Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater.
Bodywork by Juliette Carbonnier
Run Time
Approximately 90 minutes; no intermission.
Content Advisory
This production contains flashing lights, pictures of blood and flesh, sexual content.
Special Notes
No flash photography permitted. Please silence all electronic devices including cellular phones and watches, and refrain from text messaging for the duration of the performance.
Accessibility
The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue with an assistive listening system. The performance on Thursday, November 9, will feature open/live captioning (CART). Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations.
Cast
Surgeon: Nandini Krishnan ’26
Maia: Juliette Carbonnier ’24*
Doctor: Christie Davis ’27
Anna: Sophia Vernon ’27
Aaron: Aidan Moes ’27
Natalie: Melanie Garcia ’27
Committee: Lucia Colwell ’27
Committee: Johnny Leadingham ’26
Committee: Morgan Taylor ’27
Committee: Benny Wertheimer ’27
Committee: Kristen Tan ’26
Production Team
Playwright: Juliette Carbonnier ’24*
Director: Sabina Jafri ’24*
Costume Designer: Sierra Stern ’24*
Lighting Designer: Elena Milliken ’26
Sound Designer: Molly Trueman ’24
Video Designer: Julia Stahlman ’24
Projection Designer: Chloe Satenberg ’24*
Stage Manager: Ava Kronman ’26*
Stage Manager: Daniel Viorica ’25*
Stage Manager: Andi Grene ’24
Run Crew: Sarah Duntley ’24*
Stitcher: Wyatt Kim
Movement Consultant: Ethan Luk ’24*
Art Curator: Didi Vekri ’27
Graphic Designer: Rowen Gesue ’24
*denotes a certificate student in the Program in Theater
Faculty Advisors
Stacy Wolf, Primary Faculty Advisor
Sylvia Khoury, Primary Playwriting Advisor
Nathan Davis, Playwriting Advisor
Chesney Snow, Sound Advisor
Tess James, Lighting Advisory and Design/Production Advisor
A Note from the Project Proposer
At first I started writing Bodywork as a creative way to process some of my own medical experiences, including spine surgery I had in 2021. Even after years of struggling with physical and emotional health challenges, my back pain forced me to consider my body in a new way. Maia’s story is not exactly my own—I’ve gotta keep some mystery—but she too realizes that she can no longer ignore the feeling of not being at home in her own body. I realized that this feeling was pervasive in the lives of so many other young women in my life who were also struggling with chronic physical and/or emotional pain. What are you supposed to do with a body that won’t cooperate? How can you recognize yourself in a body that causes pain? Writing Bodywork gave me the space to think about these questions. To express frustration—why do some people deal with (or seem to deal with) pain better than others?—and gratitude to those who have taken my pain seriously and helped along the way. I have found solace in starting to acknowledge and discover the intimate connection between the mind’s emotional health and the body’s physical health.
At the same time that I started writing Bodywork, I took a class on Phenomenology, the study of “how we experience things.” Despite this vague descriptor, the class led me to some inspiring scholarly works in the fields of feminist studies, disability studies, and narrative medicine, by many scholars, including Havi Carel, Audre Lorde, and Rita Charon. I became interested in the connection between the socialization of women and the socialization of chronically ill bodies. In addition to the fact that women disproportionately experience depression and other mental illnesses, I found two main connections: First, the external gaze that imposes a feeling of pressure, constant surveillance, and the need to constantly perform for someone else. Secondly, the feeling of alienation from one’s own body; many women learn to feel distance from their bodies at a young age, similar to the way people in constant pain learn to dissociate from their bodies. I hope to continue exploring many other connected themes and questions in my future research and creative endeavors—ableism, the systematic dismissal of women’s pain, the particularly egregious treatment of Black women patients, reproductive autonomy, and more.
Because these themes can be quite intense, using humor and absurdity was important to me to convey the bizarreness of having a body. Like right now in this theater—think about how many earlobes are in the same room. Or how many toes. Or belly buttons. What strange creatures we are! I hope you laugh (even once!) and I hope you relate (just a little!).
Special thanks to Sylvia Khoury for constantly inspiring me and guiding me through the writing and revision process; to Stacy Wolf for supporting my theater journey from my very first semester on campus; to Nathan Davis for helping me begin and end the play (for now!); to Sabina Jafri for being my fearless leader and the best roommate; to Julia Stahlman for her artistic vision and her willingness to jump into new collaborations; and to the cast, designers, crew, art contributors, and the whole team at the LCA. I am truly honored to be working with such a kind, generous, talented, passionate, and diligent group of artists. I have learned so much from each and every one of you. Thank you for believing in Bodywork and thank you for infusing it with your own vision and energy. Thank you to those of you who have shared your similar struggles. Thank you for having the tough conversations and for opening your hearts and your minds.
Thank you to all the playwrights whose work about bodies and gender I have been able to study: Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Sarah Kane, etc. You make worlds with your writing.
Thank you Mom and Dad for always supporting and encouraging my art, and not insisting that I become a lawyer. Extra thanks to Mom for growing my body from your body.
Thank you, audience members, for taking the time to be here and for sharing your evening with us. I hope that you enjoy Bodywork and maybe even consider your body (or someone else’s) anew. We’re all in bodies: They’re beautiful and also really fucking weird.
With love,
Juliette Carbonnier ’24
Playwright and Performer
Land Acknowledgement
An estimated 10 million Native Americans lived in North America before the arrival of European colonizers. Many thousands lived in Lenapehoking, the vast homeland of the Lenni-Lenape, who were the first inhabitants of what is now called eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.
Princeton stands on part of the ancient homeland and traditional territory of the Lenape people. In 1756, the College of New Jersey erected Nassau Hall with no recorded consultation with the Lenni-Lenape peoples.
Treaties and forced relocation dispersed Lenape-Delaware to Ohio, Kansas, and Oklahoma. We acknowledge the violence of settler colonialism and pay respect to Lenape peoples past, present, and future and their continuing presence in the homeland and throughout the Lenape diaspora.
For more information, see the websites of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton (NAISIP), Natives at Princeton and Princeton Indigenous Advocacy Coalition.
Lewis Center for the Arts
Chair: Judith Hamera
Executive Director: Marion Friedman Young
Director of Program in Theater: Jane Cox
Producing Artistic Director, Theater And Music Theater Season: Elena Araoz
View a full list of the Program in Theater Faculty & Guest Artists
For a look at all the people working behind the scenes to bring you this event, view a full list of LCA staff members »
The programs of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts are made possible through the generous support of many alumni and other donors. View a full list of LCA Supporters »
