Eugene Ionesco was born Nov. 26, 1909, in Slatina, Romania, and died March 28, 1994, in Paris, France. He studied in Bucharest and Paris, where he lived from 1945. His first one-act antiplay, The Bald Soprano (1950), inspired a revolution in dramatic techniques and helped inaugurate the Theatre of the Absurd. He followed it with other one-act plays in which illogical events create an atmosphere both comic and grotesque, including The Lesson (1951), The Chairs (1952), and The New Tenant (1955). His most popular full-length play, Rhinoceros (1959), concerns a provincial French town in which all the citizens are metamorphosing into rhinoceroses. Other plays include Exit the King (1962) and A Stroll in the Air (1963). He was elected to the Académie Française in 1970.

Frank Galati was born in Highland Park, Illinois in 1943. His adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath began at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and went on to Broadway, where it won Best Play and Best Direction Tony Awards in 1990.  He was also nominated for another Tony, for his direction of the original production of Ragtime in 1998. As Associate Director of the Goodman Theatre, he directed The Winter’s Tale and wrote and directed She Always Said, Pablo, text adapted from Gertrude Stein and images of Pablo Picasso, which went on to a successful run at the Kennedy Center.  He was Artistic Associate at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, where he adapted and directed the musical Knoxville, from James Agee’s novel A Death in the Family. He directed at the Metropolitan Opera, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for The Accidental Tourist in 1988. Galati was Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University for over 25 years.  Before his passing in 2023, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Liz Diamond (Director) has served as Resident Director at Yale Repertory Theatre since 1992, and her upcoming production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros will mark her 20th production here. Productions at Yale Rep include Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone; William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale; Marcus Gardley’s dance of the holy ghosts; Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy; Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle and St. Joan of the Stockyards; and Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play (world premiere), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and Father Comes Homes From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3. She has also directed new plays, adaptations, and classical works at theaters in New York and across the United States. She has won the OBIE and the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Direction. Liz has served as a Professor of Directing since 1992, and as Chair of the Directing Program since 2002 at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has taught and learned from generations of gifted directors whose work is advancing the art of directing theater and serving communities around the world.

Derek Prouse — 1922–1996, was a writer and actor known for translating Eugene Ionesco’s works, including The Future is in Eggs, The Leader, and, with Donald Watson, The Bérenger Plays—The Killer (1958), Rhinoceros (1959), Exit the King (1962), and A Stroll in the Air (1963). His film and television credits include The Champagne Murders starring Anthony Perkins (1967, writer), Mademoiselle (1966, dialogue director), and the arts series Tempo (1964). Prouse was also a deputy film critic for The Sunday Times in London, covering film festivals and writing articles.

Emily Coates received the School of American Ballet’s Mae L. Wein Award for Outstanding Promise and went on to perform internationally with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp, and Yvonne Rainer. She began her dance career working closely with Jerome Robbins and dancing the ballets of George Balanchine, and has gone on to accumulate diverse highlights, from dancing duets with Baryshnikov to performing in Joan Jonas’s 2024 video work To Touch Sound, commissioned by MOMA. Her choreography has been commissioned and presented by Danspace Project (NYT Critic’s Pick 2017, NYT Fall Dance to Watch 2018); Performa (NYT Best Dance 2019, with Rainer); Baryshnikov Arts Center (Martha Duffy Memorial Fellowship 2009); Works & Process at the Guggenheim (NYT Dance Performances to See/Fall 2025); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Quick Center for the Arts, The Hop, Ballet Memphis, and University of Chicago. She was a featured artist in the exhibition Hard Return: nine experiments for this moment, at the Neuberger Museum (2023). Her newest piece Tell Me Where It Comes From was commissioned by Works & Process and premiered at the Guggenheim in November 2025. A fellow at Center for Ballet and the Arts (2016) and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (2019), she is a Professor in the Practice at Yale University, where she served as founding Director of Dance Studies (2006-2025) and holds a secondary appointment at the David Geffen School of Drama. She co-authored Physics and Dance with physicist Sarah Demers (2019), and co-edited Remembering a Dance: Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019 with Yvonne Rainer (2023). Previous productions with Liz Diamond include L’Histoire de Soldat (Carnegie Hall) and Max Makes a Million (Alliance Theatre).  emilycoates.art 

Jennifer Yuqing Cao 曹语晴 is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Based between New York City and China, she works across theater and dance as an international artist, focusing on space as an active, narrative-generating force rather than a static visual backdrop. In 2024, she was a Yale-China Association Resident Artist, engaging in intercultural and site-responsive artistic practice. She has worked internationally with International Theater Amsterdam as an assistant scenographer, collaborating with Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld on My Heavenly Favorite. Selected credits include Once 一场 (China National Tour) as set designer, costume designer, and production stage manager; Antony and Cleopatra and You Can Tell a Tree by Its Fruit (David Geffen School of Drama); Here’s a Blue Morpho For You (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); New York Housing Project (NYU Tisch); and The Mailroom (International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Yale–China Fellowship).

