Please                         for a more detailed copy of my C.V. in .pdf format with a list of references. 

   

                                                                                                           

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Theatre (Theatre for Youth). School of Film, Dance, and Theatre, Arizona State University, 2014.

M.A. Educational Theatre, (K-12 Theatre Certification). Steinhardt School, New York University, 2005.

B.F.A. Drama (Acting). Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, 2000.

 

Additional Training

Theatre of the Oppressed Facilitator Training. Mandala Center for Change, 2010.

M.O.V.E. (movement • observation • vision • experimentation). ASU & Association of Theatre Movement Educators, January 2010.

Film & Screen Acting. Stonestreet Studios, 2000.

 

CLASSROOM TEACHING

Colleges/Universities

Arizona State University.

Instructor of Record:

Theatre History I. Fall 2014

Dramatic Analysis of Theatre and Film. Summer 2012.

Theatre for Social Change. Fall 2010, Fall 2011, & Spring 2012.

Acting Introduction. Fall 2011.

 

Graduate Teaching Associate:

Introduction to Storytelling. Fall 2012.

Acting 1. Spring, 2010.

Dramatic Analysis of Theatre and Film. Fall 2010 & Spring 2011.

(In addition to assisting lectures, I was the sole instructor for three recitation sections).

Introduction to Theatre (Online course). Fall 2009.

 

K-12 Teaching

Countryside Elementary, Sterling, VA.

Courses taught include: Elementary gifted and talented curriculum around the theme of structures, integrating drama through the presentation of Greek myth plays (myths as dramatic structure.)

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The Hill School, Middleburg, VA.

Courses taught include: Elementary and middle school creative drama courses focusing on introductory theatre performance and production skills such as acting, voice, improvisation, basic dramatic analysis, and technical theatre.

 

Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford, CT.

Courses taught include: Acting 1; Acting 2; Acting for Non-Majors; Shakespeare Text Analysis and Performance; Theatre of the Oppressed; Documentary Theatre; and Devising Theatre. I also taught extracurricular theatre classes for non-major students attending the partner magnet school.

 

Frank Sinatra High School of the Performing Arts, NYC.

Courses taught include: Beginning Acting; Advanced Acting; and Directing.

 

The Earth School, NYC.

I partnered with classroom teacher to integrate drama into a combined grade 1/2 curriculum. I used creative drama and Theatre of the Oppressed (Image and Forum Theatre) to enhance The Water Cycle curriculum and to explore feelings, emotions and community building.

 

K-12 Residencies

Moon Mountain Elementary School, Phoenix, AZ.

In-service professional development and drama integration training. Trained, advised, and collaborated with fifteen elementary educators who learned to integrate and/or infuse drama and theatre strategies into their  Language Arts and Social Studies curriculums.

 

Bustoz Elementary School, Tempe, AZ.

Drama residency with fourth and fifth grades. I created and implemented five-week residencies integrating drama into English Language Art classrooms. Creative drama exercises increased literacy skills and provided entry points into figurative language and vocabulary lessons.

 

William Alexander Middle School 51, NYC.

Drama and Language Arts residency with middle school students. I created and implemented six-week curriculums integrating theatre and drama into Social Studies and English Language Arts classrooms.

 

Pimlico School, London.

Drama and Language Arts residency with middle school students. In collaboration with NYU Summer Study Abroad colleagues, I coordinated and integrated dramatic activities into Grade 6 classrooms. We facilitated two-week drama sessions with advisors Nancy Swortzell and Cecily O’Neill to explore Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

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ARTS ADMINISTRATION

Drama Program Director, The Hill School, Middleburg, VA.

Co-Founder, Via Arts, LLC. Farmington, CT.

Theatre Representative, Connecticut Arts Standards Review Committee, Hartford, CT.

Arts Consultant, Stanley-Whitman House Museum, Farmington, CT.

Program Director, No Boundaries Youth Theatre, New Britain, CT.

Assistant to Child Drama Special Collections, Hayden Library, Tempe AZ.

Outreach & Grants Manager, Hartford Children’s Theatre, Hartford, CT.

Drama Program Director, South Queens Boys and Girls Club, Queens, NY.

Drama Program Director, Bristol Parks and Recreation Department, Bristol, CT.

 

APPLIED THEATRE & COMMUNITY-ENGAGED ARTS

Teaching Artistry

Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Vienna, VA.

Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC.

Long Warf Theatre, New Haven, CT.

No Boundaries Youth Theater, New Britain, CT.

