Aditi Brennan Kapil's IMOGEN SAYS NOTHING to Premiere at Yale Rep This Winter

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of IMOGEN SAYS NOTHING by Aditi Brennan Kapil, directed by Laurie Woolery, at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street), January 20-February 11. Opening Night is Thursday, January 26.

The production features scenic design by Claire DeLiso, costumes by Haydee Zelideth, lighting by David Weiner, sound by Christopher Ross-Ewart, projections by Yana Birÿkova, dramaturgy by Amy Boratko and Charles O'Malley, technical direction by William Hartley, dialect coaching by Stephen Gabis, fight direction by Rick Sordelet, and stage management by Ben Pfister.

The cast includes Ashlie Atkinson, Richardo Dávila, Christopher Geary, Christopher Ryan Grant, Ben Horner, Hubert Point-du Jour, Thom Sesma, Daisuke Tsuji, and Zenzi Williams.

All the world's a stage, but in Elizabethan England, all the roles are given to men. Enter Imogen, who seizes a wordless walk-on in Shakespeare's new comedy and recasts herself in a ferocious real-life leading role. Imogen Says Nothing is the wildly theatrical and subversively funny tale of an unforgettable creature refusing to let history erase her part.

Imogen Says Nothing was commissioned by Yale Rep. Development and production support are provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre.

Imogen Says Nothing is the recipient of a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and is made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets for IMOGEN SAYS NOTHING 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.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

ADITI BRENNAN KAPIL (PLAYWRIGHT) is a writer, actress, and director of Bulgarian and Indian descent. She was raised in Sweden, resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and her work is produced nationally and internationally. Love Person, a four-part love story in Sanskrit, ASL, and English, received the Stavis Playwriting Award in 2009. Agnes Under The Big Top, a tall tale was selected as a 2009 Distinguished New Play Development Project by the NEA New Play Development Program hosted by Arena Stage and premiered at Mixed Blood Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre in 2011, and Borderlands Theater (AZ) in 2012 in a National New Play Network rolling world premiere. The "Displaced Hindu Gods" Trilogy plays have been produced across the U.S. and in the U.K. Brahman/i and The Chronicles of Kalki received an unprecedented double nomination for the James Tait Black Prize, University of Edinburgh, U.K. In March 2017 SouthCoast Repertory Theatre (CA) will premiere Orange, in addition Aditi is working on commissions with La Jolla Playhouse and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is the Playwright-in-Residence at Mixed Blood Theatre, an Artistic Associate at Park Square Theatre, a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, and a Resident Playwright at New Dramatists. aditikapil.com

LAURIE WOOLERY (DIRECTOR) is a director, playwright, educator, facilitator, community organizer, and producer who has worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Inge Center for the Arts, Plaza de la Raza/RedCAT, Fountain Theater, Greenway Center for the Arts, Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Deaf-West Theatre, Highways Performance Space, Sundance Playwrights Lab as well as the Sundance Children's Theater. Her solo play Salvadorian Moon/African Sky was commissioned by Cornerstone Theater Company and performed in their citywide Festival of Faith. Currently, Laurie is the Director of Public Works at The Public Theater. Ms. Woolery is the former Associate Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, artist-in-residence at Hollygrove Children's Home in Los Angeles, and former Theatre Conservatory Director at South Coast Repertory. Laurie has taught at Princeton, NYU, USC, Cal Arts, Citrus College, California State University at Northridge and Los Angeles, and serves on the Board of the Latino Producers Action Network, Network of Ensemble Theaters and the Children's Theatre Foundation of America. Ms. Woolery is the recipient of the Fuller Road Fellowship for Female Directors of Color.

