These paintings, usually priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars, capture creatures — both imagined and real — in excited strokes of color.  For Nava, the creatures that his work conjures are a product of the intentional and the nonsensical — a tension that he said is reflected in today’s world. 

“I’ve never seen a shark made out of wind before, but it could be,” said Nava. “I think imagination has the chance, and artists in general have the chance, to go to pretend places. They work in the realm of impossibility, where newness and absurdities can come out … We live in a misinformation age, as much as we live in an information age. Sometimes, I think like, yeah, if I see a shark and a frying pan and somehow it works, my mind is like, ‘Yeah, I kinda get that in this world.’ Like the bending of reality.” 

Nava’s stint as a steel-bender at a Queens metal shop was short-lived, lasting eight to nine months. Nava spent the next six years as a truck driver for a moving company, where he would work straight through the first and last ten days of the month, while dedicating one week in the center of the month to painting.

Initially, Nava was worried that his work as a truck driver would hinder his art career and lead to others viewing him as “not a serious artist.” He would dislike working in Chelsea because he was afraid of art collectors seeing him moving boxes, he said. 

Then, he stopped caring, said Nava.

“I think that’s when things got better,” said Nava. “The paintings got better. My mood and the job was a lot better. I had better leadership with the moving crew and running the crews. I was dubbed with a nickname, ‘The Wolf,’ like from Pulp Fiction … I think it’s funny that there were times when I really cared and was careful and cautious about that whole word ‘career’ and wanting things to happen. And the time that I actually didn’t give a fuck about that no more, everything lightened up.” 

According to Nava, this change in approach to his art and career showed in his work. 

While it’s difficult for him to compare the “betterness” of his works, Nava said that his 2012 creatures would “absolutely get eaten alive” by his 2017 creatures.

“If those paintings fought each other, those paintings will smoke the early paintings,” he said. “I can see the nervousness in them. I could see the, ‘You trying to do something,’ and then these other ones are just — they have a different level of confidence and different mysticism going on.” 

While these mythological creatures in Nava’s works have received wide attention, it has also attracted critiques of Nava’s art as “unserious” or “immature,” according to former School of Art Dean Peter Halley ’75.

Halley said that such negative feedback may come from the way Nava’s art attracted likes on Instagram before turning heads in the art establishment, rather than the other way around. For Halley, however, Nava’s explosive success can be seen as an example of the “democratic possibilities” of trends and taste-making on social media. 

“I think the delay between his high level of professional success and … his popularity has had something to do with how he paints,” he said. “You might almost say that people might have been distrustful, because these paintings had such a wide appeal, and that if they did so well on Instagram, could he really be a good artist? And again, when the dam finally burst, I found that delightful.” 

Behind the bold and urgent strokes of Nava’s work, one can find a certain intentionality and a history of formal instruction, said Halley. In describing his own art, Nava recalled an art professor who jokingly told him that Nava was a “backdoor formalist,” a secret lover of formal techniques, as much as he is a lover of rule-breaking.

While some might find Nava’s work “crude,” Nava’s form is what Halley considers a strength. In particular, he compared Nava’s misfit lexicon of sharks, dragons and planes to that of Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

“It’s action painting in that way, reflecting the movement of the body, his use of his tools, the way he’ll sort of let go and let it happen,” said Halley. “I find that a really strong part of his work … A person could also say that Basquiat paintings or drawings were crude, in some sense of the word,  so I think people will be better off thinking twice. And he’s created this self imposed world, that is a little like Basquiat.”

In terms of his critics, Nava remains rather level-headed. Some people like his work, and others don’t. And that’s “okay,” he said.

Differentiating between “good” and “bad” works of art is a tricky task, Nava said. Yet, if there’s one thing that Nava hopes to accomplish in his works, it is to convey a sense of sincerity and offer a “portal” to his viewers.

“It’s hard for paintings to lie and you can see those sincerities, from [the art’s] confidence to nervousness,” said Nava. “To me, making a painting or a piece, that’s the mirror, that’s the portal. So whatever my intentions or my feelings are, whoever comes to that piece down the road in years will have their own collective backpack of experience that they bring to the table and close out the other side of the portal with their viewership.”

Along with sincerity, Nava hopes that his work emanates “badassness.” When asked about this “badassness,” he said that it came from pieces that are “energetically charged”.

He referred to Vincent Van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with Cypresses” as a work imbued with “badass” energy. According to Nava, there is a hardened, yet delicate intensity within the landscape. 

“There’s just certain art that I personally love,” Nava said. “Even though it’s like flowers or something. Like those flowers will beat your ass, you know? They’re badass.”

While there is a heavy spotlight on ‘Robert Nava the artist,’ ‘Robert Nava the person’ remains largely enigmatic and hard to understand — a feature of his that has not changed from his time at the School of Art, said Halley and Sam Messer ART ’82, both professors who taught Nava.

Messer recalled Nava’s time as a graduate student, when he would submit works that did not seem to relate to his assignments; figuring out the connection was “invariably hard,” Messer said. 

“He was always kind of just doing his own thing,” said Messer. “He was always an enigmatic figure, I mean, in a really nice way … And I think a lot of the faculty and other students really didn’t know what to make of him. And you can probably say the same still about him, which is quite a good characteristic for an artist.” 

To eager-eyed spectators of the art market, Robert Nava is a rising blue-chip contemporary artist with  immense capital potential. To his professors, Robert Nava is remembered as an enigmatic, action painter who has created a radical mythology through sharks, airplanes and dragons. 

On paper, much has changed for Nava over the past decade. At his core, however, Nava has retained and remembered earlier parts of his career: his nickname of ‘The Wolf’, his favorite ’80s movies that continue to influence his work and his secret love for the compositional techniques that he learned as a graduate student. 

“It’s a different kind of speed now, than how it was in the trucks,” said Nava. “My dad would remind me like, ‘Remember, when you got tipped an extra like $200 in cash, and how happy you were about that because it would give you the time on the weekend to work more in the studio?’ And so I just keep telling myself, just keep things humble and hungry at the same time. Not forgetting where you come from, but also, you gotta be a dragon.” 