Tricie Bergmann is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in costume design at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Silence/The Village and Kilele. She has worked as an assistant costume designer on The Salvagers (Yale Rep) and Hamlet (Geffen School). Additional credits include Pool (No Water) (Yale Cabaret); Kneading (Brut Theatre, Vienna); Voyage dans la Lune (costume production manager, Vienna Volksoper); Tristan und Isolde and Wozzeck (assistant costume production manager, Vienna State Opera); and Anatomyland (puppet creation, Aitor Throup Studio collection). She is originally from Vienna, Austria, and received her B.A. in fashion and textile design from the Amsterdam Fashion Academy.

Donald Holder has worked extensively in theater, opera, dance, architectural, film, and television lighting in the U.S. and abroad for over 30 years. He has designed over 60 Broadway productions and has been nominated for fourteen Tony awards, winning for Best Lighting Design for The Lion King in 1998 and for the Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific in 2008. Broadway productions include: McNeal; Call Me Izzy; Pirates! The Penzance Musical; Paradise Square; Tootsie; Kiss Me, Kate; Anastasia; Oslo; Straight White Men; She Loves Me; Fiddler on the Roof; The King and I; On the Twentieth Century; The Bridges of Madison County; Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark; Bullets Over Broadway; Movin’ Out; and many others. He has designed for most of the nation’s leading resident theater companies and has an extensive list of Off-Broadway credits, winning the OBIE, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Connecticut Critics Circle, LA Drama Desk, and many other awards for his work.  Projects at the NY Metropolitan Opera include La Sonnambula, Champion, Rigoletto, Porgy and Bess, Samson et Delilah, Otello, The Magic Flute, and Two Boys. His film/television work includes the theatrical lighting for Spirited (Apple Studios), Ocean’s 8 (Warner Brothers), Gossip Girl (HBO Max), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Studios), American Classic (MGM+), and two seasons of Smash (NBC-Dreamworks). Mr. Holder is a graduate of the University of Maine and David Geffen School of Drama, where he is Head of the Lighting Design concentration. He served as head of the lighting design program at California Institute of the Arts from 2006–10 and Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, from 2016–25.

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦 is a native of Nanjing, China, and holds a B.A. in theater arts and a B.M. in piano performance from Lawrence University. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Previous credits include original music composition for Morpho Studio’s digital fashion collection releases of「CORAL 珊瑚」and VINCENT at Beijing Fashion Week; chamber music composition for Hop, hop… ins Wasser—A Sequel to Wozzeck at Yale College’s New Music Concert at the Beinecke Library; sound design and original music for Kilele and Macbeth at the Geffen School and The Far Country at Yale Rep (co-designer); sound design for Utopia (Geffen School); sound design for Apologiae 4&5 and Lovesick at Yale Cabaret; The Mailroom installation with Yale-China at International Festival of Arts & Ideas; and Detroit ’67 at Princeton Summer Theatre. She is also an enthusiast of dance and culinary arts. xizoeylin.com

Ke Xu 许可 is a multidisciplinary theater designer. She graduated from Central Saint Martins (UAL) with first-class honors in product design and is currently a projection design M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. She was working professionally in China before coming to Yale and is passionate about exploring new theatrical language that integrates digital media with physical space. Recent credits include projection design for Spunk (Yale Rep); Silence/The Village, Ain’t No Mo’ (Geffen School); video and set design for Detective Zhao Gan’e (Beijing 77 Theater); projection design for And the Beetle Hums and Can the Peruvian Speak? (Yale Cabaret); Miss Julie (Beijing Star Theatre); 10:59 (Off Broadway Theater). behance.net/kxu

The Wig Associates — Krystal Balleza and Will Vicari are New York–based wig and makeup designers who met at Webster Conservatory and are the co-owners of The Wig Associates. Their recent work includes Broadway’s Yellowface and Real Women Have Curves, as well as Twelfth Night, Good Bones, The Tempest (The Public Theater); Amadeus (Pasadena Playhouse); Grief Camp (Atlantic Theater Company); Eurydice, Orlando (Signature Theatre); The Connector (MCC); The Blood Quilt, Six Characters in Search of an Author; At the Wedding (Lincoln Center Theater). Regional credits include Yale Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse, Barrington Stage, Arena Stage, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2023–2026.

