THE LIVING WORD PROJECT

FRI—SAT NOV 18—19 8PM

SUN NOV 20 5PM

YBCA THEATER

YBCA.ORG #PEHLOTAH

Produced by: When Marc Bamuthi Joseph first told me about THE LESLIE AND MERLE RABINE 2016–17 PERFORMANCE SEASON A NOTE /peh-LO-tah/, he didn’t start by describing a multidisciplinary performance project. Instead, FROM THE he described the moments in his own life EXECUTIVE when he feels free – weightless, without race, incredibly alive. He talked about feeling this DIRECTOR freedom when dancing and also right at the moment that his own body, positioned just perfectly, slices the soccer ball past the goalie and lands it squarely in the net.

The feeling of freedom . . .

Bamuthi’s work – from Youth Speaks and the Living Word Project to his organizational home at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts – has certainly been about creating these moments not just for himself but also for all of us. No matter which role he is playing – educator, curator, poet, or performer - he is building an ecosystem and he is “freeing” us to ask the questions, turn over the stones, confront the demons, imagine the possibilities.

/peh-LO-tah/ centers on the question what does freedom feel like? At the same time, YBCA – through the YBCA Fellows program – is asking the related question can we design freedom? This is not convenient or coincidental rather it Photo by Jon Lowenstein is an intentional effort to bring creative people of all kinds together in pursuit of interrogation that will lead to cultural shift. /peh-LO-tah/ At the time of this writing, we don’t know who A FUTBOL-FRAMED FREEDOM SUITE... Performed by The Living Word Project: will win the national election but we do know Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Amara Tabor- that, regardless, we are a perilously divided CONCEIVED AND WRITTEN BY Smith, Tommy Shepherd, Traci Tolmaire, country and that fewer and fewer people live MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH and Yaw Agyeman a life that is free – free from fear of violence, free from worrying about where the next DEVELOPED WITH AND DIRECTED BY The company wishes to thank our meal will come from, free from the tyranny of MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS ancestors, our families, and our racism, free from the all-too-real fear that our professional colleagues for their babies will not survive the day. At YBCA, we CHOREOGRAPHY BY STACEY PRINTZ inspiration and support. The author follow the artists who pave the way, the ones wishes to thank Christine Marie, Paul Turbiak, Catherine Adell, Brittney who inspire us to confront what is wrong and Produced by Leeanne Williams, Corrie Besse, and imagine and reach for what is right. MAPP International Productions TaiRecka Glover for their work on the development of this project. Much On behalf of YBCA, I am immensely proud Scenic and video design: David Szlasa love to Erik Mayo for your unbridled to bring the very first performances of Lighting design: Tom Ontiveros support and facilitation, and to Deborah /peh-LO-tah/ to San Francisco and to Sound design: Robert Kaplowitz Cullinan and the staff of YBCA for your the world. Composer: Tommy Shepherd understanding and permission. Costume design: Meghan Healey Warmly, Photography and film: Joan Osato This piece is dedicated to Diana Cohn, Production manager: Josh Johnson a beacon of belief on our path, without DEBORAH CULLINAN Sound designer: Zachary McKenna whom this work quite literally could not CEO of YERBA BUENA Stage management: Amanda Novoa have been made. CENTER FOR THE ARTS 2 3 ARTIST PROFILES on the faculty for fifteen years. She has also taught her hybrid contemporary- MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH is an inaugural jazz technique across the recipient of the United States Artists and annually in Europe. Her company has Rockefeller Fellowship, the winner of performed in San Francisco for fifteen the 2011 Alpert Award in Theater, and years, and has toured across the country an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke and internationally in Russia, Lithuania, Performing Artist Award. He has served as Ireland, the Virgin Islands, and Mexico. Her an advisor and panelist for the Rockefeller show Hover Space inspired one reviewer to MAP Fund, the PEW Charitable Trust, and say, “With a talented cast, unique concept the Zellerbach Family Fund, among other and inventive movement, Hover Space is a national philanthropies. He is the founding slam dunk.” Printz has also choreographed program director of the exemplary Aaron Davidman’s Wrestling Jerusalem, nonprofit Youth Speaks, and a cofounder Sarah Shourd’s The Box, and Marc Bamuthi of Life Is Living, a national series of Joseph’s internationally recognized works one-day festivals designed to activate Scourge, the break/s, and red, black and under-resourced parks through hip-hop GREEN (a blues). Printzdance.org arts and focused environmental actions. Joseph recently premiered the Creative DAVID SZLASA is a media, video, and Time commission Black Joy in the Hour of public art designer. His work spans Chaos in New York’s Central Park, and is performance, video, public art, and social currently completing a new work with Bill practice. He is a recipient of the Gerbode T. Jones for the Philadelphia Opera. He is Award, a Kenneth Rainin Foundation NEW Chief of Program and Pedagogy at YBCA. Program grant, a CCI Investing in Artists His evening-length piece /peh-LO-tah/ grant, a Future Aesthetics Artist Award, a has been commissioned by the Kennedy Zellerbach grant, a Light Artists in Dance Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Award, a CA$H grant, a Siff grant, and Chicago, and the Guggenheim Museum. commissions from the National Science Foundation / UC Berkeley, Triangle Lab, MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS previously the Contemporary Jewish Museum, collaborated with Marc Bamuthi Joseph 3200 Stories, the San Francisco Arts on red, black and GREEN (a blues) and Commission, and YBCA. Szlasa holds a Marc Bamuthi Joseph photo by John Coyne the break/s. His directing credits in San BFA in theater from NYU Tisch School of Francisco include Wrestling Jerusalem by the Arts and an MA in integrations of new Aaron Davidman (Intersection for the Arts) media and performance from NYU Gallatin and The Box by Sarah Shourd (Z Space). School of Interdisciplinary Studies. His PROGRAM OVERVIEW He is the artistic director of Cornerstone work has been presented worldwide in Theater in Los Angeles, where he recently galleries, theaters, and public spaces. From childhood through the recent past, I’ve been growing toward this new work. /peh-LO- directed Urban Rez by Larissa FastHorse His collaborators include Marc Bamuthi tah/ explores the ecology of egalitarianism played out inside the world’s game. It is a story and California: The Tempest by Alison Joseph, Sara Shelton Mann, Joanna of my body in its late summer years, and of the physics of a globally networked economy Carey. Other recent credits include District Haigood, Dohee Lee, Yuri Zhukov, Hope running in tandem with the fragile network of a dancer’s anatomy. It is a bet that that sweat Merchants by Aaron Posner at the Folger Mohr, Bill Shannon, Rennie Harris, Deb has currency to transition both narrative point of view and visual dimension. For my company Theatre in Washington, DC, and Seven Margolin, Myra Melford, and others. of collaborators, it is a structural experiment: physically demanding, visually deft, viscerally Spots on the Sun by Martín Zimmerman reaching, and linguistically twisted in hip-hop and hope. at the Theatre @ Boston Court. He is a TOM ONTIVEROS designs with light and member of the Woolly Mammoth Theater projection for theater, dance, and live Ultimately I’m intrigued by the elusive riddle of equality, and fascinated by the curiosity that Company. music. His design for Completeness was soccer is the only thing the entire planet can agree to do together. It is the official sport of nominated for best lighting design (2014) this spinning ball. My inquiry involves the joy of the game against the complexity of the Global STACEY PRINTZ, artistic director of by the Los Angeles Ticketholders Awards. South sites of the last two World Cups. It acknowledges that all conversations tied to ecology Printz Dance Project, is a Bay Area–based Other recent work includes Happy Days are also tied to democracy and economy. The work is sprung from the bliss of a goal scorer’s choreographer, dancer, and educator. She with Brooke Adams and Tony Shaloub run; it shares what one’s countrymen do after the ball beats the goalie, the closest thing graduated cum laude from the University (2014 Ticketholders Awards, Top 10 Revival going to freedom. of California, Irvine, with degrees in Productions) and ¡Figaro!: (90210) for sociology and dance, and she teaches for the LA Opera. Ontiveros collaborated with MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH ACT’s MFA program and at Alonzo King’s on the New York premiere of LINES Dance Center, where she has been (2003 Lucille Lortel and 5 Photo by Jon Lowenstein

Drama Desk Awards for unique theatrical work has been heard on Broadway as well experience and the Outer Critics Circle as at Lincoln Center, the Public, NYTW, Award for outstanding off-Broadway play). MCC, Second Stage, the Vineyard, MTC, He is a three-time recipient of the Dean and just about every ninety-nine-seat and Goodman Award for lighting design and smaller venue in that city. was featured in San Francisco’s Callboard magazine. He designed the lighting for TOMMY SHEPHERD is an actor, playwright, the inaugural Tune-in Festival at the Park composer, educator, rapper, drummer, Avenue Armory in New York, curated by and beatboxer. He is a cofounder of Eighth Blackbird Ensemble and featuring the live hip-hop collective Felonious, a Bora Yoon, Paul Haas, Paul Fowler, resident company at Intersection for the Newspeak, Red Fish Blue Fish, John Luther Arts; Shepherd created the original music Adams, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and performed in their recent project and others. He is an assistant professor Babylon Is Burning. He is a longtime of lighting design at the University of member of the performance groups Campo Southern California. Santo (a Parents Choice Award–winning educational hip-hop group), Alphabet ROBERT KAPLOWITZ has spent the last Rockers, and Oakland’s own Antique Naked twenty-four years designing sound and Soul. Shepherd has performed and toured composing, and has been honored with an internationally with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Obie Award for sustained excellence and a collaborating on Scourge, the break/s, Tony Award for Fela! A Philadelphian since Spoken World, and red, black and GREEN (a 2010, he has designed there for PlayPenn, blues). the Wilma, Interact, the Arden, Lucidity Suitcase, Pig Iron, the Lantern, PTC, and MEGHAN HEALEY is a designer based in others; other regional credits include the New York who specializes in new plays Guthrie, the Alley, Sundance, the O’Neill, and experimental work. Her most recent and the National Theatre of England. work includes costumes for José Rivera’s Previous work with Michael John Garcés adaptation of The Maids (One-Eighth includes The Body of an American at the Theater / INTAR), The Body of an American Wilma in Philadelphia and Light Raise the (Wilma Theater), WE ARE PROUD... (Woolly Photo by Jon Lowenstein Roof at NYTW in New York. In New York, his Mammoth Theater), costumes for URBAN 6 A DANCE ABOUT THE ECONOMY, CHOREOGRAPHED TO THE RHYTHM OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME.

MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH CREATOR OF /peh-LO-tah/

Photo by Jon Lowenstein 9 8 9 REZ, and Love on San Pedro, and scenery Cornerstone Theater Company, Center the latter featuring music from the YBCA CONTRIBUTERS for Plumas Negras, all for Cornerstone Theatre Group, El Teatro Campesino, NBC- Motown great Lamont Dozier. He has been Theater Company, and costumes created Universal, South Coast Repertory, and featured on VH1’s Soul Cities, a show YBCA PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT from plants native to the northeast for the Pasadena Playhouse. Novoa is most produced by Nelson George that showcases Jodi Feder, Director of Production Enchanted, a dance tribute for the opening passionate about community-engaged singers in cities all over the country, as Jose Maria Francos, Technical Director of the Native Plants Garden at the Brooklyn productions and new works that share well as on the Africa Channel’s Soundtracks Martin Barron, Botanic Garden (Delirious Dances). She previously untold stories. at Red Kiva, a program that focuses on Associate Director of Production received her MFA in design from NYU’s artists of African descent. Currently he June Higginbotham, Production Manager Tisch School of the Arts, and teaches AMARA TABOR-SMITH is an Oakland- is a member of the artistic collaboration Thomas White, Theater Head Technician costume and scenic design at Queens based performer and choreographer Black Monks of Mississippi, headed by the Cedric Lathan, College CUNY, where she is chair of the who has performed in the works of such dynamic and prolific Theaster Gates. In Theater Head Audio Engineer Department of Drama, Theater, and Dance. choreographers as Ed Mock, Joanna addition to performing in /peh-LO-tah/, Greg Wilson, Forum Head Technician Haigood, Ronald K. Brown, Adia Tamar Agyeman wrote and composed the song JOAN OSATO is the producing director Whitaker, and Faustin Linyekula. She is “No Looking Back” which is performed by YBCA PERFORMING ARTS of Campo Santo and the Living Word the former associate artistic director the ensemble. PROGRAMMING STAFF Project in San Francisco. She is the visual and dancer with Urban Bush Women. Marc Bamuthi Joseph, designer for Tree City Legends by Dennis She has performed in the works of the MAPP INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS Chief of Program & Pedagogy Kim, The River by Richard Montoya, and theater artists Anna Deavere Smith and is a nonprofit producer of major Isabel Yrigoyen, Alleluia, the Road by Luis Alfaro. She Aya de Leon, and in Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s performing arts projects that raise Associate Director of Performing Arts has designed for Berkeley Repertory Scourge. Tabor-Smith is the artistic critical consciousness and spark social Claire Shoun, Theatre (Tribes by Nina Raine, directed by director of Deep Waters Dance Theater, and change. We support all phases of an Performing Arts Programs Manager Jonathan Moscone) for which she won a she currently teaches artist’s creative process, from concept Theater Bay Area Award in video design. dance in the Department of Theater, and production to premiere and touring, YBCA 2016-2017 BOARD OF DIRECTORS She has produced the new plays Chasing Dance, and Performance Studies at while also engaging audiences in the PRESIDENT Mehserle by Chinaka Hodge and H.O.M.E. the University of California, Berkeley. issues behind the art. Through this Paul Connolly by Star Finch. Her current projects include deepwatersdance.com heightened focus, we support an evolving Reflections of Healing with the muralist and elite cadre of creators whose EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Brett Cook and Life Is Living, a nationwide TRACI TOLMAIRE is an actor, dancer, work ignites communities worldwide. Berit Ashla community development project. She is singer, and choreographer from Chicago. mappinternational.org Diana Cohn a MAP Fund recipient (2013 and 2014), an Her credits include The High Priestess of Erik Mayo inaugural recipient of the SFAC Artists Dark Alley (Le Petit Theatre), Cherchez Rekha Patel and Communities Partnership grant, and la Femme (La MaMa ETC), Dancing on a recipient of Surdna Foundation’s Artists Eggshells (Billie Holiday Theatre), Black Joy MEMBERS Engaging in Social Change Award (2015). in the Hour of Chaos (Creative Time), The Peter Bransten Circle Unbroken Is a Hard Bop (651 Arts / Amy Eliot JOSH JOHNSON is a technical artist who MAPP International Productions), red, black Elna Hall, Ph.D uses all the tools of our time to support and GREEN (a blues) (MAPP International Meklit Hadero the emotional expressions of theater Productions / Living Word Project), Plenty Kevin King artists. He has engineered performances of Time (New Federal Theatre), Mirrors in D.J. Kurtze in airplane hangars and train stations, Every Corner (Intersection for the Arts / Jocelyn Lamm Startz toured with shows to thirty-five countries, Campo Santo), Joseph and the Amazing Laura Livoti and worked with such notables as Robert Technicolor Dreamcoat (Fulton Opera Sabrina Riddle Wilson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Robert House), and Trouble in Mind (Actor’s Catalina Ruiz-Healy Rauschenberg, and the Flying Karamazov Express). Her choreography credits include Paul Ryder Brothers. A highlight of his career was the Gee’s Bend (Hartford Stage), Rejoice!, Diane Sanchez years spent as resident lighting designer a holiday musical (Lorraine Hansberry Vicki Shipkowitz for Merce Cunningham, who taught him Theatre), and Dancing on Eggshells. Meg Spriggs how to see again. Johnson loves being tracitolmaire.com Marc Vogl the bridge between concept and reality, Vinitha Watson empowering artists to realize their visions YAW AGYEMAN has toured in the play Zak Williams through whatever means necessary. red, black and GREEN (a blues) (MAPP Johann Zimmern International Productions / Living Word AMANDA NOVOA holds an MFA in stage Project) and performed in the world EMERITUS management from the University of premiere of the musical Mister Chickee’s Helen Sause California, Irvine. She has worked with Funny Money (Chicago Children’s Theater),

