Literature to Life stage presentation of The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Performed by Bryce Foley
Adapted and Directed by Kelvin Grullon
Based on the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, © 1925
Experience the magic of classic American literature through the art of oral interpretation as the Program in Theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts in collaboration with Princeton University Library’s special collections exhibition presents, When Pages Breathe: Bringing Literature to Life. Join us for a mesmerizing performance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal work, The Great Gatsby, presented by Literature to Life with actor Bryce Foley. This compelling performance adapted and directed by Kelvin Grullon, promises to transport you to the Roaring Twenties—a time of opulence, jazz, and the complexities of the American Dream. Dive into the exploration of social stratification, the stark contrasts between ‘old money’ and ‘new money,’ and the intricate dynamics of gender, race, and environmentalism woven into the narrative. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to engage with the story in both performance and discussion. With special guests Elise Thoron, Bryce Foley, and Kelvin Grullon. This is not just a performance; it’s an homage to the timeless spirit of one of America’s greatest literary masterpieces and one Princeton’s most renowned alums, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Princeton Class of 1917.
Hosted by Lecturer in Theater Chesney Snow in conjunction with his fall course, “The Oral Interpretation of Toni and William,” and will include presentations by students in the class. Also presented in collaboration with Princeton University Library’s special collections exhibition, In the Company of Good Books: Shakespeare to Morrison.
Cosponsored by the Lewis Center for the Arts and Princeton University Library.
“It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”
— Nick Carraway, The Great Gatsby
Tickets & Details
The performance is free and open to the public; however tickets are required.
Reserve free tickets through University Ticketing
Directions
Get directions to the Drapkin Studio, located on the second level of the Wallace Dance Building at the Lewis Arts complex.
Accessibility
The Drapkin Studio is an accessible venue. Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at 609-258-5262 or email LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week in advance of the event date.
About Literature to Life
Literature to Life (LTL) is a performance-based literacy program that presents professionally staged verbatim adaptations of American literary classics. LTL’s mission is to perform great books that inspire young people to read and become authors of their own lives. LTL was founded more than three decades ago as the educational program of the American Place Theatre. Now an independent organization, this mighty collective of artists and educators brings the voices of diverse authors to thousands of students and audiences nationwide, giving them the tools to become the empowered “voices worth hearing” of our future. The Great Gatsby is LTL’s newest title in its Signature Performance series.
About the Guest Artists
Bryce Foley, Actor
Bryce Foley is an American actor from Ypsilanti, Michigan. He received his B.A. in Drama from the University of Michigan and is a recent graduate of the Terry Knickerbocker studio. He has performed at University of Michigan (Pass Over, Twelfth Night, The Bacchae), Davis Shakespeare Festival (The Reaper & The Whale), and is pleased to make his New York theatre debut in The Great Gatsby with Literature to Life.
Kelvin Grullon, Director
Kelvin Grullon is a Dominican American actor from Washington Heights, New York City. An architecture graduate from the University of Virginia (2013), he launched his acting career with Literature to Life’s one-person play The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a show in which he plays 10+ characters from Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. He is a multi-talented artist with a passion for storytelling, often working as a filmmaker, producer, spoken word performer, and DJ. He is making his Directorial debut with The Great Gatsby, for which he is also the adapter.
Elise Thoron, Co-founding Artistic Director
Elise Thoron is a playwright, adaptor, and an acclaimed director whose plays have been produced in the United States, Europe, Japan, Russia, and Cuba. Her ongoing collaboration with Japanese paper artist Kyoko Ibe Recycling: washi tales is the subject of a documentary, articles, and now a book: The Way of Washi Tales. For twenty years, Elise created cross-cultural exchanges with Russian and American theater artists, adapting and directing The Great Gatsby at The Pushkin Theater in Moscow—where it played for over nine years—and her translations of Russian plays have been produced and published in the United States and Canada. As Associate Artistic Director at American Place Theatre, she worked closely with Wynn Handman, developing new plays, solo shows, and educational programming which led to Literature to Life. She has adapted Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, Lowry’s The Giver, and developed County of Kings with Tony award-winning poet Lemon Andersen, which went on to the Public Theater and venues around the world. Her Afro-Cuban-Yiddish opera Hatuey: Memory of Fire, with composer Frank London, had its inaugural production in Havana at Opera de la Calle and North American premiere at Peak Performances. She developed and directed Felon: An American Washi Tale, a solo performance with formerly incarcerated lawyer-poet Reginald Dwayne Betts at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts and with his organization Freedom Reads, bringing libraries and performance into prisons across the country.
