The Department of Performing and Media arts presents:

Desdemona

Written by Toni Morrison with music and lyrics by Rokia Traoré

Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
430 College Avenue

Friday, October 27th, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 28th, 7:30 p.m.

Creative Team
Sarah Bernstein Costume Designer
Bryan Ealey Lighting Designer
Angel Katthi Assistant Director
Beth F. Milles Director
Kaley Makino Dramaturg
Rob Natoli Sound Engineer
Tim Ostrander Props Designer/Manager
Adam Shulman Projection Designer
Jason Simms Scenic Designer

Production Team
Nick Alteri Stage Manager
Fritz Bernstein Technical Director
Lisa Boquist Costume Shop Manager
Warren Cross Sound Designer
Andrew Deppen Production Manager
Michael Garrett Lighting/Video Supervisor
Olive Prince Movement Consultant
Savannah Relos Assistant Technical Director
Alice Roberts Assistant to Rokia
Karina Song Assistant Stage Managera
Ami Tamakloe Artistic Consultant

Core Company
Rokia Traoré Singer/Barbary
Tess Lovell Desdemona
Ashley Alexander Desdemona
Laure-Emmanuelle Dalle Desdemona
Caryn Emeni Desdemona
Davis Ouriel Desdemona
Ruby Ricisak Desdemona
Nianhui Yang Desdemona

Music
Rokia Traoré Lead Singer
Ami Tamakloe Vocal Performance
Samba Diabate Guitar
Mamah Diabate Ngoni
Aristide Nebout Bass
Angelo Agbasse Drum

Crew
Gabby Sontoro Barelli Switcher/Qlab Op/Text Support
Joseph Johnson Lead Camera Operator
Andrew Lewis Light Board Operator
Kaley Makino Video Consultant
Benjamin Okoronkwo Deck Crew
Sharyn Schweitzer Dresser
Hilary Tackie Camera Operator/Movement Contribution

Special Thanks
Brianna Cregle, Firestone Library
Nexus Research Group, Summer 2023
Alice Roberts
Amy Wang
Angel Katthi
Office of the Provost, Cornell University
Office of Dean of Faculty, Cornell University
Toni Morrison Archive, Princeton University
Toni Morrison Collective
Kofi Acree, Africana Librarian
Anne Adams, Africana Studies (emeritus)
Carole Boyce Davies, Africana Studies and Literatures in English
NoViolet Bulawayo, Literatures in English
Roger Gilbert, Literatures in English
Misha Innis-Thompson, Psychology
Roger Gilbert, Literatures in English
Kendra Lewis Obadike, Performing and Media Arts
Riché Richardson, Africana Studies
Derrick Spires, Literatures in English
Lyrae Van Clief Stefanon, Literatures in English
Marie-Claire Vallois, Romance Studies

Cosponsors
Office of the Provost
Performing and Media Arts
Africana Studies
Music
Literatures in English
American Studies
Romance Studies
Toni Morrison Collective
Institute for African Development

The project has been awarded a Humanities Impact Grant and a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.
This event is part of “Freedom of Expression”

Quotes
“The mind really is a palace. Not only for its perception of symmetry and the outrageously beautiful, but also because it can invent, imagine, and most important, it can delve.”
- Toni Morrison
“That’s where truth lies, in our myths and in our songs. That’s where the seeds are. It’s not possible to constantly hold onto crisis. You have to have the love, you have to have the magic.”
- Toni Morrison on Chicago Tonight with John Callaway, 1977

The vision of the Department of Performing and Media Arts is to nurture and mentor artists, performers, writers, and thinkers through the process of event programming. We recognize that all people should see their stories represented, and envision their stories as valuable.

We commit ourselves to creating spaces that actively seek to break down systems of oppression based on race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and place of origin and empower all to be involved. We seek to stimulate thoughtful discussion and enact social change within our productions and our audiences. It is our goal to make our events accessible to the wider Cornell and Ithaca community, to strengthen bonds and engage inquiry, dialogue, and impact around social and cultural change.

In the 2023-2024 academic year we will help realize a wide range of students’ creative projects, from original plays, to solo performances, to readings, to choreographies, to acting, directorial, and curatorial projects. We are particularly happy that in addition to supporting live performances, we are now also supporting the production of student films. Enjoy the shows!

Toni Morrison’s 2011 work DESDEMONA is a complex response piece, a reckoning that interrogates some of the most difficult truths and challenging aspects illuminated in Shakespeare’s OTHELLO: strains and injuries, episodes of violence, inherent racism and rampant sexism. The stories are told from Desdemona’s point of view, by the characters, who in the original Shakespeare work, do not have the agency to speak for themselves. The performance is set in the afterlife, an imaginative spiritual space, where the actions of the original work, the lives, and the stories can be re-examined. At the core of the piece is recognition, facing one’s actions prejudices mistakes, and proffering the possibility of honesty--and the potentiality of forgive(ness).

