The Christians

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

“I did not figure out how to write the play until I realized that the play is not about believers versus nonbelievers; it’s about a doctrinal controversy within the faith. That way we don’t have an “other” in the play. It’s believers versus believers, and the audience is put in the middle of that debate. I was really interested in making something that spoke to people who identify as secular and people who identify as Christian”

– Lucas Hnath in conversation with Les Waters on Believers Vs. Believers in Lucas Hnath’s ‘The Christians’

What does it mean to fight for what you believe in? What does it mean to risk everything for it? How far are you willing to go, and who are you willing to let fall away to keep it? Two years ago, I found this show in my Directing 1 class. I had immediately been drawn to it. But when show selection day came, I was apprehensive. I feared that due to past religious experiences, my judgement would cloud the work. When I expressed that to Rachel Dickstein, she reminded me that theatre is all about perspective and told me to harness it and make it my greatest weapon. Two years later, I am honored to direct the first show I’ve ever worked on.

Our production of The Christians is made up of those who come from numerous backgrounds. Whether that be from different religious standpoints, different ethnicities, and gender identities, we knew that the best way to tell this story was to find a well balanced cast and crew. Sean once said, “If you replaced the word ‘Christians’ in the title with any other group of people, the message would still stand.” At a school as open and accepting as Purchase, we still have our biases and choose to deflect rather than engage with certain things. Our core value for this show is to reevaluate not only the perception of Christianitity but to question the way we as individuals perceive everything around us and why we choose to trust that perception over other judgement. This show is not a battle between bad and good. This is a show that encourages a dialogue about the gray area that like the characters, we all exist within. This show isn’t a religion show, it’s a faith play, but maybe it’s a religion show too. Look at those around you, look at those on stage, and look at those in the booth. How are you seeing them? How do you want to see them? And how do you want them to see you?

DRAMATURG’S NOTE

Have you ever questioned your beliefs? Where do you get your beliefs from? Determining one’s beliefs can be hard, but keeping them can often be harder. Similar to a math equation, one misstep early on can change the entire trajectory of the equation’s solution. Would you believe me if I told you that a fundamental aspect of modern Christianity was the result of a mistranslation? If you are Christian, would you continue to believe in the mistranslation? I do not mean to start your theatrical experience with an interrogation, but you may find these questions to be relevant to the show you are about to watch. Even the Christian faith has its historic moments of healthy skepticism, such as with the Saint Thomas Aquinas and the more controversial Martin Luther. It is valuable to have clarity in what you find to be true, but I will not tell you what to do or believe. Ideally this practice will send neither of us to Hell.

Sean Gordon is a fourth year theatre & performance major from Albany, New York. Purchase credits include: How I Learned to Drive (Uncle Peck), Dance Nation (Dance Teacher Pat), Short Eyes (Clark),and A Robot Wrote This. Film credits include The Best Man’s Privilege (Groomsman ), Sow A Little Tenderness (The Director), Over the summer Sean took part in a Shakespeare residence with the Glow-worm Company and the Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, there he devised and acted in Castaway: Hamlet (or the Life Rendering Pelican) (Castaway 6/Laertes). Thanks so much to his parents and friends for their consistent support. Also, all the love in the world to the people of H2-2.

Isaiah Martinez is a fourth year Theatre and Performance Major from The Bronx,New York. Purchase Credits What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Seven). NYC Credits Soft Stage Reading (Jamal) MCC Theatre, Rent (Mark). A special shoutout to my Garífuna and Honduran folks world wide and to my parents for being real ones.

Seth Thompson is a fourth year theatre & performance major. Purchase credits include No Strings (Louis DePourtal), Henry IV Part 1 (Sir Walter Blunt), and The Bear (Grigori Smirnov). Other credits include New York Renaissance Faire (Robert Gatton), and Les Misérables (Enjolras). He’d like to thank his family, friends, colleagues, and crab.

Chris Padro is a fourth year BA actor from Larchmont, NY. Purchase credits include: The Wolves (#46), Purgatorio Wonderland (Pilgrim), and A Walrus in the Body of a Crocodile (4). She would like to thank God, and her friends and family for all their support. Special thanks to her roommates, the cast and crew for their amazing hard work, and to her beautiful girlfriend Lilly!

Dixie O’Connell is a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey. They are a third year Theatre and Performance major. Past acting credits at SUNY Purchase include: The Wolves (#13), A Robot Wrote This (Margueritte Spangler), How I Learned to Drive (Male Greek Chorus), and Dance Nation (Maeve). She would like to thank the wonderful team for their work as well as her friends, family, and roommates for their support. Dixie would like to dedicate her performance to her mentor Sarvananda Bluestone who passed away this past summer. He’s the reason she’s here.

Mikayla Schaefer is a senior Theatre & Performance major with a concentration in acting, and a minor in playwriting from Albany, NY. She joins The Christians production team as Assistant Director and Costume Designer. Her recent acting credits include How I Learned to Drive (Female Greek Chorus), God of Carnage (Veronica), An Enemy of the People (Petra), Rufus Is Missing (Marcy), and Meet Cute On DanceWorld (Kaya), a short film that won Best Experimental Short in the Adirondack Film Festival 2020. Mikayla is delighted to share her passion for the stories we tell, supporting the cast and crew in the process. She is very proud of what we have created together. She would like to thank the production team, cast, and her parents for their support.

Giovanni Minio is a fourth year theatre and performance major originally from Rye, New York. Previous theatrical credits include Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), Is He Dead (Bastian Andre) and As You Like it (Silvius, Charles and Amiens). Thank you to his loving family, his supportive Professors and his close friends.

