His first original work, “Long Way Down,” was a musical adaptation of The New York Times bestselling novel of the same name and opened last April. Nearly a year later, Kisare’s second original work, “Black Boy Therapy!” is set to run from April 4-6. While the storylines of these two shows are vastly different — “Long Way Down” is an electrifying and dark thriller on the cyclical nature of gun violence, and “Black Boy Therapy!” is a satirical piece on microaggressions and stereotypes — both of these works reflect Kisare’s desire to push the limits of Black storytelling on the stage.

“Stuff I have never seen in theater before — that’s what I want to create,” said Kisare. “I want to create theater that enriches and challenges our perceptions of the Black experience. I aim to use the universal language of music as a lens to uplift Black centered stories, helping redefine the landscape of musical theater.”

The upcoming production of “Black Boy Therapy!” invites audiences into the mind of a Black boy and introduces them to the emotions that live inside him: Sadness, Anger, Fear, Shame and Surprise. Viewers follow these five emotions on their journey, as they learn to unpack their trauma to find their missing leader, Joy — before it’s too late and everyone disappears forever. 

The show includes a broad variety of music, from genres that are seldom used in musical theater, like  R&B and bossa nova, to conventional genres, like pop. The musical landscape that Kisare creates becomes a major character in the work, working to enhance the scene at hand. 

“Juxtaposing the subject matter with the genre helps us understand, one, how this character thinks and sees the world,” said Kisare. “And it also helps the show be more entertaining for the audience and understand what I’m saying better. Because why am I presenting it in this music genre? Hopefully people wonder, like, ‘A shoplifting song as a pop song?’ It sounds ridiculous, but it’s all for a point.” 

While “Black Boy Therapy!” explores how a Black boy experiences and grapples with instances of racism, Kisare said that this show is meant to be a story that is appreciated and enjoyed beyond a Black audience. Especially as these stories are ones that “no one wants to talk about” and often get brushed under the carpet, he said. Humor becomes an effective medium for audiences to fully confront and digest conversations that they would have otherwise avoided. 

According to Kisare, the show navigates a tricky balance when it comes to satire: giving audience members the “permission to laugh,” while understanding the ultimate takeaway of the punchline.  

“The beautiful thing about theater is that they can’t talk, they can’t react, all they can do is sit and watch,” said Kisare. “And there’s a power in just knowing that we as actors in the show have control over their small amount of time to say whatever we want to say. And what I want to do is make theater that everyone can enjoy, but it doesn’t mean they have to relate to it.”

Alongside playwriting, Kisare maintains various other relationships to the stage. He has played the drums for “Long Way Down” and is on the piano for “Black Boy Therapy!” For both of these shows, he has been the musical director and music conductor.

In addition to his work off the stage, Kisare acted in the Broadway production “School of Rock” as a 12 year old. As Kisare observed the behind-the-scenes aspects of the production and spoke with professionals on set, he was inspired to create musical theater pieces of his own. 

“It opened up my eyes to the possibilities,” said Kisare. “I wanted to write because I’ve always loved musicals, but it wasn’t until then that I was like, ‘Okay, I can tangibly see a world in which maybe I could do this, and I would want to do it.’” 

Eventually, Kisare said, he hopes to act in one of his original works. 

William Romain ’26, who plays the role of Sadness in “Black Boy Therapy!” described Kisare as a confident individual with a direct sense of humor. These traits lend themselves to Kisare’s work ethic —  “he’s not here to play,” said Romain. 

According to Maxwell Brown ’25, a frequent collaborator and close friend to Kisare, Kisare is a prolific artist who is always thinking about the next big project. 

When asked about any future ideas, Kisare responded immediately with three different ideas, proving his collaborators’ description of Kisare to be correct. One of his ideas include an exploration of Black Santa and how the meaning of this figure has transformed throughout history — from the Blackface Santa that was at the center of minstrel shows to Black Americans’ reclamation of Black Santa amidst the Civil Rights Movement. 

While the subject matter of these plays is unique and idiosyncratic, these unconventional framings of the Black experience fulfill Kisare’s goals of creating boundary-pushing stories.  

“Jason has a lot of potential to be kind of, well, one of the biggest writers of our modern century drama,” said Brown. “And I think that’s very high praise. But I do believe it.  I think that it’s just really rewarding to be a part of this process and create new work that people haven’t seen before.” 

Kisare started working on “Black Boy Therapy!” in August of last year. 

