Beret Malmgren

Beret comes from a theatre family. She has worked extensively in educational and professional theatre. She created and taught acting and theatre curriculum for children preschool through adult. As an actor Beret has performed all over the country from Los Angeles to New Haven and back. She has a BFA in Acting, Directing and Education from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Acting from the California Institute of the Arts.

Wendy Maples holds a B.F.A. and a M.A. in Theatre Arts and Education.  Wendy has spent the last 6 years bringing original theatre to schools throughout San Diego. She currently serves AATE as a California State Representative. In 2006, Ms. Maples founded Step UP Theatre, continuing her commitment to provide children with an early exposure to the performing arts.  Recently, she was one of thirty directors selected nationally to attend the 2009 Directors Lab West in Pasadena, California.

Christina Marin is an Assistant Professor of Educational Theatre at NYU.

David Markey is the Director of Education at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD. He holds an MA from University College Dublin, an MFA from Trinity College Dublin and his teaching qualification from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. David is Chair of the Youth Theatre Network of AATE and also a member of British Equity.

Laura A. McCammon, Ed.D., University of Arizona, School of Theatre Arts, Teacher Certification Program Coordinator. She has presented papers and published internationally on issues relating to drama/theatre teacher education and creativity in drama/theatre education.

Frances McGarry

Frances McGarry, Ph.D. has been teaching theater for more than twenty-five years. Frances became acquainted with the Young Playwrights Festival in New York City which became the subject of her doctoral dissertation in the Program of Educational Theater at New York University. She has been Director of Instruction at Young Playwrights Inc. since 2007 and has presented the Write A Play! Curriculum at local, regional, and national conferences.

Gillian is a member of AATE.

Laurie is the Director of Theatre Education at the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.  In her role at the center, she specializes in working with teachers to integrate drama that conceptually connects with their curriculum.  As a theatre practitioner, Laurie uses creative drama to connect with diverse populations and develop skills essential for the 21st century including collaboration, innovation, and interpersonal communication. 

Carole Miller, associate professor is an internationally recognized speaker & workshop facilitator. Recipient of the UVIC’s Faculty of Education Excellence in Teaching Award, she is co-author of Learning to Teach Drama: A Case Narrative Approach and Into the Story, winner of AATE’s distinguished Book Award. She co-presented the Reflective Keynote at IDEA (2007) and co-chaired the 2nd International Drama in Education Research Institute and the Academic Program Committee (IDEA, 2004).

San Francisco Mime Troupe

Founded in 1959, the SF Mime Troupe - which does NOT perform silently - is a cantankorous elder statesman of U.S. theatre.  Based in the traditions of commedia, melodrama, and broad farce, the SFMT creates FREE musical comedies that both satirize and make sense of the headlines. In their quest to "produce socially relevant theatre and perform it before the broadest possible audience," the Troupe has been jailed, banned, censured . .  and picked up a Tony and a few Obies along the way.

Teresa, a PhD student in the Theatre for Youth program at Arizona State University, received her BA in Theatre from Seattle University and her MA in Education from Pepperdine University. Prior to attending ASU, Teresa served as drama director at a high school in L.A. where she taught both English and Drama for several years. Her research interests include youth theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, puppetry, Commedia dell' Arte, and the role of women in theatre.

Gary Minyard has joined the Pennsylvania Youth Theatre as its new Artistic Director. Gary has helped create over 200 pieces of theatre as a director, writer and performer. This list includes Peter and the Wolf, A Thousand Cranes, Triangle, Madeline’s Christmas, Kate Crackernuts, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant, Androcles and the Lion, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Treasure Island, Peacemaker, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Jack Mitchell-B.A. from the University of Washington (Theater),MFA California Institute of the Arts. He began teaching Theater and Stagecraft at Manual Arts High School and in 1996 moved to University High in Los Angeles where he helped create one of LAUSD’s first Performing Arts Departments. Jack is currently the Secondary Arts Consultant at CDE(VAPA & CTE).

Kim Morin, a full professor at CSU-Fresno, supervises student teachers in Theatre and teaches puppetry, creative drama, musical theatre, and integrated arts. Since 1987, she has been artistic director for the TYA program that performs for up to 12,000 children a year. Her focus on community engagement has initiated many successful programs; some of her most recent involvements include SF Symphony’s Keeping Score in Education and the Fresno  “Arts Every Day” in-service for teachers.

