2005 POINT SCHOLARS

Brett John Janecek

Northwestern University

Brett was born and raised in Montana in a conservative Catholic family. He graduated from high school as valedictorian and student body president. After high school he attended Notre Dame where he came out in his freshman year. When faced with religious resistance, Brett sought to change campus policies and attitudes towards LGBTQ students through campus activism and a new peer education group. He also spent two summers working with people with disabilities in Seattle and Mexico.

Brett left Notre Dame to attend Northwestern where he studied with Directors Oskar Eustis and Michael Grief and is currently working with a Chicago-based theatre company in the creation of theatre and film that addresses HIV/AIDS sex education. Brett has been awarded several research grants and received invitations to speak at conferences for his research on American reception of Queer Cuban-American dramatists. He is also in the process of adapting an 18th century novel by Mary Wollstonecraft and devising a play by Nilo Cruz.

He plans to attend graduate school and earn his PhD in theatre. As a theatre practitioner and scholar, Brett is dedicated to opening others imaginations and examining the ways in which we view our world.