The Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA)
presents

TOWN HALL

by Caridad Svich

May 7, 7:30 p.m.
Reserve your free ticket at schwartztickets.com. A link will be emailed to you prior to showtime.

&

PIPELINE

by Dominique Morisseau

May 8, 7:30 p.m.
A talkback will follow this Saturday screening
May 15, 2:00 p.m.
Reserve your free ticket at schwartztickets.com. A link will be emailed to you prior to showtime.

This presentation contains strong language.

Performances by
Sidney Waite, Christel Robinson, Trence Wilson-Gillem, Corey Braxton, Alex Torres, Anusua Nath, Ana Carmona-Pereda, Jasmine Scott, Cindy Chen, Deepti Talersa, Jenniviv Bansah, Lamin Johnson

Led by
Beth F. Milles, Carley Robinson, Samuel Ryb, Abbey Crowley, and PMA Production Staff

These pieces were produced by PMA, and the students of 3609 - Making Theatre: Rehearsal & Performance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national racial reckoning catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd. We have distanced and we have connected. We have spoken and we have listened. Together, we present this piece not to answer a question, but to continue a dialogue.
We hope you'll join us.

Dear community members,

In a more typical year, you would be reading this note in a physical program while gathering in a public space. As you well know, there is nothing typical about this year, and so this note must also depart from the conventions that have tended to govern it in the past.

Indeed, what we were intending as a year’s worth of programming at this time last spring has been radically reimagined. I am proud of students, staff, and faculty who have responded with inventiveness and imagination to making virtual work in socially distanced ways. I am proud that the majority of this work is centering perspectives on systemic racism and white supremacist ideology, of which the Department of Performing and Media Arts must take urgent stock, for which we must be accountable, and whose dismantling we must actively undertake. I am proud that numerous BIPOC guest artists and scholars are visiting classes and making public presentations via Zoom. And I am proud that all of this activity is free to our publics, who now more than ever need access to art and intellection that we hope will sustain us through the anxieties and exhaustions of our current political and historical circumstances.

I look forward to a time when we may all convene again in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts and communally enjoy film, dance, theater, performance art, installation, public lectures, and more. In the meantime, I wish everyone reading this note physical health and emotional and spiritual well-being.

—Nick Salvato

After last summer, we wanted to do something different. 

A lot of things happened last summer, with the murder of George Floyd being a catalyst for examining racial discrimination in America with a keener eye. A lot happened in the department over the summer as well. Not just because of the murder of George Floyd, but because of what that spurred locally and brought up for us. Ultimately, the result was that more faculty and staff members were ready to really sit down and listen to what students had to say. Many things came up in these conversations: students wanted more representation on creative teams; students wanted the department to center more diverse stories; and most importantly, students wanted for people to just keep listening. These conversations alerted a lot of people that they hadn’t been listening, or if they had been listening, that now was the time that they could actually do something with what they had heard. 

That’s how this iteration of PMA 3609 became an experiment. It was amazing to see how students showed up, knowing that they can change things in the department and they can ask for things that they want and it can work, even if just in small ways. We used the curricular medium of PMA 3609, but opened it up for anyone to enroll. We wanted the process to feel connected, and thus we wanted to be together in-person, something that felt like a tall order for this year. 

We think these plays represent the heart and the spark of current conversations; an opportunity to talk with each other and connect with each other, student-to-student and faculty-to-student. The most amazing thing about any piece of good theatre is not saying things from the top of a soap box- it’s asking questions about how we want to be people with one another, and how we want to interact with all of our different identities in those relationships. This is the throughline connecting our two plays, Pipeline and Town Hall. These plays offer so many worthy questions, but at their core, they ask: how do we want to be in community with each other? How do we hold each other accountable while holding each other’s vulnerabilities and keeping one another safe?