Nava was born in 1985

The post Robert Nava ’11 and his radical, ‘badass’ mythological creatures appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Before Swae Lee takes the stage, twin sisters Coco & Breezy will open the April 27 festival with a joint DJ set, followed by indie pop band Dayglow.

The Spring Fling committee announced the lineup in a video shown on Wednesday night during Woads, the weekly Yale-only dance party at Toad’s Place. Although weather conditions pushed last year’s Spring Fling indoors to College Street Music Hall at the last minute, this year’s event is set to return to its traditional location on Old Campus. 

“It’s such a dynamic lineup bringing in a ton of high energy and nostalgia,” Spring Fling Hospitality Chair Olivia Telemaque ’26 told the News. “The headliner, Swae Lee, is such a force. He brings in so much hype, with easily recognizable songs in his huge discography.” 

The process of curating the lineup of musical acts for the annual festival begins over the summer, when Spring Fling leadership meets to decide their joint vision: genres to explore, goals to accomplish and elements to improve from the following year. The search for artists then begins as soon as members of the committee step foot on campus. 

This year’s committee — led by Telemaque alongside Talent Chair Luis Halvorssen ’25, Production Chair Nour Tantush ’26 and Marketing Chair Karela Palazio ’25 — crafted a student-facing survey intended to gauge interest in different musical genres and festival styles. 

Many college music festivals in the United States take place at similar times in the late spring, Halvorssen said, which can make it challenging to secure the artists before other colleges book them. 

“One surprise about this experience is how dynamic the music industry is,” Halvorssen told the News “One week we’ll be discussing a potential artist and by the next week, they’ll be booked by a different event. It makes for a thrilling process and results in so much celebration when an artist is finally booked.” 

This year’s three acts represent a wide variety of musical genres, performance styles and backgrounds. 

Identical twins and DJ duo Coco & Breezy, specializing in Afro-Latina-infused dance and house music, will open up this year’s festival. 

“They are a hugely talented duo, representing Afro-Latina influences as they challenge the bounds of electronic and dance music,” Telemaque told the News. “They infuse so many genres into their craft. As a Black woman myself, it’s so inspiring to see up-and-coming artists reclaiming genres, and breathing so much life, love, and healing into their music. They’re producers, musicians, style icons, and just such a vibe.” 

Tantush matched Telemaque’s excitement, citing that the pair “encompass[es] a lot of what we were looking for.” She noted that electronic dance music was one of the most requested genres in the survey sent out to students this year, which makes inviting this artist to campus especially exciting. 

Besides DJing, Coco & Breezy are also known for their “cool-girl aesthetic” and “eponymous sunglass brand.” Palazio noted that she’s been incorporating the artist’s album covers into her color inspiration for the “entire festival identity.” 

Following Coco & Breezy, the “fun and vibrant” Dayglow, as Halvorssen described the indie pop band, will take the Spring Fling stage.

Led by lead singer Sloan Struble, audience members can expect to hopefully hear some of the group’s top hits like “Hot Rod” and “Can I Call You Tonight?” 

Telemaque said that she has had the songs on repeat for weeks. 

“Their music to me represents the epitome of band music and is very reminiscent of the spring,” Tantush added. “I spent a lot of time over this New Haven winter listening to Dayglow, and I think they have such a youthful and summery sound.” 

That sound aesthetic has influenced the design of the festival’s merchandise, Palazio said, which will be available for purchase prior to the festival. 

Finally, headliner Swae Lee will close out the night. Swae Lee, who acts as one half of the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmund with his brother Slim Jxmmi, has a long history of iconic performances at major festivals including Coachella, Governors Ball and Rolling Loud. 

“He’s everywhere,” Telemaque said. 

All four Spring Fling chairs described a continuous thread of “nostalgia” in this year’s artist lineup; Swae Lee’s headlining performance is perhaps the most emblematic of that theme. 

“We’ve been listening to his music for years and growing up with the challenges that he’s [experienced] too,” Telemaque told the News. 

In 2016, when the viral “Mannequin Challenge” hit its peak, Rae Sremmurd’s hit song “Black Beatles” became the unofficial anthem of the video trend. 

As part of the committee’s efforts to incorporate an air of nostalgia in all parts of the festival, Wednesday’s announcement video — produced by videographer Reese Weiden ’27 — brought the audience back in time. Just as the internet trend in 2016 had people across the country posing as frozen mannequins, the Spring Fling committee did the same, announcing to cheers from the crowd at Toad’s that Swae Lee would headline the festival.

Besides partnering with Slim Jxmmy, Swae Lee has collaborated with a variety of other artists in a plethora of different musical genres throughout his career, which allows him to appeal to a variety of students, Halvorssen said. In addition to working with world-famous rappers Travis Scott and Drake on 2018’s “Sicko Mode,” Swae Lee collaborated with Post Malone on hit song “Sunflower” from the film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” also in 2018. He also co-wrote Beyonce’s hit single “Formation.” — just three of Swae Lee’s big-ticket collaborations.

“Swae’s collaboration with so many different artists is what makes him an excellent choice for

headlining Spring Fling,” Halvorssen told the News.  “If you put his complete collection on shuffle you’ll hear Rap/Hip-Hop, Pop, R&B, EDM, Reggaeton, and even Country. With Swae having such a wide reach, he’ll be a great fit for all music fans.” 

While the committee does not control the specific set lists of the artists they book to perform at the festival, per Tantush, they do extensive research on each artist’s past performances and how their sets will complement one another. 

For Swae Lee, audiences may expect to hear some of his biggest songs, including “Sunflower,” “No Type,” “Unforgettable” and even some songs from his previous work under Rae Sremmurd, like “Come Get Her” and “Black Beatles.”  

In addition to the booked professional artists, Yale students will also have the opportunity to be a part of this year’s festival lineup. The committee will hold both a “Battle of the Bands” and “The Dock” competition to select student bands and DJs to begin the day’s musical festivities. 

“I think the thing I am the most excited and proud of as Production Chair is facilitating a festival which will showcase both the artists we have chosen and also the student talent on campus,” Tantush told the News. “What makes Spring Fling so unique is our ability to combine mainstream acts with Yale’s very own talented musicians.”  

