Catherine Hanna Schrock
CO-FOUNDER / DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
Catherine (she/her) is an Applied Theater Practitioner, which unites her roles as an educator, theatre artist and writer and community organizer. She designs creative programming that equips diverse communities to engage in complex dialogues toward social and community development.
Her original performances and interactive experience designs cultivate empathy and deepen human understanding and connection.
Catherine specializes in Forum Theatre, an uncommon kind of interactive theatre that allows audiences to roleplay toward conflict transformation. In 2016, Catherine was commissioned by the San Diego County Advisory Council on Human Trafficking Prevention to create a Forum Theatre performance for Point Loma Nazarene University's kNOw MORE Human Trafficking Prevention curriculum. Since then, her Forum Theatre projects (kNOw MORE, Safa's Story, Danny's Story, Brea's Story, Zion’s Story) have reached over 30,000 people in San Diego County where she is applauded as a “spectacular facilitator who handles children with extreme sensitivity and respect, and engages the audience from the moment they enter the theater” (Times of San Diego, 2020).
Additionally, Catherine has worked with numerous local and international organizations including the Global Immersion Project in Palestine and Israel, Arts for Life, a girls' empowerment and arts program she founded in Kenya, Invisible Children’s Teacher Exchange program, which she helped develop and directed in Uganda, and as a teaching artist for the Old Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse. Catherine has designed creative curriculum for multiple organizations nationwide and is a published poet through Cordella Magazine.
Catherine holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Theater from New York University and a BA in Sociology and International Development.