Some My Experience Relevant to Schools
- Master Teaching Artist, Wolf Trap, Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, 2005-2006 & 2009, 2015-
- Director/Musical Director/Choreographer, Two Musical Productions in Beijing China 2018 & 2019
- Drama Teacher, Lucy School, Middletown, MD 2015-2019
- Adjudicator/Benchmarker, National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, July 2015
Recent Training Relevant to Schools
- Anti-Racist Educators Arts Learning Lab (A-REALL) 2021
- Maryland State Department of Education Fine Arts Office Certificates in Completion in (1) Learning through the Creative Process, and (2) Supporting LGBTQ+ Students & Families
- Watershed Stewards Academy, Anacostia Watershed Society, 2021
- Basic Terms and Phrases in Spanish, Mandarin and ASL
- Lincoln Center Education “Teaching Artist Leadership Development Lab,” 2017
- Critical Literacy and Bridges Conference, Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis, Summers of 2010 & 2011
- University of North Carolina, Greensboro: Master of Fine Arts, Directing/Theatre for Youth, May 2009
Resume Available Upon Request
Our imagination increases joy, inspires learning and builds connections!
I am trained in critical literacy and arts integration, and have studied the intersection of emotions, drama, play and learning.
I collaborate with all ages, from babies to teens, and work with educators and the full learning community to devise relevant, meaningful dramatic encounters for students, families, educators and communities. Projects range from exploring basic acting techniques to devising a process drama that is embedded in core academic curricular goals to performing a theatrical work.
Programs can be one session or or multi-session experiences, in-person or virtual. I have even worked with educators by phone to identify the best DIY drama strategies for their classroom!
Endless possibilities for every age group.
Early Childhood
With young learners I elevate imaginary play by introducing the actor’s tools and reflecting on transformation, collaboration and imagination skills. Drama with this age group is often a vehicle to engage social-emotional capacities, which shape the way we each feel about ourselves, feel about others and the way we learn. I approach this work using creative drama and process drama strategies, and have developed a warm-up strategy that that invites children to share their experience of emotions. Our personal connections to emotions help us develop our characters and in understanding their responses to a situation.
Middle and High
Working with the middle years and beyond, I facilitate youth in telling the stories and scripts they want to write, tell and perform. I have led playwriting programs, devised collaborative works, and directed full-stage productions in the United States and China. In Lancaster, PA, I led a program that gave 80+ teens the opportunity to be individually mentored by professionals (actor, technician, administrator) so that the youth could produce a mainstage production of Mary Poppins at the local regional theatre, Fulton Theatre.
Elementary and Middle
Participants may investigate different fairy tales or folkstories, apply their personal socio-culture context and become storytellers of their own lives, or we might devise an arts integrated lesson to learn core STEM academic content, explore civic engagement, and develop critical literacy and communication skills. Whatever we do, the classroom community practices artistic collaboration and engages in collective creative problem-solving. Dramatic encounters with this age group allows the notion that each of us has the individual capacity to be a changemaker and the story we tell can change the shape and face of the individual, community, nation and world!
Professional Development for Educators
I am confident that every educator is able to capitalize on their imaginary play capacities in order to increase the joy and the learning in their classroom. I am available to lead a workshop for your school’s teaching staff, work individually within one or more classroom, and even speak by phone or virtually to brainstorm experiences.
In an imagine and play rehearsal with co-collaborators of “Haja: the Bird Who Was Afraid to Fly” 
