2025 AATE National Conference
Below are summaries of the dynamic panels, interactive workshops, and inspiring performances that will shape this summer’s Conference. These sessions offer tools, fresh ideas, and innovative teaching practices for theatre educators, artists, and scholars dedicated to engaging young people and enriching communities through the arts.
Abby Thompson
Devised Theater Process for and with Youth in Foster Care
Explore hands-on techniques for devising theater with youth in foster care, emphasizing advocacy and community engagement through real-life examples from the Alex in Windyland project.
Alevia R-Plyam
Stages of Freedom: Jewish Narratives in American Theatre
This panel examines how Jewish identity and liberation are represented in American theater, using dramaturgical analysis of key works to explore tradition, activism, and transformation.
Amanda Dawson & Emma Colburn
"I Wasn’t Taught That!": Professional Development and Learning Alongside Your Students
A candid discussion about evolving as educators, embracing new methodologies, and learning in tandem with students to navigate the changing landscape of theatre education.
Andrew Aaron Valdez & Maya Louise Shed
Cultivating Growth: Nurturing Community Roots with Applied Theatre
Participants will explore how applied theatre fosters inclusive, community-driven change through relationship-building, interactive activities, and creative empathy practices.
Anna Lund & Lisa Goss
Values and Legacy: The Story of You
Offered by the Skirball Cultural Center, this session uses immigration stories and values-based storytelling to foster empathy, critical thinking, and legacy-building through hands-on activities.
Ashley Forman & Josh Bickford
Beyond the Stage: Devised Theater, Visual Art, and Multidisciplinary Storytelling with Precipice Theater Team
Engage in a hands-on workshop exploring how devised theater combined with movement, writing, and visual art can expand storytelling, deepen ensemble-building, and connect communities—both onstage and through creative artifacts like zines and illustrated books.
Bekah LaCoste
Beyond the Blueprint: Conceptual Set Design with/for Neurodivergent Minds
Reimagine set design as a flexible, inclusive process that accommodates and celebrates neurodivergent creativity through conceptual and performer-centered approaches.
Cecilia Abarca & Steven Higginbotham
You’re Not the Boss of Me!: Collaboration in the Classroom
A fun, fast-paced devised theatre workshop that introduces the Six Principles of Collaboration, culminating in the live creation and performance of original group-devised stories.
Christopher Totten & Jake Chen
Change Your Practice, Change Your World: Artivism in Action
Learn how to embed social justice into arts organizations through case studies, interactive dialogue, and practices from New Victory’s Speak Up, Act Out youth advocacy program.
Daniel Park
Breaking Down Decision-Making
This participatory workshop provides tools for equitable, strategic decision-making by analyzing and redefining hierarchical and horizontal processes in educational and artistic spaces.
Donna Seage
Theatre Games for Technical Theatre
Hands-on and ready-to-use games that bring fun, collaboration, and creativity into the technical theatre classroom—because tech deserves play too!
Elizabeth Brendel Horn
Serious Play: Promoting Joy and Healing Through Bedside Pediatric Theatre
Discover how The Jeanette M. Gould Traveling Theater creates joyful, therapeutic bedside theatre experiences for hospitalized children through play-based performance.
Emilio G. Robles & Justin Wade
"Tradition–Change–Progress": Emerging Partner Collaborations Preparing Teaching Artists
Explore collaborative narratives from two distinct organizations preparing teaching artists, and reflect on how shared goals bridge diverse experiences to foster youth-centered applied theatre.
Emily Garven
Building a Thriving Theater Program from the Ground Up
Learn practical strategies and receive a toolkit for launching inclusive, trauma-informed theater programs in under-resourced schools, with focus on sustainability, advocacy, and engagement.
Evan Mack & Dr. Morgan Soja
Dragon’s Breath: Igniting SEL Through a Magical Children’s Theater Piece
This interactive session explores how the award-winning children’s opera Dragon’s Breath uses performance to support social-emotional learning and emotional intelligence in young audiences.
Jenna Messina & Thomas Kazmierczak
Creating Theatre Curriculum that Opens Dialogue and Facilitates Change
Teaching Artists at the Cleveland Play House use trauma-informed care and culturally relevant teaching to create safe and constructive educational environments. Their four-pillar theatre education model supports artistic and social-emotional growth while fostering multi-generational dialogue. This session outlines how to develop theatre curricula that prompt community engagement and social change using examples from CPH Family Theatre Productions and the CARE Theatre Education Program.