The post PROFILE: Student playwright Jason Kisare pushes the boundaries of Black theater appeared first on Yale Daily News.

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.

Written by Caryl Churchill and directed by Liz Diamond, “Escaped Alone” will premiere on March 8 and run until March 30 at the Yale Repertory Theater. According to Diamond, the play explores the complexities of female friendships, alongside the mundane truths that lurk in everyday conversations. 

“I think that what’s so brilliant about this play is the way Churchill asks us or invites us to appreciate the way we function in simultaneous parallel universes of conversation with contemplation, subconscious yearnings, suppressed grief, fears that percolate up in us and apocalyptic visions,” Diamond said.

The play unravels in a backyard in suburban London, in which a trio of friends — Sally, Vi and Lena — is joined by Mrs. Jarrett, a less-acquainted individual, who appears at the door of the fence. As these four characters chat, the conversation is interrupted by Mrs. Jarrett’s startling monologues that deliver apocalyptic visions of the future. 

Mrs. Jarrett’s rants are more than panic-inducing soliloquy; Embedded within these words is a concerning, yet deeply necessary truth, said Diamond. 

“She’s a kind of Cassandra figure,” she said. “During the monologues that are spoken by Mrs. Jarrett, she punches through the membrane of the universe within which the women live a kind of domestic, contemporary, middle class working class, English existence into another dimension to report back to us what happened to the world … She’s not necessarily telling us what we want to hear. We might prefer to think, within her words, there is a kind of madness. We might want to console ourselves with that, but in fact, there’s a kind of terrible, terrible truth in her speeches.” 

LaTonya Borsay, who plays Mrs. Jarrett in the play, described her character as not just a soothsayer but as someone whose prophetic visions seek to inspire action. For Borsay, the play is largely “preventative” in nature and provides clues to evade future catastrophe — before it is too late.  

These clues lie in the power of community, according to Borsay. 

“Even though we’re individuals, we’re not living completely isolated lives,” Borsay said. “We are on the planet existing, breathing the same air, seeing the same sun and watching the moon rise … Getting people to act in whatever ways we can consciously act to keep everything sustainable for all life is her charge.” 

Rita Wolf, who plays the role of ‘Lena,’ characterized the play’s commentary on the future as somewhat characteristic of Churchill’s other works.

Wolf pointed to “A Number,” a 2002 play that centered around the ethical questions raised by human cloning, particularly the concept of  “nature versus nurture.” Her work “Far Away,” published in 2000, creates a world permeated by fear and authoritarianism. 

“Caryl Churchill is a writer who is very prescient,” said Wolf. “If you know anything about the history of her writing, she’s always kind of one step ahead in terms of her concerns about the wider world … particularly Western society.  Certainly in her recent work, she’s looking into the crystal ball a little bit in terms of anticipating the next possible iteration of humanity.” 

Diamond described Churchill’s writing as “a complicated geometry,” as the play’s dialogue is self-referential and self-interrupting. As a director of the play and resident director of the Yale Rep overall, Diamond said that she had long been attracted to plays with language that require the “unpacking” of the playwright’s “poetic strategies.”

She called the play’s writing “virtuosic,” similar to the ways a great contemporary jazz piece is interspersed with repetitions and revisions. 

“One of the delicious opportunities of directing this play is to, much the way, say, an orchestra conductor would be required to do, open up the score of the writing,”  Diamond said. “The conversations are sort of interleaved. In the way that when you sit around with a big family or a bunch of old friends, and you know, nobody is playing the role of conversational referee. The conversations interleave break off, are picked up again later on.” 

The Yale Rep’s production of “Escaped Alone” holds personal significance for Diamond, as the show marks her first show since the start of the pandemic. Diamond said that her return to the stage was a “marvelous” feeling. 

Diamond described the process of working with stage and lighting designers as one full of “play.” After all, theater is all about grown-ups “playing make-believe,” she said. According to Diamond, the collaboration between sound, lighting and set design teams played an important role in bringing her conceptualization of the lush, verdant backyard to life. 

“An image that came to me when I was thinking a lot about this was the image of terrariums,” Diamond said. “People create these strange little ideal worlds that exist within a much bigger and quite chaotic world, the world we live in … This garden, it’s a refuge, as people’s private outdoor spaces are, but it sits in a rather vast and unaccommodating space. The universe, which is hurtling us toward we don’t know what, perhaps the end or the apocalypse or the strange outcome that awaits us, is in no small measure, part of our own making.”  

