Steppenwolf is proud to have partnered with Chicago Public Schools for over 20 years through its robust in-school programs, the star of which is a training program for CPS high school classroom teachers and Chicagoland teaching artists. This training not only provides dozens of new and veteran educators with free, quality professional development—it also directly benefits the thousands of students taught by those educators each year.
Classroom Teacher Training
Steppenwolf is proud to boast multi-year partnerships with our core classroom teacher partners from Chicago Public High Schools across the city. Our classroom partners teach in subject areas such as English, History, Humanities, the Social Sciences, classes for English Language Learners and—of course—Drama and Theatre.
Our current roster of partner schools are:
Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences
Curie Metropolitan High School
Franklin Fine Arts (8th grade only)
Friedrich Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center
George Washington High School
Kennedy High School
Lane Tech College Prep
Lincoln Park High School
Lindblom Math and Science Academy
Multicultural Academy of Scholarship
Nicholas Senn High School
Prosser Career Academy
Roosevelt High School
Wendell Phillips Academy High School
Westinghouse College Prep
Classroom teachers receive free and extensive professional development opportunities with the department, logging between 15–90 hours of training with Steppenwolf Education annually, all available for Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDU) in addition to the free workshops led by teaching artists in their classrooms.
We are always looking for new classroom teacher partners, especially those working in schools without access to theatre or drama. Teachers, we would love to hear from you about how we might work together! To learn more about our in-school programs, please click here or please contact Manager of School Programs Dana Murphy at dmurphy@steppenwolf.org.
Teaching Artists
TEACHING ARTIST ROSTER
Our dedication to the professional mentorship of arts educators over the years has made Steppenwolf a training center for teaching artists who work at Steppenwolf and at our esteemed peer institutions across the city and beyond. All teaching artists come into our program as assistant teaching artists, learning the pedagogy of aesthetic education that we employ in all our work and teaching. After learning from and teaching alongside veteran teaching artists, assistant teaching artists can move into a “lead” position during the second year.
We identify many of our incoming teaching artists as a result of a rich partnership with University of Illinois at Chicago (the only public arts university in Chicago), whereby theatre students are trained in teaching artistry and receive hands-on experience in the field before graduation. Steppenwolf ensemble member Yasen Peyankov serves as head of the UIC theater department in the School of Theater and Music.
Steppenwolf’s teaching artists work in our in-school residency programs and teen programs. Please find more information about these programs here.
Currently, our roster of lead and assistant teaching artists is made up of the following talented individuals:
Tyra Bullock
Kona N. Burks
Jazmín Corona
Monét Felton
Jalyn Greene
Claribel Gross
Lauren Katz
Alexis A Tornez Martinez
Ayssette Muñoz
Dana Murphy
Jeremy Ohringer*
Abigail Piñon
Stewart Romeo
Alexus Williams
*denotes Facilitator of Professional Development
If you are a teaching artist interested in working with Steppenwolf or if you would like more information about educator training, please contact Manager of School Programs Dana Murphy at dmurphy@steppenwolf.org.
TEACHING ARTIST BIOS
We invite you to learn more about our lead and assistant teaching artists.
Want more information?
If you are a teaching artist interested in working with Steppenwolf or a classroom teacher interested in more information about educator training or in-school programs, please contact Manager of School Programs Dana Murphy at dmurphy@steppenwolf.org.