Two members of the cast in rehearsal. Photo by Daeun Kim
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Lewis Center for the Arts' Program in Theater and Music Theater at Princeton University presents at the very bottom of a body of water, the first fully-staged production of a play by Benjamin Benne telling an everyday story with elements of magical realism. Performances are October 3-4 at 8:00pm and October 5, 2025 at 2:00pm in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. Performances are free and open to the public.
at the very bottom of a body of water follows Marina, a single mother who spends her days going to the fish store to buy a catfish for soup and her nights stitching petals on her daughter's quinceañera dress. When Marina's local fishmonger passes away and his son Hiroshi takes over the store, Marina and Hiroshi form an unexpected connection that may break them from their routines and help them face what haunts them.
Yang's work on the project represents her independent work toward a minor in the Program in Theater and Music Theater. Milliken is also minoring in theater and will lead a project in the spring semester. Students earning a minor take the course "Introduction to Theater Making," four other theater, music theater, music, or dance courses, and provide non-performing support for one or two other Program productions. They have the option to propose a senior project in spring of their junior year, which might be writing a new work, directing, performing, designing, stage managing, or producing a production; the Program's season is primarily shaped by the interests and proposals of the students in the Program. Students' senior projects are advised by the faculty with support from the professional staff in music, costumes, scenery, light, sound, stage management and producing. Any student can pursue the minor; no application or audition is required, and students with no prior experience are welcome.
Yang notes that she proposed the project for the Program in Theater and Music Theater's season as it offered an opportunity to center Asian and Latino characters and voices. She also felt the play's moments of magical realism, the evocation of different environments, and emotion of the piece provided challenges and opportunities for creative design. She and Milliken worked closely together on developing the visual world of the play.
The production is directed by Princeton senior Elena Milliken and features lighting design by senior Emily Yang. tickets can be reserved through University Ticketing. The Wallace Theater is fully accessible with an assistive listening system. The October 3 performance will be open captioned. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at [email protected] at least one week prior to the event date.
Benne's play has received a number of development readings; however, this is the first fully-staged production, and the student team had the opportunity to be in communication with the playwright during the rehearsal process. The work was developed by Benne in The Lark's Playwrights' Week in New York City and with Parley Productions, Umbrella Project in Seattle, Williamstown Theatre Festival's Fridays@3 Reading Series, Chance Theater's Resident Playwright program, and The Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 McKnight Fellowship and Core Writer program. The play was a finalist for the Williamstown Theatre Festival's L. Arnold Weissberger Award.
Benne is Chance Theater's 2025 Resident Playwright, a Playwrights' Center 2023-26 Core Writer, and was named part of "LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, instigators and power players breaking through barriers" by the Los Angeles Times. Among his awards are the Playwrights' Center's Many Voices Fellowship and McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting, Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, and Kennedy Center/KCATF Latinx Playwriting Award with commissions by South Coast Repertory and Seattle Repertory.
Yang, from Sylva, North Carolina, is an electrical and computer engineering major in addition to pursuing a minor in theater and music theater. Her work lies in the intersections of technology, media, and the arts. She became interested in lighting design after taking "Movement and Light: Interaction and Process of Design and Choreography," a lighting design and dance course taught by Susan Marshall and Tess James, who also serves as the lighting design advisor for this production, and diving into lighting design for three original one-act plays at Theatre Intime's Student Playwrights Festival. She then went on to serve as the lighting designer for To Dream About Wings by Steph Chen '25.
Yang notes that this process, led by Wasif Sami '25, deepened her approach to research and collaboration in theatrical design and was a formative experience working with Milliken and Grace Wang '26, who is the sound designer for this project. Yang is currently a stage management mentor for the Program in Theater and has stage managed and assistant stage managed multiple productions in the program and across student theater groups, including Flight of a Legless Bird by Ethan Luk '24, Missing Dog, Very Helpful by Kristen Tan '26, Theresa's Breasts by Amber Palmer, and Tea by Velina Hasu Houston. She shares that a common throughline of these projects has been the depth of emotional storytelling resonating from original and contemporary plays, as well as the centering of Asian American experiences and community within a theater-making process.
In her time at Princeton, Yang has been involved with the undergraduate boards of Theatre Intime, the Princeton University Players, and the Design Collective of Princeton in community-building and publicity roles, and she has assisted with May 2023 and May 2025 installations of the Rhythm Bots at Princeton, a Leonard Lab robotics project in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering that explores nonlinear opinion dynamics and rhythmic connection. After graduation, she hopes to continue exploring the intersection of arts, design, and engineering through nonprofit, scientific, or artistic institutions.
Milliken is an anthropology major from Philadelphia pursuing minors in theater and music theater and in Spanish. Her design work has been featured in numerous Lewis Center productions, where she has also performed and stage managed. Since her sophomore year, Milliken has been a coach and student leader for Trenton Youth Theater. In addition to her work in the program, she has served as the technical director and production manager for Theatre Intime and as a board member for Princeton University Players. She has completed two internships through the Lewis Center's Bernstein Arts Leadership Fellowship, one with Civic Artistic programs at the Public Theater in New York City and most recently in literary and producing at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. In February, she will design lighting and serve as dramaturg for the Lewis Center's production of Manual for a Desperate Crossing by María Irene Fornés.
The student cast includes Olivia Gonzalez, Rubi Larancuent, Tomoka Ohmori, and Nick Pham.
In addition to Milliken and Yang, student members of the production team include Annalise Schuck as set designer, Grace Wang as sound designer, Louise Sanches Barbosa as stage manager, and Isabella Bustos and Pixley Marquardt as assistant stage managers. Professional members of the production team are E. Keating Helfrich Debelak as costume designer and Jacqueline Holloway as fight/intimacy director. Faculty member Chesney Snow is co-producer with Tess James as faculty project mentor.
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about this event, the Lewis Center for the Arts, and the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, lectures, and special events presented by the Lewis Center each year, most of them free.
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