Yale Cabaret Photo
Gourzong, FitzMaurice, and Huipe.
There have been some surprises this season at the Yale Cabaret, the black box theater in the basement at 217 Park St. But surprises shouldn’t be surprising, since one of the four main values chosen by the 2018 – 19 team, according to its mission statement, is to “cultivate surprise,” seeking to “nurture the new and the nascent, the fragile and unfinished, the risky, the experimental, and curious.”
A space for students in the Yale School of Drama to introduce peers and the public to their passion projects, the Cab, in its 51st year, is led this season by Co-Artistic Directors Latiana “LT” Gourzong, a third-year technical director, and Molly FitzMaurce, a third-year dramaturg. The duo say their collaboration is one of “cross-mentorship” where both bring different areas of expertise to bear, “learning from each other as we work together.” With her experience in technical design and production, Gourzong is used to meetings where her task is “to be a facilitator of others’ vision,” she said. FitzMaurice, who has worked with the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and Fringe Theater in Chicago, is engaged by the Cab’s “scrappy ethos” of production, she said.
The co-ADs see their role as helping their fellow students to realize their work in the Cab space, which should be “a sandbox learning lab, with different opportunities than provided in class and in YSD productions,” Fitzmaurice said. The Cab sustains “an eclectic aesthetic” and encourages students to work out of discipline and, a key factor for proposals, to create actual working teams. To that end, Gourzong and FitzMaurice have staggered the proposal schedule. Rather than having one due date for each half of the semester, they have booked shows in segments, allowing more time for proposals and collaborations and also shorter times between acceptance and production, to keep the vibe of immediacy so important to “the mythology of the Cab,” FitzMaurice said.
A surprise along those lines was the first ever Festival of Rough Drafts early last month. This was a new inspiration that called for pieces too short or impromptu for a solo slot in the season. It was the perfect opportunity for YSD students, who are often multitalented with diverse interests, to show off their secret skills. Seeing a set designer create a comedy performance around his ability to whistle Ravel’s Bolero is the sort of exposure the Cab can offer. A playwright and a dramaturg who found interests in common by chance performed a unique piece using movement, puppets and music. An acting student got to try out a draft of a play she’s been working on. A lighting designer presented a multimedia work, complete with computer animation and film clips about the recent death of a Chinese dissident, and together two costume designers interrogated the weaknesses of men with arch commentary on the dating scene.
Yet another surprise is this week’s show: The Whale in the Hudson, by Brad McKnight Wilson, directed by first-year director Maeli Goren, is a production specifically aimed at young audiences and runs Dec. 6 to Dec. 8. To accommodate younger viewers — FitzMaurice recommends ages eight and up — the showtimes for Saturday Dec. 8 will be at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. (Thursday Dec. 6 will have a show at 8 p.m. and Friday Dec. 7 will have shows at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.) A sponsor has subsidized the production so that the Cab can offer discounted seats for some schools: $5 for children and $15 for adults. One of the passions current students at YSD have spoken of, said FitzMaurice, is “theater for young audiences” and this show, about a whale trapped in the Hudson River, and a 4th-grade sleuth who tries to get to the bottom of the mystery — by enlisting different allies, including a group of brainiacs — may be a first glimpse of things to come.
The Whale in the Hudson marks the end of the first half of the season. The two shows that follow the Yale winter break in January have already been named. Jan. 10 to 12 is School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, by Jocelyn Bioh, proposed by Christopher Betts, a first-year director. Described as a “comedy with issues,” it’s about tensions in a posh school in Ghana when a new, nice girl enters the school and upsets the hierarchy around the school’s beauty pageant. Then comes Charles L. Mee’s The Rules on Jan. 17 to 19, proposed by Dakota Stipp, a sound designer. He’ll be using live sound features during the show so that each performance will be different; the play, said the ADs, is “a collage of episodes,” with performances among the audience, about “the rules” of social norms.
Following those two shows, on Feb. 1 and 2, will be the Cabaret’s much-celebrated drag show. The first night will be a show for drag performers local to New Haven — continuing an innovation from last year — while the second night will feature YSD performers, a tradition now in its seventh year. The remaining three slots of Cab 51’s season should be filled before the Cab team departs for winter break, so watch for updates.
The managing director for the Cab this year is Armando Huipe, a third-year student of theater management. And one of the first surprises of the season was the hiring of Dana Cesnik Doyle, a new head chef in the Cab kitchen for the first time in over a decade. The Cab offers small plates, drinks and dessert at all its shows, and dinner at its 8 p.m. shows, with seating beginning at 6:30 p.m. Cesnik Doyle began Queen of Tarts Catering in Ojai, Calif. in 2012, but moved back to Connecticut in 2016. She has catered events for the Yale Sustainable Food Program, as well as the Medical School, the Divinity School Library, and the Yale University Library Council. Cesnik Doyle’s cuisine is “influenced by her time in California,” and features ingredients from “local farms, farmers markets, and her garden in Hamden,” Huipe said.
Huipe pointed to other changes, including the mobile devices used by the waitstaff and the new, much more silent air conditioner, essential during the first half of the semester. They complimented the way in which Cesnik Doyle integrates “process into the food preparation,” with “care and a welcoming space” so that students feel involved.
The other Cab mission values include “divergence” as “a multitude and diversity of experiences, identities, aesthetics,” and “compassion” that “invites audiences and artists into process together.” Key to those values is making everyone welcome, whether regulars — some can recall seasons stretching back decades — or first-timers. Since the Cabaret’s offerings are so diverse, no two weeks are even remotely the same. Even the seating arrangements vary week to week. If you wait too long for tickets, don’t be surprised if you find yourself missing out.
For more information about the Yale Cabaret, visit its website.