Membership Spotlight – January 2026

The Garden is a very special project that I’m the director of and that we have been working on since 2021 when we first started to develop the play.

It’s a radically inclusive, meditative performance exploring the life cycle with very young children and their families in public green spaces. We are fortunate to be the LabWorks Launch artist this season at the New Victory Theater and in the fall we’re planning a big tour to all the New York City boroughs.

You can read more about it here.

I haven’t seen this piece of art yet but this trailer of the show cOsmO by Canadian company Motus and Mexican company Nubila Teatro has me mesmerized and so inspired!

A dream project would be to create work that lives in the realm of public installation and activation. I’m always inspired by some of Australian company Polyglot’s projects like Paper Planet, Ants, Boats and We Built This City. I’m inspired to work on projects that are centered around collective, communal building/making/world building where families get a chance to transform and play in public spaces! Something that we all really need right now. The Garden was the first creative project for me that took place in public space and I have fallen in love with this work. The shift of power dynamics that happens with performances in public spaces vs in a physical theater is very exciting to me. If someone is working on things like this and needs a collaborator, give me a shout! 🙂

For me it’s the most exciting, inspiring, meaningful, innovative, fulfilling thing I could do. It challenges and nourishes me in so many ways. It’s a wonderful honor to get to create theater experiences for young people and really think deeply together with other people what would be relevant and meaningful to create for them. The inspiration and energy I get from working with children is intoxicating and they always have the best, most unexpected ideas and thoughts. Play and imagination is at the foundation of everything I do as a theater maker and facilitator and there are no better teachers of that than young children.

The advocacy it involves working in Theatre for Young Audiences, especially in the US, feels important and urgent and fighting for children’s rights is something that fuels me. All children should have access to high quality, innovative theater at any age and our field will keep trucking until we get closer to that in the US.

Lastly I want to say that TYA people are the kindest, most thoughtful, creative people I know and it feels really special to be part of that community.

So many to name, my Spellbound family who have taught me everything I know about Theater for the Very Young, my Flying Leap family who gives me a space to work on wild and unique projects and Jugando n Play where I got to direct a TYA play for the first time! (It was on Zoom Summer 2020 and one of our collaborators was in Lebanon! Needless to say it was an EXPERIENCE.)

But I am going to go off script here and say that children are my favorite collaborators. I know that sounds cheesy but oh so true. I can listen to children’s ideas and play for hours and sharing an imaginative world with a young person is always a treat.

Beth Ferholt is a good friend and mentor who is an Early Childhood professor at Brooklyn College. Her research is around play pedagogy and specifically Gunilla Lindqvist’s concept of Playworlds which explore adult-child joint play in the preschool. Assisting in her research as a drama teacher, helping translate one of her team’s books and going to presentations and lectures has taught me so much about play and early childhood development. Learning about Rhizomatic learning for example has been foundational for me in understanding a young child’s mind and how to create experiences for them.

Check out my work at www.flying-leap.com or @flyingleapproductions and www.spellboundtheatre.com or @spellboundtheatre. I would love to connect! Just send me a DM on Instagram.

I am currently producing “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: The Musical” with my collaborators at Third Wish Productions. In fall 2025, we partnered with Seattle Children’s Theatre to present the world premiere before launching a national tour, allowing us to bring SCT’s mission to communities across the country. I have loved the opportunity to share the work of Nina Meehan (writer and director) and Austin Zumbro (composer) with audiences nationwide, and we are so excited to be heading to the New Victory Theater just in time for Valentine’s Day. Another especially meaningful part of this project is that “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” was a classroom staple in my mom’s kindergarten class for 25 years. When we had the opportunity to be part of adapting such a formative property, it felt incredibly right!

I have recently been inspired by “Buffalo Fluffalo” by Bess Kalb, illustrated by Erin Kraan. I love how it balances humor and heart while gently reminding us of the power of empathy and vulnerability.

