Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, in partnership with Yale Repertory Theatre, trains and advances leaders in the practice of every theatrical discipline, making art to inspire joy, empathy, and understanding in the world.
Artistry
We expand knowledge to nurture creativity and imaginative expression embracing the complexity of the human spirit.
Belonging
We put people first, centering wellbeing, inclusion, and equity for theatermakers and audiences through anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices.
Collaboration
We build our collective work on a foundation of mutual respect, prizing the contributions and accomplishments of the individual and of the team.
Discovery
We wrestle with compelling issues of our time. Energized by curiosity, invention, bravery, and humor, we challenge ourselves to risk and learn from failure and vulnerability.
Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States.
JANUARY 24–30, 2026
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean
Florie Seery, Associate Dean
Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean
Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean
Nancy Yao, Assistant Dean of Student Life
Liz Diamond, Chair of Directing
PRESENTS
Is God Is
BY Aleshea Harris
DIRECTED BY Jasmine Brooks
Scenic Designer
Romello Huins
Costume Designer
Allison Morgan
Lighting Designer
Qier Luo 罗绮儿
Sound Designer
Nicky Milou Brekhof
Projection Designer
Dwight Bellisimo
Prosthetics Designer
Tyler Green
Hair and Wig Designer
Lauren F. Walker/Braids By Lo
Production Dramaturg
Tia Smith
Technical Director
Aaron Frongillo
Fight and Intimacy Directors
Kelsey Rainwater
Michael Rossmy
Stage Manager
Rethabile Headbush
Is God Is is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. concordtheatricals.com
This production is supported by the Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
Man .................................................................................................. Erik Manuel Robles
setting
Northeast, Dirty South, Californ-eye-ayy.
content and atmospheric guidance
Is God Is contains depictions of burns, fire, death, suicide, and physical violence; references to domestic abuse and suicidal ideation; anti-Black woman language; haze; fog; and flashing lights.
Is God Is is performed without an intermission.
recording and photo policy
The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production and distributing recordings or streams in any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author(s)’s rights and actionable under United States states copyright law. For more information, please visit: concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists
A Gathering of Black
In Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is (2016), twin sisters Racine and Anaia embark on an epic, cross-country adventure to avenge the suffering of their mother, She, before her imminent death. She commands her estranged daughters to “bring me back some treasures” from their journey. And so, Racine and Anaia collect souvenirs as they travel from the Northeast to the Dirty South to the West. As a writer, Harris, too, collects souvenirs. Taking inspiration from novelist Toni Morrison (1931–2019), poet-playwright Ntozake Shange (1948–2018), R&B-pop singer Rihanna (b. 1988), and more, Is God Is presents itself as a treasure chest of 20th- and 21st-century Black women’s cultural production. Harris innovates on the work of her predecessors and contemporaries to craft an unapologetic story about the lengths to which Black women must go to seek justice for themselves and their loved ones.
Scars
Is God Is shares resonances with Morrison’s 1987 masterpiece, Beloved, in which a formerly enslaved Black woman named Sethe kills her infant daughter to protect the child from slavery. According to Harris, “Morrison is a great space of influence” on her work. Scars are a motif in Beloved and Harris’s play. Sethe bears a chokecherry tree-shaped scar on her back, an amalgamation of whippings she received while enslaved. Harris’s protagonists, Racine and Anaia, along with She, have sustained burns from a fire started by their father eighteen years ago. For director Jasmine
Brooks, scars in Is God Is are a physical manifestation of misogynoir, a term coined by Moya Bailey that describes the unique combination of racism and sexism that Black women experience. When Racine ponders, “You ever wanna scrape your scars off and see what’s underneath?” Harris is gesturing towards a world where Black women liberate ourselves from oppression by unleashing our pain.