10 11 YBCA DONORS Dolby Laboratories The John and Marcia Goldman Philanthropic Fund $100,000 AND ABOVE Grosvenor Renee Renouf Hall United Airlines* Michael Harrington and Amanda Michael A WARM THANK YOU TO YERBA BUENA Corporations James Hormel and Michael Nguyen Google.org CENTER FOR THE ARTS CONTRIBUTORS! Foundations Kaitlyn and Mike Krieger Abundance Foundation Richard Laiderman and Jung-Wha Song Foundations New England Foundation for the Arts Bruce McDougal and Daniel Rey Thank you to our contributors for Doris Duke Charitable Foundation The Sato Foundation Sarah Ratchye and Edward Frank enthusiastically supporting YBCA’s The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Zellerbach Family Foundation Sabrina Riddle The James Irvine Foundation Diane Sanchez programs. YBCA gratefully acknowledges Panta Rhea Foundation contributions from our FY16 and FY17 Individuals Kendra Shimmell and Wyatt Starosta Surdna Foundation Anonymous Vicki Shipkowitz partners, and contributions and in-kind The Wallace Foundation Paul Connolly Anthony St. George and Joel Evans donations of $500 or more received Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan Marc and Megara Vogl between July 1, 2015, and October 1, 2016. Government Harvey and Leslie Wagner Foundation Institute of Museum and Library Services $5,000 AND ABOVE Charles and Cheryl Ward Special thanks to the City of San Francisco Mitchell and Kristen Yawitz Individuals Corporations Anna and Richard E. Gardner Revocable Trust for its ongoing support. U.S. Bank Organizations Leslie and Merle Rabine Association of Performing Arts Presenters Foundations Council on Foundations Organizations Kenneth Rainin Foundation Stanford University ArtPlace America Government $500 AND ABOVE The Consulate General of The Netherlands $50,000 AND ABOVE in New York Corporations Chevron Matching Employee Funds Corporations Individuals Yahoo! Matching Gifts Program Salesforce.com Mary L. Bianco Rena G. Bransten Foundations Foundations Carla and David Crane KaBoom! Gerbode-Hewlett Foundations Dennis Leary 2014 Choreographer Commissioning Awards Erik Mayo Individuals Rekha Patel Jerry Bailey Government Pincus Family Fund Glenn and April Bucksbaum California Arts Council Rebecca and Alan Ross Dr. Daniel Coming and Dr. Elizabeth Widman National Endowment for the Arts Edward and Catherine Topham Alana Devich and Malkia Cyril Jeff Whipps and Susan Greenleaf Lisa Doran Individuals Sam Wick and Leah Wade Colin Eykamp Kevin King and Meridee Moore Anonymous Marcia Feitel Namrata and Ashish Gupta $2,500 AND ABOVE Shelley Harrison $20,000 AND ABOVE Jan Hobbel Corporations Leigh Honeywell Corporations Adobe Matching Gifts Program Ed and Peggy Kavounas Cushman & Wakefield Delta Dental Plan of California Liz and Stephen Lapp Verizon Dennis Leary Wells Fargo Foundation Individuals Lawrence Li and Philip Tran The Abe Farag Family Foundation David Liff Foundations Mary and John P. Grossman Laura Livoti The Bernard Osher Foundation Elna Hall, PhD Grace MacFarlane The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Kevin Johnson and Karen Jenkins-Johnson Jim Newman and Jane Ivory Charitable Foundation and Petra Schumann and Rob Wullenjohn Samia Rashed the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Mark Slee Raymond Family Foundation The Kimball Foundation Meg Spriggs Mr. and Mrs. Rufflesteak Srinija Srinivasan Dr. John Patrick Ryan Organizations Emily Sawtell and Stephen Evans Theatre Communications Group $1,000 AND ABOVE Steve Smart and Javier Barreto Yerba Buena Community Benefit District Joceylyn Startz Youth Speaks Foundations Neal Strickberger and Ute Frey Gaia Fund Elise Van Middelem David Joseph Weber and Renu Agrawal $10,000 AND ABOVE Individuals In Memory of Christian Zimmern Verda Alexander and Primo Orpilla Anonymous Corporations Berit Ashla and Aron Cramer Adobe Foundation Gloria and Saul Feldman Airbnb* Randi and Bob Fisher *denotes in-kind gift

