SUNBATH PROGRAM
Black Theatre Ensemble & the Theater & Performance Studies Program proudly present
SUNBATH
Created by Playwright and Performer Fatima Dyfan * (C ’21)
Thesis Advisor, Maya E. Roth
With Theatrical Direction by Mar Cox * (C’ 16)
Creative Cinematography by Allysa Lisbon (C ’19)
Theatrical Design by Alberto Segarra *
Stage Management by Erin Crowder * (C’ 22)
Co-Sponsored by the Georgetown Humanities Initiative
Part of the 15th Anniversary GU Theater & Performance Studies Home Season
at the Davis Performing Arts Center, “Seeds of Change: Reimagining the World“
Additional Creative Collaborators
Lisette Gabrielle (C’17) — Performer
Jamia Ross *(NHS’22) — Performer, Dramaturgical Ally
Sam Oni (C’22) — Performer
Kendall Bryant * (C’23) — Performer, Musician-Poet
Nia Parks * (C’22) — Performer, Singer
Olivia Baggott (C’22) — Performer
Reagan Crittenden (C’22) * — Costume Visions
Madisyn Clark * (C’23) — Movement/Dance
SUNBATH Production Team
Dorothy Driggers-Barnes * — Project Manager, Davis Center
Jodams Dabel (C’22) — Assistant Stage Manager, BTE
Jamia Ross * (NHS’22) — House Manager & Producer, Viewing Party
Bethany Taylor — Technical Director, Davis Center
Alberto Segarra * — Production Associate, Davis Center
Asia Dubois (C’23)— Graphic Design, DPA
Kellan Oelkers (C’ 21), Martha Winslow (C ‘21) — Production Technicians
Vanessa Gilbert — Community Engagement Manager, Davis Center
Laura Mertens — Public Relations and Special Events Manager, DPA
Toby Clark — Technical Advisor, DPA
Advisors for New Work Development
Maya E. Roth * — Artistic Director/Developmental Process Advisor/Script Mentor
Paige Hernandez — Guest Artist Playwriting Mentor (Fall-Winter)
Jocelyn Clarke — Dramaturg (via Georgetown/Arena Partnership)
Michael T. Williams * Artistic Advisor to BTE
Caroline Clay —Activating Black Feminist Voice/Theatricality (March)
* Participated in World of Play-building Sessions this spring.
Each performer and technical artist involved in the making of this production followed all current CDC and Georgetown University COVID-19 guidelines. This is a hybrid production.
This project represents a yearlong thesis project by Fatima Dyfan, with multiple phases of conception, creation, collaboration and research. Join us to hear more about the process—and to celebrate this new work-in-development at our After Party.
SPECIAL THANKS
All who Collaborated on this Process
Black House and The Blaxa
Prof. LaMonda Horton-Stallings (AFAM) and Prof. Zandria Robinson (AFAM)
Prof. Derek Goldman
Davis Center Research Lab Cohort
Playwrights Arena Cohort with Georgetown and Howard Writers
Tim Jarmon
T. Sampson
All who joined our Invited Rehearsal/Developmental Reading, March 24th
Sarah Ginnetti
Toni Morrison
We are grateful to donor Andrew Ammerman & the Arena Stage Partnership for generous funding of guest artists to support key phases of this process. Sunbath’s workshop staging and filming for public viewing of the work-in-progress is made possible by funding from the Performing Arts Advisory Council and the Georgetown College Dean’s Office.
BIOS
Fatima Dyfan (Playwright/Performer) is a Senior at Georgetown University majoring in Government and African American Studies with a minor in Theater & Performance Studies. A black radical feminist in the making, Fatima has spent this year living on campus and exploring mixed medium writing that illuminates Black experience. She served as the Executive Producer to GU’s Black Theatre Ensemble for two years. With them, she directed Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls… A performer, poet and creative spirit who believes in healing and community, she has led summer camps for SCS and this year stewarded BRAVE programming for black women on campus to encourage trust in their intuitive selves. Fatima expands her notions of performance by being a cheerleader for Georgetown and a resident of Black House.
Kendall Bryant (MSB’23, Performer, Musician-Poet) is an undergraduate sophomore in the McDonough School of Business and an independent musician hoping to one day revolutionize music and the ways we cultivate community through art. If they could go absolutely anywhere? They’d fly to the beautiful places they’ve dreamt about.
Mar J. Cox (C’16, Theatrical Director) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Washington, DC. Attending American University for a MFA in Film and Media Arts this fall, they plan to continue their pursuit of uplifting and centering marginalized voices. Recent credits include Heartbeat Opera Company’s visual album BREATHING FREE (Assistant Director, Brooklyn, 2020) and Black Theatre Ensemble’s THE COLORED MUSEUM (Director, Washington DC, 2018). If they could go absolutely anywhere they would go to their favorite bit of earth – a small sandbar in the middle of a cypress swamp near their childhood home in Louisiana.
Caroline Stefanie Clay (Activating Black Feminist Voice/Theatricality) is an actress, audiobook reader, playwright and vocal coach. She has appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning productions of The Little Foxes, Doubt, and The Royal Family. Her extensive film and television credits include a recurring featured role on Grey’s Anatomy as CeCe Clovin. A native Washingtonian, Clay graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where she also teaches, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She earned her M.F.A. in Performance at the University of Maryland and received a 2018 Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Actress in Dominique Morrisseau’s Skeleton Crew. In 2020, Clay was the recipient of the NAACP Award for Best Actress in A Play, for the same role. Visit her at: www.claycreatives.org
Erin Crowder (C’22, Stage Manager) is a junior in the College, majoring in English with a minor in Film and Media Studies. She’s been a BTE member since her first year and is currently co-Executive Producer. She’s been involved in Fatima’s process since June—and has been growing skills for the club by hosting a series of events with alumni and guest artists. Known for her calm and focus, Erin has stage-managed at Georgetown for BTE’s productions of for colored girls …and The Colored Museum. Last year, she was an ASM for The Rover, with TPST. She’s living at home in New Jersey this year and is grateful for her family. Once restrictions lighten up, she would love to travel to Ghana or somewhere in the Caribbean!
Dorothy Barnes Driggers (Project Manager, Davis Center) is a costume designer and technician in the Washington, DC area. She earned her MFA from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. Her most recent design credits include Snow Day for Arts on the Horizon. Mary Poppins at Central Piedmont Summer Theatre, Madeline’s War at the Volks Theatre in Vienna, Austria, and the 2012 spring season at Seaside Rep in Seaside, Florida. While not designing, she manages the costume shop at Georgetown University and acts as the costume coordinator and stylist for the Maryland Lyric Opera.
Paige Hernandez (Guest Artist Playwriting Mentor) is a multidisciplinary artist, critically acclaimed as a performer, director, choreographer and playwright. As an AEA equity actress, Paige has performed nationwide, collaborating with the Lincoln Center and commissioned by the National New Play Network, the Smithsonian, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse and the Glimmerglass Festival. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council as well as four Helen Hayes nominations for choreography, directing and performance. Paige has also been named a “classroom hero” by The Huffington Post, a “Citizen Artist Fellow” with the Kennedy Center, “40 under 40” by the Washington Post and one of “Six Theatre Workers You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine. She is Associate Artistic Director of Everyman Theatre in her hometown of Baltimore, MD. With her company B-FLY ENTERTAINMENT, Paige continues to develop and tour original work internationally. www.paigehernandez.com
Samuel A. Oni (C’22, Performer) is a Junior in the MSB majoring in marketing and management with a focus on entertainment production. They have been acting since the 6th grade. Fatima is one of their best friends and they are extremely honored to be a part of this thesis project. Thanks for viewing. They hope you enjoy it.
Jamia Ross (NHS’22, Performer, Dramaturgical Ally) is a rising senior in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, majoring in Healthcare Management with a concentration on Policy Analysis. Meticulous and motivated by a desire to make a change (and make it aesthetically pleasing while doing so), Jamia is the Web Designer and Multimedia Developer for The Blaxa; Georgetown’s only all Black multimedia group. Baltimore born and Jersey raised, Jamia spends her free time creating art, writing, enjoying nature, and falling down esoteric research rabbit holes.
Maya E. Roth (Thesis Advisor) was founding Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center—a role she again fills. As artist and scholar, she specializes in plays that engage cross-culturally (both via new works and adaptations of classics) and feminist works, like Sunbath, that interweaves psychic and social stakes. She has incubated dozens of new works at Georgetown and beyond, including as Heather Raffo’s developmental dramaturge for Fallujah! (City Opera Vancouver), Noura (Shakespeare Theatre & Playwrights Horizon), and, currently, while involving students, Tomorrow Will be Sunday: A Play about Migration and the Global Economy. Maya also stewards the Jane Chambers Prize for feminist playwriting and co-edited Lesbian and Queer Plays from the Jane Chambers Prize (2019), with a Cross-Cultural collection forthcoming. She’s internationally regarded for her expertise on the plays of Basque-British Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker. Maya finds great joy in teaching. And her sassy son. Her Ph.D. is from Berkeley.
