New Branch President

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ESU Kansas City Branch
Welcomes Ben Martin as New President

On February 5, 2022, at our ESU Kansas City Annual Meeting, Ben Martin was unanimously elected as the new president of the Branch by its members. Ben has been a member of the Kansas City Branch for 24 years and served on its Board of Directors and Advisory Committee for many years. Ben brings a wealth of experience and leadership to the ESU, and we are delighted to have Ben serving as president.

For 34 years, Ben taught and directed speech and theatre in Missouri high schools before retiring in the spring of 2010 from the Lee's Summit School District.  He served many years on the Boards of Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri (President 1987), Missouri State Thespians and the national board of the Educational Theatre Association.  He is an active advocate for arts education programs and served as Executive Director for the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education until he re-retired in July 2020.  He continues as the State Advocacy Captain for Americans for the Arts.

He still feeds his theatre addiction through the Summit Theatre Group, a community theatre he co-founded in 2011 and by writing and directing innovative street theatre and online productions in Lee's Summit. 

In 1998, Ben was selected to receive a full scholarship to ESU's TLab program where he studied and performed at the International Globe Center in London, England.  Ben and his wife, Roxanne, have led student tours over a dozen times to London, Dublin, New York, and Paris.  Among their many additional adventures have been trips to central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Panama Canal, almost all 50 states, 23 National Parks and Alaska—both in the summer and winter. 

Over the last couple of years, Ben has played an important part in ESU's centennial celebrations.  In the summer of 2020, Ben wrote and directed an old- fashioned radio play mystery comedy in the genre of the 1930's and 1940's Sam Spade Detective Radio Plays but with a modern-day twist. The radio play, titled, "The Case of the Missing Parents," used live actors and special sound effects. The ESU Centennial Radio Play was broadcast on Zoom on November 9, 2020, to ESU members and Friends of ESU around the country. It was a big success and received rave reviews.

Then, as part of ESU's 100 Years 100 Stories project, Ben told the story on video about his TLab experiences when he attended classes on teaching Shakespeare at the Globe Center in London.

Last December, Ben was a guest speaker on a program co-sponsored with the ESU and the International Relations Council. His talk was part of IRC's Global Experiences Series and was titled, "A Visitor's Perspective on Cuba in Transition." He told of his experiences when he and his wife, Roxanne, went on a Caribbean cruise to Cuba. He gave some background on the history of Cuba and his experiences while visiting three Cuban ports of call.

On his new role with the ESU, Ben commented, "I'm honored to have been selected as the next president for the Kansas City Branch of the English-Speaking Union and looking forward to the opportunities in the coming year as we seek to expand ESU programs in KC."

The Kansas City Board of Directors and all members give a warm welcome to Ben as we continue to celebrate our centennial.

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