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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