Director of Theatre

Ms. Hann has been teaching since 1994 and the Director of Theatre at DSA since 2001.  Ms. Hann comes to Denver from Des Moines, Iowa via Texas where she taught for seven years. In high school Ms. Hann was on the drill team, show choir, concert choir, drama club, newspaper staff, church choir and hand-bell choir. During her first year of college Ms. Hann attended a woman's college, called Cottey College, in Nevada, MO. Honors at Cottey included Vice-President of the class, Dean's List for academic achievement, and leading roles in the plays. Ms. Hann received her BA in Communication/Theatre Arts Education (minor in English Education) from the University of Northern Iowa, (formally the Iowa State Teacher's College.) Ms. Hann also spent a semester abroad in London, England, and traveled to Russia, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland during that year. Ms. Hann traveled to Okinawa, Japan to student-teach at the Dept. of Defense high school on Kadena Air Force Base. She has an MA in Directing from the Chicago College for Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.

Awards and Achievements include being awarded the International Thespian Society’s Inspirational Theatre Educator Award from the Educational Theatre Association in 2011, the Alliance for Colorado Theatre as the Middle School/High School Theatre Teacher of the Year 2005-06, being voted the President of Alliance for Colorado Theatre 2006-2008, the "Purple and Old Gold Award for Achievement in Interpretation" (the top Communication/Theatre Arts Graduate award) and the Dean's List for five semesters from the University of Northern Iowa; Teacher of the Year from Tomball Junior High in 1994 and a National Forensic League Coach of Superior Distinction in 2001. Honors include coaching 25 high school students to qualify to compete at the state Texas Forensic competition and five students to qualify and compete at the National NFL (National Forensics League) competition. Ms. Hann was the proud coach of a Duo Interpretation Team, which placed 7th in the Nation in 1998. Ms. Hann has coached 192 DSA students to qualify for National Thespian Convention Individual Events Competition. Ms. Hann has taught such courses as Advanced/Intermediate/Beginning Theatre, Theatre I and II, Oral Interpretation I-IV, Speech and Public Speaking, TV Journalism, and Media Technology. DSA directing credits include: United We Stand, Moon Over Buffalo, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Diviners, Stop Kiss, Jekyll and Hyde, Prime Time Crime, Lost In Yonkers, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Piece of My Heart, Amadeus, The Boys Next Door, The Laramie Project, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Bye Bye Birdie, The Importance of Being Earnest, Brighton Beach Memoirs, AIDA, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson, Parade, The Inconvenient Truths, Paganini, The Bourgeois Gentleman, Urinetown, Love of a Pig, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Of Mice and Men, and Hamlet. Ms. Hann has led student travel groups to NYC ten times, three times to London, England, to Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2003 and 2008, and a journey to Rome and Greece. She serves on the Steering Committee for the Denver Public Schools Shakespeare Festival and a Past-President/Secretary of the Alliance for Colorado Theatre.  She is proud of DSA Theatre’s Outstanding School Award for 2006 from the International Thespian Society.

Ms. Hann has directed the following shows that were ranked superior and presented as one of eight shows at the International Thespian Convention:  Brighton Beach Memoirs, 2006, and Urinetown, 2010.  The following shows have been selected to perform mainstage at the Colorado Thespian Convention as one of two shows a year:  A Piece of My Heart, 2003; The Boys Next Door, 2005; Brighton Beach Memoirs, 2006; Parade, 2008; and Urinetown, 2010.