Join us before the 8 PM performance of Paradise on Friday, April 14, 2017, to discuss the lasting effects of a successful teacher-student relationship with local educators and students who have benefited from their work.

Dr. Catherine Caldwell-Harris, Associate Professor, brings her cognitive science training to a range of interdisciplinary questions, including cross-cultural psychology, bilingualism, foreign language learning and immigration.  She has written extensively on how the emotional resonances elicited by language differ for bilinguals’ native and foreign language, beginning with her seminal study demonstrating that skin conductance amplitudes were larger when bilingual speakers listened to emotional phrases in their native language compared to a foreign language.  Her diverse investigations into the emotions associated with language include lying,  joking and evaluating trolley (and other) dilemmas. Dr. Caldwell-Harris’ cross-cultural work  Her study of Russian immigrants to US documented how young children “Englishify” the household, while older immigrants’ friendships maintain their native language. With computer-modeling colleagues, she is constructing a dynamic-systems model of the factors that influence the range of language-learning outcomes for immigrants to the U.S.

And her mentee: Zoe Chen is a senior at BU majoring in psychology and minoring in statistics. She does volunteer tutoring for children and adolescents and from interacting with them, she has developed a strong interest in developmental and cross-cultural psychology. She hopes to go to clinical programs after graduating, and continue work with the younger generation. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching crime shows, and traveling with friends and family.

Francie Latour coordinates diversity programs at the Broad Institute, a leading center for genomics and biomedical research in Cambridge that is affiliated with MIT, Harvard and Boston’s area teaching hospitals. Francie is primarily responsible for managing the Broad Summer Research Program, a competitive, NIH-funded program that matches college students from around the country with scientific mentors to conduct original research projects. The uniquely designed program also wraps students in a supportive environment that recognizes the institutional and cultural forces that have excluded people of color from STEM. In her work, Francie works one-on-one with students and helps design and facilitate workshops around growth mindset, cross-cultural mentoring and scientific communication.

Join us and a panel of female scientists before the 8 PM performance of Paradise on Saturday, April 15, 2017, to discuss the importance of engaging more young women in the STEM fields. Melissa Franklin, the first female physicist to receive tenure at Harvard; Ashli Polanco, Executive Director of Gique; and Sharlene Yang, Cambridge STEAM coordinator, will share personal experiences, strategies, and visions for the future of science.

Melissa Franklin is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University. She is an experimental particle physicist who studies proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider. She has worked on the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) since 1983 and was part of the team that discovered the top quark. She is a collaborator on the ATLAS experiment where she works in collaboration with over 3000 physicists. In 2012, ATLAS co-discovered the Higgs boson. She is presently studying the properties of the Higgs boson. Professor Franklin, born and raised in Canada, received her B.Sc. from the University of Toronto and her Doctorate from Stanford University. She worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois in Champagne/Urbana and was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard, before joining the Harvard Faculty in 1989.

Ashli Polanco enjoys combining her passion for dance with her interests in STEM. She attended Boston and Lowell Public schools before attending MIT where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry by 2012. At MIT, Ashli performed and competed with several hip-hop dance teams throughout Boston while interning at the Broad Institute’s Cancer Program performing research on melanoma. Upon graduation, she worked for 3 years as a Process Development Associate at the Broad Institute’s Technology Development Lab and is now pursuing her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell where her current research project involves the development of polymers and nanocomposite materials for industrial applications. In 2014, Ashli co-founded a non-profit organization named Gique (pronounced “geek”), which exists to inspire and educate youth in science, technology, engineering, art, & math (STEAM) through community educational programs. In 2015, Gique launched its first Science Can Dance! Program where students learned fundamental science topics through dance choreography. Since then, Ashli has led eight other successful Science Can Dance! Programs in Boston, Cambridge, and San Francisco; and the program was featured on PBS NOVA’s School of the Future Series.