Language and God
Harris belongs to a rich tradition of Black poet-playwrights. Poetics such as repetition, personification (“Fire bit me on my back and arms and ’Naia on her face,” remarks Racine), metaphors, and similes (“babies giggle like they got the sun in they mouth”) permeate Harris’s writing. As Harris transitioned from spoken word performance to playwriting, her career has resembled that of Shange, whose poetry became the script for the groundbreaking 1975 choreopoem, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. Whereas Shange blends multiple modes of performance (poetry, song, and dance), Harris combines several artistic genres, revealing in an author’s note that her “epic takes its cues from the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop, and Afropunk.” Like Shange, Harris renders Black women divine. Upon spiritually rebirthing herself, one of Shange’s characters announces, “i found god in myself.” By contrast, Racine and Anaia anoint their mother, instead of themselves, God because She “made us.”
Women’s Treasures
Hip Hop
Hip hop informs Harris’s setting and narrative. The character She lives in the “Dirty South,” a phrase introduced in the 1995 song of the same name by Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob. Harris wrote Is God Is while listening to Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” (“BBHMM”). The music video for the 2015 trap hit, co-directed by Rihanna, struck Harris as a modern revenge narrative starring a Black woman. While historians estimate that one in four cowboys were Black, African Americans have largely been excluded from the Western genre. Harris reveals, “as a child, I never saw a Black girl in those movies.” Like Rihanna in her music video, Racine
revels in revenge. “BBHMM” is a more recent example of how 20th- and 21st-century Black musicians use hip hop—as well as reggae and R&B—to challenge the Black diaspora’s erasure from and marginalization in Westerns. Think of Solange’s 2019 visual album, When I Get Home, or the music video for the Fugees 1996 song “Cowboys,” in which American songstress Lauryn Hill and her Haitian and Haitian American bandmates sit in a movie theater as they watch themselves in a Western onscreen. Is God Is, a gathering of treasures from Black women’s art, invites Black women to imagine ourselves on an epic scale.
—Tia Smith, Production Dramaturg
Rihanna in her music video for “Bitch Better Have My Money,” directed by Rihanna and Leo Berne for Megaforce.
Biographies are submitted by the artists and edited for common house style by David Geffen
cast in alphabetical order
Lolade Agunbiade (Angie) is a proud Nigerian American actor from Minnesota. She is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Her credits at the school include PROMOTER HOUSE, A Doll’s House, Coriolanus, Metamorphoses, and rent free as well as The Aughts at Yale Summer Cabaret. Lolade has a background in finance and loves to binge-watch financial literacy videos on YouTube. In her free time, she is probably watching sports or is shopping for plants to add to her collection. She would like to thank her family and friends for their unwavering love and support.
Kieron J. Anthony (Scotch) is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, hailing from the sunny twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He is a University of Miami and Atlantic Acting School graduate. Look at God! Selected credits include Other People, You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit (the Geffen School); The Inspector (understudy, Yale Rep); One Night in Miami (Colony Theater); King Lear (A.R.T./New York Studios); KIN (WP Theater); Field, Awakening (Signature Theatre); Inventing Anna (Netflix). @kieronjanthony
Shawn Bowers (Chuck Hall) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Yale Rep: Spunk (Willie Joe), The Inspector (understudy for Osip, The Judge).
Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations. OffBroadway: Jelly’s Last Jam (City Center Encores), The Harder They Come (The Public Theater). Additional credits: Ragtime, Rent, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, After Midnight. Film: Rio Uphill (musical adaptation). Television: Tony Awards and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the original cast of Ain’t Too Proud. He would like to thank his family and friends for their continuous love and support. @shawnedwardbowers
Tyler Clarke (Racine) is a thirdyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Macbeth, Ain’t No Mo’, and rent free. She also was seen in Spunk and understudied for Eden, both at Yale Rep. She greatly thanks her mother, her sister Javon, and her entire family for the unconditional love and undying support given while studying at the Geffen School. “What didn’t I didn’t I do?” —Anonymous @Tylerl_clarke
Olamide Oladeji she/her (Anaia) is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where she was last seen in Other People (2025 Langston Hughes Festival of New Work). Other credits include You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit (2025 Carlotta Festival of New Plays) and The Inspector (understudy, Yale Repertory Theatre).
