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Rives Collins

Department of Theatre

Rives Collins is the Chair of the Department of Theatre. Recent directorial efforts include: How Can You Run With A Shell On Your Back? The Orphan Train, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Children of Eden, To Kill A Mockingbird, And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank, Once Upon A Mattress The Secret Garden, Into the Woods, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, and Salt and Pepper.

In addition, he serves on the board of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. He was the co-chair of the national conference held in Chicago in 2005, has served as the director of programming, and is currently the president-elect. He will assume the presidency of the AATE in the summer of 2009, working to advance the role of drama and theatre in the lives of young people.

A lover of stories since he could talk, he is featured regularly as a professional storyteller and keynote speaker at festivals, schools, libraries, businesses, and museums, proclaiming that, “Storytelling is at the heart of everything I do.”

Education

Phi Beta Kappa Graduate of Colorado College

MFA in Child Drama from Arizona State University

Publications

Collins, River and Pamela Cooper (1996).The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling, Allyn & Bacon; 2nd edition.

Awards and Honors

Currently a Fellow in the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, he was the recipient of the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship for Excellence in Teaching.  In 2007, he was honored with the Creative Drama Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.  His audio recordings have received the Parent's Choice Award, the iParenting Media Award, and the Spoken Word Award from the NAPPA.

Courses

• Theatre for Young Audiences
• Creative Drama
• Storytelling