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BAKER
IDEA INSTITUTE LEADERSHIP:
ROBYN
FLATT
Director,
Baker Idea Institute
Robyn
Flatt co-founded Dallas Children's
Theater (DCT) in 1984 with a start-up
fund of $500. Under her artistic leadership, the
theater's creative and operational stature has
grown over the past 27 years to reflect its
current annual budget of more than $3.5 million.
Her theatrical career has garnered acclaim as a
professional director, actor and lighting
designer. During her tenure as a member of the Dallas
Theater Center Resident Company, she
served as Assistant Artistic Director, director
of Theater-in-the-Park, and
Director of Graduate Studies in Theater at
Trinity University. She holds an MA Degree from
Baylor University where she studied with Paul
Baker. Among Ms. Flatt's many acting credits
include two roles she created for award-winning
world premiere productions: Dewey Dell in Journey
to Jefferson and Martha Ann Sickenger in
Preston Jones' The Oldest Living Graduate.
At Dallas Theater Center she directed numerous
plays including Scapino!, The
Miracle Worker and Tally's Folly.
At DCT she has directed close to 100 productions
encompassing virtually all of the major works in
the youth theater canon including To Kill A
Mockingbird, Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn and The Miracle
Worker. Ms. Flatt has long been an
advocate for bringing original productions to
the stage. Among the roster of new works created
by DCT are five world premiere musical
adaptations of books by internationally renowned
author/illustrator Steven Kellogg. DCT is proud
to be a leader in the development and
commissioning of plays for and about young
adults including a quartet of world premiere
dramas that tackle some of the tougher issues
facing today's youth: learning di!erences, girl
bullying, eating disorders and dating violence.
She has served on the boards of AATE and
ASSITEJ/USA and is a recipient of The 500,
Inc.'s prestigious Ken Bryant Visionary
Award, Dallas Historical Society's 1999
Excellence in Community Service for Creative
Arts, the 2002 Leon Rabin Standing
Ovation Award, and the Excellence
in Nonprofit Management Award. Ms.
Flatt is an inductee into the College of Fellows
of American Theatre and holds the honorary
designation of American Theatre Fellow for life.
She was nominated by The Dallas Morning
News arts staff for the 2010
Texan of the Year Award and was named
one of Northwood University's Distinguished
Women of 2011.
NANCY
SCHAEFFER
Associate Director, Baker Idea Institute
Ms.
Schaeffer has directed numerous DCT productions
including Pinkalicious,
The Musical; How
I Became a Pirate;
don’t u luv
me?; Madeline’s
Christmas; EAT
(It’s Not
About Food); Goodnight
Moon; The
Secret Life of
Girls; Stuart
Little; If
You Give a Mouse a Cookie; The
Island of the Skog; Honk!;
Babe, the
Sheep-Pig; Jack
& the Giant
Beanstalk;
The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Bunnicula;
Lyle the
Crocodile; Miss
Nelson is Missing
(1999 & 2010); Miss
Nelson is Back!; If
You Give a Moose a Muffin and
If You
Give a Pig a Party (both of which she
adapted for the stage);
The
Surprising Story of the Three Little
Pigs; The
Boxcar Children;
Sideways
Stories from
Wayside School; Lilly’s
Purple Plastic Purse (2002 & 2008);
and twelve productions
of The Best
Christmas Pageant Ever! Nancy also
directed DCT’s
highly successful touring production of The
Stinky Cheeseman and
Other Fair(l)y (Stoopid) Tales
which toured the US and then traveled
to Shanghai,
China, playing at the 2006
Shanghai International
Children’s
Culture and Arts Expo. Nancy has
also directed Jack
and the Beanstalk
for the
Dallas Opera and Shared
Stories for the Sixth Floor Museum. She
also serves
as DCT’s Education Director.
COY
COVINGTON
Associate Director, Baker Idea Institute
Coy
Covington is on the executive staff at Dallas
Children's Theater and works in
multiple facets of administration for the
company. As an actor he has worked on national
tours, in regional theater and locally has
played leading roles in such shows as The
Full Monty; Die, Mommie, Die; Ruthless!;
and the US premiere of Closer to Heaven.