Bella Orobaton (She) is a playwright, director, educator, and third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include
School of Drama.
Other People, Sort, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Ain’t No Mo’, and rent free. She trained at Cornish College of the Arts, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in original work. Previous theater credits include Life is a Drag (co-director), True Scum, Dance Nation (Yale Cabaret); Returning the Bones (National Association for Campus Activities); Tiara’s Hat Parade (BookIt Repertory Theatre’s educational tour); This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Arts West); Auntie Val (Freehold Theatre). Big thanks and love to her family, friends, and teachers! @budget_baddie
Erik Manuel Robles (Man) is a proud Afro-Latino storyteller, born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, currently in his third year at David Geffen School of Drama. Recent credits: Hedda Gabler (understudy, Yale Rep); A Doll’s House, Kilele, The Care & Keeping of You Pages 76-77, rent free (Geffen School); Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Sweat, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ironbound (Gamm Theatre); Burning Patience (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse). “Bienaventurado el que sabe que compartir un dolor es dividirlo y compartir una alegría es multiplicarla. Bienaventurado este lugar y este momento, amigo mío, porque la vida es aquí y ahora y contigo.” —Facundo Cabral
Mark Yarde (Riley) is a secondyear actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where he was recently seen in Three Sisters. He also understudied
Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler at Yale Rep this fall. You may also recognize him from his work at Yale Cabaret, Is this Mom? and it’s not you, it’s the end of the world. He is excited to be part of this cast and team. @markalocases
creative team in alphabetical order
Dwight Bellisimo (Projection Designer) is a Bay Area native, with a B.F.A. in projection design from the Theatre School at DePaul University. Dwight has been exploring new innovative approaches to integrating video in a variety of artistic mediums including installation, painting, sculpture, sketch comedy, and live performance. Recent mainstage educational projection design credits include Is God Is and A Wrinkle in Time at DePaul University. Professional credits include Projection Design for Working: A Musical, Indecent, Danceworks 2024: Emergence, and Me...Jane: The Dreams and Adventures of a Young Jane Goodall at The Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts at Northwestern University. bellisimodesign.com
Nicky Milou Brekhof (Sound Designer) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits as assistant designer and engineer include Macbeth in Stride, The Inspector (Yale Rep); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (The Geffen School). Credits as an A2 include Hadestown (Carre, Amsterdam); Jesus Christ Superstar (Dutch Tour); The Bodyguard (Beatrix
Theater, Utrecht). Nicky holds a B.F.A. in sound design for film and television from the Netherlands Film academy.
Jasmine Brooks (Director) is a director and producer, and a thirdyear M.F.A. candidate in directing at David Geffen School of Drama. Jasmine is the Co-Artistic Director of the 2025–26 Yale Cabaret. Jasmine has directed new play workshops at the National New Play Network, Playwrights’ Center, San Diego Repertory Theatre, and more. Jasmine is a 2025 recipient of the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program. Jasmine’s directing credits include Macbeth co-adapted with Tia Smith, Charity (David Geffen School of Drama); Pool (No Water), Pride of Doves, seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Yale Cabaret); Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage (Silverthorne Theatre Company); Bite Me (NNPN National Showcase of New Plays); Truth or Consequences (Fresh Ink Theatre). Jasmine’s associate/ assistant directing credits include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (The Huntington, dir. Lili-Anne Brown); Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (American Repertory Theater, dir. Taibi Magar); The Bluest Eye (The Huntington, dir. Awoye Timpo); BLKS (Speakeasy Stage, dir. Tonasia Jones); can i touch it? (NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, dir. Nicole Watson); Wolf Play (Company One Theatre, dir. Summer L. Williams); Vietgone (Company One Theatre, dir. Michelle Aguillon). Jasmine holds a B.F.A. in theater arts from Boston University, School of Theatre. Jasminerosebrooks.com
Aaron Frongillo he/him (Technical Director) is a theatermaker originally from Massachusetts, and an M.F.A. candidate in the Technical Design and Production program at David Geffen School of Drama. He is also a graduate of Wagner College, where he completed a double major in theater performance and design, technology & management. Some notable past work includes assistant technical director for Metamorphoses at the Geffen School, Spunk at Yale Rep, and many shows at Yale Cabaret as production manager. He hopes you enjoy the piece!
