Totally Manageable, Easily Treatable Program
Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program and The Program in Disability Studies present
Totally Manageable, Easily Treatable
A Creative Senior Thesis Project
By Grace Crozier (C‘21)
Advised by Prof. Derek Goldman
Co-sponsored with the Georgetown Humanities Initiative
Produced by the Davis Performing Arts Center 2020-21 15th anniversary home season, “Seeds of Change: Reimagining the World,” programmed by Artistic Director Prof. Maya E. Roth
Friday, March 19, 2021, at 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, March 20, 2021, at 3 p.m. ET
Talkbacks moderated by Professors Jennifer Natalya Fink and Libbie Rifkin following both performances.
FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Welcome to Grace Crozier’s solo performance, Totally Manageable, Easily Treatable, an excellent model of original student research, and how we are incubating Seeds of Change in the field—and the world—through our virtual home season. Interdisciplinary in the lens, and creative in form, this project, cosponsored by Disability Studies, manifests a Davis Center value since our first home season 15 years ago: supporting the development of research and community engagement by advanced TPST students as central to our research and teaching lab. Grace’s solo performance and post-show discussions deepen and extend the fusion of creative, critical, and social inquiry we emphasize. Over the years, our TPST thesis creative projects have ranged from solo performances about transgender identity to devised plays about migrant farm work to Grace’s Totally Manageable, Easily Treatable, which seamlessly cross-fertilizes her work across her double majors in Theater & Performance Studies and Government and her minor in Disability Studies.
In unexpected, intimate ways this performance theatrically explores lived and systemic experiences of illness and wellness, access, and self-care. Mentored by Professor Goldman, our DPA chair, this project testifies manifold to Grace’s vision, research, resilience, and growth. We commend Grace for stirring interdisciplinary learning, social engagement, and creative experimentation. And we thank our co-sponsors in Disability Studies and the Humanities Initiative for helping to engage how this creative piece connects to the world—including via post-show talks moderated by Professors Libbie Rifkin and Jennifer Natalya Fink. I also want to thank our gifted Davis Center and DPA Staff— some working in situ and others offsite—for helping Grace to incubate this work.
Please join us too for Fatima Dyfan’s original thesis project Sunbath, which centers on the black feminist coming of age, that TPST is co-producing with Black Theatre Ensemble on April 24. Indeed, we’re honored to incubate and showcase new work development across this Seeds of Change 15th Anniversary Season. Check out our Letters & Poems Project, with virtual performance videos, posted online; Mélisande Short-Colombe’s Here I Am, an autobiographical piece on legacy and racial justice to premiere Emancipation Day, produced by the Lab for Global Performance & Politics; and, too, via Natsu Onoda Power’s Okinawa Field Trip, developed with an ensemble of students and guest artists to explore questions of social justice and environmental issues, playfully and potently, via virtual field trips Mondays to Thursday eves in the last two weeks of April. When so many theatres have shut down, our Georgetown creators —students, faculty, staff, and alums—are striving to reimagine the world and performance-making. Join Us!
Maya E. Roth,
Artistic Director
BIOGRAPHY
Grace Crozier is a senior at Georgetown College majoring in Theater & Performance Studies and Government with a minor in Disability Studies. She has worked on a bunch of shows with Mask & Bauble, Nomadic Theatre, and the Theater & Performance Studies Program over the years, and hopes to continue working in the arts after graduation. But right now she works in the House of Representatives, so stay tuned to see how that goes. She is very interested in ways we can make art accessible, and sincerely hopes you enjoy the show!
LETTER FROM THE ARTIST
Thank you for coming to see Totally Manageable, Easily Treatable. I have spent a little over a year thinking about this project, and in March 2020 it became a reality! Funny how that worked out, but nevertheless we persisted. I spent the fall semester writing with Derek and waiting anxiously to see how things would shake out for the spring semester. Over the summer we thought that this performance had a shot at being done in person in the spring, but we began planning for a virtual version of the piece in the fall. I was disappointed to lose out on the experience of a live audience, but I knew that keeping people safe was paramount both in general and for this piece.
