DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL PRESENTS
FATHER AND SON BRAVE THE WILDERNESS IN A POETIC COMEDY ABOUT FAMILY
QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
By travis tate
Directed by Raz Golden
“This play can show those individuals out there that may be struggling with conversations around queerness and masculinity, especially with family. A type of beacon, a light in the dark, dark forest of discovery and connection.”
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ABOUT THE PLAY
By travis tate
Recently divorced Stephen and his millennial son, Ty, set out on a camping trip to their old stomping grounds in southeastern Texas. As an important family event approaches, father and son attempt to survive the woods, and one another, braving the bears and reckoning with the wilderness of their past. Despite low cell signal and high emotions, these two characters try their best to connect in this timely play that illuminates as it entertains. In this honest and poetic comedy about family, playwright travis tate explores masculinity and queerness through the lens of multi-generational Blackness.
Queen of the Night is produced by Dorset Theatre Festival. CLICK HERE to learn about the Festival’s 2021 Sponsors.
*Contains adult language and content
*90 minutes with no intermission
Queen of the Night was developed in partnership with Aye Defy in a week-long virtual workshop earlier this spring.
Special thanks to QUEEN OF THE NIGHT Production Sponsor, TPW REAL ESTATE, and Co-Sponsor, DORSET UNION STORE.
Live Performances Returning to Southern Vermont
Play (OUTSIDE) in Vermont JULY 9 - SEPTEMBER 4
Main Stage productions UNDER THE STARS
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World premiere audio dramas
commissioned specifically for a complete aural experience
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
travis tate - Playwright
travis tate (Playwright) is a queer, black playwright, poet and performer from Austin, Texas. Their poetry has appeared in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Underblong, Mr. Ma’am, Reservoir, and upcoming in the Shade Journal and apt, among others. They were a finalist for the Cosmonauts Avenue 2018 Poetry Prize. Their one-person drag show, It’s a Travesty! One Night with Jazzie Mercado! was presented at the Cohen New Works Festival (2017) and at Salvage Vanguard Theatre’s Three-Headed Fest in November 2017.Their play MotherWitch was featured as a part of the 2018 UTNT (UT New Theatre). Their debut collections of poems are forthcoming with V.A. Press in June 2020. They holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Texas at Austin and a M.F.A. in Writing from the Michener Center for Writers at University of Texas at Austin, where they studied playwriting and poetry. travis currently lives in Brooklyn. Travisltate.com
Raz Golden - Director
RAZ GOLDEN (Director) is a director of theatre, film, and audio. He focuses on new and classical texts, as well as narratives that explore shared cultural histories and myths and that center people of color. His directorial work, no matter the medium, embraces collage and juxtaposition, speculative genres, and multiple modes of storytelling.
Raz is a 2019 Drama League Classical Directing Fellow and a former Resident Director at The Flea. He has developed work with the Public Theatre, The National Black Theatre, NYU Tisch, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Waterwell, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and McCarter Theatre. He is currently a member of the Drama League Director’s Council and the Roundabout Directors Group.
Danny Johnson - Stephen
DANNY JOHNSON (Stephen) Broadway: All The Way and The Song of Jacob Zulu. Off Broadway: The Last Saint on Sugar Hill, Our Lady of 121st Street, and A Soldier's Play. Regional: The Skin of Our Teeth (Berkshire Theater Group), Familiar (The Old Globe), Seven Guitars (Yale Repertory), The Mountaintop (True Colors Theater), What I Learned in Paris (Alliance Theater), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (The Goodman Theater), A Raisin in the Sun (Intiman Theater). Additional productions at: Weston Playhouse, Steppenwolf Theater Company, and Huntington Theater Company among many. Television: The Equalizer, Pose, Daredevil, Luke Cage, For Life, Quantico, Shades of Blue, Law and Order SVU, and many popular shows. Film: Villains, Lazy Susan, Still Here, and the HBO classic Don King: Only in America. @trudannyjohnson
Leland Fowler - Ty
LELAND FOWLER (Ty) Off-Broadway: one in two (The New Group); Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick); If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons); Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public); Measure for Measure (TFANA). Regional: King Lear (St. Louis Shakespeare Festival); Skeleton Crew (Westport Country Playhouse, Dorset Theatre Festival); Protect the Beautiful Place (McCarter Theatre Center); Seven Guitars (Yale Rep); The Taming of the Shrew, Tiny Houses (Chautauqua Theatre Company); Songs to Grow On and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Alliance Theatre). TV: City On A Hill. BA: Morehouse College. MFA: Yale School of Drama.
