Meet the Teaching Artists

	Albert Elias, a native of Peru, was raised in Virginia and moved to New York to pursue an acting career.  He's very excited to be working with Stages of Learning where his wife, Jennifer Shirley, is also a teaching artist.  Albert has been a teaching artist for the past 10 years working with non-profit companies like ENACT, Theatre for a New Audience, Good Clean Fun, BAX, City Lights Youth Theatre, Roundabout, and NJ PAC.
	Laura Frenzer hails from Omaha, NE earned her B.F.A. in Theater Performance form Tarkio College/Teikyo-Westmar University. After working as a private acting coach and as a teaching artist with Camp Broadway, Laura is very excited to be teaching now with Stages of Learning. As an actor, she has performed in many plays in New York and Los Angeles as well as The MASZK International Theater Festival in Szeged, Hungary as part of the Modern Theater of Myth’s production of Oedipus. Laura is a member of Tisch School of the Arts First Look Theater Company and the co-founder and director of PLG Arts, a grass-roots group that creates theater, music and art events in her Brooklyn neighborhood where she lives with her two children.
	Russell Feder is thrilled to be a part of the Stages of Learning family!  Originally from Long Island, he earned his bachelor's degree in Theatre from The George Washington University in Washington DC.  Locally, he has taken intensive instruction in physical theatre at Stella Adler Studios and has worked in Committed Impulse with Josh Pais at Atlantic Theatre School.  Favorite roles include Ira in Laughter on the 23rd Floor, the Fool in King Lear and Carlino in Wait Until Dark.
	Amanda Hunt is originally from Atlanta where she first began teaching. She graduated from Piedmont College with a B.A. in Theatre. She also studied extensively with The Barrow Group and the British American Drama Academy. Some of her New York Credits include The Fringe Festival’s Unusual Suspects, Soul Searching at The 45th Street Theatre, and the production of Serenade with her theatre company, Jaradoa. She is also a teaching artist with the companies Arts for All and Music Together.
	T. Scott Lilly grew up in Brooklyn and lives there still. He is married to Sarah Germain Lilly and has two daughters. He attended Brooklyn College as music major and studied theater at HB studio, The Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts and The Neighborhood Playhouse, studying the Meisner technique with Philip Gushee.  With his wife they founded Germainia, a children's theater and workshop, and have performed original shows and given workshops on shadow puppetry, hand-made musical instruments, song writing, and clowning in NYC, primarily under the auspices of the NY Public Library and the Queens Public Library. As an actor, Scott has performed in over fifty Off-Off Broadway productions, one Off-Broadway and six independent films. He is a member of Actor's Equity and the Screen Actor's Guild. Scott co-wrote and co-directed the musical, Benny's Barbershop, with Mark Marcante at Theater for the New City. He is a member of Wise Guise a theater troupe that has performed in numerous venues, primarily Theater for the New City, and most recently The Duplex and Don't Tell Mama.  Mr. Lilly completed his apprenticeship with Liz Turkel at Carrie E. Tompkins (Croton, NY) and Georgia Southern-Penn at the Henry Viscardi School (Long Island).  Scott is currently teaching at JHS 141 and PS 112 in Queens and IS 286 in Manhattan for Stages of Learning.
	Dana Panepinto is happy to have been a teaching artist with Stages of Learning for four years now. A native of New Orleans, she began her journey teaching in private schools, dance, drama, and art classes and summer camps with a variety of age groups. Dana holds two degrees in Theatre, an MFA from the University of Florida and a BFA with a minor in Dance from the University of Southern Mississippi. While pursuing her Master's she embraced the opportunity to teach and direct Theatre majors and non-majors. Throughout her experience as performer and teacher/director, physical movement has been at the center of her study. Favorite roles include: Lorraine Sheldon in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Paulina in A Winter's Tale, Thea Elvsted in Hedda Gabler, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Angel in Angels in America, and Haley Stray in Pitchfork Disney. Bringing theatre into the public school system has become one of the biggest pleasures in her life, giving students more of herself and the world!
	Andrea Seigel is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she double majored in acting and educational theatre. Her arts education experience includes such organizations as the New Victory Theatre, ArtsConnection, Roundabout, Camp Broadway, and the Vital Theatre Company.  Favorite roles include Andromache in Trojan Women, Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz and Susan in The Heidi Chronicles. She also enjoys teaching creative music and movement for young children and has worked as a choreographer for both children and adults in musicals including Grease, Anything Goes, Schoolhouse Rock Live, Joseph..., and Alice in Wonderland. Lots of love to her newest little project, Leah.
	Jennifer Shirley is a native of Portland, Oregon. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA from The Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University (a joint program between the American Repertory Theatre and The Moscow Art Theatre). Further training includes The Actors Center Conservatory program in New York. She has worked as a Teaching Artist with such companies as Lincoln Center, Theatre For A New Audience, The American Globe Theatre, Early Stages, The National Shakespeare Co, Enact, and The Brooklyn Art Exchange (BAX).  She has also worked as the Summer Shakespeare Instructor at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre where she has directed Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Winter's Tale. As an actor, she has been seen in many independent films and such TV shows as Guiding Light, All My Children and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Albert, step-son Sebastian, and son Cole.
	Ann Vieira’s favorite roles include Viola in Twelfth Night, Helena in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Peegen in The Playboy of the Western World, Bianca in Taming of the Shrew, and Marianne in Tartuffe. Ann has trained, taught, and performed with Shakespeare & Company. She holds a Masters in Teaching from Bennington College and has taught theater to students in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York.
	Jennifer Wintzer is a classically trained actor and singer. She holds a BFA from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University and is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association. As an actor she has been seen regionally in theatre, television commercials and print. Jennifer currently resides in New York City where she is seen most often performing with The Chekhov Theatre Ensemble. When not performing, Jennifer teaches theatre and movement to students of all ages. She is a certified yoga instructor with a private teaching practice. Jennifer finds her greatest teachers to be the hundreds of NYC public school children she works with each week.