Yale Rep Presents Suzan-Lori Parks's FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS, Parts 1, 2 & 3

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Liz Diamond, March 16-April 7, at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 22. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 is a co-production with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, where it will play April 25-May 20.

A finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who also composed songs and additional music, features choreography by Randy Duncan, scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Sarah Nietfeld, lighting by Yi Zhao, sound design and music supervision by Frederick Kennedy, dramaturgy by Catherine María Rodríguez and Catherine Sheehy, technical direction by Latiana (LT) Gourzong, vocal and dialect coaching by Chantal Jean-Pierre, fight direction by Rick Sordelet, and stage management by Shelby North.

The cast includes Rotimi Agbabiaka, Erron Crawford, Eboni Flowers, Safiya Fredericks, Dan Hiatt, Steven Anthony Jones, Julian Elijah Martinez, Martin Luther McCoy, Chivas Michael, Tom Pecinka, James Udom, and Gregory Wallace.

MORE ABOUT FATHER COMES HOME, PARTS 1, 2 & 3

In the astonishing first installment of Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks's new American Odyssey, set over the course of the Civil War, Hero is offered his freedom from slavery in exchange for joining his master in the ranks of the Confederacy. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 is a devastatingly beautiful epic new work filled with music, wit, and exquisite lyricism.

Contains coarse language.

Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 is the second of Yale Rep's two Will Power! productions this season. The run includes 10:15AM performances on April 3 and 5, available only to high school groups. Information about booking school groups for Will Power! performances is available by email at yalerep@yale.edu.

Bank of America is the Production Sponsor of Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3, which also is supported in part by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

TICKET INFORMATION AND PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Tickets for Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 range from $12-99 and are available online at yalerep.org, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Student, senior, and group rates are also available.

Friday, March 16 8PM Preview, Post-Show Conversation
Saturday, March 17 8PM Preview, Post-Show Conversation
Monday, March 19 8PM Preview, All Tickets $12-20
Tuesday, March 20 8PM Preview, All Tickets $12-20
Wednesday, March 21 8PM Preview, All Tickets $12-20
Thursday, March 22 8PM Opening
Friday, March 23 8PM
Saturday, March 24 2PM Talk Back
Saturday, March 24 8PM
Tuesday, March 27 8PM
Wednesday, March 28 2PM Senior Reception
Wednesday, March 28 8PM
Thursday, March 29 8PM
Friday, March 30 8PM
Saturday, March 31 2PM Audio Described, Talk Back
Saturday, March 31 8PM
Tuesday, April 3 8PM
Wednesday, April 4 8PM
Thursday, April 5 8PM
Friday, April 6 8PM
Saturday, April 7 2PM Open Captioned
Saturday, April 7 8PM

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Suzan-Lori Parks (PLAYWRIGHT, SONGS, ADDITIONAL MUSIC) Named one of Time Magazine's "100 Innovators for the Next New Wave" in 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. A MacArthur "Genius" Award and Gish Prize recipient, she has also been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 had its world premiere at The Public Theater and has also been staged at American Repertory Theater and Center Theatre Group. The play was named a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was awarded the 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History as well as the 2014 Horton Foote Prize. Parks's work on The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess was honored with the 2012 Tony Award. Her numerous plays include The Book of Grace, In the Blood (2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Venus (1996 OBIE Award), 365 Days/365 Plays, and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, among others. Parks's novel Getting Mother's Body was published by Random House. Her screenplays include Girl 6 written for Spike Lee, as well as works for Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, and Jodie Foster. Her adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God premiered on ABC's "Oprah Winfrey Presents." Parks is currently writing an adaptation of the film The Harder They Come for a live stage musical. Parks is the Master Writer Chair at The Public Theater, and she serves as a professor in dramatic writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Liz Diamond (DIRECTOR) celebrates her 25th year as a Resident Director during Yale Repertory Theatre's 2017-18 season and serves as Chair of the Directing Department at Yale School of Drama. Productions at Yale Rep include The Winter's Tale, Lucinda Coxon's Happy Now? (also at Primary Stages in New York), Marcus Gardley's dance of the holy ghosts, Strindberg's Miss Julie, Sunil Kuruvilla's Fighting Words and Rice Boy, Seamus Heaney's The Cure at Troy, Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle and St. Joan of the Stockyards, and the premieres of The America Play and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World by Suzan-Lori Parks. She has directed new plays and classical works at theatres including American Repertory Theater, The Public Theater, Vineyard Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Westport Country Playhouse, and has won the OBIE and the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Direction. Additional projects at Yale include Diamond's staging of her translation of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, in a joint Yale School of Drama/Yale School of Music production at Carnegie Hall, as well as Matthew Suttor's and Timothy Young's musical adaptation of Blaise Cendrar's Prose du Transsiberien for the Beinecke Library's 50th-anniversary celebration.