Carly Friedman is a third year Theatre and Performance major from Manhattan, NY. Purchase credits include A Walrus In The Body Of A Crocodile (SM), Springtime (PSM), Sam (PSM), and Henry IV Part I (ASM). She’d like to thank Milan for trusting her with this show and getting to work together one last time at Purchase. She is so very proud of this team and what we’ve created! She sends so much love to the cast and crew for their dedication and hard work and to her family, friends, and Ellie for their unwavering love and support.

Oliver Copeland is a third year Theatre BA major with an interest in the nuts and bolts aspects of theatre. While having some experience as a Stage Manager, (on shows such as A Robot Wrote This and Unspoken Word Collection) this is the first show where he has taken the position of Technical Director. Oliver has worked with Milan as a director in the past and was more than happy to help her carry out her first-rate artistic pursuits once again, he would also like to specially thank Carly Friedman for her flexibility and communication as Stage Manager.

Kori Hall is a third year film major from New York City. She is a narrative and documentary filmmaker with credits in cinematography and editing for her documentary, A Million Layers of You (2021) as well for various other works such as short drama film, Please Leave a Message (2020) which was presented at New York City’s Quarantine Film Festival in May of 2020. Many thanks to her family and everyone else who supports her!

Adam Hamdy is a New York and New Jersey based Lighting Designer. His most recent work includes Mandela at The American Theater for Actors, DaVinci and Michelangelo at Soho Playhouse, Little Christmas Miracles at The Actors Temple and The Bronx Babe at The Actors Temple. Purchase shows include Eurydice, Springtime, A Robot Wrote This, The SONNETs Project and many more. Upcoming projects include University of Michigan’s Glee Club at The Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), Colorblind (The Actors Temple) and Denny, We Were (The Wild Project Theater).

Emily J Webb is a Purchase ’21 graduate with a BA in Theatre and Performance—Design/Production Concentration—based in Manhattan, New York. Her past productions include FRIGID NYC’s FRIGID Festival ’22 (USM Venue Tech), FRIGID NYC’s Gotham Storytelling Festival ’21 (Kraine Venue Tech), The Last Five Years (Sound Designer & Operator), Springtime (Technical Director & Sound Designer), Wizard of Oz (Building Supervisor & Sound Operator), and Urinetown! The Musical (Sound Operator). She would like to congratulate Milan Castro and Sean Gordon—her fellow Springtime collaborators—on graduating and giving her the opportunity to work on their wonderful senior project production!

Gavin Maguda is a third year studio production major from Rochester, New York. Outside credits include playing for the pit orchestras in performances of Addams Family, A Chorus Line, and Something Rotten. Thank you to his family, friends and anybody else who supports him!

Aleksandra Ratnikova is a fourth-year classical composition major at Purchase from upstate New York. Purchase credits include: “All Her”, “All around”, “The only one who you can be”, “A choking illusion of old comfort”, “Not today, maybe tomorrow”. She would like to thank her family and friends for their continued support of her art and her endeavors!

Tess Walsh (they/them) is a third year double major in anthropology and thp. Purchase credits include dramaturgy for Eurydice, How I Learned to Drive, Marisol, and Mac Beth. They would like to thank The Christians team, especially Sean and Milan, for having them on board! :)

Reed Gordon is a second year theatre and performance major from the Capital Region. Purchase credits include: Eurydice (Assistant Scenic Designer and Assistant Technical Director). He is grateful to his friends and family for their continued support.

Milan Castro is a fourth year theatre and performance major with a directing concentration originally from Brooklyn, New York. Purchase credits include: Dance Nation (AD), Springtime (Director), Disgusting Is My Middle Name (Director), A Walrus In The Body of A Crocodile (AD) and Pirandello Party (AD). She’d like to thank her family, friends, and God for their endless support. She’s forever grateful to the cast and crew of The Christians for giving their heart, minds, and courage to tell this story. This one’s for you!

In our teaching and art, the Conservatory values inclusiveness, equality, and excellence. Upholding all of our training is our aim to train and graduate citizen artists: multifaceted people with a strong sense of purpose in approaching an arts education.

What is a citizen artist? Citizen artists seek to discover how their unique voices can contribute to our world. They understand what it means to be an artist, and what they are here on earth to say and do and make.

The Conservatory trains future citizen artists in three degree programs:

+ BFA Actor Training. The BFA is an intensive professional training program offered to a highly select and diverse group of students. The professional training is anchored in four years of study in acting, voice, speech, and movement, complemented by offerings in dramatic literature and analysis, history of the theatre, stage combat, improvisation, mask work, acting for the camera, and the business of acting. As one of five schools in the Consortium of Professional Theatre Training Programs, Purchase is one of a handful of colleges in the world capable of training artists at this level—and of drawing a faculty from the ranks of professional theatre.

+ BFA in Theatre Design/Technology. Emphasizing studio and classroom training, our professional training program in theatre design/technology gives students the guidance and support of established and theatre industry professionals. Many of our alumni are recognized at the top of their field, and have received Tony, Emmy, Obie, and Drama Desk Awards, among other honors. Quite literally, Purchase grads are working in or have worked in every theatre on Broadway, in all tristate venues, and with countless touring productions.

+ BA program in Theatre and Performance. From traditional theatre to cutting-edge interdisciplinary work, the theatre and performance major encourages creativity, intellectual curiosity, social engagement, and critical thinking. The core requirements combine scholarship and practice to provide students with a strong foundation in theatre history and dramatic literature, with mandatory stagecraft/production courses. Theatre and Performance majors are encouraged to expand the scope of their education by studying abroad, as well as pursuing coursework in other programs of study within the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Purchase College.