Playwriting, Screenwriting, Acting, Storytelling, Media Arts

English, Spanish

Adult Day Care, After School Program, Assisted Living, College/University, Community Center, Hospice, Hospital, Independent Living, K-12 Schools, Library

Clark Jackson, a graduate of Stanford University and Yale School of Drama, has worked with thousands of NYC public school students as a teaching artist in the areas of theatre, movement, creative writing and improvisation, in classes ranging from advanced students to the severely emotionally disabled. He brings his enthusiasm for the theatre to working with students of all ages and backgrounds. This enthusiasm manifests in how he engages them in the work of Shakespeare, in improvisation and theatre games, in using their own life experiences and special talents to inform their choices as actors and writers, and in reflecting on how they might develop as human beings. His workshops and residencies focus on creating a dialogue with students where their ideas, impulses and “mistakes” can flourish such that they are collaborators in the teaching process. Clark specializes in using hip-hop to teach Shakespeare, helping students write, rehearse and perform their own contemporary monologues and scenes as part of a thematically unified performance piece, and in using Movement Stories to teach academic, social and movement skills. Participants in Clark’s workshops gain a greater awareness of and confidence in their expressive abilities and how to use these powers to be more of who they are.

Senior citizens have a special place in my life. I switched my gym membership to the YMCA because I found that unlike most other gyms in NYC, this was a place I could regularly interact and become friends with senior citizens. I also help two senior citizens who live in my neighborhood in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The first is my Guyanese landlord Mr. Euclid Clarke who lives downstairs from me. I’ve assisted him in many ways over the years, and I even bought him a custom-designed “Everybody Loves Da Boss” t-shirt for his birthday! The second is an elderly woman named Ms. Olive Ramos who I’d see on the bus or train near my home. She was often weighed down with Christian books and Bibles (she was a missionary for her church as her life’s profession). I offered to carry her books for her, and I eventually bought her a canvas bag with wheels for her convenience. Over time, I started taking Olive out for dinner and to local concerts, helping her around the house, and I’ve even gone with her to her church in the Bronx. As a teaching artist, I’ve worked with senior citizens who were homeless and/or recovering addicts through Project Renewal; as a Professional Development Facilitator for the New York City Board of Education; and as a Course consultant for BAM’s Shakespeare Teaches Teachers, a for-credit professional development course taught at BAM to public high school teachers.