Van Wallach ’80

Van Wallach ’80

Van Wallach is a writer based in Katonah, NY. A native of Mission, Texas, he started in journalism and then switched to corporate communications. Van’s a language buff, having studied Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian (don’t ask him to speak any of them). His first book, A Kosher Dating Odyssey: One Former Texas Baptist’s Quest for a Naughty and Nice Jewish Girl, appeared in 2012 (available on Amazon). He blogs at both the Times of Israel and mission2moscow.blogspot.com. His open-mic appearances are at venues like the Hudson Valley Writers Center, Museum of Sex’s Wide Open Wednesday series, Delaware Art Museum and Katonah Village Library. He’s been the webmaster for the Great Class of 1980 since 2001 and wears Reunions gear as often as possible. Van’s pandemic creative project is a novel set in the Rio Grande Valley on the Texas-Mexico border.

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Emily Tepe ’00 and Adam Ollendorff ’00 (ADAM + IVA)

ADAM + IVA make woke music comedy for a broke world. Think Portlandia and Nichols and May. The duo met in music theory class their freshman year at Princeton. IVA went on to become a crossover pop and opera star in Sweden and has acted and sung in sketches on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. ADAM performed at Chicago’s Improv Olympic Theater before moving to Nashville and playing in the bands of Kacey Musgraves and John Oates. ADAM + IVA’s music videos—including “Make America the Beautiful Again,” “Quarantine” (a parody of the Beatles “Yesterday”) and “Vegan Leather”—turn a wry, satirical eye on social convention and have developed a cult following on YouTube. Follow them on Instagram @ADAMandIVA or wherever fine books are sold.

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Anson Jones ’22

Anson Jones is a New York City-based singer and musician whose eclectic style takes influence from jazz, pop, rock, RnB, folk, and everything in between. She has won 6 Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards through Junior High and High School in both Jazz and Pop/Rock Blues solo categories. This year, Anson is taking part in the Women in Jazz Organization mentorship program. Anson is Princeton class of 2022, majoring in music and minoring in architecture and computer science. Anson’s passion extends into many artistic disciplines—when not making music, she is pursuing her love of design and visual arts.

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Adam Ziv ’11

Adam Ziv is a New York City based actor, musician and dancer. He has performed in many productions on the East and West Coasts, including Dangerous Liaisons (Valmont), West Side Story (Diesel), A Doll’s House (Helmer, Krogstad), Measure for Measure (Lucio), The Oresteia (Orestes), and Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt). He frequently collaborates with fellow alumni, most recently with Dominique Salerno ’10 on their 2020 (pre-pandemic) original video “Basique” (with music by Jason Pomerantz ’09), and with Dominique Salerno and Lovell Holder ’08 on Laughing Wild (Los Angeles Theater Center) in 2018. While waiting for the world to reopen its stages, he has been focusing on his (virtual) piano studies. For tonight's performance, he has selected two excerpts (the Allemande and Corrente sections) of the Bach E minor Partita. This is one of his absolute favorite works for piano.

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Terran Scott

Terran Scott is a New York-based actor, singer, and multidisciplinary creative. She has worked with Musical Theatre Factory, New York Stage & Film, the Arden Theatre Company, and Lightning Rod Special, among others. She is currently acting in and creative collaborating on queer comedy web series Big Egg. BFA Musical Theatre, University of the Arts.

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Princeton Pianists Ensemble

As pioneers in the art of collaborative piano, the Princeton Pianists Ensemble challenges the notion that piano is only a solo instrument and push the traditional boundaries of how the instrument is performed. Four hands on one piano, ten hands on five pianos, and everything in between—we’ve done it or we’ll do it. Our mission is nothing less than to make beautiful music accessible to all and to spread it around Princeton and the world.

Performed by Andre Yin '22, Konstantinos Konstantinou '22, and Yende Mangum '24. Arranged by Audrey Shih ’20 and Phillip Yoon ’20.

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Noah K ’21

Noah K is a composer and saxophonist who lives and works in Brooklyn. He is completing his PhD this year in Music Composition at Princeton. In addition to leading his jazz quartet and performing with his band Dollshot (with vocalist/composer Rosie K), he is currently developing a new opera, “Salvation,” with writer Hampton Fancher, screenwriter of “Blade Runner” and “Blade Runner 2049.”

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Joe Quinn ’80

Joe Quinn ’80

Performing as an undergrad with many campus theater groups and the Program in Theater and Dance, Joe spent 14 years working with Off-Off-Broadway troupes in New York City. Returning to his home state of Maine after a severe back injury, he eventually recovered enough to participate in the active performing arts scene in the Greater Portland area. His recent work includes musical revues, new play festivals, audio drama, and Shakespeare, in which his roles have included Prospero, Jaques, Friar Lawrence, and Polonius.

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Granville Burgess ’69

Granville Burgess: plays/musicals produced Off-Broadway and regionally, including: WPA Theatre, Douglass Fairbanks Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, Ford's Theatre, Capital Rep. Plays: THE FREAK (Samuel French); DUSKY SALLY (Broadway Play Publishing); PLAY IT AS IT LIES (Playscripts). Musicals: CONRACK, BATTLECRY, A COUNTRY CAROL, COMMON GROUND. Teleplays produced: network (CBS:CAPITOL), PBS(TRIFLES, THE TURTLE STONE), syndication(TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE). Awards include: EMMY nomination (CAPITOL), CBS/Foundation for the Dramatist Guild production award, grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (2 times), Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Five County Fund (3 times), he National Endowment for the Humanities, the US Department of Education, and numerous playwriting competition winners. Books: STONE IN THE CRICK, FORK IN THE CRICK, THE LAST AT-BAT OF SHOELESS JOE (Chickadee Prince Books). Co-Founder of Quill Entertainment Company, educational nonprofit (mission: "Teaching America's Heritage Through Story and Song") which creates and tours musicals about American history. Former Director of Walnut Street Theatre School.

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Ben Diamond ’19

Ben Diamond is a stage and screen actor based in New York. While at Princeton, he participated in the theater department and was a member of the Triangle Club, BodyHype, and Shere Khan. He performed in Assistants: The Musical (Off-Broadway) in the year after graduation before the pandemic hit. Since then, he has been cooking, long-distance walking, and trying not to go bonkers.

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Tessa Albertson ’20

Theater: Upcoming Happy Days at The Wild Project streaming March 5th (dir. Nico Krell '18), Broadway’s Shrek The Musical, The Public Theater’s The Low Road. Tessa is best known for portraying Caitlin Miller on Younger (TVLand). Others include Law & Order: SVU (NBC), The Family (Netflix), and CBS’s The Good Wife and Instinct. Upcoming: Generation (HBO Max). Films include Blame, November Criminals and Barry. Princeton University Class ’20 where she played the titular role at the Berlind Theater's Macbeth (dir. Elena Araoz). For her senior thesis in English, Tessa wrote an original lip-sync absurdist play Feminine Products, detailing the failures of mainstream, white feminism and how pop music plays into women's delusional ideals of romance and stability.

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Daniel Benitez ’21

My name is Daniel, I'm a senior in the Spanish and Portuguese department and I'm also an aspiring actor, dancer, drag performer, and makeup artist. For my independent research, I am taking an interdisciplinary approach to investigating how language constructs gender and, further, how different languages could produce different gender performances. The video I am presenting was created for a course on Performance and Brazilian Culture. I am performing as my Drag persona, Richie Richport, and lip syncing in Portuguese to a song about Brazil's annual Carnaval celebrations. Special shoutout to my best friend and roommate, Giselle Uribe, class of 2020, for her constant support and for filming this project.

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