School Notes: David Geffen School of Drama
January/February 2011

Music theater initiative enters third season

Now in its third year, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre will select three original works from recent submissions to receive workshops in New Haven in June. Established jointly by the School of Drama and the School of Music, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre seeks to identify distinctive and original book musical, opera, and experimental/non-traditional music theater works by emerging composers and writers, and match them with directors, music directors, and actors/singers who can help them further develop their work. By limiting production resources and values, the workshops keep the focus on the creative process of the artistic team.

Selections for the inaugural season in 2009 were the book musicals sam i was with book, music, and lyrics by Sam Wessels, and POP! with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs; and the operaInvisible Cities with score and libretto by Christopher Cerrone ’09MusM, ’10MUSAM. In 2010, The Daughters, with music and libretto by Shaina Taub, and Stuck Elevator, with music by Byron Au Yong and libretto by Aaron Jafferis, were workshopped.

Yale Rep’s Notes from Underground travels to California, New York

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff, and directed by Woodruff, was commissioned by and had its world premiere at Yale Rep in March 2009. Featuring OBIE Award–winning actor Bill Camp in the central role of the Underground Man, the acclaimed production recently had its West Coast premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in September. Notes from Undergroundthen traveled back east for its New York debut, presented Off-Broadway by Theatre for a New Audience in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center, in November.

Drama School and Yale Rep join anti-bullying campaign

Students, faculty, staff, and guest artists at the School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre recently added their voices to the It Gets Better Project, which benefits the Trevor Project and GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. The It Gets Better Project was founded in September by writer Dan Savage in response to the alarming number of recent reported cases of LGBTQ youths taking their own lives after being bullied at school. Savage initially encouraged the LGBTQ community to share their own stories of surviving bullying on the It Gets Better YouTube channel as a way of letting young people know they are not alone and to give them hope that it will get better for them, too. Some 6,000 videos have been posted so far.

More than half of the YSD/YRT community of students, faculty, staff, and guest artists participated in the taping, which took place primarily on November 1: some shared personal stories, others gathered together as a group at Yale Rep to tape the message that concludes the video. A reflection of the diversity< the drama community celebrates, participants brought their own unique perspectives and experiences to the project; all were united by a shared sense of compassion and tolerance. View the video at www.youtube.com/user/YaleRepertoryTheatre.