Randy Duncan (CHOREOGRAPhER) previously choreographed The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Winter's Tale at Yale Rep. He has the unique privilege to be a three-time recipient of Chicago's prestigious Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Choreographer of the Year. He's received the Artistic Achievement Award from the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters and three Black Theatre Alliance Awards. He earned an American Choreography Award nomination for his work in the movie Save The Last Dance starring Julia Stiles. Mr. Duncan's work can be seen in the companies of the Joffrey Ballet, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, BalletMet Columbus, among many others. His theatre credits include The Goodman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, creating choreography for productions such as Hair, Carousel, Zoot Suit, Once On This Island, The Rose Tattoo, Amadeus, Antigone, the Portland Opera production of The Pirates of Penzance, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined. Randy continues his support for HIV/AIDS causes by donating his time and choreography to Dance for Life. He teaches worldwide and for the past 23 years has been on the faculty of The Chicago Academy for the Arts, where he serves as Dance Department Chair.

Riccardo Hernandez (Scenic Designer) Yale Rep: Assassins, Indecent, Marie Antoinette, Autumn Sonata, Battle of Black and Dogs, The Evildoers, The America Play. Broadway: The Gin Game; The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess; The People in the Picture; Caroline, or Change (National Theatre); Elaine Stritch at Liberty (Old Vic); Topdog/Underdog (Royal Court); Bells Are Ringing; Parade (Tony, Drama Desk nominations); Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk; The Tempest. He has designed over 250 U.S. and international theatre and opera productions, most recently including Red Speedo (Drama Desk nomination), The Invisible Hand (Henry Hewes Design Award) at New York Theatre Workshop; Splendid's (Théâtre national de la Colline); The Father, A Doll's House (Theatre for a New Audience); Don Giovanni (Santa Fe Opera); Grounded (The Public Theater); La Mouette (Cour d'honneur, Palais des papes: Festival d'Avignon); Abigail's Party (Oslo National Theatre); The Dead (Abbey Theatre). He serves on the faculty of Yale School of Drama.

SARAH NIETFELD (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Everything That Never Happened and Bulgaria! Revolt!. Other credits include scenic design for And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens, The Quonsets, This Sweet Affliction, and costume design for How We Died of Disease-Related Illness (Yale Cabaret); Costume design for Antarctica! Which Is to Say Nowhere (Yale Summer Cabaret); August: Osage County (Balagan Theatre); Once in a Lifetime (Theater Anonymous); Austen Translation (Jet City Improv); Pride and Prejudice, The Old Maid and the Thief, and Incite (Cornish College of the Arts). Born in Ireland and raised in Seattle, Sarah holds a BFA in performance production and costume design from Cornish College of the Arts. She has interned with Seattle Opera, Guthrie Theatre, and the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh and has also worked at Colonial Williamsburg, La Jolla Playhouse, and Fuel Theatre in London in association with the National Theatre.

FREDERICK KENNEDY (SOUND DESIGNER AND MUSIC SUPERVISOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, and Othello. Other credits include Native Son (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Trojan Women, Adam Geist, Alice In Wonderland, Envy: the Concert (Yale Summer Cabaret); Re:Union, Débâcles, Lake Kelsey, Vignette of a Recollection, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens, How We Died of Disease-Related Illnesses, and I'm With You in Rockland (Yale Cabaret). In addition, he recently wrote, co-directed, and performed in Collisions, also at Yale Cabaret, and was the associate sound designer and music coordinator for Yale Rep's Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince. Prior to Yale, Frederick worked full time as a musician, producer, and educator in New York City, where he taught music production at City University of New York and appeared as a drummer on more than 50 albums. His diverse musical career has taken him on tours throughout North America and Europe, as well as to parts of South America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific.

CATHERINE MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she founded El Colectivo, Yale's Latinx theatre group. Catherine currently serves on the National Endowment for the Arts's theatre panel, the Latinx Theatre Commons' National Steering Committee, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas' Board of Directors, and Yale School of Drama's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Working Group. Prior, she was the Dramaturgy and Artistic Fellow at Baltimore Center Stage, visiting instructor of dramaturgy at Catholic University, co-organizer of online parity project #WikiTurgy, and co-host of the Dramaturgy Open Office Hours Project. Recent credits: If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka: An understanding of a West African Folktale (Yale School of Drama, Carlotta Festival of New Plays); Seven Guitars (Yale Repertory Theatre); Amy and the Orphans (Yale School of Drama); And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens and Salt Pepper Ketchup (Yale Cabaret). Past credits: Baltimore Center Stage, El Círculo Teatral (México), Borderlands, Steppenwolf, and Northwestern University (Performance Studies). Carnegie Mellon: BFA, dramaturgy; BA, Latina/o studies. Black Lives Matter.

CATHERINE SHEEHY (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is Resident Dramaturg at Yale Repertory Theatre and the Chair of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale School of Drama. Her Yale Rep credits include Happy Days, Elevada, These Paper Bullets!, In a Year with 13 Moons, The Winter's Tale, Bossa Nova, POP!, Trouble in Mind, and The King Stag (which she also co-adapted with Evan and Mike Yionoulis). She's a founding member of New Neighborhood. Her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice has been produced at Asolo Repertory Theatre and Dallas Theater Center. She has worked at the Theatre for a New Audience, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Public Theater, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the Signature Theatre, O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Center Stage, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and on a project in development at HBO. She is a former associate editor of American Theatre and a former editor of Theater magazine. She received her doctorate from Yale in 1999 for her dissertation: If You Care to Blast for It: Excavating the Lost Comic Masterpieces of the American Canon.

LATIANA (LT) GOURONG (TECHNICAL DIRECTOR) originally from Ocean Township, New Jersey, is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Previous Yale Rep credits include Seven Guitars
(assistant technical director) and Mary Jane (master electrician). She has previously served as the technical director for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, and Washington and Lee University, as well as an associate at Williamstown Theatre Festival. LT holds a BFA in technical direction from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Chantal Jean-Pierre (VOCAL AND DIALECT COACH) is thrilled to work with Yale Rep on such a compelling play. She is also a professional theatre and television actress. Dialect coaching credits include Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Roundabout Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Classical Theater of Harlem, Minetta Lane Theatre, HERE Art Center, Playwrights Realm, and more.
pierreactingcoach.com, chantaljean-pierre.com

Rick Sordelet (FIGHT DIRECTOR) and his son, Christian Kelly-Sordelet, are the creators of Sordelet Inc., a stage combat company. Among their credits are 72 Broadway productions, including The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, and more than 60 first-class productions on five continents in hundreds of cities around the world. Rick and Christian have been fight directors for dozens of regional theatres around the U.S. Their shows range from Sam Shepard to William Shakespeare. They have four National Tours running across America and Beauty and the Beast internationally. Both Rick and Christian are stunt coordinators for television and film with over 1000 episodes of daytime television and numerous feature films. Rick teaches stage combat for Yale School of Drama and with Christian at HB Studio in NYC. sordeletink.com

Janet Foster (CASTING DIRECTOR) has cast for American Conservatory Theater for six seasons including Hamlet, The Hard Problem, King Charles III, John, Arcadia, Stuck Elevator, The Orphan of Zhao, Napoli!, Elektra, Endgame, Play, and Scorched. On Broadway she cast The Light in the Piazza (Artios Award nomination), Lennon, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Taking Sides (co-cast). Off-Broadway credits include True Love, Floyd Collins, The Monogamist, A Cheever Evening, and Later Life. Regionally, she has worked at Intiman Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Old Globe, and American Repertory Theater. Film, television, and radio credits include Cosby, Tracey Takes on New York, The Deal, Advice from a Caterpillar, The Day That Lehman Died (Peabody, SONY, and Wincott awards), and "T" Is for Tom (Tom Stoppard radio plays, WNYC and WQXR). She also cast LifeAfter, a GE Theater podcast.

Tara Rubin (CASTING DIRECTOR) has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Selected Broadway: Falsettos; A Bronx Tale; Dear Evan Hansen; Cats; Disaster!; School of Rock; Doctor Zhivago; It Shoulda Been You; Gigi; Bullets Over Broadway; Aladdin; Les Misérables, Mothers and Sons; Big Fish; The Heiress; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; A Little Night Music; Billy Elliot; Shrek; Guys and Dolls; Young Frankenstein; The Little Mermaid; Mary Poppins; Spamalot; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; The Producers; Mamma Mia!; Jersey Boys; The Phantom of the Opera. Off-Broadway: Here Lies Love; Old Jews Telling Jokes; Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Bucks County Playhouse.

