Theatre for Social Change

Theatre for social change has unfolded many avenues in my life as a playwright, a teacher, and as a theater practitioner. With nineteen years of teaching experience which include global playwriting initiatives and curriculum development in school programming, I spent five years global linking with an arts school in Uganda and devising theater with my students as we celebrate cultural diversity in international collaborations. It is important to me to continue these conversations through digital storytelling and allow for students across the world to be able to create inclusive art together. As the artistic director of the Shakespeare’s Sister Company, I created workshops to empower communication tools of patients who have Lupus using poetry and playwriting to strengthen their voice when speaking with their doctor. Another cause close to my heart is community and how to set women up for success so I built the Women’s Theater Workshop which was a series of skill-building trainings using creative drama with women in homeless shelters to not only succeed their housing and job interviews, but to pursue their dreams. There were many success stories – one of which, a resident went back to school to pursue her passion for medicine and is now a successful nurse living independently and proud that she is back on track. Finally, literacy for youth and literary opportunities for women are also important to me. I produced The Woolf Series, named after literary pioneer Virginia Woolf, which empowered New York City women playwrights to work in an inclusive and equitable play reading series and in a safe environment give voice to their plays.  I’m so proud of the efforts of The Woolf Series to bring artists together with the community to create a theatrical experience.

I am open and ready to continue the conversation. In fact, my theses 

details a look at educational reform, lack of diversity and inclusion in k-12 

educational settings, and the inequities in the school systems. If you’d like to read 

more of my journey, the theses is available here: 

https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/playwritingtheses/6/