In a story that prophesies about the future, the central voices are the voices of women who are “at least seventy,” the script specifies. While she does not know the exact reasoning behind Churchill’s decision, this detail of the characters seems to be an intentional one, said Diamond. 

Churchill herself is in her mid-eighties and continues to be an “absolute powerhouse,” she said. The older age of the characters is an attractive facet of the play, Diamond said, as it offers tremendous roles for women of a certain age and highlights the beauty and resilience within aging. 

“These women who have lived so long contain universes of feeling, lived experience, unresolved conflicts, buried angers. They are great continents of lived experience and I think that they thus give Carol an opportunity to talk about our human condition and our relationship to mortality, to the world in which we live in and its mortality, and the role we seem to be playing in destroying life on Earth.” 

“Escaped Alone” is Caryl Churchill’s 43rd play to be produced and was published 58 years after her first play — “Downstairs” — in 1958. 

The post Hard truths in a cup of tea: Yale Rep’s ‘Escaped Alone’ to open on March 8 appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 988. 

Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7 and confidential.

To talk with a counselor from Yale Mental Health and Counseling, schedule a session here. On-call counselors are available at any time: call (203) 432-0290. Appointments  with Yale College Community Care can be scheduled here.

Additional resources are available in a guide compiled by the Yale College Council here.

From Feb. 29 to Mar. 2, the Off-Broadway Theater became a home for an undergraduate production of the 2015 Broadway musical “Fun Home.” The show adapts Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic novel memoir, documenting her relationship with her sexuality and her father through three stages of her life: childhood, her college years and finally, at 43 years old.

Audience chatters fell quiet in the Off-Broadway Theater as an upbeat piano melody bounced into the air. A spotlight landed on an upstage desk, complete with sketch pads, Micron pens and an adult Alison. Before her, a childhood memory with her father unfolded as her past was constructed through alternating memories.

In the play, it is revealed through non-linear vignettes that Alison’s father — a high school English teacher, funeral home director and closeted gay man — died by suicide in her freshman year of college, shortly after she came out as lesbian. Their psychologically complex and changing relationship, through her childhood and early adulthood, is examined as Alison turns 43 years old — the same age as her father when he died. Alison, never leaving the stage, becomes an audience to her life through lenses of grief and logic-seeking reflection. 

Bechdel, the show’s subject and creator, is an acclaimed cartoon artist. Her comic-strip serial “Dykes to Watch Out For” was published for 25 years, illustrating a string of unrelated plotlines between a group of lesbian women. The Bechdel Test, a metric for sexism in the fictional portrayal of women, originated within the series. Though Bechdel originally wrote the concept as comedy, it has grown to widespread use in film and media critique since its 1985 publication.

Her creation of “Fun Home” brought her to literary notability as the graphic memoir was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. It also won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book, the Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction, the Publishing Triangle-Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

The memoir’s musical adaptation was equally recognized, winning five Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The musical adaption also received a nomination for the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 

Critics of “Fun Home,” in both its literary and theatrical forms, commented on the narrative’s poignant and vulnerable portrayal of the human experience. This trait was a focus of the undergraduate production’s direction. 

Naomi Schwartzburt ’24, the director of “Fun Home,” spoke about her connection to the show and its essential emotive arc in an interview with the News. 

“The structure of Fun Home is so unique and compelling because it’s nonlinear. We’re not necessarily seeing the story as it unfolded in real life, but we’re seeing the important emotional components come together and build,” Schwartzburt said. “This show just leaves you with so many feelings. Every single person has a different experience and identity and will connect to these characters in a very different way.” 

Connection, a central element of the story, is what distinguishes the musical from other representations of similar themes. Bechdel’s memoir roots the queer experience in nuclear family dynamics, shifting the show’s statement from a general comment on the queer community to an exploration of its role in intimate, domestic settings.  

Individual expression, combined with self-exploratory themes, was central to the show’s musical direction as well. 

Violet Barnum ’25, the show’s musical director, wrote in an email to the News that “Fun Home” demanded a stronger focus on musical interpretation and expression than on complex harmonies. 

The solo and small group songs allowed her to “guide the actors on taking more time with a certain phrase” or to be “more intentional about dynamics,” she wrote. Barnum added that this role allowed her to appreciate the show from all its angles, drawing attention to the complex intersection of joy, sadness, queerness and family. 