Last year, the committee hosted “Battle of the Bands” at the Yale Farm. The three winners  — DJ Leon Thotsky, PJ Frantz ’23 and Tired of Tuesdays — opened for Ravyn Lenae, Dombresky and Pusha T at College Street Music Hall. 

The Dock, however, is a new creation this year, which Halvorssen spearheaded to reflect the growing presence of student DJs on campus. 

Both student-artist events will take place after spring break.

The post Swae Lee to headline Spring Fling 2024 appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Written by Caryl Churchill and directed by Liz Diamond, “Escaped Alone” will premiere on March 8 and run until March 30 at the Yale Repertory Theater. According to Diamond, the play explores the complexities of female friendships, alongside the mundane truths that lurk in everyday conversations. 

“I think that what’s so brilliant about this play is the way Churchill asks us or invites us to appreciate the way we function in simultaneous parallel universes of conversation with contemplation, subconscious yearnings, suppressed grief, fears that percolate up in us and apocalyptic visions,” Diamond said.

The play unravels in a backyard in suburban London, in which a trio of friends — Sally, Vi and Lena — is joined by Mrs. Jarrett, a less-acquainted individual, who appears at the door of the fence. As these four characters chat, the conversation is interrupted by Mrs. Jarrett’s startling monologues that deliver apocalyptic visions of the future. 

Mrs. Jarrett’s rants are more than panic-inducing soliloquy; Embedded within these words is a concerning, yet deeply necessary truth, said Diamond. 

“She’s a kind of Cassandra figure,” she said. “During the monologues that are spoken by Mrs. Jarrett, she punches through the membrane of the universe within which the women live a kind of domestic, contemporary, middle class working class, English existence into another dimension to report back to us what happened to the world … She’s not necessarily telling us what we want to hear. We might prefer to think, within her words, there is a kind of madness. We might want to console ourselves with that, but in fact, there’s a kind of terrible, terrible truth in her speeches.” 

LaTonya Borsay, who plays Mrs. Jarrett in the play, described her character as not just a soothsayer but as someone whose prophetic visions seek to inspire action. For Borsay, the play is largely “preventative” in nature and provides clues to evade future catastrophe — before it is too late.  

These clues lie in the power of community, according to Borsay. 

“Even though we’re individuals, we’re not living completely isolated lives,” Borsay said. “We are on the planet existing, breathing the same air, seeing the same sun and watching the moon rise … Getting people to act in whatever ways we can consciously act to keep everything sustainable for all life is her charge.” 

Rita Wolf, who plays the role of ‘Lena,’ characterized the play’s commentary on the future as somewhat characteristic of Churchill’s other works.

Wolf pointed to “A Number,” a 2002 play that centered around the ethical questions raised by human cloning, particularly the concept of  “nature versus nurture.” Her work “Far Away,” published in 2000, creates a world permeated by fear and authoritarianism. 

“Caryl Churchill is a writer who is very prescient,” said Wolf. “If you know anything about the history of her writing, she’s always kind of one step ahead in terms of her concerns about the wider world … particularly Western society.  Certainly in her recent work, she’s looking into the crystal ball a little bit in terms of anticipating the next possible iteration of humanity.” 

Diamond described Churchill’s writing as “a complicated geometry,” as the play’s dialogue is self-referential and self-interrupting. As a director of the play and resident director of the Yale Rep overall, Diamond said that she had long been attracted to plays with language that require the “unpacking” of the playwright’s “poetic strategies.”

She called the play’s writing “virtuosic,” similar to the ways a great contemporary jazz piece is interspersed with repetitions and revisions. 

“One of the delicious opportunities of directing this play is to, much the way, say, an orchestra conductor would be required to do, open up the score of the writing,”  Diamond said. “The conversations are sort of interleaved. In the way that when you sit around with a big family or a bunch of old friends, and you know, nobody is playing the role of conversational referee. The conversations interleave break off, are picked up again later on.” 

The Yale Rep’s production of “Escaped Alone” holds personal significance for Diamond, as the show marks her first show since the start of the pandemic. Diamond said that her return to the stage was a “marvelous” feeling. 

Diamond described the process of working with stage and lighting designers as one full of “play.” After all, theater is all about grown-ups “playing make-believe,” she said. According to Diamond, the collaboration between sound, lighting and set design teams played an important role in bringing her conceptualization of the lush, verdant backyard to life. 

“An image that came to me when I was thinking a lot about this was the image of terrariums,” Diamond said. “People create these strange little ideal worlds that exist within a much bigger and quite chaotic world, the world we live in … This garden, it’s a refuge, as people’s private outdoor spaces are, but it sits in a rather vast and unaccommodating space. The universe, which is hurtling us toward we don’t know what, perhaps the end or the apocalypse or the strange outcome that awaits us, is in no small measure, part of our own making.”  

In a story that prophesies about the future, the central voices are the voices of women who are “at least seventy,” the script specifies. While she does not know the exact reasoning behind Churchill’s decision, this detail of the characters seems to be an intentional one, said Diamond. 

Churchill herself is in her mid-eighties and continues to be an “absolute powerhouse,” she said. The older age of the characters is an attractive facet of the play, Diamond said, as it offers tremendous roles for women of a certain age and highlights the beauty and resilience within aging. 

“These women who have lived so long contain universes of feeling, lived experience, unresolved conflicts, buried angers. They are great continents of lived experience and I think that they thus give Carol an opportunity to talk about our human condition and our relationship to mortality, to the world in which we live in and its mortality, and the role we seem to be playing in destroying life on Earth.” 

“Escaped Alone” is Caryl Churchill’s 43rd play to be produced and was published 58 years after her first play — “Downstairs” — in 1958. 

The post Hard truths in a cup of tea: Yale Rep’s ‘Escaped Alone’ to open on March 8 appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 988. 

Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7 and confidential.

To talk with a counselor from Yale Mental Health and Counseling, schedule a session here. On-call counselors are available at any time: call (203) 432-0290. Appointments  with Yale College Community Care can be scheduled here.