About the Play

Setting

A space that feels serene. Boundless quiet. It may seem a little eerie, but that’s okay.
We’re here. And it’s fine. There is some light, and space to dream.
So, we dream… ––Caridad Svich

The Development of Town Hall

Many thought that Svich wrote Town Hall as a response to the election of Donald Trump as President, given that it was first produced in 2017. However, Svich clarified that she began writing it as early as 1994. Svich wrote:

“There have been many triggers, as it were, for the making of this play, and they do feel connected to the “now” we are in. Among them are the 1999 Battle of Seattle WTO protests and the fall-out of Occupy Wall Street and the indignados movements… how quickly movements like these that critique neoliberal market-driven societal structures and whose focus are squarely on class, economic inequities, and the mishandling of the resources (human and environmental) of our planet tend to get squashed by the very forces to which they are in opposition… how easily it seems as if the demand for the possibility of new ways of living ethically in society are subsumed and even “forgotten” in the willful inescapable parade of seeming progress – so indebted (in all senses) market-driven societies are to the market.”

Credits

Town Hall was developed at The Lark, Sheen Center and Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC, National Theatre Institute in Connecticut, and Camden People's Theatre Calm Down Dear Festival, London.

About the Play

Pipeline tells the story of Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher, who is committed to her students but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they'll never have. ––Dominique Morisseau

Playwright’s Rules of Engagement

• You are allowed to laugh audibly.
• You are allowed to have audible moments of reaction and response.
• My work requires a few “um hmms” and “uhn uhnns” should you need to use them. Just maybe in moderation. Only when you really need to vocalize.
• This can be church for some of us, and testifying is allowed.
• This is also live theatre and the actors need you to engage with them, not distract them or thwart their performance.
• Please be an audience member that joins with others and allows a bit of breathing room. Exhale together. Laugh together. Say “amen” should you need to.
• This is community. Let’s go.
––Dominique Morisseau

Setting

Not necessarily NYC, but definitely modeled after it. Can be any inner-city environment where the public school system is under duress. However, the quick pace of the language is NY- inspired and should be maintained in any setting. Present Day. Also, we have Undefined Space. This is a place where location doesn't matter. It is sometimes an alternate reality bleeding into reality. It is sometimes just isolated reality that doesn't require a setting. Only words. ––Dominique Morisseau

Key Figures

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was born in Topeka, Kansas, on June 7, 1917, and raised in Chicago. She was the author of more than twenty books of poetry, and was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry. She also wrote numerous other books including a novel, Maud Martha (Harper, 1953), and Report from Part One: An Autobiography (Broadside Press, 1972), and edited Jump Bad: A New Chicago Anthology (Broadside Press, 1971). In Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool: The Pool Players / Seven at the Golden Shovel” is taught to students by Nya. "We Real Cool" is a poem written in 1959 by poet Gwendolyn Brooks and published in her 1960 book The Bean Eaters, her third collection of poetry. The poem has been featured on broadsides, re-printed in literature textbooks and is widely studied in literature classes. It is cited as "one of the most celebrated examples of jazz poetry". In an interview Brooks stated that her inspiration for the poem came from her walking in her community and passing a pool hall full of boys. When considering this she thought to herself “I wonder how they feel about themselves?” Instead of wondering about why they were not in school, Brooks captured this scene and turned it into the seven pool players at the Golden Shovel.

Richard Wright (1908–1960) was a black writer and poet who published his first short story at the age of 16. Later, he found employment with the Federal Writers' Project and received critical acclaim for Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of four stories. He is well-known for his 1940 bestseller Native Son and his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy. Native Son plays a role in Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline as it is the book being read in Omari’s class that Omari is being questioned / interrogated about before the interaction with his teacher that gets him in trouble with his school.

Key Concepts

Legacy of Busing and Segregation: EdBuild, an organization that studies school funding systems, asserts that in communities across the country, “one school district directly abuts a district that differs dramatically by racial makeup and spending per student. Almost 9 million students attend these underfunded, racially isolated districts.” The differences between districts is largely rooted in persistent housing segregation, “because school funding begins with local taxes, these lines also largely determine which kids have access to what resources.”

