Current Research & Projects

Welcome to LevelUp! Digital Storytelling—my original program where the worlds of video games and theatre collide to help young people become the heroes of their own stories. This project was born from my belief that education can be immersive, joyful, and emotionally resonant when we meet students where they are, especially through the creative tools they already love. By blending the interactive storytelling of video games with the collaborative and transformative power of theatre, I work with students to explore identity, build emotional intelligence, and unlock their imaginations.

🎮 Program Objectives and Goals

• Integrate SEL through Storytelling: Embed social and emotional learning (SEL) directly into arts education by using theatrical play and video game structures to promote empathy, collaboration, and emotional regulation.

• Empower Creative Identity: Provide youth with tools to develop their own narratives, encouraging confidence, agency, and imaginative freedom.

• Bridge Theatre and Game Design: Introduce students to the narrative strategies of video games—branching paths, quests, character building—and combine them with live performance and devised theatre techniques.

• Support Teaching Artists: Offer resources and training for educators to implement the program themselves, grounded in drama pedagogy and media literacy research.

🛠️ Methodology

This program is designed using a layered, research-informed approach that includes:

• Curriculum Development: I create flexible lesson plans that draw from drama-in-education practices, Theatre of the Oppressed, and narrative game design—ensuring students engage both socially and creatively.

• Interactive Workshops: Students participate in hands-on creative sessions involving world-building, character creation, decision-based storytelling, and theatrical performance.

• Process-Oriented Assessment: Emphasis is placed on growth in emotional articulation, collaboration, and confidence—rather than product-focused evaluation.

• Final Showcase: Each session cycle culminates in a performance or digital presentation where students share their worlds and stories with peers, families, and the community.

🌍 Where It’s Happening

LevelUp! is currently active at Mesa Arts Academy and serves over 80 students weekly. I’m also preparing to share findings from this work at the International Drama in Education Research Institute (IDIERI) in Vancouver in 2025, where I’ll present our methods, student stories, and the role of video games in enhancing arts education.

🤝 Let’s Collaborate

This program is designed to be adaptable to other schools, theaters, and community organizations. If you're interested in hosting LevelUp! at your site—or exploring how we can co-create something similar—I’d love to hear from you. Let’s reimagine education together through storytelling, play, and performance.

Welcome to Empowering Voices, where the transformative power of theatre meets critical pedagogy, intersectionality, and community engagement. Our mission is to harness theatre as a tool for social change, empowering communities to express their narratives and collaborate towards meaningful action. By integrating complex theories with practical exercises, we aim to make the art of performance a catalyst for dialogue, reflection, and transformation.

Empowering Voices is more than a project; it's a call to action for educators, artists, and activists who believe in the power of theatre to challenge, connect, and celebrate our shared humanity. Together, we can use performance to illuminate diverse perspectives, foster empathy, and cultivate a just society. Join us in this exciting journey to reshape our communities through the power of critical engagement and creative expression.

Objectives and Goals

Bridge Theory and Practice: Create a dynamic toolkit that integrates critical theories with practical theatre exercises, making the transformative potential of theatre accessible to all communities.

Cultivate Community Dialogue: Facilitate workshops that encourage participants to explore, reflect upon, and address social issues through theatre, fostering a participatory culture where dialogue and action converge.

Empower Facilitators and Participants: Equip educators, community leaders, and participants with the resources and skills needed to critically analyze their circumstances and collaboratively work towards change, amplifying the impact of their voices in their communities.

Methodology

Comprehensive Research and Curriculum Development: Engage in thorough research to ground our toolkit in robust theoretical frameworks, followed by the development of a curriculum that is both insightful and practical, ensuring that the art of theatre becomes a means of exploring and transforming community issues.

Interactive Workshops and Pilot Programs: Implement pilot workshops to test and refine our approach, creating a space for participants to experience the power of theatre in articulating their experiences and engaging with social issues.

Stakeholder Engagement and Presentation: Craft compelling presentations to share the vision and potential of our toolkit with stakeholders, laying the groundwork for future implementation and community transformation.