In STRAIGHT WHITE MEN, when Ed and his three adult sons come together to celebrate Christmas, they enjoy cheerful trash-talking, pranks, and takeout Chinese. Then they confront a problem that even being a happy family can’t solve: when identity matters, and privilege is problematic, what is the value of being a straight white man?

  • Photos Blaine Davis

 

Written and Directed by Young Jean Lee
Produced by Aaron Rosenblum

CAST

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY

  • Elliott Jenetopulos
  • Austin Pendleton
  • Pete Simpson
  • James Stanley
  • Gary Wilmes

SUBSEQUENTLY PERFORMED BY

  • Frank Boyd
  • Corey Brill
  • Patch Darragh
  • Madison Dirks 
  • Ryan Hallahan  
  • Richard Riehle
  • Scott Shepherd
  • Brian Slaten
  • Alan Wilder
  • Will Wilhelm

DEVELOPED WITH

  • Michael Chiboucas
  • Jessica L. Fisch
  • Laura D. Glenn
  • Morgan D. Gould
  • Will Peterson
  • Zachary Segel
  • Scott Shepherd
  • Gerrit Thurston
  • The Brown University Straight White Men creative team of 2013

CREW

  • Associate Director Emilyn Kowaleski
  • Dramaturg Mike Farry
  • Choreographer Faye Driscoll
  • Scenic Designer David Evans Morris
  • Costume Designer Enver Chakartash
  • Lighting Designer Chris Kuhl
  • Original Music and Remixes Chris Giarmo
  • Sound Designer Jamie McElhinney
  • Production Manager Chloe Brown
  • Technical Director Nathan Lemoine
  • Production Stage Manager Stephanie Byrnes Harrell
  • Touring Technical Directors Nick Bixby and Brendan Regimbal
  • Props Master Elizabeth Sargent
  • Assistant Stage Manager Elliott Jenetopulos
  • Associate Producer Matthew Kagen
  • Associate Dramaturg Eric Shethar
  • Assistant Set Designer Cate McCrea
  • Assistant Costume Designer Christine Stevenson
  • Assistant Sound Designer Jimin Brelsford
  • Assistant Directors Braulio Cruz, Kaela Garvin, Julia Mounsey, and Zachary Segel

University Musical Society, Ann Arbor, Michigan
January 2016

Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, California
November-December 2015

Athens Festival, Athens, Greece
June 2015

World Stage: Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada
June 2015

Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany
April 2015

The Public, New York, NY
November-December 2014

Festival d’Automne à Paris, in association with Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
October 2014

The Steirischer Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria
October  2014

Wexner Center for Arts, Columbus, OH
April 2014

Brown University, Providence, RI (Workshop)
April 2013

STRAIGHT WHITE MEN was co-commissioned by the Public Theater, the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, Center Theater Group, Steirischer Herbst Festival, Festival d’Automne à Paris, and Les spectacles vivants du Centre Pompidou. It was produced by Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company.

Funding support generously provided by the Doris Duke Performing Artists Awards program; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

SWM was developed at Brown University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Providence, RI. Residency support was provided by the Park Avenue Armory, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Spaceworks NYC, and Columbia University.