These characters are very different but celebrate those contrasts.”

The musical is a reinterpretation of the classic children’s book characters Frog and Toad. The two friends journey through the seasons and go on the cutest adventures: kite flying, cookie making, sledding and bedtime storytelling. 

Growing up, Goede didn’t think he was going to be an actor. He described himself as artistic, but definitely on the shyer side. He wasn’t a stereotypically outgoing and bubbly theater kid, he mentioned.

“I think there are two kinds of actors,” Goede said. “The homecoming queens … [who] can become great actors because there’s confidence. There are others — like me — that were kind of awkward and shy and disconnected and because of that can become great actors.”

Goede described himself as a “daydreamer.” He tended to stick to the behind-the-scenes aspects of art and theater, focusing on visual and medium-based art. 

Despite being more reserved, acting became an emotional outlet for Goede. He felt that onstage, he was able to become a different version of himself that was capable of great emotional vulnerability. 

“I think I became an actor who stayed outside myself because I didn’t know myself,” Goede said. “But I loved it because it could be anybody but myself. That’s true of a lot of actors. We come to it not really knowing who we are and we find this magical thing where we can be somebody else and it’s incredible.”

Goede originally pursued drama school as a theater design major. Even at the start of his drama career, he still felt that he fit best behind the scenes. It wasn’t until he performed in Macbeth in drama school that he realized he wanted to be an actor.

The Shakespearean play resonated with the then-budding actor’s love for poetry and his desire to connect with people, according to Goede. That play built the technical skills he needed while sparking a passion for acting.

Goede’s teachers and mentors heavily influenced his time at drama school. Earle Gister, Barbara Somerville DRA ’83 and Virginia Ness had the most profound influence on the actor. While the teachers are no longer current members of Yale faculty, their time at Yale left a lasting impression on Goede.

Goede’s co-workers Autumn Ness and Reed Sigmund described him as “brilliant” and “sincere.”

Ness — a resident actor at the CTC and understudy in the production — not only works with Goede on the production but was also his student when he was an elementary school theater teacher in Minneapolis.

“He was such an artist,” Ness said. “He drew for us; he painted our sets; he taught our improv games and our theater classes. It was so entrancing and once you were exposed to it, it was all you wanted. And to revisit it at these different decades and points of life … I feel so lucky to reconnect with him.”

Goede has maintained his more introverted, reserved attitude throughout his acting career, never falling into the outgoing and bubbly theater stereotype. Among his core values is making genuine conversation with others. 

Sigmund will be playing Goede’s faithful companion Toad. This will be Sigmund’s second time acting alongside Goede — the first being an understudy performance as Toad in 2003 at the CTC.

“The music is phenomenal,” Sigmund said. “And Mark [2003’s Toad] and Jay are both individually perfect — which is not a word you use often in performance because it is so subjective — and their chemistry was also perfect. It was a production of the absolute best and all you could hope to do was equal it because you would never surpass it.”

Goede himself emphasized connecting with the audience as another key part of his acting values. He hopes to provide an experience for audiences that is “emotional” and “profound” within the short amount of time actors get on stage.

“A Year with Frog and Toad” will start rehearsal this spring.

The post Jay Goede DRA ’91 revives his Broadway role appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Set in a 1990s San Francisco apartment, “Delicacy of a Puffin Heart” tells the story of an immigrant lesbian couple — Ana Sofia and Meryl — as they navigate in-vitro fertilization and Meryl’s bipolar disorder. Decades later, their daughter Robyn lives in the same apartment with her best friend Hadley. A story of loss, family and friendship, “Delicacy of a Puffin Heart” will be performed Thursday, Feb. 15 through Saturday, Feb. 17.

“In directing the show, it’s allowed me to reflect on relationships in my life,” said director Alicia Shen ’26. “In the script, each scene is titled with like the New York Times ‘36 Questions to Fall in Love.’ … When we were going to rehearse a certain scene, we would talk with a cast and have everyone answered the question first, and then we get into rehearsal. It inherently … forced us to reflect on our own relationships.”

The show has been in rehearsal since late November. 

The play consists of a five-person cast. With such a small cast size, the team said they worked to create a homey and intimate atmosphere.

