PIE SIG Officers
The Performance in Education Special Interest Group
The mission of the Performance In Education SIG (formerly the Speech, Drama, and Debate SIG) is to provide a forum for teachers and academics to discuss, research, and implement oral interpretation, speech, debate, drama and other forms of performance in language education. The main activities are the publication of a newsletter and the Mask & Gavel journal, as well as sponsoring conferences and workshops. including annual conferences in Okinawa and Sapporo. Other activities have included supporting chapter events and running local, regional, and national speech contests.
In the beginning, we created events by ourselves, which established our SIG as a vibrant entity. We started collaborative ventures by providing speakers to chapters upon request (Tokyo, Fukui, Fukuoka, Gifu, Nagoya, Okayama, Hiroshima, etc.). Many of these collaborations grew into co-sponsoring whole conferences, which we have done several times with Yokohama Chapter since 2015, Okinawa Chapter since 2015, and Hokkaido Chapter since 2019. Ever-evolving, these conferences have become annual. We have also collaborated with other SIGs, such as the LLL SIG, the BRAIN SIG, and the Critical Thinking SIG. We do these projects to tap into the regional bases which attract many participants, but we also enjoy the synergy that comes from working with new colleagues with different skill sets.
What we are
“INTRODUCING, for Your Enlightenment and Entertainment, . . . The Performance in Education SIG!”
(Drumroll and trumpet fanfare)
A little too dramatic? Yes, well, that’s who we are. Who are we, you ask?
We are Dramatic.
One focus of the SIG is drama, and many members have theatre backgrounds or an interest in theatre. Yes, we do put on plays, radio dramas, and readers theatre productions in our schools, but we also incorporate into our classes, roleplays, simulations, theatre games, improv activities, and process drama techniques. Never heard of process drama? It can enhance EFL classes in many ways. Ask one of our members to explain it to you personally or at a chapter meeting.
We are Creative.
It is amazing how many creative, artistic people we meet whenever we gather together. If there were a group equivalent to Mensa for creative people, we would be a chapter of that group.
We are Flamboyant.
Not all of us, but a great many of us dress in flamboyant colors (guilty as charged) and talk and gesture dramatically. We can’t help it. It is like we are living in the “Bohemian Rhapsody” world. That is also how we teach. Students are not bored in our classes!
We are Argumentative.
Debate is another focus of the SIG and it is interesting how many of the flamboyant, dramatic people are also the debate people. Formal debate teaches important critical thinking and public speaking skills, but it is also exciting and fun, and the way we teach it is fun, yet challenging. Students are not bored in these classes, either.
We are Orators.
We teach speech and presentation, and we are unusually good orators. At SIG forums at PanSIG or the JALT international conference, I am amazed at the consistently excellent quality of speakers in the SIG.
We are Serious Professionals.
In addition to being good teachers, we also write articles, textbooks, and performance pieces, we conduct research, we go to great lengths to mentor the younger members, we volunteer in the JALT organization, and we make it a point to go to conferences to spread the word about the value of performance in the learning process.
What we do
Organizationally speaking, we are a relatively young SIG, officially founded in 2012. We are also a small SIG with membership hovering in the low to mid-70s. However, we are also a very active SIG. Our main activities are:
- Publication Producer
Mask & Gavel is our official peer-reviewed journal that comes out once a year. And the PIE SIG Classroom Resources Journal, which is a collection of My Share-type articles, comes out whenever we accumulate a sufficient number of articles.
- News Station
Current news about events relevant to our SIG or involving SIG members is announced to members and interested people on our social media.
- Event Producer
In our first year, we produced our biggest event when we co-sponsored with Oxford University Press to bring Carolyn Graham (of Jazz Chants fame) and Ken Wilson (improv and Smart Choice) to Nagoya. We have co-sponsored with OUP to have Ken Wilson present at our events four times in the last seven years. The last time was at the 2016 JALT international conference in Nagoya when Ken did a presentation for us. Afterwards, we co-sponsored the OUP party with our coordinator singing bossa nova along with a few back singers/dancers provided by the SIG.
- Presentation Agent
We have been asked to provide presenters at several JALT chapters and have even produced one-day mini-conferences for chapters. Please contact us if you are interested in presenting at or sponsoring a PIE SIG/chapter mini-conference.
- Conference Sponsor
Every year we sponsor our own conference(s). They have been member-friendly—our 2018 Travelling Conference set up the big tent in the Kansai, Tokai, and Kanto areas to bring the conference to members who do not have institutional financial support to travel to conferences. Conferences have been held in interesting venues: for three years we have had conferences in Okinawa, our second home, and in 2019 and 2020 we held a conference in Sapporo. We actively welcome students (high school and university) to attend free of charge, give presentations, and participate in performances. And these have been family-friendly conferences—held in interesting locations that families would like to travel to and family members have been welcome at our banquets and cultural events. In 2019 our most ambitious conference was held in Nagoya (June 15-17). The title and theme was Performance in Education: Research & Practice, and the plenary speakers were Dr. Rod Ellis and our own Dr. Vivian Bussinguer-Khavari.
- Club
Although a small SIG, our networking dinners sometimes feature close to half of our total membership! These events are serious, loud, raucous, humorous, and most of all, a family gathering. Both Apollo and Dionysus are members of our SIG.
PIE SIG Officers (2025)
President: Darren Kinsman
Vice President: Kevin Bergman
Publicity Chair: Max Diaz
Assistant Publicity Chair: Ashley Ford
Publications Chair: Philip Head
Membership Chair: Kim Rockell
Program Chair: Vivian Bussinguer-Khavari
Assistant Program Chair: Yukari Saiki, Brian Gallagher
Treasurer: James Higa
Advisory Officers
IT Coordinator & Website Administrator: Max Diaz
Japanese Liaison Officer: Yukari Saiki
Member-at-Large: Dawn Kobayashi
Speech Chair: *Please contact us if you’re interested in filling this position*
Drama Chair: Zach Strickland, Kevin Bergman
Debate Chair: David Kluge
Music Chair: Kim Rockell
Oral Interpretation Chair: David Kluge
Social Chair: Gordon Rees
Meet the Officers
Darren Kinsman
PIE President
Darren has been teaching in Japan since 1998. Originally from eastern Canada, he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science followed by a bachelor’s degree in education with training in educational drama from renown Canadian playwright and educator Ilkay Silk. After teaching in Japan for some years, he returned to Canada to get his CELTA certification and later a Master of Arts degree.
Over his career, he has taught at language schools, and a private high school, where he instructed students in both drama and choral singing in addition to traditional subjects. He currently teaches at the university level and is a Member-at-Large for JALT Sendai Chapter. He has written articles on drama, choral English, and the use of portfolios in the writing classroom. He has given numerous talks on the topic of drama in the language classroom at local, national, and international conferences.
Kevin Bergman
Vice President & Drama Chair
Kevin has been involved with English education in Japan since 1986, primarily as a full-time teacher at Musashi High School and Junior High School in Tokyo, where he recently retired after 30 years of teaching English, Speech, and Drama. Before that he team-taught with Japanese English teachers on the JET Program in Shikoku and travelled around the country as an Educational Consultant for a major ELT publishing company. Prior to coming to Japan, he studied theater directing at West Virginia University and trained as an actor at The Juilliard School in New York. Kevin loves interacting with people who believe in, and practice drama as means of communication, and would like to help build alliances among such teachers and artists in Japan and other countries.
Kim Rockell
Membership Chair & Music Chair
Originally from New Zealand, Kim Rockell is an ethnomusicologist and classical guitarist active throughout the Asia-Pacific region. In Japan he had the opportunity to experience traditional Noh theatre, inspiring him to experiment with original English language Noh-style plays as a member of PIE. He draws on a range of musical strategies when teaching Performance in English and World Music and Culture courses at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Kim also supervises Music Liberal Arts Graduation theses at the Tokyo College of Music.
Max Diaz
Publicity Chair, IT Coordinator, & Website Administrator
Ashley Ford
Assistant Publicity Chair
Philip Head
Publications Chair
James Higa
Treasurer
Vivian Bussinguer-Khavari
Program Chair
Anthony Brian Gallagher
Assistant Program Chair
Brian is heavily involved with JALT (PIE & CALL SIGs) as a very active member, contributor, conference organiser, editor, and reviewer. As a youngster, Brian attended elocution and drama lessons from where he also got his first experiences with prose, theatre, and performance arts. With a focus on THE USER EXPERIENCE (UX), the last ten years have seen research in improving student writing using virtual learning environments and computer-assisted language learning to benefit students at each of the institutions Brian has worked, and beyond. With a focus on quality assurance and an aim to help others improve their own teaching and course-quality, he continues to present at conferences in the Asia-Pacific region and provide workshops for faculty and independent groups.
Yukari Saiki
Assistant Program Chair, Japanese Liaison Officer
David Kluge
PIE Founder, Oral Interpretation Chair, Debate Chair, Conferences Chair
David Kluge (Chukyo University, Adjunct Professor) has been teaching English for 43 years (35 at Japanese universities) and has been involved in Performance in Education (PIE) for 54 years. He is the founder and former president of the JALT Performance in Education SIG. His interests also include Computer-Assisted Language Learning (He was a founding officer of the JALT CALL SIG), cooperative learning, composition, and oral communication, having written textbooks and edited collections on these topics and on PIE.
Dawn Kobayashi
Member-at-Large
Zach Strickland
PIE Drama Chair
Zach Strickland is a tenured lecturer and English Coordinator at Kyoto Koka Women’s University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and TV news in his home state of Colorado and later got his master’s in Learning Design and Technology.
Zach has been in Japan since 2004 and has taught all ages and education levels from infants to seniors. He was a performer and Media Director of The Pirates of the Dotombori, a bilingual, improv comedy group for 10 of those years and performed across Japan and Asia while also teaching all-ages performance workshops. During the COVID pandemic he was lead director of a series of 36 YouTube, educational videos produced by the Osaka City Board of Education that also aired on TV Osaka.
He currently lives with his wife and daughters in Osaka.
Gordon Reese
Social Chair
Fatima Mei Ataka
AET Liaison
Fatima Mei Ataka brings twelve years of English teaching experience from her time in Pakistan and Japan to her current role in Saudi Arabia. She has been involved with English drama for high school students for the past seven years, using performance to support language learning. Fatima’s teaching focuses on engaging students through practical and diverse methods to help them develop their English skills effectively. Her interests include Drama and Second Language Acquisition and Drama in Education.
Brett Edman
AET Liaison
Brett Edman has been teaching since 2019. Originally completing a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) and Diploma in Languages (Chinese) at the University of Newcastle (UoN), Australia, he then studied Chinese at the Beijing Film Academy in 2012. This is where he had his first taste of teaching at evening and weekend English conversation classes. After a few years in the mining and construction industry in Australia he decided to switch to education, completing a Master of Teaching (Secondary) at the UoN in 2018, and a Diploma in Languages (Japanese) between UoN and Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (2019). Brett has taught languages, science, and social science at both private and public schools in Australia. Outside of work hours he can often be seen in musical theatre productions. He currently teaches English at elementary and junior high schools in Kumamoto City as an ALT.