We invited award-winning singer, songwriter, and musician Rokia Traoré to share her rich and evocative voice and the music she created for this piece. The score was written to engage fundamentally with Morrison’s text weaving in and out of the spoken word- escalating and elevating the moment to moment experience, interrelating an African voice (the voice of Barbary) with song and stories- absented in the original play. Rokia Traoré first developed DESDEMONA in collaboration with Toni Morrison and Director Peter Sellars for initial presentations 13 years ago. We are thrilled at the opportunity to work with Rokia in this moment. For this production even student performers will articulate the language, words, poems, and provocations of this text to honor the 30^th Anniversary of Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize.

It is an honor to delve into the immense theatrical language of Toni Morrison, to work with our Cornell students to re-stage this project. Morrison’s work presents such vivid space to grow.  

Centrally poignant to our 2023 presentation is Morrison’s passing in 2019. In this version- her voice, profoundly resonant, joins the constellation of the ghosts represented.  With this staging we hope to remind, rekindle and restore what Morrison proposes- To honor-value and speak her words. To witness and to grow.

Thank you for sharing this experience with us.

Beth F. Milles

Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She was the author of eleven novels, including The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved (made into a major film). She also received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction. In addition to Desdemona her theatrical work includes writing the text for Margaret Garner (music composed by Richard Danielpour), and Dreaming Emmett an unpublished play directed by Gilbert Moses and performed at the Marketplace Capitol Repertory Theater of Albany. Ms. Morrison wrote lyrics for Kathleen Battle (commissioned by Carnegie Hall), Sylvia McNair, Jessye Norman, and Andre Previn. In 1994 Ms. Morrison founded the Princeton Atelier for the purpose of bringing actors, composers, writers, and artists of all genres—including Desdemona director Peter Sellars—together to work with students on the artists’ own projects, and continues to do so into the present. Several of Toni Morrison’s novels including The Bluest Eye have been adapted for the stage.

Gifted with extraordinary presence, Rokia Traoré has crafted her own unmistakable sound, seamlessly blending traditional Malian styles with the inspired elements of the avant-garde, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll. First winning the Radio France International (RFI) Discoveries Award for Africa in 1997, the next year she was the revelation of the Festival Musiques Métisses d’Angoulême. Her album Tchamantché took the French Victoires de la musique award for the best World Music album of the year in 2009. In more recent years, she has spoken out against forced displacement in Mali and beyond, and in 2015 she was appointed a UNHCR Regional Goodwill Ambassador for West and Central Africa. Centered in serenity and strength, Traoré creates a profoundly personal emotional world for her audience. In Desdemona, she speaks with courage and grace about difficult topics, her powerful momentum and determination carrying her music forward through deeply felt sadness into a realm that is reflective and healing.

Tess Lovell, Desdemona, is a junior PMA and English major. You may know her from The Family Copoli, Baby Rock, or The Whistling Shrimp improv comedy troupe. This is her third production at Cornell, and she is so grateful for the space that Beth, Nick, and this cast of incredible humans have created.

Ashley Alexander, Desdemona, (she/they) is from Queens, NYC and grew up taking dance classes, specifically ballet, tap, jazz, and African. Ashley was always in her school's theater productions such as "singing in the rain". She come from a Guyanese family.

Laure-Emmanuelle Dalle, Desdemona, is excited to be back in the theatre space, as their last production was 5 years ago! Post grad, they plan on educating and doing revolutionary work post grad. Laure-Emmanuelle also loves spending time with her dog, Mylo, and cat, kitty. When they’re not doing that they’re dancing to Soca music or Dancehall.

Caryn Emeni, Desdemona, is a senior majoring in Development Sociology with a minor in Nutrition and Health. Caryn thrilled to be part of this play, which has become close to her heart. While this is her first time participating in a production of this scale at college, her love for acting and the theatre has been a constant throughout her time at college, where she has taken acting classes. Caryn can't wait to perform alongside her fellow cast members and share this experience with you, the audience. She hopes you enjoy it as much as she does.

Davis Norma Ouriel, Desdemona, (she/they) is a junior studying Performing and Media Arts & Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She’s an intimacy director and performer, having most recently played Dirty Girl in Peerless, directed by Angel Katthi ’24. As a PMA student, she saw this show happen from lightyears away: thank you Angel, Alice and Amy’s Nexus scholarship; Adam’s imageries; Andrew’s stepping in; Sarah Bauch’s structure and space-making; Savannah, Fritz, Tim, and Mike’s time, labor, and leadership; Sarah Bernstein and Lisa Boquist’s every hour; Ami, Kale, Gabby, Joey, Ben, Hilary, Sadia, and Karina’s commitment; crews, designers, producers, sponsors, grant committees, building managers; Nick’s light; Beth’s eternally open heart; Ashley, Nianhui, Caryn, Ruby, Tess, and Laure’s fearlessness.

Ruby Ricisak, Desdemona, (she/they) is a senior majoring in Environment and Sustainability (and is a PMA minor hopeful). This is her first PMA production. She is extremely appreciative of the wonderful, very talented cast and crew of Desdemona and for all of the hard work they put into this performance. She is very grateful for getting the chance to be a part of this amazing production and experience.

