About Director Molly Rice

Molly Rice’s Bio Note

Molly Rice (nee Freeman) was born in Charlotte, NC. Her heritage is both Irish and Cherokee. She holds a degree in Theatre Arts Ed. (K-12) and specialized study in English as a Second Language. Molly has taught or held residencies at Upward Bound, Mars Hill College; Asheville Middle School; Catawba Middle School; Blackburn Elementary School; ASSE Summer Language Camp; Rippell, Lenoir-Rhyne College; NCTC; TESOL; Hot Springs Elementary School; Madison High School; Claremont Elementary School; Lyle Creek Elementary School; Sweetwater Elementary, Sherrill’s Ford Elementary, Balls Creek Elementary, Riverbend Middle School, Northview Middle School, Catawba Valley Community College, and Duke University. She was the first Education Director and co-founder of the education wing at Hickory Community Theatre. Molly is currently teaching Theatre Arts at St. Stephen’s High School and is the literary magazine, Indian Ink, editor.

Molly Rice has held several residencies teaching poetry, storytelling, theatre, and ESL in hundreds of schools, colleges, and organizations in NC, United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, and Hungary. She has recently returned from Ireland, where she had lived for six years. During her stay in Ireland, she worked in hundreds of schools, colleges, and projects with students of all ages and abilities. She used poetry and drama in cross-community projects to help bring peace to troubled areas in Northern Ireland. She was a contributor to three books of children’s poetry, art and drama: Around the Lough, Lough Views, and Shore Lines and wrote a teacher’s manual Exploring the Lough: Creative Activities for the Classroom. While in Ireland, she wrote and directed over 30 original drama performances. She was also made a Pushkin Trust Artist for the Duchess of Abercorn.

She has been published in various webzines and magazines including Fortnight Magazine and The Stinging Fly. She was a contributor to a major anthology of poetry and art entitled, A Conversation Piece. She was recently published in Voices and Vision: A Collection of Writings By and About Empowered Women published by the Women’s Resource Center of Hickory. Her first collection of poetry – Mill Hill – is forthcoming.

In the five years as a theatre teacher/director of the Tractor Shed Theatre the editor of the literary magazine “Indian Ink”, and yearbook adivser at St. Stephens High School (SSHS), she has been chosen as SSHS’ Wachovia Teacher of the Year, made a Claes Nobel Educator, chosen as “Outstanding Director” North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC) 2009 & 2010, has received NCTC “superior” rating, won Honorable Mention for yearbook design for Jostens, chosen by peers as SSHS Teacher of the Year 2010, and won $30,000 in technology for her classroom for the winning music video in the eInstruction’s Classroom Makeover contest.

She is currently co-writing a book – There was a Teacher – with her husband, Irish poet Adrian Rice that focuses on creative dramatics and creative writing projects for the classroom.