The Alliance Theatre Unveils Plans for 23rd Annual Palefsky Collision Project

The Alliance Theatre has revealed plans for the 23rd annual Palefsky Collision Project. Teens from across the metro Atlanta area will converge on the Alliance Theatre from July 8-27, 2024, to create an original piece of theater. Public performances of the original piece will take place Friday, July 26, and Saturday, July 27, 2024, in the Rich Auditorium in the Woodruff Arts Center – the final performance in this space before renovations for the new Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families begin.    

This year, under the leadership of Sam Provenzano, Director, in collaboration with Maya Lawrence, Playwright and the Alliance’s Resident Artist & Allyship Program Director, and Rodney Lamar Williams, Director of Artistic Mentorship, teens will “collide” with Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country. This marks the first time in 15 years of Collision that the project is under new creative leadership - Alliance Theatre Distinguished Artist in Residence Pearl Cleage and Director Patrick McColery are excited to pass the torch to new creative leaders after years of celebrated stewardship.  

“I am beyond thrilled to join the Palefsky Collision Project legacy. Working and creating with teens is some of my favorite type of work. They are smart, curious, and so creative,” said Samantha Provenzano, who also serves as Alliance Theatre Resident Artist & Teen Programs Manager. “Maya and I have been teaching and creating together for the past 6 years, and this project feels like what we have been building towards this entire time. I can't wait to hear what [the ensemble has] to say as they collide with Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb. This piece seems like the perfect seed for creation as we head into an election season. Many of them will be first time voters and creating theater in this way gives teens space to dig into who they are as citizens, activists, and artists.” 

 The diverse group of twenty high school and rising post-secondary students will engage in an intensive series of workshops devised to ignite their creativity over the course of the first two weeks. The third and final week of the program includes a rigorous rehearsal process that culminates with free public performances. The final production will be inspired by the source text but perceived through the students’ utterly unique and contemporary prism.
 
“Each year, I witnessed the magic that happens when 20 teens team up to imagine and inspire our audiences to bear witness to the world they’ve inherited in their own words, to believe bigger for a better future, and create alliances in making it so. Now I am afforded the privilege to artfully weave the wishes and dreams of today’s teens from aspirational to attainable,” said Maya Lawrence, Playwright, and Alliance Theatre Resident Artist & Allyship Program Director. “This summer, we will fashion a new future beyond what any one of us could fathom. Art expands minds, heals hearts, and saves lives— it’s saved mine countless times.”

 ABOUT THE PALEFSKY COLLISION PROJECT

Through improvisational exercises, oral history, choreography, the individual performing talents they possess, and their writing, the teenagers create a new piece inspired by the thought-provoking text but perceived through their own unique and contemporary prism. Over the three-week intensive, the students will be able to work with guest artists as they shape their new performance piece. The Palefsky Collision Project affords teens a unique theatrical experience and gives them ownership of a performance at the Alliance. It also gives the students validity – confidence in their talents, strength for the future, and power in their decisions. The wholly original piece that the participants will write, and shape together is guaranteed to inspire audiences at the two free performances these young artists will offer on July 26 & 27 in the Rich Auditorium.
 
The Alliance hosts open interviews yearly, calling for students “who have something to say and the desire to say it.” The ensemble of the Palefsky Collision Project is made up of actors, singers, dancers, writers, directors, and technical theater artists. Any high school student, regardless of experience, is invited to interview to participate in this project. 
 
This experience is free to all participants through generous support from Victoria and Howard Palefsky, with additional support generously provided by Delta, Georgia-Pacific, and the Molly Blank Fund.  Additionally, initial investment and major continued support for the Spelman Leadership Fellows initiative provided by the Rich’s Foundation and sponsored in part by Norfolk Southern, Accenture, and Alston & Bird.
 
Alliance Theatre PALEFSKY COLLISION PROJECT PUBLIC PERFORMANCES 
-WHEN:  
Friday, July 26, 7:00 p.m. 
Saturday, July 27, 2:30 p.m. 

-WHERE:  
Rich Auditorium at the Woodruff Arts Center
1280 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30309 
RSVP for free tickets: www.alliancetheatre.org/collisionproject 
 

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