As a high-school senior, Oge Ude ’16 read as many scripts as she could get her hands on, including one for Red, John Logan’s Tony Award-winning exploration of the abstract painter Mark Rothko. Last fall, Ude proposed a reinterpretation of the play, incorporating music and dance, for her final project in a Princeton theater course, and in September and early October, she brought that vision to the stage in Theatre Intime’s first production of the school year.
Red seemed like a perfect fit for the fall, Ude said, with the Princeton University Art Museum completing its Rothko to Richter exhibition Oct. 5. She cast the play in the spring — with John Fairchild ’15 as Rothko and Ryan Gedrich ’16 as Ken, the artist’s assistant — and communicated with cast and crew over the summer via Skype and email. After returning to campus, the actors and dancers pursued an intense rehearsal schedule in preparation for the show’s Sept. 26 premiere at Hamilton Murray Theater.
Logan’s intriguing, intelligent dialogue about creativity attracted Ude to Red, but she says that the Theatre Intime production aimed to be “accessible to all,” highlighting Rothko’s passion as much as his art.
PAW contributor Aleka Gürel ’15 captured behind-the-scenes photos of Ude, Fairchild, and Gedrich during rehearsals of Red.
