Cassy James '23 belts out a song from last year’s Program in Theater end-of-year cabaret. Photo Credit: Larry Levanti
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Programs in Theater and Music Theater at Princeton University present Mostly Sort of Happily Ever After, a cabaret performance featuring and directed by Princeton senior Cassandra James along with other student performers exploring the highs and lows of growing into adulthood through songs from Broadway’s hit musicals. Performances, which are free and open to the public, take place on Sunday, April 30 at 2:00pm & 8:00pm in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. No tickets are required.
“Sometimes, we just wish we could disappear to Neverland or Narnia and stay there forever,” notes James. “After all, growing up is a rollercoaster with a hundred heart-stopping twists: leaving family and finding family, chasing dreams, and switching paths, meeting friends and losing them, falling in love and falling back out of it. So, what’s the point of it all, anyway?” James and her seven fellow cast members attempt to answer this question through a set of about 20 songs drawn from Broadway’s classic and contemporary musical canon.
James, who is from Kissimmee, Florida, is majoring in English and pursuing certificates in the Programs in Theater and Music Theater and the Program in Creative Writing. The cabaret project represents her independent work in music theater. She notes that before attending Princeton she had never performed in a theater production. “The theater program saw my inexperience as an opportunity, not a weakness: they challenged me to play, explore, and take risks, like starting voice lessons, or writing a musical.” She has previously performed in the Lewis Center’s productions of Proof, Mother Courage and Her Children, and Macbeth, and she will perform in an upcoming workshop performance of Hamlet on May 5 and 6. She has also performed in Much Ado About Nothing and The Hunchback of Notre Dame on campus. In addition, she plays with the worship team at Christian Union Nova, is a member of the Edwards Collective, an arts-based living community in Mathey Residential College, and serves as a Lewis Center Student Advisor.
In the Program in Creative Writing, James has been working on a novel with Professor Yiyun Li as her advisor. Through funding from the Lewis Center’s Alex Adam ’07 Award last summer, she researched and began writing the novel, which is about Hispanic women in the 18th-century American Southwest. Over a two-week road trip across four states, she immersed herself in the history, culture, and landscape of the region, gathering the stories of remarkable Latinx women who shaped the Frontier as we know it. James will join other creative writing seniors reading from their independent works in fiction at a public event on May 3 at 5:00 p.m. at Prospect House on the Princeton campus. James has also served as editor-in-chief of The Nassau Literary Review and has written for several other campus publications.
Just recently, James signed a two-book deal for her young adult fantasy series with a major publisher. The first book is about a Latina pirate hunter who must catch a legendary pirate captain to redeem her own family’s legacy. She researched and wrote the book with funding from a Princeton Martin A. Dale ’53 Summer Award.
In addition to James, the performers include Carrie Geisler, Madeleine LeBeau, Zach Lee, Osamede Ogbomo, Jenna Park, Liam Wang, and Matthew Weatherhead. They are joined by seniors Aimee Sampayan as lighting designer and Claire Galat as stage manager.
The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue and has an assistive listening system. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at [email protected].
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about this event, the Programs in Theater and Music Theater, and the over 100 performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, and lectures presented each year at the Lewis Center, most of them free.