Alberto Segarra (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer/production manager who holds a BA from the University of Puerto Rico and a MFA in Lighting Design from UMD – College Park. He has served as Production Manager for Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, MD; as Lighting Designer, Lighting Supervisor, and Tour Manager for Aquila Theatre Company; and Resident Lighting Designer for Andanza Compañía de Danza Contemporánea in San Juan. DC lighting design credits: Earthrise (Kennedy Center), Cat in the Hat (Adventure Theater), Blood at the Root – Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (Theater Alliance), As You Like It: The Musical (Keegan Theatre), Blueberries for Sal (Adventure Theatre), and The Agitators (Mosaic Theatre).
ABOUT
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Prof. Maya E. Roth, Artistic Director
Opened in November 2005 as Georgetown University’s first building designed for the arts, the Davis Performing Arts Center is the research and teaching laboratory for the Theater & Performance Studies Program and houses the administrative office of the Department of Performing Arts. Since its 2005-06 inaugural season, the Davis Center has hosted a thematically linked home season of cutting-edge productions for the Theater and Performance Studies Program, featuring cutting-edge productions committed to diversity and artistic risk-taking. We have presented numerous new works and adaptations, DC premieres, bold re-imaginings of classics, important contemporary plays, and student-devised productions.
Our mainstage productions have engaged deep collaborations with nationally renowned artists (Sojourn Theatre, Heather Raffo, The Neo-Futurists), acclaimed local companies (Synetic Theater, Spooky Action Theater, a 14-year partnership with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater), local universities (Gallaudet University, University of Maryland), and on-campus programs such as the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics and frequent co-productions with GU’s student theater companies (including Black Theatre Ensemble, Mask and Bauble, and Nomadic Theatre).
GU THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
Prof. Derek Goldman, Director
Housed in the Davis Performing Arts Center, the Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program features a nationally recognized faculty of leading scholar/artists and professional practitioners who offer a dynamic interdisciplinary major that emphasizes the interaction of artistic and analytic inquiry. The Program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge production seasons, including world premieres. In 2012, Backstage selected the Program as one of the top five college theater programs outside of New York City.
Department of Performing Arts/Davis Performing Arts Center Staff
Department of Performing Arts, Chair; Theater and Performance Studies Program, Director
Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, Co-founding Director
Prof. Derek Goldman
Davis Performing Arts Center
Prof. Maya E. Roth, Artistic Director
Music Program
Prof. Anthony R. DelDonna, Director
Dance Program
Prof. Robynn Stilwell, Area Coordinator*
Co-curricular Theater
Prof. Michael T. Williams, Artistic Advisor
Tobin Clark, Technical Advisor
Costume Shop Manager
Dorothy Barnes-Driggers
Community Engagement and Development Manager
Vanessa Gilbert
Academic Administrator
Sarah Ginnetti
Administrative Director
Ron Lignelli
Public Relations and Special Events Manager
Laura Mertens
Production Specialist
Alberto Segarra
Technical Director
Bethany Taylor
FRIENDS OF TPST AND THE DAVIS CENTER
Andrew R. Ammerman (F’72)
Joyce J. Gorman and Joseph A. Fanone (C’ 71, L’ 74)
Alumni Leadership Circle
Interim Dean Soyica Colbert
Provost Robert Groves
The Kelley Family
Mark Kenyon
Stephen J. & Mary Ann Seleman
MAKING NEW WORLDS FUND
The Making New Worlds Fund supports the academic, artistic, and professional development of our students. The Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program would like to thank our friends and alumni who have contributed to the Making New Worlds Fund, especially the following for their generosity:
