Yale Rep Presents KISS By Guillermo Calderón

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents KISS by Guillermo Calderón, directed by Evan Yionoulis, April 27-May 19, at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, May 3.

KISS features scenic deisgn by Ao Li, costumes by Cole McCarty, lighting by Erin Earle Fleming, sound design and original music by Michael Costagliola, projections by Wladmiro A. Woyno R., dramaturgy by Ariel Sibert, technical direction by Austin J. Byrd, vocal and dialect coaching by Beth McGuire, fight direction by Rick Sordelet, casting by Tara Rubin Casting, and stage management by Sarah Thompson.

The cast of KISS includes Abubakr Ali, Hend Ayoub, Soraya Broukhim, Ian Lassiter, James Cusati-Moyer, and Rasha Zamamiri.

Production support for KISS is provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre.

ABOUT KISS

A standing double date in Damascus quickly escalates into farce as four friends unburden their hearts and reveal their secret passions. But as civil war wages outside, nothing is really what it seems to be. Kiss is a politically charged and emotionally resonant exploration of what gets lost in translation: the unfathomable human toll of a nation in chaos.

TICKET INFORMATION AND PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Tickets for KISS 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, April 27 8PM Preview, Post-Show Conversation
Saturday, April 28 8PM Preview, Post-Show Conversation
Monday, April 30 8PM Preview, All Tickets $12-20
Tuesday, May 1 8PM Preview, All Tickets $12-20
Wednesday, May 2 8PM Preview, All Tickets $12-20
Thursday, May 3 8PM Opening
Friday, May 4 8PM
Saturday, May 5 2PM Talk Back
Saturday, May 5 8PM
Tuesday, May 8 8PM
Wednesday, May 9 2PM Senior Reception
Wednesday, May 9 8PM
Thursday, May 10 8PM
Friday, May 11 8PM
Saturday, May 12 2PM Audio Described, Talk Back
Saturday, May 12 8PM
Tuesday, May 15 8PM
Wednesday, May 16 8PM
Thursday, May 17 8PM
Friday, May 18 8PM
Saturday, May 19 2PM Open Captioned
Saturday, May 19 8PM

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

GUILLERMO CALDERÓN (PLAYWRIGHT), born in Santiago, Chile, is a screenwriter, playwright, and theatre director based in the U.S. His plays include Neva, Diciembre, Clase, Villa, Speech, Quake, Escuela, Kiss, Mateluna, and Goldrausch. Calderón's productions have toured extensively through South America, North America, and Europe. He has been commissioned to write and direct by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Theater Basel, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, The Royal Court Theatre, Center Theatre Group, and The Public Theater, where he also directed Neva. His co-written screenplay Violeta Went to Heaven won the World Cinema Jury Prize for Drama at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He co-wrote The Club, directed by Pablo Larrain, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival 2015 and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. The script won the silver plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival. He wrote the script for Neruda, directed by Pablo Larraín, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (The Director's Fortnight) during the Cannes Film Festival 2016. His recently directed his play Villa in New York City at The Play Company, and his new play, B, was produced at The Royal Court Theatre last September.

Evan Yionoulis (DIRECTOR) is a Resident Director at Yale Rep where her productions include The Master Builder, Richard II, The King Stag, Galileo, Heaven, Black Snow, The People Next Door, Stones in His Pockets, Bossa Nova, Owners, and Cymbeline. New York credits include, most recently, the critically acclaimed world premiere of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box at Theatre for a New Audience where she also directed Kennedy's Ohio State Murders (Lucille Lortel Award, Best Revival) and Howard Brenton's Sore Throats. She directed Richard Greenberg's The Violet Hour (Broadway), Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center Theater), and Three Days of Rain (Manhattan Theatre Club, OBIE Award for Direction). Other credits include productions at theatres such as the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, Vineyard Theatre, Second Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Denver Center. She is a Princess Grace Foundation Awards recipient and a Professor in the Practice of Acting and Directing at Yale School of Drama. She serves on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society as secretary.

AO LI (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama from Shanghai, China. At the School, his credits include 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and Titus Andronicus; also The Apple Tree, Xander Xyst: Dragon 1, and Styx Songs at Yale Cabaret. His other designs include Cao Zhi (Academy Theater), Everything in the Garden (Duanjun Theater), Blind (Shanghai International Arts Festival), among others. He holds a BFA in stage design from Shanghai Theatre Academy. His artwork has also received three solo exhibitions.

COLE McCARTY (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Romeo and Juliet, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, and Blood Wedding. Other recent credits include Re:Union, This American Wife, Ni Mi Madre (Yale Cabaret); Antony and Cleopatra and The Trojan Women (Yale Summer Cabaret). A native Texan, his design credits include Loving v. Virginia, Lydie Breeze, The War Boys (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Reckless (Theatre Three); and the short film Rolling on the Floor Laughing (Official Selection Sundance Film Festival). He has assisted designers such as Catherine Zuber, Emilio Sosa, and Gabriel Berry on various Broadway, Off-Broadway, and major regional productions. He holds a BFA in theatre design and technology from University of Evansville.

