Everybody
Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a morality play about what it means to live, what it means to die, and the journey in between. It is a modern adaptation of the fifteenth-century morality play, The Summoning of Everyman, one of the earliest known plays in the English language.
Unique to each production is the cast, through a lottery each night, five Somebodies are given roles throughout the play - one the titular Everybody, with the others playing roles such as Friendship, Kinship, Cousin, Stuff, Strength, Mind, Senses, Beauty, and Evil. Each staging is unique, with 120 different cast combinations that can occur over the course of a theatrical run.
For this production, the Somebodies are costumed in shades of blue throughout, with the characters embodied through added garments that are then handed off to Everybody as they go along their journey toward death - an orange shirt for Friendship, a teal scarf for Kinship, a green hat for Cousin, and a backpack for Stuff. These are then stripped off as Everybody meets Love and is told to get naked. This is to showcase the collection of worldly things that everyone collects throughout their lifetime and must shed as they approach their terminal end, but is not originally included in the stage directions for the production.
Playwright: Branden Jacob-Jenkins
Venue: Riverside Theatre
Date: July-August 2023
Director: Jacob Titus
Stage Manager: Maggie McClellan
Scenic and Costume Design: Kaelen Novak
Light Design: Merric Bower
Sound Design: Dakota Parobek
Production Photos
Base Costumes
Scenic Design
