Online Workshops

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Registration Fee: Member: Free, Non-Member Student $20, Non-Member $40

Continuing the discussion from “The Basics,” this webinar will contextualize case-making to advance theatre education in your own community. How do we connect with local leaders like city officials, school board members, funders, etc.? Together, participants will think about new and innovative ways to connect theatre education to other social causes to leverage grassroots and community-based movements.

Presenter: Karla E. Rivera

As a storyteller, theatre artist, community organizer, and advocate; Karla E. Rivera has leveraged her background to create impact in educational institutions and community-based organizations for over a decade.

From violence prevention outreach initiatives, to her most recent role as the director of public affairs at Ingenuity, Karla is a recognized leader in building collaborative spaces with diverse stakeholders to design and implement programs, advance policy, and foster civic discourse. 

At Ingenuity, she works to advance the organization’s mission of ensuring equitable access to arts education in Chicago Public Schools. She also serves as part of the writing team for what may become Chicago’s first ever Cultural Bill of Rights. At the state level, Karla serves as the co-chair of a state-wide work group which developed the nation’s first weighted K-12 arts-focused indicator for the Illinois Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan (pending approval from the Illinois State Board of Education).

Karla is also a consultant, and remains an active artist as a company member at 2nd Story and a collaborator with Free Street Theater in Chicago. Recently, she helped make Chicago history as one of the Lead Artists in Free Street’s “50 in 50”, where the company held fifty performances in all of Chicago’s 50 wards in one day. She holds a BA from Columbia College Chicago, has studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and is a graduate of the Greater Good Nonprofit Leaders Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

Making the Case for Theatre Education: With The Government
Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 3:00pm (EST) 

 Presented by: Jeff Poulin, Creative Generation 

Having explore the grassroots case-making for theatre education and social movements, this webinar will explore the advocacy infrastructure in the United States to advance theatre education. Presenters will cover what is happening nationally, examples of state-wide efforts, and envision opportunities for theatre educators to plug in.

SPECIAL EDITION: Making the Case for Theatre Education: Responding in Times of Crisis
Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 3:00pm (EST) 

In this special webinar, participants will engage in a structured dialogue in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Guests will share their practical, hands-on experiences (and resources) about the impact of the crisis on the theatre education community, including on funding, school/districts, and for teaching artists and community organizations. In this non-recorded session, attendees will learn, process, and connect with peers to focus on opportunities, new innovations, and hope.

If you have registered and have not received Log-On details, please check your spam folder or call Alexis (202-909-1194) 
for assistance.

This session is intended to unify the community, be offered free-of-charge, be a safe place (read: not recorded), and amplify voices from our communities with practical examples, resources, and actions to take. I have not yet asked Heleya, but we have been collaborating on other items and I believe she would be open to joining.

Heleya de Barros is an actor, teaching artist, and arts education advocate whose work focuses on how to use theatre skills across disciplines. Heleya has served as faculty at The New School for Drama and has taught with such organizations as Lincoln Center Theater, McCarter Theater Center, New York Theatre Workshop, The Center for Arts Education, People’s Theatre Project, Young Audiences New York, The Geffen Playhouse, The Los Angeles Music Center, The Orange County Performing Arts Center, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Will & Company, CRE Outreach, and 24th Street Theatre. She is the Executive Director of The Association of Teaching Artists, the oldest organization serving teaching artists in the country and formerly sat on the Board of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. She is also the Director of Arts Education for Arts Corps in Seattle,WA. As an actor Heleya earned her Actor’s Equity card touring TYA shows to schools and communities. Currently Heleya acts as a performer and researcher with the Verbatim Performance Lab using theatre to examine and uncover unconscious bias. @Heleya_deBarros

Dr. Jennifer Katona, Visual and Performing Arts Sr. Manager for the Norwalk Public Schools. Katona oversees over 80 K-12 arts education staff over 20 schools servicing 12,000 students. Norwalk is a Title 1 district and her work includes curriculum writing, establishment and sustaining quality arts programming K-12 and helping the district move to a stronger arts integration model. Katona is the former director and Founder of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the City College of New York (CCNY), overseeing the certification of pre and in-service Theatre teachers and training of non-certified theatre educators. Through her work at CCNY Jennifer created and oversees the middle school afterschool drama program at PS 161 the neighboring K-8 school in Harlem. 

She is the 2015 recipient of the Lin Wright Special Recognition Award given by the American Alliance for Theatre and Educators (AATE) for Outstanding achievement in Theatre education. She is also the 2014 recipient of the Presidents Award for Outstanding Faculty Service at CCNY.