By nature of the novel’s form, the musical is also defined by its focus on artistry and expression through visual details. This element was preserved in the show through background graphic design, as actors were planted within the pages of Bechdel’s comic strips.  

An intimacy of creation was continued in the show’s graphic design, as it was hand-drawn to resemble frames of Bechdel’s novel. Mia Kohn ’27 used ink and watercolor to emphasize the show’s emotional fluidity, as well as to visually convey themes presented in the narrative. This connection to the form was also reinforced by the Off-Broadway Theater’s size, where a 130-person occupancy limit created a proximity with the set that neared audience involvement. 

Sitting only feet away from the actors, audience members were asked to view the characters as individuals with deeply complex lives, not simply tools for a larger movement. This is a perspective that the music aspires to promote, creating a space where audiences can consider human connection. 

This was emphasized by the musical’s co-producer, Marissa Blum ’24, who commented on the work’s significance. 

“‘Fun Home’ really demonstrates the unique, intergenerational nature of the queer community. It captures both the nostalgia and the pain that older generations of queer people have felt through not being able to express their identity,” Blum said. “But it also shows how they’ve laid the groundwork for future … queer people to live and be proud. It is an opportunity to remember the people who’ve come before.”

The complete slate of producers, actors and contributors for Yale’s adaptation of “Fun Home” can be found online.

The post  ‘Fun Home’ comes out to audiences with themes of queerness and family appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The Wednesday night Yale-students-only dance party at Toad’s, known as “Woads,” has been a staple of the Yale experience for decades. Recently, however, the event has taken on a new form, highlighting Yale DJs to headline the event for three of the past four weeks.

Performances by Yale students had not been a common occurrence for the weekly event prior to this string of special appearances.

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, Eli Simon ’24 took the stage under his DJ name “Dionysus.” On Feb. 21, “IfSoWhatFor” — a DJ duo co-led by Jamis DeKay ’23 — was behind the deck, ending the night with a page out of world-famous DJ Steve Aoki’s book by “caking” an audience member in the face.

“Toad’s wants to bring back the energy that made them so iconic,” DeKay told the News. “Their thought was [to] invite artists from Yale in hopes they’d bring their audience and friends with them. It was a blast, we had a ton of fun.” 

Since COVID-19, students have noted that attendance at the weekly dance party has decreased. The DJ performances come from a larger push by Toad’s Place leadership to increase Yale student engagement with the iconic venue, Yale’s Toad’s Place Ambassador Lily Siegel ’23 told the News.

This week, a “Boiler Room” EDM dance party organized by Joshua Gluckman ’24, Matthew Ross ’25 and Michael Connor ’24 appeared at Toad’s. The event included a lineup of nine different Yale student acts who DJ’d from the middle of the Toad’s Place dance floor: Edu, gunnr, HESTERIA, just Josh, Keebo, Kelli + Kiernan, Leo + Dals, Philly and Red & Imo. 

“We pitched the idea to Toad’s, and they were immediately receptive to it,” Gluckman told the  News. “They worked with us to make the event an authentic ‘boiler room’ experience in their legendary venue, and fortunately people had a great time.” 

Boiler Room is an iconic music broadcaster and nightclub promoter. Its events, which take place across the globe, are characterized as “underground raves” featuring electronic dance music, hip-hop, techno and house music. Gluckman’s idea was to model the event after Boiler Room, and his company Lyricity helped bring the vision to life.

The startup, Gluckman explained, curates musical pop-up events for Yale students. All of their events feature Yale student artists. On Feb. 16, the group hosted “Koffee After Dark:” a “pop-up rave” at Koffee on Audubon Street. Now, the startup is looking to expand beyond DJ events and is actively recruiting new musical artists.

The DJs who performed at the Toad’s Place event had a variety of different experiences with performing. While artists like gunnr have DJ’d at events throughout Yale’s campus, this was Leo + Dals’s first time taking the stage. 

“[What] we’re trying to do is give more students opportunities to do live shows, even if it’s their first,” Gluckman said. 

The events have all been well-received by students and have drawn high attendance from Yalies across grades. According to Gluckman, approximately 650 tickets were bought for the Boiler Room event on Feb. 28. 

Toad’s Place is located at 300 York St.

The post Student DJs take over Toad’s Place appeared first on Yale Daily News.

At Yale, the show — which doubles as a campus production and senior thesis project — will run from Feb. 28 to March 2. Though this play largely lives in the social and historical context of the ’80s, a large undertaking of the cast has been to draw parallels between the play’s reality and today, said Claire Donnellan ’24, the show’s director.  