Childsplay, Inc., Tempe, AZ.

Phoenix Theatre, Phoenix, AZ.

Oddfellows Playhouse, Middletown, CT.

Hartford Children’s Theatre, Hartford, CT.

Graffiti Youth Theatre, Cork, Ireland.

Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, CT.

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Facilitator and Director of Devised Performance

Vast, Mysterious, & Crazy Weird: A Time Project,  The Hill School.

Dreamland, The Hill School.

IDENTIFIED: 6 X 6th, The Hill School.

The Unforgiving Norms. HALS Academy.

To Be What’s Not Meant to See. Cesar Chavez High School.

Mental Theory. Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.

Be Yourself. Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science.

You Just Don’t Understand. Oddfellow’s Playhouse.

Who Are We? Where Are We From? Central Connecticut State University.

Just Because. Central Connecticut State University.

Levels of Beauty. Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School.

Voice and Vision, Project V.(oices) I.(dentity) P.(ower). Metropolitan  Playhouse Theatre.

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ADDITIONAL DIRECTING CREDITS

Musical Theatre

Crazy For You, (Gershwin, Gershwin, Ludwig), Hill School.

James and the Giant Peach, (adapted George), Hill School.

School of Rock, (Webber, Slater, Fellowes), Hill School.

The Sound of Music, (Rodgers, Hammerstein, Lindsay, Crouse), Hill School.

Esperanza Rising, (adapted Alvarez), HALS Academy/NBYT.

 

Drama

Bird Brain, (Vetere), Hill School.

St. George and the Dragon, (adapted Giannone-Hosig), Hill School.                        

In Search of The Magic Lake: An Inca Tale, (adapted Giannone-Hosig), Hill School.

Cinderella: The World’s Favorite Fairy Tale, (Swortzell), Hill School.

Mary Rowlandson, A Captivity Narrative, (adapted Wolf), Herstory Theatre.

Katy Leary and Mark Twain, (adapted Wolf), Herstory Theatre.

Not Found, (Westphal), Pandora Festival, Scottsdale Performing Arts.

Close Your Eyes, (Striff), New Works New Britain One-Act Festival, Trinity-on-Main Performing Arts Center.

The Doll’s House Project, (Ibsen, adapted Jennings), Greater Hartford Academy of Arts. 

Chavez Ravine, (Culture Clash), Oddfellows Playhouse.

To Kill a Mockingbird, (adapted Sergel), Hartford Children’s Theatre.

The Terezin Promise, (Raspanti), Hartford Children Theatre.

Dearborne Heights, (Medley). Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.

Wizard of Oz, (adapted Coulter Martens), Bristol Parks and Recreation.

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SELECTED ACTING CREDITS

Beck and Call, Rosa the nursemaid, Mark Twain House.

The Skriker, The Pontianak & The Hag, School of Film, Dance, and Theatre (ASU).

Julius Caesar. Calpurnia, Ivoryton Playhouse.

Vagina Monologues, Ensemble, Ivoryton Playhouse.

Hair, Jeanie, Warner Theatre.

Heidi, Ms. Rottenmeier, Hartford Children's Theatre.

Plays in the Park, Female lead, (Devised piece investigating homelessness). Hartbeat Ensemble.

Much Ado About Nothing, Ursula. Hartford Stage.

The Drunken Sisters, Atropos. Provincetown Playhouse.

Romeo and Juliet, Juliet, Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Circumnavigator 20/01, Female lead, (Devised TYA Tour exploring folktales and myths from seven continents), Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

 

SELECTED PRODUCTION EXPERIENCE

The Sound of Music; School of Rock; Crazy For You. Costume Design, Hill School.

In Search of The Magic Lake; James and the Giant Peach; Bird Brain. Set Design, Hill School.

Lord of the Flies. Costumes Design, Hartford Children’s Theatre.

Twelfth Night. Props, Artfarm.

Cinderella: The World’s Favorite Fairy Tale. Costume and Set Design. South Queens Boys & Girls Club.

Atypical Boy. Movement Director, Prism Theatre (ASU).

A Christmas Carol. Youth Director/Child Wrangler, Hartford Stage.

33 Variations. Production Assistant, Tectonic Theatre Project (Moises Kaufman)

Koozå. Dresser, Cirque du Soleil (Tour). Hartford, CT.

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CERTIFICATES

Connecticut Teacher Certificate, Unique Subject Area Endorsement: Theatre Arts (110).

New York State Teacher Certificate, Theatre All Grades.