Tyler Green (Prosthetics Designer) is a special effects makeup artist, prosthetic designer, and educator working across theater, film, television, and commercial media. He is the owner of Tyler Green FX Studio and Spookie Kitz LLC, where he designs and produces custom prosthetics, masks, and creature effects while training the next generation of makeup artists. Tyler has collaborated with theaters, schools, and production teams nationwide, bringing character-driven makeup designs to life through a balance of technical skill and creative storytelling.
@TylerGreenFX | TylerGreenFX.com
Rethabile Headbush (Stage Manager) is a third-year stage manager at David Geffen School of Drama. Raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rethabile has a background in and passion for devised and interdisciplinary theater. Credits include Steve Carter’s Eden (assistant stage manager) directed by Brandon J. Dirden at Yale Rep. New play credits
at the Geffen School include Surrey Houlker’s Hot Breakfast at Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites in the Beautiful City of Farville, USA; comfort ifeoma catchy’s You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit. Further assistant stage management credits at the School include Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, Sarah Kane’s Cleansed, and Danielle Stagger’s new play rent free. Off-Broadway: RCI Theatricals Management Fellow for Mario Correa’s new play N/A directed by Diane Paulus. Further credits include The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s SEASON 9 Programme, artsINSIDEOUT (ArtsIgnite) program, and D’haus’s Urgent Interactions Youth International Congress (Market Theatre Laboratory).
Romello Huins he/they (Scenic Designer) is a Brooklyn native, the first August Wilson Fellow in Scenic Design at the Eugene O’Neill Center, and the recipient of the inaugural August Wilson Award for Theater Production and Design from the Kennedy Center. His notable work includes Witch at Yale Cabaret, The Book of Lucy at Brown University, Passing Strange with Shotgun Players, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill at NC Theater Raleigh. As assistant/ associate to Beowulf Boritt, he contributed to New York, New York (Tony), The Piano Lesson (Drama Desk), Ohio State Murders, and Freestyle Love Supreme. His piano design for The Piano Lesson was featured in The New York Times and archived at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He holds a B.F.A. from UNCSA and is an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama.
Qier Luo 罗绮儿 (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer from Shanghai, China, and a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Coriolanus as well as Apologiae 4 & 5 at Yale Cabaret. China-based designs: Sanctuary (Shenzhen), A Statue of a Woman Doing Chores (Shanghai), Midnight Movie (Aranya), To Be Buried (Shanghai and Guangzhou); New York: Rooftop Somnambulism (Brooklyn), Venus (Waterwall Productions), The Tenants (NYWF); Philadelphia: Ship (Azuka Theatre), King Lear (Hepburn Theater), Fear Babies (Headlong Institute), Milky Way (The Fidget Space); Bloomington: Wonderful Town, The Heiress, Julius Caesar, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Prospect Hill. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian languages and culture from Bryn Mawr College. She is also the co-creator and lighting designer of the recent Yale-China Arts Residency Production, Windscape 风·景
Allison Morgan (Costume Designer) is a costume designer for the stage and screen and a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her costume design credits include Ida Cutter’s Sort and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, as well as Cavalli’s L’Egisto at (Yale Baroque Opera (upcoming). Assistant design credits include Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s Rigoletto (Santa Fe Opera). She holds degrees in apparel design, art history, and French from the Brown University/Rhode Island School of Design Dual Degree Program, and in 2019–20, studied operatic costume design and history on a Fulbright fellowship in Venice, Italy.
