Drama Teacher

“Art is the heart’s explosion on the world. Music. Dance. Poetry. Art on cars, on walls, on our skins. There is probably no more powerful force for change in this uncertain and crisis-ridden world than young people and their art. It is the consciousness of the world breaking away from the strangle grip of an archaic social order.”
--Luis J. Rodriguez
“The art of teaching involves helping each student take ownership of their possibilities as an artist. The standards that teachers hold to are key to the lasting effect.”
-- Acting Actions, Hugh O,Gorman
The Skyline Drama Program is a nationally recognized training program by the American High School Theatre Festival for their outstanding commitment to artistic excellence in Theatre Arts, cross-cultural understanding, and social justice. We strive to meet every student at the creative junction where life experience meets ambition and intellectual curiosity to expose, nurture and challenge our students to a highly rigorous, ensemble, project-based, pre-conservatory style training. The curriculum focuses on developing storytellers and theatre-makers. We help students find their unique voice and know the potential power that voice can have within a community through the creative exploration of social justice issues that impact our community so that we can envision new futures of a more just and humane world through scripted, original work, and civic engagements that humanize those issues with intellectual rigor, fervent humanity, and vibrant imagination. We design bold opportunities for participation and unforgettable experiences with rigor and striking physicality. Essential foundational skills in acting and ensemble-based theatre-making are combined with scene study, voice, movement, directing, playwriting, devising original work, Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process, critical reflection, tech and design, and the business of production and management of theatre-makers to emphasize the concept that theatre is a collaborative art form. Students engage in work-based learning experiences with industry partners, guest artists, including field trips, masterclasses, internships, mock interviews, portfolio documentation, and college career readiness preparation. “I cultivate an instructional atmosphere that supports artistry and creative risk-taking.”

Recognition & Highlights

  • 2019 & 2017, HAMILTON-Ed invited performance:
  • 2019, OSF Juneteenth – Invitation for EDIA Student sponsored study tour and performance:
  • Romeo & Juliet:
  • Prospect High: Brooklyn (clip), 2017, American High School Theatre Festival Invited Performance, Edinburgh, Scotland
  • Drama Teacher Consultant, UCSF Teen Patient Program:
  • Central Washington U, Workshop Facilitator:
"Awele Makeba’s work inspires new questions about how to teach and learn history.  Her presentation cannot help but provoke an emotional response that engages all facets of our common humanity and makes us question how much we really understand the past. This is her success: she unsettles our understanding of what we thought we knew so that we can come to know in new ways." - Sam Wineburg, Professor, Cognitive Studies in Education, Stanford University and author, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past, Temple University Press c2001