the computer room (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the anons)
Written and Directed by Pria Dahiya and Cole Schubert
Starring Nate Kelderman
Anything Good Makes Me Want to Die
Adapted from Homesick for Another World by Otessa Moshfegh
Warehouse Space in Wilkinsburgh
Adaptation and Direction: Pria Dahiya / Cast: Evan Vines, Cayden McCoy, Rory Janney, Rowan Dunlop / Sound Design and Media Design: Pria Dahiya / Scenic Support: Sierra Young / Media Content: Finn Dugan
My first piece inaugurating my Theatre Company, The New Modern Product Theatre.
Une Petite Danse
Short for my Film Production course.
Get Innocuous!
Music by LCD Soundsystem, text adapted from “The Extreme Self” by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Helen Wayne Rauh Theater, Dance/Light 2023
Dancers: JP Berry and Travis Roy Rogers / Lighting Design: Xotchil Musser / Costume Design: Yinxue Wang / Stage Management: Kelsey Harlow.
I am interested in the tension between our real selves and our online parallels. At every moment we interact with cloud-connected machines, our data is being recorded and stored away to create a “data self” that can be used in ways we have no control over.
The way our actions are recorded and our data is being used can be difficult to visualize, as they all occur in vast networks that seem both impenetrable and innocuous. With this piece, I want to investigate how these forces can be physicalized: How does one dance “network”? How does one dance “data”? How does one dance “anonymously”?
Iphis and Ianthe
Adapted from Ovid (Transl. David Rayburn) and Ali Smith
The Ellis Gallery, 2022
Featuring Cordelia Reynolds (Ianthe) and Yin Raquino (Iphis)
I adapted the story of Iphis and Ianthe from book IX of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The play was performed at Carnegie Mellon School of Art’s Ellis Gallery.
Poem of the End
After Marina Tsvetaeva
The Frame Gallery, 2022
Featuring Bryanna Felipe (Marina) and Travis Roy Rogers (Konstantyn)
I adapted the poem “Poem of the End” by Marina Tsvetaeva for the stage. The play was performed at Carnegie Mellon’s Student-Run Art Gallery.
Directing II: When We Dead Awaken
After Henrik Ibsen
Directing II, Instructor Ivan Talijančić, 2021
For my Directing II course, I completed two études after Henrik Ibsen’s symbolist play “When We Dead Awaken”. Images from both class projects are below.
The Bald Soprano
By Eugene Ionesco
Scotch n’ Soda Theatre Company, 2020
Director: Pria Dahiya / Assistant Director: Zoe Marshall / Stage Managers: Cynthia Xu and Kayleigh Migdol / Costume Designer: Katia Peppas / Set Designer: Gabrielle Augustin / Cast: Quincy Eaton, Fayyaz Zaidi, Mikey Cao, Olivia Olshevski, Emily Schneider, Nathan Blinn / Photos courtesy of Jacqui Fashimpaur
I directed The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco in February 2020 for Carnegie Mellon’s student theatre company, Scotch n’ Soda.
Last Week’s Late Nights Live!
By Pria Dahiya
Playground Theatre Festival, 2019
Director: Pria Dahiya / Stage Managers: Juju Nieto and Eliza Hallinan / Lighting and Sound Designers: JD Hopper and Pablo Anton / Set Designer: Sierra Young / Costume Designer: Mitch Jacobs / Cast: Julian O'Byrne, Anabelle Duffy, Julianna Austin, Reece Grover
I directed my self-written surrealist play “Last Week’s Late Nights Live!” for the School of Drama’s annual theatre festival, Playground.
In The Heights
By Lin Manuel-Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes
The Free Theatre, 2019
Director: Pria Dahiya / Choreographers: Emmy Lane and Jenny Dalrymple / Music Director: Marci Shegogue / Stage Manager: Brianna Kelly / Production Manager: Hope Villanueva / Lighting Designer: Hailey LaRoe / General Manager: Devin Lucas / Costume Designer: Emily Gordon / Photos Courtesey of Ian Band
I directed “In The Heights” for the Free Theatre’s inaugural 2018-2019 season. The Free Theatre is a student-founded educational musical theatre company I founded with my peers my senior year of high school.
