Nancy Smithner Directs NYU Students and NYC Middle Schoolers in Original Devised Theatre Performance

In October, Nancy Smithner, clinical professor of educational theatre at NYU Steinhardt, directed an original performance called Sonder: The Dreams We Carry. Through stories and dreams, this devised theatre performance created by NYU students explored the notion of “sonder,” the realization that others have their own complex lives in which they are the main character. 

Devised theatre is a collaborative creation process in which the entire ensemble—actors, backstage technicians, and more—develop a new performance from scratch based on a unified theme. Smithner suggested the students use dreams as a container for the show, which touched on anxieties, hopes, daydreams, and nightmares across themes such as emotional well-being, the environment, family concerns, and gender issues.

“Devised theatre is something I’ve done throughout my career: in prisons, in multiple middle schools, and more,” says Smithner; her devised theatre productions at NYU include The Triangle Project in 2011, which honored the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and Hear Them Roar in 2017 about the suffrage movement. “It’s a challenging but creative medium in which everyone has a say, and my goal is to let the NYU students guide the work.”

Sonder was created by undergraduate and graduate students from Steinhardt’s Educational Theatre, Vocal Performance, and Drama Therapy programs, as well as from NYU Tisch School of the Arts: Jonathan Cantor, Hailey Davis, Zach Degan, B. Nebet, Addie Green Peterson, Josiah Randles, Jillian Roche, Will Shaheen, May Tashiro, Xuelong Wang, and Grace Weir.

In addition to the NYU students, Smithner also worked with Natalie Mack, the drama and humanities teacher at the Institute for Collaborative Education (NY.ICE) in Gramercy Park, to incorporate 18 middle school students into the production of Sonder. Students helped backstage and performed in dream scenarios created by and with the NYU students, as well as developing their own dream sequence in which they developed eccentric characters and elaborate movements.

“This play fulfilled the Educational Theatre program’s goal to work with a community outside of the University in a way that had never been done before,” says Smithner. “Reaching out to the Institute for Collaborative Education to work together demonstrated the use of applied theatre in a strong aesthetic modality.”