SESSION TYPE: Featured Speaker (Panel) SESSION TITLE: STAGES FOR LEARNING: Broadway Embraces The Classroom of the Future STRAND: English Language Arts DAY: Saturday TIME: 2:30 - 3:45pm LOCATION: Nassau Suite, 2nd floor

In his book, A Whole New Mind, researcher and social commentator Daniel H. Pink predicts that professional success and personal satisfaction in the future will depend on six essential aptitudes: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. New technologies and social media are transforming how teachers can use theatre arts to teach core curriculum and help students develop these important life skills. Broadway is now creating innovative, standards-based rich media educational content that gives K-12 teachers direct access to a digital library of interactive lesson modules. This panel will frame the opportunity for arts-based curricula to teach character development, and suggest ideas for readily available resources that can enhance peer-to-peer learning and spark creativity.

BIOGRAPHY

Timothy R. Beekman is the President of SAFARI Montage, was founder of Dynacom, Inc., and a partner/owner of the former SAFARI Technologies, Inc. Mr. Beekman holds a BSEE from Western Michigan University and a First Class Broadcast License. He was honored as “Fellow of the Decade” by Ball State University Center for Communication Sciences and served as Director of Technology for Grand Rapids Public Schools. Mr. Beekman has pioneered the integration of video technology in the classroom through projects like AT&T School of the Future initiative and the “Campus of the Future” at Ball State University. Under Mr. Beekman’s leadership, SAFARI has grown to be an industry leader in Educational Video Integration Technologies in both analog and digital formats.

Susan Birkenhead received a Tony® Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her lyrics for Jelly’s Last Jam. She was one of the writers nominated for a Tony® Award for Working and won an Outer Critics Circle Award for What About Luv? She wrote Zhivago with Arthur Kopit and Lucy Simon, and The Night They Raided Minsky’s with Charles Strouse and Evan Hunter. She wrote additional lyrics for High Society, with a book by Arthur Kopit and a score by Cole Porter. She wrote lyrics for Pieces of Eight with Jule Styne and Michael Stewart, Fanny Hackabout Jones with Erica Jong and Lucy Simon, and was one of the contributors to A My Name Is Alice. She received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Love. Her upcoming projects include The Flamingo Kid with Henry Krieger and James Magruder, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm with Henry Krieger and Daniel Goldfarb. Ms. Birkenhead is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council, Treasurer of the Dramatists Guild Fund, and a member of the Musical Theater Council of the Manhattan Theater Club.

Rick Elice co-wrote Broadway’s upcoming The Addams Family and Jersey Boys (2006 Tony® Award and 2009 Olivier Award® for Best Musical) with Marshall Brickman. From 1982-1999, as creative director at Serino Coyne Inc., he produced ad campaigns for some 300 Broadway shows, from A Chorus Line to The Lion King. From 1999–2009, he served as creative consultant for The Walt Disney Studios. MFA, Yale Drama School; Teaching Fellow, Harvard University; charter member, American Repertory Theatre. Rick saw his first Broadway show when he was three. His mother said he was very well-behaved. From that day, he dreamed of working in the theatre. Since the age of 19, he has been inspired by many artists whose names will be spoken as long as people gather in the darkness.

Laurence Maslon is an Associate Arts Professor at the Graduate Acting Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with an affiliation in NYU’s Undergraduate Drama and the MFA Musical Theatre Writing Programs. He is the university liaison for the BAM/NYU Initiative. He was the senior consultant for the six-part PBS series, “Broadway: The American Musical,” produced and directed by Michael Kantor, as well as the co-author with Kantor of two episodes and the companion volume, published by Bulfinch Press. Other books include The South Pacific Companion and Kaufman & Co.: Broadway Comedies for the Library of America. He supplied commentary for the DVD releases of Flower Drum Song, Carousel, and The Indiana Jones Chronicles. He has been moderating the Encores! pre-show symposia for four seasons and has put together programs for Manhattan Theater Club, Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and Arena Stage in Washington, DC, where he was Associate Artistic Director for seven seasons. He is also a Tony® Award nominator. BA: Brown University; MA, Stanford University.