“This play has a lot to say about contemporary American society,” Donnellan said. “There’s a monologue that the character Martin Heller gives, where he talks about U.S. politics, and how he’s envisioning things becoming a lot more conservative over the coming years. A lot of those things have actually come to pass, which is really scary … I think this play still has a lot to say about what it means to live in America and what it means to live in this country that claims to be a place of equality and freedom for all people, but really has yet to achieve those goals.”  

There are clear differences between the America of the 1980s and the America of today, said Carson White ’25, who is the dramaturg of the show. When audiences were watching the 1991 premiere of the play, most, if not all, would have known someone whose life had been “irrevocably altered” by the AIDS/HIV epidemic, said White. 

The AIDS/HIV epidemic is no longer the “plight of the white gay man,” she said. 

However, the heart of the play is deeply political, in ways that may resonate with today’s political landscape. 

“This play is a gay fantasia on national themes,” said White. “The play is about a moment of profound crisis in American politics, and we are amidst many of our own profound political crises today. Whether that is drag bans, intersecting the sum of the themes of the play, or the U.S. aid of genocide in Palestine or the recent news from Florida of students having to get a permission slip signed to read a book by a Black author … [“Angels in America”] is a deeply, deeply political play. The heart of that remains very active today.”

Since its debut,  Kushner’s original “Angels in America” has garnered critical acclaim and cemented its legacy as one of the most iconic plays of the 21st century. The play was adapted into an HBO miniseries in 2003, and its revival opened at the West End and Broadway in 2018. 

Among some of the play’s unchanging elements seem to be an ability to deeply relate to and resonate with queer bodies. The play was one of the few instances of “fulfilling” queer media, said Jordi Bertrán Ramírez ’24, who knew from his sophomore year that he would want to produce this play for his thesis.

Similarly, Donnellan’s first encounter with the play can be traced back to her high school years, when she chose to read this play for an independent reading project and was immediately “blown away” by it. “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” has been a long time coming for both Donnellan and Bertrán Ramírez. For the duo, the production also serves as a thesis project in directing and acting, respectively. 

“I mean, this is one of the greatest plays ever written,” Donnellan said. “Especially as … a young, queer person in high school, I hadn’t come across a lot of media that actually dealt with what it meant to be queer in the U.S. and exploring that history in a serious and meaningful way. With the same sort of consequences and depth that straight relationships are normally treated with. That was something that was really powerful for me, and that was something that has fed my love for this play.” 

From weekly dramaturgy sessions to painstaking research on various aspects of production, the cast has worked to honor the historical and political intentions of the original, said White. 

The Yale rendition, however, also reflects the cast’s own relationship to the material, as well as their understanding of the play’s stakes and characters. 

For Victoria Pekel ’25, who plays The Angel, the show echoes images of illness she has seen in her own family. In his interpretation of Louis Ironson — a character that implicitly represents Tony Kushner’s own experiences, Dean Farella ’25 incorporated his own queerness and experiences in comedy, as a co-director of the sketch comedy group The Fifth Humour.

“In every iteration of the play or also in the HBO series, there’s kind of been like a false dichotomy, I think, set up between Louis and Prior, where Prior is this effeminate gay man and Louis kinda exists more on the masculine side of things. In the original Broadway version, the original actor, I think, definitely leaned into femininity in a way that more recent ones haven’t,” Farella said. “I’ve made this character my own in that although he is a deeply sad and insecure person, I think he also is extremely funny and finds the humor in such a dire situation that I then as a comedic actor try to incorporate into the role more.”

Experiencing homophobia as a queer person, Bertrán Ramírez said that he was used to changing — for reasons of safety, comfort or palatability. He had long viewed Prior as an “unabashed, untethered version” of a queer person — in ways that Bertrán Ramírez himself was not, said Bertrán Ramírez. 

Throughout the production process, Bertrán Ramírez said that his understanding of the character of Prior had shifted. It was not that the character of Prior was unaffected or had never experienced homophobia; Prior is a character who “amplifies himself in the face of adversity,” he said. 

“The difference between Prior and someone like me growing up was that Prior uses that and pushes against it,” Bertrán Ramírez said. “And his queerness, and the way that he presents it, is a form of rebellion against a community in a society that is telling him that the way he is is wrong … As someone who has experienced my fair share of homophobia and has been called slurs on the street for just being myself, it’s nice to embody someone that takes that in and throws it back by doubling down on their majesty.” 

