Mary ElizaBeth Peters, Teen Musical Theater Mary ElizaBeth Peters holds a Master of Arts degree (with Highest Honors) in Theatre Education from Emerson College, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (Cum Laude) in Performance Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Beth currently teaches Drama, Speech, and English for Watertown High School, and she is also a Teaching Artist for the Wheelock Family Theatre, where she teaches classes in Play Production, Shakespeare, Audition Techniques, Improvisation and Characterization, among others. She is a Drama Specialist with the American Alliance for Theatre Education, with whom she was granted two national conference presentations on Disability in the Arts, and Playwriting for Youth.  Locally, Beth has worked as a Drama Specialist for the Boston Health Commission, The Learning Center for Deaf Children in Framingham, the Watertown Children’s Theatre, and the Community Art Center in Central Square, Cambridge.  With a background in creating socially active theatre with teens, Beth co-coordinated a Theatre for Social Change teen group through Wheelock Family Theatre, she worked with the Boston Health Commission to create drama lessons in support of healthy choices for teens, and she co-advised a group of undergraduates in their peer leadership organization, H.O.P.E. at Emerson College.  In Chicago, Beth worked with the Chicago Police Department through Live Bait theatre on their Police-Teen Link program, stage managing teens and police officers in a professional production, Us or Them, about Chicago urban life.

Beth moved here to Boston from Chicago, where she worked as an independent arts teacher, director, administrator and stage manager for Emerald City Theatre, Live Bait Theater, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Court Theatre, and the Theatre for Young Audiences, where she served as a Resident Director and the Education Coordinator.  Beth also coached speech and forensics at Downers Grove North High School.