Selected Student Bios

• Robert Keith

  Robert Keith is a sophomore in the undergraduate program. He is a multidisciplinary artist raised in Akron, Ohio. His formal training began at Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts where he worked on countless performances and underwent training in Commedia D'elle Arte under Wendy Duke for several years. Continuing his performance training he spent four years in the Visual and Performing Arts Program at Firestone High School with a focus on Theatre and Choir in his last year. 
  
  As an actor, Robert began professionally acting at age nine as Kai in The Snow Queen (Magical Theatre Company) Some highlights of his educational performances include, the title role in Macbeth, Mother Goose in Harlequin and the Golden Egg (Miller South), Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (Firestone High), and various roles in Eugene Ionesco's The Man with Bags (University of Akron).  Additionally, he has been seen as Henry in The Red Badge of Courage, Roger in The Lord of the Flies, and most recently Telemachus in The Odyssey (Magical Theatre Company).
  
  Since his acceptance to New York University, Robert has participated in a number of Educational Theatre productions including Joe Salvatore's The Class Project and the title role in Woyzeck under the direction of Dr. Philip Taylor. Outside of the university Robert was recently seen in Ontological Hysteric's Incubator Series in the third installment of What is Wild?, and will be mounting an original work at Dixon Place for the spring 2010 season.

• Allyn Bard Rathus

  Allyn Bard Rathus is a second year Masters Candidate in Educational Theatre with Teacher Certification in Theatre for All Grades. Allyn received a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (CAP21).

  During her studies at Steinhardt, she taught in classrooms both in London, UK and New York City and performed in the department's production of Woyzeck under the direction of Dr. Philip Taylor. Additionally, she works with other faculty, including Joe Salvatore and Amy Cordileone, as Production Stage Manager and Teaching Artist for the Shakespeare Youth Ensemble.

  As Producer and owner of rat house productions, Allyn has produced Perez Hilton Saves The Universe! (Or At Least The Greater Los Angeles Area) The Musical (The Bleecker Street Theatre, NYC) and You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown (A.R.T. Productions, The Century Center for the Performing Arts, NYC).

  On Broadway, her credits include August: Osage County (General Management Associate, Richards/Climan, Inc.), The Threepenny Opera (Assistant Company Manager, The Roundabout Theatre Company), and Assassins (Assistant Company Manager, The Roundabout Theatre Company).

  As an actor, Allyn most recently appeared on All My Children (ABC), Guiding Light (CBS), As the World Turns (CBS), various national commercials and print campaigns including Microsoft, Time Warner, Dick's Sporting Goods, L'Oreal, and Cingular Wireless/AT&T. She can also be seen in the award-winning short films The Paw and Man in the Basement.

• Sara Simons
  Sara Simons is a PhD student and adjunct faculty in NYU Steinhardt's Program in Educational Theatre.  Sara has a BA from Wellesley College in Theatre and Women’s Studies and an MA from Emerson College in Theatre Education with K-12 teaching certification.  She has taught as adjunct faculty at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston and worked in the Boston and DC public schools.  Sara has a longstanding interest in sexuality education and worked for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts designing sex education curricula for middle school and high school students before starting her doctoral studies at NYU.  She is interested in the intersections of educational theatre and sex education and has presented on this topic at the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, and other conferences.  Sara’s stage management credits include Steel Magnolias (Alithea Theatre Company), Sonia Flew (NYU Educational Theatre), and Headscarf and the Angry Bitch (NYC Fringe).
• Jonathan Jones
  Jonathan Jones is a Steinhardt Doctoral Fellow and a graduate of the program in Educational Theatre’s EDTC program. He received his bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts at NYU and also holds a master’s in English from National University. He was certified to teach English in the state of California, where he taught Theatre and English for five years at North Hollywood High School. He has conducted drama workshops in and around New York City, London, and Los Angeles in schools and prisons. As a performer, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. He has worked in various technical capacities for LAByrinth Theatre Company, Flamenco Vivo, and the Valhalla Theatre Company. His directing credits include Julius Caesar, Elsewhere in Ellsinore, Dorothy Rides the Rainbow, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bye Bye Birdie, The Laramie Project, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, and West Side Story. In 2008, he was awarded a fellowship through the National Endowment for the Humanities and participated in the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
  
• Mimi Liu
  Mimi Liu, Class of ‘09
  My reason for picking NYU's Educational Theatre program was simple at first--I love theatre and I've always wanted to teach. After teaching in various settings, I still want to share my love of theatre with young performers. However, the program has opened my eyes to so many theatre careers that involve my newfound passions: physical theatre, directing, producing, dramaturgy, arts marketing, and theatre for young audiences. While I've taken many valuable classes from knowledgeable and respectable artists/professors, some of my best learning experiences have occurred outside of the program with my education and dramaturgy work for the New Victory Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, and Disney on Broadway. My proudest accomplishment is having directed my own full-length physical theatre show for the Theatrix! Play Festival last year. I am a self-trained mime and would love to fulfill my dream of attending a prestigious movement school like Dell'Arte or LeCoq. Outside of my work in theatre, I am actively involved in NYU as a freshman RA, the Vice President of the Ballroom and Latin Dance Team, and an official vlogger of the Steinhardt Video Team.
• Scott Bartelson
  Scott Bartelson, Class of ‘10
  The Educational Theatre Program was a hidden gem I found when I decided to transfer my freshman year. I found the program to be a logical place where I could still create as an artist and be skilled as a teacher. When I tell most people my major they assume I want to be a drama teacher. While that is one option, my eyes have been opened to the numerous possibilities Educational Theatre encompasses. What I have learned during my time here is the ability to use theatre as a tool for change and growth. I have also found it remarkable the amount of overlap that lay within both subjects. Teaching, in itself, is a distinct art form. I have participated as an Assistant Stage Manager in Aeschylus' The Eumenides, performed in a student written piece, Turbulent Tibet, and directed a production of Feiffer’s People by cartoonist Jules Feiffer. I am a member of Shakespeare-to-Go that brings Shakespeare to public schools. I have also had ample opportunities just by being a resident of NYC. I have volunteered for the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) and for the past year have worked with the general management company, Townsquare Productions, helping grow the musical A Tale of Two Cities from workshop to Broadway.
• Sarah Misch
  Sarah Misch, Class of ‘11
  I fell in love with the Educational Theatre program at NYU when I was introduced to it at college auditions at the 2007 International Thespian Festival. Though my main focus throughout high school was acting, as I approached my senior year I found that my interests extended into the directing and teaching sides of theatre, as well. In only my first semester in the program, I am enrolled in a diverse array of classes (including Acting, Voice/Speech, Stagecraft, and Introduction to Educational Theatre) that allow me to get a broad basis in several different aspects of the craft. When I returned to the International Thespian Festival in 2008, I won both the Theatre Education Scholarship and the Melba Day Henning Theatre Education Scholarship, due in part to my acceptance into the NYU program. I am currently working as a researcher/actor in The Class Project, a piece about class and socioeconomic status in New York City. I have had so many great experiences in only my first month here, and I am more excited than ever to spend the next four years in the Educational Theatre program.