Drama is a form of recreation in the true sense of the word – “to re-create oneself.” As Professor Nellie McCaslin explains, “Of all the arts, drama involves the participant the most fully: intellectually, emotionally, physically, verbally, and socially. As players, children assume the roles of others, and they learn about and become sensitive to the problems and values of persons different from themselves. At the same time, they are learning to work cooperatively, for drama is a communal art; each person is necessary to the whole...”
As theatre artists working with children in the field of creative drama, we aim to guide our students to clarify values and verbalize beliefs and hopes. We lead them to an understanding of beauty, using many media, including words, color, sound and movement. We introduce them to the experience of their own creative powers.
Indeed, this year’s recipient of the ITA Award for Excellence in Creative Drama is a master of this craft. He holds a B.A. in Education from National Louis University, and boasts an incredibly broad background. He was a founding member and director of the improv troupe Laughing Gas as well as director and designer of his own puppet company, Znkster Puppets. He has created props, puppets and theatrical special effects for numerous theaters in Chicago and New York for well over a decade.
A mask-training workshop he attended in New York in 1998 unleashed his passion for the power of mask work to inform character. Unwilling to settle for the dismal supply of Halloween-style masks available, he harnessed his own abilities as an accomplished sculptor and started making his own masks. In February 2007 he studied mask-making in Bali through an internship with Dell’Arte International.
Currently, he creates masks for theatres and university drama programs around the world, and teaches the art of mask-making and acting with masks internationally. He works and an actor and director, and continues to serve as resident faculty member at the Children’s Theater of Western Springs where he has taught creative drama to children since 1992.
In 2008, he led a workshop with middle school kids at our ITA-AATE Theatre in Our Schools Conference. It was so successful, we brought him back in 2009 to work with adults who continue to rave about their experience with him. Having had the pleasure of watching him coax delightful, sophisticated, whimsical characters out of a group of middle schoolers he’d only just met, I could see and feel that this artist is truly guided by his passion that the purpose of drama and art is to increase our understanding of life, as well as awaken self-confidence, intuition, and creativity.
It is my honor and pleasure to present you the 2009 recipient of the Illinois Theater Association’s Award for Excellence in Creative Drama, David Knezz.
Awards presentatin by Dinah Barthelmess (ITA Board of Directors, Creative Dramatics)
Pictured above are David Knezz and Dinah Barthelmess (ITA Board of Directors, Creative Dramatics)