K EY N OTE E VE N TS
CONFERENCE KICK OFF EVENT:
CLEO PARKER ROBINSON
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 7:30 p.m.
Location: Pinnacle-Capitol Peak
Cleo Parker Robinson is the choreographer, artistic director, and founder of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble.
She has been transforming the stage into a sanctuary of healing arts for more than 30 years, uplifting audiences worldwide
through an explosive body of works inspired by the African American experience and rooted in Black dance traditions.
Conference attendees will learn about Parker Robinson’s remarkable life and the lessons learned along the way, as well as
watch a performance of the Youth Ensemble.
Cleo Parker Robinson is a master teacher/choreographer, and cultural ambassador she has taught and performed with her
Ensemble in such diverse places as Iceland, Singapore, Hawaii, Nassau, Belize, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, throughout Europe, and
throughout the African continent. People of all ages and backgrounds have participated in Ms. Parker Robinson’s workshops
and master classes at conservatories, universities, and neighborhood dance centers worldwide Ms. Parker Robinson’s awards
include the Colorado’s Governor’s Award for Excellence (1974), Denver’s Mayor’s Award (1979), induction into the Colorado
Women’s Hall of Fame (1989) and the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame (1994). Recognized in Who’s Who in America Colleges
and Universities she holds an Honorary Doctorate from Denver University (1991), and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane
Letters from Colorado College (2003), and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Regis University in Denver (2008).
CTFA KEYNOTE AND MEDALLION AWARDS
MARY HELEN IMMORDINO-YANG
Friday, August 1, 2014 2:30 p.m.
Location: Imperial Ballroom
A BRAIN SCIENTIST WHO SPEAKS THEATRE!
Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, an affective and cognitive neuroscientist, conducts research at the Brain and Creativity
Institute at the University of Southern California. Her studies use fMRI brain scan technology to study the impact of emotion,
social interaction and culture on human development and education. Immordino-Yang boldly concludes that education must
pick up the slack in children’s development by infusing arts learning methods into mainstream education.
The connections between theatre artists and educators and Mary Helen Immordino-Yang’s research occur regularly as we
guide participants in the performative processes of drama and theatre. It is in these processes that we utilize process drama,
creative drama, and other non-exhibitional and formally-produced drama-based opportunities for self-expression.
Immordino-Yang asserts that such opportunities engage us on a meta-cognitive level and exponentially increase a child’s
embodied library of “lived in” experiences. Such involvement is critical to understanding and negotiating the complexities
and nuances of human experience.
The keynote presentation by Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is sponsored by the Children’s Theatre Foundation of
America through its Alvin Cohen Memorial Fund. This fund was established by Mr. Cohen to encourage and support
exceptional programming in the work of national theatre organizations. Mr. Cohen served the theatre field professionally
and philanthropically. He owned Paramount Theatrical Supplies, was treasurer of the United States Institute for Theatre
Technology and a faithful friend of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and was a trustee of the Children’s Theatre
Foundation of America. Since his death, the Cohen family continues this fund in his memory.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
KURT WOOTTON
Saturday, August 2, 2014 7:30 p.m.
Location: Denver Center Theatre Academy
Kurt Wootton is the Co-Founder of the ArtsLiteracy Project in the Education Department at Brown University as well as the
Co-Founder of the lab school Habla: The Center for Language and Culture in Merida, Mexico. He has piloted lab schools
in the United States and Brazil and worked with Boston, St. Paul, Providence, and Central Falls on multi-year, district-wide
performance and literacy initiatives. With a specialty in creative literacy pedagogies, teacher professional development,
and organizational change, he works internationally with teachers and administrators helping to design schools and arts
organizations that are meaningful and welcoming places. Wootton is the co-author of A Reason to Read: Linking Literacy and
the Arts published by Harvard Education Press and he writes about the arts and education for The Huffington Post and on
his own blog, The Education Labyrinth. A lifelong teacher Wootton has taught in urban and suburban public schools, private
schools, community arts organizations, and on the faculty at Brown University. The New York Times writes: “Mr. Wootton
remains every bit as convinced of education’s power to transform lives. He has changed his tool of choice, however, from a
mirror in which students see only reflections of themselves to a window that opens onto the rest of the world.”
KEYNOTE PANEL:
Sunday, August 3, 2014 10:30 a.m.
Location: Imperial Ballroom
LEADING GROWTH: LOCALLY AND
GLOBALLY
The panel of industry visionaries will come
together to creatively resp