Moriah Flagler is a MFA candidate in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities at The University of Texas at Austin. Before moving to Austin, she spent two years teaching English as a second language in Quepos, Costa Rica. While in Costa Rica, she began an improvisational theatre troupe for adolescents that toured and led community workshops, exposing many people to improvisational theatre for the first time. There, she also helped devise and performed in Sexo, con o sin Amor (Sex, with or without Love), a play that humorously explores issues around gender and sexuality in the community. Additionally, she toured to several rural schools with the play El Cemeterio de los Libros Olvidados (The Cemetery of the Forgotten Books), inspiring children to keep literature alive through reading.
Recently, Moriah completed a partnership with Creative Action, a community based arts organization, where she explored how they can effectively support emergent bilingual youth in Austin through their programming.
Moriah's research interests include the use of drama-based pedagogy with emergent bilingual youth, devising and storytelling as ways to create agency and explore identity with adolescents, and professional development practices that encourage dramatic inquiry as ethical education. Moriah is excited to continue her work with young people while at The University of Texas, discovering new ways to inspire them to tell their stories and strengthen their communities.
