About This Artist
Leslie Sapp
Art Form(s)
TheatreArtist Credentials
Maryland Wolf Trap Teaching Artist
MSAC Teaching Artist Roster
About this Artist
Pronouns: she/her
Leslie Sapp is a Movement-based theatre artist, storyteller, visual artist, teaching artist, and English-through-drama specialist. Leslie has taught Creative Dramatics, Physical Theater, and Visual Arts to lower and middle schoolers, and Clown Theater, Storytelling, Physical Theater, and Contemporary Dance Improvisation to pre-teens through adults. She has used the arts to support lower school English language (EL) learners, taught EL through drama to teens and adults, and trained EL teachers in drama-based teaching strategies in the US, Cambodia, Laos, Palestine, Jordan, and Turkey.
Leslie received a BFA in Visual Arts from the State University of New York at Purchase, an MA in ESL from the University of Arizona (USA), a Post Graduate Diploma in Drama in Education from Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland), and a CELTA Certificate in EL Teaching from Cambridge University/Akcent International House (Czech Republic).
My teaching philosophy in a nutshell is, “let the learners shine!” Whatever subject I am teaching—be it expressive movement, storytelling, visual arts, literary arts, or an integrated combination—my underlying objective is the same: support the learners in artful expression of their thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences in evocative ways that move people.
Testimonials
“Leslie’s kind heart allowed her to make deep connections with all of her students and also the teachers and staff. I really appreciate the skill, energy, compassion, adaptability, and sense of humor she brought to the project. I also greatly appreciate Leslie’s very high standards of theatrical excellence. She gave her students much skill, new knowledge, and joy. Then she directed them in co-creating and presenting an original theatre show that was so tight and engaging. To me it was amazing that in such a short time Leslie was able to do so much. She brought such blossoming and development to our theatre, and we will be very happy to work with her again whenever possible.”
KHUON Chanreaksmey, Deputy Director, School of Performing Arts, Phare Ponleu Selpak (Brightness of the Arts), Battambang, Cambodia
“I never cease to be inspired by Leslie’s dynamic, compassionate, and skillful work with students of all ages and from all walks of life. She is the ideal candidate for any endeavor requiring authentic presence, personal and cultural sensitivity, compassionate listening, abundant creativity, and a commitment to artistic excellence.”
Tami Jeral, ninth-grade Drama Teacher at Montgomery Blair High School’s Communication Arts Program
“Leslie is a superbly fine-tuned teacher. She is consistently sensitive, intelligent, collaborative, creative, and reliable. She delivers lessons with clear instructions and warm guidance. She naturally engages her students in a way that is at once democratic and directive, imparting knowledge with confidence without being authoritarian in the least. Thus, her students quickly gain a sense of security and are able to extend themselves in taking risks. Whether developing curricula and materials, leading community-based projects, conducting workshops and trainings for teachers, or teaching actual classes, Leslie is steady in her pursuit of her students’ development. Perhaps most importantly, she is caring in regard to all of her students and colleagues. In short, Leslie is the kind of teacher that we all desire but seldom find.”
Gary Carkin, PhD., Southern New Hampshire University