Coy is actively involved with Dallas' Uptown
Players where he is Artistic
Associate, Submissions Director and has been an
award-winning performer, director and designer
for the company. He holds a BFA degree in
Communications and Theater from the University
of North Carolina and did his graduate work at
the University of Mississippi. Made possible
through a grant from the National Alliance of
Musical Theatre, Coy directed the world premiere
of the new musical Crazy, Just Like Me
that recently debuted at Uptown Players'
Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival.
RUTH
CANTRELL
Associate Director, Baker Idea Institute
Ruth
Cantrell is thrilled to have returned home to
her native
Dallas (after a thirty year absence). She is
Emeritus Professor
of Theatre at New Mexico State University and
founder of the Children’s Theatre
Workshop, an after
school program which focused on the
creation of new
scripts developed by children in Las
Cruces, New Mexico. For her years of
work as a theatre artist and arts
educator, Ruth received the state of New
Mexico’s highest arts award: the
Governor’s Award for Excellence in the
Arts, in 2002. Ruth is an award-winning
playwright and actress. Her scripts
have been produced at Bishop Arts Theatre
Center, American Southwest
Theatre Company, Dallas Theater Center,
the Nashville Academy Theatre,
the Creede Repertory Theatre and
universities around the country. Not
one to stay
“retired,” she continues to write and
currently teaches classes at
the Dallas Children’s Theater. Ruth is a
member of the Dramatists Guild of
America and Actors’ Equity Association.
PRESENTERS
FOR 2013:
JEFF
MICHEL
Actor, BOATS
Originally
from the USA, Jeff trained in New York City
with The Michael Howard Studios Summer
Acting Conservatory
and the School of Russian Art Theatre at
Columbia University. In New York, he
appeared in the
SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY production of The
White
Devil. Since moving to Tasmania, he has
performed in a variety of shows
including Alice
in Wonderland and Pinocchio
(ROYAL TASMANIAN
BOTANICAL GARDENS), The
Wizard of Oz and Beauty
and the Beast
(THEATRE ROYAL), and at the HOBART REP
with The Wind
in the Willows
and A
Slice of Saturday Night. In 2010 he
co-founded THE BLUE COW
THEATRE COMPANY and performed in their
inaugural show Art.
For TERRAPIN
he has toured Tasmania and Victoria with The
Falling Room
and The
Flying Room, toured Tasmania with The
Gatekeeper, and Love,
and toured Boats
to the Come Out Festival
Adelaide, the Arts Centre
Melbourne, Victoria, Sydney, New Zealand,
Ireland, and the USA.
QUINN
GRIGGS
Actor, BOATS
Quinn
began training with IS THEATRE while completing
a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at UTAS in
2002. Since then
he has performed and trained with IS THEATRE,
TERRAPIN PUPPET THEATRE, FESTIVAL OF
VOICES, ABOUT
FACE, THE MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL, corporate
performances and also presented a variety
of independent works.
From Shakespeare
to Moliere to contemporary physical theatre,
Quinn’s skills have
seen him operate through a wide base of
performance styles,
and he has enjoyed playing many diverse
and challenging roles. For
TERRAPIN, Quinn has performed in Con
Artists
and toured nationally and
internationally since 2008 with Boats.
ALTHEA
JEROME
Workshop
Leader
Althea
Jerome is a musician and teaching artist with
over thirty five years of experience in
education. She has taught music at all grade
levels as well as undergraduate and graduate
courses at the University of Southern
Mississippi. With work experience in K-12 public
schools, university, community arts
organizations and statewide arts and education
organizations, she has continuously pursued the
importance of arts learning. As a lifelong
musician, her work as a teaching artist
emphasizes arts integration by bringing music
and other art forms into all content areas. She
offers demonstration lessons focused on arts
integration and leads professional development
for teachers in school settings. For over twelve
years, Althea has worked with the Whole Schools
Initiative both in schools, and at retreats or
sessions of the Summer Institute. In 2006,
Althea began leading workshops to train teaching
artists in a series sponsored by the Mississippi
Alliance for Arts Education. Since 2006 she has
served on the advisory committee of the Ask 4
More Arts Collaborative of the Jackson Public
Schools. She is presently serving on the writing
team of the Early Learning Guidelines Revision.
