We are grateful to have spoken with Nancy Smithner during today’s episode.

Nancy Smithner, PhD, is a director, performer, devisor and Clinical Associate Professor in the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University, where she teaches Physical Theatre, Acting, Directing, Devising, Theatre History, Play Theory, Pedagogy and Community Engaged Theatre. A theatre director, she specializes in the devising of original performance works and plays, and has worked with populations of all ages, engaging participants in philosophical and creative play. As an applied theatre practitioner, Smithner teaches and directs in medium and maximum security prisons and was a 20 year member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit, performing for children in pediatric settings.

Tree Speech’s host, Dori Robinson, is a director, playwright, dramaturg, and educator who seeks and develops projects that explore social consciousness, personal heritage, and the difference one individual can have on their community. Some of her great loves include teaching, the Oxford comma, intersectional feminism, and traveling. With a Masters degree from NYU’s Educational Theatre program, she continues to share her love of Shakespeare, new play development, political theatre, and gender in performance. Dori’s original plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Boston, including: The Great Harvest, The Principal Stream, Name of a Woman, Six Wings to One, and most recently The Elm Tree with Alight Theater Guild. More information at https://www.dorirobinson.com

This week’s episode was recorded in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket people, and in New York on the native lands of the Lenape and Wappinger people, and was produced by Jonathan Zautner and Alight Theater Guild, a 501(c)(3) created to advance compelling theatrical endeavors that showcase the diversity of our ever-changing world in order to build strong artists whose work creates empathy, challenges the status quo and unites communities. Alighttheater.org.

Logo design by Mill Riot.

Learn more about the podcast at: www.treespeechpodcast.com, and IG: treespeechpodcast

The episode is dedicated in memory of Henry Francis Morlock.