SHELBY NORTH (Stage Manager) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Bulgaria! Revolt!, Macbeth, and Best Lesbian Erotica 1995. Other credits include Assassins (Yale Repertory Theatre); Thoreau, or Return to Walden; Fiorello!; Constellations; Million Dollar Quartet (Berkshire Theatre Group); Amy and the Orphans (New York Stage and Film). Shelby has a BA in drama from College of Charleston.

Yi Zhao (LIGHTING DESIGNER) Previous Yale Rep credits include Assassins, War, In a Year with 13 Moons (co-designed with Jennifer Tipton), and A Doctor in Spite of Himself, which was also seen at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Other theatre credits include Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater; to be featured on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS); Actually (Manhattan Theatre Club); Suzan-Lori Parks's In The Blood and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre); Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., FUTURITY (Soho Rep.); Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); The Bluest Eye (Guthrie Theatre); Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum); Hamlet (Shakespeare Theatre DC); Henry IV Part 1, The Winter's Tale, Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); and productions with Dallas Theater Center, The Wilma Theater, etc. His designs for opera, music, and dance have been seen at ArtsEmerson, Curtis Institute of Music, Prototype Festival, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Ballet de Lorraine in France. He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and is a recipient of the 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre. yi-zhao.com

American Conservatory Theater (CO-PRODUCER), San Francisco's Tony Award-winning nonprofit theatre, nurtures live theatre through Dynamic Productions, intensive actor training, and community engagement. We embrace our responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent our rich theatrical traditions, while exploring new artistic forms and communities. A.C.T. opened its first San Francisco season in 1967 and has since performed more than 350 productions to more than seven million people. A.C.T.'s 50-year-old Conservatory features our Master of Fine Arts actor training program, our Summer Training Congress that attracts students worldwide, and the San Francisco Semester, a study-abroad opportunity for undergraduates. Other programs include the Young Conservatory (students aged 8-19) and Studio A.C.T., theater study for adults. A.C.T. also brings theatre-based arts education to 16,000 Bay Area students annually. With our increased presence in the Central Market neighborhood marked by the renovation of The Strand Theater, A.C.T. plays a leadership role in securing the future of theatre for San Francisco and the nation.

ABOUT THE CAST

Rotimi Agbabiaka (SECOND, RUNAWAY SLAVE) is making his Yale Rep debut. He most recently appeared as Peg Leg in The Black Rider (Shotgun Players). Other credits include Bootycandy (Brava Theater); Sojourners, Runboyrun (Magic Theatre); Choir Boy (Marin Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun (California Shakespeare Theatre); We Are Proud to Present a Presentation... (Just Theater); Once On This Island (TheatreWorks); The Amen Corner (Alter Theater); and several productions with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he is a Collective Member. As a director, he helmed the world premiere of VS. (TheatreFIRST). He won the Best Solo Performance award at the San Francisco Fringe Festival for his play Homeless, and his latest solo, Type/Caste, received the Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Solo Production. Rotimi studied at the Moscow Art Theatre and receive an MFA in acting from Northern Illinois University. rotimionline.com

ERRON CRAWFORD (FOURTH) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Passion, Slave Play, and If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka. He has also been seen in The Apple Tree, In the Red and Brown Water (Yale Cabaret); Antony + Cleopatra (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Wiz, Seven Guitars, Once on This Island (Carnegie Mellon); Black Nativity (Kenny Leon's True Colors); and Scheherazade (FringeNYC), among others. Erron holds a BFA in musical theatre from Carnegie Mellon University and was a member of the Broadway Dreams Foundation and the Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta.

Eboni Flowers (PENNY) is overjoyed to be making her Yale Rep debut. Most recently she was seen in Too Heavy for Your Pocket at the Roundabout Theatre. Other New York credits include Dead Dog Park (Bedlam); Paradox of the Urban Cliché (Wild Project); Miss Julie (August Strindberg Rep); Court-Martial at Fort Devens (New Federal/Castillo Theatre). Other theatre credits include Too Heavy for Your Pocket (Alliance Theatre); Sex Acts (PushPush Theater); Psalm 13, Times (Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta); Three Sisters, The Trojan Women, The Winter's Tale, Coriolanus, As You Like It, and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse (Alabama Shakespeare Festival). She has been seen on TV in Blue Bloods, Show me a Hero, and Friends of the People. Eboni received her Bachelor's degree from Clark Atlanta University, and her MFA from Alabama Shakespeare Festival/ University of Alabama.