CHRISTOPHER & JUSTIN SWADER (Scenic Design)
Are scenic designers for theatre and live events. DTF: DIG. Selected NYC & Regional: "Greed" for "Seven Deadly Sins" (Tectonic Theater Project), Seven Deadly Sins, One Night in Miami, Fake, Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy, The Cubans (Miami New Drama), A Raisin in the Sun (Two River Theater), Radio Golf (Everyman Theatre), Ajijaak on Turtle Island (The New Victory Theatre), Seize the King, The Bacchae, Antigone, The Three Musketeers, Macbeth, The Tempest, Dutchman (Classical Theatre of Harlem), National Tour of Heather Henson's Crane: On Earth, In Sky. Collaborations with A$AP Rocky, Sotheby’s, Big Apple Circus, & National Geographic. Henry Hewes nominations, AUDELCO, IRNE, Carbonell Awards, 2019 Prague Quadrennial Exhibition. www.cjswaderdesign.com
FABIAN FIDEL AGUILAR (Costume Design)
Attended the Yale School of Drama for his MFA and Boston University (BFA) to pursue theatrical costume design. Credits include: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, Max Makes a Million, Winnie the Pooh (Alliance Theater), Slow Food (Dorset Theater Festival), Afterglow, Safeword (Midnight Theatricals), Recent Alien Abductions (Play Co.): Mlima’s Tale, In the Heights, Man of La Mancha, Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse); ¡Bienvenidos Blancos! or Welcome White People! (Team Sunshine, Philadelphia), A View from the Bridge, Seven Spots on the Sun, The War Boys (NYC); Sotto Voce (Portland Stage); Midsummer, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theater world premiere); He Left Quietly (SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto). In his spare time he likes to paint watercolors.
YUKI NAKASE LINK (Lighting Designer)
Is a lighting designer for theatre, dance, opera, performing arts, television and fashion productions. Previously designed with Jade King Carroll: Dael Orlandersmith’s wrath-themed play Memories in the blood for Seven Deadly Sins (Lincoln Road, Miami Beach). Recent design credits include: Seven Deadly Sins (Meatpacking District, NYC), The Cubans, Queen of Basel (Colony Theatre), Blood Moon at Prototype 2020 (Baruch Performing Arts Center), Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) (Disney Hall, Power Center, Kennedy Center and BAM), Rakugo (New World Stages), Sell/Buy/Date (New York Live Arts), Look Who’s Coming to Dinner (La MaMa), Resonance III (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center), Theo, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Women Of Padilla (Two River Theater), Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf Theatre). She was born in Tokyo, grew up in Kyoto, Japan and currently lives north of NYC in the woods of Hudson Valley. M.F.A.: NYU. https://yukinlink.com/
MEGUMI KATAYAMA (Sound Designer)
Is a Sound Designer and Composer based in NY. Her theatrical sound design credits include An Almost Holy Picture (Everyman Theatre), Pass Over (Studio Theater), Pride and Prejudice (Long Wharf Theater), For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (The Public Theater), El Huracán (Yale Rep/The Sol Project, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Nomination), soft (Williamstown Theater Festival Fellowship). She has also worked on Art Installations, Video Projects, Short Films, Audio Plays, Theme Park, Corporate Events, and TV productions. Megumi holds a BFA from University of Central Oklahoma and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.