Additional resources are available in a guide compiled by the Yale College Council here.

From Feb. 29 to Mar. 2, the Off-Broadway Theater became a home for an undergraduate production of the 2015 Broadway musical “Fun Home.” The show adapts Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic novel memoir, documenting her relationship with her sexuality and her father through three stages of her life: childhood, her college years and finally, at 43 years old.

Audience chatters fell quiet in the Off-Broadway Theater as an upbeat piano melody bounced into the air. A spotlight landed on an upstage desk, complete with sketch pads, Micron pens and an adult Alison. Before her, a childhood memory with her father unfolded as her past was constructed through alternating memories.

In the play, it is revealed through non-linear vignettes that Alison’s father — a high school English teacher, funeral home director and closeted gay man — died by suicide in her freshman year of college, shortly after she came out as lesbian. Their psychologically complex and changing relationship, through her childhood and early adulthood, is examined as Alison turns 43 years old — the same age as her father when he died. Alison, never leaving the stage, becomes an audience to her life through lenses of grief and logic-seeking reflection. 

Bechdel, the show’s subject and creator, is an acclaimed cartoon artist. Her comic-strip serial “Dykes to Watch Out For” was published for 25 years, illustrating a string of unrelated plotlines between a group of lesbian women. The Bechdel Test, a metric for sexism in the fictional portrayal of women, originated within the series. Though Bechdel originally wrote the concept as comedy, it has grown to widespread use in film and media critique since its 1985 publication.

Her creation of “Fun Home” brought her to literary notability as the graphic memoir was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. It also won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book, the Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction, the Publishing Triangle-Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

The memoir’s musical adaptation was equally recognized, winning five Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The musical adaption also received a nomination for the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 

Critics of “Fun Home,” in both its literary and theatrical forms, commented on the narrative’s poignant and vulnerable portrayal of the human experience. This trait was a focus of the undergraduate production’s direction. 

Naomi Schwartzburt ’24, the director of “Fun Home,” spoke about her connection to the show and its essential emotive arc in an interview with the News. 

“The structure of Fun Home is so unique and compelling because it’s nonlinear. We’re not necessarily seeing the story as it unfolded in real life, but we’re seeing the important emotional components come together and build,” Schwartzburt said. “This show just leaves you with so many feelings. Every single person has a different experience and identity and will connect to these characters in a very different way.” 

Connection, a central element of the story, is what distinguishes the musical from other representations of similar themes. Bechdel’s memoir roots the queer experience in nuclear family dynamics, shifting the show’s statement from a general comment on the queer community to an exploration of its role in intimate, domestic settings.  

Individual expression, combined with self-exploratory themes, was central to the show’s musical direction as well. 

Violet Barnum ’25, the show’s musical director, wrote in an email to the News that “Fun Home” demanded a stronger focus on musical interpretation and expression than on complex harmonies. 

The solo and small group songs allowed her to “guide the actors on taking more time with a certain phrase” or to be “more intentional about dynamics,” she wrote. Barnum added that this role allowed her to appreciate the show from all its angles, drawing attention to the complex intersection of joy, sadness, queerness and family. 

By nature of the novel’s form, the musical is also defined by its focus on artistry and expression through visual details. This element was preserved in the show through background graphic design, as actors were planted within the pages of Bechdel’s comic strips.  

An intimacy of creation was continued in the show’s graphic design, as it was hand-drawn to resemble frames of Bechdel’s novel. Mia Kohn ’27 used ink and watercolor to emphasize the show’s emotional fluidity, as well as to visually convey themes presented in the narrative. This connection to the form was also reinforced by the Off-Broadway Theater’s size, where a 130-person occupancy limit created a proximity with the set that neared audience involvement. 

Sitting only feet away from the actors, audience members were asked to view the characters as individuals with deeply complex lives, not simply tools for a larger movement. This is a perspective that the music aspires to promote, creating a space where audiences can consider human connection. 

This was emphasized by the musical’s co-producer, Marissa Blum ’24, who commented on the work’s significance. 

“‘Fun Home’ really demonstrates the unique, intergenerational nature of the queer community. It captures both the nostalgia and the pain that older generations of queer people have felt through not being able to express their identity,” Blum said. “But it also shows how they’ve laid the groundwork for future … queer people to live and be proud. It is an opportunity to remember the people who’ve come before.”

The complete slate of producers, actors and contributors for Yale’s adaptation of “Fun Home” can be found online.

The post  ‘Fun Home’ comes out to audiences with themes of queerness and family appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Dhamaal is one of two major cultural shows that Yale’s South Asian Society, or SAS, hosts each year, accompanied by Roshni in the fall. While Roshni traditionally only features Yale-affiliated groups, Dhamaal includes student groups from other universities. 

This year, the intercollegiate spring showcase will feature six Yale teams and seven outside teams from Duke University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rutgers University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Harvard University; the University of Connecticut and Carnegie Mellon University. The event will take place this Saturday, March 2, from 4 to 6 p.m.

“The day of Dhamaal in itself is also so much fun,” said Maanasi Nair ’25, who is co-captain of both classical dance team Kalaa and Bollywood fusion group Rangeela. “It can be insanely busy and everyone tends to be in a frenzy, but it brings us all so much closer together. I love the energy and excitement of the hours leading to the show.”

Tarun Kota ’26, another member of Rangeela, shared similar sentiments about Dhamaal — particularly noting how rewarding it is to see his team’s rehearsals come together for the final performance.

Rangeela has weekly practices every Saturday morning, and throughout the week, subgroups of the team have additional practices together. During tech week, which is the week before the show, the team practices every day for two hours. 

Nair said that Kalaa schedules their practices with flexibility for dancers who can choose how many hours to commit each week. The team starts with choreography, welcoming any dancer with an interest in exploring that element of the process. 

Kalaa ensures their choreography reflects the various types of classical dance before they move on to begin rehearsing. Depending on how many pieces a dancer is in, that rehearsal time could range from two to five hours per week.

