RIVKA ROCCHIO

154 W. 5th Street #102

rivka.rocchio@gmail.com
Tempe, AZ
802.272.1070
85281
www.rivkarocchio.com
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts in Theatre for Youth (expected May 2016)
Arizona State University, Tempe Campus
Bachelor of Arts in Theater Education
Bachelor of Arts in Writing, Literature & Publishing
Emerson College
Kasteel Well: Well, The Netherlands
Study Abroad Program at Emerson College.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Faculty Womens Association, Distinguished Graduate Award, April 2016.
Herberger Institute of Design and Arts, Outstanding Graduate Student,
Spring 2016.
Rising Star Award, Arizona Humanities, September 2015.
Education Volunteer of the Year, Arizona State Prison Complex-Eyman State
Prison, October 2015.
Spirit of Service Scholar Award, Arizona State University, 2015-2016. ($5000)
Arjit Guha Student Advocacy Award, Arizona State University: Graduate
Student Professional Association, 2014-2015. ($1000)
Martin Luther King Jr. Student Service Leadership Award, Arizona State
University, 2014-2015. ($1000)
Fine Arts General Scholarship, Arizona State University, 2014-2015.
Fine Arts General Scholarship, Arizona State University, 2013-2014.
Certificate of Achievement, Massachusetts Letters About Literature, 2008.
GRANTS
Arizona Commission on the Arts, March 2016 ($750)
Graduate Professional Student Association Interview Grant, September 2015
($550)
Pollination Project Grant, September 2015 ($1000)
Athletics Research Grant, Sundevil Athletics Operation Board and Graduate
Professional Student Association ($1125)
Graduate Professional Student Association Travel Grant, August 2015 ($950)
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Student Enrichment Grant, Fall 2015 ($575)

Faculty Emeriti Fellowship, Fall 2015 ($500)
Graduate Professional Student Association Travel Grant, March 2015 ($239)
Woodside Community Action Grant, Fall 2014 ($700)
Avanoa Tutusa, December 2012 ($500)
Darien Book Aid, February 2011 (3 boxes of childrens books)
TEACHING CERTIFICATION
English Academic Initial (grades 8-12)
License #****415553
Theater Academic Initial (all levels)

Massachusetts

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
UNIVERSITY
Instructor of Record, School of Film, Dance and Theatre, Arizona State
University.
THF 101: Introduction to Acting, 20142016, 2 sections.
THP 394: Theatre Across Prison Walls, 2015-2016, 1 section.
Teaching Assistant, School of Film, Dance and Theatre, Arizona State
University.
THP 126: School of Film, Dance and Theatre: First Year Seminar, 20142015, 1 section.
THP 482: Theatre for Social Change, 2014-2015, 1 section.
THF 160: Introduction to Storytelling, 20132016, 3 sections.
SECONDARY
Theatre Teacher, Childsplay, Inc.: Conservatory Program, Tempe, Arizona.
November-May 2015.
5A: Theatre for Social Change (ages 13-17), 1 section.
5B: Creating Original Theatre (ages 13-17), 1 section.
Theatre Arts Teacher, South Seattle Community College: Upward Bound
Program, Seattle, Washington, June-August 2014.
Devising Theatre (11th grade), 3 sections.
English/Speech Teacher, Peace Corps ResponseLiberia: Tubmanburg,
Liberia, January 2013August 2013.
Speech (all grades), 1 section.
English (11th grade), 1 section.
English as a Second Language Teacher, Peace CorpsSamoa:
Leulumoega, Samoa, October 2010December 2012.
English as a Second Language, (8th grade), 2 sections.
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English/Theatre Teacher, King Philip Regional High School: Wrentham,

Massachusetts,
August 2007-June 2010.
Introduction to Acting (all grades), 2 sections.
American Literature (11th grade), 4 sections.
World Literature Honors (10th grade), 1 section.
MCAS Support (9-10), 2 sections.
World Literature (9), 3 sections.
PRE-K THROUGH PRIMARY SCHOOL
Teaching Artist, Childsplay, Tempe, Arizona.
Creative Drama (2nd and 3rd grade), 10 sections. Spring 2014. The
Diego Project.
Summer Theatre Camp (3rd-6th grade), 5 weekly sessions. Summer
2016.
Drama Teacher, Arizona State University Preschool, Tempe, Arizona, Fall
2013.
Methods of Teaching Drama (Pre-K), 3 sections.
English as a Second Language Teacher, Peace CorpsSamoa,
Leulumoega, Samoa, October 2010 December 2012.
English as a Second Language [co-taught with Samoan counterpart],
(7th grade), 2 sections.
English as a Second Language [co-taught with Samoan counterpart],
(5th/6th grade), 2 sections.
Reading, (all grades), 2 sections
Classroom Reader, Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools,
School, South Boston, Massachusetts. 2005-2006.
Performing Literature (4th and 5th grade), 2 sections.

