Lovely time at the Yale Drama Series reading last night. Even with all the swearing, cat-antagonizing and murdering in Shannon Murdoch’s play, the annual event remained a most civilized affair. The series’ new judge, John Guare, was right there in the front row while Murdoch, who’d flown from Australia for the occasion, chose to sit in the back of the auditorium. Director Jackson Gay sat somewhere in the middle.
As at previous readings in the series, there was a chance to see recent Yale School of Drama grads return to campus for a special worknight. Emily Dorsch, a 2007 grad who previously returned to town to play the cheated-upon wife in Bossa Nova at the Yale Rep last season, was in New Light Shine, with her erstwhile classmate Alec Beard (whose student years included small roles in the Yale Rep productions of Lulu and The Cherry Orchard) played Dorsch’s boyfriend.
Sarah Sokolovic, who graduated just months ago (she was Jib in Michael McQuilken’s original music/theater piece Jib last winter) and already has a New York musical theater credit, as Betty in The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World. The cast was rounded out by Tobias Segal, whose stage and film roles range from James Keller in last year’s Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker to “Robert’s Friend” in Rocky Balboa. YSD dramaturgy student read the economical stage directions.
To me, the Yale Drama Series marks the real beginning of the Yale theater season. The Yale Cabaret season kicks in this weekend, the Rep next week, and the first rash of undergrad student shows isn’t far behind.
With the well-managed provocations of the Yale Drama Series, the university’s off to a fine start.