CLAIRE DeLISO (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include New Domestic Architecture and Women Beware Women. Other credits include The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Boris Yeltsin, Shiny Objects (Yale Cabaret); Midsummer, The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Doll People, Private Lives, Some Mother's Son, Hedda Gabler (Smith College); Red, God of Carnage, Painting Churches, and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (New Century Theatre). Claire's film and television work includes Spooners (short), The Stand-ins (web series), Adult Beginners (assistant), and CBS's third season of Unforgettable (assistant). Claire is the production and costume designer for BlueMoose Productions, which released BadPuss: A Popumentary. She has collaborated with companies including New Brooklyn Theatre, 52nd Street Project, Infinite Theatre, and Paint Box Theatre. Claire was born and raised in a small town in the south of France and received her BA from Smith College.

HAYDEE ZELIDETH (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she designed the costumes for The Skin of Our Teeth and The Merchant of Venice. Her credits include several Yale Cabaret shows such as Alice in Wonderland, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, and Orlando; the world premiere of A Woman in Morocco at The Butler School of Music (University of Texas at Austin); Design for Living, The Winter's Tale, and Pride and Prejudice (Austin Shakespeare Company). She has also designed and worked on costumes for independent films, television, and music videos. She received her BA in theatre from the University of Texas at Austin. haydeezelideth.com

David Weiner (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is making his Yale Rep debut. Broadway credits include Stephen King's Misery, Romeo and Juliet, Dead Accounts, Grace, Godspell, The Normal Heart, Reasons to Be Pretty, Butley, The Real Thing, Dinner at Eight, and Betrayal. Off-Broadway: Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, MCC Theater, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for a New Audience, Vineyard Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company. Regional: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Conservatory Theater, New York Stage & Film, Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Awards: Three Lucille Lortel Awards (Guards At The Taj, Through a Glass Darkly, Rodney's Wife); LA Ovation Award (Venice); Drama Desk nomination (A Small Fire); American Theater Wing Hewes Design Award nominations (Reasons to be Pretty, This Beautiful City, Pumpgirl, The Overwhelming, The Seven). DavidWeinerDesign.com

CHRISTOPHER ROSS-EWART (Sound Designer) is a third-year MFA candidate in sound design at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Macbeth and The Skin of Our Teeth. He is a frequent designer, composer, and performer for both Yale Cabaret and Yale Summer Cabaret. His music and design for dancer Yang Hao have been presented in the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, and Germany's Internationale Tanzmesse NRW. His show, Explosions for the 21st Century, will be presented at the 2017 Festival of Original Theatre at the University of Toronto. Other credits include Summer Valley Fair (designer, New York Musical Theatre Festival) and I Am Very Far (designer, composer, performer, Summerworks Festival). BA: University of Toronto.

YANA BIRŸKOVA (PROJECTION DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Women Beware Women and Don Juan. Her other designs include the world premiere of Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Square Root of Three Sisters (Dmitry Krymov Lab at Yale School of Drama); Don Quixote (Yale Opera); Mad Forest (UNC Wilmington); The Secretaries, We Are All Here (Yale Cabaret); The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (Yale Summer Cabaret); 1/13/14 (Studio Tisch); Transport (Irish Repertory Theatre). Her assistant credits include Elevada (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Master and Margarita (Yale School of Drama), and Deepest Man (3-Legged Dog). Originally from Moscow, Russia, Yana holds a BA in film studies from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. yanabiryukova.com

AMY BORATKO (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is the Literary Manager at Yale Rep and has previously served as dramaturg on the Yale Rep productions of peerless, Indecent, War, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Dear Elizabeth, The Realistic Joneses, Good Goods, Belleville, Autumn Sonata, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Battle of Black and Dogs, Compulsion, Notes from Underground, A Woman of No Importance, Eurydice, and The Cherry Orchard. Other dramaturgy credits include The Time of Your Life, The Summer People, Romeo and Juliet, The War Is Over (Yale School of Drama), as well as Voice and Vision's ENVISION Retreat at Bard College. She has been a teaching fellow at Yale College and Yale School of Drama and was a managing editor of Theater magazine. A graduate of Rice University, she received her MFA in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from Yale School of Drama.

