From childhood role-playing to professional stages, theatre taps into a universal instinct: play. Theatre transforms communities, heals divisions, and even saves lives—showing us that the arts are not a luxury, but essential to human health and connection. David Catanzarite is a master stage director and expert educator. He has directed 200 professional and college productions in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Prague, South Africa, Toronto, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Catanzarite began his teaching career at the age of 26 as a theatre instructor at Stanford University. He served as Theatre faculty at California State University, San Bernardino/Palm Desert Campus. At Green Room Theatre, Mr. Catanzarite has directed The Dresser, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Twelve Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Pop-up Shakespeare, numerous melodramas, and a holiday production of Gift of the Magi that toured African American Churches across the Coachella Valley. For Green Room Summer Conservatory he directed sold-out productions of Sister Act, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pirates of Penzance, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Fiddler on the Roof at the Indian Wells Theatre (and many more shows). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx