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Arthur Miller Foundation Fellows Program

The Arthur Miller Theater Education Program was launched in partnership with the Office of Arts & Special Projects at the New York City Department of Education in 2015, with the goal of expanding access to dedicated theater education in public schools. The program provides mentorship, cultural partner residencies, professional development and classroom resources for new certified theater teachers, who are named Arthur Miller Fellows. It also provides tickets for Fellows and their students to attend Broadway shows & other high-quality theater performances. 

In f years, the program has expanded from 15 to 55 Fellows at 55 schools, impacting well over 25,000 elementary, middle and high school students in publicour schools throughout all 5 boroughs of New York City.  It is one of the few existing programs with a focus on integrating theater arts education into the academic day.

Program Supports For Arthur Miller Fellows Include

Mentorship

Each fellow is matched with an experienced theater educator who serves as their mentor while they participate in the program.

Cultural Partner Residencies

Fellows select a multi-week residency for their students on a specific topic of theater, bringing a teaching artist from a celebrated NYC cultural institution into their classroom to work with the students.

Resources

Fellows receive toolkits for their classrooms (including rehearsal cubes, tablets, theater books, DVDs, etc.) and funds for students to attend Broadway shows & other high-quality theater performances.

Professional Development

Fellows are required to participate in professional development workshops and inter-visitations to observe veteran theater educators in action. They are included in a learning community of peers, with whom they network and collaborate. Fellows enjoy special events within the theater community to broaden their repertoire of knowledge in the field.

Arthur Miller Fellows teach units on acting, storytelling, production, playwriting, design, vocal technique and more.  Students enrolled in these areas of study consistently demonstrate that engaging young people in the arts is a humanizing force that cultivates creativity, confidence, accountability, non-verbal communication, and the ability to receive constructive feedback, among countless other life skills.  Administrators have noted that enrollment in a theater class often improves school attendance, focus and SAT scores.

Full evaluation of our program is being conducted by The Hunter College Urban Center for Assessment, Research, & Evaluation (UCARE).

