GRADUATE REPERTORY 2022
MAY 05-07 | THURSDAY-SATURDAY
HARRY J. ELAM, JR. THEATER | FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC**
ABOUT GRADUATE REPERTORY
Graduate Repertory 2022 will feature four presentations in Rep, with two per evening, by TAPS second-year graduate students Marina J. Bergenstock, Westley Montgomery, Zoe Ryu, and Adin Walker.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE*
THURSDAY, MAY 05 at 8PM
Performance of Shakespeare’s Sisters and
Madame Ong**
FRIDAY, MAY 06 at 8PM
Lecture-presentations on Les Illuminations and Blue Jeans
SATURDAY, MAY 07 at 8PM
Performances of Shakespeare’s Sisters and Madame Ong
*Please note that this schedule has changed significantly over the past week. This reflects the latest information available.
**Madame Ong‘s Thursday May 5th performance is restricted to friends and family of the creative team and cast.
ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS
Sisters
DIRECTED BY MARINA J. BERGENSTOCK
Shakespeare’s Sisters was written by Pietro Floridia following a drama therapy interview process with Palestinian women in Beit Jala in the Occupied West Bank. The story centers around Samira, a driven professor living on her own who has dedicated her life to teaching and research. One night, Nesma, a young dressmaker, appears at Samira’s doorstep seeking freedom from her family’s traditional expectations. Living together produces chaos, but Samira and Nesma’s friendship begins to flourish. The women are struck by an idea in Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” — if Shakespeare had a sister, how would the patriarchy have affected her life? Nesma’s dreams and ambitions propel her to create a space inspired by this imagined sister, a space to recharge, regroup, and, if necessary, to revolt. Shakespeare’s Sisters interrogates the impact of patriarchal structures on women while providing captivating moments of friendship and joy.
Original Music by Kim Minju
Dramaturgy by Christine Xiong
Based on the famous 19th-century pansori, a genre of Korean narrative song or folk opera, Madame Ongrewrites the familiar story of Byun Gang-soeh and centres the long-neglected voice of his wife, Ongnyeo. Against the backdrop of plague and five dead ex-husbands, Ongnyeo meets a free-spirited girl, Byun Gangsoon, and relearns what it means to love. While Madame Ong employs various techniques like genderswapping and racebending to subvert the power relations of the original narrative, Ongnyeo retains a mixture of haehak (satirical humor) and han (grief and resentment) inherent to the form of pansori. Indeed, the “pan” in pansori means “a place where many people gather.” As we relearn how to gather in the theatre space, Madame Ong not only reflects the enduring presence of sickness and the stigma attached to Asian bodies in our present moment, but also asks us to reconsider how intimacy, mourning, and the powers of storytelling allow us to reinhabit the past and, in so doing, reimagine the future.
*Thursday restricted to friends + family
“I alone hold the key to this savage parade.” This new devised production of Benjamin Britten's song cycle Les Illuminations sets Britten's dazzling music and Rimbaud's surreal and spiraling poetry in the contemporary ethnographic museum — questioning what the work's depiction of the Other means for us today. Here, the poet's "dancing savages" and parades of "Chinese, Hottentots, and Bohemians" struggle to take back the key to the "savage parade," and attempt to imagine new futures.
“Don't hold back, I want to break free
Cause it’s singing through your body
And I’m carried by the sound
Every jump, every single beat
They were
born from your body
And I’m carried by the sound
Oh love
They'll never break the shape we take
Baby let all them voices slip away”
— (“Slip Away” by Perfume Genius)
Performances of Blue Jeans contain Flashing Lights and discussion of HIV/AIDS
SPONSORS
Graduate Repertory 2022 was made possible in part by The Pigott Fund for Drama, The May Ellen Ritter Production Fund, and the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Fund.
BETWEEN PRESENTATIONS
Evenings with two presentations will be divided by a ten-minute intermission.
IMPORTANT INFO
The lecture-presentation on Blue Jeans contains discussion of HIV/AIDS
ACCOMMODATIONS
For disability-related accommodations, please contact: tapsinformation@stanford.edu. Requests should be made by April 27th.
MASK POLICY
Masks will be required inside the theater at all times. Patrons should not attend events if they are experiencing symptoms of upper respiratory illness. If patrons should test positive for COVID-19 within ten days of being on campus, they should report using the General COVID-19 Case Reporting Form.
FILMING ADVISORY
The Friday and Saturday, May 6th and 7th performances will be recorded for possible future public viewing. Cameras in the theater may incidentally capture audience images and audio in the background. Those in attendance should be aware of this possibility and not attend if there are concerns. Email tapsinformation@stanford.edu before attending with any questions.
DIRECTIONS + PARKING
View our “Plan Your Visit” page.