Kelsey Rainwater (Fight and Intimacy Director) is an intimacy and fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s work was recently seen in Liberation at Roundabout Theatre Company and Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway. Some of her other credits include Walden at Second Stage; Hot Wing King at Hartford Stage; In the Southern Breeze, Measure for Measure, Jordans, Manahatta, and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Sally and Tom and White Noise at The Public Theater; Blues for an Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; Spunk, Hedda Gabler, Notes on Killing..., The Inspector, Wish You Were Here, Between Two Knees, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home at Yale Rep. Film and television: Baby Ruby, The Green Veil. She is a Lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaches stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.
Michael Rossmy (Fight and Intimacy Director) is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep, a lecturer in acting and stage management at David Geffen School of Drama. Broadway credits include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose directed by Phylicia Rashad, A Tale of Two Cities, Cymbeline, and Superior Donuts. Regional theater credits include The Public Theater, Roundabout, the Atlantic, Primary Stages, Westport Country Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Paper Mill Playhouse, Asolo Rep, The Old Globe,
TheaterWorks Hartford, Princeton University, The Acting Company, Soho Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, and others. He was nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk Award for The Public’s production of Troilus and Cressida and is a 2024 Barrymore Award nominee for Bonez at People’s Light. Recent work: The world premieres of Beau: The Musical and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purple Rain directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.
Tia Smith (Production Dramaturg) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama and the Steele Research Assistant at Yale University Art Gallery. Is God Is marks her third collaboration with Jasmine Brooks after Macbeth (the Geffen School), which she adapted with Brooks, and seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Yale Cabaret). She dramaturged Eden at Yale Repertory Theatre after nominating the play to Yale Rep’s season planning committee. During the 2024–25 academic year, she organized a university-wide screening of The Piano Lesson (2024) and moderated a conversation with MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow Imani Perry. She is the co-founder of the Adrienne Kennedy Working Group at Yale and the winner of a 2025 Barnard Library Research Award for her research on Ntozake Shange. She is a recipient of the Black Theatre Network’s S. Randolph Edmonds Young Scholars Award and the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship. She holds a B.A. in theater studies with highest distinction and African
& African American studies from Duke University. Her textile art has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre. She is proud to be from the South Side of Chicago.
Lauren F. Walker/Braids By Lo (Hair and Wig Designer) Braids By Lo is a natural hair braiding business owned by actress and David Geffen School of Drama alum, Lauren F. Walker. Created to serve Black artists, Braids By Lo offers nourishing and unique, protective styles that prioritize hair health and affordability. Lauren’s work has been seen at Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Women’s Project Theater, and more. @braidsbylo
Concord Theatricals is the world’s most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, TamsWitmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, plus dozens of new signings each year. Our unparalleled roster includes the work of Irving Berlin, Agatha Christie, George & Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lorraine Hansberry, Kander & Ebb, Tom Kitt, Ken Ludwig, Marlow & Moss, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anaïs Mitchell, Dominique Morisseau, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Thornton Wilder, and August Wilson. We are the only firm providing truly comprehensive services to the creators and producers of plays and musicals, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording, and first-class production. Follow us @concordshows.
Aleshea Harris’s play Is God Is (directed by Taibi Magar at Soho Rep and Ola Ince at the Royal Court) won the 2016 Relentless Award, an Obie Award for playwriting in 2017, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award in 2019, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. What to Send Up When It Goes Down, a play-pageant-ritual response to antiblackness, had its critically acclaimed NYC premiere in 2018 (directed by Whitney White and produced by The Movement Theatre Company), was featured in the April 2019 issue of American Theatre magazine, and received a rare special commendation from the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. The play was subsequently remounted at Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T., BAM, and Playwrights Horizons. Her newest play, On Sugarland (directed by Whitney White), premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in the spring of 2022. Awards: Windham-Campbell Literary Prize, Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Award, Hermitage Greenfield Prize, Horton Foote Playwriting Award, Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Harris is a two-time MacDowell Fellow and has enjoyed residencies at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Hedgebrook, and Djerassi.
