Senior Craig Brauner is know throughout the Trinity community for his devotion to Trinity’s performing arts, his dedication to his school, and his leadership qualities. This past summer through February, Brauner took these qualities further and did something considerable for the community of Louisville and the state of Kentucky as well.

This was the Lincoln Project, which premiered on Feb. 12 at Actors Theatre of Louisville on President Lincoln’s 200

th birthday.

It all started last summer with an announcement by Actors Theatre that they wished to produce a play to celebrate the life of Lincoln.

They were looking for teenagers in Kentucky who would be willing to write and perform the play.

The plan was to have 30 teenagers from 10 different parts of Kentucky, including Louisville, Bowling Green and Prestonburg.

Each individual’s part was to write a play on one specific aspect of Lincoln’s life. In Louisville’s case, they were to focus on Lincoln’s boyhood years.

After auditioning over the summer, Brauner was awarded a spot in the production. He would be one of the 10 individuals to represent Louisville. The collaboration of the Louisville team began this past Christmas break.

"All through this past Christmas break, me and nine of my production members were intensely busy doing different activities for the production. Each day we would find ourselves writing scenes and monologues, participating in various acting exercises, creating characters, writing songs, producing music and dance, and learning about Lincoln. In our case it was about his childhood years," Brauner said.

Brauner and his crew ended up finishing their part of the production in a week.

"We took everything we created and wrote it in a week. Our director, Jess Jung, took it all, then sorted it to create our play. Everyone played multiple characters," Brauner said. "Among other things, I played Thomas Lincoln, his father, during a slave scene showing Lincoln’s birth, and I performed a monologue I wrote about being a slave. We had numerous workshop performances to see what worked and what didn’t. It is crazy how much we created throughout the rehearsal week, to how much actually made it into the show."

The performance at Actor’s Theatre on Abraham’s 200

th birthday was greeted with a sold-out audience.

"The play was great and we successfully portrayed the life of young Abe. The audience enjoyed it and there was an after party and interviews," Brauner said.

Mary Nitzgan, an Assumption senior who participated in the project, had many good things to say about the process.

"I’ve never experienced anything like it," she said. "It was very cool working with kids across Louisville in a combined effort with other kids across Kentucky to put on a production about the life of Lincoln. I felt like we accomplished so much. It was well worth my time and effort."