Teaching Artist

Red Bull Theater’s Shakespeare in Schools
presents Romeo & Juliet

Live on Zoom in schools across NYC’s public schools and schools across the nation.

In the spring of 2021, I had the privilege of joining a team of talented artists and facilitators to adapt and distribute Red Bull Theater’s long-successful Shakespeare in Schools Program on Zoom.

I and four other actors presented an hour-cutting of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy for students in grades 6-12. Our production featured full costuming, custom-designed green screen backgrounds and even an animation sequence to bring the excitement of the theatre to students at home and in classrooms. Our team also collaboratively devised pre- and post-show workshops with participating classrooms to further engage students with the material. One the fly, our team adapted our planned curriculum to answer the needs of each individual group—some students were tuning in from arts magnets, others had never seen a live theater performance before. With every group, we worked to find access points to the material, be it through our production process, the poetry of the language, or how Shakespeare manages to speak to the concerns of our time.

Time and again, our team was delighted to connect personally with students on the themes of the work and how it resonates in their lives—cycles of violence and abuse, community conflict, and mental health.

The Latest / RESUME / DEI Statement

Resume Download

Red Bull Theater - NYC, Teaching Artist

3-5/2021

• Over a ten-day period, gave 15 performances and led 25 hour-long pre- and post-show discussions for groups of 5-40, grades 6-12, in schools nationwide

• Member of inaugural team to adapt Red Bull’s Shakespeare in Schools program to remote learning standards, including a 1-hour performance of Romeo & Juliet (performing as Benvolio, Nurse, and Paris)

• Collaboratively devised original curriculum to engage students with the production, invite them to identify with the characters and circumstances, and draw positive lessons about community, cycles of violence, and mental health

• Adapted curriculum on the fly to meet each student group’s degree of exposure to Shakespeare and to theater

Stella Adler Arts Justice Division - NYC, Performer/Facilitator

1-3/2020

• Toured schools, community centers, central housing, and DoC facilities, performing a 40-minute cut of Macbeth

• Personally facilitated talk-back discussions after each performance with populations ranging from middle school students to senior citizens to detainees

• Gave 21 performances over a 6-week period before the tour was cancelled due to COVID

Shakespeare at Winedale - Round Top, TX, Teaching Artist

Summer 2011, ‘13

• Hosted student groups from under-resourced communities around central Texas at an historic farm site which featured an Elizabethan stage in a 19th-century hay barn

• Led groups of 15 students, grade K-10, in team-building and group devising activities to inspire personal relationships with Shakespearean text by staging famous scenes

• Visited local community institutions to perform and teach on various topics related to Shakespeare

U. of Texas Undergraduate Writing Center - Austin, TX, Writing Consultant

4/2011-5/2012

• Provided one-on-one, hour-long coaching sessions to undergraduate and graduate students of all disciplines for writing in creative, academic, professional, and technical styles

• Successfully employed non-directive, non-evaluative methods to preserve each writer’s academic integrity, voice, and agency over their material

• Offered an inclusive and equitable learning environment for non-native English speakers, neurodiverse students, non-traditional students, and students with physical handicaps

The Latest / Resume / DEI STATEMENT

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I was raised and educated in privileged environments that were not visibly diverse. I was taught by my parents, teachers, and community leaders to be civically minded, in the limited scope of ‘90s white suburbia. With those resources, I failed to learn the systemic nature of injustice in the United States, nor how it persists today. At worst, my surroundings actively obscured that reality.

Two experiences shifted my perspective. As a young adult, I briefly passed through the criminal justice system. That was a turning point in my life for many reasons, but in the moment–and in the years of reflection that followed–it was clear how my privilege shielded me from harsher outcomes. I saw firsthand how individuals from historically marginalized groups and those of low socio-economic status were categorically disadvantaged in processes that were nominally fair and impartial. A few years later, in pursuit of affordable rent in Austin, Texas, I lived in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. I saw local business owners lose their storefronts, and over my backyard fence, watched city services fail the community time and again.

At the same time, I was pursuing arts opportunities, while working as a writing counselor at the University of Texas, and with under-resourced communities throughout the state’s central region. In that work, two pedagogies inspired a deeper commitment to inclusion and equity in my career. The first was approaching one-on-one instruction using non-evaluative and non-directive techniques. The stated use for this approach was to protect academic integrity, but I also saw the practice inspire a greater sense of agency in my students, as well as a more confident use of authenticity and individuality in their work. As I continued my work off-campus, I saw how non-evaluative, non-directive approaches also worked to better maintain solidarity and respect for historically marginalized learners, and mitigate risks of interventionist or normative attitudes as a teacher.

The second pedagogy to inspire a deeper dive into equitable and inclusive teaching was the pedagogy of play. In my experience as a facilitator, play presented curriculum as a sandbox more than a structure, and invited my students to naturally experiment, fail, and grow on their own terms. The approach celebrated diverse interests and interpretations, using a group’s novel dynamic as a means to illuminate and complexify the material. Since the students defined their own goals, they were able to identify obstacles to their pursuits and define what they needed to overcome them. As a teacher I was spared the role of arbiter, and instead worked to encourage and support the vulnerability my students needed to pursue their impulses and curiosities safely. It became swiftly apparent that the communal practice of vulnerability afforded by this pedagogy was as valuable as whatever the curriculum was trying to impart. To support that kind of environment, I understood that I needed skills to actively and passively dismantle inequities that I and my students brought into our learning space.

From the experiences I described above, in which I witnessed and participated in unjust systems, and in my work as a teaching artist and facilitator, I have begun to recognize the social patterns that connect the failings of our education system to the inequities in our wider society. I have begun the work of holding myself accountable for the role I’ve played in perpetuating injustice, and how I can turn what privilege and power I have towards dismantling unjust systems. The following are an expression of my ongoing work and my commitments moving forward:

Working Definitions:

Inclusion: The active, intentional, and ongoing process by which individuals are authentically valued, respected, and supported in their ownership of and participation towards a collective effort.

Equity: The process by which communities are met as they are, and allocated the resources and opportunities they need to produce sustainable, equal outcomes for all community members.

Acknowledgements & Affirmations

• Everyone deserves access to a full, vibrant and creative life, which is essential to a healthy democratic society

• Beyond the moral imperative, empirical evidence shows that–from biology to business–diverse, inclusive and equitable environments are more stable, sustainable, and prosperous than those that are not

• There are systems of power in the United States that grant access and privilege unequally, such that inequity and injustice result. These systems must be continuously addressed and changed.

• It is a shared responsibility within our society to acknowledge and challenge systems of oppression and injustice, especially among those who benefit from those systems 

• Creating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment is not a top-down process, nor should that work depend on those in greatest need of change. It is an environment that is co-created by the people who participate in it. 

• The arts and artistic expression are avenues to challenge inequities, illuminate injustices, and develop partnerships in those pursuits

Pledges

• Use my body, my voice and the privileges afforded to me to elevate bodies and voices that may otherwise be underrepresented, hidden, or silenced

• To perpetually challenge my own curricula, service, and mindset, to acknowledge and dismantle any inequities I may wittingly or unwittingly introduce into a space

• To conduct myself towards my students in a way that ensures their safety and agency as learners

• To pursue empirically supported curricula and pedagogies that

  • Are dynamic and accessible to students’ needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence

  • Provide students with frameworks and guidance to feel safe as participants, to make mistakes, grow, and change together

  • Models and fosters equitable relationships between all participants

• To pursue greater cultural consciousness, and maintain openness to my ongoing personal development as it relates to issues of equity and inclusion