when the party's over

a play by E. Rosales-Balcarcel

YSD Spring 2021 Workshop

a digital lobby

for our virtual reading

e. working on the script

the faces

the faces

a note from playwright

In the closing paragraph of my personal statement, I wrote about wanting to go to grad school to find healing. “To be admitted to Yale would provide me the writing opportunity I dream of – a space to bring out the voices in my head, the stories in my soul, and to work through them with a community of artists who also believe that theater is an art that brings joy, empathy, and, most importantly, healing. At Yale, I would commit three years to be brave enough to own my stories, put them to paper, and bring them to a room and say: let’s make this, let’s tell this.”

At the beginning of this workshop – before I embarked on this journey – I had to confront my own writing and wonder: is that true? Can I say that? Can I admit to that? Can I own that this is my truth, that this is my voice, and this is the story that is coming out of me?

The writing and workshop of When The Party’s Over has been an experiment and exploration of these questions about my artistry. Thank you to Kevin, Stan, Abigail, Pati, Jasmine, Tyler, Mihir, Maggie, Malachi, Gisela and Nat, for being the bravest, most incredible artists, who helped create a room safe enough to dream of every possibility of both PARTY and me, E. I am grateful that for so many of us, our paths crossed again, and we got to explore another moment in our stories. I am forever inspired by each and every one of you – and all the gifts you brought to our room these past three weeks.

Adin – where would I be without you? All the times I’ve wanted to stop writing and you’ve told me no- keep going. My best friend and director. Thank you for believing in me and my words.

Writing about my time at Princeton and my rape was once one of my life’s greatest challenges – PARTY is now one of my life’s greatest gifts.

Thank you for coming today and imagining its future with me.

a note from director

E and I first became friends at Princeton while I was on crew for a production of Elektra that E was stage managing. After each performance, E and I would clean and re-paint the stage floor – which took us hours to finish because we would really just chill and talk and paint and dance around to music that E would blast over the speakers. A few weeks later, E and I began rehearsals for a production of Singin’ in the Rain that I was directing for my thesis and E was stage managing. The process of rehearsing Rain at times seemed and felt impossible – 26 performers full of schedule conflicts, rehearsals going until 1am, rose petals and mylar and umbrellas everywhere, tons of dream ballets, etc. E and I would stay late after each rehearsal talking through all of the layers of the world of Rain and workshopping some ideas on our bodies. E was a brilliant stage manager because they led with the heart, with the art, and with deep deep care. During performances I stood in the back of the theater and could sometimes hear E from behind the plexiglass calling the show – feeling all of the lighting shifts, the mylar drops, the sound cues in and out, their interstitial moments of ‘oop what just happened?’ and ‘ah yesss Kamber is amazing wow.’ I have always been inspired and enamored by E’s vision, their love for and connection to performers, and their deep sense of music and dance in storytelling.

E sent me the first draft of PARTY in 2019 and right away we re-entered that mode of building a world together. This lab is our first developmental opportunity to collaborate with performers and a creative team – a lab that we have been dreaming about together since E shared that first draft with me. These last few weeks have been incredibly generative for all of us – the brilliant performers pouring their full selves into the play; our longtime friend and collaborator Abigail Jean-Baptiste guiding us through the dramaturgical world; another longtime friend and collaborator Stan Mathabane – who performed in and co-sound designed that production of Rain! – surprising us daily with genius original compositions and DJscapes; and our incredible and deeply caring stage manager Kevin Zhu holding us all together. Thank you all so much for joining us today and diving into the world of PARTY.

Big Love + Gratitude,
Adin
the words we love

visual landscape

our shadow world
princeton's landscape princeton's landscape
sonic landscape

a visual collage from our sound designer

sound designer note

our sonic world

sonic landscape
inspring names 1

artists who inspire us

inspring names 1

princeton specifics from our dramaturg

princeton things