Jacque Schrader and Rick Layton have been teaching adults in Orff Schulwerk teacher education courses, state conferences, and national conferences in the United States for more than twenty-five years. Since the late 1980s they have taught together at the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, and George Mason University. In addition to their work in this country, both have taught internationally, including courses in Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Taiwan, and twice at the Orff Institute in Austria.
For the past thirty years, Jacque Schrader taught in the first school, lower school, and middle school at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland. Most recently, Schrader has been appointed as the director of the Discovery Outreach Program for the Annapolis Symphony Academy. In this role, she has launched the Discovery Outreach Program for children from age five to ten. Schrader holds a degree from Drake University, and Orff Schulwerk Level III certification from Hamline University.
Richard Layton’s teaching has included being a professor of music theory at the University of Maryland, College Park since 1992, and teaching at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland since 1979 where he was the upper school performing arts department chair. He holds a degree from West Chester University, and his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Maryland. He is co-author of The Elemental Style: A Handbook for Composers and Arrangers.
Lynn Hoare is a facilitator, educator, and director working in the field of applied theatre and arts education with regional, national, and international partners. She was the senior director of school-based programs at Creative Action, the largest arts and education nonprofit in central Texas. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, a co-founder of the Center for Imagining and Performing Justice, and the co-director of the Performing Justice Project which devises original theatre with young people about gender and racial justice. Her co-authored book, Devising Critically Engaged Theatre with Youth: The Performing Justice Project, won the distinguished book award from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education in 2021. Hoare collaborates with others to use theatre as a tool for imagining justice, building connection and community, and fostering critical dialogue.
Olivia Aston Bosworth is an artist, educator, and producer who deeply believes in the power of theatre for young audiences. She is the head of youth and family programs at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia and works with educational programming for children from birth through fifth grade. She oversees the Alliance Bernhardt Theatre for the Very Young program, early learner and elementary classes and camps, caregiver initiatives, and family programming. As a Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts Teaching Artist, Bosworth has taught arts integrated lessons in early childhood and elementary school classrooms around Atlanta and has also presented at several professional development conferences on immersive storytelling through the curriculum. Additionally, she is the vice president of the Board of Directors of Theatre for Young Audiences in the United States. Bosworth holds degrees from Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University.
Mike Mitchell is the art education coordinator at Tennessee State University. His personal research encompasses animation, art writing, curating, drawing, instrument building, mail art, painting, performance, poetry, rubber stamping, sculpture, skateboarding, sound art, social practice, and songwriting. He is a Crayola Creativity Ambassador, a Makey-Makey Ambassador, member of the Educators’ Cooperative, founding editor of Number Inc.’s Young Art Writers Projects, and founder of the Little Free Skate Shop (LFSS) which operates out of his office and Missy Lindsay’s art classroom at McGavock High School. In the past three years LFSS has redistributed more than one hundred skateboards to high school students in and around Nashville.
Robert (Rob) Russell Pethel is a musician, educator, and content creator based in Atlanta, Georgia. Pethel holds degrees from Georgia State University, including a doctorate, and a master’s degree from Auburn University. He has worked for Atlanta Public Schools since 2008 and taught at Sutton Middle School and Peyton Forest Elementary. Pethel currently serves as the lead technology teacher, music instructor, Apple learning coach, and eSports coach at the Atlanta Virtual Academy. He is also active as a professional development speaker and has presented for the Georgia Music Educators Association, Louisiana Music Educators Association, and the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. Pethel is the creator of BlueGuitar Classroom Curriculum (www.BlueGuitar.us), Music Prism (www.YouTube.com/@MusicPrism), and Armuchee Craft (www.ArmucheeCraft.com).
Jonathan Bernstein’s plays and musicals have been produced all over the country. Under the auspices of the Jerome Robbins Foundation, he is currently developing a new project with actress and choreographer Susan Misner entitled Here in the Bright Colorado Sun. His directing credits include work at the Atlantic Theater Company, Signature Theater, the Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theater, and many others. He has worked at New York’s City Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theater, Roundabout Theatre, and the 52nd Street Project. Supervising director credits include the still-running revival of Chicago, overseeing both the Broadway production and the many national and international productions it has spawned. He is a professor of playwriting and script analysis at New York University and he serves as the artistic director of the Performing Arts Project, an international arts training non-profit organization designed to serve people from ages fifteen to twenty-five.
Mike Mitchell is the art education coordinator at Tennessee State University. His personal research encompasses animation, art writing, curating, drawing, instrument building, mail art, painting, performance, poetry, rubber stamping, sculpture, skateboarding, sound art, social practice, and songwriting. He is a Crayola Creativity Ambassador, a Makey-Makey Ambassador, member of the Educators’ Cooperative, founding editor of Number Inc.’s Young Art Writers Projects, and founder of the Little Free Skate Shop (LFSS) which operates out of his office and Missy Lindsay’s art classroom at McGavock High School. In the past three years LFSS has redistributed more than one hundred skateboards to high school students in and around Nashville.
