UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) opens its 2024/25 season with Everybody, a play by two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Performances run November 7–10 at Zellerbach Playhouse, and tickets are now available for $10–20.
Everybody is a contemporary and comedic reimagining of the 15th-century morality play The Summoning of Everyman, one of the first known plays written in English. When the protagonist, Everybody, is told by Death that they must give an account of their life in front of God, they desperately search for someone to accompany them. Everybody's potential companions include eccentric personifications of Friendship, Kinship, and Stuff—all of whom are less than eager to take such a mortal journey.
"This brilliant play beautifully and hysterically fuses the ancient and the of-the-moment, the profane and the profound," said director and TDPS lecturer Susannah Martin.
The play is well-known for its unusual casting device: several roles, including Everybody, are assigned by a random on-stage lottery at the beginning of each performance. This means that there are dozens of possible combinations of performers and roles every night, and actors have mere seconds to prepare for each performance.
Jacobs-Jenkins doesn't try to hide the fact that the audience is watching a play, and this meta-theatrical aspect of Everybody offers an endless number of possibilities for the creative team. Arnel Sancianco's multi-layered set design draws the audience's attention into and out of the theater. Dominique Fawn Hill's costume designs are inspired by the play's medieval roots as well as students' everyday experiences on campus. The production is further enhanced with a dramatic score and sound design by Lana Palmer, and a "deadly" dance sequence choreographed by Latanya d. Tigner.
While students enjoy the humorous, challenging, and highly-theatrical nature of the piece, they also find connections to their own lives.
"As a young person in this strange, exploratory stage of life that is college, I relate to the curiosity and fear of Everybody, and I imagine that we all do for much of our lives," said assistant director Olivia Freidenreich.
"I think that this show forces us to confront a lot of the hard truths in life, but with a great sense of levity that keeps it from being too depressing," said cast member Leo Kearney. "I also love the way that it plays with the theatrical form in meaningful ways without sacrificing the plot."
Tickets for Everybody are sold through the Zellerbach Hall ticket office and are available online at tickets.berkeley.edu or at the door of Zellerbach Playhouse beginning one hour before each performance. Paid parking near Zellerbach Playhouse is available in Lower Sproul Garage and RSF Garage located on Bancroft Way. Everybody contains strong language and deals with sensitive subjects including but not limited to death and dying.
For more information about TDPS' 2024–2025 season, visit tdps.berkeley.edu/season
