Kimiko Warner-Turner is currently a teaching artist who brings many years of experience in theatre education,managing,and designing artistic programs. She focuses on using Aesthetics of the Oppressed, movement and visual art techniques in primary and secondary schools, colleges and community organizations. She completed her M.F.A. at USC in Applied Theatre Arts. She trained with Theatre of the Oppressed founder, Augusto Boal at CTO-Rio in Brazil, Theatre of the Oppressed/Optimistic at Jana Sanaskriti repertoire company in India, with Brent Blair, Ph.D., and Mady Schutzman, Ph.D. in Los Angeles. She received her classical training from Louis Fantasia. She’s a member of the TeAda Ensemble making social justice performance and programming for people of color. Kimiko is a Master TA and Symposium Instructor for The Music Center and Teacher at LACHSA. She collaborates with Psychotherapist Melissa Shepherd-Williams, Dietitian Taryn Schubert McPherson, and Dance Theatre Artist Robyn O’Dell in facilitating workshops on creating wellness and developing life-affirming relationships.
Her other experiences include designing and implementing programs for at Center Theatre Group, Shakespeare Center LA and for the Simon Family Foundation. She’s been a TA for Theatreworkers Project, UAP-LA Chapter, Sequoyah Progressive School, Cal Poly Pomona, ArtworxLA, South Pasadena Education Foundation Musicals, Inner City Arts and Producer at Casa0101. She was the Assistant Director, Choreographer and Community Teaching Artist for the LA premier of, Land of Smiles, written by Erin Kamler; and toured in Thailand, and in Edinburgh. And Focus Group Leader for Art, Social Justice and Women’s Empowerment: Dramatization and Research in the Trafficking of Persons ‘Space’. She is the Creative Director for Changing Ways – a program for ex-incarcerated men that’s on hiatus and was the Theatre Arts/Client Manager in PUSD for Friends Outside in Los Angeles. She designed and edited study guides for Center Theatre Group, Claremont College and the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. All of this would not be possible if it weren’t for the amazing support of her husband and daughters whom she loves very much.