Nilaja Sun Serves As Guest Artist For PROJECT: TRANSFORM

Project: Transform returns to Education @ Hartford Stage this fall, with acclaimed Pike St. playwright, actor and teaching artist Nilaja Sun serving as guest artist. Connecticut high school students with a talent for writing, acting, dancing, music, poetry or art are encouraged to apply for the free innovative performance program celebrating diversity and acceptance.

Project: Transform is celebrating its ninth year, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign last spring spearheaded by Stage One, the young professional arm of the Hartford Stage Board. With a corporate matching gift from Locke Lord LLP, over $17,000 was raised to revitalize the program.

Bringing together 15 to 20 Connecticut high school students from different backgrounds-including race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and social class-Project: Transform enables participants to collaboratively create and perform a devised theatre piece exploring the transformation of minds, neighborhoods and communities. Students work with Hartford Stage education staff and a guest artist - infusing poetry, theatre, music and dance to write, improvise, rehearse and share their final finished work in a public performance.

"Having the opportunity to work with one of the real living greats in the incomparable Nilaja Sun is truly one of the coolest creative opportunities I've seen come along in a long time," said Nina Pinchin, Associate Director of Education @ Hartford Stage. "For talented teens with something to say about the world they're living in, Project: Transform provides a platform to give voice to anger, frustration, pain, joy and hope - all in the pursuit of positive and much-needed change. It's an opportunity that is not to be missed."

Nilaja Sun joins previous Project: Transform guest artists including writer/actor/author/ LGBTQ activist James Lecesne; director Saheem Ali; playwrights Phillip Howze, Kimber Lee, Matthew Lopez, Janine Nabers, Will Power, and Kaneza Schaal; and composer/sound designer Justin Ellington.

Sun will bring her acclaimed solo show, Pike St., which vividly brings to life three generations of a Puerto Rican family on New York's Lower East Side, to Hartford Stage in January. Her most famous work, No Child..., a solo performance piece based upon her eight years teaching arts in New York City schools, received an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards (including the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Outstanding New American Play), a Theatre World Award, the Helen Hayes Award, and two NAACP Theatre Awards. No Child... was also named the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.

Connecticut high school students can download an application at https://www.hartfordstage.org/project-transform/. All applications must be received by Friday, October 4. Rehearsals will be held October 19 and 26; November 2, 16, 24 and 30; and December 7 and 14. Two public performances will be held December 14 and 15. For additional information about Project: Transform, contact Nina Pinchin, Associate Director of Education, at 86-520-7266 or npinchin@hartfordstage.org.

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