ABOUT GRADUATE REPERTORY
WINTER DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE
Graduate Repertory 2025 features three productions over two weekends of directorial work by TAPS second-year graduate students Pauline Mornet, Marlon Ariyasinghe, and eli melgar.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE: THU-SAT, FEB 06-08 at 8PM
WANDERERS
DIRECTED by PAULINE MORNET
WEEK TWO: THU-SAT, FEB 13-15 at 8PM
EXORCISM
DIRECTED by MARLON ARIYASINGHE
and
WHAT REMAINS?
WRITTEN by eli melgar
ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONS
WANDERERS
DIRECTED by PAULINE MORNET
Thursday-Saturday, February 06-08 at 8PM
Nitery Theater in Old Union Complex
Free + Open to the Public
In a world of constant uprootedness, WANDERERS asks: What happens when we find ourselves lost in an absurd and surreal landscape? A journey inspired by the visionary works of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights and Lewis Carroll’s The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, this devised play takes you through a fable-like meander through the (dis)orienting twists of displacement.
The story begins with a mysterious phone call—a catalyst that sends the protagonist spiraling into a world of strange encounters and shifting realities. As she moves through an ever-evolving series of landscapes, she meets a cast of eccentric characters who challenge her understanding of self, identity, and belonging. Each encounter reshapes her sense of rootedness, leading her to question: Is the notion of roots overemphasised?
With a dynamic blend of live music, movement, and spoken word, WANDERERS is a multimedia exploration of the experience of displacement. The play has been devised using the concept of polydisciplinamory, coined by scholar-artist Natalie Loveless, which celebrates the use of love, desire and interdisciplinarity in the creative process.
Devised and Performed with
Alice Grace
Felipe de Quesada
Daniel Wurgaft
Pauline Mornet
Design Team
Yonatan Laderman (Dramaturg)
Natalia Chen (Set designer)
Bailey Scieszka (Costume Designer)
Trini Rogando (Lighting Designer)
Cate Celio (Stage Manager)
Alice Grace (Poster Design)
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Pauline Mornet is an interdisciplinary theater maker and performer. She has 10 years of experience in performance-making, across Australia, France, Mexico and the US. Her award-winning devised play Titre Provisoire has toured around France and played on the national stage. She has worked with various performance artists and makers including Julian Juhlin for the NYC Virgin Tour, and Alexis Michalik translating his Molière-winning Le Porteur d’Histoire. She was most recently project manager on the honorarium installation HEARTH for Burning Man based in Djerassi Artist Residency Center, CA. Pauline is passionate about the creative process and building spaces that are joyful, sustainable and non-hierarchical.
TABLEWORK episode hosted by TAPS Graduate Student Conor Lifson. Statements in this podcast are the opinions of the speakers.
View Episode Transcript
Exorcism
DIRECTED by MARLON ARIYASINGHE
Thursday-Saturday, February 13-15 at 8PM
Nitery Theater in Old Union
Free + Open to the Public
No Late Seating
Set against the backdrop of a contemporary museum exhibit, Exorcism examines the impact of colonialism and the enduring presence of Indigenous objects, things and artifacts in Western institutions. Incorporating Sri Lankan embodied performance practices such as Kōlam Nātya (masked dance drama), Yaktovil (exorcism rituals) and Rūkada (puppetry) production explores themes of decolonization, repatriation, and cultural restoration.
Cast
Sheruni Pilapitiya (AMAYA)
Leeth Singhage (YAKA)
Giovanna Jiang (POLICE KOLAMA)
Design Team
Veronica Chen (Set designer)
Norri Dupree (Costume Designer)
Trini Rogando (Lighting Designer)
Sebastian Hochman (Sound Designer)
Cate Celio (Stage Manager)
CONTENT WARNING
This performance uses a strobing effect that may affect those with photo sensitivities.
This production contains emotionally challenging material, including depictions of violence, hateful language, police violence, discrimination, and gunshot sounds and gun violence. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Marlon Ariyasinghe (he/him) is a theatre practitioner and researcher from Sri Lanka. At the centre of his approach is Angam Mechanics, an experimental actor-training methodology founded on Sri Lankan martial arts, Angampora. He has over 15 years of experience as a theatre practitioner in Sri Lanka and Switzerland. Through his work and collaborations, Marlon often engages with Sri Lanka’s socio-political, historical and economic concerns, focusing on notions such as postcolonial identity formation, decolonization, and migrancy. Selected directing credits include: Twelfth Night (2019), The Clean House (2015), Antigonick (2014), and Rizana (2013).
ON CREATING EXORCISM
TABLEWORK episode hosted by TAPS Graduate Student Conor Lifson. Statements in this podcast are the opinions of the speakers.
View Episode Transcript
What Remains?
WRITTEN by eli melgar
Thursday-Saturday, February 13-15 at 8PM
Nitery Theater in Old Union
Free + Open to the Public
What Remains? consists of four theatrical vignettes, rooted in the tradition of dramatic poetry, that give an account of the planetary crisis from the perspective of four small beings: ants, frogs, snails, centipedes. Each scene is the accumulation of smallness, which is the red thread that unites them. This show is a question. Rather than to have solutions, this piece is a porous and open question that asks more questions about traces (remains) to come, about the ecological crisis, and about the complex condition that humans and nonhumans experience as part of the capitalist modernity that haunts the past, future, and present, in the here and now.
In Collaboration with:
Kelsey Chen
Veronica Chen
Eito Murakami
Zaki Rob
Trini Rogando
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
eli melgar is a playwright from Sihuatehuacan (Santa Ana, El Salvador). gravedad, their first play, tells the story of a trans* person who, after being outside “home” for more than a decade, returns to their native country. Q, the main character, arrives with a “new” body in a place, in a society, in a family that requests of them a body they no longer have.
ADMISSION
Free + Open to The Public | No RSVP Required
No Late Seating/Re-Seating
WHEN
THU-SAT, FEB 06-08 at 8PM
WANDERERS
THU-SAT, FEB 13-15 at 8PM
Exorcism and What Remains?
WHERE
NITERY THEATER in OLD UNION
Stanford University Main Campus
SPONSORS
This Repertory was made possible in part by the Pigott Fund for Drama, the May Ellen Ritter Production Fund, and the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Fund.
IMPORTANT INFO
CONTENT WARNINGS
Exorcism (Week 2) features use of a strobing effect that may affect those with photo sensitivities.
LATE SEATING / RE-SEATING
For safety reasons, we cannot accommodate late admission OR re-seating while the performance is in progress. Please plan on arriving with ample time to find parking, locate the theater, move through the box office, etc.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Please request disability accommodations and access information via Stanford’s online form. Requests should be made by February 1st.
Electronic Assisted Listening Devices will be available for pickup at Will Call for all performances.
FILMING NOTICE
Performances of Grad Rep may be recorded for possible future private/public viewing. Cameras in the theater may incidentally capture audience images and audio in the background. Those in attendance should be aware of this possibility and not attend if there are concerns. Email tapsinformation@stanford.edu before attending with any questions.