Member Spotlight

Welcome to the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Member Spotlight!

Member Spotlight!

Member Spotlight is a new monthly program created by PTO to highlight the amazing work of our active members! Member Spotlight is a way to help us connect with each other globally, create visibility around PTO work being done, and challenge each other to learn and grow together. Each month, a new video will be released on our YouTube Channel with an interview between one of PTO’s board members and a current PTO member. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel here!

Looking for a specific Member Spotlight?

October 2016 Member Spotlight: Ellie Friedland


EllieThis Member Spotlight highlights Ellie Friedland, an Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education at Wheelock. She has a Ph.D. in Education and the Arts and a Masters Degree in Human Behavior and Development. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate Early Childhood Education courses She created and teachers the courses Creating Welcoming Environments for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Families in Education and Human Services and Clowning for Social Change; and co-teachers the General Education Capstones Education and Theatre for Social Justice and Trying Socrates. Ellie coordinates the Wheelock College program in Listening and Speaking Across the Curriculum. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Wheelock Family Theatre and works as a teaching artist for the Wheelock Family Theatre.

Ellie’s research and practice focus on education for social justice, anti-bias teaching, and teaching and learning through the arts. She is a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, and integrates this work into her teaching, as well as her community activism. She frequently offers professional development for teachers in anti-bias education and cultural competence. She works with public school teachers in Guatemala, as well the teachers and volunteers in the Safe Passage program, an enrichment program for children and families who live and work in the Guatemala City Dump (this program was founded by Wheelock alum Hanley Denning). She serves on the board of the UPAVIM Community Development Foundation, and works with the teachers at UPAVIM, a women’s collective in Guatemala City that created and maintains their own school through their sales of hand-made crafts and a small bakery.

Ellie has published a number of articles on this work, and her other publications focus on culturally competent teaching and learning, as well as on teaching for social justice through drama. Her recent publications include co-editing , with Toby Emert, the book Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed, and the chapter “Image Theatre as Reflective Practice” in Playing in a House of Mirrors: Applied Theatre as Reflective Practice, edited by Elinor Vettaino and Warren Linds.

Ellie is past president of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, a professional organization focused on the liberatory educational and theatre approaches of Paulo Friere and Augusto Boal. Before coming to Wheelock in 1999, she taught at Endicott College, Cambridge College and Lesley University. She was a child and family psychotherapist for ten years, working in an outreach program that served families within which there was severe physical and sexual child abuse. She also studied and taught at the Actors Institute in Boston and New York, and before that she studied and performed clowning with the Cumeezi Bozo Ensemble in New York City; then founded and led the Clown Jewels Clown Troupe in Boston.

Watch Ellie’s interview HERE.

Interview conducted by Shannon Ivey (PTO Co-Secretary). Video editing by Skye Ashton Kantola (PTO Director of Communications).

August 2016 Member Spotlight: Dani Snyder-Young


DaniThis Member Spotlight highlights Dani Snyder-Young, an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Illinois Wesleyan University. She is the author of THEATRE OF GOOD INTENTIONS: CHALLENGES AND HOPES FOR THEATRE AND SOCIAL CHANGE (2013, Palgrave Macmillan), which examines the limits of theatre in making social change. She has published in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre Research, Theatre Survey, Theatre Research International, Qualitative Inquiry, Youth Theatre Journal, Texas Theatre Journal, and the International Journal of Learning. Her artistic work as a director and dramaturg focuses on political theatre, community based performance, new play development, and adaptations of classical texts for diverse audiences, which dovetails with her scholarly work on applied and community-based theatre. She is an ensemble member of Halcyon Theatre here in Chicago.

Watch Dani’s interview HERE.

Interview conducted by Shannon Ivey (PTO Co-Secretary). Video editing by Skye Ashton Kantola (PTO Director of Communications).

May 2016 Member Spotlight: Ebony Noelle Golden


EbonyThis Member Spotlight highlights Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA, MA
Founding CEO and Principal Engagement Strategist
Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC.

Ebony Noelle Golden is the CEO and principal engagement strategist at Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC and the artistic director of Body Ecology Womanist Performance Project. BDAC is a New York City-based cultural arts direct action group that works to inspire, instigate, and incite transformation, radical expressiveness, and progressive social change through community-designed, culturally-relevant, creative projects. The Houston, TX native is also an accomplished performance artist, poet, director, and choreographer who stages site-specific rituals and live art performances that profoundly explore the complexities of freedom in the time of now.

After completing graduate school and serving as literature and creative writing professor in Durham, North Carolina, Golden funneled her passion for entrepreneurship, arts, culture, and community-based education into BDAC which powers some of the most forward-moving organizations and initiatives pushing for progressive social change. Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative has worked with more than fifty organizations over the last seven years, internationally.

Ebony holds a Master of Arts degree in Performance Studies from New York University, a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from American University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from Texas A&M University.

BDAC is affectionately named after Ebony’s mother Dr. Betty Ann Sims who is a retired professor, social worker, and youth interventionist.

Watch Ebony’s interview here.

Interview conducted by Shannon Ivey (PTO Co-Secretary). Video editing by Skye Ashton Kantola (PTO Director of Communications).