Through generous funding from the Walt Santner Endowment and FYS, Josie Whittlesey, founder and Executive Director of Drama Club, a nonprofit providing theater programming to incarcerated young people in NYC will be on campus this Wednesday, 11/30.

Josie will give a talk from 1-2p.m.in the Adler Theater followed by a hands-on workshop exploring Theater Games, improvisation, and performance techniques utilized in her work from 2:30-4:30p.m. in BC 216. All are welcome!  Please come and encourage your students to attend this unique opportunity.

Background on Drama Club & Josie Whittlesey:

Drama Club is currently operating in both secure detention centers in NYC: Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brownsville, Brooklyn and Horizon Juvenile Center in the South Bronx.  Drama Club also provides programming for 16 and 17-year old youth on Rikers Island at the Robert N. Davoren Complex (RNDC), for adolescent boys, and at Rose M. Singer Complex, where the adolescent girls are held. Additional programming has recently been extended to the 18-21 year old young adults housed in the George Motchan Detention Center and Rose M. Singer Complex, on Rikers Island. Drama Club is currently piloting a program for girls at Leake & Watts limited secure placement (LSP)-a post conviction facility in the Bronx. Prior to founding Drama Club, Josie taught theater to incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility (maximum security) and Woodbourne Correctional Facility (medium security), upstate New York.

Ms Whittlesey, together with a formerly incarcerated individual, developed Youth Empowerment Through the Arts (YEA) working with at-risk youth from Hour Children and Ravenswood Houses to create an original theater piece, which was performed for the community.  She has taught at Fordham University, New York University, Monclair State University, Nassau Community College, Purchase College, SUNY and Larry Singer Studios.  She holds an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting program.