The stage is set to look like the inside of an apartment. Complete with paintings on the walls, scattered clothes and a usable refrigerator, the set has a cozy feel to it.

The stage and other technical elements are set up to make the audience feel like they are peeking into the life of the characters. Sound effects of running shower water and phone ringtones, props like real fruit and photographs of the actors, consistent costume changes and the lighting of the desk lamp all add to the intimate atmosphere of the play. 

Technicians use lighting to try and differentiate between the two timelines. At some points in the show, characters from the past and from the present are on stage at the same time. The only person who seems to have some idea of the tangle of time going on is Robyn, played by Jessica Le ’27.

“What will help [audiences] understand the play more is that memory sometimes doesn’t make sense, sometimes you interpret memory in your own way,” Le said. “I feel like this play is something inside Robyn’s memory. The play is up to what the audience is interpreting on their own.”

The show is filled with drama and intricately developed characters. From Ana Sofia’s motherhood journey to Robyn’s cancer, each character faces individual battles. Actors commit fully to their roles, carrying the audience along with this emotional story. 

Millie Liao ’27 plays Meryl, one of Robyn’s mothers, who struggles with bipolar disorder. 

“It’s really important to honor how this disorder affects people’s lives in a way that’s respectful,” Liao said. “It’s going to be difficult for someone who doesn’t have BPD to fully embody that. I’ve been trying to be mindful, spending time researching and I talked a little bit to a friend who has BPD. I think it’s important to make sure you’re dancing in between this line of asking people with BPD to tell their experience, but also imagining what it means, that BPD in this context. Not every person with bipolar disorder is going to have the exact same experiences.”

This play is produced in collaboration with the Asian American Collective of Theatermakers — AACT — at Yale. 

Directors Alastair Rao ’26 and Shen, both of whom are on the board of the AACT, invited members of the AACT to be a part of this show after it was selected by the Dramat for the spring semester. 

Creating a space for Asian theatermakers is a central theme of the play.

“I hope that Asian people feel emboldened to get involved in theatre at Yale, because there are so few of them in the theatre scene here,” Rao said. “I hope that they see our play and see themselves represented on stage and in the program and want to get involved.”

The playwright of the show — Stefani Kuo ’17 DRA ’24 — is currently a second-year playwriting student at the David Geffen School of Drama.

The post ‘Delicacy of a Puffin Heart’ offers a journey through love, loss and identity appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The play — written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok DRA ’12 — is the thesis project for director David DeRuiter ’24 and actor Lauren Marut ’25. This work tells the story of an unnamed boy and girl as they grapple with the uncertainty of their futures. As undocumented immigrants, the boy and girl face daunting trials and choices not typically represented in coming-of-age stories. 

“It’s all about the influence of memory,” DeRuiter said. “[It’s] on how we define our morality, our relationships and I would say the inverse too.” 

DeRuiter was introduced to “Sanctuary City” by Marut, who encountered the show via an advertisement looking for understudies. 

What piqued her interest in the show, however, was more than just a challenging script and nuanced plot, but the character descriptions. 

“I don’t think I’ve actually ever played someone who’s mixed or someone who’s Asian on stage where that’s part of their character description,” Marut said. “It’s not just about — oh I’m Asian and so when I stepped into this role the character becomes Asian. A role that has been written with an Asian actor in mind or mixed race actor in mind, I’ve never had the chance to play.”

According to the playwright Majok, the play was written to encourage inclusive casting for actors of various backgrounds and non-Western European origins. 

Marut emphasized that this is by no means a “knock” on Yale theater, but rather a critique of the theater community at large.

“As adept as theater is at enfranchising people, and conferring existence, and capital, and cultural and social-political spheres, it’s equally adept at disenfranchising groups with lack of earnest, authentic, or any representation,” said Marut. “And so, in that vein, I think we see a lot of theatres at Yale, and also beyond make a really pointed effort to include and make room for people of color in theater spaces. However, it’s not just about who is playing the roles, it’s whether or not the stories are written for people of color to play them.”

