Teaching Programs — Dominique Cieri

THEATRE + EDUCATION

Upcoming in December, Dominique will be holding writing workshops to adapt the book, The Fugu Plan, the story of the Japanese rescuer, Chiune Sugihara, of hundreds of Jews and the book, Visas for Life, written by his late wife.
The play will be performed in May 2020. More to come.

More on Chiune Sugihara

As an acclaimed and awarded teaching artist Dominique has taught over 100 residencies in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Additionally, she held the position of Director of Education for the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. Dominique has developed the HOLOCAUST STUDIES and the JUVENILLE JUSTICE programs, all multi-year annual projects. At Rowan and William Paterson Unversity she developed the playwrighting curriculum for educators for the Arts Horizons Artist Teacher Institute.

At Craig School, Dominique used innovative approaches with children of Autism and Asperger’s in the creation of curriculum in playwriting and performance. With WRITERS THEATRE of NEW JERSEY and the KENNEDY CENTER’S VERY SPECIAL ARTS program (2014-2018), Dominique designed and implementing four programs addressing learning disabilities creating one-act plays with incarcerated boys and fourth time offenders at Greenfields and Warren Group Residentials, John F Kennedy High School, developing and performing a group one-act play with developmentally disabled, and The Craig School, developing one-act plays with learning disabled.

FORMER STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS:

Hasan Murphy, from Greenfields won the 2014 Kennedy Center VSA Playwright Discovery Award for his play, Fortune Cookies, about a young boy who cannot read and is afraid to let anyone know.
Elijah Gaines, from Greenfields won the 2016 Playwright Discovery Award with his play, Learn Your ABCs, about a boy with multiple learning disabilities who enters a rap contest and wins with his rap about the alphabet soup of disabilities. His play also won the 2017 New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest (Writers Theatre of New Jersey)
Kareem Tucker and Kajohn Hird, won the Playwrights Discovery Award for their plays, Brothers and The Bird, The Worm and The Snake.
Raquan Santiago, Warren, was a finalist with his play, Be Yourself, and won the 2018 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival Contest.
Craig School students, Colin McKenna (2016) won the Playwrights Discovery Award, Junior Division with his play Wings, and Ava Sibona won the 2018 Junior Division of Young playwrights of New Jersey. Plays were performed in DC and in New Jersey.

FORMER PROGRAMS + AFFILIATIONS

VERY SPECIAL ARTS

Kennedy Center and Writers Theatre of New Jersey Playwrighting Program

Program Details:

Designing and implementing four programs addressing learning disabilities
Creating one-act plays with incarcerated boys and fourth time offenders at Greenfields and Warren Group Residentials. John F Kennedy High School
Developing and performing a group one-act play with developmentally disabled.
Developing one-act plays with learning disabled. (The Craig School)

HOLOCAUST STUDIES PROGRAM

Annual forty-day residency at Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ.

Program Details:

Adaption of history curriculum to theatrical form, 23 plays
Creation of process toward development of final script
Set, lighting and sound design, costume and prop development oversight
Director of 75-100 8th Grade students in final public performances

Yavneh’s Class of 2016 Performs Maniusia’s Promise

Below is a video of Holocaust survivor Livia Bitton Jackson speaking about the 2018 play I Have Lived A Thousand Years.

Arts Multidisciplinary Residency

Devereux Deerhaven Residency

Program Details:

A Multidisciplinary Arts Residency with teaching artists Catlin Cobb and Alexis Marnel, playwriting, poetry, movement, and masks. The play Count Down was based on the residency. A Fiasco of Things written by Dominique Cieri and Catlin Cobb can be found in Teaching Artist Journal.