Sharlene Yang is the new STEAM Coordinator for the City of Cambridge, a role that reports jointly to the School Department and the City, responsible for expanding and supporting a system of high quality STEAM learning opportunities. Sharlene has a varied background in STEM and STEAM education, which combines working with classroom and out of school time teachers to develop programs and curricula, and experience as a classroom Biology teacher at the High School Extension Program and CRLS. During her tenure at the Museum of Science, where she worked as Partnership Director and Professional Development Director, Sharlene brought the Engineering is Elementary curriculum to partners around the country, training staff, developing teacher guides and materials, and demonstrating effective engineering content and project-based instruction. More recently, she has organized large community-oriented STEAM events in collaboration with city, school and community-based programs and the EL STEAM Network. Sharlene holds a Masters of Teaching in Science Education from Tufts University, a Masters of Science in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelors degree in Biology and Psychology from Cornell University.

Founding Underground Railway Artistic Director Wes Sanders leads a post-show conversation about Paradise, and shares news about an upcoming book about the first 20 years of URT’s history as a national touring company.

Wes Sanders – actor, director, playwright, puppeteer – was founding Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater, and served in that position for 20 years. He helmed the creation of new works that engaged with themes of social justice, all of which toured nationally: Sanctuary – The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, Home Is Where, The Christopher Columbus Follies and InTOXICating – An EcoCabaret, to name a few. He also led URT’s collaborations with symphony orchestras, including multiple commissions from the Boston Symphony, most recently an original orchestral version of Tempest. Roles with other companies include Shakespeare and Beckett at The Court and other Chicago theaters (Macbeth, Petruchio, Mercutio, Clov, Hamm); Herb Blau’s Kraken Group; and Serebriakov in an adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at Vermont Stage. For ten years he was a professor of English at Oberlin College. Currently, he is writing a book about the first 20 years of Underground Railway Theater’s work.

Join the creative team behind Paradise for a post-show conversation about the delights and challenges of developing a world premiere play!

What have you risked for love?Join us after the 3pm show on Saturday, April 22, 2017, for an afternoon of stories moderated by writer and psychologist Robin Abrahams. Storytellers Lindsay Brownell, Norah Dooley, and Leeny Del Seamonds will share tales of love and risk – the subject under neurological investigation by the young protagonist in Paradise.

Lindsay Brownell is a freelance science writer based in Cambridge, and seems to be one of the only people in Boston who actually likes snowy winters.

Norah Dooley is a storyteller, educator, critically acclaimed children’s author and creator of StoriesLive®, a high school storytelling curriculum and story slam program. She is the co-founder of massmouth.org and the Greater Boston Story Slam series. As project director of StoriesLive® she created and implements a curriculum used to teach over 7,000 Greater Boston high school students to tell compelling first person narratives. As an adjunct faculty she teaches storytelling to undergraduates at Tufts and runs a Junior Seminar at Lesley University.  In January of 2014, she returned to lecture on storytelling and language acquisition in Tokyo, Japan as part of a multi-year grant funded by the Japanese government. www.norahdooley.com. Norah has an MEd in Creative Arts in Learning from Lesley University and a BFA in Painting from Tufts University/Museum School.  Described as an “… entrancing storyteller” by the Boston Globe Norah is sought after as a keynote speaker on literacy and storytelling. She’s been a featured storyteller in regional festivals; Cambridge River Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Albany River Festival, 3 Apples Storytelling Festival, MA and at the Clearwater Festival, NY. In 2013 she was invited to perform at the Exchange Place of the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. She has been a classroom teacher, a middle school performing arts teacher, workshop and training leader, currently teaches storytelling as an adjunct faculty at Lesley and Tufts University and teaches in several adult and community education settings.   She is booked through Young Audiences of Massachusetts and lives in Brookline, MA with her husband and a revolving subset of their 4 daughters.

Leeny Del Seamonds: With a face and voice that launched a thousand characters, Leeny Del Seamonds is an internationally acclaimed performer, coach, author, multi award-winning recording artist and professional Voice Actor. Winner of the National Storytelling Network ORACLE Circle of Excellence Award, Leeny’s animated and uplifting tales and tunes reflect her love of people and desire to embrace life to its fullest. From a prized television show, to a village in Gengcun, China; from the Comix Club in NYC, to the National Storytelling Festival, Leeny encourages listeners to rejoice in human and cultural diversity, inviting them to share in her Cuban-American sense of humor and joy of performing. With Latino passion, fire and wit, Leeny’s dynamic one-woman shows and renowned workshops headline festivals, concerts and events worldwide.