for this production
ARTISTIC
Assistant Scenic Designer
Hyojung Kim
Assistant Costume Designer
Carter Sundown King
Assistant Lighting Designer
Alex Vásquez Dheming
Assistant Projection Designers
Wiktor Freifeld
Bobby Marcus
Assistant Sound Designer and Engineer
Jay Korter
Assistant Stage Manager
Miranda Vazquez
PRODUCTION
Production Manager
Matthew Phillips
Associate Production Manager
Ella Egan
Assistant Technical Directors
Sam Kisthardt
Mae Mironer
Properties Manager
Sean C. Blue
Production Electrician
Toni Carton
Assistant Production Electrician
Daniel Haussler
Stage Carpenter
Allie Posner
Light Board Programmer
Finn Bamber
Projection Content Creators
Nathaniel Britton
Ke Xu 许可
Projection Engineer
Sarah Webb
Projection Programmer
Jae Lee
Run Crew
Fabiola Andújar, Liam Beveridge, Leela Kiyawat, My Le, Rhayna Poulin,
Rebecca Rivera, Kemper Rodi, Nat
King Taylor, Catherine Young
Run Crew Swing
Jack Kelley
ADMINISTRATION
Associate Managing Director
Iyanna Huffington Whitney
Assistant Managing Directors
Jocelyn Lopez-Hagmann
Management Assistants
Roberto Di Donato
Ebonee Johnson
House Manager
Gavin D. Pak
Production Photographer
T. Charles Erickson
SPECIAL THANKS
Andreas Andreou and Destyne R. Miller; Finn Bamber and Amanda Burtness for film shoot support; Nicole Brooks Sanwandee.
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Thea t re Staff
Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean/ Yale Rep Artistic Director
James Bundy
Associate Dean/Yale Rep
Managing Director
Florie Seery
Associate Dean/Yale Rep
Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Programs
Chantal Rodriguez
Assistant Dean/Yale Rep
General Manager
Carla L. Jackson
Assistant Dean of Student Life
Nancy Yao
Academic Programs
Chair, Acting Program
Tamilla Woodard
Associate Chair, Acting Program
Grace Zandarski
Co-Chair, Design Program and Head of Set Design Concentration
Riccardo Hernández
Co-Chair, Design Program and Head of Costume Design Concentration
Toni-Leslie James
Head of Sound Design Concentration
Jill BC Du Boff
Head of Projection Design Concentration
Wendall K. Harrington
Head of Lighting Design Concentration
Donald Holder
Chair, Directing Program
Liz Diamond
Associate Chair, Directing Program
Yura Kordonsky
Chair, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program
Catherine Sheehy
Associate Chair, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism
Program
Kimberly Jannarone
Co-Chairs, Playwriting Program
Anne Erbe
Marcus Gardley
Chair, Stage Management Program
Narda E. Alcorn
Associate Chair, Stage Management Program
James Mountcastle
Chair, Technical Design and Production Program
Shaminda Amarakoon
Associate Chair, Technical Design and Production Program
Jennifer McClure
Chair, Theater Management Program
Joshua Borenstein
Artistic
Yale Rep
Resident Artists
Playwright in Residence
Tarell Alvin McCraney
Resident Directors
Lileana Blain-Cruz
Liz Diamond
Tamilla Woodard
Dramaturgy Advisor
Amy Boratko
Resident Dramaturg
Catherine Sheehy
Set Design Advisor
Riccardo Hernández
Resident Set Designer
Michael Yeargan
Costume Design Advisors
Oana Botez
Ilona Somogyi
Resident Costume Designer
Toni-Leslie James
Lighting Design Advisors
Alan C. Edwards
Donald Holder
Projection Design Advisors
Shawn Lovell-Boyle
Joey Moro
Sound Design Advisor
Jill BC Du Boff
Voice and Text Advisor
Grace Zandarski
Resident Fight and Intimacy Directors
Kelsey Rainwater
Michael Rossmy
Stage Management Advisor
Narda E. Alcorn
Associate Artists
52nd Street Project, Kama Ginkas, Mark Lamos, MTYZ Theatre/Moscow New Generation Theatre, Bill Rauch, Sarah Ruhl, Henrietta Yanovskaya
Artistic Administration
Production Stage Manager
James Mountcastle
Yale Rep Senior Artistic Producer