CHARLES O'MALLEY (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Our Lady of 121st Street and Bluebeard's Wife, a tale of (gay) marriage and (queer) death. Yale Cabaret credits include Styx Songs and Boris Yeltsin. Professionally, he has worked at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, Jackalope Theatre, About Face Theatre, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and elsewhere. He has presented his research at the American Society for Theatre Research, the Comparative Drama Conference, and the Ford Symposium; and written for Indiewire and Routledge. He is currently a managing editor for Theater Magazine, and he holds a BA in drama and art history from Vassar College.

William HartLEY (TECHNICAL DIRECTOR) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Skin of Our Teeth and The Master and Margarita. Previously at Yale Rep, Will served as assistant technical director for Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince and Cymbeline. Prior to Yale, he served as technical director for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and The Barnstormers Theatre. Will has a BA in theatre arts with an emphasis in technical theatre and design from the University of San Diego.

Stephen Gabis (DIALECT COACH) Previous Yale Rep productions include Indecent, Arcadia, These Paper Bullets!, Stones in His Pockets, A Woman of No Importance, Safe in Hell, The People Next Door, The Clean House, The Ladies of the Camellias, and The Way of the World. His Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include The Dead 1904; Heisenberg; Love, Love, Love; Incognito; Shining City; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Outside Mullingar; The Winslow Boy; Transport; Loot; Juno and the Paycock; Once; The Book of Mormon; Tribes; Man and Boy; The 39 Steps; Lombardi; Lend Me a Tenor; A View from the Bridge; Becoming Dr. Ruth; Look Back in Anger; The Weir; The Freedom of the City; Memphis; Jersey Boys; A Day in the Death of Joe Egg; Bluebird; Through a Glass Darkly; The Shaggs; Kin; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; The Lieutenant of Inishmore; Brighton Beach Memoirs; When the Rain Stops Falling; The Emperor Jones; Doubt; Frozen; Port Authority; Dublin Carol; and Stuff Happens. Selected film and TV credits include Bull, Spotlight, Stonewall, Boardwalk Empire, Prime Suspect, Million Dollar Baby, Bernard and Doris, Salt, Across the Universe, MildrEd Pierce, The Notorious Bettie Page, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Rick Sordelet (FIGHT DIRECTOR) Theatre credits include 65 Broadway productions and 60 productions on five continents in hundreds of cities around the world including Misery starring Bruce Willis, Cymbeline for The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, Big Love for Signature Theatre, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Waiting for Godot, No Man's Land, and Ben Hur Live (Rome, European Tour). Opera: Cyrano starring Placido Domingo (Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House, La Scala), and Don Carlo and Cold Mountain (Santa Fe Opera). Film: The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, and Hamlet. Rick was Chief Stunt Coordinator for Guiding Light for 12 years and One Life to Live, representing over 1,000 episodes of daytime television. Rick sits on the board of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and teaches at Yale School of Drama and HB Studio. He is a recipient of an Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille Lortel Foundation and a Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction for Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Rick has created the new stage combat company, Sordelet INK, with his son ChristIan Kelly-Sordelet. They have over thirty years of action movement experience for film, television, and stage. sordeletINK.com

Tara Rubin Casting (CASTING DIRECTOR) has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Selected Broadway: Falsettos (upcoming); A Bronx Tale (upcoming); Dear Evan Hansen (upcoming); Cats; Disaster!; School of Rock; Dr Zhivago; It Shoulda Been You; Gigi; Bullets Over Broadway; Aladdin; LES MISERABLES; 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.

BEN PFISTER (STAGE MANAGER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include New Domestic Architecture, Riverbank: A Noh Play for Northerly Americans, Don Juan, Coriolanus, and f-ing A. He was the assistant stage manager for peerless at Yale Rep. Ben has a BA in theatre and dance from The College of Wooster.

