Director of Education & Engagement
Brooke Boertzel
Director of Education & Engagement
Brooke Boertzel holds an MFA in Acting from the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University, and an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU. She has served on panels and as a guest lecturer at NYU, Hunter College, Baruch College, Teachers College Columbia University, City College of New York, Brooklyn College and Rutgers University, covering such topics as arts integration, assessment and evaluation, applied theatre, curricula design, and developing theatre and curricula with and for special populations, including English Language Learners and students with disabilities. Utilizing her expertise in arts integrative learning, Brooke co-created Alice’s Story and Fair and Square, two nationally recognized interactive anti-bullying applied theater programs which were featured on the cover of Time Magazine for Kids in 2012. Brooke has designed and implemented multiple large-scale assessment projects funded by the National Endowment for the Arts which assessed the social, emotional and academic benefits arts-integrated theater curricula had on students. She co-presented a national webinar for TYA/USA on how theatre organizations can implement a trauma-informed-framework when working with students who may have experienced trauma, based on a large-scale training model she implemented for over 85 teaching artists and Department of Education classroom teachers. This was in connection to her role in developing the curriculum and supervising S.A.F.E. (Shelters, Arts, Families and Education) and A.R.C. (After-school Reading Club) two programs which provided literacy-based theater and music workshops for children and families in over 40 NYC homeless shelters. Prior to accepting the position of Director of Education and Engagement at the McCarter Theatre, Brooke worked for 11 years as the Director of Education at New York City Children’s Theater, previously named Making Books Sing. She served on the Board of Directors for the New York City Arts and Education Roundtable from 2013-2018, while acting as the Chair of their Membership committee. Brooke is thrilled to return to McCarter Theatre nearly 12 years after she completed her internship here in the education department!