We are thrilled to be able to announce our teaching artist team for our GETIndia program this January! Â Working at Parikrma’s Koramangala and Jayanagar Learning Centres we will be teaching approximately 35 students this year. We look forward to bringing you live updates from the classroom as we get started on January 1st, 2013!
Lindsey Samples is a director, actor, and educator based in Minneapolis, MN. She received her B.A. in Theatre at Loyola University Chicago and is now an M.Ed. candidate in Youth Development Leadership at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. For 2 years, she was mentored in directing by Marion McClinton, assisting him on productions at Pillsbury House Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Mixed Blood, Ten Thousand Things, Kansas City Repertory Theatre and 59E59 Off-Broadway. As a teacher, Lindsey focuses primarily on social justice theater and the creation of original plays by youth, which she has done with several youth-serving theaters in the Twin Cities area.
Maya Turner Singh (Project – Director GETIndia ) has been a teaching artist and theatre practitioner in New York City since 2005. She has worked with several prominent educational theatre organizations in New York City including The New Victory Theater, TADA! Youth Theater, Vital Theater Company, The Park Avenue Armory and the MCC Theater Youth Company.  In 2012 Maya developed a performing arts curriculum for Global Partners Junior, and organization which connects students in New York City to students in over 30 cities around the globe.  In 2007, Maya partnered with The Parikrma Humanity Foundation in Bangalore, India (a non-profit school for slum children and orphans) to provide a six-week drama workshop for their students. GETheatre is now partnering with Parikrma to provide annual workshops to their students each January. Maya has participated in theatre projects in Puerto Rico, London, Dublin, Belfast, India, and Zanzibar. Being fortunate to work with some of the field’s most well known practitioners, her work has been influenced by Dorothy Heathcote, Cecily O’Neill, Chrissy Poulter, Deborah Hunt and Philip Taylor.  Maya holds degrees from the Eugene Lang College at The New School in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Theatre and a Masters in Educational Theatre from The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at NYU.
John Socas (Co-founder & Director) co-founded GETheatre with his wife, Jennifer and has worked with students at Kiembe Samaki Secondary School and Jambiani Secondary schools in Zanzibar, East Africa using drama to teach English to students. John received his Masters in Fine Arts at the National Theatre Conservatory and is pursuing his PhD at New York University. The focus of his dissertation and much of his teaching is on improving the self-presentation and job-interview skills of urban community college students. John is a full-time faculty member at Bronx Community College (CUNY), where he also directs the Theatre Workshop. He served as the point-person during the recent renovation of the college’s theatre moving productions from a classroom to a nearly 300-seat playhouse. He has presented several papers on his work, and has lead panel discussions and workshops at national conferences including the National Communication Association (NCA), the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. John has been honored for his work in education and theatre with the “Spirit of the Fringe Award†at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2002), the “John Golden Incentive Award for Playwriting†(2006),  the “Mid-Career Achievement Award†from NCA (2010), and the “Merit Award for Directing†from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (2011).