Bates Theater’s production of Everybody sold out every performance at Gannett Theater last week — waitlists at the door, eager audience members finding out they’d gotten seats  five minutes before curtain — and the room earned that anticipatory urgency. Associate Professor of  Theater Courtney Smith, the scenic and projections designer, built a world that wrapped around you rather than played in front of you. It was immersive and a little disorienting, in exactly the right way.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2017 play, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, takes a risky leap of faith in inviting its cast into a game of role swapping. Before each performance, the cast members playing “Somebody” draw lots to decide who plays Friendship, Cousin, Kinship, Stuff, Everybody. The Bates production also added a few other roles to the lottery, Strength, Beauty, Mind and Senses.

All these different roles, memorized by everyone and shared by the whole cast, could lead to dozens of different possible versions in any given production. The performance you witnessed would have been the only time it happened exactly that way.

Director and Associate Professor of Theater Tim Dugan shaped an ensemble that held that strangeness without flinching. For Adam Joseph (AJ) Matos ’26 of Springfield, N.J., and Noah Skinner ’26 of Sugar Land, Texas, the play was part of their senior theses, working with a cast that had to be ready for anything. As lighting designer, Skinner lit a world that had to feel ancient and urgent at once. There were many big questions on hand, including the nightly guessing game of who would play who? The answer? Everybody.

The cast includes: Mo Al-Jabry ’28, Graham Austin ’28, Aidan Bergeron ’27, Julian Boutin ’28, Jack Fisher ’29, Connor Gerraughty ’26, Josie Kim ’27, Jenny Liu ’29, Emily Maffezzoli ’29, Samantha Manogue ’26, Ruby Marden ’27, AJ Matos ’26, and Patrick Stronski ’27.

The following were also involved in the production: Costume Designer & Director — Rebecca Armstrong; Associate Costume Designer — Marcel Nagy ’28; Sound Designer — Emily Duncan Wilson (Brandow Family Fund Guest Artist); Associate Directors — Kate Norry ’28, Nicole Rossilli ’27, Elaine Wang ’27; Stage Manager — Sarah McOsker ’28; Associate Stage Managers — Queenie Tsang ’28, Colin Kenny ’28; and Associate Projections Designer — Evan Cox ’26.

Faculty Featured

Timothy J. Dugan Jr.

Associate Professor of Theater

Courtney P. Smith

Associate Professor of Theater