Performance Programs

Performance Programs > 2023-24 Season >  Theatre & Drama

Julius Caesar

Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted & Directed by Priscilla Lindsay

Department of Theatre & Drama
Sept 26 – Oct 6, 2024 • The Arthur Miller Theatre

Fate. Freedom. Power. This wild & fresh adaptation of one of the greatest political tragedies in theatrical history opens up the traditional confines of the narrative to explore the still-beating heart that resonates loudly in today’s political landscape.

Recommended Ages: 15+

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Creative Team

Director
Priscilla Lindsay

Assistant Director
Jeff Wagner

Scenic Designer
Eli Sherlock

Costume Designer
Ellie Van Engen

Lighting Design
Christian DeAngelis, Ethan J. Hoffman

Sound Designer
Henry Reynolds

Hair & Makeup Designer
Brittany Crinson

Fight Director
Jen Pan
+

Resident Dramaturg
Karin Waidley

Voice & Text Coach
Jeremy Sortore

Intimacy & Cultural Consultant
Raja Benz

Production Stage Manager
Andy Blatt

‡ SMTD Student

+ SMTD Guest Artist

Assistants to the Creative Team

Sound Design Associates
Leah Grimes, Giancarlo Medrano

Sound Design Assistant
Victoria Kvasnikov

Assistant Dramaturg
Naomi Rodriguez

‡ SMTD Student

+ SMTD Guest Artist

Cast

Julius Caesar/Volumnius
Sophia Lane

Brutus
Katie Snowday+

Cassius
Salem Fengye Zhao

Antony
Ella Saliba

Portia/Dolabella
Mary-Kate Sunshine Mahaney

Calpurnia/Pindarus
Isabel Contreras

Octavius/Fourth Citizen
Madeline Nolen

Casca
Izzy Chilian*

Trebonius
Maya Guacci

Metellus
Molly Cesanek

Lepidus/Clitus
Annika Juliusson

Soothsayer/Varrus
Isabella Vasari

Lucius/Third Citizen
Lilly Geer

Messala/First Citizen
Tomilade Akinyelu

Lucilius/Second Citizen
Shelby Alexander

* Fight Captain

+ Junior Fight Captain

Production Crew

1st ASMs  Josie Ervin, Evan Kiel

2nd ASMs  Brooke Galsky, Maggie Meredith, Lindsay Robert, Ceri Roberts

Lead Carpenter and Assistant to the Technical Director Dallas Fadul, Tal Lev

Shop Crews

Theatrical Lighting Shira Baker, Abi Farnsworth, Sydney Geysbeek, Ethan Hoffman, Elianna Kruskal, Brandon Malin, Megan Mondek, Christian Mulville, Gabriela Ribeiro Znamensky, Kathleen Stanton-Sharpless, William Webster, Andrew Wilson, Miles Zoellick & Theatre 250/252/262 students

Painting  Gilayah McIntosh, Ceri Roberts, Martha Sprout, Seri Stewart^, Lauren Streng, Ellie Vice^, Amber Walters, Angela Wu & Theatre 250/252/262 students

Props  Eliza Anker, Andy Blatt, Aquila Ewald, Dallas Fadul, Audrey Hollenbaugh, Lucy Knas, Tessie Morales, Audrey Tieman, Banks Krause  & Theatre 250/252/262 students

Scenery  Marium Asghar, Miles Hionis, Hannah Kryzhan, Michael Russell, Sophia Severance, Lauren Streng, Eliza Vassalo, Nathaniel Steever, Robert Beckemeyer, Rachel Pfeil, Sydney Geysbeek & Theatre 250/252/262 students

Costumes  Sammer Ali, Katy Dawson, Maya Liu, Aspen Kinomoto, Esmay Pricejones, Kayti Sanchez, Ellie Van Engen, Maddie Vassalo, Summer Wasung, Emily Weddle & Theatre 250/252/262 students

Production Office  Justin Comini, Shelby Holloway, Esther Hwang

Videographer Schelsea Jones

Running Crew

Light Board Operator  Cortez Hill

Sound Operator  Benjamin Isyk

Deck Crew Abigail Dziedzic, Wesley Wray, Anderson Zoll

Wardrobe Crew  Donovan Rogers, Aaron Syi, Summer Wasung^

Hair & Makeup Crew Ella Thomas-Montgomery

^=Crew Head

Design & Production Faculty Advisors

Head of Design & Production  Christianne Myers

Stage Management  Nancy Uffner

Scenic Design  Jungah Han, Kevin Judge

Costume Design  Christianne Myers, Sarah M. Oliver

Lighting Design  Jess Fialko

Sound Design  Henry Reynolds

Staff Mentors

Brittany Crinson, Heather Hunter, Chad Hain, Richard W. Lindsay, Beth Sandmaier, Laura Brinker