Safiya Fredericks (THIRD/RUNAWAY SLAVE) is incredibly excited to be making her Yale Rep debut. Regional credits include Tom Stoppard's The Hard Problem at A.C.T., Grandeur at Magic Theatre, the world premiere of Aubergine at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Once on This Island at TheatreWorks, the Witch in Into the Woods at San Francisco Playhouse, Much Ado About Nothing, and Black Odyssey at California Shakespeare Theater. Past favorites include The Civilians's production of In the Footprint at Arts Emerson in Boston and By Hands Unknown at the New York Fringe Festival. On screen she can be seen as the female lead in Black Gold: America is Still the Place alongside Mike Colter, Bitter Melon shot this past fall, and in the upcoming movie Sorry to Bother You, which premiered at Sundance. safiyafredericks.com

Dan Hiatt (THE COLONEL) was most recently seen at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco as Petey in The Birthday Party. Other roles at A.C.T. include Polonius in Hamlet, James Reiss in King Charles III, and Sid Davis in Ah, Wilderness!. His other San Francisco Bay Area credits include Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Dinner with Friends at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Uncle Vanya, and many others at California Shakespeare Theater; The 39 Steps at TheatreWorks; Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Theatre on the Square; Breakfast with Mugabe at Aurora Theatre Company; and Anne Boleyn at Marin Theatre Company. Regional theatre credits include work with Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Calgary, and Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Steven Anthony Jones (THE OLDEST MAN) was the Artistic Director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the premier African American theatre company in the Bay Area. Most recently, he directed Philip Kan Gotanda's After the War Blues at University of California, Berkeley. He has worked professionally on stage, and in television and film for 40 years. He has performed in the works of August Wilson, Charles Fuller, Athol Fugard, Tom Stoppard, Gotanda, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Molière, Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, and others. He was in the original cast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play
produced by the Negro Ensemble Company (OBIE Award for Distinguished Ensemble Performance). He performed, taught, and directed at American Conservatory Theater for 22 years as a member of the core acting company. His film and television credits include two seasons of Midnight Caller and a recurring role on Trauma.

Julian Elijah Martinez (HOMER) received his MFA from Yale School Drama, where his credits include Othello, f-ing A, and The Winter's Tale. His other theatre credits include Alligator (New Georges); The Square Root of 3 Sisters (Dmitry Krymov Lab/Yale School of Drama at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas); Adam Geist, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation... (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Brothers Size, (Yale Cabaret); 9 Circles (Forum Theatre, Helen Hayes Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Play nomination); Locomotion (The John F. Kennedy Center); The Hampton Years (Theater J); Jekyll & Hyde (Synetic Theater); Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); Man of La Mancha (Hangar Theater); Hamlet and All's Well That Ends Well (Orlando Shakespeare Theater). Television includes Elementary, The Big Dog, High School Lover with James Franco, and Madam Secretary. Martinez is a former co-artistic director of Yale Cabaret and a company member of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Developing Artist, and the Full Stop Collective.

Martin Luther McCoy (THE MUSICIAN), actor, guitarist, singer/songwriter, producer, and soulman, is a San Francisco native. The thread that connects all of Martin Luther's endeavors is his grounding in the verdant soil of African-American culture. An essential catalyst on the Bay Area's fertile 1990s neo-soul scene, he continues to serve as a conduit for socially conscious music. On the cusp of releasing his fourth full-length studio album, a self-titled LP focusing on original material, Martin Luther also tours as lead singer with the interdisciplinary alt-art-rock performance group Moon Medicin, a project led by keyboardist and visual artist Sanford Biggers. Martin Luther perhaps is best known for his work with the seminal hip hop collective The Roots, as well as his performance in Julie Taymor's 2007 film Across the Universe. He has performed with Dave Matthews, Jill Scott, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many others.

Chivas Michael (LEADER, FIRST RUNAWAY SLAVE) previously appeared at Yale Rep in The Caucasian Chalk Circle and A Doctor in Spite of Himself. His other theatre credits include Antony and Cleopatra (The Royal Shakespeare Company, London; The Public Theater); Brooklyn Omnibus (Brooklyn Academy Of Music), Romeo and Juliet (Classic Stage Company); The Broadway Problem (Lincoln Center concert); Sliding Into the Beast (New York Theatre Workshop); Wild With Happy (Center Stage); The Servant of Two Masters (Guthrie Theater); A Doctor In Spite of Himself (Berkeley Rep); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare on the Sound); Hamlet (New Orleans Shakespeare Festival); A Chorus Line and Oklahoma! (Porthouse Theatre). Film credits include Fish: The True Story of a Boy in a Man's Prison. Education: BA, Dillard University; MFA, NYU's Graduate Acting Program.