Marut said that she believes Yale is going in the right direction when it comes to uplifting student work. She referenced the production she produced last year, “For Colored Girls,” which was an original musical adaptation of the choreo-poem by Ntozake Shange.

“For Colored Girls,” Marut said, provided an opportunity for Black students at Yale to be part of a show that was written for Black women and to reflect the experiences of Black women.

“Sanctuary City,” Marut said, is a play that is written specifically for underrepresented actors.

“No character, however, is a Western European origin/ethnicity, or from a country of greater liberalism in the United States,” Marut cited from the playwright’s character descriptions.

The play exposes the faults in the American immigration system, specifically as it relates to children brought into the United States undocumented by their parents or guardians. 

G — the unnamed leading female role of the show played by Marut— seeks a sanctuary from her toxic home. She finds that sanctuary in B — the unnamed leading male role of the show played by Jordi Betrán Ramírez ’24. B’s search for sanctuary is ongoing throughout the play, and one might argue that he never finds it. 

The first act is a series of memories. The actors flash — literally and figuratively — through roughly seventy scenes, accompanied by changes in light and sound effects. Some scenes are as long as a few minutes, while others last barely one. 

Lighting plays a crucial role in differentiating between memories. It matches the tone — deep blue lights for somber scenes — while also adding unique creative elements to the piece such as spotlights, disco lights and lightbulbs.

Several lightbulbs hang from the ceiling of the theater and hover over the stage. In certain scenes, the lightbulbs sequentially turn on as tension builds. Other times, a single light bulb turns on every time a memory repeats itself, notably during the rapid sequence in which G repeatedly asks B if she can spend the night at his house. 

Rapid memory sequences, such as the one described above, invite the audience to think about how much of the scene is real and how much of it has been skewed by memory.

Since the chronology of the first act is a bit elusive and ambiguous, it is up to the audience to  “lean into the abstraction” DeRuiter said.

One of the most heart wrenching uses of the lightbulbs was at the end of the first act. The entire stage goes black, except for two lights. Alone amid a sea of darkness, the two bulbs are an apt metaphor for the experiences of the main characters of the play. 

In the first act, Marut and Ramirez use an empty stage to craft an intricate, deep and emotional story of two children forced to make decisions and deal with horrible situations that most adults couldn’t manage. From abusive stepfathers to absent mothers to marriages of convenience, these teenagers fight their way through these battles that are all the more difficult due to their status as undocumented immigrants. 

The actors are raw, unfiltered and expressive. In the first act they could only rely on themselves to “maneuver the plot” said Marut. However, in the intermission, the set goes from abstract to concrete. 

This change in the set not only symbolizes a change in time — approximately several years — but a change in tone. 

“We meet G and B in this more exploratory space, that allows, I think, more people to latch on to their story because it is a little purposely vague,” said Marut.  “We go from this very liminal playing space where we’re only relying on light changes and blackouts to delineate the passage of time and different emotional states … We move from act one to act two: a fully built kitchen with props, trash, costume layers, food and lights … I think it serves to reflect the world that the characters managed to build for themselves in the time that passes between act one and act two.”

In Act Two, the issues that the characters face are much more heightened and tangible. 

The emotional aspects of the show are heightened by the use of music, which was composed specifically for this production by Natalie Brown ’25 — who also composed the music for the musical “For Colored Girls.” 

A melancholy melody plays at several key moments throughout the show, intentionally used to trigger a feeling from the audience. When the audience hears the melody, they remember the last time the music played and the emotional context that came with it.

However, like the characters change and develop, so does the music. While the basic melody stays the same, it differs slightly each time it plays. 

“This is the new emotional state of the characters,” Brown explained as the purpose of the changes in the music. “The top of Act Two, for example, is a reiteration of the top of Act One but has some darker undertones. It’s fundamentally different in the way that’s like ‘we’re never getting back to where we were at the top of act one.’”

This is not a happy-go-lucky story, and intentionally so, Brown said. It is meant to emphasize the shortcomings of the American immigration system as experienced by these characters, according to Brown. 

Audience members are invited to search for themselves in ambiguous spaces and to resonate with characters they might not think themselves capable of relating to, DeRuiter added. 

