Educator
I believe arts education should help young people become thoughtful, resilient, and generous members of their communities. Theater is uniquely equipped to do this because it asks students to imagine lives beyond their own, take creative risks, listen closely, and build something that no one person could create alone.
This philosophy shapes my work at every level, from teaching students directly to designing curricula and supporting other educators. As Executive Director of the 92NY School of Musical Theater, I oversee the school’s curriculum and culture while continuing to teach alongside the faculty I lead. I have also developed the curriculum for the Discover Musical Theater program, presented in partnership with 92NY Educational Outreach, and serve as an adjunct faculty member at Pace University. Across these roles, I specialize in helping teachers create inclusive, artistically rigorous spaces in which young people can participate fully and do meaningful work.
Rigor and Inclusion
My teaching is grounded in the belief that artistic rigor and inclusion strengthen one another. Inclusion does not mean lowering expectations, simplifying the work, or making every student’s experience identical. It means creating multiple ways into the work, providing the support students need to participate, and maintaining meaningful opportunities for challenge and growth. Every student should feel valued while also understanding that their presence carries responsibility to the larger community.
As a neurodivergent artist and educator, I understand that learning, communicating, and participating do not look the same for everyone. I use movement, music, visual structure, repetition, language, and collaborative practice to create different pathways into the work. These choices are not accommodations added after a lesson has been designed; they are part of how I design learning from the beginning. Difference is not a problem to solve. It is a source of knowledge, creativity, and possibility.
Musical Theatre as Life Training
I approach musical theater training as both artistic training and preparation for life. In rehearsal, students learn to communicate their ideas, respond to feedback, recover from mistakes, share responsibility, and contribute to a collective vision without losing their individual voices. They learn that being part of an ensemble does not require making themselves smaller. It requires understanding when to lead, when to support, and how to help create the conditions in which everyone can do their strongest work.
Building Belonging
I also believe belonging requires more than protecting students from disappointment or redesigning every structure around them. Young people need tools to enter existing systems, understand how those systems operate, advocate for themselves and others, challenge what is harmful, and retain their sense of worth when roles and opportunities are not identical. Theater offers a meaningful place to practice these skills because it asks students to navigate ambition, difference, responsibility, collaboration, and care.
Students of every age bring valuable knowledge, histories, identities, and perspectives into the classroom. I take their ideas seriously and invite them to participate as artists and meaning-makers rather than simply follow instructions. My role, and the role I encourage other teachers to embrace, is to create a clear, responsive framework in which students can experiment, question, interpret, and discover what they are capable of doing.
Ultimately, I want students to leave as more skilled artists and more confident, empathetic people. I want teachers to feel equipped to maintain high artistic expectations while responding thoughtfully to the learners in front of them. Through theater, I hope to build communities in which difference is supported rather than merely tolerated and in which young people experience the joy, responsibility, and transformative power of making something together.