Department of Theatre & Drama

SMTD LEADERSHIP

David Gier, Dean
Paul Boylan Collegiate Professor of Music

Department of
Theatre & Drama

Department Chair

Dr. Tiffany Trent

Department Manager/Artistic Administrator
Kathryn Pamula

Walgreen Events Manager
Nickie Smith

Studio and Performance Manager
Arie Shaw

Walgreen Office Coordinator
Tyler Brunsman

Performance/Directing
Christina Traister (Head of Performance), Halena Kays (Head of Directing), Daniel Cantor (Head of Acting), Raja Benz, Mark Colson, Antonio Disla, Jake Hooker, Holly Hughes, Tzveta Kassabova, Geoffrey Packard, Jeremy Sortore, Malcolm Tulip, Tiffany Trent

Design/Production
Christianne Myers (Head of D&P), Christian DeAngelis, Patrick Drone, Jess Fialko, Jungah Han, Kevin Judge, Nan Luchini, Sarah M. Oliver, Henry Reynolds, Beth Sandmaier, Eli Sherlock, Katie Silver

Theatre Studies/Playwriting
Mbala Nkanga (Head of Theatre Studies), José Casas, Shavonne Coleman, Antonio Cuyler, Antonio Disla, Jenna Gerdsen, Amy E. Hughes, Holly Hughes, Jason Fitzgerald, Petra Kuppers, Ashley Lucas, Jay Pension, Rogério Pinto, Alexis Riley, Emilio Rodriguez, Karin Waidley

Arts Management
Michael Avitabile, Antonio Cuyler, Matthew Dear, Aaron Dworkin, Afa Dworkin, Ken Fischer, Gala Flagello, Andrew Kuster, Jonathan Kuuskoski, Kari Landry, Jay LeBoeuf, Robin Myrick, Jay Pension, Jesse Rosen, Omari Rush, Anna Sampson, Ari Solotoff

Interarts
Scott Crandall, Holly Hughes, Tzveta Kassabova, Malcolm Tulip

Professors Emeriti
Alan Billings, Peter W. Ferran, Jessica Hahn, Philip Kerr, Priscilla Lindsay, Janet Maylie, Vincent Mountain, John Neville-Andrews, OyamO, Leigh Woods

University Productions Administrative Staff

Executive Director
Jeffrey Kuras

Administrative Specialist
Christine Eccleston

Administrative Assistant
Eli Stefanacci

Information Systems Manager
Henry Reynolds

Facilities Manager
Shannon Rice

Performance Halls House Manager
Kelley Krahn

Lead Backstage Operations Manager
Dane Racicot

Senior Backstage Operations Manager
David Pickell

Backstage Operations Managers
Tiff Crutchfield, Yvette Kashmer, Robbie Kozub

University Productions Production Staff

Production Manager

Paul Hunter

Assistant Production Manager

Michelle Williams-Elias

Lead Technical Director (Walgreen)

Richard W. Lindsay Jr.

Theatrical Scenery Manager (Power)

Chad Hain

Lead Scenic Carpenter

Devin Miller

Scenic Carpenter

Heather Udowitz

Charge Scenic Artist

Beth Sandmaier

Associate Theatrical Paint Manager

Madison Stinemetz

Theatrical Properties Manager

Patrick A. Drone

Associate Theatrical Properties Manager

Danielle Keys

Senior Properties Artisan

Dan Erickson

Properties Stock and Tech Coordinator

Kat Kreutz

Theatrical Lighting Manager

Heather Hunter

Associate Theatrical Lighting Manager

Jorrey Calvo

Sound Designer/Engineer

Henry Reynolds

Senior Costume Shop Manager

Laura Brinker

Assistant Costume Shop Manager

Leslie Ann Smith

Lead Cutter/Draper

Tj Williamson

Cutter/Drapers

Sarah Havens

Stitchers

Mag Grace, Rene Plante

Lead Costume Crafts Artisan

Elizabeth Gunderson

Costume Stock Manager

Theresa Hartman

Wardrobe Manager

Rossella Human

Theatrical Hair and Makeup Manager

Brittany Crinson

Resources

Setting: This play is set in a society of female-identifying people who hold sway over an unforgiving landscape made up of elements—both natural and unnatural—left by previous generations.

The performers in this production are students in the Department of Theatre & Drama, the Residential College, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The designers for this production are students, faculty, and/or guests of SMTD. Scenery, costumes, properties, sound, and lighting were realized by the students and staff of University Productions, the producing unit of SMTD. Thank you for supporting our educational mission.

The earliest recorded performance of Julius Caesar was in the “straw-thatched” Globe Theater, on September 11, 1599. It was last performed on the University of Michigan campus in 1940.

William Shakespeare (writer) was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most
commonly celebrated on April 23, which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar in 1599 or 1600, probably for the opening of the Globe Theatre, on the south bank of the Thames. Altogether Shakespeare’s works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare’s company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio (‘Folio’ refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

—Courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

What Is a Matriarchy With(out) Men? Binaries Beware! 
by Naomi Rodriguez

Within our rehearsal process, a sentiment stuck with me that was said by a cast member: “I don’t want the audience to think ‘Where are the men?’” This inspired a continued conversation about how we build a fictional world where we aren’t comparing the ideals of a matriarchy to a patriarchy, especially in a real world where we tend to focus on the latter. And we realized, if we must compare, then where do we start?