Daria Kerschenbaum is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama. There, she has worked as a production dramaturg on Utopia, Charity, and Ruzante. Additional credits include Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (Yale Rep); True Scum, The Aughts (Yale Cabaret); and My Six Therapists (Yale Cabaret/Theater Mu). Her writing has been featured in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre and Theater magazine, where she served as a managing editor. In 2021, she was named an artist-in-residence at the Center at West Park, where she produced her play, Virginia/Poe. Kerschenbaum holds a B.A. in playwriting and English literature from Fordham University.

Mia Van Deloo is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama, where she is a Managing Editor for Theater magazine. Before coming to Yale, she worked at La Jolla Playhouse in various departments including marketing, artistic, and front of house and was the assistant dramaturg on The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical. She was most recently the Yale Fellow at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a B.A. in theater and history from the University of California, San Diego.

Lilliana Gonzalez is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in technical design and production at David Geffen School of Drama. Her recent Yale credits include assistant technical director for Utopia, co-props manager for the 2025 Carlotta Festival,  production electrician for Coriolanus, and assistant technical director for Metamorphoses. She also recently served as scenic designer for for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf with Black Arts MKE. One of her goals is to become a professor with an emphasis on inclusion and equitable theater practices. She hopes you enjoy the show!

Michael Rossmy is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep and a lecturer in acting and stage management at David Geffen School of Drama. Broadway credits include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose directed by Phylicia Rashad, A Tale of Two Cities, Cymbeline, and Superior Donuts. Regional theater credits include The Public Theater, Roundabout, The Atlantic, Primary Stages, Westport Country Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Paper Mill Playhouse, Asolo Rep, The Old Globe, TheaterWorks Hartford, Princeton University, The Acting Company, Soho Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, and others. He was nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk Award for The Public’s production of Troilus and Cressida and is a 2024 Barrymore Award nominee for Bonez at People’s Light. Recent work: The world premieres of Beau: The Musical and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purple Rain directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.

Grace Zandarski (Vocal and Dialect Coach) is Associate Chair of the Acting program and Head of Voice and Text at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has taught Voice since 2002. She has coached numerous productions at Yale Rep and the Geffen School including Macbeth in Stride, The Brightest Thing in the World, An Enemy of the People, Hamlet, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Between Two Knees. New York coaching credits include the Mike Nichols productions of Death of a Salesman and Betrayal (Broadway), The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide… (The Public Theater), and Homebody/Kabul (BAM). She was named Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework in 1998. Zandarski is a member and Board Chair of The Actors Center Workshop Company, a member of Pantheatre (Paris), SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and VASTA. Acting credits include McCarter Theatre, OSF Ashland, Wilma Theatre, and ACT. Directing credits include the Peer Gynt Project and Chekhov Shorts. M.F.A., American Conservatory Theater; B.A., Princeton University.

Calleri Jensen Davis is a creative casting partnership among James Calleri, Erica Jensen, and Paul Davis of over 20 years. They began their collaboration with Yale Rep in 2023 with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles and the ripple, the wave that carried me home. Broadway credits: The Piano Lesson, Topdog/Underdog, for colored girls…, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Burn This, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, A Raisin in the Sun, 33 Variations. Television: Love Life, Queens, Dickinson, and The Path, to name a few.

callerijensendavis.com

Caileigh Potter (she/her) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. She holds a B.A. in theater and a minor in biology from Florida State University. Select stage management credits include Hedda Gabler, The Inspector (Yale Rep); The Care and Keeping of You Pages 76-77, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cleansed, The Misanthrope (Geffen School); Measure for Measure, Suor Angelica/ Gianni Schicchi, New Dances 2022 (The Juilliard School); Marisol, Hairspray, Pinkalicious the Musical (Florida State University). Caileigh is also a 2023 graduate of The Juilliard School Stage Management Apprenticeship Program. She would like to thank her family and friends for their endless love and support!

Will Dagger has helped develop new work with Ars Nova, Audible, The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, MTC, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Primary Stages, The Public Theater, Roundabout, and Second Stage. Recent stage credits include Good Night, and Good Luck (Broadway); Give Me Carmelita Tropicana (Soho Rep); Well, I’ll Let You Go (Regular People); Corsicana (Playwrights Horizons); Uncle Vanya (O’Henry); Among The Dead (Ma-Yi); you don’t have to do anything (Here Arts); and Macbeth (Double Feature). Film and television credits include The Bride! (2026), Law & Order: SVU, FBI: Most Wanted, and “The Blacklist. Thanks Dave & Ashley, love you M & W.

Jeremy A. Fuentes (he/him) is a second-year M.F.A. acting candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. He was born and raised in Miami, Florida, and is a graduate of the University of Florida where he received his bachelor’s degree in public health. Recent credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Geffen School) and The Inspector (understudy) at Yale Repertory Theatre. He is grateful to the faculty for their continuous guidance and wisdom.

Nicole Michelle Haskins (she/her) is very excited to be making her Yale Rep debut with this piece. Regional: The Color Purple (Goodman Theatre, Jeff Award nominee, Black Theatre Alliance Award nominee); The Color Purple (Muny Theatre, St. Louis Theatre Circle winner); The Color Purple (Drury Lane Theatre, Jeff Award winner); U.S. premiere of Hopelessly Devoted (Piven Theatre, Jeff Award nominee); Caroline, or Change (Firebrand Theatre, BTAA nominee); The Spitfire Grill (Refuge Theatre Project, Jeff Award nominee); The Wiz (Kokandy Productions, BTAA and Jeff Award nominee, TimeOut Chicago Theatre Award nominee). School at Steppenwolf Acting Fellow and Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit alum.

Richard Ruiz Henry — Off-Broadway: Antonio in the musical The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Public Theater), Father Grevado in Drift (New World Stages), Mr. Puffy in Streets of New York (Irish Repertory Theatre), Mr. Lopez in Fiorello (Encores!). Regional: Sam Byck in Assassins (Yale Rep); Mr. Bumble in Oliver! (Goodspeed Musicals); J.P Morgan in Ragtime, Major-General in Pirates of Penzance (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Old Globe); Monsieur Ragueneau in Cyrano, the Sheppard’s Son in The Winter’s Tale Folger Shakespeare); Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls (Milwaukee Rep); Feste in Twelfth Night (Pig Iron); The D’Ysquith Family in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Florida Studio Theater); Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man (Guthrie); Trinculo in The Tempest Roundhouse Theater); King Louis in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (La Jolla/Papermill/cast recording). National tours: Officer Barrel in Urinetown, Herman in Sweet Charity, Sancho in Man of La Mancha, and King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. Television: The Other Two, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Younger, Girls5Eva, Search Party, Bupkis, YOU, Law & Order, Adults, and The Chair Company for HBO.

Dorottya Ilosvai is from Hungary and is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Nadya in Utopia, Irina in Three Sisters, and You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit as well as The Inspector (understudy) at Yale Rep. She received her B.A. from New York University, Abu Dhabi.

Tony Manna is appearing in his sixth show at Yale Rep, having previously been seen in Cymbeline and These Paper Bullets!, among others. New York credits include The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Keen Company, 59E59, and more. He has performed regionally at Arena Stage, Alliance Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, the Geffen Playhouse, and others. Select television credits include Interview With the Vampire (AMC), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon), Elementary (CBS), and Maniac (Netflix). Manna co-created and starred in two seasons of the webseries The Corps and also produces the podcast Ask Ronna with Ronna (& Bryan). M.F.A., David Geffen School of Drama.

Ameya Narkar is a second-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, born and raised in Mumbai, India. His recent credits include Yura in Utopia and Vershinin in Three Sisters at the Geffen School as well as an understudy in The Inspector at Yale Rep, and portraying Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Elm Shakespeare Company. He is immensely grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow alongside such a talented community.

Reg Rogers — Previous Yale Rep credits: Figaro/Figaro, Landscape of the Body, Rough Crossing, and An Enemy of the People (Connecticut Critic’s Circle Award). Recent New York theater: Little Shop of Horrors, Merrily We Roll Along (Lucille Lortel Nomination), Tootsie, The Iceman Cometh, Present Laughter. Not so recent: Privacy, You Can’t Take it With You, The Royal Family, The Dazzle (OBIE and Lucille Lortel Awards), Holiday (Tony nomination). Film and television: Primal Fear, Runaway Bride, Igby Goes Down, I Shot Andy Warhol, Friends, The Americans, Boardwalk Empire, YOU, The Knick. Rogers is a Beinecke Fellow at David Geffen School of Drama this spring.

