Eyes (HAMLET) CONTINUE PLEASE, BERNAT AND ROGER DUYVENDAK YAN Wide Lights Low at MCA 2019 Apr 25–28, Thu–Sun Notes Program Stage Theater Neeson Edlis STAGE MCA Winter/Spring Please, Continue (Hamlet) 2018–19 running time varies, up to 3 hours with one 20-minute break. Copresented by ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– (HAMLET) CONTINUE PLEASE, BERNAT AND ROGER DUYVENDAK YAN the MCA Stage PERFORMERS FROM THE CURATOR and the Chicago Humanities Creation Yan Duyvendak and Please, Continue (Hamlet) is a mock trial “in a new form,” Festival Roger Bernat as our Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) copresenters SUPPORT FOR THIS MCA STAGE PROJECT Hamlet Edgar Miguel Sanchez have called it: each night an actual Chicago judge, Many thanks to Yolanda prosecutor, and defense lawyer tackle the case; the roles Cesta Cursach, and to Gertrude Lily Mojekwu Securitas and the MCA of Hamlet, Gertrude, and Ophelia must be relived anew security team for their flexibility. Thanks also Ophelia Krystal Ortiz by the actors; and you, as a member of the audience, go to Jane M Saks, Karena Fiorenza, and With local attorneys and judges might be selected to serve on the jury. And each night, the casting departments of Steppenwolf Theatre a verdict is pronounced. Yan Duyvendak and Roger Bernat’s and Victory Gardens ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Theater. An additional carefully constructed premise—part real-world, real-time huge thank you goes to LEGAL TEAM CASTING SCHEDULE our legal “guardian trial, part classic drama—reveals something of theater’s angel,” Mark Kadish, for his generous advice and Thu, Apr 25 Judge Joan Lefkow, Kim Foxx fictions inherent in the courtroom, and the powerful coordination support, as and Loukas Kalliantasis well as Scott Falk, (Prosecution), Dena Singer consequences of each word and action, as only the stage Gretchen Helfrich, Nigel F. Telman, Frank (Defense), Chris Knight can illuminate them. I can’t think of a better context than Valadez, Mira Hayward, (Court Clerk), James Filkins Susan M. Weis, and Jeff CHF’s current theme—Power—to frame a show like this, Levine for their (Medical Examiner) contributions to shaping in the United States for the first time, in times like these. the legal team. Fri, Apr 26 Judge Anna Helen What happens when you ask an audience of theatergoers Demacopoulos, Daniel J. Collins (Prosecution), Marc to pass judgement on one another? And to do so in the Kadish and Patricia C. Bobb complicated context of Chicago’s legal, racial, class, and (Defense), Julian Dibbell (Court Clerk), Eric Eason geographic inequities? What does justice look and feel (Medical Examiner) like here, now? Sat, Apr 27 Judge John Robert Blakey, Aileen Bhandari (Prosecution), Seeing Please, Continue (Hamlet) on the MCA Stage just a Catharine O’Daniel and week after Duyvendak’s collaboration with Omar Ghayatt, Michael D. Monico (Defense), SUPPORT FOR THE Natalie Wayne (Court Clerk), Still in Paradise, has been a profound lesson in how theater ARTISTS Eric Eason (Medical Examiner) can create encounters with the uncomfortable repercussions Please, Continue (Hamlet) is a of our otherwise familiar social worlds. Many thanks to coproduction of GRÜ Sun, Apr 28 Judge Arthur Hill Jr., transthéâtre Geneva; Andrianna “Annie” Kastanek former MCA Curator of Performance Yolanda Cesta Phénix National Theatre, Valenciennes; (Prosecution), Nigel F. Telman Cursach, for bringing these two works together with the and Huis a/d Werf (Defense), Michael Utrecht, and was Bornhorst (Court Clerk), conviction that Duyvendak, Bernat, and Ghayatt’s way of support by residencies at Montevideo Theatre, James Filkins (Medical making theater “constructs an ephemeral social architecture” Marseille; Le Carré/Les Examiner) Colonnes, subsidized because “theater is everywhere.” And much gratitude to theatre, Saint-Médard- 2019 Apr 25–28, Thu–Sun Notes Program en Jalles/Blanquefort. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Alison Cuddy and all her colleagues at the Chicago Additional support was PRODUCTION provided by the Ville de Humanities Festival for their curiosity and generosity in Genève, République et Canton de Genève, Set Design in collaboration with taking the plunge with us! Fonds municipal d’art Sylvie Kleiber contemporain–Genève, Loterie Romande, Pro Helvetia Le Caire, Pro Helvetia–Fondation Graphic Design Marie Klara Gonzalez; suisse pour la Nicholas Robel; B.u.L.b grafix Tara Aisha Willis culture–Zurich, Valiart Bern, Fondation Associate Curator of Performance Meyrinoise du Casino, Management Marine Magnin Fondation Leenaards, CORODIS. International Judith Martin—Ligne Directe Development Theater Neeson Edlis STAGE MCA Production and Charlotte Terrapon Communication Stage Management Eric Mutel Production Dreams Come True/Cie Yan Duyvendak, Geneva ABOUT THE WORK In a working-class suburb of a