PTO Board

Officers

Members at Large

Board Bios

 

Donna Cotterell Donna Cotterell, Practitioner/Facilitator of TO and collaborative work with youth, is an educator, writer, producer, director, actress and activist who resides in her home state of Massachusetts. She has decades of theater experience, eleven years of teaching at the middle school level and a lifetime of working with teens, which started when she was a camp counselor at the American
International College’s National Youth Sports Program summer camp in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Education
● Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Massachusetts in Boston
● Master of Science degree in Administrative Studies from Boston University
● Master of Education with a concentration in Middle School Mathematics from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts Theater Background
● Founder and Director of both Indaba Theatre of New England in November 2005 and
Indaba Theatre of Florida (November 2015), 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations.
● Selected as one of Brockton, Massachusetts Women of the Year in 2012
● Wrote and produced “Marigold Days” that spun off – Conversations of Change” a
series of performances created to foster dialogue around race using forum theatre.
● Taught Drama at the Middle School level in Florida
● Participated in a Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) post conference with
Augusto Boal’s son Julian. Boal was the creator of Théâtre of the Oppressed aka Forum
Theater; started in the 1960’s in Brazil as a direct response to political oppression. Boal’s work
was the inspiration for Indaba Theatre’s style of improvisational theater.
● Performed at Cotton Hall Theater in Colquitt, Georgia, Little Bainbridge Theater in Bainbridge,
Georgia and Theater With A Mission in Tallahassee, Florida. What Is Indaba Theatre known for
Indaba Theatre is known for addressing such issues as domestic violence, youth violence, anti-
gay bullying, HIV/AIDS awareness and homelessness. Their signature performance “Woven
Stories of Love, Hope and Healing from Silence to Joy for Survivors of Domestic Violence;” ran
for three consecutive years in Brockton, Massachusetts.
Indaba is a Zulu word for coming together for a meeting or a purpose. The mission of Indaba
Theatre is to inspire, empower, uplift and create healthy outlets of self-expression using theater
as therapy.

 

Evren Wilder Elliott: After attending my first PTO conference in 2017, I have continuously fallen further in love with engaging communities through Theatre of the Oppressed. Many of my favorite people I met through PTO trainings and conferences, and it is my honor to submit myself as a nomination to serve on the PTO Board.

As a creative practitioner, I was awarded a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission to organize Social and Political theatre workshops with transgender people all across the state, using Theatre of the Oppressed practices as well as engaging in other practices of physical and meditative movement to investigate our relationships as trans people with ourselves, and how those relationships are affected by the larger systems of society. I have recently received a fellowship with the IAC to continue this work on a larger scale, building on community partnerships and working towards sustainability.

I also work in housing. My full-time job is working with youth and young adults as a Youth Housing Case
Manager at Damien Center, the largest AIDS Service Organization in Indiana. I work with these individuals on getting housed, setting goals, and engaging in self-directed development in order to
interrupt the cycle of homelessness.

As a PTO Board Member, I hope to offer my creative drive and my passions for creating sustainable
change to continue to build upon, challenge, and affirm the work that has inspired me so thoroughly.

Charles Adams, Treasurer, is a teacher, writer, dramaturg, and facilitator/joker in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. He has aPhD in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in drama and theatre for youth from the University of Texas at Austin. His research is in areas of theatre and social change, especially in the fields of Theatre in Education, critical pedagogies, and transformation. He has worked as a teaching artist for 25+ years, training novice teaching artists as well as teaching educators in methodologies and philosophies for using embodiment as a means of resisting dehumanizing modes of education. Charles currently teaches as an adjunct at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches Introduction to Theatre, and at Augsburg University, where he teaches numerous courses in theatre historiography, script analysis, dramaturgy, acting and improvisation, and introduction to theatre. He also serves as the departmental dramaturg for the mainstage season.

