Carl Cofield ’14 and Kanika Asavari Vaish ’22 Work on ‘The XIXth’ at The Old Globe

Directing alumnus Carl Cofield ’14 directs The XIXth at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California. Playwriting alumna Kanika Asavari Vaish ’22 assistant directs the production. Performances of The XIXth began on March 17 and the show runs until April 23, 2023. 

The XIXth, written by Kemp Powers (One Night in Miami, Disney Pixar’s Soul) is inspired by the real life events of two Black American sprinters at the 19th Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968. The play chronicles the intersection of sports and activism, highlighting the life-changing repercussions of being an athletic champion who chooses to speak up; in the case of the 1968 Olympics, 200-meter sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on the podium to receive their gold and bronze medals respectively. While the U.S. National Anthem played, Smith and Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist in a gesture of solidarity with the Black Power movement. Both athletes were shoeless, wearing black socks to generate awareness of Black poverty worldwide. Barry Edelstien, Artistic Director of The Old Globe, expressed that The XIXth is “about race and power and political protest and freedom of speech. Smith and Carlos would have gone down in sports history for their athletic achievements alone, but when they raised their fists they stepped into an entirely new arena, and the power of their statement is still being felt.” 

Carl Cofield is a New York based director and actor. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem and the Chair of the Graduate Acting program at NYU. He directed the award winning world premiere of One Night In Miami for Rogue Machine Theater and the Denver Center Theatre, for which he received the Los Angeles N.A.A.C.P award for Best Director. NYC directing credits include: The Tempest, Macbeth, The Bacchae, and Antigone (Classical Theatre of Harlem), the 50th anniversary of Dutchman (Classical Theatre of Harlem/National Black Theatre), The Balcony ​(The New School), Better Than Yellow (48 Hours In Harlem), and The Seven (Connelly Theatre). Regional directing work includes: Twelfth Night (Yale Repertory Theatre), Radio Golf (Everyman), Disgraced ( Denver Center), Henry IV Part II (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), A Raisin In the Sun (Two River Theater Company), and The Mountaintop (Cleveland Playhouse). He assisted Molly Smith in the world premiere of Camp David by Laurence Wright at Arena Stage. He directed the reading of Camp David for President and First Lady Carter at the Carter Center retreat in Vail, Colorado. He also assisted Kent Gash on Langston In Harlem at Urban Stages. 

Kanika Asavari Vaish is a writer, director, performer, and the co-founder and co-artistic director of the South Asian theater ensemble and incubator Fresh Lime Soda Productions. She is also a proud New Yorker, Wellesley College alum, and former legal assistant. Recent credits include: Jyoti’s Bridge (Playwright, Schapiro Studio @ Columbia University, dir. Phoebe Brooks), The Divine Feminine (Playwright, Fresh Lime Soda Productions, dir. Sabina Sethi Unni), and Guards at the Taj (Director, SoHo Shakespeare Company). She writes about hope, community, and transformation, and believes in using theater as a tool for collective healing.