“These people visibly loved and cared for each other,” DeRuiter said. “What were the things that happened that prevented them from caring for each other in the way that they promised to? What went wrong? I hope that [audience members] feel for those people and understand everybody’s perspective. Everybody makes a really difficult and ugly decision by the end of this show, and I hope people are thinking about that.”

The show will be playing Thursday, Feb. 8 through Saturday, Feb. 10 in the Theater and Performance Studies Black Box. 

The post ‘Sanctuary City’ explores the pitfalls of the American immigration system appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The group’s name is inspired by the Sanskrit word related to sight and the vision of beholding a sacred object. Two of the trio’s members, Vijay Gupta MUS ’07 and Dominic Cheli MUS ’16, are graduates of the Yale School of Music. During their performance, Gupta played the violin, Cheli the piano and Yoshika Masuda the cello. Their performance was a unique blend of contemporary and classical pieces.

“I thought it was really innovative compared to most classical music these days,” said attendee Alex Moore ’26. “I liked the presentation and the group had good chemistry.”

The Darshan Trio’s performance at the Schwarzman Center was split into four parts, each a unique blend of compositions. The show opened with a quote from “Book of Hours” by Rainer Maria Rilke, saying, “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

The first movement was a blend of contemporary and classic pieces. The opening song was Saans — or “Breath” —- by Reena Esmail. The composition, released in 2017, was delicate and emotional. It was accompanied by soft purple lighting, which matched the tone of the piece. This song then segued into “Piano Trio no.1”, first  movement, by Felix Mendelssohn. The 1839 composition was energetic and full-bodied, with red, warm-toned lighting matching the song. If Saans was the wind of a breath, this piece was the wind of a storm.

The second part of the performance was a blend of three songs. The first was called Mozart-adagio, a 1997 composition by Arvo Pärt. This emotionally subdued piece was performed in complete darkness, the only lighting coming from the soft glow of the performer’s tablets. The lighting then changed to soft warm tones for the 1811 Piano Trio “Archduke,” third movement, by Ludwig van Beethoven. This song was smooth and full of life. The last piece of the performance was “Buresca II”. The 1985 composition by Pēteris Vasks was energetic and lively, fittingly accompanied by magenta lighting. 

“It was very touching,” said attendee Serena Cheng ’24. “Especially how each one was tied to a story.”

The final blend of songs included only two composers: Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. 

This medley included a distinct story-telling aspect, as dictated by the projected quotes from Brahms and the diaries of Schumann and his wife Clara. 

The third act opened with a quote by Schumann to his wife from 1838 saying, “We will lead a life of poetry and blossom, and we will play and compose together like angels and bring gladness to mankind.” This quote introduced the first Schumann song — Kinderszenen, “Dreaming” — which then blended into another work in the same 1848 Kinderszenen series: “The Poet Speaks.” 

These first two songs featured a lighter, gentler tone, which was appropriate considering the musician was inspired to compose them after watching his children play outside.

The last two pieces of the third act were both by Brahms. The trio played the third and fourth movements of the 1854 Piano Trio No. 1.

The third act started with delicate notes, then transitioned to a more somber tone — fitting with Clara’s mourning of her husband — and ended with a piece that was a passionate celebration of life. The third act was the musical embodiment of the story of Schumann and Brahms. The two composers were good friends, Brahms being mentored by Schumann and — supposedly — falling in love with his daughter Clara. 

The trio took time at the end of their performance to celebrate Clara Schumann, who was a skilled composer but unable to express her love for music due to societal norms. The fourth performance of Clara Schumann’s 1846 Piano Trio — the third movement — was accompanied by a quote from Clara saying, “My imagination can picture fairer happiness than to continue living for art.” 

“I loved their inclusion and celebration of Clara Schumann’s work,” said Alliese Bonner ’27 who attended the event. “She’s probably the most famous female composer.”

The fourth piece was loving but somber, much like the composer’s relationship with music.

The trio came back out on stage after a lengthy applause for an encore performance. The room was filled with bright pink lighting as they played the 2019 Piano Trio, Scherzo, by Reena Esmail. The energetic song was filled with staccato and falsetto notes, creating a fairy-like atmosphere that ended the trio’s performance on a joyful note.

