People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead, turns himself into a monster.

~James Baldwin, 1953

This production is medicine. Despite its bitter, potentially rancid taste, we must endure the foul flavor so that the body might heal. We must sit together in the discomfort of our shared past so that we might finally see the truth of where we have been, where we are now, and what it might actually take to have the country we have all been promised. Let us destroy the lies of yesterday so that we can enter tomorrow in honesty and humility.

Whatever this production brings up for you, may it lead to our collective healing. We are thrilled to continue the American Shakespeare Center tradition of universal lighting and leaving the lights on. (Mostly.) Your experience of the play will not be complete until you connect with someone who saw the same show on the same night from a different section of the house. It took teamwork to make this production, and it will take teamwork to process its implications and lessons.

I dedicate this production to my mentor and friend Sue Lawless, and to legacies of Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin.

                                                                        ~Christopher Burris, 2022

Content Warning: Pass Over contains very strong, racially-loaded language, adult themes, and violence. Read about its recent Broadway production here. 

A message from Playwright Antoinette Nwandu 

“Let me be crystal clear: aside from the actors saying lines of dialogue on the stage while in character, this play is in no way an invitation for anyone to use the n-word. Not during tablework, not during talkbacks, not during after-work drinks. 

…When you want to talk about the n-word, say “the n-word” – Everyone will know what you mean.”

• Resources for Black Healing
• Anti-Racism Resources for White People
• Advice for White Folks by Justin C. Cohen
• Say Their Names
• Racial Equity Tools
• The Conciliation Project
• Rise – Waynesboro

Stuff That Happens

• Moses and Kitch stand on a street corner, conspiring ways to leave their lives behind and journey on to the “promised land”.
• A white man, Mister, enters the neighborhood and speaks with Moses and Kitch, before moving on.
• A white policeman, Ossifer, enters the neighborhood. He, Moses and Kitch have a violent interaction.
• Ossifer leaves, with Moses rattled over the (previous) loss of his brother to police brutality.
• Moses becomes fixated and concerned with incarceration, police brutality, and a need to leave.
• Ossifer returns and another confrontation takes place, before he leaves.
• Mister returns and another confrontation takes place.
• Generational trauma, systemic racism, and a need for survival lead us through.

Special Thanks

The Conciliation Project

Big Red BBQ

Molly Martinez-Collins

Staunton Olive Oil Store

Professor Molly Seremet

THIS SEASON: Director – Pass Over

BIO: Christopher Burris is an artist and educator with a BA from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA from UC San Diego. He has directed several off-Broadway productions including the revival of A.R. Gurney’s THE FOURTH WALL, the staged version of B-BOY BLUES by James Earl Hardy, and GEESE by Samuel D. Hunter. Burris has taught at NYU, Pace University, Laguardia Community College, and UC San Diego, after years with New York Film Academy and as a teaching artist with The Leadership Program, Queens Theatre in the Park, and CUNY’s Creative Arts Team. He was a ’21-’22 visiting professor at UNC School of the Arts in Winston Salem. Other academic directing credits include PASSING STRANGE and DETROIT ’67 at UNCSA, MEASURE FOR MEASURE for NYU Graduate Acting, DARK OF THE MOON at Pace, and WHEN WE WAKE UP DEAD at Brooklyn College. Regional directing credits include Scott Joplin’s opera TREEMONISHA in Newark, Tracey Conyer Lee’s JEFF recommended RABBIT SUMMER in Chicago, and THE BROTHERS SIZE, which received five 2016 Broadway World Award nominations including Best Play and Best Director. He was a director for the inaugural year of the Obie-winning 48 Hours in Harlem (POTATO SALAD by Keith Josef Adkins), as well as the first four years of Obie-winning Fire This Time Festival, culminating in their premiere full length production LORDS RESISTANCE by Camille Darby. Burris has an extensive resume as a professional actor in theater (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, The Women’s Project, North Shore Music Theatre), television (Damage Control, Guiding Light, As the World Turns), commercials (NY Post, Dr. Scholl’s, ESPN360), and voice-overs (Grand Theft Auto V, McDonalds, Burger King, AT&T, Verizon, Monster.com, Goodyear). Both his writing and photography have been featured in American Theatre Magazine. Awards: 2017 Drama League Artist Residency with Derek Lee McPhatter’s BRING THE BEAT BACK, SDC Foundation Observership (Emily Mann), Lincoln Center Directors Lab 2014.

