David Geffen School of Drama to Present THE CARLOTTA FESTIVAL

David Geffen SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE will presentsthe Carlotta Festival, celebrating the work of the School’s graduating playwrights, performed in rotating repertory, May 6–14 at the Iseman Theater.
 
The 2025 edition of the Carlotta Festival will feature Sort by Ida Cuttler, You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit by comfort ifeoma katchy, and Silence/The Village by ML Roberts.
 
The Carlotta Festival is named for Carlotta Monterey, the widow of Eugene O’Neill, who chose Yale University Press as the publisher of her late husband’s masterpiece Long Day’s Journey into Night. The proceeds from this publication support playwriting at Yale University.
 
ABOUT THE PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
 

Sort

By Ida Cuttler
Directed by Alexis Kulani Woodard
 
A guy walks into a mortuary and meets a clerk he’ll spend the rest of his days with. Sort is a play about trying to live while preparing to die.
 
Sort will feature scenic design by Patrick Blanchard, costume design by Allison Morgan, lighting design by Larry Ortiz, sound design and original music by Emilee Biles, dramaturgy by Georgia Petersen, and stage management by Thomas Nagata.
 
 The cast includes Francisco Morandi Zerpa, Bella Orobaton, and Catherine Young.
 
Ida Cuttler a playwright and actor from San Francisco, California and a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School Drama, where she wrote Moe is a D*ck and Running Play. 
 
She was a company member of The Neo-Futurists from 2015–22, where she wrote over 200 plays for Chicago's longest running late-night show The Infinite Wrench. Ida was also a company member of Playmakers Laboratory Theater, where she adapted and performed in stories written by Chicago Public School Students. Ida's other writing and performing credits include: Comfortable Shoes, The Infinite Wrench, and Jeff Award-nominated Wildcats. She is a 2025–26 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award Finalist.
 
As an actor, Ida was most recently seen in The Day the Butcher Shop Closed and the sketch revue *Is This Mom* both at Yale Cabaret. One time she entered a giant donut eating competition.

You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit

By comfort ifeoma katchy
Directed by Juliana Morales Carreño
 
Louis Carter Senior, a skilled shoemaker, wants to fulfill his dream of starting a family business. The problem is, racism against African Americans is rampant in Reconstruction-era Texas. After meeting an Irish immigrant family that almost magically mirrors his own, Senior has an idea. 
 
You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit will feature scenic design by Jennifer Yuqing Cao, costume design by Micah Ohno, lighting design by Celia Weiqing Chen, sound design by Constant Dzah, dramaturgy by Karoline Vielemeyer, and stage management by Rethabile Headbush.
 
The cast includes Kieron J. Anthony, Liam Beveridge, Dorottya Ilosvai, Nancy Kimball, Olamide Oladeji, Max Sheldon, and Kim Vilbrun-Francois.
 
comfort ifeoma katchy is a playwright and actor hailing proudly from Houston, Texas. She is a third-year M.F.A. playwriting candidate at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale where she wrote Stray Dogs in the New Play Lab and The Alley in the Langston Hughes Festival. Other writing credits include How I Learned to Play Tennis, Games have rules and The Moon is Upside Down. comfort was most recently seen on stage in Is God Is at the Rec Room Arts in Houston and Pride of Doves at the Yale Cabaret in New Haven.  
 
comfort has had work presented through The Alley Theatre's Alley All New Festival, Theatre Masters Take Ten Theatre Festival, and the University of Houston's 2021 mainstage season. She was a semi-finalist for The Hansberry-Lilly Award (2023), UCross + The Blank Theatre Future of Playwriting Prize (2022), and the Third Culture Theatre Nexus Festival (2022). comfort has been an inaugural member of the Rec Room Writers Group in Houston, Texas since 2019. She is also a Teaching Artist for the Dwight/Edgewood Project and Survivors of Society Rising, mentoring middle school students and adult writers from New Haven.
 
She received her B.F.A. in Playwriting/Dramaturgy from the University of Houston's School of Theatre and Dance and a Certificate in Acting from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, NYC. 

Silence/The Village

By ML Roberts
Directed by Kemar Jewel
 
It’s January 6, 2021, and an insurrection is mounting at the nation’s Capital. Meanwhile, a young Black man surprises his surrogate parents—a liberal, middle-aged white couple—as they host a retreat on their estate. Will their remote New England island be his shelter or his prison?
 
Silence/The Village will feature scenic design by Patrick Blanchard, costume design by Tricie Bergmann, lighting design by Gib Gibney, sound design by Tojo Rasedoara, projections design by Ke Xu 抯可, dramaturgy by Austin Riffelmacher, and stage management by ty ruwe. The Carlotta Festival includes technical direction by T Morris-Thompson, and production stage management by Colleen Rooney.
 
The cast includes Keira Anne Smith, Juice Mackins, Rebecca Rivera, Michael Saguto, and Grace Wissink.
 
ML Roberts (he/him) is a third-year MFA candidate at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale where he wrote Solstice in the New Play Lab and HellYouTalmBout Part 1 in the Langston Hughes Festival. His other credits include Riverside (Indy Shakes) and Abolitionists (Broadway Advocacy Coalition).
 
As a playwright, his work has been developed with New Harmony Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and GTG's Speaker's Corner. As a screenwriter, he co-wrote a Lifetime movie and has developed work with Hulu.  
 
ML is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, a Broadway Advocacy Coalition Fellow, and Co-Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret Season 57: Phoenix. He is also a company member of Indianapolis Shakespeare, and inaugural Core Company Member at ACT Theatre (Seattle). 
 
As a member of Actors’ Equity Association he has performed with Folger Shakespeare, Unicorn Theatre (UK), The Williams Project, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare, among others. 
 
He received a B.F.A. in acting from UNC School of the Arts (Home of the Fighting Pickles). He is the son of a Navy veteran, and descendant of the Gullah Geechee of the Carolinas.
  

TICKET INFORMATION AND PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE