Four inducted into Hall of Fame

Four veteran theatre educators were inducted into the Educational Theatre Associaton Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at Sardi’s restaurant during EdTA’s 2010 Annual Conference in New York last month. The four:

• Kansas teacher Max Brown, who has been teaching for nearly forty years, and has been at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park since it opened in 1985. He has championed anti-censorship campaigns, spent five years developing the Kansas Theatre Teacher’s Workshops, and established Kansas City’s Starlight Theatre high school and college internship program, which continues today. He became Kansas chapter director in August 2009.
• Anita Grant, or “Miss Anita,” who began her life in the theatre by persuading neighborhood kids at block parties into performing in her plays. When she moved to Houston, Texas in 1971 she became a mother, actor, drama teacher, and non-profit organizer. From 1987 to 2007, she sponsored Thespian Troupe 3689 at Clements High School in Sugarland, Texas.
• Elizabeth Hansen, who teaches speech, drama, mythology, and television production at Grinnell High School in Grinnell, Iowa. She chartered Thespian Troupe 4274 in 1988, served as the Iowa Thespian chapter director from 1997 to 2004, and was inducted into the Iowa Thespian Hall of Fame in 2004.
• Patricia Santanello, now in her fifteenth year as director of theatre and Thespian Troupe 5440 at Dublin Scioto High School in Dublin, Ohio. A former EdTA board member and leadership coach, she was one of twelve Ohio theatre educators who participated in EdTA’s action research project, Critical Links. She has served on the board of directors for the Contemporary American Theatre Company and iworking with a group of theatre professionals to create a new Equity theatre company in Columbus.  

Theatre educator and prolific Teaching Theatre contributor Maureen Brady Johnson received the Founders' Award for her significant contributions to the growth and development of theatre education, research, and practice. She has been a teacher for over thirty years, and is the author of a number of widely used theatre textbooks. Additionally, she has contributed more than twenty articles to Teaching Theatre journal. She has presented her creative teaching ideas at numerous EdTA conferences and during many student and teacher conferences across the United States.