Aaron Moore Ellis, Co-Editor PTO Journal, is a scholar, organizer, editor, facilitator, and performing artist. They hold a MA in Religion, Ethics & Philosophy, and recently completed their PhD in Theatre Studies from Florida State University on Apalachee and Muscogee land, now called Tallahassee, Florida. They now reside on Timucua and Seminole land, known as Orlando, Florida, where they teach Theatre and Religious Studies at Valencia College. They are a production team member of Orlando-based Descolonizarte TEATRO, a professional Latinx theatre company, and work as a facilitator for the Orlando-based Peace and Justice Institute. They serve as a point person for a Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) initiative at Tallahassee-based historical and educational theatre company, Theatre with a Mission. They continue to develop performance-based laboratory research on Embodiment and Radical Ethics, while actively cultivating a practice of what they call “relational editing.”

Pink Flowers is an artist, activist and educator, whose work is rooted in ancient shamanic, African trickster, and Brazilian Joker traditions. Pink uses Theater of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting, Navajo Peacemaking and other anti-oppression techniques, as the foundation of their theater-making, mediation, problem-solving and group healing practices.

They are the founder of Award-winning Falconworks Theater Company, which uses popular theater to build capacities for civic engagement and social change. They have received broad recognition, numerous awards, and citations for their community service. They are a faculty member at Pace University and a company member of Shakespeare in Detroit.

Patricia Freitas, Co-Editor PTO Journal, is a literary translator, founder of GETEPOL (Research Group on Political Theatre) and a Ph.D candidate at the University of São Paulo/ Brazil in the field of Language and Arts. Her research focuses on Augusto Boal’s work in exile, especially the three fairs of opinion he directed, and the relationship between the development of TO techniques and the intensification of repressive policies during the military regime in Brazil. She received her M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies and her B.A. in Language and Arts, both from the University of São Paulo. She has worked as a theatre critic for teatrojornal.com, and published articles and books on Augusto Boal, including her Master’s thesis Pedagogia da Atuação: uma análise do trabalho teatral de Augusto Boal durante seu exílio na América Latina (Desconcertos, 2019).

Nadia Garzón  is the Founder and Executive Director of Descolonizarte TEATRO.  She is also an actress, director and bilingual voice over talent with more than twenty years of experience in performing arts and entertainment.  Her work focuses on Latin American theater with an emphasis on theater for social change and the use of theater as a tool for decolonization.  Her work is influenced by her activism and at the core of what she does is the belief that our bodies are crucial for empathy, connection, knowing and healing.  Garzón has worked in the United States as well as in several countries abroad including Guatemala, Brazil, Nicaragua, Australia and Mexico.  Garzón identifies as a Latina, immigrant, queer, and feminist woman of color.  Garzón is also a Theater and Humanities professor at Rollins College and Valencia College. Garzón has been a T.O. practitioner for over 12 years. She was trained at CTO in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was also one of the organizers of the IV Encuentro Latinoamericano de Teatro del Oprimido in Nicaragua


Kelly Howe (she/ella) is teacher/organizer/writer/artist based in Chicago. She is a faculty member at Loyola University Chicago and co-organizes (with Willa Taylor and Jasmin Cardenas) a Chicago collective at the intersection of Theatre of the Oppressed and activism. Kelly co-edited (with Julian Boal and José Soeiro) The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed (2019) and (with Julian Boal and Scot McElvany) Theatre of the Oppressed in Actions (Routledge, 2015). Her writing also appears in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Theatre Survey, Text and Performance Quarterly, Comparative Drama, etc. Kelly served two terms as President of PTO and co-organized four past conferences: Austin 2010, Chicago 2011, Chicago 2015, and Chicago 2022. In collaboration with members of Chicago Workers’ Collaborative and other local artists/educators, she is co-organizing PTO’s 25th conference, Chicago 2020. Kelly is the current coordinator of PTO’s Global Solidarity Action Group and the Current Conference Action Group, and she does English/Spanish translation for many of PTO’s statements and documents. Some other recent contexts in which Kelly has facilitated include the Center for Research and School Development (Technical University of Dortmund, Germany), Indiana University, and meetings of the Workers’ Theatre Collective of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative and Trabajadores Temporales de Lake County. She has served in various leadership roles with the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and she has dramaturged and/or directed a range of plays in the Chicago area and elsewhere. Kelly is an advisory board member of Jana Sanskriti International Research and Resource Institute, West Bengal, India. In her previous teaching position, she worked in the theatre department at North Central College (where she was the coordinator of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and faculty coordinator of the Safe Zone LGBTQIA ally education program). She is a member of 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice in Chicago.