With my work at New York City Children’s Theater, I am currently working on a new musical adaptation of “The Hula Hoopin’ Queen”. The production will run from February 28 through March 15, 2026, and I am so excited to support this incredible group of artists. The musical is full of bops and brings the heart of Thelma Lynne Godin’s “The Hula Hoopin’ Queen of 139th Street” to the stage. It features a book and lyrics by Tia DeShazor, music by Derrick Byars, and is directed by Jasmin Richardson.

Because it’s fun! Truly, I find so much joy working within the Theatre for Young Audiences community. I am constantly inspired by the artists, administrators, and educators who show up every day to make this field not only vibrant and imaginative, but also a better and more sustainable industry to work in.

I’d love to shout out my dear friend Melissa Merlino, who I sometimes refer to as my artistic soulmate. We have co-directed and collaborated on several projects together, but one of my favorites was the New York City Children’s Theater production of “Fish in a Tree”, adapted by Barbara Zinn Krieger. The process allowed us to play with many of the techniques we loved learning from our professor, Lauren Unbekant, during our time at Syracuse University, and I always look forward to the next time we can bring those shared roots into the rehearsal room together.

I’d like to shout out a wonderful mentor and theatre maker Dan Guerrero, who has deeply inspired me. He has shown me that theatre carries responsibility and real power to create meaningful change in our communities. His work as a writer, producer, performer, and activist reflects the care and integrity our field needs right now.

You can connect at www.instagram.com/p3productions.nyc.

A project I am currently working on is our Oyeme Troupe program, which focuses on centering narratives of newcomer youth about their experiences with immigration and adapting to a new culture. I am passionate about this project largely because it gives us an opportunity for these students to visualize themselves in a position of leadership in their own communities. We are working on centering their idealized futures and manifesting them through the performing arts and deepening a sense of community collaboration. In focusing the project on changing a problem that exists in the world, the work seeks to encourage students to creatively think about ways in which their own aspirations can contribute to the development of a positive and bright future for everyone in their community.

This is a new approach to a traditional model that we are looking to streamline in the future and integrate into other programs, so I am hopeful that we can focus their thoughts and the students will build on each other in a way that is constructive and supportive. The success of the Oyeme courses in the last semester laid the groundwork for a deeper examination of student creativity and adaptability through the arts. It has given them sufficient confidence in themselves to venture out and take risks without fear of failure within the confines of a supportive environment. It does take a while to create this communal sense of participation because of linguistic, cultural, and literacy barriers, but the payoff is more than worth it when you see them come alive and take agency over their choices when collaborating together.

I love listening to music scores and soundtracks because it places my mind in an endless number of different scenarios. Some of my favorite composers are not as well-known, but they are Hunter Rogerson, Go Sakebe, Kotaro Nakagawa, Christopher Tin, Hesham Nazih, Mathieu Lamboley, Debbie Wiseman, and several others.

As far as acting is concerned, I love attending improv classes and getting to do “research” as part of my job while also delving into the creative process myself as an artist. I love making short videos with my friends and voice acting in their projects as well. What also drives me creatively is being a player in my friend group’s weekly D&D sessions where we all love the roleplay heavy elements of the game.

More than anything, Japanese tokusatsu series really fueled me creatively, because the genre taught me at a very young age that no creative idea is too ridiculous, and as long as you care deeply and believe in something, you can make an extremely compelling work of art. I hope others learn to discover that as well so they have the drive to pursue their creativity.

An upcoming project we are working on is the final presentation for our Voices Beyond Bars team. We have had a lot of change-up in the students throughout this semester, but our goal this time around is to focus on creating an interactive sharing with the audience to reduce barriers and foster a sense of positive engagement within the community. We want the interactions between students and audience members to focus on becoming positive supports for each other who they can lean on when they are concerned about opportunities and prospects outside. Oftentimes incarcerated youth are not given opportunities to explore challenges they may face outside in a space where they are allowed to experiment. We want to offer them a test run at overcoming their hesitancies to increase their confidence in actualizing their success. We are currently in the process of working with our group of students ensuring they are comfortable and acclimated. Our longer term students are already super motivated and collaborate really well with one another. There are oftentimes a lot of considerations and expectations to manage, but overall we have seen a desire from our students to challenge themselves in this substantive way. I am excited to continue to work with them further in finalizing this project in the coming weeks.

