TEACHING

Ariana is passionate about the cultivation of radical empathy. Since the fall of 2025 she has worked as a teaching artist with Marin Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare for Social Justice program in various prisons throughout California's Central Valley (Folsom State Prison, California Medical Facility, and California State Prison Solano Levels 2 and 3).

She has taught university courses (at Colby College, Pitzer College, and Sierra College) on acting, Shakespeare, voice, movement, and improvisational practices in performance and completed teaching residencies and workshops for actors and students of all ages throughout the US. She has extensive teaching and directing experience focused on empowering individuals and developing ensembles through using movement to activate the text through the body, the “quick-raise” process, textual analysis, Laban movement work, voice and vocal technique, and innovative staging of intimacy and violence though abstraction.

Teaching CV

Rehearsals for Youth Shakespeare Festival at Capital High School - Photo by Caryl Farkas

Organizations

Ariana has worked as a teaching artist with the following organizations:

Universities

Ariana has taught classes at the following universities:

  • Sierra College, Rocklin, CA

  • Pitzer College, Claremont, CA

  • Colby College, Waterville, ME

Schools

Ariana has completed artistic residencies with the following schools:

  • West Point Military Academy, West Point, NY

  • Port Chester Middle School, Rye Brook, NY

  • Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, NM

  • Academy for Technology and the Classics, Santa Fe, NM

  • Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe, NM

  • Capital High School, Santa Fe, NM

  • McCurdy Charter School, Española, NM

  • New Mexico School of the Arts, Santa Fe, NM

  • Monte del Sol, Santa Fe, NM

  • Desert Academy, Santa Fe, NM

  • Santa Fe Prep, Santa Fe, NM

  • Fort Dorchester High School, North Charleston, SC

Workshop with The Shakespeare Ensemble at Osaka University in Japan

Movement workshop with Upstart Crows of Santa Fe, NM

Stage Combat workshop at Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, NM

Rehearsals for Youth Shakespeare Festival at Santa Fe Indian School