Dr. Edie Demas, Director of Education for the New Victory Theater, is responsible for the direction, development and implementation of all school, career and family educational programming. As part of her work at the New Victory, Edie continues to work with the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Arts and Special Programs as it implements its comprehensive Theater Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts Pre-K – 12. In 2008 the New Victory’s Education department received the distinguished Arts Education Award from Americans for the Arts and Edie herself received a BAXten Award from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, recognizing her contributions to the field of Arts Education/Theater for Young Audiences and support of Teaching Artists.

In her eight seasons at the New Victory, Edie has almost doubled the number of school and community-based partners, increased the education audience size from 20,000 to over 40,000 per season and launched the New Vic in the Classroom Program, which currently provides 850 workshops free of charge to New Vic Education Partners. In order to establish this program, Edie created a teaching ensemble, currently comprised of 38 professional artists and the six education staff members.

Her teaching experience includes nursery school through to the University level, focusing on performing arts and media education. Edie holds a MA/PhD in Educational Theatre from New York University. Her dissertation, Identifying the Role of the Education Department at The New Victory Theater, examines the role of an education department and its activities in realizing a non-profit cultural organization’s mission. She continues to work with NYU as an adjunct. Courses have included: Theater for Young Audiences I & II, The Teaching Artist, Theater in Education and Problems in Play Production. She is also a board member of the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and Co-Chair of its annual Face to Face conference.

Edie returned to New York eight years ago from Ireland where her experience included four years as Education Officer with Graffiti Theatre Company, a leading producer of theater for young audiences, the founding of UnReel, an international film festival for young people, children’s film and television development and, most recently, as an Associate Artist with the Education and Outreach Department at The Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre.