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TRANSCRIPT
March 10, 2015
Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts presents Windows, a project inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
in collaboration with Triad House and Rainbow House
Photo caption: Participants from Rainbow House, Triad House and Princeton University engage in a theater workshop in preparation for Windows, a performance inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.Photo credit: Mark Czajkowski
What: Windows, a project inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, under the Lewis Center for the Arts, new Outreach Program, followed by a panel discussion on community-based theaterWho: Directed by Princeton junior Adin Walker, featuring youth residents of Triad House and Rainbow House and based on theater workshops provided by Princeton theater students; panelists include Michelle Hensley of Ten Thousand Things theater company and Laurie Woolery of Public Works at The Public TheaterWhen: Wednesday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m.Where: Carl Fields Center on the Princeton University campusFree and open to the public
(Princeton, NJ) The Lewis Center for the Arts will present Windows, a project inspired by
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and directed by Princeton junior Adin Walker. Over the past
several months, Princeton students in the Program in Theater have been working with residents
of Triad House and Rainbow House, two centers that provide care for youth who are in crisis.
The residents will perform excerpts of their work on Wednesday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the
Carl Fields Center at Princeton University. Following the performance will be a panel discussion
about community-based theater with Michelle Hensley, the artistic director of Minneapolis-based
theater company Ten Thousand Things, and Laurie Woolery, associate director of Public Works
at the Public Theater in New York City. The project is under the aegis of the Lewis Center’s new
outreach initiative. The performance and panel discussion are free and open to the public.
The rehearsal process of Windows consisted of eight workshops in which a group of Princeton
students led the residents of Triad House and Rainbow House, ages 14 through 19, through
exercises that encouraged them to engage with Shakespeare’s text in their own unique and
creative ways. The work that will be presented on March 11 has been assembled in the final two
workshops, and is based on a combination of specific scenes from Romeo and Juliet and the
original work created by the residents, which ranges from slam poetry to dance. Romeo and
Juliet was selected as the source text because it is about human beings who have the courage to
fight for their right to live and love freely.
The tragedy of Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teenager from Ohio whose suicide in December
2014 raised national attention, happened only weeks before the first workshop. Alcorn’s suicide
note posted on Tumblr said she felt the world would never accept her identity. In immersing
themselves in the world of Romeo and Juliet, Princeton students and residents explored how they
might work towards creating their own version of the classic tale, inspired by transgender youth
like Alcorn, who fight for acceptance and equal rights. Together, these young artists strove to
reimagine this tragic story with a different, hopeful ending, in which people like Alcorn, Romeo,
and Juliet can live and love together peacefully.
Triad House and Rainbow House are both part of LifeTies, Inc., founded in 1982. It is the
mission of LifeTies to provide quality care and services to youth in crisis due to sexual
orientation, gender, abuse, neglect, homelessness, and various health issues including
HIV/AIDS, lupus, and diabetes.
Walker, who led the workshop process and directs the production, says, “When I learned about
the Triad and Rainbow Houses, and that the Lewis Center for the Arts was interested in working
with these facilities to bring Princeton students together with the residents, I instantly contacted
Fanny Chouinard, the Lewis Center’s Special Outreach Projects Manager, about the opportunity.
Triad House and Rainbow House are incredible institutions and I am so grateful that they
welcomed us. Together we worked on text that is nearly 450 years old and yet still feels so true
and personal to our everyday experiences.”
Walker is an English major pursuing certificates in theater and gender and sexuality studies. At
Princeton, Walker directed and choreographed Rent, choreographed the Program in Theater’s
current production of Spring Awakening, is a member of diSiac dance company, and is the vice-
president of the Performing Arts Council. He has received training at the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival. His assistant directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (director Shana
Cooper) and Lady Windermere’s Fan (director Christopher Liam Moore), both at the California
Shakespeare Theatre, and Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike (director Joel Sass) at the Guthrie
Theatre. This summer, Walker will study at Oxford University as a fellow in the Breadloaf
School of English.
The other Princeton students involved with this project include Maddy Cohen ‘16, Nathalie Ellis-
Einhorn ‘16, Martina Fouquet ‘16, Ava Geyer ‘15, Ryan Gedrich ‘16, Evelyn Giovine ‘16, Hope
Kean ‘18, Abby Melick ‘17, and Emma Michalak ‘17.
Walker and the students involved are interested in theater created with and about communities
and the significant impact theater participation can have on young people facing challenges. The
panel following the performance will focus on this kind of community outreach through theater
and led by two theater professionals who have been involved in this type of work. Hensley, a
Princeton alumna, is the founder and artistic director of Minneapolis-based theater company Ten
Thousand Things, where she has directed and produced over 50 tours of award-winning drama to
low-income audiences in prisons, shelters and public housing projects. She received a McKnight
Theater Artist Fellowship and the Francesca Primus Prize, an annual award given by the
American Theater Critics Association for outstanding contribution to the American theater by a
female artist. Her book, All The Lights On, was recently published. Woolery, associate director
of Public Works at The Public Theater in New York City, is a director, playwright, educator,
community facilitator and producer who has worked at major regional theater companies around
the country. She has developed and directed new works with diverse communities ranging from
incarcerated women to residents of a small Kansas town 95 percent devastated by a tornado.
The event is being cosponsored by Princeton’s Program in American Studies and Program in
Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Other outreach projects of the Lewis Center have included screenings of student-made wildlife
conservation documentaries, a poetry workshop, and a children’s theater production, The Magic
Rainforest: An Amazon Journey.
To learn more about this event and the more than 100 other activities presented at the Lewis
Center each year visit princeton.edu/arts.
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