The trio has only been playing as a group since the pandemic but each member of the trio also boasts individual claims to fame. 

Cheli has performed nationally with orchestras including the San Diego Symphony, Colburn Orchestra and Adrian Symphony. He has played at the Mostly Mozart and Ravinia Festival and is scheduled to make his fourth appearance at Carnegie Hall.

Masuda is an internationally renowned cellist and was awarded the YAMAHA Music Foundation of Europe String Award. He has worked with several celebrated composers and musicians, including Leonard Cohen and David Geringas. He was also newly appointed to the role of Assistant Professor of Cello and Director of String Studies at the Chapman University Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music. 

Gupta played for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years as a member of the first violin section. He has worked with groups like the Kronos Quartet and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. 

Not only is each member of the trio an acclaimed musician, but all of them are also social justice advocates. 

Gupta is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, which is an organization that provides musical experiences for people recovering from addiction, homelessness and incarceration in the Los Angeles area. Cheli curates programs for and performs at schools and retirement homes in his surrounding community. Masuda is dedicated to teaching music to the next generation of artists, as exemplified by his history as a professor at California Lutheran University and his current position at Chapman University. 

For all of their pieces, the Darshan Trio performed with passion and vigor. Their energy was not only noticeable through the music they were playing, but also through their body language and facial expressions. Gupta played with so much liveliness that a few strings on his bow even snapped off during the performance. 

Reena Esmail MUS ’11 MUS ’14 MUS ’18 — the composer of two of the Trio’s performances — is a graduate of the Yale School of Music.

Correction, Feb. 12: This article has been updated to reflect that Robert is Clara’s husband, not her dad.

The post Darshan Trio performs dynamic musical medley  appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Set amid the schism of a megachurch, “The Christians” tells the story of Pastor Paul as he tries to keep his church, family and spirituality from falling apart. After giving a controversial sermon, in which Pastor Paul rejects the idea of hell, he is forced to deal with the subsequent fallout. This drama, directed by Tomás Fuchs-Lynch ’26, has been in the works since October 2023. 

“It’s not a satisfying play,” said Fuchs-Lynch. “It doesn’t make it very clear who is who was right and who was wrong … But, I think what’s really exciting with this play is that it gives so much depth to each of its characters.”

All the characters in the play orbit around Pastor Paul — played by Calum Baker ’25 — and have unique relationships with him. From the devoted wife to a single mother, each character’s relationship with the Pastor changes and crumbles throughout the show.

Baker delivers an enrapturing performance as Pastor Paul, which includes an emotional opening sermon. He invites the members of the congregation to question their long-held beliefs of heaven and hell, breaking down a lifetime’s-worth of spirituality in a mere thirty minutes. 

Church faculty on stage display their unease at the pastor’s words, their facial expressions changing from light and cheery to contemplative and frustrated by the end of the speech. 

What ensues is a series of conversations between Pastor Paul and various people in his life. There are never more than two people acting in a scene throughout the rest of the show, which creates the feeling that the audience is looking in on the Pastor’s life. 

Scene tones range from angry to intimate, from evangelical to clinical and from passionate to hopeless. 

During the rehearsal process, the two-person scenes presented a challenge to the cast, according to several members interviewed by the News.

“When you have the ability to know what scenes are coming before you then you can build a certain tension that comes from each of the scenes,” said Kevin Chabla Piruch ’25 who plays Associate Pastor Josh — who sparks the church schism. “I definitely felt that when we started doing run-throughs, and I changed what I had to do to match the tone that’s building throughout the show.”

While Baker is on stage for the entire two-hour show, other actors come and go. 

Director Fuchs-Lynch explained that he kept rehearsals limited to only scene members so that the time of the actors would not be wasted. In fact, much of his directorial process centers around trusting the actors’ interpretations of scenes and characters. 

“I spent a ton of time with this play,” said Fuchs-Lynch. “But there’ll be times in rehearsal [when] someone will give the line a certain way or bring something up that I hadn’t even thought of and then that makes its way into the show … That to me is a really exciting aspect of directing and theater in general.”