Fjolla Hoxha

Fjolla Hoxha is a writer, theater maker, theater critic, educator, and performance artist from Prizren, Kosova, residing in Nashville, Tennessee. Her practice is rooted on assiduous research that grounds on critical theory, cultural studies, oral histories and narratives, institutional and personal archives.

Fjolla works as a cross-media performance artist, focused on site-specific participatory performance that is informed by the formation, structural maintenance, shift in function and degradation of spaces, in congruence with the individual and collective reception and memory. For over a decade, Fjolla has devised theater workshops with children and youth, developing original plays that voice the stories of deported/repatriated teens of marginal groups such as the Roma, the Ashkali, the Gorani in Kosova. She has studied Playwriting & Scriptwriting at The Academy of Arts in Prishtina, Theater Critique and Dramaturgy at University of Istanbul as well as holds an MA in Live Art and Performance Studies from Theater Academy at Uniarts Helsinki.

Her work has been staged and stage-read at the National Theatre of Kosova, Lumbardhi Foundation in Prizren, Unicorn Theater in London, City Theater in Helsinki, Luzerner Theater in Switzerland, Waldstock Festival in Pengniz, Germany, to mention a few. She is a Theatertreffen Berlin fellow. Her writings have been published by The Balkan Literary Herald, The Theater Times in New York, No Niin Magazine in Helsinki and lately Music City Review in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anthony Lenzo  My commitment to social justice began in my earliest memories, where I first encountered the unfairness of the world in a nursery school bully. This experience ignited a life of questioning inequities and promoting justice. Much later, during a graduate course on teaching methods, I was introduced to Paulo Freire’s work. His alternative to the “banking” method of education resonated deeply with me, affirming that students should be co-creators in a process of discovery in which we all partake.

For over 15 years, I taught speech and film at the college level, always striving to implement Freire’s pedagogical methods. I believe in education as a tool for liberation and empowerment, not just as a means to transmit information.

My journey with Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed has been equally transformative. Boal’s works, along with Freire’s, have inspired me to develop what I call “”ADD Filmmaking””—a method of creating partially-improvised narrative films that emerge from the perspectives and experiences of ordinary people. (I have plans to open a school teaching these methods.) This approach to filmmaking reflects my belief that to change the world into a more just and equitable place, we must change the narrative and elevate the voices of the marginalized.

After participating in and helping organize last year’s conference, I felt like I had come home. I am eager to join the board to help continue developing and expanding upon Fiere’s and Boal’s methods. It would be an honor to contribute to this incredible community that is working together to challenge and transform oppressive structures through education and creative expression.

Amanda Masterpaul Amanda is a TO practitioner, applied theatre artist, activist, educator based out of South Carolina. She attended her first PTO Conference in 2006, where she fell in love with TO and viscerally understood theatre as a means for social change and collective action. With 20+ years’ experience in academia, non-profit work, and community organizing, Amanda has been dedicated to co-creating visions and solutions embedded in community well-being, radical imagination, and equity. She has a Masters in Women’s and Gender Studies and Social Justice and Community Organizing, and is currently a Lecturer in the Women’s & Gender Studies Program at Coastal Carolina University. In 2013, she pioneered the creation of two applied theatre courses in the Department of Theatre, and taught applied theatre courses for eight years and took close to thirty students to present at numerous PTO Conferences between 2014 and 2023. She’s received two grants from Alternate Roots for community-based civic artistry projects with young people, presented on TO at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education, and received awards for inclusive pedagogy. Throughout her career, she has organized alongside various community-centered initiatives in areas such as gender equity, anti-violence, LGBTQ+ia equality, housing insecurity, and systemic racism. Amanda would be thrilled to bring her insights, passion, and skillsets to PTO, a space she considers to be beloved community. Amanda is task oriented and ready to offer time and labor in event planning, grant writing, and fundraising in order to support the organization in their efforts to sustain and thrive.

