KENNESAW, Ga. | Mar 2, 2026

For KSU students, the project provides hands-on professional training in devised theatre, youth performance and community-based creative practice. For young audience members, it offers a rare opportunity to engage with theatre that honors curiosity, vulnerability and imagination, without requiring them to sit still or observe from a distance.

This spring, the City of Kennesaw will host a new immersive theatre experience for young audiences at Smith-Gilbert Gardens, as Kennesaw State University students present The Beauty Project: Through the Looking Glass, the culminating performance in a curricular collaboration between KSU and the Gardens that spans three semesters.

Designed for children ages 10-14 and their families, The Beauty Project: Through the Looking Glass invites audiences to journey through the Gardens alongside performers, encountering scenes inspired by Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass that explore how ideas of beauty are shaped by nature, community and personal experience.

The production is co-led by KSU theatre professors Nicole B. Adkins and Emily Kitchens, in partnership with Smith-Gilbert Gardens Education and Exhibits Manager Vanita Keswani. It represents the final performance in an innovative curricular sequence that blends community engagement, youth-centered theatre and site-specific performance.

“This collaboration exemplifies what is possible when higher education, public spaces and the arts work together with intention,” said Chuck Meacham, Chair of the Geer College of the Arts Department of Theatre and Performance Studies. “Our students are gaining real-world experience creating meaningful work beyond the classroom, while young people in our community are invited into a theatrical experience that validates their voices, curiosity and lived experiences.”

Over the past three semesters, KSU students have worked directly with local fifth-grade students at the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics — beginning with listening and creative exploration, then developing original material. The result is a production created not only for young audiences, but with them, shaped by the questions and pressures children face during a pivotal stage of development. 

“In the end, we realized we were really seeking to answer not ‘what is beauty,’ but ‘what is beauty asking us to do?” Kitchens explained. “A lot of times, what we're talking about with beauty, especially in West, is appearance culture. But we wanted to be much more inclusive and nuanced and include a variety of readings as a part of our study – and that was part of what led us to Wonderland is there's a lot to get lost in about it!”

The KSU students then develop a culminating piece in collaboration across arts disciplines with students from the School of Art & Design assisting on costume and prop creation and students from the Department of Dance embodying the famed Jabberwocky. They learn and rehearse every week on-site, in the Gardens.

“Smith-Gilbert Gardens has always been a place where art, education and nature intersect,” said Keswani. “This project brings those elements together in a way that feels deeply relevant to families today, while encouraging young people to engage with both the natural world and their own sense of self in a new way.”

Earlier performances in the series -- Seedling and Opossum and the Season Stone -- introduced environmental themes such as ecosystems, seasonal cycles and interdependence. The Beauty Project: Through the Looking Glass intentionally reaches an older audience, addressing self-image, social comparison and belonging through movement, humor and immersive storytelling.

For KSU students, the project provides hands-on professional training in devised theatre, youth performance and community-based creative practice. For young audience members, it offers a rare opportunity to engage with theatre that honors curiosity, vulnerability and imagination, without requiring them to sit still or observe from a distance.

“This generation of young people is navigating extraordinary pressures,” said Adkins. “Theatre like this creates space for reflection, play and connection, reminding them that beauty is complex, evolving and rooted in far more than appearances.”

Performances will take place at Smith-Gilbert Gardens April 17-18 and 24-25. 
Tickets are available with admission to Smith-Gilbert Gardens and free to members.