She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree
from the University of North Texas and Master of
Music Education from the University of Southern
Mississippi. Since 2001, she has been listed in
the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Teaching
Artist Roster. Althea received the Governors
Award for Excellence in the Arts, for her work
in Arts Education in 2012.
SHERRY
KAFKA WAGNER
Workshop
Leader
Sherry
Kafka Wagner works on developing new projects
such as museums, parks, public spaces and
aquariums. She also works with established
organizations to develop new projects such as
exhibits, programs, and organizational
restructuring. Recent projects include planning
a new mixed-use development in Madison,
Wisconsin that includes two new museums and
development of an after-school project for
Creative Santa Fe. She was consultant for
development of the Children's Creativity Museum
in San Francisco. In addition, she has produced
a number of media projects and authored a novel,
a play, three children’s books, and a number of
magazine articles and special publications.
WILL
RICHEY
Workshop
Leader
A
former collegiate basketball team captain, ESL
teacher and avid cultural explorer, Will Richey
crosses cultures, creeds and races through his
eclectic expression of Spoken Word. A graduate
in Education with a Spanish concentration from
the University of Dallas, Will began voicing his
original creations in the Spring of 2002 and has
since evolved into an award winning performance
poet and workshop facilitator having shared his
work combating racism on the Jenny
Jones TV Show, as a member of the 2002
Dallas Slam Poetry Team, for the Association of
Persons Affected by Addiction (APAA), and on the
same bill as luminaries Maya Angelou, Erykah
Badu and former U.S. Poet Laureate – Robert
Hass. Will was a finalist for the Dallas
Observer MasterMind Award for innovation in Arts
& Culture in North Texas. He has also been
twice nominated for an Irving Celebration of
Excellence (ICE) Award and his work with youth
through Big Thought has been featured on Good
Morning Texas. He is host and artistic liaison
for the DaVerse Lounge: An Under 21 Spoken Word
Experience (founded in 2005) and has facilitated
workshops for the Dallas Museum of Art’s annual
“Arts & Letters Live” series. Will founded Journeyman
Ink in 2006 to offer diversity
education, character development, and
professional consultation that touches on human
emotions and empowers each participant to
discover his or her own voice.
www.JourneymanInk.com
ALEJANDRO
PEREZ, JR.
Workshop
Leader
Alejandro
Perez, Jr. is a multi-disciplinary arts educator
and consultant whose primary focus is to empower
people through the process of holistic learning.
He has developed a kinesthetic, melody/mantra
based “See it. Say it. Do it.” approach to
educating the whole person called the Melody
Memory Method. It is currently being
applied at The Village Child Development Center
(an early education facility for two to five
year olds founded by him and his wife), through
assemblies, workshops and residencies with Will
Richey and Journeyman
Ink, and with at-risk teens for Big
Thought’s “Creative Solutions” Summer Program.
The Melody
Memory Method integrates visual, oral /
aural (call and response) and kinesthetic tools
that make learning easier as well as more
expressive and enjoyable. This method benefits
students (and all ages alike) in multiple
subject areas and promotes cross curriculum
development as mental retention is improved by
applying simple melodies and rhythms to content.
Alejandro is a published poet, recording artist,
percussionist, gymnastics instructor, and
professor of Capoeira Angola (de Sao Bento
Grande), a multi-disciplinary African- Brazilian
marital art. He is a mentor for the DaVerse
Lounge and is the MC of the house band, Melody
Memory. A cultured artist of Puerto Rican
descent, Alejandro was an early education and
kindergarten instructor at Africa Care Academy
(ACA) for eight years, and was awarded the 2002
ACA Teacher of the Year. He also taught for two
years at the East Dallas Community
School/Bilingual Montessori.
JOURNEYMAN
INK
transcends
cultures, creeds, and races by
awakening the creative soul through the
development of emotional
literacy in various forms of artistic
expression.
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