Theatre for Youth Newsletter

Who's Who

Theatre for Youth MFA Candidates

Steve Barker, a second year MFA, teems with excitement to be returning to the heat of Arizona. He survived five years as a public high school theatre teacher in the DC/Northern Virginia area after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with his BFA in Theatre Education and his BS in Chemistry (long story). Steve hopes to make his mark in the TFY program by focusing on both technical theatre education with youth and continuing education for practicing theatre teachers. In the summer of 2007, he inaugurated the new technical theatre courses for youth at the HCAL and plans to continue the newly christened TECHSTART series this fall. He also was technical support for the presentation of Breaking the Silence at AATE 2007 in Vancouver as well as guest presenter at the AZ State Thespians Leadership conference. This fall he will be designing, assistant directing, and technical directing the ASU Tour Bus show as well as designing for other groups in the area.

Zosia Cassie is a new MFA in Theatre for Youth and is extremely excited to be at ASU! She holds a BA in Theatre and History from the University of British Columbia, which is in her hometown (Zosia is Canadian!) of Vancouver, British Columbia. Zosia spent last year working as the assistant director for Kids' Writes 2007: Say Peace with the Vancouver Youth Theatre. Kids' Writeswas written andtoured by and for elementary school studentsin the Vancouver area. At ASU, Zosia is exploring the world of being both an artist and a scholar, looking at how theatre can be used as a teaching tool for life skills, as well as a lens for examining social issues and moments in history. Zosia loves the passion, excitement, and community created by theatre, and intends to learn how to touch as many lives with it as possible.

Molly Gittelman is in her third and final year for her MFA degree. Currently, she is in an Intern at the Lucy School in Middletown, Maryland, participating as a drama specialist. She will be graduating this May after writing and performing her Applied Project: a one-woman play about being a young child in 2007.

Margaret Hoppe is new to the Phoenix area and the desert. She spent the past four years in chilly Chicago completing her undergrad at Northwestern University in theatre. While there, she had the pleasure of discovering the field of Theatre for Young Audiences and is now very excited to spend the next three years working on her MFA in that area. This year Margaret has the pleasure of working with Herberger College for Kids teaching several theatre workshop classes. She is particularly excited to be working with a group of Kindergarteners at the Horizon Community Learning Center in Phoenix.

Mariah Conover Keko is a second-year MFA candidate. She hails from Minnesota and earned her BFA in Theatre Education from Drake University in 2001. Her primary interest in Theatre for Youth is educationally-driven, and she has taught ages 3-94 in areas such as acting, directing, puppetry and improvisation in addition to public school English, ELL, and speech/communications. She is also a budding playwright. When not engaging a class, Mariah enjoys alpine skiing with her spouse, Kurt.

Crystal Mercado is a third-year MFA grad. This semester she is doing her internship at Inside/Out Community Arts located in Venice, CA.They bringafter-school arts programs to at-risk and underserved middle-school youth throughout greater Los Angeles. Crystal will be working directly with the executive director, learning all the workings of a non-profit organization.

Jeremiah Neal is a third-year MFA candidate in TYA program. Born and raised in Las Vegas where he studied mass communications at University of Nevada Las Vegas, Jeremiah took master's courses at UNLV before transferring to the TYA program. He wrote Somewhere Else and Breaking the Silence\ for production at ASU. Jeremiah is currently working on two new musicals: You Bug Me, which will be produced at the Coterie Theatre in their upcoming season, and The Kid who Ran for President, a commission by Emerald City Theatre Company in Chicago for production next November in line with the presidential elections. This semester he will be serving as an intern for Childsplay doing new play development, artistic director shadowing and overall creative production. On the side, he hosts an open mic at The Vine on campus every Sunday night.

Anne Negri is a first-year MFA student from Kenosha, Wisconsin. She earned her BA in Theatre and French from Ripon College (Ripon, WI) and went on to receive a K-12 Wisconsin teaching license in both subjects. Anne spent a school year with elementary-aged students as an English-language teaching assistant in Le Havre, France. After her time abroad, Anne returned to Wisconsin and worked as a part-time substitute teacher and part-time education intern at First Stage Children's Theater in Milwaukee. At First Stage, Anne worked on a literacy enrichment drama program called S.C.O.R.E. and she taught several creative drama classes for 1-3 graders. This past summer, Anne traveled to Anchorage and served as a lead summer camp teacher for Anchorage's interactive science museum, The Imaginarium. Anne is very excited about ASU and the TFY program.

Tifani Pust, an MFA in Theatre for Youth, loves calling Arizona home and moved across the valley after her acceptance into the program at ASU. Previously Tifani was sighted teaching a large theatre program in the west valley at Apollo High School in Glendale. Tifani was the sole theatre teacher there and thoroughly enjoyed it. She definitely enjoys working with teens & "tweens." Tifani received her post baccalaureate teacher certification from Rio Salado in 2003, after obtaining her Theatre BA Cum Laude from ASU in 2001. In between school stints, she worked fulltime and started the small but proud theatre, Next, whose opening season worked closely with downtown artists of mixed genres at the Paper Heart Art Gallery. Over the last 15 years, Tifani has been and is a producer, director, actor, teacher, writer and overall lover of the arts as a whole. She believes strongly in the power of collaboration and in theatres' ability to change lives. Tifani has worked with various theatre companies in the Valley and also in Greeley, CO and Flagstaff. She greatly enjoyed her time in ImagCorp. Most recently she took on ateaching gig at the Valley Youth Theatre and very much looks forward to her ASU coursework.

Xanthia Walker is a first-year MFA in Theatre for Youth. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities where she earned a double major in Theatre Arts and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Spanish Studies. Xanthia considers herself to be a Theatre artist/activist/feminist, and she is deeply passionate about using theatre and performance as a catalyst for social action and change. She believes that theatre can and should happen anywhere and everywhere, and that it is POWERFUL and REVOLUTIONARY and also really FUN. Especially when it involves youth! As a performing artist and facilitator with youth her primary mediums have been original work creation with youth centering on a relevant social justice issue, arts literacy, and puppetry. Xanthia spent this last summer teaching arts literacy classes with Minneapolis Public Schools, doing rural community education residencies with Steppingstone Theatre for Youth, and performing in two shows: a touring outdoor youth puppet show from June through August called The Adventures of Katie Tomatie that was always free for anyone to see, and Meuller's Die Hamletmaschine (not so much for youth) in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. She also had the amazing experience of participating in a workshop with Augusto Boal as a part of the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference this past May. Xanthia is so very excited to be here at ASU and to become a part of the innovative, daring work and play she sees happening here in this community.

Blake Wilson is a native of Atlanta and a second-year MFA student in Theatre for Youth. This summer he worked as assistant director of Free Arts Arizona's theatre camp for high school students. In the spring, he was part of the ensemble that created Text Me a Story, a play about Internet predation, which toured to Phoenix area elementary and middle schools. Since arriving at ASU, he has also been involved as a director. He was assistant director for ASU's production of Laurie Brooks' The Lost Ones,the workshop reading of Wind Woods' play Desert Hills, as well as Katie May's one-act play Big Cats. This fall he will be teaching THP311 and working with Qspeak, a theatre group for GLBT teens in central Phoenix, as well as directing the PRISM Theatre production of The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild. Prior to arriving at ASU, Blake taught middle school social studies and drama in Atlanta through the Teach for America program. Blake lives in Tempe with his partner, Jarred.

Theatre for Youth-PhD Candidates

Sara M. Baraldi graduated from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) where she completed her BA in Theatre Education, and has an MA degree in Educational Theatre from New York University (NYU). While completing both degrees, she initiated training in mask-making and puppetry performance with MaskHunt, Inc. Currently in the PhD program in Theatre for Youth and still involved in mask and puppetry work, she aspires to become a scholar in the field of TYA and to teach theatre and related subjects to all age/grade levels. She has been working as the Drama Specialist in a charter school in Phoenix and returns this year as the Chair of the Fine Arts Department. Her current research focuses on exploring ways in which Drama and Theatre, when included in the elementary curriculum, create environments that aid English Language Learners acquire and use the English language.

Sean J. Bliznik is a first-year Theatre for Youth doctoral candidate originally from southern New Hampshire where he earned his undergraduate degree in English and secondary education from Saint Anselm College. While living in New Hampshire, he worked with several local theatre companies as an actor, stage manager and director. In addition, he taught high school English and theatre as well as served as the founding artistic director of the Central Community Players, and he directed Saint Anselm College's spring musicals. In 2002, Sean relocated to central Florida where he began working as an entertainment manager for Walt Disney Entertainment, stage managing various shows and entertainment offerings across property. While in Florida, Sean taught English and theatre at Celebration High School where he was named 2005 Teacher of the Year; and he was afforded the honor of being the 2006 Drey Shakespeare Institute Scholar where he participated in the "Teaching Shakespeare through Performance" intensive at the Globe Central Florida. Sean's research interests include theatre for social change and gender orientation and sexuality in the works of theatre for youth audiences.

Drew Chappell, PhD candidate, has recently returned from presenting his dissertation research at AATE with former ASU student Jamie Romine (PhD, 2006) and Northwestern PhD student Oona Kersey. This fall he is working with the Intergroup Relations Center on campus as an instructor and with Childsplay as a teaching artist. Drew's research interests are in the intersections of children's popular culture, performance, and post-structuralism/critical theory. He is particularly interested in board and card games, children's literature, and film and television. His creative work is in playwriting, and he serves as the playwriting network co-chair for AATE. He also holds an MFA in Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas. Drew and his wife Sharon have a year old daughter, Gillian.

Dena Davis Freed is a third-year PhD student in the Theatre for Youth program. In the past year, Dena has presented at the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Atlanta, the International Drama in Education Association Conference in Hong Kong, and at the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Conference in Vancouver, BC. At ASU, she has served as a teaching assistant for THE 100, Introduction to Theatre, and THE 220, Principles of Dramatic Analysis, and as an ArtsBridge scholar, working with students at Salt River High School. Presently, Dena is teaching THP 482, Theatre for Social Change. Dena's primary research interest and dissertation topic is theatre programs in parochial high schools. Other interests include gender construction in children, community-based art, and feminist research. Dena holds an MA in theatre from University of North Texas and a BFA in theatre from Midwestern State University.

Craig Kosnik, a PhD candidate, recently traveled cross-country from Erie, PA to be a part of ASU's program. Craig is a graduate of Gannon University (BA Theatre '02) and of Emerson College (MA Theatre Education '05). Before moving here, he had a busy summer directing four shows, Runaways, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Dorothy Meets Alice, and Fairy Tale Courtroom, with Erie and its surrounding communities. Craig alsoserved as interim Technical Director at Gannon this July. Most of Craig's work has been with the Erie community and the Erie Playhouse where he has directed over twenty youth productions, including his own original adaptation of four Grimm fairy tales called The Grimm Truth, taught acting classes and camp, and worked in other various capacities on a number of shows. This past year he also was an adjunct faculty member at Mercyhurst College and Allegheny College teaching in their theatre departments. Craig especially enjoys working with and directingyouths 10-18, but feels comfortable working with kids and adults of all ages. Craig is looking forward to the program and is already excited that he has made so many new colleagues and friends. He couldn't ask for a nicer department.

Jen Yin Lin is from Taiwan. She is currently a third-year doctoral student in the Theatre for Youth program. Jen received her master's degree in Theatre Practice from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, focusing on Psychophysical Actor Training and intercultural theatre. Jen is also an experienced high school teacher, practitioner, performer and director for TFY in Taiwan. She was awarded (by the Government of Taiwan) a National Scholarship in supporting her research and Studies in the U.S. Her research interests include Theatre for Social Change and Youth Theatre in Taiwan. She is especially interested in working with young people in exploring racial and cultural identities through theatre. In the past year, Jen worked as a researcher, facilitator, performer, and director in order to stretch the width and depth of her work. Jen and her colleagues presented a devised theatre piece, Re-imagining Yellow, which is a performance as research project, to significant academic conferences in Toronto, Minneapolis, and Hong Kong. She also facilitated a workshop session: "How to explore cultural conflicts by transforming children games in a multicultural classroom," at the AATE conference 2007.

