Applied Theatre&TEACHING
“Joanna is an incredible writer and facilitator and has been a teaching artist for many years. I've been blown away by the level of care and thought she puts in everything, from productions of her own plays, to classes for unhoused youth.” - Tracy Sayre, co-founder of Moonshot Initiative
Teaching
Joanna is a teaching fellow in the Theatre department at Brooklyn College. She taught at both Brooklyn College and Vassar College.
MA Applied Theatre (First Class Honors)
After completing a dual BA in Theatre and Human Rights at Bard College, Joanna received her MA in Applied Theatre (first class honors) from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has training in: Forum Theatre, Theatre in Prisons, Inter-Generational Arts, Public Health, Theatre with displaced individuals, Theatre of the Oppressed, and Disability and the arts.
Graduation ceremony for MA in Applied Theatre: Drama in Educational, Community & Social Contexts (Graduated with First Class Honors). Goldsmiths College, University of London. December 2013.
The 52nd Street Project: Project EXChange
Joanna worked with The 52nd Street Project’s Producing Director Gus Rogerson to create the first program in their new Project Exchange. As inaugural Playmaking Director of the Project Exchange, she helped develop a program that brought the Project’s Playmaking classes to transitional housing units across New York. Led classes in the housing units, co-produced new works of young playwrights, and was part of building a team of mentors.
BewilderArts
“Taking this workshop with BewilderArts...inspired me to think differently about how accessible [my] creative voice actually is. This workshop helped me realize—especially as a writer—that voice can be awoken very easily with the brilliant expressive tools the facilitators introduced...I certainly walked away with applicable tools I can immediately use in my own personal endeavors and with my students as I continue my teaching artist work.”
Founder and Director of BewilderArts, a unique workshop collective. BewilderArts helped curate initiatives for and by teaching artists, practitioners, activists, mentors and participants. Working in solidarity, BewilderArts explored the communal & humanitarian potentials of art, valuing the workshop space as a place of constant discussion and learning.
Devising and facilitating free and open workshops on a range of topics - from arts activism, arts and sustainability, and writing for performance and community, BewilderArts partnered with independent practitioners as well as established organizations including The Center for Arts Education, Stella Adler Outreach, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Writers Coalition, The Forum Project and Planet Connections.
Conference presenter at itac4 at carnegie hall
Sold out “The Senses in Storytelling Workshop” with co-creator / presenter Carrie Hage
Early Childhood ARTS Ed
Joanna has vast experience devising and leading creative early education programming in-school and after-school. Her lessons / workshops include drama, visual art-making, movement, music, photography, and in-depth storytelling engaging with history and community.
ADDITIONAL TEACHING ARTIST / ACTIVIST FACILITATION
Stella Adler Outreach (New York, NY) - Provided one-on-one arts mentoring for people in solitary confinement
plai Theatre (New York, NY) - Program coordinator and leader of therapeutic drama workshops for adults and children with developmental difference
React / Rewrite (London, UK) - Issue-based workshops and creative projects for teens
Bede House (London, UK) - Facilitator of peer-to-peer workshops for adults with developmental difference
The Young Storytellers Foundation (New York, NY) - Mentor for Stage to Screen Program
The Reproductive Health and Research Unit (Johannesburg, SA) - led arts / activist workshops for women and children
The New Group (New York, NY) - Assistant facilitator for teen songwriting classes
Millbrook Playhouse (PA) - Led improv, writing and play devising program for youth
Heartsong (NY) - Art therapy programming for youth with developmental difference
Skills Center for Homeless Adults and Children (San Francisco, CA) - Art classes for youth