Joe Schmitz is an educator and actor with over 20 years’ experience adapting theater arts for special education throughout the Bay Area. Combining backgrounds in theater and instructional development, Joe founded Special Focus, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) that brought drama and improv into special education classrooms throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento.

    He is currently owner of Eureka Street Learning and teaches teachers how to use theater techniques to enhance their teaching for courses as diverse as language arts, science, and history. His current focus is promoting the Hunter Heartbeat Method throughout the Bay Area and building a theater group for special needs adults to do theater ‘in our own way”.

    In addition to teaching, Joe has performed as a voice actor and in local theater. Some of his recent roles include Scrooge at the Dickens Christmas Fair and Scaramouche in Emperor of the Moon at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.