Stuart is the Executive  Director of TBG Prods.  He has  two MAs (Ed Theater and Oral Traditions ), is a certified N Y State Theater Teacher and has taught for  NYC schools. He is the Chair for a NYC DOE  project  "American Voices" that integrates Theater Arts within Social Studies Curriculum. He continues to teach theater, run PD programs, tells stories, and coaches workshops and residencies.

Bethany Nelson (M.Ed., HGSE) is a faculty member at Emerson College in the area of Theatre Education.  She specializes in using drama with at-risk urban populations and has conducted action research in collaboration with classroom teachers, examining the efficacy of drama in urban classrooms. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Warwick, researching the potential of process drama and playmaking to facilitate urban students’ understanding of unequal power dynamics.

Julia Magnasco is Education Director at First Stage Children’s Theater, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. First Stage is the leader in arts-education programming in Wisconsin, with in-school residencies that include The Bully Ban, SCORE, and Pre-SCORE. Julia holds an MFA in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University, and a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Miami, Florida.

Dr. John Newman teaches theatre at Highland High School and serves as the Artistic Director for the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts.  He is the founder and co-chair of the AATE Playwrights In Our School Project.  Dr. Newman is the recipient of the 2008 CTFA Reba R. Robertson Award and the author of four stage adaptations of novels by Newbery medalists.

Diane Nutting

Diane Nutting is the Director of Access and Outreach for Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD where she works to provide accessible and inclusive performing arts experiences for students, patrons, artists, and visitors of all abilities. She holds an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas at Austin, and has worked at the intersections of theatre, education, disability, and deafness for over 15 years. She serves on the Board of AATE as Programming Director.

Matt Omasta is an Assistant Professor at Utah State University, where he leads the BFA Theatre Education program and teaches courses in drama/theatre pedagogy, theatre history, dramatic literature, performance theory, and criticism. He serves as co-chair of the AATE College/University/Research Network, Treasurer of the AERA Arts & Inquiry in the Visual & Performing Arts in Education Special Interest Group, and as Editor of the American Society for Theatre Research's ASTR Online.

Leah Page graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2005 with an MFA in Musical Theatre. From 2007-2010 she worked in the education department at Asolo Repertory Theatre where she was as a teaching artist, director, administrator and facilitator. Organizations she has taught for include Girls Inc., Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp, YMCA Reads, and Artsbridge America.

Joohee Park is a doctoral candidate in Theatre Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation is titled "A Decade of Change: Theatre for Children and Young People in Korea, 1992-2002," and is scheduled to be completed in May 2010. Joohee's research interests include histories of theatre for youth, historical relationships between religion and theatre, and Applied Theatre.

Kristala Pouncy is currently an MFA candidate at Eastern Michigan University. She holds a BA in Theatre from Kalamazoo College and MA in Theatre from Northwestern University. Kristala is from Flint, MI and has performed and worked with youth around the country.

Aimee S. Reid is a 2nd year MFA in Theatre for Youth candidate at Arizona State University. She is studying to open a TFY company as its artistic director. This year she will be directing Seagirl by Francis Elitzig and the premiere of Fly/Lyf by colleague Anne Negri, as well as partnering with a blindness organization in order to develop theatre for visually impaired children.

MTI will be exhibiting at the 2010 AATE conference.

Lucía Rodríguez is currently pursuing an MA in Educational Theatre for Colleges and Communities at NYU on a Fulbright Scholarship from Spain. Her background includes a B.A. in Humanities; an arts fellowship at La Sorbonne (Paris), a language fellowship at Vassar College; and an MA in Performing Arts Management from Complutense University (Madrid).She has worked as an assistant producer for one of the biggest theatre festivals in Spain, Festival de Almagro, and in different institutions.

Founding Artistic Director, Sojourn Theatre.

Assistant Professor Northwestern University

Creator/Playwright/Deviser/Director/Teacher/Facilitator/Performer

Janet E. Rubin

Janet E. Rubin is Professor of Theatre at Saginaw Valley State University.  She has served as President of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, been a guest professor at universities in Australia and India, and served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a respected theatrical director, scholar, consultant, and arts educator.  She has published articles and books and made presentations of her work at national and international conferences.

Abigail Russell

Abby Russell, M.A. is an artist and educator from Boston, MA. She completed her undergraduate degree in Theatre and Dramatic Literature at Wheaton College, MA in 2005 and received her M.A. in Theatre Education at New York University in 2007. Currently she is on faculty at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, MA where she teaches theatre and public speaking. She is also the Artistic Director of the NDA Players, their award winning theater company.