J F Condon

RESIDENCIES
PRISON
Drama Teacher, Humanity Behind the Walls: Arizona State University,
School of Social Transformation and the Arizona Department of
Corrections. Perryville Prison, Goodyear, Arizona. 2013-2015.
Devised Performance, 1 section.
Performing Poetry, 1 section.
Drama Teacher, Prison English Program: Arizona State University, School of
Languages and Literature and the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Florence State Prison, Florence, Arizona. 2013-May 2016.
Theatre Across Prison Walls, 1 section.
Devised Performance, 1 section.
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Drama, 1 section.
Introduction to Shakespeare, 1 section.
COMMUNITY
Yoga Teacher, Create Academy. Phoenix, Arizona. AugustDecember 2015.
A twice a week creative drama and yoga residency with a kindergarten
class at Create Academy to study the impacts of yoga and creative
drama on emotional wellbeing.
Resident Artist, Tumbleweed, Phoenix Youth Resource Center, Phoenix,
Arizona. January 2014May 2015.
Community-based theatre and performing arts projects with homeless
youth between the ages of 18-26;
Tumbleweed Revealed, a digital storytelling project exploring key
moments of Tumbleweed access/engagement in order to assess
and evaluate Tumbleweeds service flow (April 2015).
Open Your Eyes and See Me: The Perception Project, an original
ethnodramatic performance piece surrounding issues in the
relationships between police officers and the homeless youth
community (April 2014).
Identify, a performance of poems, stories and visual art
surrounding the topic of identity and place for the creation
(October 2014).
Theatre Artist, Arizona State University & Scales Technology Academy,
Tempe, Arizona. January-May 2014.
Scales Scholars Make the World a Better Place, a short film focusing on
how to eliminate the school wide problem of vandalism with a group of
5th grade English Language Learning students.
Embedded Community Projects
Projects in 2016
City of Phoenix Youth Arts Council (Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture/Asphalt
Arts): This partnership pairs Asphalt Arts with the Phoenix Office of Arts
and Culture Youth Arts and Culture Council to leverage young artists
assets and capabilities to strengthen communities, enhance quality of life,
and advocate for youth-driven issues through the arts.
Arts Internships (Sharon McCaman/Rivka Rocchio/Alex Frenette): This project
animates Alexs SNAAP extensive research on paid/unpaid arts internships
through an arts installation including video, movement, and a
soundscape.
Invited sharing at ASU Ceramic Studio space on February 25.
Shared performative research on a guest panel at 3 Million Stories
Conference in Tempe, Arizona on March 5.

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Projects in 2015
Yogi Bears (Ashley Laverty/Rivka Rocchio)/Create Academy: A twice a week
creative drama and yoga residency with a kindergarten class at Create
Academy to study the impacts of yoga and creative drama on emotional
wellbeing.
Research presented on Arizona State Universitys campus at the
Graduate Professional Student Association Interdisciplinary
Research Symposium (March 2016) and (scheduled) at the
American Alliance of Theatre Educators Conference in Boston,
Massachusetts (July 2016).
Hazelwood Community Center (Tumbleweed Center for Youth
Development/Asphalt Arts): A resident artist partnership to explore
making a house a home with youth ages 16-18 who were removed from
DCS or state custody and placed in independent living.
Public art sharing at Tumbleweeds administrative offices on December
7.
Theatre Across Prison Walls (Eyman State Prison/Arizona State University): A
partnership between an undergraduate course at ASU and a drama
workshop inside Eyman State Prison in which the classes collaboratively
work towards creating a piece of original theatre.
Two other graduate students were involved in co-teaching and
dramaturging.
Final performance on November 25 for an audience from the
Department of Corrections, ASU, and other inmates from Eyman.
Tumbleweed Revealed (Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development/Asphalt
Arts): A digital storytelling project exploring key moments of Tumbleweed
access/engagement in order to assess and evaluate Tumbleweeds service
flow.
Available online at: https://vimeo.com/128903505
Used by Tumbleweeds administration for training purposes to show an
overview of services offered.
Projects in 2014
Drama Workshop (Eyman State Prison/Arizona State University): Designed
and taught a course on the foundations of drama to 20 men on Cook Unit
in Eyman State Prison. Highlights from the course included a slam poetry
performance and the performance of How To Be A Man, an original piece
of theatre utilizing physical theatre, storytelling, poetry, and rap, for an
audience of ASU teachers and inmates on Cook Unit.
Theatre for Social Change/Humanity Behind the Walls (Perryville State
Prison, Arizona): Co-taught, with Tiffany Trent, a section of Theatre for
Social Change to 13 women in Perryville State Prison. The class wrote and
performed an original piece of forum theatre based on issues surrounding
power and control in relationships to an audience of ASU teachers and
inmates on Piestewa yard.