According to Amadie Gajanaike ’26, communications chair for SAS, preparations for Dhamaal include booking venues, gathering sponsors, editing promotional videos and coordinating with groups from other schools. The organization began planning the showcase in December, with meetings and discussions held during the Asian American Cultural Center’s after-hours meetings. 

“We send out Dhamaal information to around 50 South Asian performing arts groups at universities across the US and they submit an audition,” said Gajanaike of SAS’s efforts to select guest teams. “By January, we choose 7-8 of those groups and contact presidents.”

Kota said that the showcase fosters community between students from different institutions, noting that members of SAS host students from other universities during the weekend of the event. Last year, Rangeela had a post-Dhamaal mixer with Dartmouth Raas.

Gajanaike said she worked with Zahra Virani ’26 and Sheel Trivedi ’26 of SAS’s Cultural Committee to assign housing, plan photo-booth decorations and decide what causes donations should be sent to. 

Kavya Gupta ’27, who dances for Yale Jashan Bhangra, a group dedicated to the Punjabi dance form bhangra, expressed her gratitude for her team and excitement to see other groups perform this weekend. 

“It feels like we have come closer as a team, learning to communicate and apply all our hard work from the past few months,” she said. “We are all so excited to see the other Yale groups and teams from other schools perform.”

Kota and Nair shared Gupta’s excitement about being able to perform for her community. Kota said sharing his cultural heritage with friends is his favorite part of Dhamaal, and Nair said that her team feels like a family.

“Our shared love for art and performance is so special,” said Nair. “It’s something I cherish immensely and will forever continue to value.”

Registration for Dhamaal is available on Yale Connect.

The post South Asian Society to host Dhamaal showcase this weekend appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The Wednesday night Yale-students-only dance party at Toad’s, known as “Woads,” has been a staple of the Yale experience for decades. Recently, however, the event has taken on a new form, highlighting Yale DJs to headline the event for three of the past four weeks.

Performances by Yale students had not been a common occurrence for the weekly event prior to this string of special appearances.

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, Eli Simon ’24 took the stage under his DJ name “Dionysus.” On Feb. 21, “IfSoWhatFor” — a DJ duo co-led by Jamis DeKay ’23 — was behind the deck, ending the night with a page out of world-famous DJ Steve Aoki’s book by “caking” an audience member in the face.

“Toad’s wants to bring back the energy that made them so iconic,” DeKay told the News. “Their thought was [to] invite artists from Yale in hopes they’d bring their audience and friends with them. It was a blast, we had a ton of fun.” 

Since COVID-19, students have noted that attendance at the weekly dance party has decreased. The DJ performances come from a larger push by Toad’s Place leadership to increase Yale student engagement with the iconic venue, Yale’s Toad’s Place Ambassador Lily Siegel ’23 told the News.

This week, a “Boiler Room” EDM dance party organized by Joshua Gluckman ’24, Matthew Ross ’25 and Michael Connor ’24 appeared at Toad’s. The event included a lineup of nine different Yale student acts who DJ’d from the middle of the Toad’s Place dance floor: Edu, gunnr, HESTERIA, just Josh, Keebo, Kelli + Kiernan, Leo + Dals, Philly and Red & Imo. 

“We pitched the idea to Toad’s, and they were immediately receptive to it,” Gluckman told the  News. “They worked with us to make the event an authentic ‘boiler room’ experience in their legendary venue, and fortunately people had a great time.” 

Boiler Room is an iconic music broadcaster and nightclub promoter. Its events, which take place across the globe, are characterized as “underground raves” featuring electronic dance music, hip-hop, techno and house music. Gluckman’s idea was to model the event after Boiler Room, and his company Lyricity helped bring the vision to life.

The startup, Gluckman explained, curates musical pop-up events for Yale students. All of their events feature Yale student artists. On Feb. 16, the group hosted “Koffee After Dark:” a “pop-up rave” at Koffee on Audubon Street. Now, the startup is looking to expand beyond DJ events and is actively recruiting new musical artists.

The DJs who performed at the Toad’s Place event had a variety of different experiences with performing. While artists like gunnr have DJ’d at events throughout Yale’s campus, this was Leo + Dals’s first time taking the stage. 

“[What] we’re trying to do is give more students opportunities to do live shows, even if it’s their first,” Gluckman said. 

The events have all been well-received by students and have drawn high attendance from Yalies across grades. According to Gluckman, approximately 650 tickets were bought for the Boiler Room event on Feb. 28. 

Toad’s Place is located at 300 York St.

The post Student DJs take over Toad’s Place appeared first on Yale Daily News.

At Yale, the show — which doubles as a campus production and senior thesis project — will run from Feb. 28 to March 2. Though this play largely lives in the social and historical context of the ’80s, a large undertaking of the cast has been to draw parallels between the play’s reality and today, said Claire Donnellan ’24, the show’s director.  

“This play has a lot to say about contemporary American society,” Donnellan said. “There’s a monologue that the character Martin Heller gives, where he talks about U.S. politics, and how he’s envisioning things becoming a lot more conservative over the coming years. A lot of those things have actually come to pass, which is really scary … I think this play still has a lot to say about what it means to live in America and what it means to live in this country that claims to be a place of equality and freedom for all people, but really has yet to achieve those goals.”  

There are clear differences between the America of the 1980s and the America of today, said Carson White ’25, who is the dramaturg of the show. When audiences were watching the 1991 premiere of the play, most, if not all, would have known someone whose life had been “irrevocably altered” by the AIDS/HIV epidemic, said White. 

The AIDS/HIV epidemic is no longer the “plight of the white gay man,” she said. 

However, the heart of the play is deeply political, in ways that may resonate with today’s political landscape. 

“This play is a gay fantasia on national themes,” said White. “The play is about a moment of profound crisis in American politics, and we are amidst many of our own profound political crises today. Whether that is drag bans, intersecting the sum of the themes of the play, or the U.S. aid of genocide in Palestine or the recent news from Florida of students having to get a permission slip signed to read a book by a Black author … [“Angels in America”] is a deeply, deeply political play. The heart of that remains very active today.”

Since its debut,  Kushner’s original “Angels in America” has garnered critical acclaim and cemented its legacy as one of the most iconic plays of the 21st century. The play was adapted into an HBO miniseries in 2003, and its revival opened at the West End and Broadway in 2018. 

