GETheatre is in full swing preparing for our 4th annual collaboration with Kiembe Samaki School outside Stonetown in Zanzibar this June! We are very excited to have assembled a truly excellent team of teaching artists to work with us this year. Ashley Olson, GETheatre’s Director of Education and Outreach, will be leading two interns to work with Kiembe Samaki’s form four students. We would love to introduce the additions to this year’s GETZanzibar team!
Taren Hastings holds a BFA in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College and will be completing her Masters this May from NYU Steinhardt with a concentration in Educational Theatre in Colleges and Communities. While at NYU Taren has served as a teaching assistant for two undergraduate and graduate level acting classes, was a part of the production team for the summer series, New Plays for Young Audiences, and facilitated an anti-bullying workshop at the American Alliance for Theatre and Education conference in Chicago, based on her research and studies in New York and Puerto Rico. Taren has worked for many years as an actor and began her work as a teaching artist in Minnesota with CLIMB Theatre back in 2006. Taren is very thankful to be able to bring her passion to Zanzibar. She hopes that she instills the students with not only a better understanding of the English language but with an experience that confirms that they are stage worthy, they have a voice, and if they speak people will listen. She looks forward to not only listening to their words but also learning from them. She’s sure that she’ll return a better teacher, stronger artist, and a more productive citizen of the world.
Yosefa Forma is an actor and performer from New York City. She has acted from coast to coast in the United States and holds a BFA in Drama from Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), as well as an MA in Educational Theatre from Steinhardt School for Education, Culture and Human Development. Yosefa taught as a substitute teacher at various public schools in NYC and has also worked for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s Education and Community Outreach program, where she conducted workshops and residencies focusing on Shakespeare’s major plays and sonnets to students in grades four through twelve. Last summer, Yosefa traveled to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina where she taught educational theater workshops at a U.S. Embassy sponsored International conference on media, art and social justice. She worked with students and youth groups from all around the Balkans in using dramatic activities to help facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and reconciliation. Currently, Yosefa works at Trinity School in NYC, where she teaches a range of elementary school subjects from reading, writing and phonics to theatre and art. She is thrilled to be coming on board with GETZanzibar this summer and she is looking forward to bringing all of her performing and educational experience to the program there and in turn, learning much from the local student participants.
GETheatre welcomes Taren and Yosefa to our GETZanzibar teaching artist team and look forward to sharing their experiences with you!