Building community—one of our Quaker testimonies of the year—can come in many forms. Recognizing the deep connection between gratitude, wellness, and mental health—and the various struggles our students and adults face during this continued pandemic—the Theatre Department and Counseling Team joined together to offer spaces to reflect, give thanks, and learn. 

Inspired by the Upper School play, Every Brilliant Thing, the all-school Gratitude Project includes age-appropriate experiences realized in each division and designed to increase happiness and decrease stress. Students and adults in every division were invited to generate lists of brilliant things, as a communal practice of gratitude. In homerooms and advisories, students were asked to name things in their lives for which they are grateful, or small things in the world that are worth celebrating.

Theatre Department Chair Jake Miller notes, "Every Brilliant Thing is a beautifully-written, soulful celebration of life. It is about one person's list of everything wonderful in the world—everything worth living for—and how that list transforms them over time. It is a lovely, complicated, life-affirming piece of theatre that, at once, tackles what is most challenging while at the same time, lifting up the transformational power of gratitude and love."

Every Brilliant Thing runs from November 11-13 in the Loeb Performing Arts Center. Please note: this production is intended for mature audiences only.