Yale School of Drama Announces 2011-2012 Season

Yale School of Drama (James Bundy, Dean; Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean) has announced the 2011-12 season, three vividly imagined theatrical productions that explore some all-too human follies-of making deals with the Devil; of believing appearances; and of wanting what, or who, we cannot have: DOCTOR FAUSTUS LIGHTS THE LIGHTS by Gertrude Stein, CYMBELINE by William Shakespeare, and THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekhov.

Yale School of Drama's 2011-12 season will run as follows:

DOCTOR FAUSTUS LIGHTS THE LIGHTS
By Gertrude Stein
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz

October 25-29, 2011
Iseman Theater
1156 Chapel Street

"The business of art is to live in the actual present."
-Gertrude Stein

Doctor Faustus has made a deal with the devil: he's sold his soul for the electric light. Why, then, with the whole world illuminated by his invention, does he still wander in the dark, grasping at happiness, peace, connection? Stein's take on the Faust legend invites us to consider our contemporary lives: consumed in technology, bathed in artificial light, and haunted by images of the past that we too often confuse with the future. What does it means to live in the present? What do we mean when we say we are here?

CYMBELINE
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Louisa Proske

December 10-16, 2011
University Theatre
222 York Street

"Be cheerful, wipe thine eyes. Some falls are means the happier to arise."
-William Shakespeare

Separated by the King of Britain before their wedding night, Posthumus and Imogen must endure great trials before they can meet again through a miracle of forgiveness. In Cymbeline, Shakespeare creates a romance that charts human progress from blindness to seeing, and asks how our deepest wounds-both private and collective-can be healed.

THE SEAGULL
By Anton Chekhov
Translated by Paul Schmidt
Directed by Alexandru Mihail

January 24-28, 2012

University Theatre

222 York Street

"Any idiot can face a crisis-it's day to day living that wears you out."

- Anton Chekhov

Nina wants to be an actress. Aspiring playwright Konstantin wants to revolutionize theatre. As they put on their first play by a Russian lake, the audience is unreceptive, to say the least: Konstantin's mother, the famous actress Arkadina, laughs. Her lover, a celebrated writer, falls asleep. Indeed, in Chekhov's profound comedy, years of petty squabbles and thwarted love affairs breed miserable hilarity in the countryside: lovers and artists alike struggle with memory, forgetting, and moving on.

Tickets, starting at $10, are available online at drama.yale.edu, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Box Office (1120 Chapel Street at York Street).