Tree Speech

We are grateful to have spoken with Michelle Browder during today’s episode. 

Michelle is a nationally recognized artist and activist. Her work has been exhibited in four galleries, including the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. She uses her artistic talents to create restorative justice programs in juvenile detention centers, failing schools systems and after school programs for under-served youth. Michelle has mentored thousands of disadvantaged kids and created safe places for children suffering from all forms of trauma, abuse and neglect. She uses art, history and "real talk" conversation and community events to change negative narratives created by social conditioning. She is the owner and operator of More Than Tours, a tour company which provides educational tours about racial bias and history to students and tourists in Montgomery, Alabama. I Am More Than....Put Yourself in Their Shoes, is a domestic nonprofit corporation founded and directed by Michelle. The More Up Student Travel Center will house and educate youth travelers and activists visiting the Montgomery center through an established curriculum of art, historical exploration, and critical thinking. Browder’s mural for Black Lives Matter was painted near the site of Montgomery’s former slave market and was featured on The TODAY show. She was the designer, artist and curator of the mural which is located at the historical Montgomery Slave Auction. The More Up Campus aims to educate the public on reductive rights, health and justice for Black women in America.

For information regarding the More Up Campus and Mothers Of Gynecology Monument: https://www.anarchalucybetsey.org

For information on Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative: https://eji.org

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 own 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 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

We are grateful to have spoken with Guleraana Mir during today’s episode. 

Guleraana is a British award-winning writer, applied-theatre practitioner, and one half of The Thelmas, a female-led theatre company devoted to empowering women to redress the equality imbalance in the arts. She is passionate about telling authentic stories that celebrate, not stereotype. Guleraana regularly facilitates playwriting masterclasses in schools, community groups, and for emerging writers. She is leader of the National Theatre’s Writing for Theatre programme for 16-21 year olds, and VAULT Festival’s New Writers Programme. She mentors on the MFA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Writing credits include: ALL THE SMALL THINGS (short, BBC Children’s) 2020, MISFITS (co-writer) Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch 2020, Recipient of an OnComm Commendation, SANTI & NAZ (co-writer), VAULT Festival 2020, Winner of an Origins Award for Outstanding New Work & Finalist for Best Stage Production at Asian Media Awards, THE BIGGER PICTURE (audio), commissioned by Tamasha and SOAS, WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED, Royal Exchange Theatre Young Company 2019, MAKE NOISE (audio) as part of Forgotten Women 2018, MANO’S Mulberry School & RichMix 2018, and COCONUT, Ovalhouse and national tour 2018, nominated for two OFFIE Awards including most promising new playwright.

Information about Guleraana’s Theatre Company, The Thelmas can be found at: https://www.thethelmas.co.uk

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 own 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 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

We are grateful to have spoken with Navee Cohen during today’s episode.

Here is a link to RIKMAH ENOSHIT ACHAT (A SINGLE HUMAN TISSUE): https://jewishmom.com/2016/05/10/the-song-i-will-be-singing-this-israeli-memorial-day/

Navee Cohen was born and raised on Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan in northern Israel. His early adulthood was spent as an elite Triathlete representing Israel in championship races around the world, including Croatia, Singapore, Turkey, France, and the United States. He retired from his athletic career and studied acting at the prestigious Beit Tzvi, The School of the Performing Arts. He has acted on stage and in several commercials in Israel, including for Soda Stream and Toys”R”Us. Throughout all of this, he has been a budding educator, leading Israel trips for college students. Leading him to be the Israel Fellow at UCLA Hillel, where he is able to fulfill his goal of bringing  people closer together in celebration of their Jewish heritage.

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 own 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 California on the native lands of the Tongva 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.

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

Logo design by Mill Riot.

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.