A dream project of mine is to work in collaboration with native communities to expand cultural awareness and uplift native voices through the arts and advocate for native causes.

Working with kids is a boundless and endlessly fulfilling endeavor. You never know what to expect and you are constantly challenged every single day. They keep you on your toes and you have to roll with the punches every step of the way. The groups we work with are hilarious and creative, but also resilient and driven. They have goals and aspirations but at times need help and guidance to orient them. In my work I have gotten the opportunity to interact with students who were unfortunately forced to grow up really fast, and their childhoods were compromised as a result. Several of them have had to take on jobs for their families and balance those responsibilities with going to school. Some have also lost family members due to tragedy and forced displacement, ad as a result have also had to become caretakers. Theatre for Young Audiences is key because it helps these students to not fall into bouts of apathy and dejection by fostering a sense of learning through play that stokes their creative spark. It not only provides them a respite from their demanding lives, but it also focuses their intentions on the possibilities for their futures. It increases competencies in different languages and disseminates key social skills that can be instrumentalized into improving public speaking and presenting yourself in a particular light. The students we work with all possess these desires and motivations, but it can be hard for them to properly visualize and engage with it. Our program disguises complex learning through fun, and challenges students to venture out of their comfort zones and tackle societal problems with confidence and intentionality. I am proud that I am able to integrate my experience in International Relations with my arts background to directly impact underserved communities and give students a new vantage point on life.

The collaborators I want to shout out are all of our Teaching Artists who I have learned so much from but also deserve to be shouted out in their own right. They work so hard and across so many locations to deliver the best artistic programming possible. Each one is driven, passionate, and creative and constantly strives to innovate and engage with students in a way that is intentional and profound.

Patricia Meneses – a talented actress who endlessly uplifts and motivates her students to give more of themselves through performance

Alina Collins Maldonado – a creative director and artist who innovates and focuses on harnessing the fun and dynamism in her students

Sami Topping – a passionate artist and creative who continually thinks about how best to improve and deliver the best possible programming for her students

Bayron Celis – a confident and motivated artist whose sense of community and passion galvanize students to his endless energy

Sabrina Zanello Jackson – a thoughtful and resolute artist who is constantly challenging herself and excelling at implementing her own artistic footprint to challenge her students

Adriana Penagos – an attentive and focused teacher who balances instruction with innate curiosity and eagerness, giving her students the boundaries to experiment

Josias Gomez – a smart and empathetic teacher who notices the nuances and supports our artists with his linguistic abilities and keen intuition

Jacob Chrispim – a constant and punctual teacher whose presence provides a continuity in the classroom that continually reassures students

Gigi Camarotto – an innovative and driven artist who is constantly pushing the boundaries of what we can explore and enhancing cohesion and lesson dissemination in class

Guillermina Sosa – an endlessly creative and exuberant artist and teacher who cares deeply about the wellbeing of students and works hard to bring out their inner light

There are many others who I have worked with in the past and continue to work with in the future, but I wanted to shout out just a few of the artists who I have learned from and improved at what I do because of them.

A mentor I want to shout out is Hilda Lee Tijerina, who some of you may recognize as the previous TYA/USA fellow. It is largely just the two of us working together in close collaboration in the Theatre for Change department, troubleshooting all the challenges that may come our way. One of the things I appreciate about Hilda is her willingness and open-mindedness. She is always encouraged by new and innovative ideas and the ways in which we can continually push the boundaries of our programming. She is also incredibly kind and collaborative, and has an endless passion to advocate for the students we continually serve. She has been an inspiration for me for a while now and I am continually impressed by her work ethic, flexibility, and resolve when navigating Theatre for Change. She has been so steadfast and earnest in her motivation and drive, and I work hard to keep up with her endless creativity. We work very well together and all I can say is it is and continues to be the honor of a lifetime to work alongside such an incredible person, artist, and leader. I couldn’t do what I do without her help, and Theatre for Change has had an indelible impact in our community thanks to her footprint in it.

dsanclemente@imaginationstage.org.