The Children’s Theatre Foundation of America has named Art Almquist of Tucson High Magnet High School its 2016 Reba R. Robertson Outstanding Teacher of Drama. He will receive the award during a ceremony held by the foundation in Boston on July 29, 2016.
The award honors the memory of Reba R. Robertson, a public school teacher who devoted nearly 40 years to teaching high school drama, speech, and debate and recognizes teachers who follow enthusiastically in her path.
Mr. Almquist has spent the majority of his life involved with theater, teaching and performing. He is a native Tucsonan who grew up in Tucson Unified schools. He started acting at the age of 12, when he joined the Tom Thumb players, which was founded by Lee Strasberg student Lester Netszky. Inspired by Netszky and his own high school drama teacher, he decided to pursue theater education to help kids navigate the minefield of adolescence.
In 1996, he began teaching at Tucson High Magnet School, where he has taught Acting and directed plays for 20 years. His program and plays have won numerous awards, as well as regularly being named one of the best high school theatres in America by the American High School Theatre Festival.
Art is also an avid film-lover, and in 1998 won U.S. Satellite Broadcasting’s “You Be the Movie Critic” contest; the award, judged by Gene Siskel, gave him the opportunity to host a nationwide movie review program for a year.
In 2008, he won Tucson’s LUMIE Award for Arts Teacher of the Year, and his work as an actor has been recognized with local awards. He was most recently honored as the reader’s choice for PEOPLE Magazine’s 2013 Teacher of the Year. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and has worked in professional Improv Comedy groups for 25 years. He continues to act and perform in the Tucson community regularly.
Betts Putnam Hidalgo, a TUSD parent and school board candidate told the ADI in an email, “Art Almquist is representative of WHY TUSD needs to support its teachers. He consistently engages his students, inspiring them and demanding their best. He teaches teamwork and strength under pressure as he and his students produce one fantastic theatre piece after another. GO ART! CONGRATULATIONS and thanks for working with our students!”
“I have been attending THS theater productions for years and have been amazed at the quality of performances that Art gets out of high school actors. They frequently look more like college productions,” stated TUSD school board member Dr. Mark Stegeman.