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.

ANDY LONG
Associate Director, Baker Idea Institute

Andy Long is an Artist in Residence at DCT where he also teaches Teen Conservatory acting classes as well as CURTAINS UP ON READING residencies in schools throughout Greater Dallas. Andy has directed such DCT productions as Honus & Me, Sleeping Beauty, Charlotte's Web, Coyote Tales (National Tour) and Laurie Brooks' Everyday Heroes. He is familiar to DCT audiences from his performances in Babe, The Sheep Pig, Miss Nelson is Missing, The Reluctant Dragon and Laurie Brooks' Deadly Weapons (Tour). Andy is the former Director of Acting at Lon Morris College and has lectured at such universities as University of Denver, Emporia State University, University of Dallas, University of Missouri-Rolla and Stephen F. Austin State University. He has consulted with companies such as Fidelity Investments, Samsung, Cadbury Schweppes, and State Farm. Andy is currently the chair of the Theater Department at Richland College.

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.

CONSULTING ADVISOR:

SUSAN SUGERMAN, MD
Girls to Women Health and Wellness

Dr. Susan Sugerman is the president and co-founder of Girls to Women Health and Wellness, a multidisciplinary medical practice in north Dallas dedicated to the physical and emotional needs of girls and young women ages 10-25. She is a graduate of Stanford University, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. She did her residency training in Pediatrics in Cincinnati, Ohio and a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in Health Services Research at UCLA with an emphasis on confidentiality and access to care for adolescent and young adult women. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She holds memberships in the Society for Adolescent Medicine and the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. She is a recipient of the Gail Reese Award for Education from Planned Parenthood North Texas and the Women's Mentorship Award from the Annual Women's Symposium, Southern Methodist University. Dr. Sugerman speaks to teen, parent, and professional audiences on subjects such as parenting, adolescent development, dating safety, healthy sexuality, nutrition and body image, bullying, and preparing for college.

FEATURED PRESENTER:

SIGNE WHITSON, L.S.W.
Writer, Psychology Today, The Hu!ngton Post

Signe Whitson is a child and adolescent therapist, author, and Chief Operating Officer of the Life Space Crisis Intervention Institute, a nationally recognized training and certification program that helps parents and professionals turn crisis situations into learning opportunities for kids. Signe has over ten years of experience working with children, adolescents, and families. She presents customized training workshops nationwide on topics related to bullying, anger management skills, crisis intervention, and child and adolescent mental health. In her training workshops, articles, and books Signe provides down-to-earth, practical advice for navigating the daily challenges of living and working with children, tweens and teens. As a mother of two young daughters, Signe relates to parents on a personal level. As a clinician with over 10 years of experience, she shares her professional knowledge and advice for approaching complex issues, such as coping with bullying, channeling anger into assertive self-expression, and changing self-defeating patterns of behavior. Signe is the author of Friendship & Other Weapons: Group Activities to Help Young Girls Aged 5-11 to Cope with Bullying, How to Be Angry: An Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids and Teens, and The Angry Smile: The Psychology of Passive Aggressive Behavior in Families, Schools, and Workplaces, 2nd ed.
Please visit her website at www.signewhitson.com

PLAYWRIGHT PRESENTERS:

LINDA DAUGHERTY
Playwright, THE SECRET LIFE OF GIRLS

Linda Daugherty's plays have been produced nationally and internationally in professional and community theaters, schools, and colleges. She received the 2011 National Award from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine for her plays dealing with teen issues, The Secret Life of Girls (bullying), Eat (It's Not About Food) (eating disorders), dont u luv me? (teen dating violence) and hard 2 spel dad (learning di!erences- written with Mary Rohde Scudday) which were most recently produced by DCT in repertory during its 2010-11 season. In 2009, Ms. Daugherty received the first Elisa Project Star of Hope Award for her work in promoting awareness of eating disorders. Along with Dr. Susan Sugerman, Ms. Daugherty is a Dallas Morning News arts staff 2011 nominee for Texan of the Year. Her plays have won the Bonderman / Indiana University / Purdue University / Indiana Repertory Theatre Playwriting Competition, the Dallas-Ft. Worth Theater Critics Forum Award for New Plays, the Southwest Theatre Association's Coleman A. Jennings Award for Best Children's Script, the Southwest Theatre Association's Playwright Award for Best New Children's Script, the Orlin Corey Outstanding Playwright Award and five Dallas Theatre League nominations for Outstanding New Play. The Secret Life of Girls has been recommended by Theatre Alberta, Canada as a resource for drama teachers to address the issue of bullying. Ms. Daugherty is playwright-in-residence at Dallas Children's Theater and a member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

GABRIEL JASON DEAN
Playwright, THE TRANSITION OF DOODLE PEQUEÑO

Gabriel Jason Dean's plays have been produced or developed at Theatre Row, Hangar Theatre, ASSITEJ International, The Kennedy Center, Aurora Theatre, Dad's Garage Theatre, Actor's Express, Horizon Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, FronteraFest, Source Festival and Essential Theatre. Gabriel received the Kennedy Center's 2011 Ken Ludwig Prize for a body of work and was Runner-Up for the 2011 Princess Grace Award. His script for children, The Transition of Doodle Pequeño received the 2011 New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Award and was selected for the 2012 Kennedy Center New Visions / New Voices Conference with People's Light and Theatre Company. He is the recipient of the 2010 Essential Theatre New Play Prize and won the 2010 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. Gabriel was voted "Best Playwright" in 2009 by Creative Loafing: Atlanta. In 2005, he won the City of Atlanta Bureau of Cultural A!airs Playwriting Award. Other plays have been finalists or semi-finalists for the Seven Devils Conference, The O'Neill Theatre Conference, Bay Area Playwright's Festival, the Lark Playwright's Week and Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project. His scripts are available through Playscripts and Samuel French. A native Georgian, he currently resides in Austin, Texas. Visit him on www.GabrielJasonDean.com

SUZAN ZEDER
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Theatre & Dance -- Playwriting; Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities

Suzan Zeder has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the leading playwrights for youth and family audiences. Her plays have been performed in all fifty states and throughout the world. Step On A Crack, Wiley And The Hairy Man, In A Room Somewhere and The Death And Life Of Sherlock Holmes are regularly performed by professional and university theatres throughout the country. Doors and Mother Hicks were produced at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., which also co-commissioned Do Not Go Gentle. She is a four-time winner of the Distinguished Play Award by the American Alliance of Theatre and Education and the Distinguished Book Award for Spaces of Creation: The Creative Process of Playwriting co-authored with her husband, movement specialist, Jim Hancock. Dr. Zeder currently heads the Playwriting Program at the University of Texas at Austin where she holds an Endowed Chair in Theatre for Youth and Playwriting. Most recently, Zeder completed The Ware Trilogy, including Mother Hicks, The Taste of Sunrise, and The Edge of Peace, a cycle of plays that have spanned thirty years of her writing life.

PRESENTERS:

JOEL FERRELL
Director, Choreographer

Joel Ferrell is an associate artist at Dallas Theater Center where his credits include director of Cabaret, Dividing the Estate, reasons to be pretty, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, A Christmas Carol (2005-09 & 2011) and Cotton Patch Gospel (starring its creator Tom Key), choreographer of It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Who's Tommy, and My Fair Lady. DFW credits include Proof (Plano Rep), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Baltimore Waltz (Stage West), Pygmalion (Fort Worth Shakespeare), and the premiere of Huck Finn (Classical Acting Company). Mr. Ferrell is the former Artistic Director of Casa Mañana Musicals Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas. He served for two years on the selection committee for the National Alliance of Musical Theatre's New Works Festival in New York City and has worked extensively around the country for Portland Center Stage, Papermill Playhouse, Ford's Theatre and North Shore Music Theatre among others.

BRUCE R. COLEMAN
Director, Designer, Playwright

Bruce R. Coleman is a playwright whose previous produced works include Asher Texas, '82 for Uptown Players, Tales From Mount Olympus and Look What's Happened to Pixie De Costa for Theatre Three and Night and Day and Given Away for New Theatre Company. Mr. Coleman is an award-winning theatrical director, designer and actor and is currently Resident Artist for Theatre Three, a local professional regional theatre.

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