Delaware's REP Expands Outreach With Award-Winning Educational Consultant

The Resident Ensemble Players (REP), the professional acting company performing at the University of Delaware, is expanding their educational outreach and engagement with the assistance of Charles (Charlie) Conway, Educational Outreach consultant.

Mr. Conway recently retired as the founder and director of the highly respected and award-winning Department of Education and Community Engagement at the Delaware Theatre Company.

"We are honored that Charlie agreed to assist us in growing a vital part of our mission," says REP Producing Artistic Director Sanford (Sandy) Robbins. "His vast experience and expertise in arts based educational outreach and community engagement provides an enormous contribution to our goal in creating new generations of lifelong theatregoers."

Over thirty-six years, Mr. Conway established and oversaw educational programs including the Theatre in Schools Program, Student Matinees, the Youth At Risk Program (extensive acting and playwriting residencies serving students with special needs), the Senior Playwriting Program, and the Theatre Company's summer camp programs, Summer On Stage and Stage 2.

Mr. Conway also served as the Director of the Totally Awesome Players (acting troupe of adults with intellectual disabilities), for which he was recognized with the 1994 Outstanding Achievement Award from The Arc, a national organization that promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He founded the Delaware Young Playwrights' Festival, which (in partnership with corporate sponsor AstraZeneca) was honored in 2001 with the Greater Philadelphia Arts and Business Council's Partnership of the Year Award.

In 2011 Mr. Conway was named one of 50 Who Matter by the Wilmington News Journal and is a recipient of the 2016 Wilmington Award and the 2018 Access Wilmington Award. In October Mr. Conway will be awarded Delaware's 2019 Governor's Award for Arts Education.

Mr. Conway has served on the Philadelphia Arts and Education (PAEP) artist and grant review panels. He has served on the Board of the Delaware Alliance for Arts Education, and the Board of Delaware Classical Showcase. In 2005 and 2006, he was appointed as a grant review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts' Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth.

Mr. Conway has facilitated nationwide professional teleconferences for the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and he maintains an active national and regional advocacy profile on behalf of arts education. He was named a Jefferson Award Trustee in 2008 and joined the Board of Directors of the Delaware Shakespeare Festival in 2014.

The REP looks forward to working with Mr. Conway and expanding its student matinee and outreach offerings - furthering the company's mission of bringing both theatre and education to the surrounding community.