Amy Boratko
Yale Rep Associate Producer
Kay Perdue Meadows
Yale Rep Artistic Fellow
Hannah Fennell Gellman
Yale Rep Artistic Coordinator
Mithra Seyedi
Yale Rep Casting
James Calleri
Erica Jensen
Paul Davis
Editor, Theater Magazine
Tom Sellar
Managing Editor, Theater Magazine
Gabrielle Hoyt
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory
Senior Associate Editor, David Geffen School of Drama
Alumni Magazine
Catherine Sheehy
Senior Executive to the Dean/Artistic Director
Grace O’Brien
Senior Administrative Assistant to the Dean/Artistic Director and Artistic Offices
Avery Amacher
Senior Administrative Assistant for Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Playwriting, Stage Management programs, and Theater magazine
Laurie Coppola
Senior Administrative
Assistant, Design Program
Kate Begley Baker
Senior Administrative Assistant, Acting Program
Krista DeVellis
Library Services
Erin Carney
Production
Production Management Director of Production
Shaminda Amarakoon
Production Manager
Jonathan Reed
Production Manager for Studio Projects and Special Events
C. Nikki Mills
Senior Administrative Assistant to Production, Technical Design and Production Program, and Theater Safety
Rachel Zwick
Scenery
Technical Director for Yale Rep and Fall Protection Program Administrator
Neil Mulligan
Technical Directors for David Geffen School of Drama
Latiana “LT” Gourzong
Matt Welander
Electro Mechanical
Laboratory Supervisor
Spencer Hrdy
Metal Shop Foreperson
Matt Gaffney
Wood Shop Foreperson
Ryan Gardner
Lead Carpenters
Doug Kester
Kat McCarthey
Sharon Reinhart
Abigail “Galleon” Richard
Carpentry Interns
Kai Hancock
Red Wehrmann
Painting Scenic Charge
Mikah Berky
Interim Scenic Charge
Nathan Jasunas
Lead Scenic Artist
Lia Akkerhuis
Paint Intern
Michaela Meyer
Properties
Properties Supervisor
Jennifer McClure
Associate Properties
Supervisor
Katie Pulling
Properties Craftsperson
Steve Lopez
Properties Associate
Zach Faber
Properties Stock Manager
Mark Dionne
Properties Interns
Lee Donegan
Susan Gibbs
Costumes
Costume Shop Manager
Christine Szczepanski
Senior Drapers
Susan Aziz
Clarissa Wylie Youngberg
Mary Zihal
Senior First Hands
Deborah Bloch
Patricia Van Horn
First Hand
Maria Teodosio
Costume Project Coordinator
Linda Kelley-Dodd
Costume Stock Manager
Jamie Farkas
Costume Technology Intern
Eli Oremland
Electrics
Lighting Supervisor
Donald W. Titus
Senior House Electricians
Price Foster
Linda-Cristal Young
Electricians
Christopher Lubik
Aspen Rogers
Electrics Interns
Toni Carton
Gabriel Landes
Sound Sound Supervisor
Mike Backhaus
Lead Sound Engineer
Mariah Keener
Sound Interns
Jay Korter
Skylar Linker
Projections
Projection Supervisor
Anja Powell
Lead Projection Technician
Solomon Sheffield
Projection Interns
Naomi Rodriguez
Sarah Webb
Stage Operations
Stage Carpenter
Janet Cunningham
Lead Wardrobe Supervisor
Elizabeth Bolster
Lead Properties Runner
William Ordynowicz
Light Board Programmer
Sabrina Idom
Lead Front of House
Mix Engineer
Keirsten Lamora
Administration
General Management
Associate Managing Directors
Joy (Xiaoyue) Chen
Victoria McNaughton
Kavya Shetty
Iyanna Huffington Whitney
Assistant Managing Director
Jocelyn Lopez-Hagmann
Management Assistants
Roberto Di Donato
Ebonee Johnson
Company Manager
Raekwon Fuller
Assistant Company Manager
Jenn London
Quinn O’Connor
Kiara Rivera
Development & Alumni Affairs
Senior Director of Development and Alumni Affairs and Editor, David Geffen School of Drama
Alumni Magazine
Deborah S. Berman
Deputy Director of Operations for Development and Alumni Affairs
Susan C. Clark
Senior Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Scott Bartelson
Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Claudia Campos
