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Alex Ates

Alex Ates is the director of arts at Kent Denver School.

Alex Ates is the director of arts at Kent Denver School. iAmAlexAtes.com

A group of people gathered together for a photo.
Essay

Acting Beyond the Self

12 June 2025

Anna Deavere Smith is not only a prolific playwright known widely for her verbatim theatre plays, but she is also a teacher with a distinct pedagogy. She speaks with her former student Alex Ates, who also teaches theatre, about her current approaches to teaching and how they have developed over the years.

A man stands at a podium on stage and speaks.
Essay

Fifteen Lessons on Theatre from Maureen Shea

6 April 2023

Alex Ates honors his mentor, the late director Maureen Shea, by sharing learnings from his time with her.

three people looking at a large projection of a person's face
Essay

Lessons in Online Theatremaking from New Paradise Laboratories’ Whit MacLaughlin

30 March 2020

Alex Ates speaks with Whit MacLaughlin—the experimental theatremaker who ventured into the online realm before it became our norm—about the intersection between digital technology and live performance and pedagogy.

an actor onstage with four young children
Essay

What You, Theatremaker, Can Learn from Theatre for the Very Young

29 July 2019

Alex Ates reflects on the Toddler Takeover at Atlanta, Georgia’s Alliance Theatre and shares what the growing field of theatre for the very young can teach adult theatremakers about their craft.

A group of performers on stage
Essay

Terror, Strength, Pain, Brilliance, and Children in Four Little Girls

21 February 2019

Alex Ates examines the recent production of Christina Ham’s Four Little Girls at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Essay

Resurgence in America’s Roots Region

8 February 2018

Alex Ates looks at how the Free Southern Theater established a model of artmaking and activism in the South in the '60s and considers how the New South is primed for another generation of civic action artmaking. 

Essay

A Flash of the Irish Stage

14 January 2015

Alex Ates heads to Ireland, where he encounters the kindness and charm of many theatregoers and students, and remembers what theatre is about for him.

Essay

The World Wide Theater at Our Fingertips

27 August 2014

Alex Ates and DCW3 offer an overview of the how the internet has shaped theatre.

Essay

Progress in Practice

At-Risk Industries in Dialogue

22 December 2013

Alex Ates shares a brief description of A Truckload of Ink, a new play by Jim Fitzmorris, commisioned by The NOLA Project theater company.

A man in a sculpture garden.
Essay

Setting the Stage for a New Regional Theater

19 July 2013

The budding identity of American regional theater is fresh ensembles creating devised work that answers why with these people, in this place.

Still from a production of Love's Labour's Lost.
Essay

The Play's a Thing

28 April 2013

Alex Ates writes of a production of Love's Labour's Lost during the Boston Marathon Bombing, and the healing and cathartic qualities of community theater.

Ensemble of Shakespearean Jazz Show.
Essay

Creating The Shakespearean Jazz Show at Emerson

27 November 2012

Alex Ates reflects on the creation of The Shakespearean Jazz Show, and how Emerson College provided the perfect opportunity for his brainchild to grow.

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