School to prison pipeline: The ACLU defines the “school-to-prison pipeline”, as “a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and pushed out.” To put this definition in context, a Black boy born in 2001 has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy a one in six chance of the same fate. Furthermore, The Washington Post reports that black students are 3.8 times more likely to receive one or more suspensions as white students, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

Zero-tolerance policies: policies that criminalize minor violations of school rules. Students of color are especially vulnerable to these discriminatory forms of discipline.

Sources: Penumbra Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center Education

Credits

Pipeline is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. Originally Produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 2017, New York City. Pipeline was commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago; Martha Lavey, Artistic Director, David Hawkanson, Executive Director. 

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Used by Consent of Brooks Permissions.

Pipeline 1994 school footage provided by Dorian Marquis Cantrell

Caridad Svich’s work as a playwright, translator, lyricist, and essayist has been seen in print, live theatre, and digital stages at diverse venues across the US and abroad. Key works in her repertoire include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls…, Red Bike, and The House of the Spirits (based on Isabel Allende’s novel). Recent premieres include The Book of Magdalene and Theatre: a love story. As a screenwriter, her first feature film Fugitive Dreams, based on her play, has been seen at the Fantasia, Austin, Tallinn Black Nights, Manchester (UK) and Maryland Film Festivals. Among her awards are the 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize. She is founder of NoPassport theatre alliance and press and an editor at Contemporary Theatre Review. She has edited several books on theatre. Her most recent book is on Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Routledge). She was awarded the 2018 Ellen Stewart Award for Career Achievement in Professional Theatre from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. 

Dominique Morisseau is a playwright whose pieces portray the lives of individuals and communities grappling with economic and social changes, both current and historical. Having a background as both an actor and spoken-word poet, Morisseau uses lyrical dialogue to construct emotionally complex characters who exhibit humor, vulnerability, and fortitude as they cope with sometimes desperate circumstances. Her works contrast beauty with destruction, hope with despair, and bring to light the complicated realities of urban black communities.

Dominique Morisseau is the author of a three play cycle titled The Detroit Project, which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit ’67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays of hers include: Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie’s (Premiere Stages). Dominique Morisseau has also been Tony-nominated for her work writing the book for the Broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial Theatre). 

Dominique Morisseau is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, Women’s Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Eugene O’Neil Playwrights Conference. Additionally, she has recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless” (3 seasons). Her notable awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, OBIE Award (2), Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, Variety’s Women of Impact for 2017-18, and a recent MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow.

Town Hall

A,B,S and E are played alternatively by:

Jenniviv Bansah is a sophomore in the Hotel School with a minor in information science. She is excited to be a part of Town Hall as a cast member. Jenniviv is passionate about storytelling through film; she enjoys the process of theatre and photography. She is forever grateful to PMA, Beth, Carley, and Howie for this opportunity. Thank you and enjoy the show!

Anusua Nath is a sophomore majoring in Civil Engineering and intending on minoring in theatre. She is excited to be acting in her first-ever play, Town Hall. Anusua had done Indian Classical dancing for 6 years, which sparked her initial interest in acting and the arts, and she enjoys the process of breaking down characters. She is looking forward to further exploring theatre at Cornell.

Christel Robinson is a writer and actor. She is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences and is a projected psychology and performing & media arts major. She has previously performed in the Cornell Spring and Fall Festival 24, as Nellie Quander in the virtual production of In the Parlour by Judy Tate, and in the MCC Theater Company’s 2020 edition of Uncensored. In high school, she acted as #25 in The Wolves and Madam Pernelle in Tartuffe by Moliere.

Jasmine Scott is full of love and appreciation for this project and everyone involved with it! She is a San Francisco Bay Area native. Outside of this play, Jasmine is a sociology major with minors in Spanish and inequality studies and will be graduating in May. She has also performed in Pipeline, The Good Victim, Benchmark, Black Noir, and The Next Storm – all with the PMA department. Because of all of the community and joy she has received from this work, she is more than excited to continue storytelling post-graduation.