Matt Omasta is a theatre scholar and teaching artist specializing in theatre for young audiences and educational drama. His eclectic background in the performing arts includes work with students from the elementary through graduate levels in various areas of the theatre including drama pedagogy, acting, playwriting, puppetry and dramatic theory / analysis.

As a doctoral candidate in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University, his primary research interests include the history of drama education as well as corporate theatre for young audiences. Also at ASU he serves as president of the Arizona Association for Theatre Scholarship & Service and as assembly president for the Graduate & Professional Student Association.

At the national level, he co-chairs the New Guard of the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, serves on the Nominating Committee of the Southeastern Theatre Conference's Theatre for Youth Division, and is an active member of numerous (inter)national theatre & educational associations. His recent and upcoming work can be seen at forums such as the International Drama Educators Association World Congress; the Comparative Drama Conference; Social Theory, Politics and the Arts; the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, and a variety of state & regional conferences.

Before coming to ASU, Matt served as an instructor at Emerson College in Boston, as a performer and talent coordinator with Walt Disney Entertainment and as an administrator with the non-profit Florida Studio Theatre. He holds a Masters Degree in Theatre Education from Emerson College, as well as an undergraduate degree in Drama from Ithaca College. He is the recent recipient of SETC's Robert Porterfield Graduate Award, ASU's Lin Wright Endowed Fellowship in Theatre for Youth, and the ARTSWORK Research Award in Children and the Arts.

Heather Stickeler is a PhD candidate and the marketing and communications manager at the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, the national service association for community arts education located in New York City. Heather's dissertation examines how community-based youth theatre experiences enable teens to participate positively in a larger community building process. For the past year, she has worked with three community-based youth ensembles in New York City: Find Your Light, a playwriting/performance program for teens associated with the NYC shelter care system; viBeStages, an all-girls ensemble that is part of viBe Theater Experience; and Ifetayo Youth Ensemble of Ifetayo Cultural Arts Facility in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Heather taught Theatre for Social Change in the School of Theatre and Film for two years, and co-founded the arts-based civic dialogue project, Phoenix Speaks, as part of this experience. She also co-wrote and directed the T.I.E. piece, "Somewhere Else," which was created and performed in collaboration with the Theatre for Youth Touring Class. Her research on community-based theatre and education has been published in the International Journal of the Arts in Society, Perspectives on Public Affairs and TYA Today, among others. In 2006, she received the prestigious Winifred Ward Scholarship from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), and currently serves as co-chair of AATE's college/university/research network.

Phyllis Wong is a third-year PhD student in Theatre for Youth. She spent the summer in Hong Kong where she performed a devised piece, Re-Imagining Yellow, at the International Drama and Education Associations Conference. Re-Imagining Yellow stems from Phyllis' research into the ways in which children and adults perform and construct their identities as Asian or Asian American. She also went to Vancouver where she participated in a panel called Just Around the Riverbend: Wading Through Disney Pedagogy, where she explored racial representations of ethnic minorities in Disney sitcoms. She also led a roundtable discussion called Deconstructing Transracial and Transcultural Adoption in Lily Plants a Garden.She performed her autoethnographic piece "Resident Alien" at this year's Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, as well asthe Qualitative Inquiry conference. She is currently writing her dissertation where sheexploresthe role of conflict in the construction of self-identity and culture amongstAsian American girls. She is also an instructor for Theatre for Social Changeand a teaching assistant for Dramatic Analysis. Phyllis takes a keen interest in creating doorways between theory, practice and performancethrough her work.

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