Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater
Cholla by Daniel Viorica ’25
Run Time
60 minutes, with no intermission
Program Note
Tularosa and Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1982 to 2006.
Special Note
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.
Cast
Leah: Juna Brothers ’28
Rachel: Kiyomi Ton ’28
Elena: Sofia Clark ’28
James: Alexander Ambroise ’28
Production Team
Director: Daniel Viorica ’25*
Set Designer: Alex Picoult ’26*
Lighting Designer: Annalise Schuck ’26*
Stage Manager: Basak Ersoy ’26
Assistant Stage Manager: Isabella Rivera ’27*
Run Crew: Seryn Kim ’27, Annalise Schuck ’26*
*denotes a student minoring in the Program in Theater & Music Theater
Faculty Advisors
Chesney Snow, Faculty Advisor
Brian Herrera, Faculty Advisor
Virginia Grise, Playwriting Advisor
Note from the Director and Project Proposer
The cholla is a kind of cactus. They grow all over my home state, New Mexico. If you take a piece off a cholla and plant it somewhere else, it might take root, a replica of the original. I named my play Cholla because it’s a story about moving from a small town to a city, about leaving and coming home. It’s also a story about a very particular kind of New Mexican family—the kind of family I grew up with, and missed dearly when I first went ‘back east.’ I’d like to thank my stage managers, designers, advisors, and especially my cast. It took magic to bring New Mexico alive in Princeton, New Jersey—it took real dedication, and a kind of generosity I won’t ever forget. Thanks also to my family, for being there, as always, every step of the way.
—Daniel Viorica
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 and Music Theater: Jane Cox
View a list of Program in Theater & Music Theater faculty & guest artists
For a look at all the people working behind the scenes to bring you this event, view a 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 list of LCA Supporters