Our Alumni Fellows

Jennifer Aaron

PS/IS 128

Kristin Boccamazzo

JHS 219

Jacqueline del Nido

Gramercy Arts HS

Clayton Drinko

Bronx HS for Medical Science

Matthew Gonzalez

MS 254

Eric Hoffman

Mott Hall: Science and Tech Academy

Linda Key

Fordham HS for the Arts

Talia Marrero

Renaissance HS for Musical Theatre and Technology

Donald Osborne

Bronx Compass HS

Susan Ryan

Energy Tech High School

Lisanne Shaffer

Brooklyn HS for the Arts

Bryn Thorsson

Dreamyard Preparatory School

Our Fellows – Third Year

Benjamin August

The Urban Assembly Maker Academy

Gina Bilardi

High School for Arts, Imagination, and Inquiry

Kelly Brady

P53K

Bryce Cahn

Tompkins Square Middle School

John Lavigne

Edward R Morrow HS

Elyse Lewis

East Fordham Academy for the Arts

Jenni Mabrie

John Adams High School

Ashley Minskoff

Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics

Catherine O'Hagen Blades

IS 383 Philippa Schuyler

Desiree Rosado

Isobel Rooney MS.80

Meredith Smart

Susan E Wagner High School

Arielle Sosland

IS 220 John J Pershing

Our Fellows – Second Year

Jessica Cressionnie

PS 94

Melissa Dupalo

Quest To Learn

Britt Goodman

John Adams High School

Kimberly Rachel Himelman

PS 199

Libby Hollinger

Long Island City High School

Megan Ibarra

PS 148

Joshua Langman

Talent Unlimited

Spencer Leopold-Cohen

East Fordham Academy for the Arts

Britte Marsh

MS 358Q

Amalia Schiff

Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice

Danielle Small

PS 109 Sedgwick School

Kathryn Tejada

PS 250

Meghan Tynan

PS/IS 49 Dorothy Bonawit Kole

Brigid Warnke

Claremont International High School

Samantha Weisberg

JHS 210 Elizabeth Blackwell

Rachel Zweig

PS/IS 206 Joseph Lamb

Our Fellows – First Year

Lisa Battle

PS/IS 128

Rachel Brill

H.E.R.O High School

Rebecca Brown

Juan Morel Campos Secondary School

Maggie Bussard

PS 1X, The Courtlandt School

Lindsie Detota

PS 195

Lauren Durdach

The Children's Lab School

Justin Gray

Brooklyn High School of the Arts

Erica Hill

Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts

Abigail Liddell

MS 61

Jennifer Luong

PS/IS30 Mary White Ovington

Lacy Numbela

Academy for Personal Leadership and Excellence

Aisha San Roman

Central Park East II

Victoria Schmitt

Bronx Studio School of Writers and Artists

Kathreen "Ia" Solis

P.S. 17Q Henry David Thoreau School

Jonathan West

Amistad Dual Language School M311

Our Cultural Partners

Our Mentors

Jenny Campbell

is a director, puppeteer and teacher based in Brooklyn. She has performed most notably for Phantom Limb Company and Basil Twist. She has directed, performed and produced puppetry in short films, children’s shows, pilots and music videos. For five years Jenny ran an award winning middle school theatre program in Houston, TX and now spends much of her time teaching devising and musical theatre in NYC, using conscious collaboration, technology and improvisation techniques geared for middle and upper elementary school students. She also enjoys working with educators to use these techniques in the classroom. She works with ArtsConnection, and Brooklyn Children’s Theatre.

Stephen DiMenna

Stephen DiMenna is a theatre director and educator. He is the Artistic Director of The International Theatre and Literacy Project which conducts theatre workshops for children in developing countries. He was the Co-Artistic Director of The Stargate Theatre Company, a program of Manhattan Theatre Club. He was the founder and Artistic Director of The MCC Theater Youth Company. He is on the faculty at NYU’s Program in Educational Theatre. He is a resident director at The Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. He has directed in New York, Minneapolis and regionally at The Guthrie Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Rattlestick Playwright’s Theatre, MCC Theater, The Daryl Roth Theatre and The Westport Playhouse.

Elizabeth Dunn-Ruiz

holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, an MS in Urban and Multicultural Education from the College of Mount St. Vincent, and a BA in English Literature from Hunter College. Elizabeth completed two years of studio training at the Experimental Theatre Wing of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She taught at South Bronx HS and co-founded Bronx Theatre HS. She has written curriculum for the NYC DOE and National Institute of Mental Health. Presently, she teaches at Bronx Community College, and is a Master Teaching Artist at Roundabout.

Robert Ellman

taught theater for 37 years at James Madison High School in Brooklyn (7 years) and Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn (30 years). He directed over 70 productions and ran the technical theater program for several years at both schools. Since retiring, Bob has worked for the Department of Education working on such programs as Arts Achieve, Middle School Arts Matter, the Shubert Theater Arts Partnership, Theater Blueprint Facilitation, and Broadway Jr., among others. In addition to his work with the Department of Education, he is one of the coordinators of the Tony Award winning Theater Development Fund Open Doors Program and is a Supervisor of Student Teachers for City College of New York/CUNY.

Lisa Hershey

taught theatre for over ten years in NYC public and independent schools, pre-K through college level, including New York University, Talent Unlimited High School, The Bronxville School and Packer Collegiate Institute. She has directed over twenty-five productions, including Oliver!, for which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction. She is the Program Supervisor for Theatre Development Fund’s award-winning Open Doors program, a Theatre Mentor the NYC Dept. of Education Arts Matter Program, and a Supervisor of Student Teachers for CCNY’s Graduate Program in Educational Theatre. As a teaching artist, Lisa has worked for TDF’s Stage Doors and New Audience’s Program, NJPAC and The Institute of Music for Children. Lisa studied acting with Uta Hagen and directing at the Yale Summer Theatre Institute. She has a B.A. in English and Theatre from Barnard College and an M.A. in Educational Theatre from NYU.

Jamie Kalama Wood

Jamie Kalama Wood has performed throughout the world in musical theatre, opera, and classical choral performance. In NYC's Arts Education field, she has worked with many organizations and is currently a Master Teaching Artist with Roundabout Theatre Company, Disney Theatrical Group and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She presents at professional conferences throughout the United States. Jamie taught Theatre at San Diego State University and was the first Artistic and Education Director for Promethean Spark (international company focused on life skills through dance). As a volunteer, Jamie organizes concerts, choirs and musical performances for multiple broadcasts and special events.

Sobha Kavanakudiyil

is Faculty in the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at The City College of New York as well as an Arts Education Consultant having worked with organizations including The New Victory Theatre, Urban Arts Partnership, Apollo Theatre, and Center for Arts Education. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable, National Programming Director for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and President of the Board of Spellbound Theatre.

Anne Pasquale

is a member of the Actors Studio, trained at London Academy of the Dramatic Arts and New York University. She is an actress and playwright committed to performing, creating and discovering theatrical works of universal merit for students ages K-12. This is her second year as a proud member of the Arthur Miller Program Roster. You can find out more about her work at www.livinghistoryprograms.com.

Leah Reddy

is an actor, teaching artist, multimedia producer, and writer. She developed Shakespeare in the Special Education Classroom, a curriculum that connects performing Shakespeare with career readiness skills, in conjunction with Manhattan Shakespeare Project and the Manhattan School for Career Development, a public high school. She is a Master Teaching Artist with Roundabout Theatre Company. Her photography work has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Time Out New York Kids. She writes for Roundabout Theatre Company’s UpStage Playgoer's Guide, and the history blog The Archivist's Mailbag.