Among some of the play’s unchanging elements seem to be an ability to deeply relate to and resonate with queer bodies. The play was one of the few instances of “fulfilling” queer media, said Jordi Bertrán Ramírez ’24, who knew from his sophomore year that he would want to produce this play for his thesis.

Similarly, Donnellan’s first encounter with the play can be traced back to her high school years, when she chose to read this play for an independent reading project and was immediately “blown away” by it. “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” has been a long time coming for both Donnellan and Bertrán Ramírez. For the duo, the production also serves as a thesis project in directing and acting, respectively. 

“I mean, this is one of the greatest plays ever written,” Donnellan said. “Especially as … a young, queer person in high school, I hadn’t come across a lot of media that actually dealt with what it meant to be queer in the U.S. and exploring that history in a serious and meaningful way. With the same sort of consequences and depth that straight relationships are normally treated with. That was something that was really powerful for me, and that was something that has fed my love for this play.” 

From weekly dramaturgy sessions to painstaking research on various aspects of production, the cast has worked to honor the historical and political intentions of the original, said White. 

The Yale rendition, however, also reflects the cast’s own relationship to the material, as well as their understanding of the play’s stakes and characters. 

For Victoria Pekel ’25, who plays The Angel, the show echoes images of illness she has seen in her own family. In his interpretation of Louis Ironson — a character that implicitly represents Tony Kushner’s own experiences, Dean Farella ’25 incorporated his own queerness and experiences in comedy, as a co-director of the sketch comedy group The Fifth Humour.

“In every iteration of the play or also in the HBO series, there’s kind of been like a false dichotomy, I think, set up between Louis and Prior, where Prior is this effeminate gay man and Louis kinda exists more on the masculine side of things. In the original Broadway version, the original actor, I think, definitely leaned into femininity in a way that more recent ones haven’t,” Farella said. “I’ve made this character my own in that although he is a deeply sad and insecure person, I think he also is extremely funny and finds the humor in such a dire situation that I then as a comedic actor try to incorporate into the role more.”

Experiencing homophobia as a queer person, Bertrán Ramírez said that he was used to changing — for reasons of safety, comfort or palatability. He had long viewed Prior as an “unabashed, untethered version” of a queer person — in ways that Bertrán Ramírez himself was not, said Bertrán Ramírez. 

Throughout the production process, Bertrán Ramírez said that his understanding of the character of Prior had shifted. It was not that the character of Prior was unaffected or had never experienced homophobia; Prior is a character who “amplifies himself in the face of adversity,” he said. 

“The difference between Prior and someone like me growing up was that Prior uses that and pushes against it,” Bertrán Ramírez said. “And his queerness, and the way that he presents it, is a form of rebellion against a community in a society that is telling him that the way he is is wrong … As someone who has experienced my fair share of homophobia and has been called slurs on the street for just being myself, it’s nice to embody someone that takes that in and throws it back by doubling down on their majesty.” 

While each cast member has a different relationship to the play, Pekel said that the cast felt a collective desire to handle the show with care, given the emotional weight of the story.  She also pointed to the additional “layer of dedication and care” given to the show, as it is a thesis project that required much dramaturgical and historical research.  

Adrien Rolet ’24 also described the show as  “extremely emotionally dense,” as an endeavor that required intense focus and attention to detail. Playing the role of Joseph, a closeted Mormon who struggles with his sexuality, Rolet had to learn to conserve his energy and take care of himself outside of emotionally intense scenes. 

“I have to draw on everything inside of me to travel the arc of a performance, so finding ways to maintain high energy and attention for each run is a personal learning experience that I am trying to tackle,” Rolet said. “I have also found the depths of Joe’s catastrophic breakdowns extremely challenging to recover from — it is mentally taxing to live through those experiences, which, if left unaddressed, can bleed into my life outside of the theater.” 

As cast members noted in their interviews, the production isn’t an easy feat to accomplish. The show is longer than the average production, with a runtime of three and a half hours. Additionally, while “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” centers around eight central characters, the play intentionally calls on actors to play minor roles, with some actors playing up to four different characters. 

As the title denotes, the play also introduces characters who are supernatural beings, such as angels or ghosts. The production relies on sound and lighting design to bring these fantastical elements of the story to life, said Donnellan. Lighting designer Emiliano Caceres Manzano ’26 said that collaboration between the sound and lighting team was important to highlight the tensions between the ordinariness of human life and the “spectacle” of supernatural beings. 

Sound designer James Han ’24 found inspiration in language and sound pertaining to the early Industrial Revolution — at the time, the novelty of big steam machinery and other inventions welcomed more magical, surrealist interpretations from the community. Han’s design choices attempted to “blur” the boundaries between the industrial idea of progress and the world of the supernatural. 

“Progress feels like … breaking the natural boundaries,” said Han. “The hope is that when we think about modern America, there’s a huge sense of technological and economic progress. And we are kind of these infinitesimally small agents in it, kind of passengers who are unwillingly and unwittingly participating in a progress that might move beyond us. I really hope the sound design, in particular, makes you feel the sense of scale of the world, and also your somewhat small place in it, and kind of forces you to reckon with that.”

While these multiple costume changes and paranormal elements may make “Angels in America” a daunting endeavor, the large scale of this play was an attractive feat for Bertrán Ramírez. It offered him a chance to “go big or go home” on the stage, something that isn’t always encouraged or possible in the world of Yale theater.

When Bertrán Ramírez first read “Angels in America,” the play made him feel “seen” in a way that he hadn’t felt before. In describing the play, Bertrán Ramírez ironically noted that the play was about the characters’ inability to see each other in a time that was “horrifically difficult” to be seen. Even amid the large scale of the production, Bertrán Ramírez said that the play ultimately emphasizes the simple, human desire for attention. 

“Everybody in this play is fighting for attention, right? In one way or another, this play is about fighting to be seen,” Bertrán Ramírez said. “Our play feels alive and active because we’re not wallowing in self-pity. We’re constantly pushing and fighting for something.”