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Identify (Phoenix Youth Resource Center/Asphalt Arts): Designed, supervised,

and conducted a residency at the Phoenix Homeless Youth Drop-in Sites.
Residency culminated in a performance of poems, stories and visual art
surrounding the topics of identity and place-making.
Open Your Eyes and See Me: The Perception Project (Phoenix Youth Resource
Center/Asphalt Arts): A semester-long project surrounding issues in the
relationships between police officers and the homeless youth community
that involved interviewing youth, writing monologues, staging readings,
gathering and incorporating youth feedback. Project ended with the
performance of an original ethnodramatic piece and talkback with an
audience of youth and police officers.
Scales Scholars Make the World a Better Place (Arizona State
University/Scales Technology Academy): Worked with a small group of 5th
grade students to devise a solution or approach using creativity and
performance on an issue of their choosing. Project ended with the
showing of their short film focusing on how to eliminate the school wide
problem of vandalism to an audience of over 100 students and teachers
from the school.
Projects in 2013 (Liberia/United States)
Performing Poetry/Humanity Behind the Walls (Perryville State Prison,
Arizona): Taught a section of Performing Poetry to 12 women in Perryville
State Prison. The section was a component of a larger Performance
Studies course that culminated in performances by the women for an
audience of inmates.
Speech Team (C H Dewey High School: Liberia): Organized a Speech Team,
which met twice weekly and involved approximately ten students in the
tenth grade.
Library Development (C H Dewey High School: Liberia): Developed additional
English instructional materials, including the organization and
streamlining of a school library.
Projects in 2012 (Samoa)
Website Development (Leulumoega School): Helped teachers Design a
website template and selected topics for a school-wide website. This was
entered and won ninth place (a digital camera and stationary supplies) in
Computer Services Limiteds website competition.
X Factor Talent Show: Worked with Leulumoega EFKS Church Reading Group
to organize and act as a judge for a X Factor-style talent show in which
over 50 youth performed in groups or individually with prepared material.
Health Camp: Developed, organized and staffed a three-day overnight
Health Camp for 50 Fasitootai and Leulumoega primary school students
focusing on improving awareness of the nutritional quality of foods to help
prevent non-communicable diseases; improving sanitation practices to
prevent the spread of communicable diseases; raising awareness on the

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prevention of domestic violence, specifically child abuse; teaching first

aid; and encouraging physical activity.
Partnered with Ministry of Health, Samoan Red Cross, Samoa Victims
Support Group and Peace Corps to solicit programming assistance for
the camp.
Funded (in part) by a grant from Avanoa Tutusa for $500 USD to cover
the cost of food and supplies for the camp.
Nine other Peace Corps Volunteers served as counselors for the camp.
Projects in 2011 (Samoa)
Samoa Health Challenge: Partnered with two churches in order to implement
a health education and awareness project focusing on teaching villagers
how to choose healthier lifestyles.
23 women participated in weekly jazzercise classes, Biggest Loserstyle weigh-ins, and walks for 12 weeks.
Screened an additional 100 villagers for high blood pressure and
irregular heartbeat.
Homework Center: Organized and staffed a weekly homework center for the
local school. Open to all students. Often had over 15 students in
attendance.
District-wide English Camp: Developed and held district-wide English Camp
to expose youth to English student-centered and interactive literacy
programming while also providing them with the opportunity to meet and
learn with children from other villages.
Camp involved over 150 youth aged 4-22.
Five Peace Corps Volunteers served as counselors for the camp.
Projects in 2010 (Samoa)
Reading Groups: Held weekly, these sessions featured story-telling and
creative drama activities.
White Sunday Celebration Play: Organized and directed the Leulumoega
EFKS Church Reading Groups play for White Sunday. The play was done
entirely in English.
Spelling Bee: Organized and implemented a spelling bee that involved
approximately 100 students in the LECRG. All youth group members were
given a list of words appropriate for their grade level (Low - Years 3 & 4,
Medium - Years 5 & 6, and High - Years 7 & 8)
Competed against Vailele on July 23, in an event that had an
audience of over 200 community members.
Speech Competition: Youth competed in the recitation of poems, rhymes and
written speeches. Topics for secondary students included family violence,
child abuse and suicide.
20 youth competed, aged 7-18.
PUBLICATIONS
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BOOK CHAPTER
Writing, Bodies, and Performance: Cultural Resistance Behind Prison Walls,
Prison Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning with Imprisoned Writers co-authored
with Julie Rada. Spring 2016. (forthcoming)
ONLINE
Yogi Bears: Fun? With Kindergartners, TYA/USA. 11 February 2016.
<http://tyablog.com/2016/02/11/yogi-bears-fun-with-kindergartners/>
A White Womans Guide to Teaching in a Mens Prison, TYA/USA. 9 March
2015. <http://tyablog.com/2015/03/09/a-white-womans-guide-to-teaching-ina-mens-prison/>
Clobberation: Clobbering through a Collaboratively-Built Touring Show, CoWriter: Ashley Laverty. HowlRound. 17 August 2014. <http://howlround.com
>
SPEECHES
Yogi Bears: Yoga and Drama With Kindergartners. Memorial Union, Arizona
State University. Graduate Professional Student Association Interdisciplinary
Research Symposium. Tempe, Arizona. 15 March 2016.
Theatre Behind The Walls. Memorial Union, Arizona State University.
Woodside Community Action Poster Presentation. Tempe, Arizona. 13 April
2015.
Women in Prison. Memorial Union, Arizona State University. Womyns
Coalition: Womens Herstory Month, Womens Conversation Wednesdays.
Tempe, Arizona. 18 March 2015.
Creating Safe Spaces for Complication: Theatre in Prisons. Armstrong Hall,
Arizona State University. Ignite@ASU. Tempe, Arizona. 20 November 2014.
TRAININGS
Moment Work 1 & 2, Tectonic Theatre Project, August 2015.
Access For Audiences Across the Spectrum, Southwest Autism Research &
Resource Center, April 2015.
Out Of Place: A Community Writing Workshop, Cherrie Moraga,
Performance in the Borderlands, October 2014.
Community Development: Project Design and Management, Peace Corps
In-Service Training, Spring 2011.

