Oratory Residency and Festival

Working with a Ford’s Teaching Artist, students bring historical speeches to life by staging a class performance of the speech.

Have your students experience and explore the power of a historical speech. Classrooms study historical speeches and work with a Ford’s teaching artist over a series of five in-person residency visits to learn oratory and performance skills. Throughout the program, students expand their vocabulary, develop public-speaking skills and build confidence as they bring historical speeches to life. The program culminates with classrooms performing on Ford’s historic stage on one of two Festival days in early February.

To qualify for the Oratory Program, your school must be a:

• D.C. Public School, D.C. Charter Public School; or
• D.C., Maryland and Virginia Public, Public Charter and Title 1 schools within the Capital Beltway.

Thank you for your interest in Ford’s Theatre Lincoln Oratory Residency and Festival. Unfortunately, the application period for this year’s program has now closed. We encourage you to sign up for our Teacher Enews and stay informed about future opportunities to participate. We will be sure to share information about next year’s application process when it becomes available.

“Thank you for the great experience of … get[ting us] on stage to get our jitters out and boost our confidence. You also boosted my speaking skills by not being afraid to be in front of a big crowd.”

– Brandon, Fifth Grader, Brent Elementary, 2016

W. Ellington Felton

Renaissance man. A Washington, DC native and son of jazz pianist Hilton C. Felton Jr., W. Ellington was immersed in the arts early, cultivating his talent at The School Without Walls. He gained recognition on BET’s Teen Summit and later studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University. After college, he combined his passions for teaching and performance, working with Arena Stage’s Living Stage Theatre Company while pursuing music. In 2000, he co-founded The Crossrhodes with R&B artist Raheem DeVaughn, performing alongside legends like Chris Rock, Common and Meshell Ndegeocello. A proud single father, W. Ellington continues to reside in DC, contributing to Ford’s Theatre’s Education Department and building his acting portfolio with roles in Love Dot Com, The Empty Walls and ALLBLK’s Hush. His artistry reflects authenticity, dedication and passion.

Heidi Fortune

Heidi Fortune is a professional actor and teaching artist. Heidi holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Webster University Conservatory of Theatre Arts and a MA in Arts Administration from Winthrop University. Heidi has worked as a teaching artist for over a decade, most recently at Boys & Girls Clubs in South Carolina. At Boys & Girls Clubs, Heidi worked with hundreds of children to produce over 30 plays and 50 original student films. The program she created won many grants and awards, including a highly competitive National Endowment for the Arts grant and a national award from Comcast, Disney, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. This is Heidi’s eighth year working with Ford’s Education.

ChelseaDee Harrison

ChelseaDee Harrison is a theater-maker, “artivist,” Teaching Artist, and public arts engagement specialist. She has facilitated community-based arts workshops with institutions such as The Kennedy Center, The Ford’s Theatre Society, Carnegie Hall, The Maui Arts & Cultural Center, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The National Guild for Community Arts Education and for survivors of human trafficking and their families. She is a tenured Teaching Artist with the New Victory Theater, a former New Victory Theater LabWorks artist and a former Teaching Artists Guild National Advisory Committee Member. She is a 2024 TYA/USA Emerging Leader Fellow as well as a 2024 Arts and Humanities Fellow with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Her inspiration is crafting multi-platform public engagement experiences that highlight history, challenge dominant narratives, and ensure that art is a tool in the hands of the people. You can follow her work at linktr.ee/ChelseaDee.   

Max Johnson

Max Johnson is an experienced DC local teaching artist. In addition to teaching with Fords, he also works with the Shakespeare Theatre Company and The Education Theater Company as a resident teaching artist and works with many students as a personal acting coach. He’s also a professional actor, having participated in a national tour with Olney Theatre’s National Players Tour 72 (portraying Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Karl Lindner in A Raisin in the Sun), an East Coast tour with Immediate Theatre Project, as well as acting in numerous local productions with theaters such as Rorschach Theatre, Faction of Fools, Imagination Stage, Edge of the Universe Theatre, 1st Stage and Theatre Prometheus, and various filmed projects in DC and LA. Finally, Max also works as a theatrical electrician and lighting designer around the city and enjoys bringing a well-rounded view of theater from having participated in so many different aspects of it to his work as a teaching artist. Max graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University with a BA with Honors in History and a BA in Theatre. More information about him can be found at his website: maxjohnsonactor.com.

Mary Myers

Mary Myers is a professional actor and Teaching Artist based in Washington, DC. She has been working for over a decade, and has collaborated with students of all ages, teaching physical comedy, acting technique, improvisation, movement and devising. Most prominently she has taught Shakespeare, and has worked with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, WSC Avant Bard, and Educational Theatre Company, for whom she was on staff as their Director of Shakespeare in the Schools for seven years. She has performed with numerous theatre companies around town and has won a Helen Hayes award and received multiple nominations. B.A. in Theatre, The College of William & Mary; Physical Theatre training, St. Mary’s University, Twickenham. 

Kristen Noetzel

Kirsten Noetzel is a Director and Teaching Artist in the DC area. Regionally, directing projects have included Theatre Prometheus (Miranda after the Storm), Montgomery College (The BURN), the Hub Theatre (Emerging Writer’s Festival), The Theatre Lab (Newsies, Matilda, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It), Imagination Stage (Unlabeled, The Pencil is Mightier, O Wonder, Aladdin), Metropolitan School of the Arts (Alice in Wonderland, The Odyssey, Peter Pan, The Tempest, Legend of Sleepy Hollow). In addition to Ford’s Theatre, Kirsten serves on the faculties of The Theatre Lab, Imagination Stage, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, and Metropolitan School of the Arts. Kirsten has been invited to present on actor training at Signature Theatre, Kennedy Center, DC Collaborative, Fairfax County Public Schools, DC Public Schools, and Montgomery County Public Schools. She received her M.A. in Theatre from the University of Houston, School of Theatre.