 

AWARDS & GRANTS

Outstanding Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association, Arts-Based Educational Research       Special Interest Group.

Winifred Ward Scholar Award (Child Drama), American Alliance for Theatre and Education.

Dissertation Fellowship from the Division of Graduate Studies, ASU Graduate College.

Teaching Excellence Award Nominee, ASU Graduate and Professional Student Association.

Lin Wright Endowment, School of Film, Dance, and Theatre, ASU.

Special Talent Awards, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, ASU.

Student Enrichment Grants, ASU Graduate College.

Graduate and Professional Student Association Travel Grants, ASU Graduate College.

Earl A. and Lenore H. Tripke Professional Development Travel Award, ASU Graduate College.

Rita Criste Conference Travel Grants, School of Film, Dance, and Theatre, ASU.

Steinhardt School of Education Excellence in Educational Theatre Scholarship, NYU.

 

PUBLICATIONS

 “La Búsqueda del Sueño Americano.” Found in van de Water, Manon, (Ed.). Teatro Para Públicos Jóvenes: Perspectivas internacionales. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artesy Literatura, November 2012.

 

“Searching for America, in Laurie Brooks’s Triangle and Cynthia Mercati’s Faces of  Freedom.” Found in van de Water, Manon, (Ed.). TYA, Culture, Society: International  essays on theatre for young audiences. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, May 2012.

 

“Surveying the Fault Line: A Continuing Conversation.” Incite/Insight, Volume 2, Number 4,        2010, pp. 12-14.

 

CONFERENCE ACTIVITY

Presentations/Panels

“Females First-Women Leading in Virginia Theatre.” Virginia Theatre Association Annual Conference, October 2018.

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“But Now You Can See Me: Devising Theatre With Youth Artist-Researchers in Search Of Revelations and Docutheatricality.” American Educational Research Association: Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis, April 2015.

 

“Climbing over the Tower: Theatre for Social Justice and Community Engagement in

Higher Education.” Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, Choreographing Social Movements in the Americas: Manifest! Working group: Transform or Else: Manifesting theories of change in performance of the Americas; Transformen/se! Manifestación de las teorías de cambio en performance de las Américas. June 2014.

 

“Angel From Another Planet: Examining Normative Childhood and Children in the Media Through Analysis of a Prodigiously Talented Child.” American Society of Theatre Research: Economies of Theatre. Working Group: Entertaining children: The participation  of children in theatre and the entertainment industry, November 2011.

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“Searching for America, in Laurie Brooks’s Triangle and Cynthia Mercati’s Faces of  Freedom.” International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network: TYA, Culture  and Society. ASSITEJ, May 2011.

 

“Using Theatre to Organize: SB 1070.” Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social Derechos Humanos: (Re)Claiming Our Dreams Across Contested Terrains, July 2010.

 

“Looking for Methods and Codes: The Ethics of a Documentary Theatre Classroom.” American Alliance for Theatre and Education: Surveying the Fault Line, August 2010.

 

Workshops

“In Our Words: Devising Theatre With Youth.” Virginia Theatre Association Annual Conference, October 2018.

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“Beyond These Walls: Students Interpreting, Theorizing, and Changing Themselves and Their Worlds Through Social Justice Theatre Practices.” Interpreting the World, Changing the  World, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, June 2012.

 

“Theatre Literacy: A Creative Way to Read the World.” 42nd Annual Language & Literacy Conference, 21st Century Literacies: Honoring What We Know, Envisioning Where We Can Go, February 2012.

 

“Surveying the Fault Line: Moving Forward, Looking Back.” American Alliance for Theatre and   Education: Surveying the Fault Line, August 2010.

 

“Unearthing the Treasures of ASU’s Child Drama Collection.” American Alliance for Theatre   and Education: Surveying the Fault Line, August 2010.

 

“Developing the most important character of all: YOU!” Theatre Pedagogy: Teaching the Art  Form, NYU, May 2009.

 

UNIVERSTIY SERVICE

ASU Graduate and Professional Student Association (Grant Reviewer).

Capstone Mentor, Maxwell, Tori & Sayles, Jackie. "Woman on Woman, A socially-engaged performance and dialogue." 

Capstone Mentor, Jacobs, Erika. "Coping Through Theatre, A case study."   

 

LANGUAGES

Sicilian Dialect (Native)

Italian (Fluent)

Spanish (Good)

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE & ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIPS

Virginia Theatre Association

American Alliance for Theatre and Education

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed

Educational Theatre Association

Actor’s Equity (Equity Membership Candidate)

 

 

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