ERIN EARLE FLEMING (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Sweat, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Blood Wedding, and Macbeth. Other credits include Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1 (ArsNova ANT Fest and Yale Cabaret); The Feels...(KMS), Re:Union, MoonSong, Current Location, Kaspar (Yale Cabaret); Les Enfants Terribles (Butler Opera Center); Bus Stop, Love and Information (Mary Moody Northern Theatre); Pinocchio, ScienceTricks (ZACH Theatre); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Doctuh Mistuh); and The Attic Space (Palindrome Theatre). Additionally, Erin worked as the assistant production manager at Ballet Austin. She holds a BA from St. Edward's University.

MICHAEL COSTAGLIOLA (SOUND DESIGNER AND ORIGINAL MUSIC) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Death of Yazdgerd, Everything That Never Happened, The Hour of Great Mercy, Bluebeard's Wife, and Bulgaria! Revolt! (composition and arrangement). Other credits include Styx Songs, Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1 (Yale Cabaret); Antony + Cleopatra (Yale Summer Cabaret); and The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre, assistant sound designer). He studied music at Brown University, where he received the Weston Award for Music Composition. He is a teaching artist in sound design for the Roundabout Theatre Company and is the resident composer for the AntiGravity Theatre Project. His work has been heard in New York at La MaMa E.T.C., Manhattan Theatre Club, Dixon Place, Incubator Arts Project, the PRELUDE Festival, and the Brick Theater, as well as at various theatres in Providence, Philadelphia, Boston, and across Europe and India.

WLADIMIRO A. WOYNO R. (PROJECTION DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Everything That Never Happened, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, Bulgaria! Revolt!, and The Merchant of Venice. Other credits include Re:Union, This American Wife (Yale Cabaret); The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (Ghost River Theatre, Canada); Parade (Nederlands Dans Theater, Netherlands); Ziriguidum (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Canada); and Sometime Between Now and When the Sun Goes Supernova (Theatre Junction, Canada). He was also the associate projection designer on GHOST-O Musical (4ACT, Brazil) and The Stampede Grandstand Show (Calgary Stampede, Canada). He holds a BFA in theatre design and production from the University of British Columbia. wawr.ca

ARIEL SIBERT (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Death of Yazdgerd and Titus Andronicus. Her other credits include The Trojan Women, Lear (Yale Summer Cabaret); Roberto Zucco, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.,
Slouch, The Slow Sound of Snow, This American Wife, and Kaspar (Yale Cabaret). Her writing has appeared in Text and Presentation, Theater magazine, and American Theatre. She has been the Literary Management and Dramaturgy Intern at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she was the Dramaturg for the Apprentice Company's 2014-15 Season. She graduated with honors with a BA in art history from Princeton University.

AUSTIN J. BYRD (TECHNICAL DIRECTOR) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Previous Yale Rep credits include Seven Guitars (master electrician), Mary Jane (assistant technical director), and Native Son (associate production manager). Previously, Austin was based in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a technical director, production manager, and designer for The Welders, Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Theater J, The Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, and Arena Stage. Austin holds a BA in theatre production and design from American University.

Beth McGuire (VOCAL and Dialect COACH) Broadway: Eclipsed; A Streetcar Named Desire; Chaplin; I'll Eat You Last. New York: He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box (Theatre for a New Audience); Eclipsed, In Darfur (The Public Theater); The Overwhelming (Roundabout Theatre); The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop); Five by Tenn (Manhattan Theater Club); People be Heard (Playwrights Horizons); Her Portmanteau (Black Theatre of Harlem); The Imaginary Invalid (La Mama E.T.C.); as well as multiple productions at Working Theater. Regional: Over 35 productions at McCarter Theatre, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Film: Black Panther (Marvel and Walt Disney Studios). Beth is Director of Speech and Dialects at Yale School of Drama and is the author of African Accents: A Workbook for Actors (2016).

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

SARAH THOMPSON (STAGE MANAGER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her stage management credits include 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Merchant of Venice, Bluebeard's Wife, Tiny, and assistant stage manager for Amy and the Orphans and f-ing A. Additional credits include Mary Jane (ASM, Yale Repertory Theatre); Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1; This Sweet Affliction; Styx Songs; And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens; Dutch Masters; Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Yale Cabaret); Evita (Olney Theatre Center); The Comedy of Errors; As You Like It; The Taming of the Shrew (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), among others.