Elizabeth Stahlmann (Daisy) is delighted to return to Yale Rep! She led the world premiere of Tectonic Theater Project’s Here There Are Blueberries directed by Moisés Kauffman at New York Theatre Workshop, Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and La Jolla Playhouse. Other theater credits include The Inspector (Yale Rep), Slave Play (Mark Taper Forum, understudy for Broadway), Grounded directed by Liz Diamond (Westport Country Playhouse), and productions with Dorset Theater Festival, The Alley Theatre, The Acting Company, The Guthrie Theater, Compagnia de’ Colombari, KrymovLab NYC. Television and film credits include Furious (upcoming), City on a Hill, The Equalizer, Law & Order: SVU, and The Snare (in production). B.F.A., University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater; M.F.A., David Geffen School of Drama.

Phillip Taratula — Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center Theater). Off-Broadway: Ginger Twinsies (Orpheum Theatre), The Beastiary (Ars Nova), Becomes a Woman (Mint Theatre Company). National tour: What the Constitution Means to Me. Regional: Barrington Stage, Syracuse Stage, Two River Theater, Huntington Theatre, Humana Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Portland Stage, Tuacahn Center, Gulfshore Playhouse, O’Neill Conference, North Shore Music Theatre, others. Film/television: Almost Love, And Just Like That (HBO Max); Dr. Death (NBC/Peacock); High Maintenance (HBO); For Life (ABC); FBI (CBS); The Outs (Vimeo Originals). B.F.A., Boston University.

Kimberly Vilbrun-François is a Haitian-American actress, born and raised in Miami, Florida. She is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit. She extends her heartfelt thanks to God for the continued guidance on her journey and to her talented cast and creative team, whose support and dedication made this experience unforgettable. Sending love to her 305 family and her new community in New Haven.

Tessa Albertson is thrilled to join the company of Rhinoceros. Theater credits include Dilaria (DR2), All Nighter (MCC Theater), I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire (Southwark Playhouse London/Offie Award Nomination, NY world premiere), The Low Road (The Public Theater), Shrek the Musical (Broadway), Happy Days (wild project), Macbeth directed by Elena Araoz, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Girls. She is best known for her recurring role as Caitlin Miller on Younger. Other television: Generation, Law & Order: SVU, The Family, The Good Wife, and Instinct. Film: Blame and Barry. Albertson is a graduate of Princeton University and an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama.

Walker Borba is from Los Angeles, California, and a first-year M.F.A candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Theater: Comedia! (Chautauqua Theater Company); He’s Not Like That (RE/VENUE NYC); Henry V, Oedipus Rex (KCDC). Film: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Shattered Memories, Endangered. B.A., Kenyon College. Borba also studied at the British American Drama Academy and The Actors Center Mentorship Program (Cohort 1).

Gabriel Cali is a first-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Melbourne, Australia, his international theater credits include Ghosts (Theatre Works), Henry VI (Prague Shakespeare Company), Lord of the Flies (Arts Centre Melbourne), and MOTHERLOD_^E (Frenzy Theatre Co.). His independent film credits include Splinters, Heart Throb, The Devil You Know, and Quiet. He received his B.F.A. in acting from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2021.

Ashly Chalico is a first-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, and she is thrilled to be making her understudy debut at Yale Rep. Born and raised in Magnolia, Texas, she received her B.F.A. in theater performance from the University of Evansville in 2025. To her friends and family, “los quiero muchísimo!”

Rasan Kuvly is a Kurdish American actor, writer, and filmmaker. He is a first-year M.F.A. candidate in acting at David Geffen School of Drama. His feature film So Far All Good—which he co-wrote, produced, and starred in—premiered in competition at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.

John Maria Gutierrez is ecstatic to be making their Yale Rep debut alongside this incredible team. John is a first-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, originally from Washington Heights, NYC. Thank you Liz, thank you Ionesco, thank you absurdity, thank you classmates, teachers, and thank you love. Film: A Thousand and One (Sundance Grand Jury Prize), Preparation For the Next Life. Television: Dexter: Resurrection (Paramount), Law & Order: Organized Crime, Law & Order: SVU (NBC). Theater: Aristotle Thinks Again (La Mama, ETC), Veteran Project (Labyrinth Theater Intensive), Sadonna (Joe’s Pub).

Sboniso Thombeni (they/she/he) is a multidisciplinary artist from Johannesburg, South Africa, who works at the intersections of performance, theatermaking, arts education, and writing. They are a long time “theater kid” with a training history in South Africa that includes the National School of the Arts, Rhodes University (cum laude), and the Market Theatre Foundation. As an actor, dancer, performance artist, choreographer, writer/Arts journalist, and arts educator, they have created works on stage and on screen that have largely reflected the post-apartheid realities as they are experienced by black and queer people in the country. Thombeni is a first-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama.