The Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA)
presents

Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England

_{By Madeleine George ‘96}

Class of ’56 Flexible Theatre
Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
430 College Avenue

November 12, 13, 19, 20, 2021
7:30 p.m.

*Please note the actors will perform without masks. All other crew and patrons will remain masked for the performance.

Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French Inc.    www.concordtheatricals.com

Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England was originally produced by Two River Theatre Company, John Dias, Artistic Director, Michael Hurst, Managing Director.  Developed at the Lark Play Development Center, New York City.

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 2021-2022 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 several student thesis films. Enjoy the shows!

In choosing Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England as a directing project, I initially thought I was trying to get away from the pandemic. I was excited to dive into a play about queer love and life, and the play is delightfully quirky and funny, which felt like the perfect antidote to our collective pandemic blues. However, as Madeleine George poignantly reminds us in this play, a story about life is also inherently a story about death. Through our rehearsal process with this outstanding cast and crew, I realized that this play's meditation on living with a potentially terminal illness, on coming to terms with our mortality, on the importance of endings, as Andromeda might say, made a production of this play feel urgent in the face of our shared global tragedy that is this pandemic. While this play certainly speaks to endings generally, it also raises specific questions about how queer people navigate illness and death in particular ways outside of a heteronormative nuclear family dynamic. In Mammoths, George offers us one example of how love can look and feel among countless "alternative kinship structures." 

This play also explores the structures and substance of memory and how the spaces we create to house the remnants of the past always collect more than we anticipate or intend. Like Greer, the museum in this play is facing its impending demise. It not only contains seven soon-to-be homeless mammoths and some dubious dioramas but has also absorbed the everyday conversations and events that have occurred inside its walls. George offers us moments of these conversations, certainly in part to satirize our "human condition," but also to consider the importance of space in the stories that make up our lives. This museum houses the first date between Wreen and Greer, as well as numerous sexual escapades of Andromeda, all memories facing displacement along with the mammoth skeletons when the museum is destroyed. Through these memories, George demonstrates the value of such spaces beyond the collections they house.

Meanwhile, The Caretaker of this museum forms an archive of a different kind. Only ever reciting from print material, The Caretaker brings the voices of the local community of this college town into the play through letters to the editor and town board meeting minutes. By storing print material in a human character and memory in a physical space, George upends our assumptions of how the archive and the body operate as discrete spaces of memory production and storage. 

Mounting a play in an ongoing pandemic presents several challenges. The most pressing of these is how to convey physical intimacy between characters in a safe way? This question would be a challenge for any play during Covid times but is particularly fraught when dealing with lesbian romance and sexuality because desire between women has historically been overlooked and erased in theatrical representation. After experimenting with various ways to simulate intimacy without contact, we arrived at our current staging. While not precisely what the script calls for, I hope our staging imagines new ways of how we express intimacy and acknowledges that for many intimacy is not synonymous with sexual contact. 

The pandemic's disruption of our ability to do and see live theatre has had such a toll on all of us who love this art form. It is such a pleasure to be able to work on live theatre again, and I could not have wished for a better cast, crew, and production to join me on the adventure of working on what is for me, and many of us, the first play since the pandemic started. It is a joy to share with you the fruits of our labor. We hope you enjoy!

—Samuel Blake

Samantha Noland - Dean Cynthia Wreen
Samantha Noland is a senior graduating this December from the College of Arts and Sciences with a double major in Performing and Media Arts and American Studies. Samantha feels so grateful to be in one more in-person performance before she graduates. She last acted in Spill by Leigh Fondakowski in the spring of 2019. Her acting career spans Shakespeare to Musical Theater to Moliere. She directed for Festival 24 last semester. She currently serves as the Production Liaison of Risley Theatre in Risley Residential College, the Communications Director of Cornell Dems, and the Vice President of the Cornell Vegan Society. Samantha would like to thank her parents and grandparents for their continued support of her love of performance! She would also like to thank her advisors and mentors in the department: David Feldshuh, Jumay Chu, Caitlin Kane, Jason Simms, Juan Manuel Aldape Munoz, Sabine Haenni, and Sara Warner. 

Kit Ellsworth - Greer
Kit Ellsworth is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, majoring in Biology and minoring in Theatre. This will be her second live performance with PMA at Cornell after F24 this fall, though she did a couple of small virtual things last school year. In high school, her favorite roles were Olive in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Che in Evita, and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Outside of theatre, she enjoys spending time with her pets: Amandine (chicken), Bertram (Conure), Caspian (rabbit), The Mice, three bettas, and near a million guppies, and volunteering with the Cornell Raptor Program, where she works with Wyatt (Harris's Hawk).

Yue Aki Ji - Andromeda
Aki (a.k.a Yue) is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences majoring in Information Science and minoring in Education, Science Communication and Public Engagement, and Theatre. As a queer non-binary woman of color, Aki is thrilled to be acting in Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England. They were an ensemble member of the eTRASH Theatre Lab, Light Op for The Nether (PMA Spring 20), actor and stage manager for Festival 24 productions. In their freshman year, Aki was also involved in the Chinese Drama Society as an actor for Lan Pao Xian Sheng (蓝袍先生) and artistic director for Copenhagen. 

Trence Wilson-Gillem - The Caretaker
Trence Wilson-Gillem is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences majoring in Performing & Media Arts. Last spring, he played the role of Omari in the play Pipeline, directed by Beth Milles and Carley Robinson. Trence spent the past summer acting at the Hangar Theatre, where he played the roles of Slightly, Tin Woodman, and Tiresias in the plays Lost Girl, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Bacchae 2.0, respectively. Trence was also a member of the Cornell wrestling team from 2016-2019. Upon graduation, Trence will be applying to and auditioning for MFA programs where he hopes to build his acting skills and pursue a professional acting career.

Sumire Doi - Early Human
Sumire is an MPS student in Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and holds BA in Theatre and Political Science from Middlebury College. Her credits at Middlebury include: The Good Woman of Setzuan (Child), Major Barbara (Assistant Stage Manager), Big Love (Ensemble), Man of La Mancha (Assistant Director), As You Like It (Audrey), New Play Festival: Undressing Cinderella (Barna/Louisa/Louise), and 17 1/2 (senior thesis). Sumire also appeared in Project Y Theatre's New York New Playwright Festival and was the Assistant to the Director in the PTP/NYC production of The Castle and the Stage Manager in the On the Brink production Harriman-Baines. She has also appeared in several new plays in Tokyo: Onwatashi, Kaiten Ichiza, Sotsugyou, and Hanaseba Wakaru. Sumire is grateful to the awesome cast and crew for the opportunity to enjoy college theatre once again, in person!

Yishan Hou - Early Human
Yishan Hou, a sophomore Information Science major with minors in Business and Communication, is from Beijing, China. She is passionate about dancing and acting. She choreographed a contemporary dance, a classical Chinese dance, and acted in a play in high school. She is excited to be performing in Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England. Enjoy!

Ezgi Ecem Yilmaz - Early Human
Ezgi is a sophomore Applied Economics & Management major with minors in French and International Relations. She previously acted in several performances at Cornell, including The Night Comes for the North Country and Do You Read Me? She joined the Student Laboratory Theatre Company last semester. In high school, she acted in four plays of physical theatre, such as Threepenny Opera and Macbeth. She is very interested in physical movement and doing theatre for social change. She cannot wait to be on the stage with an in-person audience. She particularly enjoyed the process of getting prepared for the performance because the play beautifully combines comedy with daily issues about relationships and gender, and she loved learning from all of the skillful members of the crew!

Saif Leonardo Tariq Quraishi - Early Human
Saif is a senior majoring in Performing and Media Arts and Physics. This is his second PMA production after playing the doctor in last semester's virtual production Benchmark, which he also led the filming of. He also performed in several plays over the summer at Ithaca's Hangar Theatre as a part of their Lab Company, with roles including one of Peter Pan's lost boys and the Little Mermaid's prince. 

Samuel Blake - Director
Sam is a PhD candidate in PMA. Beyond Ithaca, he has worked professionally in Austin, Chicago, and Michigan. Recent credits include String Up The Moon (director), Two Truths and Allie (director), Ten Minute Play Festival 2017 (producer), What Happens Next? (dramaturg) and An Evening at the Caffe Cino (director). He deeply proud and grateful of the work this cast, crew, and production team have put into this show. 

Abbey Crowley - Producer/Assistant Director
Abbey Crowley is a senior at Cornell studying Performing & Media Arts, Education, and Inequality Studies. Abbey is a Co-President of Melodramatics Theatre Company and the President of Cornell Ambassadors of Media and Performance (CAMP). Abbey has worked as a producer on PMA's Virtual Vibrance Festival and PMA's Under-Construction Cabaret series, and she has been happy to work with organizations and companies such as Tectonic Theatre Project (Production Assistant), RWS Entertainment Group (Theatrical & Development Intern), the Springer Theatre Academy (Administrative Intern), the Springer Opera House (Board of Directors), and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (Drama Teacher). 

This is Abbey's final semester at Cornell, and she has been thrilled to spend it working on Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England :)

Howard Klein - Stage Manager
Howard Klein has worked for many years as a professional AEA production stage manager off-Broadway, regionally, and on tour around the USA. He is the Stage Manager for The Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. Howard has also worked in more than 300 venues in 11 countries and counting, as Production Manager and Lighting Designer of the dance company, Galumpha. He worked at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as Producing Coordinator in the Theatrical Production department and stage managed more than 30 productions for the NYU Graduate Acting Program. Other favorite credits include The Lincoln Center Institute, WP Theatre and The Cider Mill Playhouse. Howard has also taught Stage Management at SUNY Binghamton where he received his BA in Technical Theatre.

Bella Peters - Assistant Stage Manager
Bella Peters is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences with a double major of Performing and Media Arts and Psychology. She found her love for Theatre in high school where she worked on the crew for shows like Grease, Legally Blonde, Peter Pan and Avenue Q. Bella is so excited to be working on a live show again after quarantine and hopes you like it!

Sarah Bernstein - Costume Designer
Sarah Eckert Bernstein has been the Resident Costume Designer at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts since the fall of 2001. She is a Senior Lecturer in costume design and history at the Department of Performing and Media Arts. Ms. Bernstein is a graduate of the Theatre School at DePaul University (founded as the Goodman School of Drama) and the Yale School of Drama. 

Jason Simms - Scenic, Lighting, and Projection Design
Jason Simms (he/him) is an award winning scenographer for Theater, Opera, and Musicals 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 all across the United States.      

Warren Cross - Sound Designer
Warren Cross is the Resident Sound Designer for the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, joining the department in 1990. In addition to designing sound for department productions, Warren teaches courses in Sound Design, Post Production, and Interactive Performance Technology. He attended Five Towns College for Music Technology, Manhattan School of Music for Composition, and SUNY Stony Brook for Technical Theatre. He is a designer/builder of acoustic and electronic musical instruments.
 

Stage Crew:  Arlette Arroyo
Dresser:  Jo Bowman
Light Board Programmer:  Maya Scriven
Sound Board Operator:  Asher Cai
Costume First Hands: Natalie Brunco, Emma Kindig, Lillian Liu, Simone White
Scenery Work-Study:  David Bascom, Arianna Josue, Charles Wright 
Electrics Work-Study: Emlen Brown, Anastasia Kreisel, Matthew Secondine, Ariel Shaked

PMA 1610 - TECHNICAL PRODUCTION LAB
Kayla Bouazouni, Sophie Cianfarani, Abigail Crowley, Kaitlyn Cui, Andrew Dettmer, Jacob Duffles-Andrade, Yuou Jiang, Benjamin Lederman, Julianna Lee, Lillian Liu, Jack Muench, Anusua Nath, Samantha Noland, Gabriella Peters, Cole Romero, Yifan Tong

BUILDING/HOUSE MANAGERS
Sofia Aguirre, Mackenzie Closson, Naomi Daniel, Samantha Granja, Deepak Ilango, Anastasia Kreisel, Jack McManus, Maxwell Ringer, Matthew Saylor, Ariel Shaked, Sarah Zaragoza-Smith

PMA PRODUCTION STAFF
Director of Productions & Events: Pamela Lillard
Technical Director: Fritz Bernstein
Stage Manager: Howard Klein
Assistant Technical Director: Savannah Relos
Props Coordinator: Tim Ostrander
Master Electrician: Steven Blasberg
Costume Shop Supervisor: Lisa Boquist
Computer Support: Chris Christensen
Media Assistant: Randy Hendrickson
Communications & Events Coordinator: Youngsun Palmer
Communications Manager: Gary Gabisan
Box Office Manager: Julie Tibbits
Department Manager: Christopher Riley

Caitlin Kane
Chris Christensen