2020 AATE National Conference
July 23 - August 2, 2020

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               Keynote Panelists

Ricky Araiza

Ricky is an Arizona based theatre artist. A graduate from Arizona State University with a B.A. in Theatre in 2004, Ricky went on to become an ensemble member of Childsplay Inc., in Tempe, AZ from 2004 to present. In 2009 he decided to step away from professional work and study Physical Ensemble Based Theatre at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA. In 2017, he received his M.F.A. from Arizona State University. Ricky continues to work as a director, actor and teaching artist throughout the Valley and is currently the artistic director of Teatro Bravo, a Latinx theatre company in Phoenix.

Estefanía Fadul

Estefanía Fadul is a Colombian-American NYC-based stage director and producer, focusing primarily on new plays and musicals. Current work includes Carla’s Quince, an immersive bilingual virtual theatre experience to mobilize the Latinx vote created collaboratively by The Voting Project Ensemble, and La Paloma Prisoner by Raquel Almazán (Next Door @ New York Theatre Workshop). Recent directing includes the world premieres of Christina Quintana’s Azul (Southern Rep) and Scissoring (INTAR), Stefan Ivanov’s The Same Day (Sfumato Theatre, Bulgaria), Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska’s musical Agent 355 (Chautauqua Theatre Company), Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice (Heritage Theatre Festival), James Anthony Tyler’s Pranayama (Juilliard), and Matthew Paul Olmos’ asi van los fantasmas de méxico (Repertorio Español). Estefanía has developed new plays and musicals off-Broadway and regionally at the Public Theater, Playwrights' Realm, Long Wharf, The Drama League, Artists Repertory Theatre, Milagro, Musical Theatre Factory, LPAC, and Hi-Arts, among others. She has guest directed and/or mentored directing students at training programs including Julliard, SUNY Purchase, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Fordham, and NYU. Estefanía is an alumna of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center/NNPN’s National Directors Fellowship, the Foeller Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Drama League Directors Project’s Fall Fellowship and TV Directing Fellowship, the Van Lier Fellowship at Repertorio Español, and the NALAC Leadership Institute. She is a co-leader of the New Georges Jam, and a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee, the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, and SDC. B.A. Vassar College. www.estefaniafadul.com

 Dontá McGilvery

Dontá McGilvery is a Ph.D. Theatre for Youth & Communities student, scholar-activist, and teaching artist. His primary focus is to continue using theatre as a tool for liberation, spirituality, and empowerment. As such, his scholarship focuses on decentering white supremacy in theatre programs in higher education and amplifying voices and theatrical contributions of Black playwrights, scholars, and practitioners. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Sleeveless Acts, a drama company that joins communities to co-create theatre with radical imagination.

 He is the recipient of the 2019 ASU MLK Jr. Student Servant-Leadership Award, a 2018-2019 ASU Spirit of Service Scholar, and he is recognized as an ASU "Changemaker". Mr. McGilvery has led drama workshops and plays for 20 years. His plays have toured throughout several cities on the West coast and has been presented in theaters, universities, churches, k-12 schools, and various other community spaces. 

Johnny Saldaña 

Johnny Saldaña is Professor Emeritus from Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Film, Dance, and Theatre in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where he taught from 1981 to 2014. He received his BFA in Drama and English Education in 1976, and MFA in Drama Education in 1979 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Saldaña is the author of Longitudinal Qualitative Research: Analyzing Change through Time (AltaMira Press, 2003); The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (3rd ed., Sage Publications, 2016; translated into Korean, Turkish, and Chinese-Simplified); Fundamentals of Qualitative Research (Oxford University Press, 2011); Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (Left Coast Press, 2011); Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind (Sage Publications, 2015); a commissioned title for Routledge’s World Library of Educationalists Series, Writing Qualitatively: The Selected Works of Johnny Saldaña (Routledge, 2018); co-author with the late Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman for Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook (4th ed., Sage Publications, 2020; translated into Korean); co-author with Matt Omasta for Qualitative Research: Analyzing Life (Sage Publications, 2018); and the editor of Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre (AltaMira Press, 2005).

Saldaña’s methods works have been cited and referenced in more than 16,000 research studies conducted in over 130 countries, in disciplines such as K-12 and higher education, medicine and health care, technology and social media, business and economics, government and social services, the fine arts, the social sciences, human development, and communication. Saldaña’s research in qualitative inquiry, data analysis, and performance ethnography has received awards from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, the National Communication Association—Ethnography Division, the American Educational Research Association’s Qualitative Research Special Interest Group, The Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, New York University’s Program in Educational Theatre, and the ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He has published a wide range of research articles in journals such as Research in Drama Education, The Qualitative Report, Multicultural Perspectives, Youth Theatre Journal, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Teaching Theatre, Research Studies in Music Education, Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, the International Journal of Qualitative Methods,and Qualitative Inquiry, and has contributed several chapters to research methods handbooks.