The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater partners with several community organizations.
Trenton Youth Theater
Trenton Youth Theater is the newest addition to the Saturday Morning Arts program offered through Trenton Arts at Princeton (TAP). Saturday Morning Arts establishes a community where Trenton and Princeton students can gather regularly to create art together. Trenton students can participate in Trenton Youth Theater in addition to the Trenton Youth groups offered for Orchestra, Singers, and Dancers.
TAP was founded by Lou Chen ’19, who serves as Program Manager and directs the Orchestra. Princeton alumnus Jamie Goodwin ’22 serves as Director of Trenton Youth Theater; Princeton theater faculty Jane Cox, Shariffa Ali, and Tess James as Faculty Fellows; and Trenton Central High School theater teacher Felicia Brown as Teacher Partner. Princeton theater students are encouraged to sign up as volunteers.
About the Program
Following Princeton University’s academic calendar, Trenton Youth Theater (TYT) will be broken into two semesters of instruction, each lasting about 10-12 weeks. In fall 2020, during which rehearsals will take place online, students will work on developing specific skills related to theater, such as directing, acting, and lighting design. In the spring, with their freshly-honed skills, the students will work with their Princeton student mentors to create their own works of theater. Inspired by Princeton’s holistic approach to theater, TYT students will be exposed to all aspects of theater-making.
TYT is open to students in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) theater program at Trenton Central High School. Trenton’s CTE programs are meant to prepare students without any prior experience in specialized fields, such as theater, for intensive study in higher education and/or as professionals. In ninth grade, students have the opportunity to enroll in a CTE program of their choosing, and receive formal instruction for the rest of their three years at TCHS through a series of workshops and structured learning experiences.
Princeton students interested in volunteering for TYT should email Director Faith Iloka at filoka@princeton.edu. If you are interested in applying for the TYT Student Leader/Trenton Arts Fellow position, please email Trenton Arts at Princeton Program Manager Lou Chen at lychen@princeton.edu.
Learn more about Trenton Youth Theater
Watch a Venture Forward Video about Lou Chen ’19 and TAP
Princeton Production Workforce Training
Princeton Production Workforce Training is a summer program aimed at recent local high school graduates. The goal of this training program is to provide an early career cohort of workers from underrepresented communities with a highly in-demand and transferable skill set that does not require a college degree. In turn, these workers will be qualified to fill casual labor opportunities at the Lewis Center for the Arts in the Program in Theater & Music Theater, the Program in Dance, and Princeton University’s Department of Music, as well as McCarter Theatre Center, Passage Theatre, and a variety of local professional presenting organizations, setting them on a dynamic career path.
The program will provide hands-on training to four fellows over a period of four weeks, equipping them with entry level production skills in theatrical lighting and audio, as well as safety and workforce readiness training. The program aims to support the Lewis Center’s action-based commitment to diversity and inclusion by removing barriers and providing an opportunity for students from underserved local communities to train for highly in-demand positions as Theater Production Professionals. There will be no fees required for this program and the fellows will be paid minimum wage per hour, as well as provided a transportation stipend to cover their commuting cost to and from training at the Lewis Center for the Arts.
Learn more about Princeton Production Workforce Training
Felon: An American Washi Tale
Alone in solitary confinement, a teenager called out to the men in the hole with him: “Somebody, send me a book!” Moments later, Dudley Randall’s The Black Poets slid under his cell door. Those pages were the start of the teen’s transformation into a poet, lawyer, and promoter of the rights of prisoners. MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and Freedom Reads founder Reginald Dwayne Betts explores the experience and consequences of his incarceration in a compelling solo theater show based on his poetry collection, Felon.
The Lewis Center for the Arts first participated in and provided support for development workshops of Felon: An American Washi Tale in the summer of 2021. Presented by the LCA and co-sponsored by numerous campus departments, Reginald Dwayne Betts next presented his solo show during a public residency and three performances at the Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center in early March 2023.
