Frances Black presents
the David Geffen School of Drama's production of
What in the Actual F**k?!
Conceived and Directed by Christopher Bayes
Written by Christopher Bayes and The Company
Music by Michael VQ
Hosted by New York Theatre Workshop
Company:
Messiah Cristine*, Cindy De La Cruz*, Lawrence Henry*, Chloe Howard*, Ariyan Kassam*, Anna Roman*, Kamal Sehrawy* & Nomè SiDone*
Assistant Director - Yao
Co-Production Managers - Josie Cooper & Kyle Stamm
Associate Producer - Chris Tramantana
Stage Manager - Josie Cooper*
Lighting Designer - Kyle Stamm
Dramaturgs - Timothy Hartel & Thando Mangcu
Run Crew - Gretta Marston
Front of House - E Sailer Bayes
*these actors are appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association
What in the Actual F**k?! was inspired by the challenging and juicy moment of now. We have tried to take the temperature of the culture, the community and the bigger, rattled world that we find ourselves trying to negotiate. Every five minutes we encounter another “What the fuck?!” and we seek some sort of comfort or balm for the audacity and misbehavior. It has always been thus, but this “now” seems so much worse than the “nows” of the past. So, we make theater in times of crisis for people to gather, breathe, howl, perhaps have a little guffaw or two, maybe a moment to fall apart a little bit and experience the collective effervescence of community.
It’s a nightclub, it’s a Dead concert, it’s my church. Let’s fuck around and find out. We make lists of things. Lists and list of bad words, funny stuff, dirty stuff, Yummy stuff, sparkly things, sentences that we can’t finish, all of “The Don’ts”? (we came up with very few “Do’s”. So many cautionary “Don’ts” though.) What are the beautiful things? What are the things that you are looking forward to? When you are living with dread, what do you whisper to someone as you watch them sleep? I have tried to match the sound in my head with the feedback of a guitar. At the moment, that’s what it sounds like most of the time. That’s what we started with.
At its best, Commedia is of the complicated NOW. It’s not an archeological dig but, rather, a deeply subversive mirror which, if we are lucky, turns into a window through which we look forward, dragging history, with all of its relentless and unrepentant fuckery, down the block of East 4th St.
Written by Christopher Bayes