ABOUT THE CAST

ABUBAKR ALI (INTERPRETER) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he has been seen in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Passion, Perfectly Timed Photos Taken Before a Disaster, Pentecost, and The Hour of Great Mercy. His credits include Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1 (Yale Cabaret); Macbeth, The Threepenny Opera, Julius Caesar, Six Characters in Search of an Author, A Christmas Carol (A Noise Within); The Rock of Abandon (Lillian Theater); Handjobs The Musical! (Kraine Theater); Macbeth, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Classical Studio, NYU); as well as work with East West Players, Company of Angels, and Fierce Backbone. Film and television credits include Dig (USA Network), Irish Goodbye (Ade M'Cormack), Spike TV, The Rachel Maddow Show. Training: BFA, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; Atlantic Theatre Company; Classical Studio. abubakrali.com Instagram/Twitter @TheAbubakrAli

Hend Ayoub (BANA) is thrilled to be making her Yale Rep debut. Her credits include Broadway's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, as well as its previous run at Los Angeles's Mark Taper Forum; Veils (world premiere, Portland Stage; Barrington Stage). Television credits include Homeland, The Looming Tower, Madam Secretary, Damages, Royal Pains, Feed the Beast, Comedy Central's The Watch List, and a recent recurring role on Transparent. She co-starred in the Emmy Award-winning film Death of a President and the award-winning film Private.

Soraya Broukhim (HADEEL) Off-Broadway: The Aeneid music by Duncan Sheik (Drama League, workshop); Outside the World (HERE); Rug Dealer (Women's Project Theater); Petrol Station (BAM/NYU); I am Gordafarid (New York Theatre Workshop/Rising Circle); Soundwaves: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan (Fringe); Blackbird (one-woman show, LocationOne); Korach, History of the World, SMOPS, Here We Are, No Place to Hide (Artistic Associate /The Living Theatre); Antigone, Betrothed, (RipeTime). Regional: The Who & The What (Milwaukee Rep), Scorched (Syracuse Stage), In the Heart of America (Interact Company), Wintertime (San Jose Rep), Afghan Women (Passage Theatre), Sodom & Gomorrah (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), Blue Demon directed by Darko Tresnjak (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Television and film: Madam Secretary, America 1979, Eugenia and John, An Encounter with Simone Weil. Soraya is a graduate of Fordham University, where she is also an associate professor, and trained with BAADA, NTI, and St. Petersburg Arts Theatre Academy. sorayabroukhim.com

Ian Lassiter (AHMED) Broadway: Junk, War Horse (Lincoln Center Theater); The Cherry Orchard (Roundabout Theatre Company). Off-Broadway: Ring Twice for Miranda (New York City Center); Pericles, An Octoroon (Theatre for a New Audience); Antony and Cleopatra (Public Theater, Royal Shakespeare Company); Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Kazino); Mission Drift (Connelly Theater; National Theatre, London). Regional: Hamlet, Richard II (Old Globe); Oliver! (Arena Stage); The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare & Co.), An Iliad: Guerrillas at Troy (Continuum Company, Florence, Italy); Henry V (Two River Theater). Ian is a proud member of the devised theatre group TEAM (theteamplays.org) and proudly reps Fordham University for his BA in theatre and NYU graduate program for his MFA. ianlassiter.com

James Cusati-Moyer (YOUSSIF) Broadway: Six Degrees of Separation, directed by Trip Cullman. Off-Broadway: Nijinsky? in the world premiere of Fire and Air by Terrence McNally, directed by John Doyle (Classic Stage Company). New York/regional: The Devil in The Soldier's Tale featuring Michael Cerveris, directed by Liz Diamond (Carnegie Hall); Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Mark Lamos (Westport Country Playhouse); Portland Stage Company; Williamstown Theatre Festival. Television: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Path, Red Oaks, Blue Bloods, Time After Time. Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Rasha Zamamiri (WOMAN) is ecstatic to be making her Yale Rep debut with such an incredible cast and crew. Rasha is an Arab-American actor, singer, and voiceover artist who was last seen in Eko and MGM's interactive series that watches you, #Wargames. She is most recognized as the Hijabi Woman in Coca-Cola's "America Is Beautiful" commercial, which aired during the Super Bowl and the Olympics, and carries the distinction of being the first Arab woman shown in a veil in a prime time national commercial campaign. Past theatre credits include The Who & The What (Gulfshore Playhouse), We Live in Cairo (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), The Wife (Berkeley Rep, Ground Floor), Transit (Chautauqua Theater Company), The Hour of Feeling (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival), Aftermath (New York Theatre Workshop and world tour), Living in Exile (La Mama E.T.C.). Television and film: The Looming Tower, Instinct, Sayid, Blindspot, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, and ESPN/History's The Vikings -Another Seer. Proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.

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 30 new plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country-including next season's El Huracán by Charise Castro Smith, The Prisoner with text and stage direction by Peter Brook and Marie-Héléne Estienne, and Cadillac Crew by Tori Sampson.

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.

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