
Meet some of our Artistic Staff of Directors, Designers, and Teaching Artists!
joined us in 2017 as our resident choreographer and dance teacher. In 2016 Adam taught master classes in Broadway Rep featuring choreography from Wicked, a show he opened in Chicago and subsequently performed in on Broadway. Adam has also performed on Broadway in the original company of Hairspray with Harvey Fierstein and in the off-Broadway favorite, Bare: A Pop Opera.
received her BA from UVM in theater and classical voice, and is now pursuing her MFA in costume design from Boston University. She was a camper for three summers, and has been a staff member since 2012. Alyssa assistant-designed two BU productions, Parade and Exposed. Alyssa designed The Cradle Will Rock at The Wimberley Theater in Boston and Frankenstein in NYC.
has appeared on Broadway in South Pacific, Evita, Anything Goes, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and Promises, Promises. She has performed on the Tony Awards, Good Morning America, and The View. She was also part of NBC's Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood. Margot lives in NJ with her amazing family, Christian, Juliette & Mercer as well as their cute dog, Chester.
has written plays for young people and adults that have been produced at Poly Prep Country Day School, Theatre-Studio Inc., Emerging Artists Theater, Manhattan Comedy Collective, University of Southern Oregon, Youth Theatre Northwest in Seattle, and here at Acting Manitou. A member of the Dramatists Guild, she lives in Philadelphia with her husband Jason and two daughters.
is a native of Houston, TX and is now based out of New York City. A graduate of the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University, Paige is freelancing in the city as a Lighting Designer, Assistant Lighting Designer, Draftsman, and Programmer. She works in Theatre, Opera, Dance, and Architectural Lighting Design. Paige has been one of the Lighting Designers here at Acting Manitou since 2016.
was a member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 8 seasons. His Off-Broadway credits include Shakespeare's R&J, Before the Dawn, and most recently Kate Hamill's new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Jeremy was on television's "All My Children" and "As the World Turns" and has directed Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet here at Acting Manitou.
is a director and teaching artist based in New York City. He’s worked at Lincoln Center Education, the Metropolitan Opera, Theater for the New City, Live from Lincoln Center, Heartbeat Opera, Symphony Space, Friends Seminary, and the Yale School of Drama. He's been at Acting Manitou since 2010, and in the summer of 2017 he directed The Merchant of Venice. zacharyelkind.com
creates radical performance experiments with ensembles of fearless collaborators and has done so for the past ten years in and around New York City. As a graduate of the MFA program in Theatre Directing at Columbia University, she adapted and directed Clarice Lispector’s famed novella THE HOUR OF THE STAR and turned it into a durational solo performance and grotesque vaudeville stage play.
is a NYC-based pianist, composer, and music director. His work as a music director, pianist, and orchestrator/arranger for musical theatre includes productions and educational programs throughout NYC and across the country. His work as a composer has been supported by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Yale Institute for Music Theatre and the Festival of New American Musicals in LA.
is currently based in New York City, where he is a composer with a focus in Musical Theater as well as a pianist, arranger, conductor, music director, and audio engineer. Benji has written multiple full-length musicals as well as featured pop and classical "concert" music pieces. including the new musical Scorched and his original musical The Average Achievers premiered in New York City in 2015. His musical adaption of Swamplandia! premiered in New Haven, CT at Yale University in 2014.
is a composer, pianist, and music director originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Now New York City-based, she serves as a rehearsal pianist for Hamilton and has worked alongside former members of the In the Heights Broadway cast and creative team, teaching and playing at theatre intensive workshops run by Salgado Productions and R.Evolución Latina. Rachel is pursuing a master’s degree in Graduate Musical Theatre Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
is a music director, pianist, composer and orchestrator/arranger from New York City. He is currently writing a musical with his mother which will be premiered by Road Less Traveled Productions in Buffalo, NY. Previously, he has worked on projects at NYMF and Feinstein's/54 Below. He is a student at Yale University where he is pursuing a BA in music.