Professional Recognition
• 2015 United States Presidential Scholar's Most Influential Teacher, United States Department and Secretary of Education.
The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Obama, selects honored scholars based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts are students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts. The awarded scholar (Dominque Thorne) names their most influential teacher.
• 2004 SSDC Traube Fellowship Nominee
Professional Experience
Trauma Work and Consulting
2015-2016 A Thousand Joys
• Consultant hired to offer agencies coaching in trauma-informed communication, trauma training education and mindfulness programs. Worked 1:1 with Executive Directors, Social Workers and all staff group facilitation.
• Good Shepard domestic violence residential shelter for women and children.
• Prototypes- serving incarcerated women struggling with substance abuse, mental illness and domestic violence, who get to keep their children with them while serving sentence.
2009-2016 Joyful Heart Foundation
National Healing & Wellness Consultant, Practitioner and Retreat Specialist
• Developed and lead programs, classes, workshops and retreats for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and the healers working on the frontlines of trauma, addressing vicarious trauma.
• Co-developer and lead practitioner of retreat team in partnership with Georgetown University research team, creating an evidenced based, trauma-informed, national replicable, healing retreat model.
2010-Present Emotion in Motion Workshops
Selected trauma Work / Retreat / Crisis Work
Joyful Heart Foundation
• Co-Developer and Lead Practitioner for Survivor programs,Retreats and Heal the Healers model - NY and LA
Georgetown University Research Project with Joyful Heart Foundation
• Creating national replicable retreat model for trauma survivors and first responders
Sandy Hook Healing Project- Newtown, Connecticut
• Part of team of trauma specialists serving the families, teachers and first responders impacted by the mass shooting
Hurricane Sandy Evacuation Center, the Armory
• Wellness Practitioner
National Women in Policing Conference
• Co- Keynote Presenter
Detroit Police Department Heal the Healers
• Co-Lead with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
National Domestic Violence Hotline 3 day retreat-
• Co-lead with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault-
• Presenter Somatic Experiential Workshop
National Sexual Assault Conference
• Led Somatic Movement Workshops
Division of Criminal Justice Services, Forensic Sciences Crime Lab-
• Co-led Heal the Healers for criminalists from largest Medical Examinerʼs Office in the United States
Good Shepard Domestic Violence Shelter Los Angeles
NY Domestic Violence Shelter
• On-going class for 1 year
Good Shepard Safe Homes Project
Metro Chapter of New York Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
• Co-led Darkness To Light: An Experiential and Theoretical Workshop for Therapists Helping Adults Heal from Childhood Sexual Abuse
Teaching:
2018-2019. Urban Dove Team Charter School Brooklyn
Trauma Informed theatre and creative arts teacher.
2016-2017 New York City Children's Theatre- Shelter Program
• Trauma Specialist Consultant overseeing, training and implementing trauma informed practice into existing model
•Provided one on one supervision and coaching for Teaching Artists
2011-2013 Department Head of Dance, Movement and Devising- Professional Performing Arts High School of NYC
• Taught Emotion in Motion- my movement technique to create original multi-media theatre.
• Designed and led students through an innovative curriculum, each year building on developing their own voice, vision and artistry, culminating in directing and devising their own movement based theatre piece.
• Observed classes in the department and met with teachers to collaborate.
2007-2011 New York University’s Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing
• Directed productions, staged readings, scenes, monologues and plays with professional actors from NYU's First Look Theatre Company.
• Collaborated with writers in the graduate dramatic writing program, offering feedback in the development of their scripts, writing assignments, scenes and monologues.
• Participated in feedback, question and answer sessions after performances and showings.
2008-2009 The Savannah Theatre Project
• Director
• A three-month performance tour and workshop exchange for artists in the United States and South Africa.
• Physical Theatre workshops and trainings at Universities, Schools and communities - South Africa
• Physical Theatre Workshops - Dartmouth College
• Directed and toured Thom Pasculli's play Freedom! and the Sticky End of Make-Believe in New England, New York City and the Hilton Arts Festival in South Africa.
• Hosted and participated in a symposium for theatre artists from five different countries at The Savannah Africa Wildlife Reserve in Parys, South Africa. We led workshops and performances.
• URL: http://thompasculli.com/TSTP%20Photos.html
2006-2008 SOCAPA - School of Cinema and Performing Arts
• Taught Meisner Technique to students pursuing careers in theatre, film and television.