Member: SDC, Drama League Director’s Council & Nomination Committee.

@misterburris on social media.

Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).

THIS SEASON:

Kitch in Pass Over

BIOGRAPHY:

Brandon Carter is the American Shakespeare Center’s (ASC) third artistic director. He is a Virginia native originally from Heathsville in the Northern Neck.

Prior to his appointment in January 2022, he became an ASC company member in Spring 2018, collaborating in more than 40 roles, from lovers (Orlando, As You Like It) to fighters (Menas, Antony & Cleopatra), schemers (Cassius, Julius Caesar) and incomprehensible scholars (Hugh Evans, Merry Wives of Windsor). At ASC, Carter made history as the first Black man in the United States to follow the journey of a wayward prince to King (Hal/Henry V). This journey eventually led him to the forefront of artistic leadership, where he served as ASC’s Interim Director of Artistic Development and briefly as an Actor-Manager. In collaboration with a fearless ensemble of theatremakers and staff, he has navigated the ASC through the uncertainties of producing in a pandemic.

Carter was an original cast member and Production Manager of Dominique Morisseau’s Blood at the Root directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, winner of the Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Prize for its promotion of human rights. He also served as an Artistic Associate and actor with the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH), under mentors Ty Jones and Carl Cofield. Productions with CTH include: The Tempest, Macbeth, The First Noel, and The Three Musketeers. Other Off-Broadway credits include: Drunk Shakespeare NYC as Macduff, and Black Angels Over Tuskegee as Theodore.

Carter’s expertise and passion is classical work. His mission is to “break the legacy” and culture surrounding the classics by creating a symbiotic relationship between classical texts and innovative voices. Alongside his executive duties as Artistic Director, Carter will continue to act as an ASC company member and will continue to take on roles with other theatres.

Carter holds a B.A. in Theatre and Communications from Longwood University and an M.F.A. in Acting from Penn State University.

https://www.brandoncarter.actor/

@mistercart3r

AWARDS: Hip Hop Theater Creator Award (Kennedy Center); Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Award (Adelaide Fringe Festival); Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Award (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

PRONOUNS:He/Him

Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).

THIS SEASON:

Mister, Ossifer in Pass Over

PREVIOUSLY WITH ASC:

More than 90 roles in more than 55 productions, including the title roles in Macbeth, King Lear, Titus Andronicus, and Tamburlaine the Great; Shylock in The Merchant of Venice; Prospero in The Tempest; Falstaff in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, The Merry Wives of Windsor; Iago in Othello; Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors;Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi; Barabas in The Jew of Malta; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; and King Henry in The Lion in Winter.

OTHER THEATRES:

James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night (American Stage Theater); Bruce Bechdel in Fun Home(Clearspace Theater); Moriarty/Holmes in Holmes & Watson (Kinetic Theater); Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra (Theatreworks); Pistol in Henry V (The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, DC); King Lear in King Lear(University of South Carolina Graduate Program in Acting, Visiting Artist, SC); Mick Dowd in A Skull in Connemara (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, PA); and Tenet/McCain in Stuff Happens (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater, PA).

EDUCATION:

Classical Acting Workshop, The Shakespeare Theater, Washington, DC; PhD in English Literature, University of Delaware.

Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).

THIS SEASON: ASC Company Member, U/S Moses and Kitch – Pass Over, Music Director – Pass Over

PREVIOUSLY AT ASC: Prince, Peter, u/s Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Duke Solinus and Officer in The Comedy of Errors. 

OTHER THEATER: VIRGINIA REPERTORY THEATRE: Pinocchio, The Wiz, Fences, RICHMOND TRIANGLE PLAYERS: Sugar in Our Wounds, VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY: Sense and Sensibility, Little Shop of Horrors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, In the Red and Brown Water, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND: Blues for Mister Charlie

TV: The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Songs and Stories (PBS)

FILM: Welcome to the Show

EDUCATION: B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University.

BIO:Tevin would like to thank God, his parents, family, friends, lifelong supporters, and of course Whitney Houston.

Website: TevinDavis.com

Instagram: Tevin.M.Davis

Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).

THIS SEASON: Stage Manager – Pass Over

BIO: Jocelyn A. Thompson (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be making her debut at American Shakespeare Center with such a provoking piece. She is a bi coastal stage manager who has worked for a number of theaters across the United States. Jocelyn has been lucky enough to serve as the production stage manager for Brava! for Women in the Arts and Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco, California during her career. Her most recent productions have been with Alley Theatre (Born With Teeth, The World Is Not Silent) and Portland Center Stage (Wine in the Wilderness). Previous productions include Pelleas & Melisande, …And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, Ubu Roi, The Chairs with Cutting Ball; The Oldest Profession, Iph…, with Brava! for Women in the Arts; Harry Thaw Hates Everybody with Shotgun Players, and Jesus in India with The Magic Theater. Jocelyn is a graduate of Howard University and a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association. Her work is dedicated to her two little black Queens in the making- heads high and elevated.

Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).

THIS SEASON: Assistant Stage Manager – Pass Over

PRONOUNS: He/ Him/ His

BIO: Kyle Conn (Assistant Stage Manager) Excited to be part of his first production with ASC! Select Credits:Mornings At Seven (St. Clements Theater, ASM), SOVA Awards (Televised from the Guggenheim Theater, SM), Joy Behars’ A Crisis in Queens (Sunlight Studios, PSM), Ms. Trial (New World Stages, ASM), Orfeo (Yale Baroque Opera, PSM), The Comedy of Errors (Elm Shakespeare, ASM), Bridges: A New Musical (The Times Center, PSM), Rocco/ Chelsea (HERE Arts, ASM), Women on Fire (Royal Family, PSM), Wicked-1 st National Tour (Oriental Theater, PA). Alumnus of the Theatre School at DePaul University. Much love to my friends and family.

Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).

THIS SEASON: Production Manager for Pass Over 

BIO: Acting as the Tour Manager from 2015-Covid, Thomas has been the resident SM for the last two years. Previously at the ASC: as Production Manager: Twelfth Night, Thrive, Or What You Will. As Stage Management:  Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Winter’s Tale, Comedy of Errors (x2), Macbeth (x2), Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet (x2), Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V (x2), Julius Caesar, Othello, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That End’s Well. Additional ASC SM credits: Every Brilliant Thing, The Grapes of Wrath, Our Town, The Importance of Being Earnest, Antigone, Equivocation, Goodnight Desdemona, Arms and The Man, the World Premier of Emma Whipday’s Sense and Sensibility and seven productions of A Christmas Carol! Thomas is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Love to M&D, & KRM. www.thomasjcoppola.com #BLM Proud Member of Actor’s Equity.

REGIONAL CREDITS: Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz(American Family Theatre, National Tour) The Fall of The House of Usher, The Most Dangerous Game(Chamber Theatre Productions, National Tour)Spamalot, Les Miserables, They’re Playing Our Song, Falsettos, and Next Thing You Know (Sharon Playhouse); CATS, Hairspray, Crazy For You, HAIR, Once on This Island, Sunset Boulevard (Cohoes Music Hall); Into The Woods, All Shook Up, Seussical, Laramie Project: Epilogue (Barrington Stage Company)

PRONOUNS: He/Him

BIO: Nia Safarr Banks is a Costume Designer from Richmond, Virginia. She graduated Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and she’s currently working on her Master of Fine Arts at Boston University. She was nominated in 2019 for Richmond Critic Award for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design in a Play (An Octoroon, TheatreLab). Her credits include: Imaginary Invalid (Firehouse Theatre), Fences (Virginia Repertory Theatre), and 4000 Days (Richmond Triangle Players).

