While at Princeton I majored in English with certificates in Theater and Gender & Sexuality Studies (GSS). I hoped to structure a program and an experience for myself in which I could learn, develop, and practice skills for directing and choreographing theater and performance art. My joint English and GSS thesis was a queer theory exploration of the literary Fairy tradition. For my Theater thesis I directed and co-choreographed a reimagining of the movie musical Singin’ in the Rain. I received immense support and mentorship from both the English and Lewis Center for the Arts faculties, and it was during this intense year of being either in the library or the rehearsal room when I ultimately grew the most as an artist, critical thinker, storyteller, writer, and collaborator.
After Princeton I moved to New York City where I have been directing, choreographing, and assisting on a range of projects. When I am working on a project—be it a Shakespeare play or a brand new production with the playwright sitting in the room—I continue to learn how to apply and adapt the close-reading skills I first mastered in one of the English department’s prerequisite surveys, English Literature from the 14th to the 18th Century. In my English classes I learned how to get inside a text, rigorously peel apart the layers, and contextualize my personal ideas within a larger conversation. In the rehearsal room we do just that, but then we throw ourselves into the text to build physically our interpretations of the world of the story and to explore, through word and gesture, the needs and stakes that drive the action.
While an undergraduate, I was eager to learn about the methodologies artists draw on for structuring creative processes, and keen to explore how writers apply theories and critical tools for investigating ideas and forming arguments. In the future, I hope to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Theater Directing to continue this ongoing investigation of process, but within the walls of an academic and creative home.
Adin Walker DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER: Pin* and the Blue Fairy (Dixon Place, Drama League Artist-in-Residence); Gruesome Playground Injuries (TheaterLab NYC); Rent and Singin' in the Rain (Princeton/McCarter, inaugural recipient of “Music Theater Award”); Laura Jacqmin’s Jacqmin Family in the Petrified Forest (Source Festival DC.) As choreographer, Adin has collaborated with directors Mia Walker, (Normativity with NYMF), Tracy Bersley (Red Noses with Princeton/McCarter), Alexandru Mihail (Zoyka's Apartment with Princeton/McCarter), Ethan Heard, and Whitney Mosery. ASSISTING: Taylor Mac’s Hir (dir. Shana Cooper) at Woolly Mammoth, Basil Kriemendahl’s Orange Julius (dir. Dustin Wills) at Rattlestick; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Shana Cooper) and Lady Windermere’s Fan (dir. Christopher Liam Moore) at CalShakes; Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike (dir. Joel Sass) at the Guthrie, and Yehuda Hyman’s The Mar Vista at 14th Street Y. Adin is the 2017 Directing Fellow with Chautauqua Theater Company. www.adinwalker.com