InsideOut

Lucinda Otto is a performer, director and teaching artist with many years of experience living and working in lovely San Francisco. Working with a wide range of ages and in school and community serttings, Ms. Otto has developed a method for teahing physically-based drama and creative play-making techniques that are much loved by her studends and audiences. Much of her work in schools involves working with classroom teachers to infuse the arts and creating original, integrated projects that bring theatre and performance across the curriculum.

After making her stage debut at the tender age of five in "The Wizard of Oz," Ms. Otto has gone on to a varied career in theatre. In addition to teaching and curriculum development she is as a performer, director and playwright working with Fools Fury Theatre, the San Francisco Arts Education Project, Young Performers Theatre, Stanford University, the East Harlem Tutorial Project, Santa Cruz County Community Schools and others.

 Ms. Otto also has an extensive background in arts education advocacy and arts administration. She worked for several years for the Bay Area Discovery Museum, was Board President of the San Francisco Children's Art Museum, on the Steering Committee of the Arts Education Funders Collaborative and founded Parents for the Arts in San Francisco Schools. Ms. Otto has a BFA in Drama for New York University and an MA in Arts Education fro Stanford University. 

"Take My Word For It!" is a word incubator - a place where kids can feel safe and supported while they grow as writers. Since 2005 we have been offering an innovative curriculum in our after-school and community-based creative writing programs in the East Bay and San Francisco. We also run private writing groups as well as Creative Writing and Art summer and holiday camp.

Handful Players is a free children’s musical theater program rooted in San Francisco’s Western Addition community. Handful Players contributes to the rich tapestry of the community by engaging youth (ages eight to 16) in free theatrical productions and cultural events that facilitate and promote positive growth and constructive interaction. 

Our Mission is to help inner-city youth develop critical life skills, improve their self-esteem, and find their creative voices through theater performance.

Workshops and Performance. Handful Players conducts free two-hour student workshops twice a week after school from October to May plus an eight-week summer season. Each season includes workshops on storytelling, acting, music, movement, costumes, and set design. Handful Players commissions talented local playwrights to create original plays for our performances. Each season culminates in a fully staged, community performance put on by the children and accompanied by professional musicians. 

Handful Players also conducts an in-school residency of 10 weekly interactive theater workshops where Handful Players’ teaching artist and playwright collaborate with the classroom teacher and students to create a short musical theater production based on a book and the events and themes from the classroom teacher’s curriculum.

We hire exceptionally talented artists and educators who are committed to working constructively and collaboratively with the children to create unique experiences and help them acquire fundamental life skills. 

Please contact Judith Cohen at 415-921-8246 for a schedule and information about our after-school, in-school residency, and summer programs.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe's Youth Theatre Program engages youth ages 14-17 in 8-10-week play creation & performance workshops every spring.  Youth learn to collaboratively identify social issues they want to explore theatrically, develop a script and perform the piece publicly at the culmination of the workshop. 

SF Mime Troupe Collective members are also generally available outside of summer show season to provide workshops for other theatre artists around topics related to the Troupe's signature collaborative, socially & politically focused style, heavily influenced by the traditions of Commedia and agitprop theatre.

Remarkable Girls, a unique theatre program for ages 9-18, provides classes, workshops, and performance opportunities designed to promote growth, creativity, and artistry.

In addition to her all-girl program, Jan Downing continues to offer coed musical theatre and drama classes to schools and community organizations.