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Marianne Adams
to Receive Robert Colby Distinguished Theatre Advocate Award
Marianne Adams began working as a teaching Artist over 40 years ago bringing theater to schools in both urban and rural settings.. She got her start in the 1980’s working at Arts in Progress in Jamaica Plain. There she learned how to create arts-integrated, culturally responsive curricula to address learning across subjects and age ranges. During that time she developed and produced JP Our World, a series of touring plays based on oral histories of Jamaica Plain. This inter-generational project, which brought together elders from the community and 5th graders, remains one of her favorite professional experiences.
Marianne went on to work for 10 years in the Cambridge Public schools through the Drama Collaborative expanding her understanding of how drama can be a tool for creativity and learning. She has worked with Open Door Arts, the Zeiterion Theater, the Arlington Public Schools, NALC, WGBH, and the Educational Enrichment Center. In her tenure as a teaching artist she worked with 1000’s of youth, educators, parents, and administrators to create environments where ideas grow and individuals are inspired.
Marianne taught theater, creative dramatics, and storytelling to emerging educators, social workers and child life specialists at Wheelock College for 17 years. During that time she also worked for Wheelock Family Theatre as an audience engagement coordinator, creating activities to enrich the theater going experience through workshops and talkbacks. At the WFT Summer programs she developed original plays and guided 9-11 year olds through the production process.
For the last 24 years Marianne worked at Lesley University in the Creative-Arts-in-Learning program, helping educators across the nation experience the power of theater and the arts to make a difference in the lives of children and their families.
Marianne is grateful to Arts|Learning for this recognition. She believes that the work the organization does advocating for arts in education has been vital to students in the Commonwealth and to the districts where they live and learn. She should know--she was on the A|L board for 6 years!
This award is given in memory of Robert W. Colby (d. 2021), Theatre Professor and Performing Arts Dept. Chair at Emerson College, who impacted generations of theatre students during his 44-year teaching career. Colby served on numerous boards and published articles in many professional journals as well as premiered over 30 new works for young audiences.
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