12 13 /peh-LO-tah/ has been commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Arts and the Museum YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS IS of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago. It is made GRATEFUL TO THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO possible with funding support from the New FOR ITS ONGOING SUPPORT. England Foundation for the Arts National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Andrew W. YBCA Programs in 16–17 are made possible Mellon Foundation, the MAP Fund (a program of Creative Capital, supported by the Doris Duke in part by The James Irvine Foundation. Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), Panta Rhea Foundation, Wattis Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Additional Funding for YBCA Programs 16– East Bay Community Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 17: National Endowment for the Arts, Adobe, Abundance Foundation, Gaia Fund, Grosvenor, Critical developmental residencies have been and Members of Yerba Buena Center provided by Southern Methodist University, Georgia for the Arts. Tech, Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Thanks to Clyde Valentin (SMU), Madison Cario (Georgia Tech), Pamela Tatge and Barbara Ally (Wesleyan), and Peter Taub and Yolanda Cursach (MCA Chicago) for making this happen. The Leslie and Merle Rabine 2016–17 Support for the pilot of moving and passing in Harlem and the Bronx, New York, is funded Performance Season is made possible Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, by Guggenheim Social Practice, an initiative in part by supported by the Edmond de Rothschild The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Foundations. and Panta Rhea Foundation. DEC 1—4 DIANA Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a participant in the Global YBCA FORUM Connections—ON the ROAD program, funded by The Additional Funding for YBCA Performances Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered 16–17: Surdna Foundation, Salesforce.com, #SFSONIDOFEST by Theatre Communications Group, the national and Zellerbach Family Foundation. YBCA.ORG organization for the professional not-for-profit American Theatre.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph wishes to thank the many individuals who contributed to the GoFund Me campaign to support this work. There are too GAMEROS many of you to list but you know who you are. Your support has meant more to me than you can know. Funded in part by the New England EDWARD Foundation for the Arts National Theater SIMON Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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