Educator Extravaganza

FREE professional development day for teachers

Register for FREE

See below for 2022 details. Keep an eye out for 2023’s exciting offerings to be announced soon.

Schedule:

8:30 am – 9:00 am: Sign in and refreshments
9:00 am: Welcome and introduction to who we are and what we do
9:15 am: Preview of 2022-23 season featuring A Noise Within Resident Artists and guest actors
9:30 am: Workshops – first session
10:30 am: Workshops – second session
11:30 am: Lunch, prize wheel, surveys, mask making, networking opportunities, and more
12:00 pm: Workshops – third session
1:00 pm: Wrap up and end of day

Workshop Sessions:

Participants will rotate through the following workshops over the course of the day.

Text Workshop with Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad

Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad is the Resident Dramaturg for A Noise Within, where she has been a consultant, educator, and dramaturg since 2009. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies from Yale University. Dr. Johnson-Haddad has taught at Howard University, UCLA, Vassar College, and Yale University. She has served as the Performance Editor for Shakespeare Quarterly; as Scholar in Residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.; and as a consultant and teacher for The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Dr. Johnson-Haddad is a frequent speaker at many venues in the LA area, including A Noise Within, Boston Court Theater, Los Angeles Opera, and the Shakespeare Club of Pomona Valley.

Class Description:
In the text sessions, we will examine how George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm is adapted by famed British director Peter Hall, lyricist Adrian Mitchell, and composer Richard Peaslee into a musical. We will explore the ways in which teachers could incorporate both the novel and the play into their classes. We will end by discussing the timelessness of Orwell’s themes and how teachers in many different fields might use the novel and the play in their classrooms.

“Acting Out: Examining What’s Normal and Exploring Our Emotions” Workshop with Dr. Nikysha Gilliam

Dr. Nikki Gilliam earned a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, later an M.A. from California State University, in Northridge, California, and most recently, an Ed.D. from Loyola Marymount University in Educational Leadership for Social Justice. She has been an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District for over 20 years in elementary, middle, and high school and has received various awards and fellowships. She enjoys teaching and learning new things, and has always had a love for the theater, and watching students discover the power of their own voices is one of her greatest joys. Dr. Gilliam makes her home in Los Angeles with her husband and two grown-ish children.

Class Description:
For nearly three years, we’ve heard people describe our lives, our way of being, as the “new normal.” What exactly does that mean? What exactly is normal, and who decides what is? Join us as we, in groups of various sizes, take a closer look at what we normalize and how we feel about those things.

Acting Workshop with Resident Artist Jeremy Rabb