Teaching
“You don’t do art with youth because you’re a good person. You do it because that’s where the awesome art is.”
– Kaneza Schaal
Hannah has taught theater for more than 14 years. As the lead facilitator of HartBeat’s Youth Play Institute, she has supported hundreds of young people in the creation of new ensemble-created plays. She has directed 7 full Shakespeare productions with the Hampshire Shakespeare Young Company. She has taught at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School, Oddfellows Playhouse, and Hartford Children’s Theater, and has guest taught at The Obama Foundation, Central CT State University, and Smith College.
Examples of available workshops include Consensus Decision-Making, Ensemble Play Creation, Audience as Scene Partner, Intro to Clown, and Exquisite Pressure: Creating In A Time Crunch.
I always loved the arts but wasn’t as confident in my abilities because I didn’t go to an art school like some of the other interns. However, even if I didn’t believe in myself Hannah did! She created such a safe environment for all opinions and ideas to be shared. Through fun and light-hearted games she allowed us to see such a bigger picture of the harsh topics we were dealing with. Hannah was great at squeezing out the best in me and pushing my limits in the best of ways.
It has been a long time since we have seen our kid so passionate and self-driven about something he is involved in. I know that he felt deeply seen and appreciated throughout the entire process – which is (as we all know) a rare thing.