While each cast member has a different relationship to the play, Pekel said that the cast felt a collective desire to handle the show with care, given the emotional weight of the story.  She also pointed to the additional “layer of dedication and care” given to the show, as it is a thesis project that required much dramaturgical and historical research.  

Adrien Rolet ’24 also described the show as  “extremely emotionally dense,” as an endeavor that required intense focus and attention to detail. Playing the role of Joseph, a closeted Mormon who struggles with his sexuality, Rolet had to learn to conserve his energy and take care of himself outside of emotionally intense scenes. 

“I have to draw on everything inside of me to travel the arc of a performance, so finding ways to maintain high energy and attention for each run is a personal learning experience that I am trying to tackle,” Rolet said. “I have also found the depths of Joe’s catastrophic breakdowns extremely challenging to recover from — it is mentally taxing to live through those experiences, which, if left unaddressed, can bleed into my life outside of the theater.” 

As cast members noted in their interviews, the production isn’t an easy feat to accomplish. The show is longer than the average production, with a runtime of three and a half hours. Additionally, while “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” centers around eight central characters, the play intentionally calls on actors to play minor roles, with some actors playing up to four different characters. 

As the title denotes, the play also introduces characters who are supernatural beings, such as angels or ghosts. The production relies on sound and lighting design to bring these fantastical elements of the story to life, said Donnellan. Lighting designer Emiliano Caceres Manzano ’26 said that collaboration between the sound and lighting team was important to highlight the tensions between the ordinariness of human life and the “spectacle” of supernatural beings. 

Sound designer James Han ’24 found inspiration in language and sound pertaining to the early Industrial Revolution — at the time, the novelty of big steam machinery and other inventions welcomed more magical, surrealist interpretations from the community. Han’s design choices attempted to “blur” the boundaries between the industrial idea of progress and the world of the supernatural. 

“Progress feels like … breaking the natural boundaries,” said Han. “The hope is that when we think about modern America, there’s a huge sense of technological and economic progress. And we are kind of these infinitesimally small agents in it, kind of passengers who are unwillingly and unwittingly participating in a progress that might move beyond us. I really hope the sound design, in particular, makes you feel the sense of scale of the world, and also your somewhat small place in it, and kind of forces you to reckon with that.”

While these multiple costume changes and paranormal elements may make “Angels in America” a daunting endeavor, the large scale of this play was an attractive feat for Bertrán Ramírez. It offered him a chance to “go big or go home” on the stage, something that isn’t always encouraged or possible in the world of Yale theater.

When Bertrán Ramírez first read “Angels in America,” the play made him feel “seen” in a way that he hadn’t felt before. In describing the play, Bertrán Ramírez ironically noted that the play was about the characters’ inability to see each other in a time that was “horrifically difficult” to be seen. Even amid the large scale of the production, Bertrán Ramírez said that the play ultimately emphasizes the simple, human desire for attention. 

“Everybody in this play is fighting for attention, right? In one way or another, this play is about fighting to be seen,” Bertrán Ramírez said. “Our play feels alive and active because we’re not wallowing in self-pity. We’re constantly pushing and fighting for something.”

As both White and Farrella have questioned, perhaps America has not progressed as much as it thinks. Yet, the production seems to suggest that there are certain things to be gained when looking back at the past. 

Donnellan hopes that audiences will not only recognize the political parallels of the play and today’s world, but will also identify with moments of hope and resistance of this era. 

“There’s a really beautiful moment at the end of the play where Prior, one of the characters, is terrified about the impending arrival of this Angel. And he yells, ‘No fear, find the anger.’ And he leans on his identity as a gay man in America, and having been able to live and thrive as a gay man in America,” Donnellan said.  “And [he says] if I can do that, I can resist whatever impending insanity is about to crash through my ceiling. I think that is just a really beautiful moment of resistance, that I think is at the heart of this play. It’s not just about tragedy, but it’s about the way in which we continue to live and fight in the face of that tragedy.”

“Angels in America” is set to be performed at the Theater, Dance and Performance Studies Black Box.

Correction, March 2: In a previous version of this article, Jordi Bertrán Ramírez’s name was spelled incorrectly. The article has been updated with the correct spelling.

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“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.

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Events are held at different locations, from the Founder’s Suite in Benjamin Franklin College to the historic Luther House, and the music ranges from reggae to 2010s pop. The events are planned and organized by Desmos, a senior society.

