West Hartford residents are invited to apply for Hartford Stage’s Sixth Annual Project: Transform, which focuses on safe schools and acceptance.

James Lecesne will be a guest artist working with ‘Project: Transform.’ Submitted photo

Submitted by Hartford Stage

Hartford Stage is seeking Connecticut high school students with a talent for writing, acting, dancing, music, poetry or art to create and perform an original theatre piece through Project: Transform. The theme of this year’s program focuses on safe schools and acceptance.

Now in its sixth year, Project: Transform, a partnership between Hartford Stage and the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), is a free program providing students with the opportunity to speak about the change they would like to see in their neighborhoods, community, and world. Twelve to 15 students from local urban and suburban school districts will be selected to participate in Project: Transform – working directly with guest artist James Lecesne and Hartford Stage teaching artist Natalie Pertz to create and perform a devised piece of theatre exploring the idea of transformation.

Lecesne is a co-founder of The Trevor Project, the only national crisis intervention and suicide prevention lifeline for LGBT and questioning youth.  He wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor, which inspired the founding of the organization. Lecesne created The Road Home: Stories of Children of War, which was presented at the Asia Society in New York City and the International Peace Initiative at The Hague, and founded the After the Storm Foundation, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to offering assistance to New Orleans youth in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He also served as executive producer of the documentary film After the Storm. For television, Lecesne adapted Armistead Maupin’sFurther Tales of the City and served as a writer on Will & Grace. His acting credits include his one-man show Word of Mouth; The Best Man on Broadway; The Boys in the Band; Cloud 9; andIrma Vep and I Am My Own Wife at Hartford Stage. He is the author of three young adult novels and edited The Letter Q. Lecesne is currently story consultant for the British sitcom Vicious, starring Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, and he teaches story and structure at the New York Film Academy.

Interested Connecticut high school students must apply to participate in Project: Transform by Monday, March 2. Workshops and rehearsals will be from mid-March through May at Hartford Stage Rehearsal Studios at 942 Main Street in Hartford. The completed theatrical work is scheduled to be performed on Saturday, May 9.

To apply online, visit http://www.hartfordstage.org/project-transform/. For additional information about Project: Transform, contact Erin Frederick, Education Enrollment and Marketing Coordinator at 860-520-7244/ [email protected] or Natalie Pertz, Hartford Stage teaching artist, at 860-520-7179/npertz@hartfordstage.org.