# Activating Artistry and Moving the Collective Soul
the Okinawan spirit of Ichariba Chodee: one encounter makes people siblings
Interested? Contact me.
# A Multifaceted Artist Committed to Empowering Communities Through the Arts.
I am a distinguished Theatre Teaching Artist with an established artistic practice that spans three decades playing a variety of roles: Performer | Director | Playwright | Designer | Puppet Builder | Arts Administrator | Arts Consultant | Arts Advocate | Audio Describer | Open Captioner | Spanish-English Interpreter | Accessibility Coordinator | Teaching Artist | Community Artist | Drama Teacher | Arts Integration Specialist | Grant Writer | Grant Panelist | National Theatre Arts Standards Benchmarker...
I am a Leader in the Creative Sector and a Small Business Owner. Read more about practice and current work. Let's collaborate.
# Greetings, curious minds, adventurous spirits, and creativity enthusiasts:
Imagine a world where storytelling, theater, puppetry, music, and dance come together to bridge connections, ignite learning, and cultivate fresh ideas. From its humble beginnings in April 2020, YARD DRAMAS was born out of my passion for nurturing creativity and exploration. In a time when the world was forced to shelter in place, I walked my childhood classic red Radio Flyer wagon into neighbors’ yards for art-learning and making experiences. Collaborative storytelling sessions, well-being practices, and the creativity process unfolded in the embrace of nature.
Today I devise unique in-person and virtual creative experiences with clients and community partners!
# Join me on my blog - The RidgWay!
It’s the end of a long day, or maybe you’ve reached the end of a successful fiscal quarter. Completing a project or closing a curtain brings a mix of emotions. You may feel inspired and proud of your accomplishments, but you may also feel exhausted from the effort you’ve put in. It’s at moments like these that we need to take a pause on our creative journey and reflect.
Reflection is a journey inward to revisit our experiences and gain valuable insights from them. It allows us to learn from our successes and the challenges we've faced, fostering growth on both personal and professional levels. It’s in this space of reflection that new ideas and inspiration often arise.
Throughout my three decades of professional reflection, I've encountered recurring themes, much like the formation of ridges in nature. Ridges emerge from repeated processes like plate tectonics and erosion, where magma (the molten rock trapped underground) rises to fill the gaps between shifting plates, cools, and solidifies, ultimately creating new crust and forming ridges. Over time, continued eruptions build these ridges even further. Similarly, in my professional career, I have felt shifts, allowing my most authentic artistic self, which has felt trapped like magma, by the traditional arts ecosystem to reveal itself. I hope that my reflection here can help carve out a ridge that shapes advocacy and inspires meaningful change that is just and equitable.
I warmly invite you to join me on The RidgWay (no "E"), where I share my reflections, insights, and musings. I encourage a departure from the conventional as we rise toward the future together.
Let’s embark on this journey of self-discovery and creativity together.
Visit my blog and explore the content that awaits.
# I call on you to value Teaching Artists!
As a Theatre Teaching Artist and a proud member of the Teaching Arts of the Mid-Atlantic (TAMA), I call on the arts and culture sector, the philanthropic community, policymakers, schools, libraries, retirement homes, detention centers, and all community members and entities to value Teaching Artists as paid professionals. Pay equity is a social justice issue. Please take a moment to read my statement to learn more, utilize the Teaching Artists Guilds’ TA Pay Calculator when compensating teaching artists, and consider donating to one of the many local, regional, and national organizations that are by and for Teaching Artists (like TAMA). Together we can create an equitable and vibrant arts ecosystem.