Deepti Talesra is a senior in the College of Engineering majoring in computer science. She is so excited to be debuting in Town Hall! Outside of her major, Deepti is very passionate about performative work – she loves to dance and make YouTube videos. She hopes to pursue her passions more deeply in the future and explore other stages in which to grow and express herself. 

Alex Torres is a third-year architecture major with a minor in theatre. He is so excited to be acting in Town Hall this semester. His gratitude goes out to Carley, Beth, Howie and the amazing casts of Town Hall and Pipeline. This is Alex's first performance at PMA.

Pipeline

Corey Braxton (Xavier) is a senior in performing & media arts. Although he has a concentration in acting, he has spent time strengthening his skills in film analysis and playwriting. He is very excited to be returning to the stage for his first time since COVID began. He has participated in multiple productions in his time at Cornell, at the Schwartz Ceter and with the Cornell Vet Players including The Awakening of Spring, Tartuffe, The Wedding Singer, and The Suessical.

Ana Carmona (Jasmine) is a rising sophomore with an anticipated major in performing & media arts from the Bronx, NY. Ana is deeply passionate about storytelling through the arts; she enjoys the process of doing so with photography, the craft of theatre, and writing in particular. Ana has been involved in PMA since Fall 2020 as she wrote and performed in Dreamer on Campus and Introduction to Acting: Office Hours. Throughout her college career, Ana hopes to explore the ethnology and consciousness of historical cultures and multi-ethnic groups of people to understand generational differences, values, and testimonies exposed through performance, art, and writing. She remains passionate in finding ways to advocate through the art of storytelling and exploring other mediums thus bringing forth narratives hidden in the shadows.

Cindy Chen (Laurie) is a junior studying computer science in the College of Engineering, with an anticipated minor in performing & media arts and operations research & information engineering. She has a variety of interests from programming and data mining, to reading, writing, and hiking the gorgeous Ithaca trails. Her growing interest in theater began in sophomore year after taking her first acting class at Cornell. Over the past two summers, she worked as a front-end and back-end intern at an online auctions company, and she will be taking on the SWE intern role at Adobe in the upcoming summer. She hopes to advocate for new and diverse voices by taking part in more theater productions as she continues her college career.

Lamin Johnson (Dun) is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences majoring in history. He is a brother of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and a Chicago native. Lamin has had an affinity for the arts since his adolescence. In high school, he was involved in Poetry Out Loud, Louder Than A Bomb, Chicago House Peer Mentoring Program, and several After School Matters sponsored organizations centered around the artistic and overall development of youths in the Albany Park area of Chicago. He has played The Mean Ol’ Lion in The Wiz, Walter in A Raisin in the Sun, and now Dun in Pipeline. Enjoy the Show!

Sidney Malia Waite (Nya) is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is incredibly excited and grateful to be a part of Pipeline this semester. This is her first PMA class and performance on campus, though she hopes it won't be her last! 

Trence Wilson-Gillem (Omari) is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in performing & media arts. Trence began his acting journey just last semester and he has already been a part of three Cornell productions, including this one. His other roles were Jason in Anna Evtushenko's Benchmark and AJ in Gloria Oladipo's The Good Victim. He will be joining the Hangar Theatre Lab Company in Ithaca this summer to help refine his acting skills. Some of his hobbies include filmmaking, going for long walks/hikes, and watching anime and sports. His favorite sports to watch are wrestling and football. Trence wrestled at Cornell for three years and says that nothing brings him greater joy than watching his former teammates and coaches achieve their NCAA and Olympic goals.

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: LGD 2020, The Next Storm, The Wolves, Spill, LGD 2019, Awakening of Spring, Mr. Burns, LGD 2018, Hamlet Wakes Up Late, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Baltimore, Eurydice, Desert of Light, and All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings.  Sarah is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University and the Yale School of Drama.

