Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater
To Dream About Wings
by Stephenie Chen ’25
Run Time
Approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes, with a 10 minute intermission.
Content Advisory
This production contains depictions of falling from heights, discussions of death and mourning, and brief allusions to suicidal ideation.
Special Notes
No flash photography or audio/video recording permitted. Please silence all electronic devices including cellular phones and watches, and refrain from text messaging for the duration of the performance.
Production Support
This project is supported in part by the Lewis Center’s partnership with the IV Fund, which supports student independent work that explores mental well-being and mental health and gives campus audiences a chance to grapple with these matters in generative and generous ways. Additional support comes from The Douglas G. McGrath ’80 Fund for the Creative and Performing Arts, created to support senior independent work with a particular focus on the development of new work by students.
Accessibility
The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue with an assistive listening system. The Friday, February 21, performance will feature open/live captioning (CART). Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information about our various locations.
Cast
Anna: Seryn Kim ’27*
Leo: Ryan Gao ’28*
Priest/Grizzly: Vincent D’Angelo ’28
Lee: Kiyomi Ton ’28
Lao Lao: Ariel Chen ’28
Chris: Andrew Park ’26
Production Team
Director: Wasif Sami ’25*
Playwright: Stephenie Chen ’25*
Set Designer: Elena Milliken ’26*
Costume Designer: Keating Debelak
Lighting Designer: Emily Yang ’26*
Sound Designer: Grace Wang ’26*
Stage Manager: Sophia Vernon ’27*
Assistant Stage Manager: Vivian Huang ’28
Assistant Stage Manager: Melody Cui ’27
Assistant Costume Designer: Irene Kim ’28
Stitchers: Isabel Yip ’25, Charlotte Young ’25, Wyatt Kim
Run Crew: Francesca Ferguson ’27
Stage Management Mentor: Vera Fei ’26*
Fight/Intimacy Coordinator: Jacqueline Holloway
Poster Illustration: Alexander Picoult ’26*
*denotes a student minoring in the Program in Theater & Music Theater
Faculty Advisors
Lloyd Suh, Faculty Project Mentor
R.N. Sandberg, Directing Advisor
Nathan Alan Davis, Playwriting Advisor
Tess James, Co-Producer and Lighting Design Advisor
Note from the Project Proposer
The idea of this play began in Introductory Playwriting taught by Nathan Davis, where all I really wanted to do was write a play about Leonardo da Vinci and his ornithopter. I don’t know where along the way it evolved into a meditation on grief, Asian families, ambition, religion, friendship, and love, but I’m grateful that it did. I thought my Chinese family had a weird way of showing love in comparison to the American tradition of verbosity, always pushing me to strive for more, and never saying the words ‘I love you’, but in realizing that love is more than just the words, I wanted to explore the various ways that could manifest. I wanted to put an Asian story onto the stage—not one that centers Asian suffering, but rather one that depicts love, joy, family, and yes, grief, but always that which is rooted in love.
The process of making this play very much started out as a lone writing endeavour, but the story evolved so dramatically when touched by other peoples’ minds and hearts. I would watch our actors fly across the stage and realize that the story wasn’t really about death, but rather the life that precedes it. And so, this production would not have been possible without the care and love of so many people.
Thank you to the incredible cast: Andrew, Ariel, Kiyomi, Ryan, Seryn, and Vincent, for showing up with so much energy and kindness. You all have been an endless source of joy. To our designers, Elena, Emily, Grace, and Keating, for your tireless work in bringing this vision to life; to our amazing stage managers, Sophia, Melody, and Vivan, who manage to bring levity and structure to even the most chaotic and tiring days.
Thank you to Jane, for your indispensable advice and support; to Tess, for keeping the ship afloat; to Bob, for your thorough feedback, and to Lloyd, for being a fantastic faculty producer and educator. To Carmelita and Milan for your guidance, to Allie for your humor and organization, to all the amazing LCA faculty and staff. Thank you to Nathan in particular, for believing in me, for your sharp and careful insights, for your mentorship and kindness and care. I would not be writing if it weren’t for you.
Thank you to Wasif, who has been with me through this entire process. I could not have asked for a more generous, dedicated, and spirited collaborator. From figuring out staging over Zoom to being in rooms with no windows for upwards of ten hours, you have taught me lessons in directing, creativity, and theater-making that I will carry with me through life. With you as director, it is impossible not to play the love.
And finally, thank you to my family: my mom, Lao Lao, Joy, and Isabelle, whose love keeps me going, whether they verbalize it or not. You have always been my biggest supporters, and I love you very much. And to my dad, who taught me I could fly. I know you’re having a great time up there.
If there is one thing I hope you take away from this production, it’s that love will persist. Frankly, grief is a horrible feeling, and sometimes feels like a dark tunnel with no end. Sometimes it feels like things will never be good again. But at a certain point (and who am I, at a meager 21 years to say), you will realize that the world sucks but it is also filled with so much—love. In the people around you, in the communities you exist within. With the current state of the world, it is more important than ever to keep loving, as it is the strongest form of resistance. I hope you will continue to show other people kindness.
—Steph Chen ’25
Playwright
Note from the Director
To Dream About Wings weaves together funerals, flying, and dreams. Steph has written a play that holds the loss of life and the gift of life in tandem. The play guts me. And it reminds me that people show up for each other in unexpected ways, that we help each other endure, and that we love each other far more than our limited time on Earth can account for.
In rehearsal, we’ve looked for ways to tell the story of someone who has to go and someone else who wants that person to stay. We’ve discovered theatrical languages to stage flight, joy, and a person’s sense of the world growing larger, and also to depict the beautiful ordinariness of care.
When I think about all the time this company has spent together, I feel that it’s a very good thing that we all met, became friends, and shared ourselves with one another. As I watch the show, I can’t help but think about every conversation, every rehearsal report, every silly and daring idea. I think about all the times we’ve gathered together in a circle and the ladybugs who graced us with their presence in New South rehearsal studio. I will miss making this play with this team, and I am grateful that we got to make it. I feel the same way about being a theater student here at Princeton.
And so. Thank you to every human who’s touched this project for being who you are and for helping me grow as an artist and leader. Thank you to the faculty and staff of the Lewis Center for nurturing my curiosity and personhood. Thank you to Steph for the extraordinary experience of dreaming and doing this together.
Thank you to my parents, my friends, my communities, my teachers, and my family. You’ve shown me what it means to belong.
And thank you, in the audience, for sharing your time and presence with us. I hope you enjoy what we’ve made together. This play is meant to be experienced in community.
—Wasif Sami ’25
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 about ways you can engage with and support the Indigenous community on campus please visit the website of Native American and Indigenous studies (NAI), 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