Jeri Hammond & Anika Nayak
Teacher Leader Cohort (TLC): Creating Growth & Change through Deep Examination of Practice
Educators from Wheelock Family Theatre share insights from their Teacher Leader Cohort (TLC), a group engaged in monthly collaborative reflection. The workshop explores how small-scale reflective practices create large-scale change. Using feedback protocols from the Center for Leadership and Educational Equity, participants will explore real classroom issues, engage in praxis, and model equity-centered tools for reflective teaching.
Jessica Shaw
Learning, Leading, Thriving: Teaching the Next Generation of Theatre Makers
This workshop presents student-centered teaching strategies designed to innovate theatre education practices. Participants will leave with ready-to-implement methods and projects tailored to various learning environments, challenging the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset.
Jo Beth Gonzalez, Dana Edell, & Nigel Semaj
Fostering the Wisdom & Guidance of Emerging Writers of Color: A Workshop and Discussion
This workshop supports global majority educators and artists in crafting publishable narratives and scholarship. It introduces the Teachers of Color Writers’ Collective and explores opportunities for writing partnerships and submissions to the Youth Theatre Journal and a forthcoming book. Participants will generate ideas and build writing community connections.
Jo Beth Gonzalez & Genevieve Simon
Envisioning the Future of Trans Identity on Stage
This discussion-based session invites participants to imagine inclusive and nuanced representations of trans identities in theatre. Featuring a reading of Simon’s new play Punch Back, the session will prompt collaborative dialogue on script development, community support, and strategies to resist political oppression of trans voices in theatre.
Joe Salvatore
Using Verbatim Performance to Disrupt Discrimination in Healthcare Delivery
Participants will experience a workshop based on the NYC Health Equity Project, which uses verbatim performance to expose healthcare discrimination across intersections of identity. Attendees will learn how artist-researchers turned interviews into performances and piloted interventions with NYC healthcare workers. The session models ethnodrama techniques and shares early results.
John Newman, Carl Walton II, Ananias Dixon, & Eric Coble
Tradition of Youth Playwriting at Cleveland School of the Arts
This panel explores the youth playwriting program at Cleveland School of the Arts. Students receive mentorship from teachers, alumni, and professionals while writing full-length plays. Panelists include graduates who co-founded D.O.C. Studios and playwright Eric Coble. The program is detailed in John Newman’s book Playwriting in Schools.
Jonathan P. Jones
Establishing Communities of Practice among Drama Educators: Revisiting Learning to Teach Drama – A Case Narrative Approach
This hands-on workshop supports drama educators in forming communities of practice. Participants create and peer-review case narratives from their own teaching using a structured “describe, analyze, apply” feedback protocol. The workshop promotes reflection and offers actionable next steps for practice. A Zoom follow-up will assess implementation.
Jonathan P. Jones
Generating The Matrix: Creating a Publishing Guide for AATE
In this working session, participants will collaborate to draft a publishing guide for AATE. Tasks include identifying publication steps, compiling a journal database, and creating a repository of existing scholarship. All attendees are encouraged to share their CVs to populate the resource.
Jonathan P. Jones
So You Wannabe a Scholar: How to Turn Your Conference Presentation into a Journal Article
This panel and workshop demystifies the publication process for theatre educators. Led by experienced scholars and editors, the session provides strategies for transforming conference presentations into journal articles. Participants will begin outlining their own article ideas.
Jose Casas, Gustave Weltsek, Tiffany Trent, Shavonne Coleman, & Phyllis Wong
(Re)Imagining TYA From a BIPOC Perspective: Confronting Eurocentric Academic Scholarship
This panel addresses the scarcity of BIPOC-centered scholarship in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). It advocates for expanded academic inquiry into marginalized youth narratives and explores strategies for encouraging new scholarship. The goal is to reimagine and reshape the field to be more inclusive and equitable.
Julia Reimer
Encouraging Dialogue through Interview-based Theatre and Storytelling Projects
This interactive workshop explores how student-led oral history and interview-based theatre can foster empathy and dialogue. Participants will examine ethical considerations, story development processes, and devising techniques. The session offers practical tools for incorporating community storytelling into educational theatre projects.
