Christina Conte is an award-winning actor, director and educator. She toured the Northeast Coast with well-known theater companies, as well as writing and acting in televised and live productions. Christina has a Bachelor’s degree in theater from Tufts University, and a Master’s degree from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She has also acted at Harvard University’s Loeb Theater in Brecht and Genet. Christina's mentors, Mel Shapiro and Jean Louis Rodrigues, taught her to leave herself alone and be present. Christina has appeared in A Seagull and The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov. She has also been a Music Center Teaching Artist for many years and has just returned.
Christina works with students in the style of collaboration and play. She believes that each student has a voice that needs to be heard. She creates a safe and joyful atmosphere, so students naturally feel compelled to express their opinions, and thoughts through physical and vocal expression. Her curriculum is rooted, and based, on the California Theatre Standards. Students either write their own pieces or become the interpreters of plays. The key objective in each class is to have students stretch to the next level of their physical/vocal and emotional development. As theater is a group art form students learn to be open-minded and accepting as their peers share various points of view. From the first meeting to the final performance, students are transformed, as they have faced personal fears, and developed as artists. and become more aware of the social/emotional levels. Students become solid in their identities through a variety of body, voice and imaginative exercises. They evolve to see how vital and lovable they are. With all this in place, the child’s confidence expands.