JUDY BOWMAN, CSA
(she/hers) has been casting with Dorset Theatre Festival since 2009. TV/FILM: Hallmark’s Redemption In Cherry Springs, Big Dogs Season One (Amazon Prime), One Moment with Danny Aiello, Separation, Hurricane Bianca, Lost Cat Corona, Gold Star, Copenhagen. THEATER: Cleveland Play House, Woolly Mammoth, Humana Festival, A.R.T., Profile Theatre Co., Arizona Theater Co., Children’s Theater Co. (Minneapolis), Kitchen Theatre Co., and numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway plays and musicals. Artios Award nominee for Best Webseries Casting, PT Barnum Award recipient. Former faculty with Columbia University’s MFA film program, Harlem School of the Arts, and NYU/Strasberg. www.judybowmancasting.com
GRAHAM SCHMIDT (Dramaturg)
is a Brooklyn-based theater director and dramaturg. He has directed work at institutions including The Orchard Project (2021 Performance Lab), the Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Egg and Spoon Theatre Collective, Aye Defy, Salvage Vanguard Theater, the Wild Project, and the National Winter Playwrights’ Retreat. Graham is the New Play Development Coordinator for Egg & Spoon Theatre, and serves as Chay Yew’s Associate Director for the upcoming national tour of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band. Graham teaches acting in the BFA conservatory program at Brooklyn College, and lives in Boerum Hill with his impossibly delightful pup, Scout. MFA, UT-Austin.
JULIA BATES (Stage Manager)
is excited to be working on her first production at Dorset Theatre Festival. Past stage management credits include Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theatre), Seussical, Secret in the Wings (Teen Players at South Coast Repertory), LOCUSTS, Slave Play (Yale School of Drama). She was also the assistant stage manager for Into the Woods, Cyrano (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Godspell and All Shook Up (New London Barn Playhouse). Most recently, she has been working in television as the Production Associate for MTV Unplugged: Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett and the New York portion of the 2021 Golden Globes.
SAM TIRRELL (Stage Manager)
is a multi-hyphenate theatre artist based in Troy, NY. Recent credits include the world premieres of GIRLS by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and CADILLAC CREW by Tori Sampson, both at Yale Repertory Theatre. Sam has stage-managed productions for the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), New York Theatre Ballet, Troy Foundry Theatre, Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, Yale School of Drama, Proctors Theatre, Theatre Institute at Sage, Yale Cabaret, and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, among others. She has also served as faculty at the School of Performing Arts at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, NY. BA: Russell Sage College. MFA: Yale School of Drama.
NICK WILLIAMS (Assistant Stage Manager)
This is Nick’s first season with the Dorset Theatre Festival. He graduated from Bennington College in 2020, with an emphasis on music composition and theater performance as an actor and director. Nick resides in Connecticut, where he continues his work as a video game composer and sound designer.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
All Main Stage performances begin at 8:00 PM EST
NO performances on Mondays or Thursdays
All performances will take place outside at our open-air performance space at SVAC
NEWSROOM
THE BERKSHIRE EDGE: THEATER REVIEW: ‘Queen of the Night’ illuminates the dark at Dorset Theatre Festival
BENNINGTON BANNER: THEATRE REVIEW: Dorset camps out with visceral ‘Queen of the Night’
NIPPERTOWN: THEATRE REVIEW: “QUEEN OF THE NIGHT” SINGS OUT IN THE DARK WOODS
WAMC RADIO: INTERVIEW: “The Roundtable” with Joe Donahue - Dorset Theatre Festival presents Queen of the Night
AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE: INTERVIEW: Offscript: Camping With Travis Tate
TIMES ARGUS: PREVIEW: travis tate’s ‘Queen of the Night’: Can a father-son camping trip bridge the unbridgeable?
BROADWAYWORLD: PRESS RELEASE: Father and Son Brave the Wilderness in Dorset Theatre Festival's World Premiere of QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
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