Kanea MacDonald
From Breaking to Blooming: Unearthing Hope to Enable Rebuilding
This digital storytelling workshop explores how photo, writing, and personal narrative can reveal hope amid despair. Inspired by youth in the Texas borderlands, participants will reflect on the metaphor of breaking and blooming—transforming trauma and struggle into beauty and strength. Attendees will engage in a condensed version of this empowering exercise.
Kristie Farr & Michelle Smiley
Exploring Theatrical Interpreting – Creating Equivalent Experiences
This workshop introduces theatrical interpreting techniques that foster inclusive experiences for Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences. Focusing on zoned and shadowed interpreting, the session examines how interpreters, directors, and casts collaborate to integrate accessibility into live performance.
Lauren Neuwirth
So, Your Music Director Bailed... Music Directing for Non-Musicians
Designed for theatre educators without a formal music background, this session offers practical tips on vocal health, teaching strategies, and musical adaptation. Participants will explore ways to confidently lead musical theatre projects even in the absence of a dedicated music director.
Madeleine Bagnall & Ezra Osburn
Making Theatre for Six Senses: Seesaw Theatre’s Sensory Theatre Workshop
Learn how Seesaw Theatre creates original, sensory-rich performances for neurodivergent and disabled audiences. The session includes hands-on training, exploration of improvisational tools and props, and a discussion of inclusive theatre practices that center interactivity and accessibility from the outset.
Maria Beery
Adapting the Rehearsal Process for Students with Sensory Processing and Autism Spectrum Disorders
This presentation shares strategies for adapting rehearsal processes to support students with Sensory Processing and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Participants will learn about common challenges and explore techniques including repetition exercises and spatial accommodations. A guided demonstration allows for reflection on inclusive theatre practices.
Marie Kohler
Playwriting Workshop: Adapting Classic Literature to Script for Theater
This interactive session guides participants through the adaptation of classic literature for the stage. With a focus on honoring original texts while crafting dynamic theatrical works, attendees will analyze source material and engage in collaborative writing exercises.
Mateo Hernandez
Whose Play Is It?: Culturally Specific Theatre in White Institutions
Using his experience directing the Latinx play Luna at ZACH Theatre, Mateo Hernandez leads a discussion on producing culturally specific work within predominantly white institutions. The session explores cultural ownership, translation, and strategies to sustain authentic representation.
Matt Webster
Bridging Old and New: Rebuilding Relationships in the Drama Classroom
This workshop addresses the erosion of student-teacher relationships post-pandemic and offers tools to restore trust and engagement. Focusing on the drama classroom, the session emphasizes the social-emotional connections necessary for effective theatre education.
Megan Raab & Elyse Orecchio
From Spiderman to Spotify: Connecting Teens Across the World Through Theatre and Twinning
This session showcases a “twinning” model where teen theatre groups from Brooklyn and Turkey collaborated remotely on performances. Participants will experience a sample activity and plan how to implement their own international exchange using theatre as a bridge.
Michelle Gram Giesen
Making Connections Through Story Drama
Centered around the picture book Encounter, this story drama workshop demonstrates how embodied, imaginative activities can deepen student engagement. Participants will explore techniques like writing in role, soundscapes, and guided improvisation, learning how to integrate drama across the curriculum.
Morganne Evans & Saya Jenks
Supporting Early Career Theatre Professionals: Enriching Workforce Development with Theatre Practices
Drawing on programs at The Public Theatre and workshops in improvisation, this session focuses on helping early-career theatre professionals develop interpersonal and workplace skills. Attendees will engage in sample exercises and reflect on how theatre tools can enhance professional development.
New Guard (Facilitated by Alexa Nastasi and Sam Briggs)
Victoria Yordt
Feelings Forecast: Social and Emotional Learning In-Practice for the K-8 Drama Classroom
This session focuses on integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) practices in K-8 drama classrooms. Participants will explore how theater educators can foster emotional intelligence, empathy, and self-awareness through drama activities, supporting students’ social and emotional development alongside their artistic growth.
Ava Mize
Competitive Educational Theater: Helpful or Harmful?
This session examines the effects of competition in educational theater and its potential harms to students' community-building and emotional safety. Through a mini-workshop, participants will explore how competition may influence student performance and group dynamics by comparing two performance groups—one with competition and the other without—followed by a discussion on the effects of competitive environments in theater education.
Devin Klugh
The Pandemic, Precarity, and a Pedagogy of Hope: Learning from Public High School Theatre Teachers’ Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Session Description:
This research-based session presents findings from interviews with public high school theater teachers about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion focuses on how teachers adapted their practices, curriculum, and performances to continue providing theater education in virtual, hybrid, and socially-distanced formats. Attendees will reflect on the resilience of teachers and discuss how these adaptations can inspire future theater education practices in an ever-changing educational landscape.
Annase Raji
The 2025 Courageous Cadence: Performing Justice Through Spoken Word Poetry
Session Description:
This session explores the Courageous Cadence project, which uses spoken word poetry, devised theater, and personal storytelling to empower youth to address social injustices, including racial, gender, and climate justice. Attendees will learn how youth-led arts-based research can promote justice-centered dialogue, activism, and leadership through performance. The session will include best practices for integrating justice-oriented performance into educational and community settings, and strategies for empowering young people as leaders in advocacy and social change.
Nigel Semaj
Reimagining Technique: Teaching Theatre Skills in a Changing World
Engage in collaborative inquiry around reimagining how foundational acting, movement, and voice techniques are taught, with a focus on experiential and culturally responsive methods that resonate with Gen Z learners and today’s social realities.
Noelle Diane Johnson
Implementing Holistic and Effective DEI&A Strategies in Theatre Leadership and Higher Education Theatre Classrooms
This interactive workshop introduces The Artists Heal® Method, a groundbreaking framework supporting DEI&A implementation through a holistic, trauma-informed, and anti-racist approach. The session focuses on dismantling harmful institutional systems while fostering psychological safety in classrooms. Participants will explore DEI&A implementation strategies in higher education, identify dysfunctions within their organizations, and leave with tools to lead DEI&A work effectively.
Norah Swiney
Creating Theatre across Generations: Undergraduates and Older Adults with Dementia
This workshop explores collaborative theatre between undergraduate students and older adults, including those with dementia. Participants will learn the Timeslips method, a creative storytelling process that facilitates cross-generational theatre-making. Attendees will engage in the creation of a devised piece, learning how such initiatives foster community connection and provide therapeutic benefits for older adults.
Rachel Hoey
Cultivating Healthy Practices in 2025 - The Early Stages of Community Building (Artist-Educators working with K-12 and Undergraduates)
This session focuses on the first stage of community building in artistic settings, specifically within K-12 and undergraduate classrooms. By emphasizing healthy communication, inclusivity, and ensemble-building, the session equips participants with tools for creating safe and lasting educational environments. Attendees will engage in group activities and collaborative problem-solving to develop actionable strategies for their teaching practices.
Randy Stewart
Theatre Teacher: Wellness in Warm-ups and Welcoming
This session rethinks traditional drama warm-ups and classroom preparation, focusing on integrating wellness into theatre practices. Participants will explore strategies to modify warm-ups, consider the well-being of both students and educators, and develop new approaches to class prep and emotional regulation post-pandemic. The workshop includes practical tips on how to refresh your approach to class warm-ups and self-care.
Rebecca Burcher
The Universal Design for Learning: Individualized Education Strategies Unpacked
This session offers an overview of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which provides a research-based approach to ensuring accessible learning for all students. Attendees will explore UDL’s nine domains, learn strategies for inclusive education, and gain practical tools for engaging students across diverse learning needs and backgrounds.
Rebecca Burcher & Will Potts
Educational Strategies for Teaching Artists: Keeping Teaching Artistry Sustainable
This session equips teaching artists with a range of educational strategies tailored to diverse learning environments. Participants will explore classroom management, behavior strategies, and pedagogical models, with a focus on avoiding burnout and sustaining their practice. The session will offer practical tools for both classroom success and personal well-being.
Rebecca Pogue Fields
Sustaining Funding for School Programs and Retaining Teaching Artists
This session highlights the Alliance Theatre's efforts to navigate funding challenges and retain teaching artists for its school programs. Participants will learn about diverse funding strategies, including government and corporate support, and how to replicate these efforts at their own organizations. The session also covers retention strategies like pay increases, training, and health benefits for teaching artists.
Rives Collins, Dr. Joan Lancourt, Alexandra López, & Kaitlyn Fields
The Past Empowers the Present: Democracy and the Performing Arts
This session delves into the untold story of Junior Programs, Inc., a pioneering theatre company dedicated to touring professional theatre for young audiences. Participants will engage in discussions about how the arts can support democracy and respond to social challenges, drawing lessons from the past to inform future work in arts education.
