In May of 2019 we presented a Developmental Reading of The Willmar Project at Playwrights Horizons in New York City.

This was a free community event with food & drinks and a performance by local musician, Miriam Elhajli. Following the reading we invited those in attendance to participate in a talkback discussion to share their feedback and experience with the material. One of our discoveries as we developed this work with artists & audiences outside of the participant community, is how often in the sharing of these stories that are individual and specific, people responded that they personally related to or had experienced the same things being talked about on stage. Engaging a multi-cultural and inter-generational audience in the early stages of development helped us go deeper into the work and identify where we wanted to go.