I’m not going to say this process was easy. It was far from it. It was marred by logistical challenges, loneliness, and lackluster self-confidence. But if you don’t go through emotional turmoil doing your thesis, is it even a thesis? Perhaps the biggest struggle came during the second semester, however, when some of my health issues resurfaced in the first few months of this year and everything began to hit a bit close to my metaphorical home. I feel like I have come so far since my freshman year on my personal health journey, but there have been moments when I feel just the same as I did three years ago. And honestly, it has been terrifying.
So has the prospect of putting this material up in front of an audience. These are stories I’ve told my friends, my family, my dog, my therapist, and now you. I hope you feel like we are friends after this, whether or not you can personally relate to any of the stories I share.
I’m very grateful to have friends and family and a great team who helped me to complete this project to the best of my ability despite the circumstances of this year and everything that came with it. Special thanks to my fam, Xanthia, Liz, Fiona, Kellan, Gaby, Eleanor, Gabe, M&B Megaboard, Macurdy, and my sister Louisa.
Stay well.
Grace
GU THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
Housed in the Davis Performing Arts Center, the 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. performingarts.georgetown.edu
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
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, with special residencies for the Music and Dance Programs, and the administrative home of the Department of Performing Arts. Since its 2005-06 inaugural season, the Davis Center has hosted thematically linked home seasons of cutting-edge productions by the Theater & Performance Studies Program, featuring cutting-edge work committed to diversity and artistic risk-taking. We have presented numerous new works and adaptations, DC premieres, bold re-imaginings of classics, socially engaged contemporary plays, and student-devised productions.
The Davis Center fosters deep collaboration across faculty, students, and guest artists. Our close collaborators have included nationally renowned artists (Sojourn Theatre, Heather Raffo, The Neo-Futurists), acclaimed local companies (Synetic Theater, Spooky Action Theater, a 15-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 as well as frequent co-productions with GU’s student theater companies (including Black Theatre Ensemble, Mask and Bauble, and Nomadic Theatre). We embrace interdisciplinary work.
THE PROGRAM IN DISABILITY STUDIES AT GEORGETOWN
Disability Studies is a thriving, diverse interdisciplinary program, featuring a 70+ student undergraduate Minor and an MA/Ph.D. Certificate. Students increasingly recognize that gaining a more sophisticated understanding of disability, a fundamental dimension of human diversity will help prepare them for careers in every sector, the arts, education, healthcare, and policy central among them. The Minor draws its curriculum from courses in a range of departments and programs across the University, including music, theater, dance, biology, business, law, public policy, and much more. The MA/Ph.D. certificate enables graduate students to develop disability-focused research and engage with advanced scholars in the field. The program features a warm, welcoming community, close mentorship by caring faculty, and an Events Cluster of panels, performances, lectures, and workshops ranging from poetry, performance, law, science, and social justice advocacy, to tonight’s performance! For more information, visit our website, https://disabilitystudies.georgetown.edu/.