As both White and Farrella have questioned, perhaps America has not progressed as much as it thinks. Yet, the production seems to suggest that there are certain things to be gained when looking back at the past. 

Donnellan hopes that audiences will not only recognize the political parallels of the play and today’s world, but will also identify with moments of hope and resistance of this era. 

“There’s a really beautiful moment at the end of the play where Prior, one of the characters, is terrified about the impending arrival of this Angel. And he yells, ‘No fear, find the anger.’ And he leans on his identity as a gay man in America, and having been able to live and thrive as a gay man in America,” Donnellan said.  “And [he says] if I can do that, I can resist whatever impending insanity is about to crash through my ceiling. I think that is just a really beautiful moment of resistance, that I think is at the heart of this play. It’s not just about tragedy, but it’s about the way in which we continue to live and fight in the face of that tragedy.”

“Angels in America” is set to be performed at the Theater, Dance and Performance Studies Black Box.

Correction, March 2: In a previous version of this article, Jordi Bertrán Ramírez’s name was spelled incorrectly. The article has been updated with the correct spelling.

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“I consider this show to just be flawless,” said Reed Sigmund, a resident actor at the CTC and Goede’s co-star. “It’s hilarious and has so much heart. These characters are very different but celebrate those contrasts.”

The musical is a reinterpretation of the classic children’s book characters Frog and Toad. The two friends journey through the seasons and go on the cutest adventures: kite flying, cookie making, sledding and bedtime storytelling. 

Growing up, Goede didn’t think he was going to be an actor. He described himself as artistic, but definitely on the shyer side. He wasn’t a stereotypically outgoing and bubbly theater kid, he mentioned.

“I think there are two kinds of actors,” Goede said. “The homecoming queens … [who] can become great actors because there’s confidence. There are others — like me — that were kind of awkward and shy and disconnected and because of that can become great actors.”

Goede described himself as a “daydreamer.” He tended to stick to the behind-the-scenes aspects of art and theater, focusing on visual and medium-based art. 

Despite being more reserved, acting became an emotional outlet for Goede. He felt that onstage, he was able to become a different version of himself that was capable of great emotional vulnerability. 

“I think I became an actor who stayed outside myself because I didn’t know myself,” Goede said. “But I loved it because it could be anybody but myself. That’s true of a lot of actors. We come to it not really knowing who we are and we find this magical thing where we can be somebody else and it’s incredible.”

Goede originally pursued drama school as a theater design major. Even at the start of his drama career, he still felt that he fit best behind the scenes. It wasn’t until he performed in Macbeth in drama school that he realized he wanted to be an actor.

The Shakespearean play resonated with the then-budding actor’s love for poetry and his desire to connect with people, according to Goede. That play built the technical skills he needed while sparking a passion for acting.

Goede’s teachers and mentors heavily influenced his time at drama school. Earle Gister, Barbara Somerville DRA ’83 and Virginia Ness had the most profound influence on the actor. While the teachers are no longer current members of Yale faculty, their time at Yale left a lasting impression on Goede.

Goede’s co-workers Autumn Ness and Reed Sigmund described him as “brilliant” and “sincere.”

Ness — a resident actor at the CTC and understudy in the production — not only works with Goede on the production but was also his student when he was an elementary school theater teacher in Minneapolis.

“He was such an artist,” Ness said. “He drew for us; he painted our sets; he taught our improv games and our theater classes. It was so entrancing and once you were exposed to it, it was all you wanted. And to revisit it at these different decades and points of life … I feel so lucky to reconnect with him.”

Goede has maintained his more introverted, reserved attitude throughout his acting career, never falling into the outgoing and bubbly theater stereotype. Among his core values is making genuine conversation with others. 

Sigmund will be playing Goede’s faithful companion Toad. This will be Sigmund’s second time acting alongside Goede — the first being an understudy performance as Toad in 2003 at the CTC.

“The music is phenomenal,” Sigmund said. “And Mark [2003’s Toad] and Jay are both individually perfect — which is not a word you use often in performance because it is so subjective — and their chemistry was also perfect. It was a production of the absolute best and all you could hope to do was equal it because you would never surpass it.”

Goede himself emphasized connecting with the audience as another key part of his acting values. He hopes to provide an experience for audiences that is “emotional” and “profound” within the short amount of time actors get on stage.

“A Year with Frog and Toad” will start rehearsal this spring.

The post Jay Goede DRA ’91 revives his Broadway role appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The performance, which combined classical sounds with modern percussion, was divided into several sections. The first was a Star Wars orchestral suite, featuring the “Main Title,” “Princess Leia’s Theme,” “The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s theme), “Yoda’s Theme” and “The Throne Room and End Title.” The next was an original arrangement of the main themes from “My Neighbor Totoro” and “The Wind Rises.” This was followed by “The Dpops Wiirangement,” which included popular “Wii Sports” and “Super Smash Bros: Brawl” sounds. Finally, the group performed “Badtameez Dil” from Bollywood film “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.” 

“I started conducting with DPops my sophomore year … it’s opened up so many other musical opportunities and doors since then,” said Maggie Schnyer ’24, a conductor.

According to Helen Zhou ’25, who currently serves as a co-president of the organization, what makes DPops unique is the sense of community that it aims to cultivate.

She emphasized the importance of balancing fun with “high-quality musicianship.” Eric Gan ’25, the club’s other co-president, said, “We have enough enthusiasm from just our members to arrange all the stuff that we do.”

Community-building extends beyond the rehearsal room, with DPops hosting additional social events, board dinners, movie nights, game nights and post-concert after parties. 

This specific concert was open to both members of the Yale community and New Haven residents. Gan reflected on some of the challenges faced, which included communication with local schools.

The performance also included non-traditional elements to appeal to the younger audience members in the crowd. During the “Wiirangement,” there was a projection screen behind the musicians that took the audience through various pre-recorded gameplays to simulate the Nintendo theme. At the end of the performance, children were invited to go onto the Woolsey Hall stage to get a glimpse of the performers’ perspective. Additionally, while presenting the Star Wars theme, conductor Mitchell Dubin ’25 walked in with a lightsaber, engaging in an “altercation” with conductor Eli Gilbert ’24 until Gilbert fell to the ground. Dubin then took over, continuing the symphony.