James and Susannah Prout, Rita Ciocca, Art Murphy, Thomas Scanlan, the Leen Foundation, The Children’s Trust, Sharmila Achari (C’04), Adam Bacigalupo (C’16), Matt Beshke (SFS’18), Brian Bies (B’18), Meg Cairns (C’90), Anna Calogero (F’18), Dave Childs (F’04), Christina M. Ciocca (C’05), Gabriel Cohn (N’19), Kate Creevy (C’94), Fred Dews (F’91, MPP’96), Catherine Dolan (C’12), Michael Donnay (C’16), Olivia Duff (C’16), Thomas B. Evans (C’08), Patrick Flynn (C’09), Ray Gao (C’19), Diane Giangreco (C’13), Jess Gitner (C’09), Matthew Green (F’78), Jeremy Guyton (C’12), David Hanna (C’14), Samuel Hartmann (C’19), Jordanna Hernandez (C’15),Anne Marie Huntington (C’19), Mary Ann (C’86, L’90, P’19/23) and Kent Huntington (L’91, P’19/23), Jeffrey (F’88) and Shannon Jamison, Josh Karch (C’91), Kathy Kelly (F’99), Wieslaw and Mariola Klis (P’10), Sarah Kelly Konig (C’16), Alex Kostura (F’09), Rachel League (B’18), Elise Lemle (C’10), Ann Ludtke (MSB’18), Dustin Maghamfar (C’06), Alexandra McCourt (B’15), Catherine Meyendorff (F’11), Michael Mitchell (C’10), Thomas Moakley (SFS’17), Joseph (B’94) and Nancy Nowalk, Caitlin Ouano (C’17), Cynthia E. Pekron (SFS’07), Kate Porterfield (C’86), Colin Pritchard (F’99), Brendan Quinn (C’14, L’18), Jennifer Rogers (C’06), Alexandra Rose (L’19), Erika (F’92) and Jeff (C’87) Schoppert, Ana-Alicia Siqueiros (C’11, MA’12) and Sean Herrie, Elly Straske (C’16), Caroline (C’00) and Brent Stone, Susan Swope (F’65), The Burke Family Charitable Fund, Joelle Thomas (F’10), Bridget (F’79) and Russell (D’79) Tibbetts (P’06/18/23), David Turer (B’16), Obehi Utubor (F’09), Annie Valik (B’06), Amelia Walsh (SFS’20), Cornell Womack (C’93), Isaiah Wooden (C’04), Allison Zatta (C’07).
Support the Making New Worlds Fund.
To make a donation to the Fund, please visit the Making New Worlds Donation Page.
BLACK THEATRE ENSEMBLE
Erin Crowder (C’22) and Sam Oni (MSB ’22), Co-Executive Producers
Established in 1979, Georgetown University’s Black Theatre Ensemble (BTE) is dedicated to producing dramatic works that celebrate and enrich the Black American cultural heritage and the cultural heritages of all minority communities. We want to expand and challenge the discourse on the Black experience. Through the arts, BTE strives to provoke substantive dialogue, promote cross-cultural exchange, and engage the community. In addition to fully-staged productions, BTE organizes several “coffeehouses” throughout the year. These provide a forum for students to express self and share perspective through song, dance, and poetry.
Black Theatre Ensemble Leadership
Co-Executive Producers
Erin Crowder (C’22)
Sam Oni (MSB ’22)
Associate Producers
Reagan Crittenden (C’22)
Olivia Baggot (C’22)
Event Coordinator
Nia Parks (C’22)
Publicity Director
Ryon Henderson (MSB ’22)
Member at Large
Fatima Dyfan (C’21)
Assistant Technical Director
Kyndra Lundy (C’22)
Community Outreach Directors
Kakazi Kacyira (C’22)
Jodams Dabel (JD) (C’21)
Business Managers
Illiana Diaz (C’23)
Jaylen Simmons (C’23)
GEORGETOWN HUMANITIES INITIATIVE
Prof. Nicoletta Pireddu, Director
The Georgetown Humanities Initiative aims to support the research and teaching of the University’s humanistic scholars. The Initiative embraces innovative scholarship that takes various forms, including traditional humanistic methods, digital approaches, and arts and performance. Through the projects it funds and the programming it develops, the Initiative strives to support work that has a deep impact in the academy while also engaging the public by demonstrating the continuing value of the humanities for understanding the challenges and opportunities of the human condition. The Initiative also has deep interest in innovative approaches to humanistic teaching and learning and will invite the participation and collaboration of graduate and undergraduate students.
humanities.georgetown.edu
Also part of the Davis Center’s 15th Anniversary Seeds of Change virtual season…
Remaining shows:
Monday, April 26 – Thursday, April 29 at 7 p.m.
Okinawa Field Trip
Developed by Prof. Natsu Onoda Power and the Ensemble
All aboard! In Okinawa Field Trip, Doug, a dugong, guides groups of audiences on a virtual “bus” from Georgetown to “imaginary” Okinawa. As the bus travels through time and space, audiences will encounter a mythical creature from Okinawan folk tales, sample Okinawan delicacies, meet local artists, and observe a contemporary-day protest against the construction of a new US Marine base in Henoko Bay. Cross-cultural and inventive, this interactive virtual performance will explore themes of US-Japan relationships, social justice, historical reconciliation, WWII, and environmental issues. Think Magical Mystery Tour meets Get on the Bus meets The March of the Penguins… but interactive!
Part of the Davis Performing Arts Center’s 2020-21 Virtual Season, “Seeds of Change: Reimagining the World,” programmed by Artistic Director Prof. Maya E. Roth.