Producing

In her surreal masterpiece, The Purple Flower, Marita Bonner asks not if the revolution will happen, but when. Originally published in The Crisis in 1928, The Purple Flower is credited as the first known experimental work written by a black American woman. Bonner combines biblical imagery and political allegory to disrupt what she calls "the thin-skin-of-civilization." Though never performed in Bonner's lifetime, this seminal text of the African American avant-garde remains extremely relevant and urgent today.

Two Latinos at a Hollywood studio: one writes; one cleans. Can they subvert the stereotypes of a whitewashed TV show? Tanya Saracho’s timely play explores race, class, and the politics of belonging within the Latinx community. Does status determine your value? Does blending in mean fading out?

Deep in the dark heart of Indiana, a sinister and mysterious force knocks on the front door of the big house on the hill. Ike Holter’s contemporary comic riff on old school horror follows former mean girl Grace back to her home town after another failed stint of city living. Down-on-her-luck, she strikes a Faustian deal that leaves her all-too-indebted. Grab your popcorn for a side-splitting, blood-splattered blockbuster.

Imagine singing, imagine song, imagine words, imagine text. Imagine placing all of those things on top of each other whether or not that was the original intention. What is your story, and how might you want to tell it through music? Through song, joy, and experiences come join our interesting tale of life told through Kesha songs.

A Brazilian tale of love and loss, desire and death, ignorance and violence. Based on true events, Newton Moreno’s AGRESTE (DRYLANDS) is a poetic narrative set in Brazil’s suffocating and desertified northeast. Three storytellers share with the audience their accounts and reenactments of a moving love story between two young farm workers that unravels in perplexing ways, as their intimacy becomes the subject of local gossip, and the memories of their relationship are ransacked by a conservative, violent and deeply fragile community.

TBD, our new festival of works-in-process, offers a laboratory for artists to experiment with the very first draft of an idea—live with an audience. This shared-bill of several radically different short-form works-in-development invites our communities to experience newer, rawer, rougher work: an evening of performance that’s more questions than answers.

After their mother’s funeral, two half-sisters reunite in their family basement to begin clearing out her house. Unpacking pretty clothes and bitter memories, Midge and Nancy confront the aftershocks of a troubled childhood through the ghost of the Gold Dust Woman they called Mom. It’s Not About My Mother is a bittersweet memory play about coming to terms with the death of a person you might not entirely miss.

It’s 2050 & during the permanent sunlight of the summer solstice, Aparna drags a wedding gift for her sister halfway across the world to the research center where she works in the Arctic Circle. As a monster storm creeps towards them, Aparna and the group of scientists her sister is a part of try to cobble together a ceremony of dignity in the face of certain death.

Miss Melody, the best teacher in the world, is leaving the school, and it has something to do with the mysterious whale in the Hudson River. Taylor does what any fourth-grade private eye would do: takes a slug of apple juice and launches an investigation. Full of music, imagination, and adventure, The Whale in the Hudson is a story for the young and young at heart.

Paulina, the reigning queen bee at Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school, has her sights set on the Miss Universe pageant. But the arrival of Ericka, a new student with undeniable talent and beauty, captures the attention of the pageant recruiter—and Paulina’s hive-minded friends. This buoyant and biting comedy explores the universal similarities (and glaring differences) facing teenage girls across the globe. How far would you go to be queen bee?

Rule Number One: Do not smudge the squeaky clean floor.
Rule Number Two: Spitting is not permitted at the dining table.
Rule Number Three: If you must resort to cannibalism, make a compelling defense.
Rule Number Four: Enjoy. Avoid distressing other patrons with visible expressions of existential dread.
Rule Number Five: Do not break THE RULES.

Make your February fierce with the 6th annual Yale Cabaret drag show. Come celebrate the Saints and Heroes; Kings and Queens; icons of the past, present and future. Join us for glitter, glam, and a gorgeous drag extravaganza. Friday night will feature New Haven and Connecticut Queens while Saturday will be the Yale School of Drag. Let’s get sickening!

Back in the 90’s, Lenny’s Fast Food Kids Gang was the perfect spokeskids for diversity for Lenny’s Burgers. They were cool, hip, and could solve any problem with a kids meal. At their fifteen year reunion, they can barely talk to each other. Once something sparks a fuse during their reunion, they are all put to the test of what it means to be the spokespeople for diversity, and what that means for them in their personal lives.

In NOVIOS: part one, cooks serve desire with a side of sass. Parched en el calor of a gringo’s kitchen, they long for the cool sueño americano; trapped in a haze of machismo, they want to be seen. A queer downpour might just set them free.

On August 13, 2018, the front page of the New York Times made a splash: “What Happens to #MeToo When a Feminist Is the Accused?” This question doesn’t even begin to cover the strange entanglement between Nimrod Reitman, a gay graduate student, and Avital Ronell, his queer dissertation advisor and academia’s reigning queen of deconstructionist theory. Part lecture, part dazzling spectacle, AVITAL dives headfirst into problematique questions about abuse of power, queer desire, and grad school.

Now in its fourth year, the Satellite Festival features multiple performances across different venues. The festival weekend of new works includes live music, dance, installation, and experimental performance. Join us as we leave familiar ground and launch into orbit!

Somewhere in the Jim Crow South, the sky is on fire. Olivia’s fierce rhetoric is the secret force behind her husband Charles: a charismatic leader who galvanizes the march toward freedom with the speeches she writes. When four little girls are killed in a church bombing, Olivia and Charles’ marriage is threatened. This tragedy and years of civil unrest leave a pregnant Olivia believing that “this world ain’t no place to raise a colored child.”

Working mom Alma has singlehandedly raised her daughter, Angel, on tough love, home-cooked comida, and lots of prayers. But on the eve of the all-important SAT exam, Alma discovers her daughter isn’t at home studying. A schooling and la chancla await Angel at home—but so does a creeping realization that more is at stake than just a test score. A sacrifice from Alma’s past weighs heavy on their present; now, Alma fears that her worst nightmare may soon be their reality. Will the American Dream cost them a life together?