Head of Community Engagement and Programs for Youth
Assistant Professor of Theatre Education
Crabbe 303
970.351.2579
gillian.mcnally@unco.edu
Gillian McNally specializes in the connection between the arts, youth and community. She has extensive experience particularly with underserved, low-income populations. Before coming to UNC, Gillian worked with TRIO, a National Program that helps low-income and first generation students gain access to college. Before coming back to her home state of Colorado, she served as the Resident Teaching Artist for People’s Light and Theatre where she created the Professional Development Program for teachers and worked with New Voices, the nationally recognized program that created original works with diverse urban and suburban high school students.
At the University level, Ms. McNally has taught at The University of Texas at Austin, Temple, West Chester and Arcadia Universities. At UNC, Gillian teaches courses for both undergraduate and graduate students in theatre education. At UNC she directed ¡Bocòn! and Holes and served as the supervising director for the touring productions of Tomato Plant Girl, El Viaje de Beatriz, The Courage to Stand and A Year with Frog and Toad.
Gillian is the recipient of the Alliance for Colorado Theatre’s 2011 Higher Education Theatre Educator of the Year Award. Her writing has been published in Stage of the Art, Incite/Insight, and Theatre for Young Audiences Today. She has essays published in the books Signs of Change: New Directions in Theatre Education and The Reflective Teaching Artist. Gillian presented papers on the connection between youth, theatre and community in Adelaide, Australia, Malmo, Sweden and Puebla, Mexico. She currently serves as Vice President of Membership for TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) USA national executive board. She will be a conference chair for the 2014 American Alliance for Theatre Education national conference.
A proud Longhorn, she holds an M.F.A. in Drama and Theatre for Youth from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.F.A. in Acting from Webster Conservatory of Theatre Arts.
Gillian McNally