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Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Peace Corps Pre-Service Training,

Fall 2010.
Category #1 Training: Introduction to Second Language Learning and
Teaching
Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages,
Spring 2010.
Co-Teaching for Success: Working Together in Inclusive Classrooms, Bureau
Education and Research, Spring 2008.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Theatre Across Prison Walls: A Prison/University Exchange: Theatre as a Tool
for Dialogue Exchange, Rethinking Mass Incarceration in the South.
University, Mississippi. 16 April 2016.
Storywork in Engagement, Activism, Education, and Public Service, Copresenters: Megan Alrutz, Stephani Etheridge Woodson, Meg Greene, Haley
Honeman. Digital Storytelling Conference. Northampton, Massachusetts. 27
September 2015.
Using Drama to Disrupt Power Dynamics When Teaching English Abroad.
College of Liberal Arts Graduate Symposium. Reno, Nevada. 28 February
2015.
Putting Words in Your Mouth: The Oppressive Nature of Teaching English as
a Foreign Language. Co-presenter: Haley Honeman. Pedagogy and Theatre
of the Oppressed Conference. Omaha, Nebraska. 29 June 2014.
Community Engaged Theatre in Prisons: The Creative Arts Team and A
White Womans Guide to Being an Outsider on the Inside. Arizona State
University Graduate Student Symposium. Tempe, Arizona. 2 November 2013.
PRODUCTION WORK
Playwriting
Theres No Place Like It
Arizona State University
October 2014
Produced as a part of Theatre Lab Series.
#24TEEN
Tour Bus, Arizona State University
April 2014
Co-written with Ashley Laverty
Based on interviews with high school students.
Toured to Arizona School of the Arts and Arizona Conservatory of the Arts.
Directing
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Free Drama
November 2015
The Last Bardo
May 2015
Rhinoceros
February 2015
How To Be A Man
December 2014
Theres No Place Like It
October 2014
Under the Sea
2011
The Diary of Anne Frank
April 2010
The Disappearance of Daniel
April 2009
Its a Wonderful Life
December 2009
Acting (selected)
Red Planet Respite
April 2013
Sexual Perversity in Chicago
Spring 2006

Eyman State Prison

Eyman State Prison
Eyman State Prison
Eyman State Prison
Arizona State University
Leulumoega Primary School

May

King Philip Regional High School

Hand King Philip Regional High School
King Philip Regional High School

Arizona State University

Emerson College

SERVICE
Grant Review Panelist, City of Phoenix: Festival grants category. Spring
2016.
Vice President, Arizona Association for Theatre Service and Scholarship.
2015-2016.
Reader/Reviewer, Write Now! Committee, 2014.
Committee Member, Arizona Association for Theatre Service and
Scholarship. 2013-2015.
Leadership Fellow, THP 126: First Year Seminar, Arizona State University,
2014. 1 section.
Teaching Artist, POL 110: Political Science, Arizona State University, 2014.
1 section.
Educational Outreach Workshops based on Terry Pratchett's Nation.
Performing Poetry Teacher, Arizona State University Theatre Experience,
2013. 1 section.
Designed and led an interactive drama experience for high school
seniors.
ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Alliance for Theatre and Education
Association for Theatre in Higher Education
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Theatre for Young Audiences/USA

LANGUAGES
Samoan (Intermediate high)
Spanish (Beginner medium)

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