It can start with anything: a song, a story, a theme, an event, a movement. The collaborative process known as “devising theater” brings together a team of artists who experiment and take risks to craft a new work from inception to completion. As Lecturer in Theater Aaron Landsman puts it, “I really like devised theater because it allows me to be a kind of co-author for a project and it allows me to ask or invite a group of people, or in this case students, to be co-authors with me.”

Director Landsman, along with co-director/choreographer and Princeton alumna Ogemdi Ude ’16, led a fall theater course that provided time and space for students to research, write, develop, and design a new theater piece devised around the experiences of athletes. The resulting piece, entitled Play, premiered in the Wallace Theater in December 2022.

In Play, an ensemble of 12 student performers chant and stretch onstage, achieve their flow states through music, run relays, attempt absurd exercises in endurance, and more. One student describes water polo using objects found in a backpack, two others discuss sailing and tennis as metaphors for being caught between cultures for the sake of 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 us box seats on a whole new game.

Devising this original work of theater challenged the group to collaborate and trust one another, attempt and revise their approach, take risks — even fail — in order to achieve their end goal.

“The really fun challenge is getting out of the limits of trying to do it right. I really believe you need to fail to make good work.”
— Aaron Landsman