PRODUCTION STAFF LIST
Project Manager
Dorothy Driggers
Video Engineer
Toby Clark
Production Designer
Alberto Segarra
Technical Director
Bethany Taylor
Public Relations and Special Events Manager
Laura Mertens
Community Engagement and Development Manager
Vanessa Gilbert
Graphic Designer
Asia Dubois
Sound Design and Pinch-Hitter
Xanthia Yerby
Virtual Production Assistant
Erika Schmiedeck
Artistic Director
Prof. Maya E. Roth
Production Associates
Kellan Oelkers, Erika Schmiedeck, and Martha Winslow
SPECIAL THANKS
Lord Edwin “Eddie” J. Carreon,
Director of Residential Education
Bill Huff,
Director of Residential Services
Mimi Francis,
Residential Services, Crew Lead
Jason Clock
UIS, Sr. Project Manager and Technical Lead
Gonzalo Menta,
Senior Project Manager
Kelly Lynn Kurdi,
ASL Interpreter
Lucas King,
ASL Interpreter
Ad Astra
Georgetown College Dean’s Office
Provost’s Office
UPCOMING THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM EVENTS
Premiering Online in Conjunction with Emancipation Day the week of April 16, 2021
Tuesday, April 13 at 7 p.m. ET (PREVIEW)
Thursday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m. ET (OPENING NIGHT, in association with the Universities Studying Slavery Annual Conference, hosted by Georgetown)
Friday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 17 at 3 p.m. ET
World Premiere Virtual Performance
Created by the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics in partnership with the GU Theater & Performance Studies Program
Here I Am
An Original Performance by Mélisande Short-Colomb
Performed by Mélisande Short-Colomb and Somi (Grammy Award-nominated vocalist/musician)
Co-Created by Colomb in collaboration with Nikkole Salter (Obie Award-winning playwright), Somi, and Derek Goldman
Multimedia Design by Jared Mezzocchi, with Jeremy Bennett
Stage Management and Research Dramaturgy by Michael Donnay
A native of New Orleans who began her studies at Georgetown in 2017 at the age of 63, Mélisande Short-Colomb is a direct descendant of Abraham Mahoney and Mary Ellen Queen who were among the 314 members of the group known today as the GU272, enslaved people owned and sold by the Maryland Jesuits in 1838 to rescue Georgetown University from insolvency and bankruptcy. More than an autobiographical chronicle, this ritualistic experience weaves narrative, music, and imagery, inviting the audience on an experiential journey exploring Colomb’s loving and complicated relationship with the institution that enslaved her ancestors. Interrogating uncomfortable truths, rather than offering easy answers, Here I Am challenges participants to bear witness and reckon with their own histories, and imagine the future of racial justice in America.
FREE, Register on Eventbrite:
bit.ly/HereIAm21
Monday, April 19 – Thursday, April 22 at 7 p.m.
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 participate in 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!
FREE, register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/okinawa-field-trip-tickets-145757054273
Saturday, April 24 at 8 p.m. ET (Viewing Party)
Sunbath
Created by Fatima Dyfan (C’20)
Co-Produced by Black Theatre Ensemble and the Theater & Performance Studies Program
With Collaboration by Mar Cox (C’16) and Stage Management by Erin Crowder (C’21)
Advised by Prof. Maya E. Roth with Guest Artist Paige Hernandez
Theres a Little Black Girl in the window. Coily haired always scared waiting in the window for the morning light to wash me. Look beloved, you glow. With just that little bit of sun, you can grow. This is the remix to Black womanhood for the Black community wellness, the journey and drama, history, and of course, the trauma. It all goes to a beat. And, in this mixed-media piece for several performers we are talking about movement and jokes, music I listen to that my mama told me, dont, a freestyle of memories and prayer.
This new work by Senior Fatima Dyfan, an African American Studies major and TPST minor, celebrates the magical journey of a Black radical feminist in the making.
FREE, register on Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunbath-by-fatima-dyfan-c21-viewing-party-tickets-145743545869
Disability Studies Events Coming Up in April 2021
Please join us for our final Zoom events of the season. FREE and open to the public. All our events are ASL interpreted/CART captioned; email disabilitystudies@georgetown.edu for more information and access needs.
Monday, April 12 at 7 p.m.
Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition with Dr. Liat Ben-Moshe
Moderated by Professor Theodora Danylevich
Join us for a discussion with Dr. Ben-Moshe on her recent book of the same title. Her research shows how disability/mad knowledge and histories, and their racial resonances, should inform analysis of carceral enclosures such as prisons and developmentally disabled & psychiatric institutions, through the prism of abolition.
Co-Sponsored by the Prison Justice Initiative, the Gender+Justice Initiative, the Program in Women’s & Gender Studies, and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative.
Wednesday, April 21 at 7 p.m.
The Future of Down Syndrome through the Lens of Lived Experience: Part I
Join renowned disability scholars Rosemary Garland-Thompson, George Estreich, Joel Michael Reynolds, Toby Long, and Tawara Goode, and members of the Down Syndrome community, for a discussion of the future of Down Syndrome in a conversation centered on the lived experiences of people with Down Syndrome and their families, communities, and allies.
Co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative.