Community Arts Partner

Experience

Previous School Partnerships

Stevens Elementary, Seattle - drama residency with SEL (Social Emotional Learning) class, grades 3-5; biweekly over  9 weeks, Spring 2019.   Exploring relationship skills, and fostering creative self-expression, self-confidence and building community through theater. Arbor Heights Elementary, West Seattle - two - 90 minute workshops, with 4th grade class, using theater and movement activities to explore layers of the rain forest, animals that live in rain forest and human impact on rain forest.   Spring, 2017. Arbor Heights Elementary, West Seattle - two - 90 minute workshops, with 4th grade class, on Washington state history, using drama techniques to reenact the negotiation of the Stevens treaties. Winter, 2017 Laurelhurst Elementary, 2 hour evening workshop for teachers, staff and parents on fostering inclusion for kids with special needs; I co-taught this with my advanced neuro-diverse teen troupe, Spring, 2016 Other, outside K-12 public schools: Bellevue Youth Theater - Saturday TOP drama programs for neuro-diverse youth, ages 8-14 and 15+, October - June, 2016-2020 (suspended due to COVID). University Heights Center - weekly after-school TOP drama programs for neuro-diverse youth, ages 8-14 and 15+, September - June, 2011-2020 (suspended due to COVID).  Also held several two week, half-day summer camps. Sandpoint Family Housing - weekly after-school TOP drama programs for kids and tweens in subsidized housing, ages 8-14 (roughly), typically 12-20 sessions per year, 2014-2020 (suspended due to COVID). Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society - two week, full day intensive summer production camps, for ages 10-18,  produced HMS Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance, 2017 & 2018. Sampling of residences and workshops: UW Special Education - 2 hour workshop for special ed teachers, 2021 World Affairs Council, International Visitor Leadership Program, Role of Independent Theater in Promoting Social Change, 90 minute workshop (with advanced TOP youth troupe) for theater artists from Egypt, 2019. Washington State Fathers Network - training for fathers of special needs youth, 2018 North American Drama Therapy Association conferences, Seattle (with advanced TOP youth troupe) & Boston, 2016 & 2017. Sammamish Arts Council - 3 hour drama workshop for kids  with specials needs, ages 8+, annually 2014, 2015, 2016 Seattle Pacific University - 2 hour workshop, with advanced TOP youth troupe, for teachers at American Alliance for Theater in Education conference, on how to make arts education more inclusive of students with disabilities, 2014. Antioch University - workshop for drama therapy students, 2014 California State University -Northridge - 20 hours master class for teachers, therapists and paraeducators, 2013. 5th Avenue Theater - co-taught workshop for high school students studying Oliver!, on process of adaption from a novel to a musical, 2013. Northwest School - workshop for applied theater class, high school, 2012 and more!

WA State TAT Lab Graduate

Yes

Other Trainings or Certifications

TAT Alumni lab - Creative Approaches to Classroom Behavior & Arts Integration, 2019 (Plus TAT Lab 2016-17). North American Drama Therapy Association Conferences, 2016 & 2017 ; member of NADTA Arts Impact summer session, 2017 Playback Theater, Mandala Center for Change, 2016 Theater of the Oppressed, 6 day training, Mandala Center for Change, 2010 MFA, Music Theater writing, NYU, 1997

Sample Lesson Description: Student / Classroom Residencies

Theater of Possibility  - 3 hour workshop (ideally two 90 minute sessions, but could be four 50 minute classes).  This is an introductory workshop in applied theater, offering beginning acting, improvisation,  collaboration and play-creation, with the goals of strengthening relationship skills, improving self-regulation, encouraging creative self-expression and building community and self-esteem.  In the first 90 minutes, I introduce some fun, skill-building games and concepts.  In the second 90 minutes, we do a structured improvisation, building on collaboration techniques taught in the first half.   Depending on the age and goals of the classroom, we may use techniques from Augusto Boal’s Rainbow of Desire and/or Forum Theater to demonstrate techniques for exploring perspectives and solving conflicts. The Big Idea: #1) Successful collaboration depends on applying the concept of “Yes, and…” (adding to another person’s ideas). #2) You have the power to change a bad situation by changing your own actions. Learning objectives:

1. Students will understand and apply the concept of “yes, and...” by responding positively to the ideas of the classmates and contributing ideas of their own that augment the initial concept;
2. Students will practice teamwork by assessing “what’s needed” in a given situation and responding accordingly;
3. Students will take creative risk by participating in improvisation where they must think on their feet (rather than work from a script);
4. When presented with a dramatic conflict, students will take the perspective of both characters, and be able to articulate what each character is feeling (Rainbow of Desire);
5. When presented with a dramatic conflict, students will contribute ideas for what the chracter could do differently to try and solve the conflict (Forum Theater).

Theater of Possibility  - 20 hour guest artist residency (ideally 12 - 90 minute week or biweekly sessions, plus 2 hour performance block, but it can be done in bi-weekly 50-minute classes, especially for younger students.)  This is a full curriculum, designed to take students to performance of short ensemble- created scenes for an audience of peers.   In the first half of the program, we focus on theater games that teach foundational acting and improvisational techniques in a fun and playful matter.  Games are structured to also highlight relationship skills, such as non-verbal communication, interpreting emotions, perspective taking, leading and following, mistakes and repair, co-creation and teamwork.  Students will practice the important concept of “yes, and...,” in which they accept and build on the contributions of their peers. In the latter half of the curriculum, we use these collaboration skills to create original short scenes in small groups on topics of the students’ choosing.  The program culminates in an audience-interactive showcase presentation.  (Another classroom or parents may be invited).  At the showcase, students will demonstrate a few of their favorite games and present their final scenes.  Depending on the proclivity of the students, the scenes may be left unresolved, at which point we invite participants (actors and audience alike) to step into the scene to try out different solutions to the conflict. This technique comes from Augusto Boal’s “forum theater,” which he called a “rehearsal for living.” In this way, the students become the experts, modeling what they have learned about relationship dynamics. Timeline for a typical 12-week program:

• Introduction & community building:  Overview of the philosophy of TOP, and some sample ice-breaker/community building exercises.
• Partner activities (leading & following)
• Physical Theater (acting from the “outside in”; frozen statues & thoughts bubbles)
• Physical Theater #2; Intro to Image Theater (individual and group sculpting of images)
• Emotions, objectives & subtext (acting from the “inside out”)
• Emotions #2; (perspective taking – “The Rainbow of Desire”)
• Collaboration (the concept of “yes and…”) & Character Creation
• Story Creation (e.g. seven sentence stories or hero’s journey templates)
• Share stories; form scene groups; exercises in Group Mind
• Intro to Forum Theater; Shape & Rehearse Scenes
• Shape & Rehearse Scenes
• Rehearse & Perform (ideally a 3-4 hour block with 90 minutes rehearsal; meal break, then performance and closing.

Learning Objectives: same as for 3-hour workshop, but with more depth and sub-objectives. Arts Integration - 3 hour workshop  - WA state history for 4th graders Title: History, live on stage! Description: In two 90 minute workshops, we will use theater techniques to bring to life a watershed event in Washington state history: the signing of the first Stevens treaty (by which the Native Americans ceded their land to the US government and agreed to relocate to reservations, in return for monetary payments and the retention of their fishing and hunting rights).  Students will create tableaus and characters with differing backgrounds and perspectives, including representatives of Native American tribes both friendly and hostile to the settlers, white and non-white settlers, and mixed-race fur trappers.   The workshop will culminate with a reenactment of the first treaty council at Medicine Creek, with key historical characters, including Governor Isaac Stevens, Doc Maynard and his wife Catherine (friends to the Native Americans), Chief Sealth (pro-treaty), Chief Leschi (anti-treaty), Arthur & Mary Denny (white settlers), George Washington Bush (black settler) and other key players.  After hearing arguments pro and con, those representing the tribes will decide whether or not to accept the treaty proposal. Big Idea: Theater allows us to bring history to life from multiple perspectives. Arts Integration - 3 hour workshop  -  Amazon Rainforest Title: The Rainforest - a multi-storied complex! Description: In two 90 minute workshops, we will use theater techniques to bring to life the Amazon Rainforest, focusing on the four distinct layers: Forest Floor, Understory, Canopy and Emergent.  On Day 1, students will explore in their bodies how different creatures within the rainforest move, rest, hunt and play, and why each might be adapted to a certain layer. Each student will receive a photo card with fun facts about a rain forest animal, and must determine to which layer their animal belongs.  Then, collaborating in small groups, each group will create a living tableau of a rainforest layer.  On the day between workshops, students will do further research on their assigned animal. On this day, they might also make a mural of the four layers, placing animals in their appropriate habitat.  On Day 2, we will look at the interdependence of rain forest life and human impact on the rain forest.  As their animals, students will act out when happens when the trees are cut down.  Then we will create an improvised in which animals representing the different layers take turns trying to convince a  logger not to cut down a tree that they depend upon for their survival.   In our explorations, we will recognize that humans are also an animal of the rainforest, and that their presence has impact on it. Big Idea: Through theater, we can inhabit the creatures that live in the rainforest and better understand in our bodies, hearts and minds, the dynamics of this complex and interdependent system.

Sample Workshop Description: Teacher Professional Development

3 hour workshop (half day or two 90 minute sessions):  This hands-on workshop will introduce theory and practice of TOP. It is intended for teachers, paraeducators, therapists, counselors and other staff interested in learning how drama and play therapy techniques may be applied to working with students with autism spectrum and other ability differences (such as Down syndrome or cerebral palsy), as well as gen ed populations where the goal is to foster relationship skills and build community. Playful and non-didactic, TOP incorporates concepts from Relationship Development Intervention, a play-based autism therapy. TOP is indebted to RDI for the premise that successful relationships require dynamic (rather than static) social skills, namely, the ability to respond to shifting circumstances. Relationship building depends on improvisation, rather than following a social script. The workshop will cover highlights of TOP, demonstrating how activities are tailored to foster relationship skills, such as non-verbal communication, recognizing social nuances, perspective taking, flexibility, collaboration and leadership.  I’ll model ways to scaffold learning and build cohesion in an inclusion setting, where abilities differ widely, and touch on particular challenges, such as working with students who are nonverbal. I’ll discuss applications for both group and one-on-one settings, and offer methods for developing ensemble-created scenes.  The first half will focus on introductory games, and the second will demonstrate a method for using Forum Theater to teach strategies for joining into play or conversation. Learning Objectives: Participants will understand how TOP takes the premises of developmental therapies and applies them in a group setting through fun theater activities.  They will be able to articulate the difference between static skills (e.g. saying please and thank you) and the dynamic skills required for success on the playground and in the classroom. They will understand how theater activities that foster imagination, flexibility, empathy, emotional awareness, perspective taking, self-regulation, joining in play, collaboration and problem solving directly address the core deficits of autism (and other developmental/behavioral challenges.) Participants will learn specific and general adaptations of theater activities to autism spectrum and other special needs populations. They will learn the importance of scaffolding exercises to build confidence and success when working with special needs populations, and will experience specific examples of scaffolding. They will be made aware of particular challenges one encounters when working with special needs populations, such as inflexibility, literal-mindedness, and sensory sensitivities, and how activities may be modified to address student needs. Participants will gain ideas for building cohesion in a differentiated classroom, and for meaningfully including students who are nonverbal or have physical or cognitive limitations and/or behavioral challenges. They will come away understanding the value of a strength-based approach that honors each person’s unique gifts. Participants will learn a particular application of Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed (TO) to working with students with autism spectrum and other learning differences. 20-hour master class:   This master class, which can be done as a Fri-Sun weekend intensive or spread out over time (e.g. 90 minute sessions over 12 weeks, plus 2 hour performance block), takes educators through a full TOP curriculum.  It starts with introductory, skill-building activities, then moves into collaboration and scene creation, and culminates in an interactive performance incorporating tools from Theater of the Oppressed, such as Forum Theater and Rainbow of Desire.  It is designed for educators who want to replicate or integrate TOP in their classrooms.  It is especially suited to special ed teachers, homeroom teachers, behavioral health and social skills specialists, and drama teachers, whether or not working with special needs populations, who are interested in teaching applied theater and/or creating original material with their students.