Most weekday events have a more nonchalant atmosphere, according to Alex Hoang ’24, while Fridays and Saturdays tend to be busier with more dancing. Given the range of experiences and music that Feb Club offers, it provides an occasion to build class spirit and appreciate student performers. 

“Because of the COVID restrictions during my first year at Yale, we did not have many outlets for meaningful connection,” Hoang, who has participated in Feb Club, said. “During the first night, I realized how long it had been since our class year was last united.”

Hoang recalled not knowing what to expect. He added that there was a lot of anticipation, and everyone seemed excited to come together.

The first night of Feb Club occurred at Luther House on Feb. 1, with three bands performing different genres. 

“I think the most fun gig I’ve done so far is the Feb Club’s opening party in Luther,” said Owen Wheeler ’24, lead singer of the band Public Discourse. “Our goal [as a band] is just to be electric.”

Sameer Sultan ’24, bassist and social media manager of the newly founded band Scerface, recounted his experience performing for Feb Club.

“Our first performance was for Valentine’s Day, and our second performance was yesterday at the senior [masquerade],” Sultan added. “There was a variety of music, and people were dancing. I thought, ‘I haven’t seen this many people in my class in the same place for a while.’”

Themes for Feb Club have included “Caribbean x Afrobeats,” “Techno & Tequila” and “Grad Night.” 

Each event had a photo challenge, which required challengers to complete tasks including posing like a DJ and taking pictures with a senior who would not be graduating in the spring. Those who attend all 29 Feb Club parties will be dubbed “All Stars.”

To ensure student safety, each event had three sober monitors.

The final Feb Club event will take place on Thursday, Feb. 29.

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On Feb. 15, the comedian confidently took the stage and filled the room with charisma. Nwodim wore a fierce Anine Bing crew neck paired with the muted luxury of Prada loafers. Marsh Hall roared with applause. After a quick introduction, Nwodim presented an hour-long comedy set driven by audience interaction and personal anecdotes. 

“Ego made the audience feel like a friend group,” said Crawford Arnow ’27. “She rolled with the punches and all of her jokes landed. I was laughing head-back the entire time.”

He added that the show felt both very polished and audience-driven. As a fellow performer, Arnow commended Nwodim’s skill as an entertainer.

Upon her entrance, Nwodim entertained by poking fun at her college experience at the University of Southern California and her Nigerian-American upbringing. As a biology major turned comedian, Nwodim joked about her family’s expectation that she pursue medicine.

After one student shouted, “this is a biology lecture hall!”, in response to Nwodim discussing her college major, she responded to the comment and many others to make the show feel like a conversation. Boos filled the room after Nwodim revealed she minored in business. The front rows occasionally joined with snappy comments as the crowd became part of the performance.

Nwodim’s set took place the day after Valentine’s day, so she eventually addressed the much-anticipated topic of dating. She joked about failed relationships and the difficulties of dating as a comedian.

“We wanted the show to be around Valentine’s Day,” said YCC Events Director Olivia Lombardo, “And the themes in the comedy show reflected dating at college, and Ego’s own personal experiences.” 

Another highlight from the show was when Nwodim drew one of her ex boyfriends on the board, prompting laughter. She joked about having low standards in men, and outlined some of her expectations from potential boyfriends.

Tickets for the event were free, and Lombardo recalled an “overwhelmingly positive” reaction from students to the event. 

Devin Thomas ’27, event lead for the YCC Comedy Show, said that there was a very high demand for tickets. 

“Tickets sold out within an hour, and over 100 tickets were sold in the first minute,” he said. “All 11 students who rated the event gave it five stars.”

Ego Nwodim has been performing for SNL since 2018.

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New members come from a variety of singing backgrounds, and many have been involved in non-senior a cappella and music groups, including The Alley Cats, The Baker’s Dozen, Cadence of Yale, Yale Glee Club, Magevet, Marquand Chapel Choir, Mixed Company, The New Blue, Yale Repertory Chorus, Something Extra and the student band Seldom Street, which is signed to 17o1 Records. The Whiffs announced 14 new taps and Whim announced 11.

The members of the Whiffenpoofs class of 2025, who will be required to take gap years to tour and record an album, are Pilar Bylinsky ’25, Yara Chami ’25, John Colbert ’25, Joey Cumpian ’25, Krishna Davis ’25, Sophie Dvorak ’25, Caroline Fai ’25, Jason Han ’25, Charlie Karner ’25, Rory Latham ’25, Adam McPhail ’25 — a Science & Technology editor at the News — and Noah Stein ’25. Josh Bock ’25 was tapped as the business manager and Logan Foy ’25 is the incoming musical director. They will now all join the class of 2026.  