BIO: Alaina Smith (she/her) is a theatre artist hailing from Nashville, TN. After completing a dual Bachelor’s in Theater Performance and Art at Freed-Hardeman University, she has worked for companies such as Stages St. Louis, Sacramento Theatre Company, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Crane River Theatre, Act 1, Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, Nashville Children’s Theatre, and Nashville Rep as a performer and scenic painter. Beginning in the fall of 2021, Smith began studying at Mary Baldwin’s Shakespeare and Performance Program to earn an MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance.

Benjamin has been a resident company member with the American Shakespeare Center since 2014. He has served as Fight Director for 3 seasons and has performed over 56 roles in 10 seasons; including Laertes in Hamlet; Antonio in Antonio’s Revenge; Arbaces in A King and No King; Peter in Peter and the Starcatcher; and Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing.Other theatre credits include Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, The Alley, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Tennessee Repertory Theatre, and others. He is a proud member of the American Society of Fight Directors and Actors Equity Association. Benjamin studied under SAFD Fight Master Bryan Byrnes at the University of Houston Professional Actor Training Program where he earned his MFA in acting.

BIO: Anna Lien has been costuming and creating theater for the past twenty years, starting in 2002 with a summer camp of Much Ado About Nothing, which cemented her love of Shakespeare. She graduated in 2008 from the College of William & Mary With a B.A. in Theater/History. She has been an ASC camp counselor, a stitcher for William & Mary’s Summer Shakespeare Festival, an interim artistic director for The Old Michie Theater for Children & Youth, and from 2011-2019 she founded and served as Artistic Director for Gorilla Theater Productions in Charlottesville, VA, where she directed, designed, acted, and taught for what that began as a youth theater group and grew into an LGBTQIA+ focused non-profit for youth & adults. Anna is delighted to be serving as ASC’s costume shop manager and works daily to contain her enthusiasm for all aspects of production.

ARTISTIC LIASION, INTIMACY Director

THIS SEASON:

Intimacy Choreographer

PREVIOUSLY WITH ASC: First Witch in Macbeth, and Mariana in All’s Well that Ends Wellas other various roles; Intimacy Choreographer (A Christmas Carol, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors). Beggar Boy, Fan, Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol. 

OTHER THEATER: Natasia has been seen previously as Mistress Quickly with Richmond Shakespeare Festival and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati’s 2017-2018 season.

EDUCATION: Natasia recently graduated with her MFA from Mary Baldwin University with an MFA where she had the joy of performing the roles of Mercutio, Oberon, and King Lear.

PRONOUNS: She/Her

Doreen joined the ASC as an actor and choreographer in 2002 with the first Resident Troupe and then served as Director of Youth Programs, where she ran summer camps and educational programming for several years. She famously descended from the “heavens” in a circus hoop as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and previous ASC roles include Calphurnia in Julius Caesar, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Queen Margaret in Richard III, Christmas Present/Martha/Movement in A Christmas Carol 2002, Goneril in King Lear, Boy / Circus Choreographer in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Margaret / Dance Choreographer in Much Ado About Nothing, and Marianne in Tartuffe.

Doreen is faculty at Mary Baldwin University in the Shakespeare and Performance graduate program where she manages the MFA company and oversees training. As a director and movement practitioner, she enjoys both working in classical theatre and devising original work. Most recently, she directed Marie Antoinette for MBU’s undergraduate theatre department; co-directed original performance, Be-yonder, for the MFA program; collaborated on a new play, Robin Hood is Dead, with colleagues at MBU and ASC; and directed Chapatti at Heritage Theatre Festival in Charlottesville. Doreen is also a founding member of the Performers Exchange Project, a company dedicated to developing and performing original works.

THIS SEASON: Choreographer

PREVIOUSLY WITH ASC: Assistant Choreographer/Assistant Music Director; u/s Twelfth Night, Thrive, or What You Will,  u/s for Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and u/s for Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, Dance Captain (A Christmas Carol). Fundraiser, Mrs Fezziwig, Martha, Charwoman in A Christmas Carol 

OTHER THEATRE: Angus, Lord, Murder, and understudy in Macbeth; Jamy, Grandpre, Attendant, and understudy in Henry V, understudy in All’s Well that Ends Well, Gertrude in Hamlet; Regan in King Lear; Thaisa/Dionyza/Lysimachus in Pericles; Titania/Starveling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Clarinda in The Sea Voyage (Mary Baldwin University MFA)

EDUCATION: B.S. in Psychology; minor in Theatre, Freed-Hardeman University. MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance, Mary Baldwin University.