Nianhui Yang, Desdemona, is a senior biology student at the College of Arts and Sciences. Desdemona is her first play as a performer, and she is very excited about it. She is grateful to Beth, who offered her this precious opportunity; Angel, who helped her so much with the texts; and all fellow performers and crew members for their help and encouragement. She also wants to give special thanks to her mother and her friends, Sia and Kaitlyn, for their love and support.

Sarah Eckert Bernstein, Costume Designer, is the Resident Costume Designer at the Schwartz Center and Senior Lecturer in costume design, costume history, and character design. Some of her recent projects at Cornell include: The Family Copoli, HumaNatures, Locally Grown Dance 2023, Haunted Natures/Hidden Environments, Locally Grown Dance 2022, Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, LGD 2021, Pipeline/Townhall, LGD 2020, The Next Storm, The Wolves, Spill, LGD 2019, Awakening of Spring, and Mr. Burns. Sarah is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University and the Yale School of Drama.

Bryan K. Ealey, Lighting Designer, is a Houstonian and holds an MFA in Lighting Design from the Theatre and Dance Program at the University of California, San Diego. His passion for lighting design is rooted in the fundamental ability to support, give focus, and elevate the performance that draws an emotional response from the audience. He is thrilled to be working with Cornell’s Performing and Media Art Program for the first time!

Beth F. Milles is an award winning director and adaptor and an Associate Professor of Acting/Directing in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. She has directed at many well-known theatres including Trinity Rep(Dead Man’s Cell Phone/Importance of Being Earnest),The Magic Theatre (Another Golden Rome) Long Wharf Theatre, The Actors’ Gang (Imaginary Invalid, Private Battle, Self Defense) Civic Ensemble (In the Parlour), Playwrights Horizons, and on Broadway (And God said HA) The Cherry Arts (Rule of Thumb,Heading into Night) The Hangar Theatre (August Osage County) The Sundance Theatre Institute, American Repertory Theatre, Young Playwrights, Inc., New York Stage and Film, The Mark Taper Forum, New York Shakespeare Festival, ASK Theater Projects and South Coast Repertory Theater. Beth specializes in the adaptation of classical theatre for the modern audience. She has guest lectured at Harvard University, The University of Texas, Austin, and Loyola Marymount College and at Brown University/Trinity Rep where she served as Head of the Directing MFA and Associate Director of Trinity Repertory Company. Beth is a graduate of the ART Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. 

Kale(y) Makino, Dramaturg, (she/they) is a first-year PhD student in Performing and Media Arts. She received her Bachelors and Masters from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and comes to Ithaca via Richmond, Virginia, where she worked on the Development Team of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts. She is tremendously excited to be apart of her first production at Cornell, and to honor a literary legend like Morrison in such poetic form.

Adam Washiyama Shulman, Projections Designer, is a multidisciplinary artist focusing in theatrical world-building and ecologically engaged public art. Working globally, he collected footage for our production in the canals and gardens of Desdemona’s Venice. Adam’s scenic and projection designs include "DreamTrain" (Tishman Auditorium at The New School, NYC, 2023), "Billy Elliot: The Musical" (Hangar Theater, Ithaca, 2023), and "The Pleasures of the Quarrel" (Bailey Hall, Ithaca, 2022). As a student in the Schwartz Center, he designed "Baby Rock" (2022), "Reach for the Sky" (2021), "Asiamnesia" (2021), and "After Nature Had Drawn a Few Breaths" (2021). His thesis production, "Nature’s Play: An Invasive Performance," combined botanic stewardship, playful performance, and structures sculpted from invasive brush to reflect on layers of overlooked land history. Adam holds a BA summa cum laude in Performing & Media Arts and BFA in Fine Art from Cornell University.

Jason Simms, Scenic Coordinator, (he/him) is an award winning scenographer for Theater, Opera, Musicals and film and has designed over 150 productions. Born and Raised in Carson City, NV, Simms started designing for theatre at the age of fifteen. He designs in New York City as well as at regional theaters across the United States.

Nick Alteri, Production Stage Manager is excited to be joining the team here at Cornell. He has spent the past two summers as the PSM at The Lost Colony in the Outer Banks. He graduated from The City College of New York with a masters in Theatre Education. Previous credits: Arsenic and Old Lace and Medea at Delaware Resident Ensemble Players (REP), Honky Tonk Angels at Cortland Repertory Theatre, West Side Story and A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder at The Tibbits Opera House. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Instagram: @nalteri02

Karina Song, Assistant Stage Manager, is a senior from Boston, MA and Seoul, South Korea studying Industrial and Labor Relations with minors in Business and Inequality Studies. She is the assistant stage manager for DESDEMONA and is excited to continue her love for theatre since high school through this play. Some of her passions include videography, playing the alto saxophone, and practicing kendo.

Hilary Tackie, Camera Crew, is a senior in the Brooks School of Public Policy majoring in Policy Analysis and Management. She enjoys theatre and has directed plays in the past.