4336 Saratoga Ave., 2nd FL, Downers Grove, IL, 60515
"Azizi has an incredible faculty with art, poetry and movement forms in addition to drama which allows her to confidently use a variety of media expression."
Sally Bailey, RDT/BCT, Drama Therapy Professor, Kansas State University
Azizi creates community-created productions incorporating music and dance. She teaches acting, acting for the camera, directing, choreography, improvisation, dance (ballet, jazz, hip-hop, modern), leadership, stagecraft, and musical theatre.
Azizi earned her BA in Film Directing at Columbia College Chicago and two Master Degrees from Northeastern Illinois University in Community Counseling and Communications, Media and Theatre. She worked in professional theatre and film for over ten years as a choreographer, dancer, director, and actor with such places as Alchemy Theatre, Theodore Roosevelt High School, Betty Hill Dance Studios, and multiple commercial and film studios before encountering drama therapy.
After training in drama therapy at Kansas State University through the North American Drama Therapy Association's Alternative Training program, she created the Therapeutic Performance Initiative (TPI) Model at Mis_ing Link and served as the Executive Director from 1997-2004. While there she had the opportunity to work with a wide array of children and adults who had various physical and cognitive disabilities. This taught Azizi how to create theatrically therapeutic opportunities for all of her clients.
She also served as the Director of Expressive Therapy with Riveredge Psychiatric Hospital, Director of Theatre Education with Alchemy Theatre, as a Drama Therapist for The Youth Campus, School of Expressive Arts and Learning, and Wellness House, and has created over 200 socially-focused, therapeutic performance initiative productions.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS