Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater. Cosponsored by Princeton’s English Department.
Not Your Buddy by Chloe Satenberg
Run Time
Approximately 80 minutes; no intermission.
Content Advisory
This production contains flashing lights, sudden loud and intense noises, and repeated loud music.
Program Notes
Setting: Camp Kehillah, a Jewish summer camp in Malibu, California
Time: The present
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 Sunday, October 8, will feature open/live captioning (CART). Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations.
Cast
Buddy: Caitlin Durkin ’25*
Rita: Tanaka Ngwara ’24*
Sophie: Sabina Jafri ’24*
Gabriella: Jessica Lopez ’24*
Isaiah: Tyler Wilson ’26
Mother (Rebecca): Gillian Tisdale MPA ’24
Aidan: Cecile McWilliams ’26
Production Team
Playwright: Chloe Satenberg ’24*
Co-director: Chloe Satenberg ’24*
Co-director: Daniel Landez G24
Set Designer: Daniel Landez G24
Costume Designer: Keating Helfrich Debelack
Costume Shop Supervisor: Miriam Patterson
Lighting Designer: Alex Slisher ’25*
Sound Designer: Daniel Landez G24
Sound Supervisor: Kanitha Richardson
Projection Designer: Daniel Landez G24
Stage Manager: Lev Ricanati ’25*
Lighting & Stage Supervisor: Matt Pilsner
Assistant Stage Manager: Roya Reese ’26
Stitcher: Wyatt Kim
Student Stitchers: Tanaka Ngwara ’24* and Sabina Jafri ’24*
Run Crew: Lena Molyneux ’25
Diction coach: Roya Reese ’26
Props Supervisor: Allie Geiger Khanna
Student Props Designer: Amalia Lopkin ’25*
*denotes a certificate student in the Program in Theater
Faculty Advisors
Nathan Davis, Playwriting advisor
Elena Araoz, Primary advisor
Tess James, Design advisor
A Note from the Project Proposer
Since my first day at Princeton, I knew I wanted to write a play for my senior thesis project. Along the way, as I dealt with the million things that Princeton asks you to juggle (as well as my own personal Great Expectations), my grand thesis plan felt more like a pipe dream. Not Your Buddy was born out of my deep frustration with expectations, and a secret fear of inadequacy that I suspect is not so uncommon among my peers. Like any good playwright, I bottled up these negative emotions and injected them into Buddy, my protagonist. Luckily for her, I also gave her a bunk at the happiest place on Earth: Jewish summer camp. Not Your Buddy‘s Camp Kehillah, whose name means “community” in Hebrew, is an homage to my own personal experience attending Jewish sleepaway camp during my childhood summers in California. Although I promise it’s not autobiographical, Not Your Buddy is deeply personal and close to my heart.
I began this project in February 2023 under the guidance of Professor Nathan Davis and with the help of my peers in Intermediate Playwriting. Before the script was even finished, I began conversations about casting, producing, and directing. I had never directed a play before, and diving into the deep end of theatrical production would have been impossible without my co-director Danny Landez, who helped me swim. I’m lucky that I have had such a talented cast to work with, including some of my closest friends on campus. With their skill, humor, and vulnerability, this cast has transformed Not Your Buddy into a piece of theater that exceeds my wildest dreams.
Thank you to Nathan for inspiring and guiding me in the writing process; to Elena, for your invaluable directorial advice; to the rest of the team and student crew at the LCA for bringing this piece to life. Thank you to my friends for letting me constantly talk about Not Your Buddy and for always listening; Thank you to my family for traveling here to support this play, even though I’m not acting in it; Thank you to my parents for championing my art and sending me to Jewish summer camp when I was 8 years old.
I hope you enjoy Not Your Buddy as much as we enjoyed making it!
With love and gratitude,
Chloe Satenberg ’24
Playwright and Co-director
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 »