PRONOUNS: She/Her

THIS SEASON: Cutter/Draper and Wardrobe Assistant

BIO: Marie Lupia is new to ASC, serving as the Cutter/Draper and Wardrobe Assistant for Twelfth Night, Thrive, Pass Over, and the upcoming productions of The Tempest, Pericles, Une Tempête, and A Christmas Carol. Marie has previously worked as a seamstress at Colonial Williamsburg, and spent two summers as a Stitcher and Assistant Costume Designer at Shenandoah Summer Music Theater. She has designed shows for CAT Theater and John Tyler Community College, as well as assisted with costumes for several LARP groups throughout the US.

She received her BFA in Technical Theatre from Longwood University in 2015, and is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with her MFA in Costume Technology.

https://www.marielupia.com/

BIO: Finding her niche in theatrical costume from a young age, she graduated from Longwood University as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Costume Design and Technology.  Her design and construction credits include A Masterpiece of Comic…Timing!, No Exit, Berlin to Broadway, The Tempest, and Chicago. Outside of the playhouse, she enjoys vintage movies, gourmet coffee, and creating fashion illustrations.

BIO: Jess Snellings is stage management fellow for Pass Over. She previously worked as SM fellow during the Summer 2022 season. As a graduate student in the Shakespeare & Performance Studies program at Mary Baldwin University, Jess has had the opportunity work as an assistant stage manager, sound designer, props designer, and understudy. Prior to attending MBU, she graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in Sound Design; and Bridgewater College with a BA in English and a minor in theatre.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-snellings-208a906b/

THIS SEASON: Stage Management Fellow

Previous ASC Credits: Thrive, or What You Will, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Every Brilliant Thing

Other Theatre: The Kitty Cycle (Virginia Players); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare on the Lawn presents Twelfth Night: The Radio Show (Shakespeare on the Lawn); Office Hours, Doublewide, Texas, A Doublewide, Texas Christmas (Chamberlayne Actors Theatre)

Education: Undergraduate student in Drama and Biology at University of Virginia

THIS SEASON: Props Artisan – Pass Over

BIO: Sam is excited to join the ASC’s technical team. He is a woodworker focused on carpentry, furniture making, and carving. In addition to his life in wood, Sam has also worked for the last decade as a touring singer-songwriter. He has released several solo albums, which you can find anywhere you listen to music. www.sammoss.net

THIS SEASON: Props Artisan Pass Over

BIO:A “storyteller of all-mediums”, Sarah White (she/her) is a rising second year in Mary Baldwin University’s MFA Shakespeare & Performance program with a focus on acting (under the stage name Sarah Scarborough). She holds a BA in English and Theater Studies from Anderson University, and an MFA in Scenic Design at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her work as an Actor, Scenic Designer, Painter and Properties Artisan has been seen regionally at companies such as Summit Performance, Hollins University, Earlham College, Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project, The Coterie Theatre, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Crane River Theater Company, New Harmony Theater, The Berkshire Theatre Group, The Unicorn Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, and The Lied Center for Performing Arts. Catch her onstage in Puffs at Silverline Theatre Exchange this fall!

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PREP FOR THE PLAY

A two night crash course in ASC’s approach to the text with interactive workshops that will help you approach the play like an actor, deepening your understanding of the play and enriching your experience when you visit us to see the show. Meeting on Zoom, there is a Prep for the Play for each of our 2022 titles, and each night covers a different topic. Join for one night or both!

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FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS ON

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TEACHER SEMINARS

Spend a weekend at the Blackfriars Playhouse where you will rediscover the joy and accessibility of teaching Shakespeare. Beginning Friday afternoon and ending Sunday, this weekend is curated with workshops, lectures, performances, and more with our team of Shakespeare performance and scholarship experts.

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