Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight

BY BARRY LEVEY AND LARRY SWITZKY

Yale has great athletes. Dedicated, skillful, and strong, the Bulldogs dominate crew races and swim meets, electrify the Yale Bowl, and boast powerhouse fencing skills. Among the Ivies and around the world, Yale enjoys fame for its athletic prowess.

DAVID GEST/YH Undergraduates star in the fall 2000 mainstage Dramat musical, 'Merrily We Roll Along.'

Yet for all that, Yale isn't exactly known as a sports school. Whether you open up the U.S. News and World Report or just ask your barber, you're going to get the same 411 on Yale's greatest strength: theater. From its No. 1-ranked School of Drama to its undergraduate Dramatic Association, from the Grand Guignol of the Yale Repertory Theater to the sweaty intimacy of Trumbull's Nick Chapel, from Shakespeare's First Quarto to your roommate's latest musical masterpiece, Yale teems with theatrics of every kind.

With a great abundance of aspiring professionals majoring in theater studies, undergraduate theater productions are often very serious affairs—while other Yalies are pulling all-nighters in the library or science lab, theater studies majors are getting credit for their own theatrical productions. This year's theater studies senior projects ranged from The Master And Margarita and Sam Shepard's Cowboy Mouth to a stage adaptation of Rosemary's Baby.

"The kinds of plays vary completely," Sarah Pike, TD '00, said. "Usually they're instigated by people who've always wanted to put on a certain show, either because they just love it, or they think it will help them become better directors."

But the stage and the director's chair aren't the only places for theater-minded Yalies. In addition to hanging lights, manning sound boards, and stage managing, a number of dramatic types also create their own scripts. "Student playwrights are incredible to work with," said Pike, who has performed in several student-written productions. "There's something so exciting about something so brand new." Although student playwrights work a broad range of genres and styles, many productions tend toward the experimental. "They can get really weird," admits Pike. "I was in one play that was actually called Misogyny." The 2000-'01 school year saw original Yale shows such as Things to Do while Waiting for Your Abortion, by Saul Nadata, TD '01, and Adventures in Terraleauferia, a musical children's show by Lila Tshchappat, ES '00, and Phil Gorman, TC '01.

Have an itch to produce your own show, but not the cash? If you're really committed to the dramatic arts, funding isn't hard to come by. You can apply for one of the Sudler grants awarded each semester, and chances are fair that you'll get one. The Sudler Fund is the Yale equivalent of the National Endowment for the Arts, a bottomless well of money which funds projects ranging from photography exhibits to performance art pieces. Student playwrights, directors, and actors utter the word "Sudler" with reverent awe—a Sudler grant is the quickest path to a fulfilled artistic dream. Less ambitious artistes can look to their residential college Masters' offices, many of which maintain their own theater budgets.

A number of small organizations offer undergraduates the chance to pursue idiosyncratic theatrical paths. The Yale Outdoor Dramatic Association, also known as YODA, debuted last year with an adventuresome production of The Skin Of Our Teeth. YODA is dedicated to bringing Yale theater out of stuffy performance spaces and into the great outdoors, while the Yale Children's Theater (YCT) puts on lighthearted shows for New Haven grade school students and fun-seeking Yalies. This year's YCT productions included You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and classic story, The Velveteen Rabbit. Yalies interested in the works of a particular playwright can find like-minded collaborators in such groups as the Undergraduate Shakespeare Company and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

The issue of theatrical venues has been contentious in recent years on campus, with undergraduates protesting the paucity of good stages. The number of productions put up each year is staggering in proportion to the number of available stages. Some directors choose creative solutions, such as staging their shows in dining halls, outdoors, or in classroom auditoriums. Others have taken an activist stance, demanding more real theaters from the Administration—and getting satisfaction.

COURTESY YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA Drama students go mad in 'The Master and Margarita.'

The theater in the Whitney Humanities Center was recently renovated and dedicated to the senior projects of theater studies majors. The Off Broadway performance space opened in 2000 as part of Yale's downtown redevelopment, and Saybrook's renovations will bring a small performance facility akin to Berkeley's recent addition of a multi-purpose room. The Yale Drama Coalition, co-founded by theater studies students Zachary Jacobson, JE '02, Caroline Duncan, SM '02, and Adele Bruni, TD '02, was founded in spring 2000 for the purpose of representing such theater-related concerns as the availability of stages.

Most theatrically inclined students, however, congregate in the Yale Dramatic Association, or Dramat, the University's largest undergraduate theatrical group. Every year, the Dramat hires professional directors to oversee a pair of lavish mainstage productions; last fall saw a successful production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, and the spring show was an unconventional production of the political play The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht. The Dramat also puts on a number of smaller productions each year, including four student-directed experimental shows (this year's pieces included deconstructive takes on Dr. Faustus and A Man For All Seasons), an all-freshman show (Edward Albee's Finding The Sun), and a musical for Commencement (How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying).

The Dramat, the nation's oldest college theater organization, has an illustrious history since its founding in 1899. Dramat alumni include Cole Porter, Class of '13, Thornton Wilder, Class of '20, and Big co-authors Richard Maltby, BR '59 DRA '62, and David Shire, TD '59, who began their lifelong creative partnership during their Dramat years. Today, the Dramat remains a proving ground for aspiring actors and directors—recent grad Blake Lindsley, SY '96 was featured in Swingers (she's the one with the cigar). Yalies pursuing theatrical success don't have far to look for role models; the Yale Repertory, one of the nation's premiere regional theaters, has hosted multiple Tony-winning shows, while the Yale Cabaret, staffed by graduate students in the School of Drama, features a new play every weekend. Other professional theaters in the New Haven area include the Shubert, where touring Broadway shows often perform, and the Long Wharf Theater, a strong regional stage which premiered Margaret Edsel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play W;t.

REBECCA ROSENTHAL/YH The much-acclaimed Children's Theater production of 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.'

From college dining halls to the stage of the Rep, the entire campus is pervaded by the spirit of theater. As the sheer number of productions each year and the frequent box-office smashes demonstrate, Yale drama rivals Yale athletics in popularity. So whether you're looking to launch a lifetime career as a thespian or just to have a good time hamming it up on stage with some friends, Yale is definitely the place to be.

Josh Drimmer, Nicholas Webb, and Rachel Kamins contributed to this article.

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