Actors contribute greatly to the immersive aspect of the show. Pastor Paul and his wife come out into the “congregation” at the beginning of the “service” to greet audience members, shaking hands and giving out blessings. A live chorus opens the show with a hymn, inviting the congregation to sing along with them. Actors all speak on microphones, addressing the audience and scene partners as though they were delivering a sermon.

The use of Sudler Hall as the “theater” immerses the audience in the show. The environment itself resembles a church with arched wooden ceilings and hanging lamps with intricate metalwork. Large windows overlook Cross Campus, adding a grounding connection to the natural world that makes the audience feel as if they are in a church service.

When actors leave the stage, they are doing more than exiting a scene. They are abandoning a belief system, they are storming out of the church and they are leaving Paul’s life. 

“I’d like to see what the audience thinks without having any expectations for them,” said Abigail Murphy ’27 — who plays Paul’s wife Elizabeth — while the director wants “audiences to be thinking about things that they hadn’t been thinking about when they stepped into the theater.”

Ambiguity and questioning are essential to this play. While there might be no strict sense of “right” and “wrong” or “heaven” or “hell,” the play invites audiences to question the strength of their beliefs — spiritual or otherwise.

“The Christians” will be playing Feb. 1-3 in Sudler Hall in William Harkness Hall. 

Correction, Feb. 12: A previous version of this article misnamed Lucas Hnath; it has since been amended.

The post ‘The Christians’ premieres this week appeared first on Yale Daily News.

New York City-born and raised, the professional dancer and choreographer duo have known each other since they were six years old. Their journey with dance began when they were around 10 years old when their school provided students with the unique opportunity to take dance classes as an alternative to traditional physical education. These classes, along with the guidance of their teacher, Jamal Jackson, inspired a love of dance that has lasted the tests of time. Their passion has now reached Yale audiences, including their two performances and one workshop this past weekend.

“It’s very inspiring to see how two boys from such a young age just dancing for fun ended up having a full career at such a high level,” said audience member Anouk Corstens.

Neither member of the duo thought they were going to have a professional career as dancers or choreographers, they told the News. 

Washington was initially going to the College of Wooster to study psychology, and Pratt attended Bard College with a degree in dance and philosophy but didn’t think he could make his passion a profession, he said. 

“I always knew I was interested in choreography, but didn’t know I was going to have a robust, professional dance career as a performer,” Pratt said. “It turned out that way, and I’m thrilled it did.”

Their distance while they were at school didn’t keep them from reuniting over their love for dance at every school break. After college, they both attended ballet classes together for a year and eventually attended the American Dance Festival — a well-known dance summer intensive program.

Now, the duo performs in schools, museums and arts festivals across the nation, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Baryshnikov Arts Center and the LA Dance Film Festival.

While the background of the two dancers is in hip-hop and African dance, the duo’s genre of dance is something entirely its own. There are elements of their style that one might classify as concert dance or contemporary dance, but both the performers said they feel like those are umbrella terms that don’t fully do their style justice.

Rather than box themselves into a specific genre, the dancers said that they let the audience define the experience for themselves. This absence of dance style also allows the performers to grow and experiment without the rigidity of genre.  

The duo’s process of creation begins with an argument over a commentary on society, Pratt said. Ideas begin as a dialogue between the two dancers before they become movement.

The dance itself is “responsive to source material,” Pratt said. “We find that that’s helpful in creating pieces that feel unique and feel uniquely related to the concept that we’re talking about.”

In their piece “Suck it Up” this material includes sound bites, infomercial clips and electronic beats as well as traditional music. 

“Suck it Up” is a performance that explores the nature of male insecurity and entitlement, they said. While it doesn’t follow a traditional narrative, there is an aspect of storytelling that is essential to the dance. 

“We always look into storytelling because we talk about political ideas and art,” Washington said. “It’s in an experimental or abstract place. It feels like you know what’s happening: there’s the place to be scared, there’s the place to laugh, there’s the place to do a little bit of both and then there’s like a little bit of suspense that takes you into the ending.”

As performers and choreographers, the dancers work diligently to find the balance between themselves and the “characters” they are playing.

