Late last summer, Registrar Ariel Yan and her wife, Dr. Maura Bozeman (’12 YSE),  were running out of outdoor activities to get away from their home office spaces. Mack, a friend of Ariel’s, told them about pickleball, a sport Mack played in camp as a child that is also popular in retirement communities. Ariel and Maura tried it, loved it, and began proselytizing.

During meetings with Assistant Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr. at the beginning of the school year, Ariel found she couldn’t stop talking about pickleball. Intrigued, Kelvin and his wife joined Ariel and Maura and then purchased their own paddles. At meetings with the Chairs, Kelvin shared his new obsession, which piqued the interest of Catherine Sheehy (’92, D.F.A. ’99, Faculty) and her wife. They, too, got their own paddles and spread the word.

Pickleball is a paddleball sport like tennis or badminton. The paddles are smaller than tennis rackets, and the ball is a small Wiffleball about the size of a softball. There are rules about bounces, bounds, baselines, and points, but this group plays for fun. “Our motto is ‘keep it in play,’” says Ariel.

Read more about the School of Drama pickleball “league” on our website.

Isuri Wijesundara (’23) believes that wellness means doing something different—activities and mindful practices that help her stay positive every day. Being clear that “being well” doesn’t mean “being productive,” she lets herself enjoy being a couch potato, “but I love long walks and music.”

Henriëtte Rietveld (’22) shared that she likes to paint and has started learning about plants, given their numerous health benefits. She's grateful that her good friend David Mitsch (’22) showed her how to repot some of her current 14 plant-babies earlier this month, and she asked Isuri's advice on watering. “Oh, you have come to the right place!,” exclaimed Isuri, who cares for 39 houseplants.

“Sometimes we show our plants too much love and overwater them, so bottom watering helps avoid that,” said Isuri. “Grab a bowl of water that’s bigger than your nursery pot or a pot with a drainage hole. Place the pot in the bowl and leave the plant to do its thing. Bottom watering allows the roots to absorb and soak up as much water as the plant needs, as opposed to us trying to figure out how thirsty the plant is!” She elaborated that the plant will stop absorbing water when it reaches its limit after about 10-15 minutes, and taking the plant out of the bowl when it’s done will keep the roots from rotting.

Follow Yale School of Drama on Instagram this summer for more Well-Being & Well, Being from Isuri and Henriëtte.

Our new Director of Human Resources, Sarah de Freitas, is an avid baker. “I enjoy baking because it challenges me and is cathartic. My husband is the true baker and opened the world of baking for me years ago, and I have not gone back! It is such a wonderful feeling when the aroma of a sweet treat drifts through the house and grabs the interest of my six-year-old son and my husband.”

During the holidays and fall months, Sarah and her family spend much of their time in the kitchen trying new recipes. “2020 gave us ample opportunity, so we dusted off The Pastry Chef’s Little Black Book by Michael Zebrowski and Michael Mignano—which I highly recommend—and got to work.”

But Sarah’s baking obsession started when she needed to find something to do with bananas that were too ripe to eat. Banana bread is now her go-to for a quick dessert. She shared that freezing the bananas is a good way to save them—it breaks the sugars and fibers down and they become easier to bake with.

Find Sarah’s Simple Banana Bread recipe on our website.

Harry Kondoleon (’81) completed two novels, two books of poetry, and 18 plays over the course of his life—including the play Rococo, performed as part of Yale Repertory Theatre’s inaugural Winterfest during his final year of study at Yale School of Drama. He won an OBIE Award as Best Emerging Playwright in 1983 almost immediately upon entering the New York theater scene, and another in 1992 for his dark comedy, The Houseguests. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, and wrote continually and ferociously about the epidemic and its devastating effect on the theatrical and queer communities until his death in 1994.

Our studio at 217 Park Street was renamed The Harry Kondoleon Studio in his honor during the School’s Naming Ceremony in 2018. The warm, versatile space is used for acting and directing classes, acting project performances, and may be most memorable to recent alumni for its glorious chaos as the dressing room for Yale Cabaret’s annual Dragaret performances.
   
Learn more about Harry Kondoleon on our Named Spaces page.

One of our most recent George Pierce Baker Award winners, Eric M. Glover (Faculty), wrote an article about the 1991 Broadway debut of the 1931 play The Mule Bone by Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. The play's creation was more dramatic than the play itself, which is why it took six decades to be performed. Eric's article was published in Milestones in Black Theater, a special issue of The Journal of American Drama and Theater.

Researcher Joseph Cermatori (’08) discovered a previously unpublished essay by Thornton Wilder titled “The Barock; or, How to Recognize a Miracle in the Daily Life,” which has been printed with Cermatori’s contextualizing commentary in Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA). Cermatori found the manuscript of the essay in a notebook in the Thornton Wilder Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas (’24) and Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco (’09) were each recently featured in an anthology of works considered the best of contemporary Peruvian theater published by the National Theater School in Peru. Gonzalo’s Hijos de la República and Sebastián’s Hasta que choque el hueso, written with Mario Zanatta, can be found in Teatro Peruano. Colección Bicentenario. Tomo III.

Summer Cabaret 2021, led by Co-Artistic Directors Doug Robinson (’24) and Stefani Kuo (’24); Co-Managing Directors Chloe Knight (’24) and Mia Haiman (’23); and Director of Production Andrew Riedemann (’23), aims to reimagine what theater can be by embracing nontraditional space where anyone can follow their artistic impulses and develop new works, skills, and passions.

“We hope to build upon the growing online accessibility of the Cabaret and create work that is available in varying platforms, locations, and times. We will create a process that sets fun as its north star. A process that allows for and celebrates our mistakes as well as our successes. Through this ‘play,’ we will disrupt the restrictive binary of what is good or bad art, and instead center and celebrate the process of creation,” says the team.

Keep an eye on SummerCabaret.org next month for updates and announcements!

On June 24, Madeline Sayet, Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, will discuss her solo piece Where We Belong with Long Wharf Theatre’s artistic director, Jacob Padrón (’08, Faculty). The piece is about her experience as a Mohegan person pursuing a PhD in Shakespeare in the United Kingdom—a country that has yet to reckon with its colonial past. This live event, presented by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, on the New Haven Green will also be streamed online. Reservations are required.

Where We Belong will be available on-demand from June 24-27.

Yale University Art Gallery is now open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays with timed reservations. Visitors will be required to wear a mask and practice safe distancing while exploring the museum. You can make reservations on their website.

While there, check out the “modernist cave” projection display of photographs by David Coulson in the gallery’s Louis Kahn stairwell as part of the partial reinstallation of the Laura and James J. Ross Gallery of African Art. The project was supported by Eric Lin (’12, Faculty) and technical intern Erin Sims, who worked with the gallery’s assistant curator of African art, James Green, and graphic artist Cecilia Estanislao. 

Filmed in our own Iseman Theater, this video from Yale University celebrating the 2021 commencement features graduates from every professional school sharing quotes from their alumni. Gloria Majule (’21) represents the School of Drama, quoting Lupita Nyong’o (’12).

Find more of the University's 2021 celebrations at yale2021.yale.edu.