According to Gan and Zhou, DPops hopes to continue the tradition of performing at Woolsey Hall. Last year marked their first concert there since the “late 2000s [or] early 2010s,” Zhou said.

In the middle of the performance, Gan and Zhou stepped out to give credits to the various individuals and groups that made the performance possible, while also highlighting the importance of music education and community engagement.

Inside the Schwarzman Center, Woolsey Hall is located at 500 College St.

The sounds of the student-run Davenport Pops Orchestra echoed through Woolsey Hall on Feb. 24 for the group’s third concert of the year, “In a Galaxy Far, Far Away.”

The performance, which combined classical sounds with modern percussion, was divided into several sections. The first was a Star Wars orchestral suite, featuring the “Main Title,” “Princess Leia’s Theme,” “The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s theme), “Yoda’s Theme” and “The Throne Room and End Title.” The next was an original arrangement of the main themes from “My Neighbor Totoro” and “The Wind Rises.” This was followed by “The Dpops Wiirangement,” which included popular “Wii Sports” and “Super Smash Bros: Brawl” sounds. Finally, the group performed “Badtameez Dil” from Bollywood film “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.” 

“I started conducting with DPops my sophomore year … it’s opened up so many other musical opportunities and doors since then,” said Maggie Schnyer ’24, a conductor.

According to Helen Zhou ’25, who currently serves as a co-president of the organization, what makes DPops unique is the sense of community that it aims to cultivate.

She emphasized the importance of balancing fun with “high-quality musicianship.” Eric Gan ’25, the club’s other co-president, said, “We have enough enthusiasm from just our members to arrange all the stuff that we do.”

Community-building extends beyond the rehearsal room, with DPops hosting additional social events, board dinners, movie nights, game nights and post-concert after parties. 

This specific concert was open to both members of the Yale community and New Haven residents. Gan reflected on some of the challenges faced, which included communication with local schools.

The performance also included non-traditional elements to appeal to the younger audience members in the crowd. During the “Wiirangement,” there was a projection screen behind the musicians that took the audience through various pre-recorded gameplays to simulate the Nintendo theme. At the end of the performance, children were invited to go onto the Woolsey Hall stage to get a glimpse of the performers’ perspective. Additionally, while presenting the Star Wars theme, conductor Mitchell Dubin ’25 walked in with a lightsaber, engaging in an “altercation” with conductor Eli Gilbert ’24 until Gilbert fell to the ground. Dubin then took over, continuing the symphony.

According to Gan and Zhou, DPops hopes to continue the tradition of performing at Woolsey Hall. Last year marked their first concert there since the “late 2000s [or] early 2010s,” Zhou said.

In the middle of the performance, Gan and Zhou stepped out to give credits to the various individuals and groups that made the performance possible, while also highlighting the importance of music education and community engagement.

Inside the Schwarzman Center, Woolsey Hall is located at 500 College St.

The post DPops at Woolsey: A symphony of Studio Ghibli, Bollywood, Star Wars and Nintendo appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Held on Feb. 24 at MINIPNG’s store on Audubon Street, the fashion show was the first from Eiress Hammond, known by the nickname MINI, and brought together a selection of her fans and members of New Haven’s local art community.

Among the attendees was Zoe Jensen, who is the founder, publisher and co-editor of Connetic*nt Magazine — a quarterly zine featuring local Connecticut artists. Jensen, who initially met MINI during an interview for the magazine, contributed to the show’s lookbooks.

“I am a huge fan of Mini. I think she is such a visionary,” Jenson remarked. “She is kind of like the Vivienne Westwood of New Haven … She leans into this punk fashion in a way that’s extremely feminine and coquette. It’s focused on sustainability and community-building in a similar way.”

The showcase spotlighted MINI’s hand-made knitwear, a craft she had spent the past three years teaching herself. MINI shared that each piece requires between a day to a week of effort to complete. The intricate pieces are comprised of a variety of different yarns — including mohair, alpaca, sheep and other Italian-sourced wools. She uses a technique of weaving scrap yarn into her projects as she works, creating a collage-like effect of different gauge, color and texture.

Models of all sizes donned the garments, demonstrating the fabrics’ elasticity and versatility. Because of the knitting techniques employed, the one-size-fits-all knit pieces accommodate a range of body types. 

Pieces had purposefully undone hems and loose threads dangling off them to further emphasize their properties as imperfect hand-crafted goods. Many models wore the colorful knits with angel wings and glittery make-up, underscoring the show’s fairy-like theme, as pop music scored the event from speakers at the front of the showroom.

“I would love to do more [runway shows],” MINI said. “I may do something in the summer, and maybe something in the fall, like a three-time-per-year thing,”

MINIPNG, founded in 2019, traces its roots back to MINI’s side-project while studying pre-law, where she began making and selling clothes on Depop. Gradually, her designs gained traction, allowing her to open her own brick-and-mortar storefront in 2022.

She is now involved in Connecticut’s art scene, showing her work and holding events in her New Haven store. She further spoke about her ambitions to open another location in New York within the next few years.

Attendee’s applauded as MINI rushed out after the models’ final lap. Following the showcase, the storeroom opened up for retail, where attendees were able to purchase pieces from the show. The venue featured local jewelry maker Skye and her brand Cielv, a shirley temple booth, and afterwards, a music set by Qween Kong.

Skye initially attended a trade school in New York with aspirations of becoming a jeweler. However, her interest in crafting non-traditional jewelry led her to establish her own handcrafted silver and solder jewelry business.

“I met MINI through another event I was vending at Plush,” Skye said. “She happened to be there that day and she saw me. She said ‘I would love you,’ and she had another event later that month, and said ‘would you like to vend?’ We’ve been tight ever since then. She’s a doll. I love what she does, and all of the work she did today was super amazing.”

MINI was a pre-law student at Wittenberg University in Ohio before turning to fashion.

The post ‘Vivienne Westwood of New Haven’ debuts runway show appeared first on Yale Daily News.