On Friday, Dartmouth’s theater department opened its seven-performance run of its winter 2026 mainstage production “Legacy of Light” — its inaugural show at the newly reopened Hopkins Center for the Arts in the Daryl Roth Studio Theater.
A contemporary play by American playwright Karen Zacarías set in two timelines, it follows the 1700s scientist and Voltaire’s lover, Emilie du Châtelet, and the contemporary astrophysicist Olivia as they navigate their parallel relationships to work and motherhood, experiencing an unexpected pregnancy and pursuing motherhood by surrogacy, respectively.
The show’s director Sarah Wansley, who is the BOLD Associate Director at Northern Stage, and the costume designer and professor of theater Laurie Churba said the theater department was drawn to the play’s “interdisciplinary” themes including science, femininity and love. Wansley said this is also the first time the department has staged a play by a Latina playwright.
The play connects the past to the present by “exploring [the fact] that sex and motherhood has always been messy,” Wansley said.
Sally Young ’26, who plays Emilie’s daughter Pauline, said the “nuanced story” immediately appealed to her.
“It’s telling the story of women who want to be powerful academics — scientists — but also want to be mothers and also want to be creatives,” Young said.
Young highlighted that many of the characters in the play have a “double” in the other timeline who “parallel[s]” them, which was “fun” to explore. For instance, she noted the similarities between her character and that of Millie (Dominique Quiñonez), Olivia’s surrogate in the contemporary timeline, as two “artistic” daughters of STEM-inclined mothers.
At the same time, Young highlighted her 1700s costume, featuring a corset, “huge skirt” and “powdered wig,” as one of “the most exciting” parts of the role for her.
Churba said that following the Hop’s renovation over the last two and a half years — which imposed “a lot of limitations” on the “size and scale” of the shows that the theater department was able to produce — its reopening has presented the “amazing opportunity” for the department to operate at full capacity again.
In addition to limiting the productions’ size as a result of the temporary theater spaces’ smaller seating capacities, Churba noted that the department was also limited in how “grand” their shows could be.
For example, she said that the costume shop had been unable to create “hugely fantastical or deeply period” pieces with their supplies locked away in the Hop during the renovation.
By contrast, “Legacy of Light,” as a combination of both a contemporary and period play, has allowed the costume team to create the kinds of striking period costumes that Wansley highlighted as contributing to the play’s “really rich” design alongside the set and lighting.
As the costume designer responsible for creating the sketches for the costumes, Churba said she drew her grounding inspiration for the show’s color palette from the solar system planets.
From the get-go, Churba said she also wanted Emilie’s character specifically to be “all in silk” to reflect her historical “socioeconomic status” — a choice she said the team prioritized because of the importance of “getting the silhouettes right and the fabrics right” for the storytelling.
To execute these visions, however, Churba emphasized the critical role of the rest of the costume shop staff — including the cutter/draper Anna Winter and the costume shop manager Bethany Padrón alongside the recently-hired costume technician Celeste Fenton.
Churba said there is an “enormous” amount of work involved in making 18th century clothes for women.
Winter said Churba and Bethany assessed the stock of the contemporary costumes and available materials and discussed the budget of the production, after which she and Churba met to discuss their respective visions for the costumes.
Churba said for this show, Padrón “took complete charge of the wigs” that Padrón knew “need[ed] to be big and stacked” with “birds” and “feathers,” in the style of Marie Antoinette.
At the same time, Winter and Churba emphasized another key ingredient to the realization of the costumes and of the scenic design and lighting — student employees, who have been involved in theater department productions before, during and after the Hop renovation. THEA 40: “Technical Production” students also worked in the costume or scene shop or as part of the backstage “run crew.”
Winter said the costume shop has been “trying to be better about having our students do a lot of the actual construction stuff, because it's not nearly as exciting if I'm just doing it.”
According to Elliott Ecklund ’26, the nine students in THEA 41: “Stage Management” have been responsible for the show’s stage management.
Ecklund, a non-theater major who “did stage crew in high school and loved it,” decided to enroll in the course, which required a conversation with the professor but no prerequisites, out of personal interest.
Outside of actual class time, which she said involves recapping rehearsals and learning stage management concepts, Ecklund said the class work has primarily involved attending rehearsals around twice a week and taking notes on stage directions or lines. She said the students also help stage manage the performances.
Ecklund said “putting on the headset for the first time” and hearing her professor and other class members speak through it was an “aha” moment for her. “It finally started to click to me — how these shows actually get put on,” she said.
Churba said the show was the product of the “phenomenal” contributions of all the staff and student workers throughout the term.
“We’re hoping that we just get our message out to the College that we are back, and we’re doing really big, exciting stuff,” Churba said.
“Legacy of Light” will give its final performances on Friday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 28 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Avery Lin ’27 is an arts editor and writer from New York City. She studies Comparative Literature, including French and Classical Greek, at Dartmouth and also writes for Spare Rib Magazine.
