INDIAN PRINCESSES

April 30 - June 7, 2026

Atlantic Theater Company in co-production with Rattlestick Theater

Off-Broadway Premiere

by Eliana Theologides Rodriguez

directed by Miranda Cornell

Featuring: Ben Beckley, Anissa Marie Griego, Rebecca Jimenez, Greg Keller, Serenity Mariana, Pete Simpson, Lark White, Haley Wong, and Frank Wood

Scenic Design: Emmie Finckel

Lighting Design: Mextly Couzin

Costume Design: Sarafina Bush

Sound Design: Salvador Zamora

Casting: The Telsey Office; Karyn Casl, CSA & Charlie Hano, CSA and tbd casting co.; Stephanie Yankwitt, CSA

Assistant Director: Abigail Grubb

Voice & Text Coach: Gigi Buffingston

Associate Scenic Designer: Jimmy Stubbs

Associate Costume Designer: Martín Lara

Assistant Lighting Designer: Lauren Lee

Assistant Sound Designer: Kaileykielle Hoga

Production Stage Manager: Andie Burns

Assistant Stage Manager: Jack Ganguly

Production Assistant: Betty Schneider

Photography by Ahron R. Foster

PRESS

“In Indian Princesses, Rodriguez and her director, Miranda Cornell, score silences and moments of mute, physicalized frustration with just as much precision and pathos as the play’s speech, often with more. “You wanna talk about racism?” Mac barks at Andi as the two of them drive home. (There are several excellent carpooling scenes in the show, staged with claustrophobic simplicity by Cornell.)

…Indian Princesses captures something essential about the constipation of our frightened souls, and it manages to do so while remaining, for most of its under-two-hour run time, a comedy…But even something about this roughness seems, in its way, right. These girls are in a moment of extreme tumult, discovering whole new worlds for which they need whole new languages — it makes sense that the lens of their experience would render things askew, some moments wild and grotesque, others charged with hushed magic. That Indian Princesses holds both is just one of its many wise delights.”- Sara Holdren, Vulture/New York Magazine

“The director Miranda Cornell, also making her Off Broadway debut, coaxes pitch-perfect, early-puberty performances from the sublime ensemble of adult actors. Each one does an excellent job of performing the tics, postures and growls unique to her little weirdo…The production is at its best during the girls’ group scenes, when lines of hyperactive dialogue roll on top of one another in hurried, oftentimes revealing conversations. Confessions of being othered — half-Japanese Samantha has been complimented on her English, half-Mexican Andi is questioned about the severity of her arm hair — slip in under all that feverish talk about Webkinz and “iCarly.”” - Brittani Samuel, The New York Times

“Just saw the play Indian Princesses and I’m so frustrated that it’s closing! One of the best things I’ve seen all year, touching, funny, surprising, incredible ensemble… I’m full of regret that I didn’t catch it earlier & I hope it gets staged again.” - Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker

“Well, I didn’t just like it, I loved it. I could feel the influence of many of its antecedents—the girl drama of The Wolves or Dance Nation, the awkward middle-aged white men of Circle Mirror Transformation, the parodic pageantry of The Thanksgiving Play—but director Miranda Cornell and her exquisite ensemble made it all harmonize with a kind of rough beauty.” - Rob Weinert-Kendt, American Theatre Magazine

“Though these preteens are trying to find themselves personally and culturally, they find a sense of community with each other amid their struggles and curiosities. Catharsis comes for them in the form of a swerve into magical realism toward the end of the play. A reconciliation leads to a bit of primal-scream therapy…before giving way to a speculation on the future that’s uplifting yet tinged with a wise-beyond-their-years acknowledgment of the real-world challenges ahead. A terrific cast under Miranda Cornell’s sensitive direction makes Rodriguez’s vision hum. The female performers convey youthful curiosity without lapsing into cutesiness, while the male performers channel genuine familial warmth even at their most oblivious.” - Kenji Fujishima, TheaterMania

“The characters here are all drawn with nuance and humor, and under Miranda Cornell’s direction, they are all made fully, at times frustratingly human…The girls are the real focus of this story, though — what they learn about and through each other, and how they all grapple with their imperfect guardians. Ms. Cornell has recruited young performers who capture their individual quirks, as well as the precocity and sensitivity they share.” - Elysa Gardner, The New York Sun

“Miranda Cornell directs with remarkable tonal control, balancing razor-sharp satire with genuine tenderness. The YMCA scenes are often hilarious—Glen’s mangled Columbus myth, the fathers’ painful “Homework Conversations,” the girls’ deadpan reactions to adult nonsense. But Cornell never lets the humor excuse the harm. When Lily explodes at Chris—”You think I don’t know I can’t be Penny?! You think I don’t know I’m different?!”—the laughter stops. Cornell understands that these girls are funny because they’re smarter than the adults, and they’re in pain because the adults won’t listen.

The play builds to an extraordinary final sequence…Each girl has developed her own movement vocabulary—geometric patterns, rhythmic sounds, chest-thumping, wordless vocalizations. Rodriguez’s stage directions indicate these aren’t choreographed precisely but should “capture the magical abandon of childhood.” Cornell stages this beautifully: the girls release their hurt through movement that looks nothing like YMCA-approved “Indian” activities. They’re not performing culture; they’re creating it…Cornell’s direction honors both the play’s humor and its rage. She understands that these girls are hilarious because they’re smarter than the adults, and heartbreaking because the adults won’t listen. The pacing never sags across the play’s nearly two-hour runtime, and the final ritual sequence is staged with the kind of theatrical magic that reminds you why live performance matters.” - David Roberts, Theatre Reviews Limited