Kayode Soyemi

A Case for the Existence of God

Kayodè Soyemi and Steven Lee Johnson. Photo by Andrew Greto

By Samuel D. Hunter

Directed Daniel Elihu Kramer

Chester Theatre Company

Kayodè Soyemi (Keith) Steven Lee Johnson (Ryan)

Travis George(Scenic Design), Lara Dubin (Lighting Design), James McNamara (Sound Design), Charles Schoonmaker (Costume Designer) Deidre Benson (PSM) Danny Logue (ASM) Molly Heichel (Dramaturg, Director’s Assistant)

“Chester Theatre Company's production of A Case for the Existence of God is finely tuned and precisely enacted.” - Fred Sokol, Talking Broadway

“The two actors are exceptional. […] Kayodè Soyemi as Keith deals with other factors in his performance. He portrays a man who overlooks the precedence of professional behavior to help a new friend who was never a friend before in spite of youthful circumstances. His slow decline into near madness was a beautiful thing to watch, and his ultimate breakdown was devastating. As “a case for the existence of God,” Soyemi’s interpretation of this role sets up the road to eventual damnation for both men. Neither one gets what he wants, but both develop a friendship that goes on for generations.” - J. Peter Bergman, The Berkshire Edge

“We see each actor exploring a wide range of emotions through this ninety-minute play, with Soyemi as Keith breaking down more frequently and unexpectedly at the prospect of losing his foster daughter. He moves from professional and helpful to erupting in anger and physical destruction of his office. […] Both actors have well-developed characters.” - Paula Kaplan-Reiss, Berkshire on Stage

“Kayode Soyemi’s Keith clearly knows his way around banking rules, mortgage charts, the value of credit and the rules of the game when it comes to lending. He is doing his best to hold on to what life he has as he battles a system that is on the verge of turning his foster daughter over to her birth mother. As portrayed by Soyemi, Keith is calm, in control, competent, but never quite removed from the emotions that are roiling within him.” - Jeffrey Borak, The Berkshire Eagle

“The show is just short of 90 minutes, but under Kramer’s astute direction and Soyemi and Johnson’s smoothly calibrated performances, it takes its time.” - Jeffrey Borak, The Berkshire Eagle

Levi & Toonk

The Marriage

Fabulaton, or the Re-Education of Undine

The Light

Yale Cabaret

Tobie

Every Brilliant Thing

Dr. Ride's American Beach House

Udo

Marry Me a Little

DRAGARET

Hot and Cold Showers

The International Collaborations Festival

Four Meddling Kids and One Dumb Dog

Tempo & The Master's Tools

There is a Thing at the End of the Loop

PRODUCER

Yale Cabaret Season 55: Parachute

Jason Gray, Executive Artistic Producer
Kayodè Soyemi, Producing Artistic Director
Ashley M. Thomas, Producing Artistic Director

Yale Cabaret 55 is a transition; a space to place your art and watch it transform. We do not suggest that your art begins or ends with us, but it will change with us. We invite our community to take risks with us. Failure is not an option; it is an illusion. Like Pantone Color of the Year: Very Peri, we know that “as we emerge from an intense period of isolation, our notions and standards are changing, and our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways.” We seek to be a holding space to explore these changes. Cabaret 55 is a shared experiment of what it means to come back to theater.

In 1968, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale students established a basement performance venue in the former home of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at 217 Park Street. Envisioned as an alternative outlet for drama school students’ creativity and experimentation, Yale Cabaret became a forum for our expanded New Haven communities, whom we invite to gather around food, drink, conversation, fellowship, and artistry.

Since its founding, the Cabaret has remained in continuous operation, producing hundreds of plays, old and new, alongside musicals and musical revues, comedy shows, dance, performance art, and genre-defying performance. Artists who spent the early days of their careers at Yale Cabaret include Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett, Wendy Wasserstein, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Durang, John Turturro, Lynn Nottage, Anna D. Shapiro, Henry Winkler, David Alan Grier, Tony Shalhoub, Paul Giamatti, Liev Schreiber, Trip Cullman, Melissa James Gibson, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Lupita Nyong’o, and many hundreds more. Each generation of School of Drama students renews the Cabaret with their talent and energy.

