Princeton Summer Theater announces its 2024 schedule
Princeton Summer Theater opens its 54th season with “Dracula,” June 13-30 in Hamilton Murray Theater.. From left: Meg Moynahan as Lucy Westenra; Sophie Falvey as Dr. Van Helsing; Teddy Feig '25 as Dr. Seward; and Meghana Kumar as Mina Harker visit Lucy's tomb.
In a season opening June 13, Princeton Summer Theater (PST) is producing a trio of main-stage shows — a reimagined "Dracula," a musical, and a one-actor tour-de-force set in New York — that bridge the historical and the contemporary. The 2024 season continues PST’s popular children’s programming with a fairy tale “whodunnit" titled “Granny’s Home: A Fairytale Mystery.”
Layla Williams, Class of 2025, is the artistic director for the 2024 season of Princeton Summer Theater, a student-run company that presents a three-play season. “The main-stage season invites our audiences to engage with the power of adopting a new perspective, even if it is just for an evening,” she said.
The season runs through Aug. 3 in Hamilton Murray Theater on the Princeton University campus.
"The main-stage season invites our audiences to engage with the power of adopting a new perspective, even if it is just for an evening," said Layla Williams, a member of Princeton's Class of 2025 who is this year’s artistic director. "Maybe we see the monsters among us more clearly, the complexities of fate and love from both broken perspectives of a relationship, or the incredulity of our nation's history when put in a modern context."
The 54th main-stage opens with “Dracula” on Thursday, June 13. It continues with Jason Robert Brown's “The Last Five Years” and Daniel Beaty’s “Emergency.”
Williams is a rising senior who is majoring in African American studies and pursuing minors in theater, music theater and creative writing. In addition to overseeing this summer’s PST season, she recently received funding through the Lewis Center’s Mallach Senior Thesis Fund to support the writing of an original play next year.
‘Dracula’: June 13-30
Kate Hamill's adaptation is a whimsical “feminist revenge fantasy, loosely based on the classic tale of the same name," Williams said. She thinks audiences will enjoy the wit of Hamill's script.
Eliana Cohen-Orth — a 2021 graduate who has directed numerous PST productions and served as artistic director for the virtual 2020 season — is returning to direct "Dracula." "I'm excited for Eliana's realization of her vision of stage magic," Williams said.
‘The Last Five Years’: July 4-21
The musical "The Last Five Years" follows the relationship of protagonists Catherine Hiatt and Jamie Wellerstein in two directions, Williams said: "Catherine moving backward from its tumultuous end and Jamie moving forward from their joyful beginning."
"The Last Five Years," written by Jason Robert Brown — who won a Tony for best original score for "Parade" in 1999 and "The Bridges of Madison County" in 2014, premiered in Chicago in 2001, followed by an Off-Broadway production in 2002. In PST's production, Kate Short portrays Catherine, a struggling actress, and Julien Alam, plays Jamie, a rising novelist. Both actors are members of the Class of 2023.
Eliyana Abraham, also a 2023 graduate who served as PST artistic director in 2023, directs.
Jordan Kilgore plays Dracula, shown here with Meg Moynahan as Lucy, in Princeton Summer Theater's retelling of the classic.
‘Emergency’: July 25-Aug. 3
The main-stage season concludes with "Emergency," which Williams will direct.
“Daniel Beaty’s 'Emergency' is a brilliant play," she said, exploring “the chaos that ensues when a 400-year-old relic washes upon New York City's shores."
The relic is a ship that transported the enslaved. The website TheaterMania.com describes the comedic drama as a "vivid portrait of the African-American experience in present day New York."
The star of the production is Destine Harrison-Williams, a member of Princeton’s Class of 2026. Harrison-Williams is involved in theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts and in the student-led Princeton Playhouse Ensemble and Triangle Club. He is a former co-student leader of Trenton Youth Theater with Trenton Arts at Princeton. Over the course of the show, he portrays 40 different characters, from teenagers to newscasters to ghosts and TV hosts.
Select performances of the main-stage shows will feature post-show talkbacks.
Destine Harrison-Williams as Jonathan Harker and Meghana Kumar as Mina Harker in "Dracula."
Children's programming
This summer's children's show is written by John Venegas Juarez '25, a first-generation college student from Houston who has appeared in several productions in the Lewis Center's programs in theater and music theater.
Filled with mischief, mystery and surprising reveals, “Granny’s Home: A Fairy Tale Mystery” is sure to provide an enchanting theater experience. Joining iconic fairy tale characters like Little Red Riding Hood, the Gingerbread Man, and Hansel and Gretel, young audiences will put on their detective caps to put together the clues to find the one who’s destroyed Granny’s home.
Performances take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, July 12-Aug. 3.
Visit www.princetonsummertheater.org for ticketing and performance information.
Princeton Summer Theater opens its 54th season with “Dracula,” June 13-30 in Hamilton Murray Theater. Pictured left to right: Kelly Brosnan as Drusilla, Meghana Kumar as Mina Harker, Meg Moynahan as Lucy Westenra (center), and Faith Wangermann ’25 as Marilla.
Katie Hameetman, Class of 2023, as Renfield in the asylum.
From left: Faith Wangermann, Class of 2025, as Marilla; Meg Moynahan as Lucy; Kelly Brosnan as Drusilla; and Jordan Kilgore as Dracula all pay a visit to Lucy.
Sophie Falvey as Dr. Van Helsing shares her wisdom.
