Jun 2, 2019
Drama Club is an innovative non-profit organization that provides theatre programming and positive mentorship to young people who are incarcerated or court-involved in New York City, bringing classes into juvenile detention centers, jails and community centers. Drama Club is committed to providing New York City’s most vulnerable youth the opportunity to laugh, play, and cultivate life skills through improvisational theatre.
Josie Whittlesey is the founder and Executive Director of Drama Club. Her previous work includes teaching for Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Sing Sing and Woodbourne Correctional Facilities, where she taught courses on acting, public speaking, and comedy. Before founding Drama Club, Josie developed a drop-in acting class for GEMS, serving girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Over the last ten years she has taught acting, improvisation, and text analysis at Fordham University, New York University, Montclair State University, and Larry Singer Studios. She holds an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting program.