Jennifer Ridgway is a Theatre Teaching Artist who facilitates and consults on creative, arts-making, and -learning experiences, specializing in bringing artistry to life, amplifying everyday stories, promoting empathy, creating positive change, and fostering community joy.
FutureMakers brings hands-on remote and in-person STEAM workshops and packaged hands-on STEAM learning materials to classrooms and out-of-school time programs across Maryland. Learn more about how you can integrate maker education and student innovation outcomes for students and families at www.kidsmakethingsbetter.com.
Our professional company aims to inspire our audience through the transforming power of American dance. Energy, athleticism, dynamism and passion are classic American dance ideals that move our dancers to achieve higher levels of artistry and skill, whether through the drama of contemporary pieces or by making classic ballet storytelling come to life.
Janice Curtis Greene is an award-winning Author, Master Storyteller and Historical Interpreter, an American Griot. She has been telling African, African American, and Multicultural stories for over 30 years. She is Past President of the Griots' Circle of Maryland, Inc. and Immediate Past President of the National Association of Black Storytellers. Mrs. Greene, also, serves as a Commissioner on the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture.
Story Tapestries: Arianna Ross and The Ensemble executes performances and residencies that use the arts as a means to bridge barriers and help individuals foster a deeper connection to what they are learning and teaching. Story Tapestries creates international, dynamic programs that weave the power of dance, music, theatre, hip hop, rap, written word, visual art, and spoken word with any school subject. The artists are known for their ability to teach and perform for all ages with equal success because they custom design the programs to fit the needs of students and the subject.
ClancyWorks shifts perceptions through dance! ClancyWorks presents original modern dance works created through an exploration of architecturally informed partnering techniques. The Washington Post has described Dr. Adrienne Clancy, Founder, as “a wizard of invention” and her choreography as “a tour de force of unpredictable partnering.” Over the past 20 years of choreographing, Clancy has earned numerous awards and honors for her work and has had her dances presented internationally in Japan, Poland, Paraguay, Mexico, Israel, and England.
Laura Shovan is a children’s author, educator, and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. She has worked as an editor of literary journals and poetry anthologies. Laura's debut novel-in-verse, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, won several awards, including NCTE Notable Verse Novel. Her novel Takedown was selected for Junior Library Guild, PJ Our Way, and the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project. Her most recent work is Sydney Taylor Notable A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi.
Brown Box is a theatre and education collaborative founded on the belief that theatre is for all people and that all communities have the right to easy access to the arts. Brown Box has distinguished itself as a professional, touring theatre company dedicated to producing a diverse array of theatre year-round in order to eliminate the barriers of geography, cost, and racial inequity for the traditional and new theatre patron.
Adele is a poet/teacher living in Silver Spring, MD. She received her BA & MFA in English Literature/Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. She's a professor at Montgomery College, Teaching evening classes for UMGC, and is a poet in at the Arts in Education Program with the Maryland State Arts Council. She's been published in Gargoyle, So to Speak, The Maryland Poetry Review, Smartish Pace, The Lucid Stone, Scribble, and more. Books: Refracted Love, Freshwater Pearls, The Moon Lighting, & Look Ma, "Hands" on Poetry (collection of creative writing workshops for students).
Between 1986 to 1994, MEAC toured worldwide as an Arts Ambassador on behalf of the British Council. Its ground-breaking performances were acclaimed as the first Art form that could truly allow the severely disabled child an opportunity to become part of the theater community. In 1994 the troupe re-located to the United States of America. Beginning in 1994 MEAC conducted a school residency at The Maryland School for the Blind, which continued for 21 years.