2002-2009 Urban Arts Partnership (Working Playground)
• Theatre, Movement and Devising Teaching Artist
• Worked in New York City Public Schools, in a wide variety of communities, both In-School and After-School programs for middle-school and high-school students.
• Collaborated with classroom teachers to create a theatre arts curriculum that supported subjects they were currently teaching.
• Created and Directed a spoken word theatre piece, with High-School students called, Why Should I Vote, which was chosen to open the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.
2004-2006 National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped
• Theatre and Movement Teaching Faculty
• Taught Meisner Technique Acting and Embodied Movement to adult performers with varying disabilities, including wheelchair, quadriplegic, loss of sight and cerebral palsy.
2000-2001 Gallery37 Chicago
• Theatre teaching artist specializing in working with middle-school students with disabilities, including cerebral palsy, autism, cognitive challenges and intellectual developmental disorders.
• Taught a year long course, culminating in an original play created by the students.
Organizations / Projects / Affiliations
2002 Member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors' Lab
2009 Founder Creative Seeds
• A non-profit organization, which was focused on theatre wellness work through Trauma Informed Yoga and Creative Arts Immersion Programs in South Africa and the United States.
• An international artistic exchange between students in New York City and The Eluxolweni Boys Home in Port St. Johns, South Africa. Applying art as a means of cross-cultural communication, setting up a global classroom via the internet, each group created a multimedia performance in both countries, based on the connections formed, ideas shared and the work exchanged.
• Offered immersion programs to the Eluxolweni Boys Home .
• Offered yoga and wellness support to the Sicambeni Women's Group with HIV/AIDS.
• Offered community yoga classes weekly.
Training and Education
Ancestral Healing Code Certification- Thomas Hübl
Ancestral Healing- Māori Shamanic Wisdom with Grandmother Moetu-Taiha
IFS and Collective Healing Course- Dr. Richard Schwartz and Thomas Hübl
MFA Theatre - focus on Antisemitism and Historical Trauma- University of Idaho
Historical Trauma Specialist Certification- Iya Affo
Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certification- Embody Lab
B.F.A. Point Park University- Theatre and Dance Conservatory
Meisner Technique -2 years, Center Theatre
Physical Theatre Intensives - Double Edge Theatre
Physical Theatre and Movement-Savannah Theatre Company
Dance Movement, Soho Circle of New York Dance Company
Trauma Center- Yoga for Trauma Certification- David Emerson
Trauma Resiliency Model Level 1 Certification- The Trauma Resource Institute
Kundalini Yoga Therapist- Module one completed- Golden Bridge
Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) Workshop- David Berceli
Certified Yoga Teacher 200hr- Sonic Yoga
Chakra Vinyasa:Prana Flow Teacher Training 22 Hours- Twee Merrigan
Reiki Practitioner
Yoga Teacher
Sonic Yoga - New York City
Bhakti Yoga Shala - Los Angeles
Body of Santa Fe- New Mexico
Santa Fe Opera Resident Yoga Teacher
Align Yoga Brooklyn
Private Clients Trauma and Terminal Illness
Selected Directing
Freedom! And The Sticky End Director Witness Hilton Festival (Africa)
Of Make-Believe NY International Fringe Festival
Juan Dominguez Research WS Performer Performance Space 122
Falling To Nirvana (Urban Arts Fest) Director The Barrow Street Theatre
Why Should I Vote? ( 24 hour plays) Director American AirlinesTheatre
Wild Elephants Escape..(24 hour plays) Director Signature Theatre
A Message FromWater (UA event) Director The Culture Project
The Blizzard (24 hour plays) Asst. Director American Airlines Theatre (Bennett Miller, Director)
Uninvited (Reading) Director Partial Comfort Productions
Tumor Producer Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab
The Flute Director Boomerang Theatre Company
Mother Courage Music Stage Manager Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Three Days Of Rain Assistant Director Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Anna D. Shapiro, Director)
Mizlansky/Zilinsky Assistant Director Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Amy Morton, Director)
Detail Of A Larger Work Assistant Director Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Sidd Assistant Director Dodger Stages
Nevermore Director Bristol Valley Theatre
Brown-Paper-Bag-Picnic-Gunch Director Manhattan Theatre Source
Morphs Director Vital Theatre Festival
Serenade (Musical WS) Director Serenade Project (Rachel Sheinkin)
Berkley Fitz Director The Neighborhood Playhouse
Source Sessions Workshop Leader/Director Confluence Theatre Company
Dancing With Dani Director Burning Coal Theatre Co
Action Sci-Fi Musical Director Defiant Theatre
Stage Directions Director Collaboraction