Dylan Russell is a professional director/actor/playwright.

David Rzeszutek

David Rzeszutek is a Lecturer at Saginaw Valley State University.  He has extensive acting experience both regionally and in NYC on stage and on television.   David has travelled throughout Ohio and Kentucky with the Outreach Youth Tour at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.  He has taught Mask and Movement to children from Grades 3-9 at SVSU’s Theatre Summer Day Camp.  He is a proud member of both AEA and AFTRA.

Meriah Sage is a recent MFA graduate in Drama/Theatre for Youth at Eastern Michigan Univ. where she will be adjuncting in the fall. Meriah is the proud recipient of the 2008 Doyle Fellowship.  Sage has worked as an instructor, director and administrator at The Auditorium Theatre, Mosaic Youth Theatre, EMU, etc. Meriah was the lead facilitator for the 2009 & 2010 Lincoln Center Institute National Educator's Workshop (Chicago). Recent productions: Bud, Not Buddy & Antigone. meriahsage.com

Karena Salmond

Karena Salmond is Program Manager, Artists-in-Schools at Performing Arts Workshop in San Francisco.  During her last three years with the Workshop, she has coordinated projects in special education and helped cultivate a talented staff of teaching artists.  She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Kalamazoo College and a M.A. in International & Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco.

David Saphier is currently in his eighth year as a teaching artist at the Denver Center Theatre Academy at the Denver Center Theatre Company. He received his MFA from Arizona State University and his BA from The Colorado College. In the Denver area schools, David teaches a variety of different curriculums using theatre as the teaching tool.

Alexander Sarian

Alex Sarian is a cultural & arts education professional who consults internationally on the design and implementation of arts curricula and community-based programming.  Currently, he works with the NYC DOE through Urban Arts Partnership and with the upcoming "Centro de Arte y Cultura de Buenos Aires" (Argentina), developing all aspects of their Education Foundation.  He holds degrees in Educational Theatre and Performing Arts Administration from NYU.

Professor emeritus, University of Victoria. Co-author  of Teaching Drama: a mind of many wonders (1987),Asking Better Questions (2006), Into the Story (2004). Recipient of UVic's Alumni Teacher of Excellence award; the AATE Campton Bell Lifetime Achievement Award.

Danielle Schoeny is currently an undergrad student at Saginaw Valley State University. She has been in several Children's shows at SVSU and the Pit & Balcony Community Theatre. She has also taught creative drama for 7th and 8th graders and basic theatre skills for 3rd and 4th graders at the SVSU Summer Theatre Day Camps. In the fall Danielle will complete her bachelor degree in Theatre. Her senior project will bring youth theatre directly into her community.

Roxanne Schroeder-Arce is a teacher, scholar, playwright, director, and performer. She will join the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin in the Fall of 2010, after four years as assistant professor at Emerson College in Boston. She also taught at California State University at Fresno. Roxanne's primary research interests include multicultural theatre education and Latino theatre for young audiences.

Abby Schwarz

Abby, a Maryland native, is a rising junior at Northwestern majoring in Performance Studies and Anthropology.  She has been a member of Purple Crayon since freshman year, when she served as Freshman Board Representative.  She is now the group's Literary Manager. 

Before joining Adventure Stage Chicago in 2007 Merissa served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand. In fall of 2008 she co-founded the Chicago Arts Educator Forum which provides networking and professional development opportunities to Arts Educators and Administrators.  Merissa serves as the Fine Arts Curriculum Advisor at Rowe Elementary School and is a board member of the Illinois Theatre Association.

Daphnie Sicre

Daphnie Sicre is a PhD candidate in Educational Theatre from NYU. These past two years, she has taught TYA, Dramatic Activities in the Secondary Classroom, and conducted various workshops on Theatre for Social Change. Raised in Madrid, Spain but born in Guayaquil, Ecuador to Peruvian and Spanish parents, Daphnie shares a deep passion for discovering multiple Latino perspectives in drama. While at NYU, she plans to focus her doctoral research on AfroLatino theatre and performance.

Kelby Siddons

Kelby Siddons is a playwright, director, and educator who recently capped her years as a Drama major at Northwestern University serving as Artistic Director of Purple Crayon Players. Proudest accomplishments include initiating Purple Crayon's annual PLAYground festival of new works, receiving the Aurand Harris Award for excellence in TYA and penning SLAMMED, a commissioned winter 2010 tour for the Milwaukee Repertory.

Sara is a PhD student in the Educational Theatre program at New York University.  Her research interests include the intersection of sex education and educational theatre.  Before starting at NYU, she worked for Planned Parenthood writing sex education curricula for middle school and high school students.  She has an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College and a BA in Women's Studies and Theatre from Wellesley College.

Kiyoko Motoyama Sims is Director of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Bridges teaching artist at The Children's Theatre Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kiyoko, originally from Tokyo, Japan, has been active as performing artist, teaching artist, and arts administrator. She holds an MFA in musical theater performance from San Diego State University, and an MA in theatre arts from the University of Minnesota.

Catlin is a current Graduate Student on the Masters in Applied Theatre Program at the City University of New York. Originally from Scotland, UK, she graduated from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh with a first class degree in Drama and Theatre Arts specializing in Community Theatre (an earlier British term for applied theatre).

Johanna Smith

Johanna Smith is an Associate Professor of Theatre Education at California State University-San Bernardino and a professional puppeteer.

MaryEllen is AATE's communications associate and managing editor of Incite/Insight, AATE's digital magazine.

Peter Sroka

Peter Sroka teaches Drama at 5 elementary schools in SF.  He holds degrees in Education from Monmouth and Harvard Universities.  Places where he's lived, worked, and played include Africa, Sesame Street, LA, NYC, and the Jersey Shore.  As a classroom teacher, Peter wrote songs to teach multiple subjects.  Work with SFUSD has inspired tons of new material. 800 of his students performed at the de Young this year.

Brianna Stapleton Welch is entering her second year of the MFA Theatre for Youth program at Arizona State University. She is a Wisconsin native and earned her BA in Theatre from Lawrence University. Brianna has worked as a student teaching artist with Phoenix Theatre, ArtsBridge America, and Wisconsin 4-H. Please visit fromthefaultline.blogspot.com, a blog coinciding with our conference session titled "Surveying the Fault Line: Looking Back, Moving Forward."

Joni Starr, Asst. Professor of Performing Arts at Michigan State University, has practiced educational theatre in a variety of engaging settings. After receiving her BFA in Theatre Education and MFA in Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas, Austin she joined in regional Theatre for Youth settings including the Charleston Stage Company and the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, NC, where she served as Director of Education. She has also taught enjoed teaching in China and Guatemala.

Susan Stauter is currently the Artistic Director for the San Francisco Unified School District. She served on the Steering Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the San Francisco Arts Education Master Plan and was the Director of the Conservatory of the American Conservatory Theater. (see the Keynote Bio for more information)

Pamela Sterling is an associate Professor of Theatre at Arizona State University where she has been teaching courses in Graduate Theater for Youth, playwriting, Theatre for Social Change, directing and acting since 1999.

Sarah Sullivan is an MFA student in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University. This year, she has served as the artist in residence for the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development, a teaching artist for Childsplay, Free Arts Arizona and the Herberger Community School, and conducted a civic engagement residency with sixth graders at Royal Palm Middle School. A graduate of Northwestern University, she worked as a teaching artist in Chicago before moving to Phoenix.

Mary Sutton has grown the TheatreWorks Education Department over the past twelve years. Before joining TheatreWorks, Ms. Sutton was a professional actress and director with many regional credits. She as a BFA from NYU in theatre and is a directing graduate of the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. Ms. Sutton has 20 years of experience as a Teaching Artist. She began her work in community working in the Southeast through The National Endowment for the Arts rural arts program in 1991.

Paul Sutton

Dr Paul Sutton is Artistic Director of the English theatre company C&T, mixing drama, learning and digital media in its work with children and young people. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Worcester, UK and a contributor to books such as 'Drama Education and Digital Technologies' and 'Real Players.'

Amanda is the past president of CETA and DTASC. She has a BA in Theatre Arts from Point Park University, Pittsburg, PA and a teaching credential from CSU Northridge. Amanda has been a theatre educator for 17 years, having directed numerous productions as well as sponsoring  a Thespian troupe.  She is currently the chair of the Birmingham Community Charter High School Performing & Visual Arts Academy in Lake Balboa, CA.  Amanda is a member of EdTA, DTASC, and the English-Speaking Union.

Carmine Tabone

Carmine Tabone, executive director of Jersey City based Educational Arts Team and has conducted workshops for over 35 years with students and teachers. His article in YTJ, “Pop-Up Puppet Theater,” documented how a 20 session puppet project increased district-wide state standardized language arts test scores by 36.6% for over two thousand 4^th graders.

