Since 2006, New Moon Theater has been touring the Mid-Atlantic, bringing high quality theater and opera productions to children and family audiences in schools, summer camps, libraries and museums. Over the years, New Moon Theater has presented over 1000 performances, seen by over 85,000 peoples. We were proud to be selected as the state sponsored performer in the 2018 Delaware Division of Library’s SRC Arts in the Libraries program, touring into every public library in Delaware.
The Civic Circle uses music and the arts to empower young students to understand and participate in democracy, inspiring compassionate, informed, engaged citizens. Through in-school assembly shows and after-school workshops with teaching artists, students learn seven civic skills we call "steps to democracy." These are: civility and respect (Listen!), news literacy (Learn!), voting (Choose!), service-learning (Join!), advocacy (Speak!), organizing (Act!), and public service (Lead!).
David Cunningham is a passionate muralist and teaching artist living and working in Baltimore City. He has built student centered mural projects with the MSAC Artist in Residence and Arts in Education program since 1998 and has created stage scenery, interactive murals, historical based murals with students grades 5-12. His after school arts programs as part of his AIE program enabled murals at recreation centers in Baltimore City.
Praneetha Akula is a teaching artist who connects cultures through dance and her experience as an educator. She studied Bharatanatyam with her mother from the age of three and performed her formal dance debut at eleven. As a senior dancer with the Tehreema Mitha Dance Company, she choreographed for the annual Velocity DC festival and traveled across the U.S. with the company.
Lynne Streeter Childress is a playwright, actor, teaching artist, director, and founding artistic director of Building Better People Productions, a theatre company for young audiences based in Annapolis, MD that does shows based in themes of kindness, respect and the things that make us all better people. Her shows include We Got: It! A Show About Empathy and Feeling All the Feelings. Lynne lives in Annapolis, MD with her husband and son.
Elias Schutzman is a teaching artist with the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts and Arts for Learning Maryland. Since 2016 he has been teaching arts integrated residencies, performing interactive assemblies and giving family involvement workshops for public school children throughout Maryland, DC and Virginia. As a musician, Elias has been a principal songwriter, drummer, keyboard player and vocalist for his bands The Flying Eyes, Black Lung and Revvnant, releasing over 9 original albums and touring internationally since 2010.
Heidi Mordhorst is a working poet and teacher who has taught in diverse classrooms for 35 years. She is the author of two collections of poetry for young readers (SQUEEZE: POEMS FROM A JUICY UNIVERSE and PUMPKIN BUTTERFLY: POEMS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF NATURE, both Wordsong) and many contributions to journals and anthologies for adults and children, most recently POETRY BY CHANCE (Button Poetry) and DEAR HUMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME: POEMS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE US (Paloma Press). Heidi recently served a 3-year term on the NCTE Excellence in Poetry Award Committee.
Lisa Pellittiere is a dance teaching artist, performer, and choreographer residing in Maryland. Originally from Florida, Lisa earned her BFA in Dance from Jacksonville University. For over 10 years, she has taught in private dance studios; community programs; and PreK-12 private and public school curricular, co-curricular and extra curricular enrichment programs. By combining elements of creative movement and storytelling with contemporary dance styles, she creates accessible, expressive classes and choreography for movers of diverse backgrounds and varied dance experience.
Caroline Ferrante, a versatile artist and seasoned educator, draws upon two decades of classroom expertise in her arts-integrated classes, workshops, and performances. With a Master's Degree in Curriculum Design, she is passionate about harnessing the transformative potential of the arts to cultivate empathy and promote cultural competence among her students.