Learn more about Felon: An American Washi Tale at Princeton
Watch the video feature: A Book Launches a Journey in Felon: An American Washi Tale
Classix
Classix is a series created by Awoye Timpo to expand the classical canon through an exploration of dramatic works by Black writers. They define these classic works as plays by authors of African descent from around the world that speak profoundly to the times in which they were written and resonate deeply with our own. Classix engages artists, historians, students, professors, producers and audiences to launch these plays into the public imagination and spark productions worldwide. The Classix team includes Brittany Bradford, A.J. Muhammad, Dominique Rider, Arminda Thomas, and Awoye Timpo.
Princeton University’s Program in Theater will be partnering with Classix in the coming years to support the expansion of the classical canon to include more plays by writers of African descent. The Program in Theater will participate in this work through various interactions between the professional artists of Classix and theater students. These collaborations will include participation in play readings and play development processes, class visits, and larger inter-departmental discussions. The participation of the Program in Theater is supported by Princeton University’s Humanities Council.
Mission
Classix began in 2017 as a series of staged readings in collaboration with the Martin E. Segal Center. The series featured 35 actors, 4 directors and 4 dramaturgs in a 2-day festival. The plays explored were Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childresss, What the Wine Sellers Buy by Ron Milner, The Forbidden City by Bill Gunn and The Brothers by Kathleen Collins. In 2019, Classix began a partnership with Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) to produce an ongoing series of readings, productions and symposia. The first play in this series, Alice Childress’ Wedding Band, was produced in February 2020.
Classix engages the larger narrative of these plays through conversations with historians and theatre makers on its podcast series, social media platforms, and in live events; educational outreach; new writings and analysis; and an archive of information on its website.
Public Works at the Public Theater
The Program in Theater offers an annual funded summer internship with the Public Theater’s Public Works program.
Public Works, a major program of the Public Theater, aims to restore and build community by connecting people through theater—both performing it and experiencing it—reminding us that we’re all in this together. Working with partner organizations in all 5 boroughs of New York City, Public Works invites community members to take classes, attend performances and join in the creation of ambitious works of participatory theater. Learn more about the Public Theater
The Sol Project
Launched in 2016, The Sol Project is a national theater initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. Guided by the values of joy, rigor and generosity, The Sol Project works in partnership with leading theaters around the country to amplify Latinx voices and build artistic homes for artists of color. Through the writers we champion, The Sol Project aspires to create a bold, powerful, and kaleidoscopic body of work for the new American theater. Learn more about The Sol Project
Associate Professor of Theater Brian Herrera is the Resident Scholar for The Sol Project, and Lecturer in Theater Elena Araoz serves on the Advisory Circle.
Innovations in Socially Distant Performance
Innovations in Socially Distant Performance, a project founded and led by senior lecturer Elena Araoz, studies the aesthetics, philosophies, tools, and artists who are transforming the fields of virtual live performance and socially distant productions. This continually updated website is a place to create community, share information, inspire invention, and document the expanding art form, with an emphasis on sharing the tools and techniques of a reimagined trade.
Learn more about Innovations in Socially Distant Performance
Theatrical Intimacy Education
Founded in 2017, Theatrical Intimacy Education is a consulting group specializing in researching, developing, and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy. Theatrical Intimacy Education empowers artists with the tools to ethically, efficiently, and effectively stage intimacy, nudity, and sexual violence. The Program in Theater hosts several workshops each year with Theatrical Intimacy Education. Learn more about Theatrical Intimacy Education
Maestra
Maestra Music, Inc. was founded by composer/lyricist and music director Georgia Stitt to give support, visibility, and community to the women who make the music in the musical theater industry. Their membership is made up of female-identifying, non-binary, and gender non-conforming composers, music directors, orchestrators, arrangers, copyists, rehearsal pianists and other musicians who are an underrepresented minority in musical theater. The organization’s initiatives include monthly educational seminars, mentorship programs, technical skills workshops, networking events, and online resources and partnerships that aim to promote equality of opportunity and to address the many historical disadvantages and practices that have limited women composers and musicians in the musical theater. Learn more about Maestra
After offering the first summer internship in 2020, the Programs in Theater and Music Theater plan to have future internship opportunities for students with Maestra.