In “Suck it Up” the duo feeds into stereotypical male archetypes from the roid-rager to the suburban dad, embodying them in a kind of runway scene toward the end of the performance.

During the “fashion show” the dancers “step into more detailed versions of what that masculinity could be,” Washington said. “Not that we are those archetypes necessarily, but all of those have made their way into our conscious and psyche in some sort of way to the point where we’re able to imitate them.”

The dance is an intensely visual experience, drawing in the audience’s attention not only with the movement of the dancers but also with unique lighting, costumes and projections.

The duo designs all of their own lighting, which Washington said is a unique way to interact with his work. This performance featured distinct lighting designs such as spotlights, colored lighting and the occasional burst of darkness. 

While the primary aspect of the show is visual, the dancers said they hope that their performances will elicit an emotional reaction as well as a sensory one. 

The performers emphasize that there is no “correct” interpretation of their shows. With movement, sound and visual media that is highly experimental and genre-defying, there comes an aspect of ambiguity.

“We want to create experiences for audiences where instead of needing to understand the didactic specifics of a political idea or commentary that we’re making, they’re instead understanding greater themes, like relationship to power, struggle, greed and vulnerability,” Pratt said.

Their show at the Schwarzman Center also featured a sneak-peak at an in-progress performance that the duo is currently working on. The piece is choreographed to be performed with five dancers in March. At Yale, however, the dance featured only three including Kyle H. Martin, Megan Siepka and Frances Lorraine Samson. 

“Their new performance will be showcased at Baryshnikov Arts Center from March 28 to 30 and at the American Dance Festival in June.”

Correction, Feb. 12: The article was updated to correct the name of the performance center at which the dancers will be showcasing their new work.

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“Cleansed” was Garrett Allen’s DRA ’24 thesis project, in which they were the director. The play tells the story of a woman named Grace, who is grieving the loss of her brother. In her grief, she decides to take his place at an institution for society’s “undesirables,” where the sadistic Tinker “cures” the patients. Through emotional monologues and shocking scenes, this play paints a tale of grief, love and hope. 

“Part of the experience of this play is to ground us,” Allen said. “What are you feeling? And why are you feeling the things that you’re feeling about these people?” They called the play, “an act of radical activation and reflection.”

Allen proposed “Cleansed,” along with several other plays, for their senior thesis project. However, Allen said they were particularly drawn to this piece ever since they read it during their first year at Harvard. 

Unlike other shows at the Yale School of Drama, actors could choose to opt into the production as it was not given to actors as a formal assignment. When Allen proposed the show to their classmates, they said they were grateful that other students “saw the vision” for what the show could be.

This was one of the first major productions of the British play in the United States — the only other being an upcoming performance of the show at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center in Houston, Texas — and Allen had a unique interpretation of the show. 

Allen chose to produce their show with an all-Black cast — a first in the history of this play. 

“Sarah Kane is centering this around people that are undesirable for society,” Allen said. “I think about the history of Black people in this country, the history of the institutionalization of Black people.” 

Though the play was written by a white woman, Allen said they always imagined this play with a Black company. Adding this new layer to the show brought about a process of experimentation. 

Whitney Andrews DRA ’24 — who played Grace — compared the rehearsal room to “a big experiment,” Andrews said.

“Everyone’s trying on the thing they learned in class, everyone’s taking out their new tools and they’re like, ‘All right, well, let’s see if this thing works’ … sometimes it doesn’t,” Andrews said.

An experimental approach to this show proved necessary considering the unique aspects of the production. According to Andrews and Allen, the story does leave some questions and aspects of the plot “unanswered”: What is the light that Carl and Grace walk into, how do the Tinker and the Woman know each other and what is the significance of the flowers that seem to bloom out of the theater floor? Actors and audience members alike must reconcile with that.

Like any experiment, there are always variables at play. In the rehearsal room, actors were in control of how they experimented. However, some variables are outside of the actors’ control. According to Allen, the variables of the experiment were always changing from the weather to the actors’ health, to the size and personality of the audience. 

“It’s a new audience, new people living, new people breathing with you and new people dying with you,” said Allen. “We’re all in the theater always living, breathing and dying.”

