Earlier this semester, I had the pleasure of seeing “alien(E)” by Ella Talerico ’25, presented by the Philaletheis Society and directed by Robyn Lindsay ’25. A few weeks later, I sat down in the Martel Theater to watch a reading of the show, which is also the 26th recipient of the Marilyn Swartz Seven ’69 Annual Playwriting award. This play is not Talerico’s first rodeo. Including “alien(E),” Talerico has written 18 shows in total: nine full-length plays, two thirty-minute musicals and several one-acts. On top of that, Ella is a singer and songwriter who began writing songs at the age of six. Most recently, she released a single titled “Anyways” with an accompanying music video. With Vassar’s 161st Commencement just a week away, I sat down with Ella to reflect on “alien(E),” her creative process, and the Vassar arts scene.
If you have frequented the Vassar theater scene at any point within the last four years, whether it be Drama department productions or student shows, you have likely seen Ella’s work. To put any work, creative or otherwise, in front of a crowd is certainly no easy feat—but for Talerico, it is the community that keeps her grounded. Ella stated, “I don’t think about it, and it doesn’t feel scary until the day before it goes up. And before that, it’s just this desire to create something with my friends and to share something, so it’s not just my own anymore.” Talerico cited the journey to releasing “Anyways” as an example of the importance of collaboration in the creative process, explaining that “If I didn’t share the place, if I didn’t share the music or the music video, it’s only my world. I wanted to be more communal than that.”
Community is certainly at the core of Talerico’s creative process. To Ella, art is primarily about bringing people together. She remarked, “If there’s anything I’ve learned from making art at Vassar, it’s that artists wanna make shit, and they wanna make it together.” For Talerico, it is the people that make the place, citing Vassar productions like “Ghost Sonata,” “Wormball” and “Fury” as examples, remarking that “it’s no fun alone.” When asked what inspires her the most when creating, whether it be a play or a song, she said, “I just think I’m really interested in opposites and the way they collide in our world.” Peace inside of chaos, joy inside of despair, revolution inside of oppression—Talerico has always drawn from picking apart how individuals and communities find a balance. While “alien(E)” draws heavily from Talerico’s own experiences, she explained that all of her works are grounded in “scrutinizing the mystery not to solve it, but rather to see it in its vast complexity.”
Talerico’s time at Vassar may be coming to an end, but she is just getting started in the drama world. After graduation, Ella’s primary goal is to produce “alien(E)” in New York City sometime within the next year. Additionally, she intends to start a theater company with other recent Vassar graduates, where she hopes to focus more on street and protest theater. As Ella prepares to walk the stage at Commencement, she feels excited to see what her future holds. When asked if she had any parting words, Talerico replied, “Keep making things. Don’t let your fear stop you because you’ll find, especially at Vassar, people will welcome your art with open arms and with kind and genuine eyes.” Most importantly, Talerico implores us to fail, stating that, “Even in my failure, there’s so much love there, and you learn a lot from it.”
If there is anything we can learn from the wisdom Ella Talerico has accrued over these past four years at Vassar College, it is that artists should always keep creating, failing and building the community that has made the college’s arts scene so special.