“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push - in just the right place - it can be tipped.”~Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping PointSince 1999, I have worked professionally in various aspects of theatre and theatre education in the New York/New Jersey area: Broadway actor, college professor, education director, and for the past 11 years as a high school Theatre teacher and instructional leader at North Star Academy in Newark, NJ. Currently, I am honored to be the Theatre Teacher at Ramsey High School.During my undergraduate years at The University of Tulsa, my focus was performance with a concentration in Acting, Voice and Movement, and Musical Theatre. The goal was clear: to reach my highest potential as an actor and singer in the world of professional theatre. The acting techniques introduced during those years, Stanislavski (“An Actor Prepares”) and Uta Hagen (“Respect for Acting”) mixed with more advanced approaches by Robert Cohen (“Acting Power”), Kristin Linklater (“Freeing the Natural Voice”), and Moni Yakim (“Creating a Character”), have remained the solid foundation of my work today and have allowed me unlimited resources over the years as an actor, director, and teacher.After reaching my professional acting goals on the Broadway stage and in regional theatre, my passion for teaching led me to the field of Educational Theatre and New York University. My Master of Arts degree thrust me into a teaching career that has allowed me to explore theatre within a deeper context. My teaching goal is to provide a safe, uplifting, and rigorous environment that ignites the artist within each student and propels them into a world of creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. I know that the arts can transform a moment, a day, or a lifetime, and I shape my lessons to reflect that potential transformation. Of all the arts, theatre specifically, is about stepping into the world of someone else’s reality. Theatre characters have unique dreams, struggles, and views of the world. My lessons actively engage each and every student with these different views and provide the opportunity to self-reflect and more deeply understand other worlds and other people.