Everybody Program

Chair
E.J. Westlake

Production Manager
Sherée Greco

Director
Kevin McClatchy

Scenic Environment and Properties Designer
Katherine Simon

Costume Designer
Catherine Huffman

Sound Designer
Jesse Tack

Technical Director
Chad R. Mahan

Production Stage Manager
Ellie Price

Dramaturg
Jack McAuliffe

Assistant Director
Brian Rocha

Choreographer
Yukina Sato

Movement Director
Jeanine Thompson

Assistant Stage Manager
Avery Mukherjee

External Relations and Publicity Coordinator
J. Briggs Cormier

Ticketing Services and Audience Services Specialist
Julia Buttermore

Graphic Design
Formation Studio

Technical Director
Chris Zinkon

Scenic Studio Manager
Chad R. Mahan

Scenic Studio Teaching Associates
Braden Graves, Jessica Hightower, Katherine Simon

Costume Studio Manager
Coco Mayer

Costume Studio Teaching Associates
Jo Fuller, Catherine Huffman

Lighting Studio Manager
Eric M. Slezak

Sound and Media Studio Manager
Keya Myers-Alkire

Backstage Crew
Chloe Housteau, Garrett Mahoney, Carlie Shearer

Ticket Office Staff
Fatoumata Kante, Jason Speicher

House Managers
Bailey Haller

Meghan Garens (Understudy Death), sophomore
Hometown: Akron, OH
Major(s): criminal justice
Department Productions: debut

Jamie Harper (Death), junior
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Comic Potential; Porcelain; The Seagull; Twelfth Night

Catherine Huffman (costume designer), graduate student
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Men on Boats; Sweat

Gabriella Johnson (Understudy Everybody/Somebody), junior
Hometown: Aurora, CO
Major(s): social work
Minor(s): theatre
Department Productions: In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)

Renee Jones (Girl/Time/Evil and Love), junior
Hometown: Eastlake, OH
Major(s): Italian; theatre
Minor(s): musical theatre
Department Productions: Men on Boats

Paitton Lewis (Everybody/Somebody), graduate student
Hometown: Soldotna, AK
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Tahj Linton (Love), senior
Hometown: Hightstown, NJ
Major(s): psychology
Minor(s): public policy; theatre
Department Productions: Once Upon the Oval--cancelled due to COVID pandemic

Jack McAuliffe (dramaturg), graduate student
Hometown: Boston, MA
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Maggie Miller (Everybody/Somebody), graduate student
Hometown: Sandpoint, ID
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

David Obeng (Everybody/Somebody), senior
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Major(s): African American and African studies; psychology
Minor(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Elle Price (stage manager), sophomore
Hometown: Washington, DC
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: The Country Wife

Christopher Ryan Quiroz (Everybody/Somebody), graduate student
Hometown: San Antonio, TX
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Marina Sepulveda (Understudy Usher/God/Understanding), 1st-year student
Hometown: Youngstown, OH
Major(s): psychology
Minor(s): Spanish; theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Katherine Simon (scenic environment and properties designer), graduate student
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Wilderness

Joshua Smith (Everybody/Somebody), graduate student
Hometown: Gresham, OR
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Avery Wilson-Mukherjee (asst. stage manager), junior
Hometown: Evansville, IN
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Spoiler alert: Everybody dies.

All of us know that everybody dies, but––at least in the mainstream culture of the United States––we usually prefer to ignore that fact. Though the pandemic made death more visible and concrete in the lives of many US Americans, we remain a “death-denying” culture in which it is taboo to accept, or even speak of, our imminent deaths.

Increasing secularization, alongside decreasing attendance at religious services, has led to the relative decline of one of the only venues in US society where consideration of one’s death and possible afterlife is openly encouraged. End-of-life care too often prioritizes delaying death at all costs. And our billionaire oligarchs espouse fantasies of delaying aging, living forever, transcending our bodies, and uploading our consciousnesses to the cloud.

Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins takes place in the now, but it is an adaptation of a much older play, the late 15th Century morality play Everyman. Everybody is self-reflexive about its status as an adaptation and generously informs audiences of the relevant historical background, so I will not take much space here discussing Everyman. But it is worth noting that both plays have, as Jacobs-Jenkins writes, “similar ambitions”: to explore the prevailing attitudes about death in their respective times.

Everyman reflected the “death culture” of Western Europe in the Late Middle Ages. Under the dominant ideology of Christianity, death was seen not as an end, but a transition; one’s life on Earth would be akin to an “entrance exam” into the eternal afterlife of either heaven or hell. By contrast, Everybody is not exclusively Christian, reflecting the greater diversity––and uncertainty––in spiritual beliefs about the afterlife in the contemporary United States.

In recent decades, we have seen a turn away from what playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes calls the “atheist white male aesthetics” of the 20th Century dramatic canon. Plays like Everybody reject this dismissiveness toward spirituality, instead demanding that we attend to metaphysical questions of life, death, goodness, and the afterlife––even in a culture that lacks a single guiding doctrine. Theatre scholar Dana Tanner-Kennedy describes Everybody as a “postsecular morality tale imagining the process of a good death in a world untethered from divine absolutes.” As you watch the play, I invite you to ask yourself: what makes a good death? What makes a good life?

We often speak of death as universal. And it is, in that everybody dies. But it is worth noting that the circumstances under which we die are affected by our identities. Race, class, disability, gender, and sexual orientation all impact how our deaths––and lives––are, or are not, valued. Some examples of this include the Black mortality gap and the doubling of homicide rates against trans people in the last four years.

Too often, the word “universal” is code for “straight, white, and male.” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a queer, Black playwright, and I encourage you to consider how his play engages with both universality and specificity as it explores the nuances of death and life.  

The Ohio State Theatre 2023 - 2024 season will be the first season in the department's new building in the Arts District.

In autumn semester, the department will produce Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters and Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, translated by Lillian Groag, with guest director CATCO Artistic Director Leda Hoffman.

Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin will be produced in spring semester.

Additional details about these productions can be found online.