Red Light Green Light:
An Original Performance

FREE PERFORMANCE

When: Saturday, May 18 at 3:00 p.m.
Where: Center for Contemporary Culture, Hartford Public Library Downtown Branch, 500 Main Street, Hartford
Adult language and content.
Recommended for ages 14+

• Isaiah Alvarado, Classical Magnet School
• Rachel Beauregard, Avon High School
• Brandonlee Cruz, Watkinson School
• Mekhiel DeLeon, Manchester High School
• Tiara Dexter, East Hartford High School
• Anne Ferketic, Conard High School
• Dajah Jackson, Plainville High School
• Jerena Lee, Rocky Hill High School
• Hanna Madler, South Windsor High School
• Shoshanna Martin, Bristol Eastern High School
• Kareena Olen, Opportunity High School
• Dylan Stetson, Berlin High School

What is Project: Transform?

Project: Transform will bring together approximately 15 high school students from urban and suburban school districts to create and perform a devised piece of theatre under the guidance of renowned guest artists Matthew Lopez and Giovanna Sardelli. The performance piece will explore the idea of transformation of minds, neighborhoods, and communities.

The artists and Hartford Stage staff will work with students for six Saturdays, pushing the ensemble to high levels of achievement in writing and to break down racial, ethnic, and economic barriers. Participants will create their own piece of performance art, a collage of voices representing themselves, their families, neighborhoods, and communities, with the purpose of celebrating cultures and inspiring transformation and change.

The program will conclude in a public performance open to families, friends, and the entire community on May 18-19.

Participation in this program is free and open to all high school students in Connecticut.

Artists

Matthew Lopez

Giovanna Sardelli

Matthew Lopez

Matthew Lopez’s play The Whipping Man was produced earlier this year at Hartford Stage, where he is the 2012-13 Aetna New Voices Fellow. The Whipping Man premiered in New York in 2011 after development in several regional theatres including Luna Stage, Penumbra Theatre Company and the Old Globe. The MTC production was directed by Doug Hughes and starred Andre Braugher. For it, Mr. Lopez was awarded the John Gassner Playwriting Award from the Outer Critics Circle. It is one of the most widely produced plays in America, with productions scheduled next year in over 15 cities. His play Somewhere premiered last year at the Old Globe under the direction of Giovanna Sardelli and will be produced in January 2013 at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA. Other works include Reverberation, The Legend of Georgia McBride and The Sentinels, which premiered last year in London as part of Headlong Theatre Company’s 9/11 Decade project. Mr. Lopez is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a past member of the Ars Nova Play Group and a recent artist-in-residence at the Old Globe. He is currently commissioned by Hartford Stage and Roundabout Theatre Company. Mr. Lopez is a staff writer on the HBO series The Newsroom.

Giovanna Sardelli

Giovanna Sardelli has collaborated with Matthew Lopez on the West Coast premiere of The Whipping Man, for which she received an NAACP nomination for Best Director, and on the World Premiere of his play Somewhere. Both productions were at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. She and Matthew recently presented the West Coast Premiere of Somewhere at TheatreWorks. Giovanna has worked with playwrights Theresa Rebeck on the World Premiere of her play Dead Accounts which was presented at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and on numerous World Premieres with Rajiv Joseph including The North Pool, TheatreWorks and Barrington Stage Company, All This Intimacy, Second Stage Theatre, The Leopard and The Fox, AlterEgo, Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane Theatre and Animals Out of Paper, Second Stage, for which she received the Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Director. Giovanna’s production of Lord of the Flies recently premiered at Barrington Stage Company. Giovanna has developed plays with The Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Sundance, The Playwrights’ Center and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center among others. She spent two seasons as Director of the Shakespeare Sedona Institute and two seasons as the Artistic Director of Studio Tisch and she was recently named Resident Director of The Dorset Theatre Festival where she has directed numerous productions. Ms. Sardelli received her MFA in acting from NYU, and is also a graduate of their Director’s Lab. She is on the faculty of the Graduate Acting and Dance Programs at NYU.

Teens are Talking

“The most important thing I learned is have fun and say what’s on your mind.”
Sophomore from Newington

“This project was different from my school because it was far more introspective and collaborative”
Senior from Norwalk

“The best thing about this project was being given a chance to work with other people who share the same dream and interest as me.”
Senior from Hartford

“I learned that all the hard work pays off when you get the audiences’ smiles in return.”
– Sophomore from Bloomfield

“The most important thing I learned from this project was be yourself, be open to change, love you for you.”
Junior from Hartford

“I was able to work with kids from across Connecticut and I was able to perform some place new, not just at my school but getting out to the whole Connecticut community.”
Junior from Ridgefield

 “The best thing was working with new people; opposites might attract to make something great.”
Junior from Hartford

“I learned how much fun it is to work with a bunch of people, all bringing their unique experiences and insight.“
Junior from Ridgefield