Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater
Reading of Damned to Marriage
by Violet Prete ’25
Run Time
1 hour, no intermission
Program Note
Present Day; 1975, Williamstown, Massachussets.
Content Advisory
This production includes mentions of suicide.
Special Note
Video recording, audio recording, photography, and use of flash photography are prohibited. Please silence all electronic devices including cellular phones and watches, and refrain from text messaging for the duration of the performance.
Accessibility
The Godfrey Kerr Studio is an accessible venue. Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information about our various locations.
Cast
Mary: Violet Prete ’25*
Mother: Zeynep Gul ’26
Father: David Herskovits ’26
Artificial Intelligence: Jeffery Chen ’25*
Judy: Sam Mekhael ’26
Stella: Sam Mekhael ’26
Chrissy: Tacy Guest ’26
Joe: Jeffery Chen ’25*
Bartender: Jeffery Chen ’25*
Ensemble: Lola Horowitz ’28
Production Team
Writer, Director, Producer: Violet Prete ’25*
Stage Manager: Johnny Leadingham ’26*
*denotes a student minoring in the Program in Theater & Music Theater
Faculty Advisors
Robert Sandberg, Writing Advisor
Russ Leo, Research Advisor
A Note from the Project Proposer
Thank you all so much for coming to the world premiere of my thesis reading, Damned to Marriage! This project in many ways felt like the birth of a life—creatively. Writing is hard. Acting comes easy to me, but it is and will be the challenge of my life. Writing this play was a feat that would not have been possible without the help of a lot of great people.
First and foremost, to my advisor Professor Bob Sandberg, thank you immensely. Thank you to my playwriting professors, Nathan Davis, Lloyd Suh, and Sylvia Khoury Yacoub. Thank you to the entire theater department: Jane Cox, Stacy Wolf, John Doyle, Tamsen Wolff, and so many more. Thank you to my English Professors Nigel Smith and Jeff Nunokawa.
Thank you to my family, Mom and Dad, for your enduring support. Thank you to my friends, whom I love and hold close—Oliwia, Abby, Noa, and Sarah. Thank you to Princeton University for their commitment to education, community and best of all good friends. Thank you to all my professors who taught me things I didn’t know were possible to learn. Thank you Anna, Marty, and all my theatre friends. Thank you to New York City. This thesis was written while listening to the soundtrack of 60s and 70s classic rock—many thanks to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Crosby Still & Nash, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and many more.
Life is good. Learning is good. Nothing good comes easily in life. This thesis and my degree are my biggest accomplishments thus far. The best is yet to come–stay tuned for more.
#GenerationWrecks
My thesis is dedicated, with love, to my late grandparents—Yiayia, Nonni, Papou, and Grampy Prete.
—Violet Prete ’25
“The Earth lightened and very early they came and summoned me”
“I want to live. I
take them up like the male and female
paper dolls and bang them together
at the hips like chips of flint as if to
strike sparks from them, I say
Do what you are going to, and I will tell about it.”
(excerpt from “I Go Back to May 1937” from The Gold Cell by Sharon Olds)
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