School Notes: David Geffen School of Drama
September/October 2016

Latino theater scholar named assistant dean

Chantal Rodriguez, a scholar in the field of theater and performance studies with a specialization in US Latina/o theater and performance, has been appointed assistant dean at Yale School of Drama. Rodriguez earned her undergraduate degree in theatre arts and Spanish studies at Santa Clara University and her PhD in theater and performance studies at the University of California–Los Angeles. Most recently she served as programming director/literary manager at Latino Theater Company in downtown Los Angeles, where since 2009 she helped produce seasons of culturally diverse work, including Encuentro 2014, the largest Latina/o theater festival in over 25 years. She lectures variously at UCLA, Emerson College Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, California State University at Northridge, and California Institute for the Arts. Her work has been published in Theatre Journal, Latin American Theatre Review, e-misférica, and Theatre Research International. In 2011, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press published her monograph, The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers, which was nominated for three Latino Literacy Now International Book Awards. She is an active member of the steering committees for the National Latina/o Theatre Commons and the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles.

Yale Rep celebrates 50 years

Yale Rep marks its 50th anniversary season with three world premieres and two new productions of contemporary classics. Opening the season in October is the world premiere of Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince by two-time Pulitzer finalist Sarah Ruhl (marking her sixth production at Yale Rep), directed by Mark Wing-Davey. It was commissioned by Yale Rep and is supported by Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre, as are the world premieres of Imogen Says Nothing by Aditi Brennan Kapil, directed by Laurie Woolery; and Amy Herzog’s  (’00, ’07MFA) Mary Jane, directed by Anne Kauffman. The season also includes new productions of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars (the play’s first professional production in Connecticut), directed by Timothy Douglas ’86MFA, and Assassins, the Tony Award–winning musical by John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim, staged by Artistic Director James Bundy ’95MFA.