Every year, a new student leadership team curates its season from School of Drama student proposals—uplifting peers’ passions, impulses, and curiosities. With evening and late night performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, our basement offers ever-changing, ever-surprising experiences to all who enter.

"Notable among their many accomplishments were the reintroduction of food and beverage service, the championing of community building activities, dynamic fundraising, and, most of all, the curation of an adventurous and provocative season of 11 shows in what remains a deeply challenging environment for theatrical production. Their consistently resourceful and optimistic approaches to their work and their audiences were precious gifts to us all." - Dean James Bundy

yalecabaret.org

Next to Normal

Community in Conversation

Producer & Co-Host
with Rebby Yuer

Shaking the Tree Theatre

What is Community in Conversation?

To continue the work of recalibration, we present to you Community in Conversation, our effort to break the silos of the audience, the artists, and the space, by engaging in prefigurative conversations with the old and new generations of our diverse artistic community. We aim to focus on the future of the performance space and how we hope to transform it. We hope to capture the socio-political landscape of our industry and take advantage of the global online community. We will elevate our relationships as we’ve learned they are not often on the same plane as the product. We will talk “with” our community, rather than “at” our community, as we are all learning.

Our episodes will include topics such as the future of the theater industry, the existential question of why we do theater, anti-racism and solidarity among BIPOC communities, dismantling anti-blackness in diversity conversations, theatre with a political agenda, & theatre as community care, the happiness and well-being of the artists, creation methods that challenge capitalistic structures, and many more.

Episode #1

In our first episode of Community in Conversation, we discuss “how do we return to the theatre?”—what to keep from pre-pandemic theatre and what to leave behind. We talk through artists’ requests and the toxicity many of us faced before the shutdowns.

Episode #2

In this episode, we are joined by Abigail C. Onwunali & Ashley M. Thomas to discuss antiracism in the theatre industry, anti-Blackness, code-switching, solidarity, and dismantling the foundation of supremacy embedded in theatre and performance.

Episode #3

In Episode 3, we daydream about the future of theatre with Claire Aldridge & Ken Yoshikawa, two artists local to Portland, Oregon. We discuss how performance art & theatre have adapted and evolved over the pandemic, what we’re excited to create as we move forward, and how we can more intentionally build community with our work.

there is a thing at the end of the loop

burnbabyburn: an American dream

Pass Over

Kayodè Soyemi & Austin Sasser. Photos by Andrew Greto

By Antoinette Nwandu
Directed by Christina Franklin

Chester Theatre Company

Queen Chevy (Stage Manager), Nadir Bey (Scenic Designer), Madeleine Hebert (Lighting Designer), Kelsey Rainwater (Fight and Intimacy Director), Sarafina Bush (Costume Designer), James McNamara (Sound Designer), Andrew Greto (Photos)

Kayodè Soyemi (Moses), Austin B. Sasser (Kitch), James Barry (Mister/Ossifer)

“Soyemi and Sasser are perfectly matched as two young Black men whose survival depends on their friendship and bond of trust.” -Jeffrey Borack, Berkshire Eagle

“For all the strength and savvy displayed by Soyemi’s Moses and Sasser’s Kitch, there is an endearing innocence and vulnerability in their game-playing, their tussling.” -Jeffrey Borack, Berkshire Eagle

“The most stimulating, challenging and heartbreaking play I’ve seen this year” -Chris Rohmann, Valley Advocate

“Both actors did a good job sounding so real and the dialogue never felt forced. It was all as real as the profanity-laced rants they both throw out. No reason to sugarcoat this shitty life.” -Max Hartshorne, ReadUpOnIt

“Austin B. Sasser is the more wide-eyed, optimistic of the pair and his hopefulness makes you wish for the best while Kayodè Soyemi seems to know the price required to enter the Promised Land and watching him puts you on edge for the reckoning. The two have a blast playing off each other and fill the house with joy early in the play which makes the trip the play takes us on that much more profound.” -Patrick White, Nippertown

“Kayodè Soyemi is brilliant as Moses. Given the name of a leader of his people, Soyemi runs away with the play, leading the excellent Austin B. Sasser through the adventures on a street corner that both characters live through.” -J. Peter Bergman, Berkshire Edge