Jody is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Off The Page. There, she works in public schools using drama to teach curricular topics, but really giving kids a chance to practice collaboration, teamwork, and working together towards a shared artistic goal. From the in-school work, the theatre arm of Off The Page grew as young people shared the issues they were most passionate about and let us know they needed new theatre about those issues. So we make new plays for young folks, in collaboration with them and sometimes starring them alongside professional actors. Off The Page are the adapters of All American Boys based on the book by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, published and available for license from Playscripts. All American Boys examines how the violent arrest of a Black teenager witnessed by his white classmate impacts their communities over the course of a week, and grew out of work in a classroom. Off The Page are currently adapting the beautiful novel-in-verse White Rose by Kip Wilson, with developmental support from the New Victory Theatre (NYC) and The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta, GA).
Jody is also the producer of the groundbreaking cross-country collaboration between four theatres for young audiences Missing From The Museum. Launched at the height of theatre shutdowns, two-time NEA grant award winning Missing From The Museum is an online, choose-your-own adventure series for young people and their families that examines who is represented in museums, who gets to decide that, and who even gets to declare what art is.
Additionally, Jody works as a facilitator in group settings learning and advocating for racial equity and as a leader of white affinity groups. Recently, she co-facilitated the opening sessions of TYA/USA’s 11-part series, Listen Learn Lead: Anti-Racism in Theatre for Young Audiences. Jody has also worked with Bank Street College’s Center on Culture, Race, and Equity as a facilitator and as Project Manager for the Black Lives Matter at Schools Week Early Childhood Symposium: Disrupting Anti-Black Racism in Early Childhood Education: Center, Abolish, Liberate.
Jody has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities on using arts education methods in the classroom and a presenter at conferences across the country. She is also an organizer and activist, sits on the steering committee of NYC Opt Out, and works with many other organizations on issues of education equity in NYC schools and racial justice within our systems. Jody is a graduate of Northwestern University in theatre.