big city, in the midst of a wedding, a young man kills his girlfriend’s father. She accuses him of murder. He says it was an accident . Nearly two years later the trial begins. To preserve the anonymity of the participants, their names have been changed: the accused is called Hamlet, the victim Polonius, the witness Ophelia. A near-universal case, familiar from grade school, based on a true story. A dramaturgy of the real. A story from the realm of great tragedy, transposed to the modern age. ————————————————————————————————————— RELATED PROGRAMS YAN DUYVENDAK AND OMAR GHAYATT Still in Paradise Thu–Sun, Apr 18–21 Tonight’s performance is presented in tandem with Still in Paradise, another work cocreated by Yan Duyvendak, which appeared on the MCA Stage last week and also blurs the boundary between performer and spectator. In that performance, Duyvendak and cocreator Omar Ghayatt invited audiences to join them in questioning the roles we play in consequential encounters between the Middle East and the West, Islam and capitalism. For more information, please visit mcachicago.org. ————————————————————————————————————— ACCESSIBLE EVENTS ASL-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE Fri, Apr 26, 7:30 pm ASL-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO DESCRIPTION AND RELAXED PERFORMANCE Sun, Apr 28, 2 pm Yan Duyvendak and Roger Bernat, Please, Continue (Hamlet), Théâtre Forum Meyrin, Meyrin, 2014 Photo: © Magali Girardin ABOUT THE ARTISTS YAN DUYVENDAK (CONCEPT AND ROGER BERNAT (Concept and PERFORMANCE) was born in the Performance) is a Barcelona-based Netherlands, and lives between artist, born in 1968, who creates Geneva and Marseille. Trained at the works of theater shaped in collab- Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel in oration with the public. He has Geneva, he has worked in worked with Thierry Salmon and contemporary performance and live Xavier Albertí. Between 1998 and art since 1995. Since then, he has 2001 he directed the company produced a chain of creations and General Elèctrica together with performances at venues including Tomás Aragay and has received Fondation Cartier, Paris; EXIT numerous Catalan Critics’ Awards for performing arts festival, Helsinki; Art his work. In 2008 he began to create Unlimited Basel; Museo Reina Sofia, setups in which the audience takes Madrid; Ménagerie de verre, Paris; center stage. His shows include Public Vooruit, Ghent; Festival d’Avignon, Domain (2008), Purely Coincidental France; Theaterspektakel Zurich; (2009), The Rite of TheaterFormen Festival, Hannover; Spring (2010), Please, Continue (Hamlet) CDN, Montreuil; Wiener Festwochen, (2011), Pending Vote (2012), Vienna; and Foreign Affairs, Berliner and RE-presentation (2013), Festspielen, Germany. Over the course Desplazamiento del Palacio de la of the years, he has increasingly Moneda (2014), and Numax-Fagor-plus become a point of reference in Swiss (2014), which have been performed and European art. His art underlines in over twenty countries. in particular how the overwhelming mass of televised, computer, and LILY MOJEKWU (Gertrude) is mental images, as well as our social delighted to make her MCA Stage codes and other rituals of society, debut in Please, Continue (Hamlet). Lily thicken the curtain between ourselves recently returned from the SXSW film and reality. Yet Duyvendak’s work festival premiere of Saint Frances, never fails to affirm human dignity which received both a Jury Award and reveal the ways that our and the Audience Award. Recent image-dominated society imperils our stage appearances in Chicago include welfare. His latest creations, Made in Dada Woof Papa Hot (About Face Paradise (2008), cocreated with Omar Theatre) and A Christmas Carol and Ghayatt and Nicole Borgeat; Please, Objects in The Mirror (both at the Continue (Hamlet) (2011), cocreated Goodman Theatre). Other Chicago with Roger Bernat; Sound of Music credits include work with Chicago (2015), and ACTIONS (2017), cocreated Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass with Nicolas Cilins and Nataly Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre Sugnaux-Hernandez, are his most (Skokie), Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, political works to date. Duyvendak’s and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. videos are included in numerous Regional credits include six seasons public and private collections, for with Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre instance the Musée des Beaux-Arts in (Frankfort, Michigan). Television Lyon and the Museum der Moderne credits include I Love Dick (Amazon (MdM) in Salzburg. He received the TV), The Chi (Showtime), Chicago Fire Swiss Art Award in three consecutive (NBC), Chicago Med (NBC), Mind years (2002, 2003, and 2004), the Games (ABC) and the web series Namics Kunstpreis für Neue Medien in Brown Girls (browngirlwebseries.