ABOUT THE CAST

Ashlie Atkinson (IMOGEN) is making her Yale Rep debut. She won a Theatre World Award as well as Lortel and Outer Critics Circle nominations for originating the role of Helen in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig. Other New York theatre credits include Steve (The New Group); The Ritz (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Butcher of Baraboo (Second Stage Theatre); Psychomachia, Making Marilyn (Bridge Theatre Company); The Particulars, Bedroom Secrets (The New York International Fringe Festival); and Sam Mendes's world-spanning Bridge Project productions of As You Like It and The Tempest. Regional productions include the original casts of The Forgotten Woman (Bay Street Theater) and January Joiner (Long Wharf Theatre) as well as productions of Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Rubicon Theatre Company), The Book Club Play (Arena Stage), and Fat Pig (Geffen Playhouse). Her film and TV credits include Wolf of Wall Street, Bridge of Spies, Certain Women, Inside Man, Compliance, All Good Things, The Invention of Lying, Eat Pray Love, Blood Stripe, The Lennon Report, My Best Day, and the upcoming Nowhere, Michigan; the upcoming HBO series Crashing, as well as Divorce, Odd Mom Out, Blue Bloods, High Maintenance, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Elementary, 30 Rock, Boardwalk Empire, Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell, Bored to Death, Louie, Rescue Me, Law & Order, SVU, and Criminal Intent. Ashlie also plays the character Lenni in the brand new Ubisoft video game Watchdogs_2. She is a proud Arkansas native and South Brooklyn resident, a graduate of Hendrix College and The Neighborhood Playhouse, a participant in the ATrainPlays and the 24 Hour Musicals, and a former skater and current board member for the 5-time World Champions, Gotham Girls Roller Derby (under the name Margaret Thrasher, Prime Minister of Your Demise).

RICARDO DÁVILA (NICHOLAS TOOLEY, WHITE 2) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in The Dog Pack Play, The Oresteia, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Children. His credits include Leonce and Lena (Yale Cabaret), The Mysteries (The Flea), Mariquitas (Theater for the New City), and Mary Stuart (New York University). He holds a degree in acting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Christopher Geary (ALEXANDER COOK, WHITE 1) previously appeared at Yale Rep in Cymbeline and These Paper Bullets!. Other credits include These Paper Bullets! (Atlantic Theater and Geffen Playhouse); Design for Living, The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theatre Group); Losing Tom Pecinka (Ice Factory and New Ohio Theatre); Altogether Reckless, The Seagull, The Master and Margarita, THUNDERBODIES, Peter Pan, Sagittarius Ponderosa (Yale School of Drama); The Small Things, We Know Edie La Minx Had a Gun, and A New Saint For A New World (Yale Cabaret). Christopher received his MFA from Yale School of Drama and his BA in theatre performance from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. Christopher is a proud member of New Neighborhood.

Christopher Grant (John HemingES, NED WHITING) previously appeared at Yale Rep in All's Well That Ends Well and Richard II. Theatre credits include the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and 1st National Touring productions of Million Dollar Quartet; in New York, work at The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, New World Stages, The Wild Project, IRT Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, Joe's Pub, The Red Fern, and Three Day Hangover; and at regional theatres including The Shakespeare Theatre Company, New York Stage & Film, The MUNY, Delaware Theatre Company, Two River Theatre, and The O'Neill Theater Center. Film and television: Rolling on the Floor Laughing (Official Selections for Sundance, Milan, and Toronto Film Festivals), Hard Times For Softcore (short), and Nella Knightly (Nickelodeon). Education: University of Evansville, BFA; British American Drama Academy at Oxford; Yale School of Drama, MFA. He is a proud member of The Actors Center.

Ben Horner (CRIER, ISAAC) previously appeared at Yale Rep in Romeo and Juliet. His Broadway credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, War Horse, and Macbeth. Other credits include An Octoroon (Soho Rep.); The Gods Are Pounding My Head!, Zomboid (Ontological-Hysteric Theatre); Bingo with the Indians (The Flea Theatre); The Tempest (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); and Macbeth (Smith Street Stage). Film and TV credits include Luke Cage, Person of Interest, Deliver Us from Evil. He received his MFA from Yale School of Drama. Ben lives in Greenwich Village with his wife and two children. For ECH.

Hubert Point-Du Jour (HENRY CONDELL) Some of Hubert's stage work includes Sojourners (The Playwrights Realm; upcoming at New York Theatre Workshop), The Model Apartment (Primary Stages), Angels in America (Signature Theatre), A Fable (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), 365 Days/365 Plays (The Public Theater), Nightlands (New Georges), The Tempest (Target Margin), Every Angel Is Brutal (Clubbed Thumb), and the OBIE-winning plays A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes (Women's Project/New Georges) and A Map of Virtue (13P). Select regional credits include The Lion in Winter (Two River Theater), Blue Door (Seattle Rep), Romeo and Juliet (The Shakespeare Theater Company), and A Raisin in the Sun (Westport Country Playhouse directed by Phylicia Rashad). Television appearances include The Path (Hulu), Happyish (Showtime), The Good Wife (CBS), Law and Order: SVU (NBC), Over/Under (USA), and Black Jack (Comedy Central pilot). He can be seen in the upcoming films Trouble by Theresa Rebeck and Where is Kyra?. He trained at NYU and is a YoungArts award recipient.

Thom Sesma (RICHARD BURBAGE, HARRY HANKS) made his Yale Rep debut in Howard Korder's Search and Destroy (1990). Credits include leading roles in numerous Broadway and national productions; Off-Broadway at New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, NAATCO, Epic Ensemble, The Drama Dept., Second Stage, and more; regional appearances at McCarter Theatre Center, The Old Globe, Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, MUNY, Pasadena Playhouse, and others. Film and TV guest appearances include Madam Secretary, Gotham, Jessica Jones, Single Ladies, The Good Wife, Person of Interest, Law & Order, Over/Under, Lay the Favorite, Canterbury's Law, and Third Watch. Proud member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA. Thom lives in New York City with his wife, Penelope Daulton. Colossians 3:12-17.

Daisuke Tsuji (William Shakespeare, WARDEN) is making his Yale Rep debut. His recent credits include the title role in The Orphan of Zhao (American Conservatory Theater/La Jolla Playhouse); Johnny/Game Show Host in American Night (Kirk Douglas Theater); and four seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he played the Fool in King Lear and Ravelli in Animal Crackers, among others. He has also performed as a clown in Cirque du Soleil's Dralion and created/performed in his own clown show, Clowns Are Peoples Too. His film and television credits include Brockmire, The Man in High Castle, The Blacklist, and Letters from Iwo Jima. He is an LA-based actor who received his BA at UCLA.

Zenzi Williams (ANNA ROOS, BEAR ON ICE) is making her Yale Rep debut. Her theatre credits include The Crucible (Broadway); Mother Courage and Her Children (Classic Stage Company); Altogether Reckless, The Seagull, The Master and Margarita, Measure for Measure, Platonov, and Wintertime (Yale School of Drama); all of what you love and none of what you hate (Yale Cabaret); and A Lover's Tale (Berkshire Theatre Group). Zenzi studied at the British American Drama Academy and holds a BA in theatre from Temple University and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.

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. Twelve Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight 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 24 new American plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country-including this season's Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince by Sarah Ruhl, Imogen Says Nothing by Aditi Brennan Kapil, and Mary Jane by Amy Herzog. Indecent, the critically acclaimed new play created by Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman, which was commissioned by Yale Rep, where it had its world premiere in 2015 with support from the Binger Center, will open on Broadway in April.

For more information, including a complete list of Yale Rep commissioned artists, visit yalerep.org/center.

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