Lewis Center for the Arts presents "At the Wedding" by Bryna Turner

Published by New Jersey Stage
originally published: 11/05/2026

Pixley Marquardt '27 and Maddie Delbridge '30 in rehearsal for At the Wedding. Photo by Lucy Shea '27

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Lewis Center for the Arts' Program in Theater and Music Theater at Princeton University presents At the Wedding by Bryna Turner, a raucous and bittersweet comedy in which Carlo finds herself at her ex-girlfriend's wedding to a guy and guides the audience through cynically hilarious exchanges with other party guests. The play features senior Pixley Marquardt and is co-directed by Marquardt and junior Ren Dzyuba. Performances take place November 13-14, November 19-21 in the Wallace Theater. Showtime is 8:00pm each night. Shows are free and open to the public.

It might be the best night of her ex-girlfriend Eva's life, but it's the worst night of Carlo's. Unable to accept Eva's new chapter, Carlo shows up to her wedding in a last-ditch effort to save Eva from her supposed tragic fate. Through a series of exchanges with the complicated cast of the reception, Carlo is faced with a choice: to push beyond her heartache and recognize the true character of the wedding and its guests, or to sink under the weight of old habits and remain resolute in her bitter perceptions of love.

Marquardt proposed the play as her senior independent work toward a minor in the Program in Theater and Music Theater. As a multidisciplinary theater artist, she writes, directs, and performs. She explains that her academic and artistic goals begin with the prefix "trans"—signaling across, beyond, or on the other side. With this project, she sought to explore how gender is inscribed in the theater, and, considering gender as a performative act, how onstage performance can provide an avenue to examine how we structure our gendered lives. She notes, "Using acting and directing as a form of embodied research, I wanted to specifically focus on butch lesbianism, in search of a more precise understanding of the intersection between gender and sexuality. This kind of masculinity is underexplored in the theater, and I hope to bring to light a personally resonant experience that is rarely portrayed onstage."

Marquardt read several plays examining lesbian identity and gender performance before settling on Turner's comedy. The play debuted off-Broadway on March 21, 2022, produced by Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3 at the Claire Tow Theater, and was directed by Jenna Worsham. It received critical praise as a New York Times Critic's Pick.

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Dzyuba joined the project as co-director with a similar interest in theatrical representation of gender. Resonating with the play's themes of identity and estrangement, their role in the project has centered on representing how self-imposed isolation is common, yet not essential to the queer experience. Through staging this production, they wish to examine how one's gender presentation can feel alienating but does not have to be a barrier to connection, especially amongst those not exactly aligned with such identities.

Marquardt is a comparative literature major from Atlanta and minoring in theater and music theater. In her work in the Department of Comparative Literature, she examines the relationship between literature and sociopolitical change, with focuses on translation and collective memory. Beyond her theater coursework in directing, acting, and playwriting, Marquardt has taken part in several other projects at the Lewis Center as an actor and stage manager. She is currently the co-artistic director of Quipfire!, Princeton's oldest student improv comedy group. She recently directed a mainstage production of Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George at Theatre Intime, a student-run theater company on campus. After graduation, she intends to pursue a career as a theater artist.

Last spring, Marquardt received an Alex Adam '07 Award from the Lewis Center. This funding allowed her to unite her interests in developing new theater works and studying the role of innovative art and literature in processing and provoking change. She traveled to Berlin, New York City, Atlanta, and Edinburgh over the summer to explore theatrical work in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, attended performances, conducting research, and interning with a new works festival. She is currently in the process of writing an original play in dialogue with her experiences and the concepts of transit, translation, and transformation as they relate to graffiti. A reading of her new play will be presented by the Lewis Center in the spring.

Dzyuba, from Brooklyn, New York, is a junior in the School of Public and International Affairs, with a minor in archaeology. They are the box office manager for Theatre Intime, president of the affinity group Ukraine at Princeton, and a writer for the Princeton Triangle Club. As a theater maker on campus, they have fulfilled roles in student productions ranging from acting, stage managing, writing, and sound designing.

In addition to Marquardt, the student cast of At the Wedding includes Maddie Delbridge, Miel Escamilla, Shannon Groth, Jesse O'Rourke, Katie Park, and Bryce Steach.

Student members of the production team, in addition to Dzyuba, include B Ireland as scenic designer, Jaylin Golar as lighting designer, Callisto Lim as sound designer, and stage management by Lily Raphael, Lily Hutcheson, and Peyton McLaughlin. Professional members of the production team are E. Keating Helfrich Debelak as costume designer, Jacqueline Holloway as intimacy director, and faculty member Aaron Landsman as co-producer. Faculty member Yuval Boim is project mentor with senior Didi Vekri as design mentor.

Performances are November 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21 at 8:00pm in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. Free and open to the public, tickets can be reserved through University Ticketing. The Wallace Theater is fully accessible with an assistive listening system. The November 19 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.

Audiences are advised the play includes depictions of substance abuse and discussions of depression.

Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about this event, the Program in Theater and Music Theater, 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.