For the actors themselves, the learning and experimenting was still happening, but now in front of an audience, Andrews said. Using the metaphor of an experiment, Andrews felt that the only “control variable” was herself.

The performance itself was a testament to the sensory, emotional and interpretive nature of theater and art. 

The production was a shock to the senses with scenes of blinding lights, deafening gunfire, frequent nudity, graphic torture and uncomfortable and intimate sex scenes. The visual and auditory aspects of this show heightened the senses of the audience — forcing members to remain “on” at all times said Allen.

“I thought the design was really beautiful, the use of lighting especially,” said audience member and student Elliot Lee DRA ’26. “It was very emotionally effective.”

Lighting played a crucial role in the show, highlighting the extremity of the scenes. Stark-white lights filled up the Tinkers’s office, instilling a sense of unease, while moody purple and green lights set apart the Tinker and the sensual Woman he was infatuated with. Blinding, heavenly lights shone out toward the audience in the final scene as the only two surviving patients left the institution. 

Color acted as a character of its own in this show as well in both the set and costume design. The constant theme of the color yellow was present throughout, from the yellow flowers that grew out of the stage to the yellow sundress Robin wore. Yellow seemed to express hope and joy amid a sorrowful and violent environment. 

While the play explored the complete range of human emotions, from grief, love, grace and hope, some of these messages were left up to the audience’s interpretation. The audience needed to “meet [the actors] halfway,” said Allen. 

While the nature of the play was graphic and violent, Allen emphasized that the show is not intended to be violent for violence’s sake. 

“There are a lot of moments of beauty in this play,” said Allen. “Our bodies are so shocked or engaged or activated or provoked by the violence that we can miss that. My hope is that … you’re able to hold everything: the immensity of the beauty and the pain and everything in between at once.”

“Cleansed” played from Jan. 20 through 26. 

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The spring season of the Dramat will feature three new productions from February through April, titled “Delicacy of a Puffin Heart,” “Every Tongue Confess” and “Dance Nation.” With themes including American identity, magical realism and growing up, these three plays explore the nuances of theater with shows spanning from comedic to dramatic, and ensemble-led to intimate.

“This season, the shows look so fun!” past performer Cameron Nye ’27 said. “Last semester, I was a part of shows, and it was a great experience.”

The first show to premiere this season will be “Delicacy of a Puffin Heart,” which follows a lesbian couple in the 1990s as they navigate in-vitro fertilization and bipolar disorder. However, this couple’s story is not the only one that the play highlights. The show, which is inspired by the New York Times’ “36 Questions to Fall in Love,” jumps forward and backward in time and documents the couple’s daughter’s experience battling cancer.

The Yale Asian American Collective of Theatermakers, or AACT, is producing this show in collaboration with the Dramat. This will be the AACT’s third show since its founding in 2022. 

The show was a finalist for the 2019 National Playwrights Conference and will be playing from Feb. 15-17. 

“Dance Nation” will be this season’s second production and the annual FroShow of 2024. The FroShow will follow the traditional path of this type of production as it will be staffed, crewed and performed entirely by first-year students at Yale.

“The show is going to be very crazy, very funny, and we want to get across the feral-ness to the audience,” said “Dance Nation” producer Robert Gao ’27.

“Dance Nation” tells the story of a group of pre-teen dancers who navigate the chaotic world of competitive dance and adolescence. The ensemble production won the 2015 Relentless Award, the 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 

The show will premiere on Feb. 22 and run through the weekend until Feb. 24. 

The third show of the regular spring season will be “Every Tongue Confess,” running from April 3-6.

The annual spring mainstage will feature a blend of folklore, magic and American history to tell the story of a group of parishioners caught inside a burning church. As the church burns, those trapped inside tell stories spanning generations — stories that could just unravel the mystery of who is behind the arson. 

This production received nominations for the Steinberg New Play Award and the Charles MacArthur Award, and also won the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

“I just love the community that it embraces, and I love to see the enthusiasm … it makes me enjoy the performance even more,” said Bella Le ’27, explaining why she’s excited about the Dramat’s new season.

The Dramat will put on all its productions at the University Theater.

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