Joanne Taylor is earning her PhD in Performance Studies at UCB, and has a background in opera and Shakespeare. She has published and presented on a wide-range of performance topics, and her practical experience extends from stage to screen. She serves as teaching artist in the Ed Dept and the SF Opera.

Antigone Trimis is currently the Implementation Manager of San Francisco Unified School District’s Arts Education Master Plan.  Ms. Trimis has worked extensively with numerous arts/arts education organizations in the Bay Area, including the Magic Theatre, World Arts West, the San Francisco Playwrights Foundation, and the Engineers Alliance for the Arts.

YiRen Tsai, a PhD student in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University, is a native of Taiwan. She received her MFA degree in Drama and Theatre for Youth at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. She then worked at the First Stage Children's Theatre, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as their Academy/Education Associate Director from 2004 to 2007.

Ebony Tucker is an Atlanta native and a graduate of the University of Alabama with a MFA in Theatre Management/Arts Administration.  She has taught classes for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Christian Youth Theatre Atlanta.  Her experience with children ranges from Pre-K to 12^th grade with organizations such as YMCA, Children and Youth Services Atlanta, and Globe’s Learning Center. She is currently working on her 2nd MFA in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University.

Laura Manning Turner received her B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing and an M.F.A. in composition for Music Theater concurrently from New York University. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the College of Charleston where her teaching specialty is theatre for family audiences. Before coming to the College of Charleston she taught at the University of Northern Iowa as well as the Russian Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia where she lectured on American Theatre.

Dr. Van Der Horn-Gibson teaches theatre and speech in New York in NYC and on Long Island.

Abraham graduated from New York University with a B.Sc. in Communications and a Concentration in Graphics, and is currently at his alma mater working towards his M.S. in Educational Theatre in Communities and Colleges. He has taught workshops in New York City focusing on monologues, theatre, and performance poetry. He was broadcast by BronxNet and Urban Latino Magazine TV as a positve Latino role model and educator.

Xanthia is a 3rd year MFA student in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University. She is spending the year with Cornerstone Theater Company completing her applied project, a collaboration with teen mothers and their children, and her internship, assistant directing the Justice Cycle Bridge Show. Xanthia is honored to be the 2009 Winifred Ward Scholar. She is co-founding a community-based youth theatre company in 2011.

Jacob Watson

Jacob Watson is a rising senior theatre major at Northwestern University, where he is studying directing, design, and theatre for education. Last spring, he directed a workshop production of Drew Chappell's Time Pieces for the PLAYground festival. This summer, he will be interning in the department of Education & Community Engagement at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, IL. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of Purple Crayon Players.

Valerie Weak

Valerie Weak is the Program Adminstrator for Word for Word Youth Arts, a program which translates Word for Word's very successful script development model for the school. We start with poetry or short fiction and through theater games/text analysis, the students create performances that use every word that the author wrote. By embodying and acting both text and imagery, our process reinforces the tools that a competent reader uses internally and creates a love of literature and language.

Dan Weiermann has been designing for dance, theatre and opera for over 18 years. He holds an MFA in lighting design from Northern Illinois University and has taught lighting classes at various high school theatre festivals across the Midwest. He currently works for DTC Grip & Electric designing lighting systems for performance venues.

Visiting Lecturer at Indiana University, School of Ed., Dept. of Literacy, Culture and Language Education. Teaches Critical Literacy, Advanced Literacy Methods, Pluralism, Drama as Critical Literacy K-12. Research includes the ways performativity may inform how identities emerge within any one event. My work resides within a focus of social justice and equity and is articulated through post structural and Queer theory.

Kim Wheetley

Kim Wheetley is executive director of the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which provides innovative professional development in arts integration. He's been a consultant for state and national organizations authoring numerous arts education documents. He served on the College Board National Task Force on the Arts in Education, which developed "Arts at the Core of 21st Century Education" recommendations. He is a past AATE president.

Karl Williams

Karl O’Brian Williams: Masters Candidate in the Program in Educational Theatre, NYU and current Don and Elizabeth Doyle Fellow. A professional actor for the past thirteen years, a director and playwright who has had six of his plays produced both in his native Jamaica and the United States. His passion for theatre and education has propelled his work with students of all ages and abilities.

Patricia Moore Zimmer directs, writes and teaches in theatre for young audiences and educational drama at Eastern Michigan University, where she has been a professor since 1980. Some of her interests in the field include new play development, professional development for directors, international theatre for young audiences, and arts education advocacy.