Dana Edell

Education

PhD, New York University (Educational & Applied Theatre)
MFA, Columbia University (Theatre Directing)
BA, Brown University (Classics/ Ancient Greek)

Theatre Studies: Applied Theatre, Theatre & Activism

Dana Edell (she/her) is an activist-scholar-artist-educator and co-director of SPARK Movement, an intergenerational, anti-racist, arts-driven girls’ activist organization where she trains and supports girls to design and run activist campaigns and take action in their communities. She consults with organizations and schools throughout the US and abroad about gender justice, civic engagement, youth activism, feminist Jewish education and arts integration. She has produced and co-directed 70+ original plays and 7 albums of music written and performed by teenage girls addressing social justice issues. She has worked as a theater teaching artist in public and private schools, adult prisons and youth correctional institutions. Dana was co-founder/executive director of viBe Theater Experience from 2002-2012 and was co-chair of the Girls’ Participation Task Force at the United Nations where she directed annual theater productions written by girls from 20+ countries. She is currently creating an online arts-based racial justice program with white teenage girls and she teaches Theatre & Activism and Social Issues in Drama at New York University and in CUNY’s graduate program in Applied Theatre. Through her writing, presentations and media appearances, she advocates for the need for collaborative and activist performing arts experiences for girl-identified, gender expansive and gender non-conforming young people. Her first book, Girls, Performance and Activism will be published by Routledge in 2021.