Ira Rosenberg

was a member of the Drama Faculty at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts for thirteen years, and taught classes in acting, voice & speech, and Shakespeare, and also directed productions of The Misanthrope, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and The Crucible among many others. He was an actor and director before he began teaching, and is now continuing as a performer after retiring. He has a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania, and two MFAs in Acting.

Joe Salvatore

Joe Salvatore is a playwright, director, and clinical associate professor of Educational Theatre at NYU Steinhardt. Co-creator and director of the Off Broadway production of Her Opponent, a re-staging of the 2016 presidential debates with gender-reversed casting, nominated for Best Unique Theatrical Experience, 2017 Off Broadway Alliance Awards. Director of the newly created Verbatim Performance Lab committed to using verbatim performance techniques as an investigative tool to explore and disrupt preconceived notions and implicit biases across a spectrum of political, cultural, and social beliefs and experiences. Member: Dramatists Guild of America and American Alliance for Theatre and Education. Alumnus: Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Ron Sopyla

Ronald Sopyla has over 35 years of experience in his work as a performer, teaching artist and theater teacher. He has a degree in BA Theater Arts, a Master’s in Education and trained at the American Conservatory Theater. He has acted in regional and off-Broadway theater and in National Tours. As a storyteller and puppeteer, he has worked extensively in schools and libraries, museums and festivals throughout the NYC and NJ area. He recently retired after 14 years as a theater teacher with the NYC DOE. Prior to that he spent many years working as a freelance teaching artist in NYC schools. While working with the DOE he was a participating teacher in the Artful Learning Communities program and as a mentor teacher in the Arts Mondays program. His work for the Artful Learning Communities can be viewed on the Arts Assessment for Learning website.

Feedback from our Arthur Miller Fellows

  • I have been given resources for developing assessments, creating inventive content, and working with best practices...
  • The observations and communication that I have with my mentor really help me plan out my units and reflect on my instruction. It is incredibly helpful to have another professional theater teacher support me in my practice. I believe that I have grown in planning and instruction because of the valuable feedback and support that my mentor provides me.
  • The Arthur Miller Theater Education program has been invaluable to me as I embark on my first year as a DOE theater teacher.
  • My mentor has experience working with my student population (special education) and her insight, feedback and ideas have made all the difference in helping me create a roadmap that best suits their needs while providing creative and immersive theatrical experiences.
  • Teachers don't really have too many leftover funds, and it can be hard to make time to see theatre when your days are so full. Having professional development events that align with performances has been a great way to see and experience some of the best theatre in the world, and also a wonderful way to connect with my colleagues in a social setting.
  • Knowing that I have the support of this program makes me more confident as a theatre teacher, ultimately strengthening my practice.
  • The Arthur Miller Theater Education Program has been, by far, the greatest influence on my teaching practice since I began working as [a drama teacher]. The continued support from the DOE, my mentor, AMF peers, and partner organizations has provided me and, in turn, my students with the highest quality access to performing arts participation and instruction.
  • My classroom is a much more fun, engaging, structured, and productive place for arts learning as a direct result of supports from the Arthur Miller Theater Education Program.
  • Throughout the struggle to keep afloat, sometimes the first thing to go out the window is artistry; my mentor’s feedback, ideas, and perspective have helped me realign my teaching priorities. All new theater teachers should definitely look to the Arthur Miller Fellowship as a way to gain a supportive foundation as they embark on the journey that is teaching.
  • Without the aid from the Arthur Miller Foundation I would be in a very different situation than I am in right now. The Arthur Miller Foundation has given me a support system that not only encourages me to become a stronger educator, but infiltrates the system at my school to create a better environment for the arts.
  • I feel so grateful to be a part of this program. I have many students who struggle in their core classes and thrive in theater class. Theater class offers them a creative outlet, an opportunity to share stories and endless experience working in group settings.

We extend our sincere and heartfelt thanks to Former Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Richard Carranza – Chancellor of NYC Public Schools, Paul King – Executive Director of the Office of Arts & Special Projects, And Peter Avery – Director Of Theater at The NYC DOE, for making our vision a reality.

The Arthur Miller Theater Education Program was created in partnership with Peter Avery who spearheads the program along with our Program Coordinator, Daryl Embry.

First and second year certified theater teachers, who have been hired by a public school within the NYC DOE, apply to our program over the summer through an application process administered by the Office of Arts and Special Projects.

The application period for the Arthur Miller Theater Education Program is typically August 1 - August 31. The application process is now closed for the 2018-2019 school year. If you are a new certified theater teacher with interest in applying for the 2019-2020 school year, please contact: info@arthurmillerfoundation.org

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