“This was a [one-time] audition, which eliminated the long game of waiting to hear back,” Dvorak wrote to the News about the Whiffs’ audition process. “We had to prepare an excerpt from a quartet as well as a solo in the Whiffenpoof rep, as well as an individual solo. Once in the audition, there were some ear training exercises and we were taught an additional quartet in real time.”

In 2018, both the Whiffs and Whim started tapping members of all genders. Whiffs was originally all-male, and Whim originally all-female.  

Bylinsky expressed her desire for increased participation of women and non-binary individuals in the Whiffenpoofs, commenting that “[the] Whiffs just recently shifted from being all-male, so [she’s] excited about being in the early cohort of women joining the group.”

“The Whiffs exist in this sort of threshold space, upheld by a long commitment to tradition while also incorporating new/modern genres of music and styles of performance,” Dvorak said. “My hope is that, as the Whiffs become more diverse, the organization and alumni not only accommodate that diversity but embrace it.” 

The reveal of the Whiffenpoofs’ new class followed the release of the class of 2023’s album — “Magical Thinking” — which was released to all streaming services on Feb. 9, 2024. 

The album “goes a few layers deep,” according to 2023 Whiffs class member Adrien Rolet ’24. The name has a triple-meaning, referring to the album’s musical theme, a Joan Didion book and a 2023 Whiffs inside joke — a “company secret, sorry!” Rolet said.

Rolet revealed that it has been an unofficial tradition that each Whiffs album title is a reference to a story or joke from that year.

The Whim ’n Rhythm 2025 tap class includes Karen Ayoub ’25, Marie Bong ’25, Hajin Kim ’25, Michelle Luh ’25, Julia Mangual ’25, Meridian Monthy ’25, Bella Osgood ’25, Ivana Ramirez ’25 and Raina Sparks ’25. Violet Barnum ’25 was tapped as the group’s musical director and Sarah Shapiro ’25 will become Whim business manager.

Whim ’n Rhythm members tour during the winter and spring of their senior year, as well as in the summer following their commencement, allowing members to continue their education while also being part of the group. 

“Whim has fluctuated in size and structure a bit more than the Whiffs since its founding,” said current Whim member Adia Keene ’24. The group began with seven singers in 1981, but that number has fluctuated between 11 and 14 members. The new Whim class’s 11 members, all women and non-binary identifying students this year, are fewer than the 13 members of the previous year’s cohort. 

Unlike the audition processes for underclass a cappella groups, which often take an entire month, the Whim process only lasted one day in February, following a short social event earlier in the month for interested students to get to know current members better.

“We prepared a section from one of Whim’s arrangements in our vocal part of choice, sang vocal warm-ups, completed an ear training exercise, and performed a snippet of a solo song of our choice,” said Shapiro. 

At the end of auditions, new taps spoke about being asked questions — such as, “Why do you want to be in Whim?” and “How do you handle conflict?” — emphasizing the importance of group chemistry in the selection process.

When asked what attracted her to Whim, Barnum spoke about her interest in the pitch, or musical director, position. She had been involved with a number of singing groups before but had never had the chance to musically-direct one. After hearing Isabella Zou ’23 — a past Whim ’n Rhythm member — speak positively about her experience pitching Whim, Barnum found herself wanting to try her own hand at the position.

Whim is an SSAA choir, meaning that it consists of two distinct soprano and two alto sections, as opposed to the Whiffenpoofs — a TTBB choir comprising two tenor and two bass sections.

Since 2018, both the Whiffs and Whim have welcomed members of all genders. However, in 2022, the Yale Singing Group Council implemented a uniform policy requiring that all a cappella groups consider rushees of all genders, regardless of the often-gendered vocal range labels.

New taps of both The Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm expressed their excitement about connecting with their tap classes, several stating satisfaction that both senior a cappella groups are able to bring together students from all different musical backgrounds. 

Ramirez highlighted looking forward to the yearly Library Jam event where the new Whiffs and Whim taps perform their first group performances together in Sterling Memorial Library.

The date for this event, as well as the official calendars for the 2025 Whiffs and Whim tours, have yet to be released.

The Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm — along with the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus — are the only three groups that have weekly engagements at Mory’s Temple Bar.

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