The Children’s Theatre Workshop was founded by and is under the Direction of Professor Denise J. Hart, a tenured Associate Professor of theatre at Howard University. Denise, a native Omahan, has over 20 years experience in the Performing arts.  She is the co-founder and former co-director of All About Creativity Performing Arts and former Director of Kelsey E. Collie's Children's Theatre Experience.

Denise's life long passion for personal growth, experssion, and the arts is what led her down this path of training others to excell in their lives, while using performing arts as the vehicle.  Denise is most fulfilled when she has the opportunity to participate in the process of helping someone discover their personal strengths and evolve their ability to adapt, improvise and overcome in all that they do. 

Denise is an accomplished and award winning actress, director and playwright.  Her Directing credits include: Day of Absence (selected to compete in the 2008 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional conference), Zooman & the Sign, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, A Marvelous Celebration of Sound!, By Way of Paris, The DC County Spelling Bee from A to Z!, When a Tree Grows in Brookland, How I Learned to Be a Kid!, August on My Mind and Say it Loud! a celebration of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Her playwriting achievements include the productions - This Joy, (a 2007 semi-finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights competition), Sistah Girl, My Soul is a Witness, and Masquerade Parade, (premiered at the 2006 Kennedy Center Page-2-Stage Festival), as well as the authorship and directing of 14 children’s musicals.  She has also been seen on the DC area stages in The Dispute at The H Street Playhouse, The Day Room with Wooly Mammoth Theatre at the Kennedy Center, and as understudy in Holiday Heart at Arena Stage.  Catch her at work on television in season 4 of HBO’s The Wire in the recurring role of Miss Anna. 

A few of her professional affiliations are: member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), The Dramatist Guild, The Playwrights Forum, and Theatre for Young Audiences.  She is a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University (BFA) and Sarah Lawrence College (MFA).    

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