The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater at Princeton University presents Play, a new devised theater piece researched, developed, and created by Princeton student performers, writers, and designers, through choreography, interviews with athletes and “absurd exercises in endurance and teamwork.” The production is led and directed by Princeton faculty member Aaron Landsman and co-directed and choreographed by Princeton alumna Ogemdi Ude, Class of 2016. Performances, which are open to the public, are December 2, 8 and 9 at 8:00 p.m. and December 3 at 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. Tickets are $12 in advance of show dates, $17 purchased the day of performances at the box office, and $10 for students available through University Ticketing. The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue and has an assistive listening system. The December 9 performance will be open captioned. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu.

Play presents a series of vignettes performed by an ensemble of 12 performers who achieve their flow states, runs relays, and describe water polo using the objects found in a student’s backpack. Sailing and tennis become metaphors for people pulled and caught between cultures for the sake of their achievements. An 8th grade Lacrosse game frames a commentary on difference, parenting and coaching. A list of superstitions becomes a choreography of possible wins; a litany of meaningless advice and a cheer for losing give the audience box seats on a whole new game.

Princeton students in rehearsal for Play, a new devised theater work based on interviews with Princeton athletes. Photo Credit: Zohar Lavi-Hasson

The new work was created during a fall Program in Theater course, “Theater Rehearsal and Performance,” in which the class in a semester-long process conducted the research, developed and wove together the stories that would become Play’s vignettes, developed the movement and choreography of the piece, and rehearsed leading up to the public performance.

Lecturer in Theater Aaron Landsman is a theater artist and teacher. He is an Abrons Arts Center Social Practice Artist-in-Residence, a 2017-18 Guggenheim Fellow in Theater, a former Princeton Arts Fellow, and the 2013-15 Gammage resident artist at Arizona State University. His recent projects have been presented in New York at Abrons Art Center, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, and HERE Arts Center. From 2012-14 his participatory theater work City Council Meeting, created with Mallory Catlett and Jim Findlay, was presented in Houston, Tempe, New York, San Francisco and Keene, New Hampshire. He is currently in year six of a 20-year art and activism project called Perfect City, currently supported by a two-year Creatives Rebuild New York grant. He was recently commissioned by Gaudeamus to write the libretto for the new music-theater work Follow, composed by Igor Silva and performed by Ensemble Klang with vocalist Stephanie Pan. Follow toured the Netherlands and Portugal in fall 2021. Landsman is making a new performance called Night Keeper for The Chocolate Factory next spring. His collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Ebony Noelle Golden is supported by Princeton’s START Entrepreneurship Incubator, to develop a curriculum on civic engagement for young people. As a performer, Landsman worked for ten years with Elevator Repair Service Theater, with which he performed at The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, and on tour in the U.S., Europe, U.K. and Australia. Landsman’s first book, The City We Make Together (co-authored with Mallory Catlett), was published in August 2022 by the University of Iowa Press.

Ogemdi Ude is a Nigerian-American dance and interdisciplinary artist, educator, and doula based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Her work has been presented at Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, Recess Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Streb Lab for Action Mechanics, La Mama Courthouse, and for Brooklyn Academy of Music’s DanceAfrica festival. As an educator, she serves as head of movement for theater at Professional Performing Arts School and has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, MIT, and University of the Arts. In collaboration with Rochelle Jamila Wilbun she facilitates AfroPeach, a series of free dance workshops for Black postpartum people in Brooklyn. She is a 2022-2023 Smack Mellon Studio Artist, 2022-2024 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, and 2022 Center for Performance Research Artist-in-Residence. She has been a 2021 danceWEB Scholar, 2021 Laundromat Project Create Change Artist-in-Residence, and a 2019-2020 Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University Resident Fellow. In January 2022 she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine for their annual “25 to Watch” issue. Her upcoming work includes a commission for Gibney. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English and certificates in dance and theater from Princeton.

The performing ensemble includes seniors Nick Hovsmith, Zachary Lopez, Frank Maranje, and Mutemwa Masheke; juniors Sydney Hwang, Eman Atta Maan, Violet Prete, and Bethany Villaruz; sophomore James Kontulis; and first-year students Sam Haviland, Tate Keuler, and Grace Wang. Sophomore Nathalie Charles also contributed writing to this project.

Student members of the production team are senior Aliha Mughal as set designer, sophomore Wasif Sami as lighting designer, senior Kyuree Shin as costume designer with staff member Keating Debelak, and first-year student Vera Fei as stage manager and sophomore Le’Naya Wilkerson as assistant stage manager mentored by senior Angelica Qin. Professional members of the team include Tei Blow as sound designer with Elena Araoz, Tess James and Aaron Landsman as faculty advisors on the project.

All guests must either be fully vaccinated, or have recently tested negative (via PCR within 72 hours or via rapid antigen test within 8 hours of the scheduled visit) and be prepared to show proof if asked, or wear a face covering when indoors and around others.

Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about this event, the Program in Theater, and the over 100 performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, and lectures presented each year at the Lewis Center, most of them free.