Alumni Affairs Officer and Senior Writer
Cayenne Douglass
Senior Administrative Assistant to Development and Alumni Affairs
Jennifer E. Alzona
Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
Gavin D. Pak
Development and Alumni Affairs Assistant
My Le
Finance, Human Resources, & Digital Technology
Director of Finance and Business Administration/Lead Administrator
Nicola Blake
Human Resources Business Partner
Trinh DiNoto
Manager, Staff and Faculty Affairs
Malaika Green El Hamel
Director of Theater and Information Technology
Eric Lin
Director, Yale Tessitura Consortium, and Web Technology
Janna J. Ellis
Manager, Business Operations
Martha O. Boateng
Business Office Analyst
Shainn Reaves
Financial Analyst
Juliana Norman
Web Technology Assistant
Kenneth Murray
Business Office Specialists
Moriah Clarke
Karem Orellana-Flores
Digital Technology Associates
Edison Dule
Garry Heyward
Database Application Consultants
Ben Silvert
Erich Bolton
Financial Aid, Admissions, and Student Services
Financial Aid Officer
Andre Massiah
Registrar/Admissions Administrator
Ariel Yan
Non-Clinical Counselor
Krista Dobson
Senior Administrative Assistant to Financial Aid and Registrar/Admissions Administrator
Laura Torino
Marketing, Communications, & Audience Services
Director of Marketing
Daniel Cress
Director of Communications
Steven Padla
Senior Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Caitlin Griffin
Senior Administrative
Assistant to Marketing and Communications
Mishelle Raza
Publications Manager, Artwork, and Program Designer
Marguerite Elliott
Marketing and Communications Assistants
Rhayna Poulin
Kiara Rivera
Director of Audience Services
Laura Kirk
Assistant Director of Audience Services
Shane Quinn
Subscriptions Coordinator
Tracy Baldini
Audience Services Associate
Molly Leona
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Thea t re Staff
Director of Theater Safety and Occupational Health
Anna Glover
Assistant Director of Theater Safety
Kelly O’Loughlin
Associate Safety Advisor
Forrest Rumbaugh
Operations
Director of Facility Operations
Nadir Balan
Associate Director of Operations
Brandon Fuller
Interim Associate Director of Facility Operations
Aleks Landolfi
Operations Assistant
Devon Reaves
ities Area Manager
Joey Adcock
Arts and Graduate Studies
Superintendents
Jennifer Draughn, Francisco Eduardo Pimentel
Custodial Team Leaders
Andrew Mastriano
Sherry Stanley
Facility Stewards
Ronald Douglas, Marcia Riley
Custodians
Leo Torres, Sulema Hamilton, Rodney Heard, Jessica Hernandez, Cassandra Hobby, Wendy Jerez, Melloney Lucas, Shanna Ramos, Johnny Stanley, Jerome Sonia
David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre are supported by the work of over 150 faculty members.
For a complete faculty listing by program and department, please visit drama.yale.edu/about-us
THE BENJAMIN MORDECAI III PRODUCTION FUND
established by Peggy Cowles ’65, honors the memory of the Tony Awardwinning producer who served as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management program at David Geffen School of Drama from 1993 until his death in 2005. During his tenure as Yale Rep’s Managing Director alongside Dean/Artistic Director Lloyd Richards, 1982–1993, he developed a model of professional producing that changed the course of new play development in the American theater. His 25 Broadway credits included Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, as well as work by Anna Deavere Smith, Athol Fugard, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, Robert Schenkkan, and perhaps most significantly August Wilson, with whom he collaborated on each of the ten plays in the epic 20th-Century Cycle .
