As a child, theatre arts practitioner and arts education facilitator Theodora Ulerie would dig for gold in her spare time. Little did she know that her childhood treasure hunt would become the metaphor for a lifelong journey of self-discovery and her talent for performance and teaching. Ulerie is the founder of the arts education resource centre, Culture House, where she facilitates community workshops for women and children – a job she was destined to have. "I love what I'm doing. I love working with the children. My work gives me a lot of joy. Thank God for my work and for the gift. My name means "god's gift" so I guess realising that inner gift is something that I have made my lifelong quest. I was searching and I never knew what I was searching for. As a little girl I would search for gold but what I found out as an adult is that the gold was in my heart," says Ulerie.  

Ulerie's love for theatre began while in primary school in Tunapuna where she was selected to play the fairy responsible for waking up all the flowers in a Freddy Kissoon operetta. She says she immediately fell in love with the stage. "To me, I was the star. When it was time to leave the stage Thea wouldn't move. All the signs they were making and I not moving at all. That helped to boost my self esteem," says Ulerie who lost her mother at age seven and used occasions to perform as a means to escape this loss.  

Although she participated in drama festivals all through secondary school, Ulerie entered secretarial college after graduation because there were no avenues to study the arts at home. "At ten years old if you asked me what I wanted to be I would tell you I wanted to be an actress. At 16 years old, if you asked me what I wanted to be I would tell you I wanted to be an actress. However, if you want to be an actress you have to be a mad person especially in those days. So I didn't become an actress I became a secretary and I didn't like what I was doing at all. My point is that we have angels among us who have wonderful talent and because of our lack of respect for the arts we do not nurture the talent of these children and they fall through the cracks – artistically and creatively – and we do not realise our potential," she says.

Ulerie spent years working as a corporate secretary eventually opening a temp agency in the early 80s but continued to be unsatisfied by these positions. In 1984, after being forced out of business by the recession, Ulerie dreamed of opening a motivational centre. She rented a house and drafted a proposal for which was unable to find government or corporate funding.

Her intuition, Ulerie says, was telling her to return to her childhood for contentment. In 1985, she met the playwright Shango Baku and proposed to manage his theatre group and projects.  Unbeknownst to Ulerie, Baku had written her a part in one of his plays and the role changed her life forever. "Before I knew it, I was immersed in the theatre. He had the greatest impact in my life and taught me everything I knew about the theatre and helped me to give meaning and direction to my dreams."

Ulerie became the National Schools and British Tour coordinator for Baku's play One Bad Tassa while remaining a member of the cast and even organising a three-day seminar for more than 100 teachers on arts in education. While Baku and others remained abroad after the tour and formed Culture Exchange in Theatre Education, Ulerie returned home to continue the project and founded Culture House in 1988. "When I came back home I had to redefine myself and my whole way of thinking and I had to reinvent myself. When I came back to Trinidad that is when I started to do experimental work with children, that is when Auntie Thea was born. I worked with young adults. I created Sojourner Culture and the work continued on a massive scale servicing a wide area of societal needs. Through Culture House we were able to bring people together – people with special needs, women, children, families, all different types – and the work went into a new realm. The work became a national service. The aim is to promote tolerance and understanding as the cornerstone of nation building and peace," says Ulerie. "Education must be a stimulant. It must not be something administered through blackboard and chalk, it must stimulate children's minds to something that is positive and that can bring about peace. We need a considered approach to education for the new generation of international youth. We must prepare our children for world citizenship. Our view must be a world view. Broadening horizons and expanding awareness is important."

Currently, Culture House is located at Government Quarters #3 Zoo Road, Emperor Valley, St Clair. Though the space is up for relocation, Ulerie is preparing for a Family FestCon which she calls "a general assembly of families or festival conference" and an environmental project, AWARE – A Wonderful and Rare Earth, devoted to preservation and conservation. Additionally, Culture House will be partnering with Baku on an independence production of his play Diary of Confinement, which is in memorial of the February Revolution of 1970. Her character Auntie Thea, The Mystic Storyteller hosts children's workshops every third Saturday of the month in the children's library of Nalis from 10 a.m. Ulerie was awarded the Commonwealth Women Agents Award in 2011 and was one of 24 awardees to represent Trinidad & Tobago at CHOGM 2011 in Australia.