“Men at some time are masters of their fates.”  Cassius, Act I, Scene II

In its initial form, Shakespeare wrote this play with only two female characters—Portia and Calpurnia—who are wives to Brutus and Caesar and were originally played by men. Yet, these performances were timely. Ten years before Julius Caesar premiered, England had gone through an attempted coup of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. With this event, Shakespeare had more than just men in mind as this coup had women pitted against each other and challenged the rule of Elizabeth, whose gender identity and marital status was a subject of debate and discomfort on the global and national stage. We all can become masters of our own fates.

In a matriarchy with(out) men, who comes forward? How do we separate ourselves from each other? What identities under a patriarchy have been consistently ignored or thrown aside and in this setting start to rear their heads? Where do you start to align yourself with the privilege of your character in terms of status, ethnicity, physical appearance, and education?

These questions led to conversations about our lives; the cast and creatives looked at depictions of femininity, womanhood, and masculinity throughout history and today. We were reshaping Shakespeare’s ancient dramaturgy to explore what it means for us as we navigate today’s world, trying to redefine identities and expression, releasing ourselves from the limits of binaries. But even here in this performance, we see how persistent binaries can be. Gender is strongly defined by different markers in this play, which the text adaptation has brought to light. Thus, intersectionality became the root of our praxis and understanding what kind of matriarchy we were making, binaries beware!

We found intersectionality coming into (the) play through other identity markers. Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physicality, and class began to manifest in these “all-female” characters through social and political positions—who are the military officials, the politicians, the townspeople, the spouses? Who has the power and who does not along different ways of measuring value? We began to see a gradation of woman-ness happening in this matriarchy. Men are not present but still individuals get coded as superior/inferior, dominant/submissive, more value/less value, just not along gendered lines.

This also became an exploration where we realized what violence humans are still capable of when we replace some of the common (normalized) systems of value, when we remove the obvious Other. How quickly as a society we devolve into reassigning that value (or lack thereof) to other marginalized communities and individuals. Perhaps this is a warning to us that it is high time we rework our understanding of each other, of ourselves, and of how we categorize and (negatively) respond to perceptions of who belongs and who doesn’t, that tyranny against others who are different from ourselves will only beget more violence.

 

So much has happened since we cast the show this last spring, so much that has and will affect how we tell the tale, how we shape and nuance the personal stories within that tale, and ultimately, how our audiences will receive it. We can’t change current events or really, change people’s minds about the realities of today, but we CAN get them thinking…about basic human struggles, our faults and foibles, and our hopes and fears, all of which hold as true today as they did in Shakespeare’s time and, indeed, in Caesar’s time.

Here is a play containing some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines:

Et tu, Brute? – Then fall Caesar (Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1)

But for mine own part, it was Greek to me (Casca, Act 1, Scene 2)

Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once

(Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2)

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more (Brutus, Act 3, Scene 2)

There is a tide in the affairs of men (Brutus, Act 4, Scene 3)

And some of his most famous speeches:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears (Antony, Act 3, Scene 1)

Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars

But in ourselves, that we are underlings. (Cassius, Act 1, Scene 2).

I am going to posit that Julius Caesar is a dangerous play. It focuses not on the death of a popular and powerful tyrant, but on the two leaders of a conspiracy to assassinate him and the consequent upheaval of their country. Taking this play out of Rome and setting it in a different time period can be tricky, even though that approach is taken all the time. We have elected NOT to “modernize” the script with references to any particular time period. Shakespeare’s warnings about the dangers and consequences of using violence to achieve political aims are still crystal clear.

~Priscilla Lindsay, Director

This production of Julius Caesar is dedicated to former Chair and Professor of Theatre & Drama Erik Fredricksen, whose legacy and
passion for theatre, stage combat, and leadership live on, in everyone who was fortunate enough to know him.

Anishinaabeg gaa bi dinokiiwaad temigad manda Michigan Kichi Kinoomaagegamig. Mdaaswi nshwaaswaak shi mdaaswi shi niizhawaaswi gii-sababoonagak, Ojibweg, Odawaag, minwaa Bodwe’aadamiig wiiba gii-miigwenaa’aa maamoonjiniibina Kichi Kinoomaagegamigoong wi pii-gaa aanjibiigaadeg Kichi-Naakonigewinning, debendang manda aki, mampii Niisaajiwan, gewiinwaa niijaansiwaan ji kinoomaagaazinid. Daapanaming ninda kidwinan, megwaa minwaa gaa bi aankoosejig zhinda akiing minwaa gii-miigwewaad Kichi-Kinoomaagegamigoong aanji-daapinanigaade minwaa mshkowenjigaade.

The University of Michigan is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe people. In 1817, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadami Nations made the largest single land transfer to the University of Michigan. This was offered ceremonially as a gift through the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids so that their children could be educated. Through these words of acknowledgment, their contemporary and ancestral ties to the land and their contributions to the University are renewed and reaffirmed.

Media

Photos coming soon