Roxanne Schroeder-Arce & Mateo Hernandez
When “Performing For” Becomes “Performing With”: Teatro Vivo’s Annual Pastorela
Teatro Vivo’s semi-annual production of La Pastorela has evolved to foster deeper community engagement. This session will explore the shift from performing for an audience to creating interactive, participatory experiences with the audience. The presenters will discuss the production’s growth and its role in building micro-communities, particularly among youth and adults in the local Austin community.
Sam Leopold & Camille Simone Thomas
From Stage to Change: Reimagining Theater Education with SEL
This interactive session explores the "Stages of Change" model applied to theater education and social-emotional learning (SEL). By reflecting on both innovative practices, such as the Student Voice and Engagement (SVE) program, and the core values of theater education, participants will engage in hands-on activities, collaborative discussions, and reflective exercises to explore how to sustain student engagement while maintaining traditional values.
Samantha Briggs
Role Play for Change: Exploring Censorship in Education
Amid growing educational censorship, educators are challenged to address critical topics like identity, power, and privilege. This session invites educators to explore censorship and book banning through improvisational exercises, fostering dialogue on educational restrictions. Participants will explore the impact of censorship, community, and local policies while developing strategies to engage meaningfully with students and communities.
Sara Berliner
Eating Disorder Prevention in Theatre Education
The session addresses the prevalence of disordered eating among adolescents and how theater education environments may inadvertently promote risk factors. Participants will learn strategies to incorporate prevention practices in pedagogy, address anti-fat bias, and support positive identity development, with an emphasis on creating a healthy classroom culture.
Sara Berliner
Yardsticks: Defining Evaluation and Success
Join a dynamic exploration of how we define, measure, and evaluate success in youth and community-based arts programs. This session invites participants to grapple with the tensions between funder expectations, artistic goals, participant impact, and community engagement. Through guided discussion, we’ll examine what outcomes we can and should measure, the importance of clarity versus flexibility in project design, and how to assess whether our work is truly effective. Designed for educators, artists, and administrators, this session offers a collaborative space to reflect on the complexities of evaluation and develop more meaningful and equitable approaches to measuring impact.
Seth Laidlaw & Tia Powell Harris
Becoming Change Agents and Community Builders
This session focuses on how New York City Center’s Education & Community Engagement department has expanded its reach, serving historically underrepresented communities. Participants will learn about building sustainable partnerships and internal leadership, with a focus on enhancing accessibility, inclusivity, and collaboration in community-based arts education.
Shelby Newport & Matthew Tibbs
Case Making for the Arts: How to Lead in Tumultuous Times
In an era of post-COVID challenges, leaders in arts organizations must adapt their strategies. This interactive workshop will help participants use personal and organizational values to lead effectively, providing new tools for managing teams, networking, and developing strategies to enhance the impact of theater programs during difficult times.
Steven James Higginbotham, Dallas Thomas, & Cecilia Guadalupe Abarca
Stories that Soar!: Creating Collaborative Partnerships to Transform Educational Communities
This panel discusses how university theater programs can partner with community-centered arts organizations to transform education and build regional artistic infrastructure. Participants will explore best practices for engaging elementary schools and high schools in creative, literacy-based, devised theater projects, and the impact of arts education on regional communities.
Jenny Hersch & Alex Leiva
Kindergarten Playwrights: Monologue Writing with Kinders
This session provides a manageable process for introducing very young children to script writing, allowing them to compose monologues. The session will also include techniques to differentiate the process for varying student abilities and encourage vocal and movement development as part of their creative journey.
Veronica Rodriguez Ballesteros & Alberto Iozzia
If all the World's a Stage… Let’s Go Global!
This workshop uses theater to explore cultural differences, promoting intercultural understanding and cross-cultural communication. Participants will engage in dramatic exercises aimed at developing cultural awareness and will leave with strategies to integrate these lessons into their teaching, fostering global citizenship and acceptance.
Walker Zupan
Mapping Environmental (In)justice with Youth Through Applied Theatre
This workshop addresses the climate crisis and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. Through theater activities and visual arts, participants will explore ways to engage youth in conversations about environmental (in)justice, helping them trace historical power systems and envision more equitable futures.
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