Performance Lab
Exploring Social Relations & Human Conflict through Performance
The Performance Lab works with theatre artists and organizations across the country to produce and support cultural events and bridge-building activities that explore human conflict and social relations through the lens of performance—both on the stage and in life. Increasingly recognized as a powerful engine of development, performance is at the heart of the All Stars Project (ASP), where people of all ages and from all walks of life are supported to perform and experience new ideas, people and cultures as they learn and grow together.
The Performance Lab was founded and is led by Gabrielle Kurlander, ASP Founding CEO (1989-2023) and member of its Board of Directors. Ms. Kurlander has a 35-year career in political, multicultural and avant-garde theatre as an actor, award-winning director and producer.
Initiatives of Performance Lab include:
To learn more about this, click here.
Transformative Community Theatre
The Performance Lab’s first production wasb The 1619 Project, One-Act Festival, which was co-sponsored by ASP and Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation at the Bishop Arts Theatre Center. The festival consisted of seven original plays inspired by The 1619 Project and featured a Talk Back led by festival dramaturg and Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammed, Ph.D., with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who conceived The 1619 Project.
Ms. Kurlander also directed a play reading of BALDWIN/KENNEDY, a new play by Jared Glenn and Jacqueline Salit, at the Castillo Theatre in New York City. Additionally, she helmed award-winning playwright Paula Vogel’s Indecent at the Emerson Theater Collaborative in Sedona, AZ, and directed a workshop production of This time by Brian Dang at the Undermain Theatre in Dallas.
Click here for a brochure on the Performance Lab.
If you would like to learn more about Performance Lab or have any questions, please contact Dan Kelly at dkelly@allstars.org.
Performance can and must play a critical role in building the bridges necessary for moving our country toward a shared community and humanity. This is the role culture plays, and I am excited to be working on this new dynamic cultural platform at the All Stars Project
Gabrielle Kurlander
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Chioma Igwebuike, ASP Alum, Associate- Investment Banking Division Compliance, Goldman Sachs; Board member, ASP of New Jersey
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Dwayne Dixon, ASP Alum, Program Director, ASP of Chicago
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“All Stars has given me hope, opportunity, confidence and long-lasting relationships that I still carry with me today. My first DSY internship opened new doors for me professionally and has shaped my trajectory 15 years later. My aspiration through the work of the ALC (Alumni Leadership Council) is to bring the gift of development to as many young people as possible.”
Avriel Kelly, ASP Alum, AVP, Business Support Manager, Bank of America
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