Maxwel Eliakim Okuto: Maxwel Okuto, is the Director of Amani People’s Theatre Kenya an organisation that applies interactive multi-arts approaches to peacebuilding and conflict transformation.  He is a practitioner of Applied Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, and a storyteller with over ten years’ experience, locally and internationally.  He has co-authored Forum Theatre in East Africa the Domain of the Possible 2015 (Africa conflict & Peacebuilding review Vol 5) Indiana press university and  Okuto, M. and Smith, B. (2017) ‘Reflecting on the Challenges of Applied Theatre in Kenya’, in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. Maxwel has a broad experience in facilitating art based peacebuilding initiatives.

Matthew Rich-Tolsma I am honored to submit my nomination for the Board of the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO). With a strong background in organizational development, critical theater, and strategic facilitation, I am deeply committed to advancing PTO’s mission of fostering diverse and inclusive community processes. My experience includes over a decade of work in facilitating complex, multi-stakeholder projects, particularly in the areas of conflict resolution, social justice, and transformative pedagogy. I also currently serve on the board of the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), where I contribute to governance and strategic planning, ensuring alignment with the organization’s mission.

I am passionate about integrating diverse perspectives into organizational practices and have a particular interest in bringing forward underrepresented voices. My work has always focused on creating spaces where meaningful dialogue can occur, and where collective wisdom can guide transformative change, particularly through the use of theater and pedagogy as tools for empowerment.

I seek election to the Board because I believe in the power of process-oriented facilitation to create lasting impact, and I am eager to contribute my skills in strategic thinking, collaboration, and equity-driven leadership. My goal is to support PTO in expanding its reach and deepening its influence in communities worldwide.

I bring to the Board a strong commitment to the values of PTO, combined with a strategic mindset and a passion for fostering inclusive, sustainable change. I look forward to the opportunity to serve and help shape the future of our shared work.

S. Leigh Thompson

 

 

 

 

 

 

DeOnyae-Dior Valentina I am deeply committed to the principles of equity, social justice, and transformative education, which lie at the heart of PTO. As a young Black and Brown trans woman and activist with a strong background in human services and advocacy, I bring a unique perspective that aligns with the conference’s mission of empowering marginalized voices and challenging oppressive systems.

My experience as a trans activist, combined with my current studies in legal studies and human services, has equipped me with the skills necessary to contribute meaningfully to the conference. I have consistently demonstrated my ability to advocate for marginalized communities, facilitate inclusive dialogues, and engage in critical analysis of policies and practices that affect vulnerable populations. My work with organizations such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Center for States, and The Center for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities has increased my ability to design and implement programs that address systemic inequities and promote social change.

Joining the working board would allow me to further the impact of PTO by bringing my lived experiences and professional expertise to the table. I am committed to helping shape a conference that not only educates but also inspires actionable change in the lives of participants and the communities they serve. My goal is to collaborate with fellow board members to create an inclusive and transformative space where all voices are heard and valued.

I am eager to contribute to the planning, coordination, and execution of a conference that advances the goals of the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed movement, and I am confident that my passion, skills, and dedication make me an ideal candidate for this role.”

Jim Walsh I am reaching out to nominate myself to serve on the PTO Board. I have been involved with PTO for many years, attending many conferences and staying in touch with various members. I have been a Political Science and History Professor at the University of Colorado Denver for the past twenty eight years. Twenty years ago, I founded the Romero Theater Troupe, Denver’s all-volunteer organic worker theater. The troupe was born out of a radical experiment that I used in my classroom a quarter century ago, replacing rote memorization exams with organic theater. The experiment changed the way that I view education and my relationship with my students. The Romero Troupe is named after Oscar Romero, a legendary figure in El Salvador history and a martyr for economic and social justice. The Romero Troupe has had an amazing twenty year run, regularly filling large theaters with free performances and actors who have never been on stage, highlighting the central social struggles of our age. We have won a national human rights award. I wish to serve on the board as a way to bring this knowledge to PTO, as a way to encourage educators to use theater in their classrooms, to shape student leaders through the messiness and the humanity of the arts.

Gus Weltsek (he, i, they) is an Associate Professor of Arts Education at Indiana University- Bloomington. They are a critical Artist Activist (Artivist) committed to the use of the arts as a means for social justice, community engagement and systemic policy change. Gustave creates a great deal with young people using Boal as a means for Forum and devised theatre. A recent project “Another Play about Racism: A Film” can be viewed here. Emerging from Freire, Gustave teaches courses in critical performative pedagogies and post qualitative inquiry and undergraduate courses in drama and theater in/as education. Gustave’s scholarly work appears in journals such as; Youth Theatre Journal, Arts Education Policy Review, Language Arts, and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Thier national and international service includes board of The Pedagogy of the Oppressed Theatre of the Oppressed (POTO), editorial review work with professional journals such as ArtsPraxis, The International Journal of Applied Theatre, and the International Journal of Design for Learning.

Maria Tereza Schaedler-Luera  is a Brazilian-born educator and artist with a background in theater, literacy, and community-based arts. She studies with Augusto Boal and has taught TO in a wide range of educational and organizational settings. Maria holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University. Her international background and language skills support her work connecting people, ideas, and creative practices across a variety of settings.

As co-founder of Atomica Arts, Maria leads the organization in offering workshops and arts-based programs that support learning, reflection, and wellbeing. Her work encourages personal growth through creativity and builds connections within and between communities. Maria also serves as Co-Executive Director of Lifeline Productions Inc., a nonprofit that uses the arts to explore mental health topics and shared lived experiences. Her leadership fosters collaboration between organizations and the community, expanding opportunities for meaningful dialogue thought storytelling and the arts.

Mark Weinberg is Co-director, with Jenny Wanasek, of The Center for Applied Theatre (CAT – www.centerforappliedtheatre.org). He co-founded the Theatre and Social Change focus group of ATHE with Doug Paterson, has been a member of PTO for over 20 years, hosted the 9th PTO conference in Milwaukee, previously served on the PTO Board from 2011-2018, and was editor of issues 4-6 of the PTO Journal. Mark began his study of TO with Augusto Boal in 1992 and has conducted workshops and training sessions for educators, administrators, students, activists, theatre-makers, and community organizations in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Europe. Jenny and Mark were teaching artists in Milwaukee Public Schools for 18 years and continue to work with educators and youth. In addition, they offer interactive and collaborative workshops that use techniques drawn primarily from TO and The Virtues Project to provide provocative and transformative learning experiences, invite open dialogue, develop creativity, explore power and privilege, identify problems, and actively test solutions for real life implementation. They are committed to challenging social and political systems, imagining just and humane societies, and designing actions to generate community, fight internal and external oppressions, and transform the world.

Mark has published and lectured widely on theatre and social activism, chronicled the development of collective theatre in Challenging the Hierarchy: Collective Theatre in the United States (Greenwood Press, 1992), co-authored with Jenny Wanasek a chapter in Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed (Lang, 2012), and co-authored “Shaking the Hands of Our Mentors” in the first issue of the PTO Journal. Incidentally, Mark has an MFA in Directing and a Ph.D. in Theatre History from the University of Minnesota, holds a 7th Degree Black Belt in Karate, and has over 35 years of university teaching experience. His current side gig is as a storytelling coach and workshop leader with Ex Fabula. Mark is honored to have the opportunity to work for PTO to increase its membership, its influence, and its effectiveness as an activist organization.

Doug Paterson, Emeritus, is Professor of Theatre at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. While he has published on numerous topics, his passion remains theatre and social change. He is co-founder of three theatres including the Dakota Theatre Caravan in South Dakota, the Circle Theatre in Omaha, and an Omaha group dedicated to TO work. To date he has offered over 200 Theatre of the Oppressed workshops and presentations in Omaha, across the US, and around the world. International sites include Rio de Janeiro, Israel, Iraq, Liberia, Australia, India, Croatia, and Palestine. Doug began the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed series of international Conferences in 1995. Doug Paterson continues to work actively to promote the work of Augusto Boal and Paulo Freire and is a peace and social justice activist in the Great Plains.

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