Tom Pecinka (Smith, A Captive Union Soldier) was last seen at Yale Rep in Arcadia, for which he received a Connecticut Critics Circle Award nomination. Off-Broadway: He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box (Theatre for a New Audience), Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare in the Park/The Public Theater), The Soldier's Tale (Carnegie Hall), Torch Song (Second Stage). Regional: Cloud 9 (Connecticut Critics Circle Nomination) and A Midsummer Night's Dream, both at Hartford Stage; Deathtrap, Design for Living, The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theatre Festival); As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare on the Sound). Education: BA, Fordham University; MFA, Yale School of Drama. tompecinka.com

James Udom (HERO, ULYSSES) is a third-year actor at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in Death of Yazdgerd, Sweat, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, Bluebeard's Wife, Some Bodies Travel, and Our Lady of 121st Street. His other credits include Salt Pepper Ketchup, The Slow Sound of Snow, The Light is...., and Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Yale Cabaret); Mies Julie (Yale Summer Cabaret); Tamburlaine (Theatre for a New Audience); Macbeth (The Public); The Winter's Tale (Pearl Theatre Company); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare & Company); Romeo and Juliet (Elm Shakespeare Co); Of Mice and Men, King Lear (Hubbard Hall); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Odyssey (We Players), among others. He has trained with Shakespeare & Company, Steppenwolf, and Dell'Arte International Ensemble. James is the recipient of the 2017 Princess Grace Award (Grace LeVine Theatre Award), and received the National Irene Ryan Scholarship Award for Best Actor in 2012.

Gregory Wallace (ODYSSEY DOG) is an actor, director, and teaching artist with over 40 years of experience in the professional theatre. His career includes numerous appearances on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theatres, where he has worked with some of the leading directors in the American theatre, including John Doyle, Adrian Hall, JoAnne Akalaitis, Mark Lamos, Irene Lewis, Austin Pendleton, Carey Perloff, Lisa Peterson, John Rando, Mark Rucker, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. From 1999-2011, he was a member of the resident acting company at American Conservatory Theater, where his credits included Clybourne Park, Marcus: or the Secret of Sweet, Travesties, Gem of the Ocean, A Doll's House, The Three Sisters, Waiting for Godot, "Master Harold"...and the Boys, and Angels in America. As an actor, he's been involved in the development of new plays such as Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Holding History, Peter Parnell's The Cider House Rules, Philip Kan Gotanda's After the War, and Lillian Groag's War Music. While at A.C.T., he was a core faculty member in the MFA Acting program, where he also directed a number of productions for the Conservatory. From 2011-2016, he served as Head of Graduate Acting at University of California, San Diego. He is currently a Professor in the Practice of Acting at Yale School of Drama. He received his BFA in acting at New York University and his MFA in acting at Yale School of Drama.

ABOUT Yale Repertory Theatre

Yale Repertory Theatre, the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama, has championed new work since 1966, producing well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Seventeen Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and ten Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Established in 2008, Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre has distinguished itself as one of the nation's most robust and innovative new play programs. To date, the Binger Center has supported the work of more than 50 commissioned artists and underwritten the world premieres and subsequent productions of 27 new American plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country-including this season's Native Son by Nambi E. Kelley, Field Guide created by Rude Mechs, and Kiss by Guillermo Calderón.

The Tony Award-winning production of Indecent, created by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman, which was commissioned by and premiered at Yale Rep in 2015, was recently broadcast on PBS's Great Performances series. Amy Herzog's play Mary Jane, commissioned and first produced at Yale Rep in April 2017, and subsequently produced Off-Broadway, was named the Best New Play of the Year by The Wall Street Journal.

ALSO THIS SEASON

No Boundaries Performance Series
Haruki Murakami's Sleep
Devised and Directed by Rachel Dickstein and Ripe Time
Adapted for the Stage by Naomi Iizuka
March 1-3

Kiss
By Guillermo Calderón
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
April 27-May 19, 2018


Yale Repertory Theatre gratefully acknowledges Carol L. Sirot for generously supporting the 2017-18 season and Time Warner Foundation Inc. for its support of the Binger Center for New Theatre.

Yale Repertory Theatre is supported in part by the Connecticut Department of Economic & Community Development.