Warren Cross (Sound Designer, Composition) 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, and is designer/builder of acoustic and electronic musical instruments.

Abbey Crowley (Dramaturg) is a junior at Cornell University from Columbus, Georgia, pursuing a major in performing & media arts and minors in education & inequality studies. Abbey has been involved in theatre around campus as the Vice-President of Cornell Ambassadors of Media and Performance (CAMP), a Co-President of Melodramatics Theatre Company, and a producer on PMA's Virtual Vibrance festival and PMA's Under-Construction Cabaret series. Abbey hopes you enjoy the show :)

Howard Klein (Stage Manager) is the Stage Manager for The Department of Performing and Media Arts. He has worked for many years as a professional AEA production stage manager off-Broadway, regionally, and on tour around the USA. He has worked in more than 300 venues in 11 countries and counting, as Production Manager and Lighting Designer of the dance company, Galumpha. Howard 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.

Mckenna Mellon (Cinematographer/Editor) is a graduating senior with a double major in communication and international agriculture & rural development. Mckenna has worked in her free time as a camerawoman in several live productions in California and here at Cornell. She is also an active member of the film fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha where she serves as the secretary and often helps with production. Mckenna is sad to be leaving Cornell but excited to continue freelancing with her small film and photography business while teaching English in Madrid, Spain. She hopes you enjoy experiencing Pipeline as much as she enjoyed filming it!

Beth F. Milles (Co-Director) is an award winning director and a faculty member in Acting/Directing in the Department of Performing & Media Arts. She would like to thank Carley Robinson and the her colleagues in PMA for supporting this project—and to recognize the bravery and strength of their 3609 students for making and sharing this personal work amidst a semester of challenge and instability in our world. These students have shown a commitment and courage to be in person and on this stage—to stay open and share of themselves—in exploring these works—which is remarkable. We will always remember their beautiful presence and performance.

Carley Robinson (Co-Director) is so honored to be back at Cornell working in the PMA department! As a recent alumna, Carley has stayed in the Ithaca area working as a theatre practitioner. She'd like to thank Beth Milles and the production team for embracing her and say a huge congratulations to the casts of Pipeline and Town Hall. They have created something so special and are excited to share it with all of you! Enjoy!

Samuel Ryb (Assistant Director) is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences studying language processing. He is super excited to be making his PMA debut by serving as assistant director for both Pipeline and Town Hall, and wants to thank Beth Milles for giving him this opportunity. Inspired by overcoming the challenges imposed by the pandemic, he looks forward to creating live synesthetic theatrical experiences in the near future. Enjoy the show!

Jason Simms (he/him) (Scenographer & Lighting Designer) 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. Jason is thrilled to be joining the faculty of PMA this year. jasonsimmsdesign.com

Taliyah Trueheart (Video Editor, Pipeline) is a graduating senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, double majoring in performing & media arts and psychology. She has a film concentration within the PMA major, and has been so excited to work with more of the theatre students on projects throughout this past academic year. She hopes you all enjoy the show!

PRODUCTION CREW

Videographer: Sydney Relihan
Scenery Construction & Electrics Crew: Darion Fiorino, Amit Hanadari-Levy, Rachel Horrigan, Jeena Park, Joseph Welsh, Trence Wilson-Gillem
Scenery Student Staff: Wilhelm Aubrecht, Elizabeth Sherman
Lighting Student Staff: Emlen Brown, Malcolm de Long, Emily Gibson, Anastasia Kreisel, Matthew Secondine, Julia Smith
Costume Stitchers: Chiara Corey, Destiny Nwafor, Gemma Standley, Noah Harrelson, Christian Romero, Joanna LaTorre

PRODUCTION STAFF

Director of Productions & Events: Pamela Lillard
Technical Director: Fritz Bernstein
Stage Manager: Howard Klein
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
Box Office Manager: Julie Tibbits
Communications Assistant: Aurora Ricardo

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