Speak Out with Stewy is a 2020 Cultural Identity Awareness & Sensitivity web series for educators, students and anyone searching to have a deeper and more personal understanding of sociocultural* relationships. In Speak Out with Stewy, educator/theatre director/speech & debate coach, Lory "Stewy" Stewart, interviews former students and community members. |
Speak Out gives a platform to use our voices to speak out about our lives, experiences and on topics about which we feel passionate. These interviews are meant to educate, inform and inspire. You may glean insight into the lives, thoughts and opinions of those who may look, act, speak, think and feel differently from yourself. This is one more opportunity to start a dialogue that leads to understanding, empathy, compassion and awareness to help educate in the 21st century.
|
*According to eScholarship, "Sociocultural theory emphasizes the social nature of learning and the cultural-historical contexts in which interactions take place. Thus, teacher-student interactions and the relations that are fostered through these contexts play an especially vital role in student achievement."
Meet Stewy
LORY ALISON STEWART / "Stewy"
"Use the tragedies of your past as motivation to succeed." Stewy
|
Educator, director, author, playwright, public speaker, Lory "Stewy" Stewart, graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, where she was the President of the Drama Education Organization, worked at the UIL State Meet and performed at Shakespeare at Winedale, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Studies and a minor in Communications.
|
ON A PERSONAL NOTE...
Raised the only child of a single unwed teenage mother, Stewy overcame many obstacles, as evidenced by her perfect score on the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) test. As a teen, she survived her own toxic relationships, date rape, alcohol abuse and depression. Recently, through 23andMe, she found out the identity of her father in 2019. He and her five half-siblings have welcomed her with open arms! FIVE!!! She has been happily married to her college sweetheart, Derek Stewart, since 1993. |
From 1993-2001, Stewy co-directed theatre with her high school theatre director and inspiration to teach, Kim "Stins" Stinson, at Naaman Forest HS in Garland, Texas, where she was named "Regular Educator of the Year" by the Special Education department. While there, she created ACTORS HAVE HEART Community Service Theatre Troupe, and her students logged over 700 hours per school year performing and throwing parties at schools for children with special needs and the elderly at nursing/rehabilitation facilities. It was at NFHS that she produced her first full-length original play, Vegas or Bust, and first original one-act play, Daughters of Pantelone (A Modern Commedia dell'Arte Play). DOP was also performed at Eastfield College to create the Dr. John D. Stewart Memorial Scholarship for her father-in-law, who was the Dean of Arts and Letters for over 25 years. She left NFHS in 2001 to become a stay-at-home mother to her two sons, Trevor and Tristan. From 2002-2007 she also worked as a critic judge and contest manager for the UIL One-Act Play competition in Texas.
|
THEATRE DIRECTOR
In 1997 Stewy co-founded Actors Anonymous Theatre Company. The Director of A.A.T.C. since its inception, she has directed and produced over 40 productions, including 13 children's summer musicals. Stewy continues to write and direct musicals each January with Special Needs adults (since 2004) for the City of Garland. "The Drama Queens" (& Kings) have performed at Fronterafest in Austin, Texas, DIVAfest in San Francisco, California, in Keystone, Colorado, at Theatre Row in New York City, on a Carnival Cruise, with over $25,000 donated to charities. |
|
Stewy wrote the book for a new musical, co-written with Justin Fields (lyrics) and Trevor Stewart (music), Slow Dancin' with my Tractor, that premiered in 2017 and donated all profits to Austin Out Youth and Hoof and Souls Horse Sanctuary. Rated PG-15ish, for bawdy humor & naughty language, SDWMT follows the last concert of the Cash Family Singers and it's available for production! You can see a video of one song here, with Stewy in drag as the patriarch, Rufus Cash. After accidentally getting booked at a gymnastics themed gay bar called The Chalk Bucket, the Cash Family Singers gain a cult following and write a song explaining what LGBTQ means in the song...
|
|
Currently the Hays HS Head Theatre Director and Fine Arts Department Chair, she enjoys teaching a new class she created, Adaptive Musical Theatre with Supportive Peers, for students with all levels of Special Needs and reinstating Actors Have Heart Community Service Theatre Troupe, that performs for the elderly at assisted living and rehab centers.
She is a Teacher of the Year Top 5 Finalist for 2019 & 2020.
She is a Teacher of the Year Top 5 Finalist for 2019 & 2020.
#UNITEDByDIVERSITY
Would you like to Speak Out with Stewy?
Send us an email and let us know about what you'd like to speak.
Let your voice be heard to help with Sociocultural Awareness and Sensitivity.
Please click the REACH OUT button to contact Lory "Stewy" Stewart
Let your voice be heard to help with Sociocultural Awareness and Sensitivity.
Please click the REACH OUT button to contact Lory "Stewy" Stewart
