OUR TEACHERS

 

Meghan Covington

Meghan is the Artistic Director, Co-Founder, and President of River's Edge Theatre Company. She started working professionally as an actor almost 20 years ago while obtaining her BFA in Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University.Her most notable stage work took place regionally on the stages of The Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co, The Shakespeare Theatre, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre in Washington DC, and Firehouse Theatre, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and Theatre Lab in Richmond, VA. She was also a company member for Synetic Theatre, where she spent 4+ years developing skills in classical pantomime technique, physical theatre, and dance. In the arts management world, Meghan ran the Education and Outreach department for Synetic Theatre, where she spent time teaching acting, dance, and pantomime skills to children and adults in classroom, workshop, and camp settings. 

 

Ellen Flaks

Ellen calls herself a facilitator of creativity. She is the director/owner of Improv Innovations. She is a creative drama instructor, improvisational theater specialist, a scene study, monologue and audition coach, a puppeteer, a director, a stage manager, a birthday party savior and a supporter of the Arts in/ Westchester and Rockland Counties, NYC and beyond.Ellen creates a super safe and comfortable environment where her students have a blast “stretching their imagination muscles. She works with all age groups from 3-103 and has extensive experience working with children and adults with special needs. In her hometown of Dobbs Ferry she advised both the Middle and High School Drama Clubs and coached a Middle SchoolDestination Imagination team for many years. She has been teaching her adult classes in the Rivertowns for over 28 years. She pivoted successfully during the pandemic and taught both in person and online doing “Zoomprov” private audition coaching and public speaking coaching. She continues to adjust to any hybrid model. Ellen is a volunteer with Cherub Improv, a NYC based troupe that provides workshops and performances for underserved communities. Ellen holds a B.F.A. in Theater from Syracuse University, a Masters in Teaching from Manhattanville College and has completed the Core and Conducting training programs with the New York School of Playback Theatre.
 

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Katie Kopajtic

Katie Kopajtic is an actor, writer and former improviser that has enjoyed playing at The PIT and Upright Citizen's Brigade. As a teacher she has worked with Irondale in Brooklyn teaching after school improv at Fort Greene Prep and running their summer drama school. Recently she has worked with River's Edge Theatre Company in their improv program at the Dobbs Ferry Library.  Katie holds a B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

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Sweta Keswani

After starring in some critically acclaimed and hugely popular prime time television series in India Sweta Keswani moved to New York from Mumbai in 2010. She was on “New Amsterdam” with Ryan Eggold, AMC’s Super-natural thriller Nos4a2, “The Blacklist” with James Spader, Apple TV Plus’s acclaimed Anthology Series “Roar”, Mayim Bialik’s first directorial feature “As They Made Us” with Dustin Hoffman and Candice Bergen and on “The Beanie Bubble” based on the Beanie craze starring Zack Galifiankis, Elizabeth Banks. She Co-produced and Co-wrote a short form web series called Struggle City which won Best Web-series at the Vegas Movie awards 2020. Upcoming releases include “The Spark” and “Tabassum” both short films and “Drowning” a feature starring Camille Guaty!

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Sioux Madden

Sioux Madden is a New York-based actress whose credits include many Off-Broadway productions including The Voysey Inheritance (New York Premiere), The Flattering Word, and August Snow & Night Dance (New York Premieres) at the Mint Theater, and The Code of the West with Alces Productions. Regional theatre and off-off Broadway includes: Proof (Claire) at Charlotte Rep, Taming of the Shrew (Kate) at Lost Nation Theatre, The Philanderer (Grace) at Peterborough Players, Rutherford and Son (Mary) at the Mint Theater, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania) at the Mint, and others. She was a Founding Company member of the Mint Theater Company. Film and TV credits include One Moment (with Danny Aiello and his last film), The American Masters Series (“Typical American,” PBS), Third Watch, Law and Order, and many independent and student films. Sioux toured and taught theatre classes, including Shakespeare, with both Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the National Shakespeare Company. Many Rivertowns families also know her as their kids’ art teacher through her work at Scribble Art Workshop in Dobbs Ferry.

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Serena Norr

Serena is a writer, playwright, and founder of Let’s Make a Play, a playwriting program for kids and adults. Her plays have been performed at the Omaha Fringe Festival, White Plains Performing Arts Center, the New Deal Creative Arts Center, Westchester Collaborative Theater, NYC at the Players Theater with the Rogue Theater Festival and the NYC Short Play Festival, the University of Alabama as well as various productions over Zoom. She was a second-rounder at the 2021 Austin Film Festival for her play, “Agency for the Lost.” Her play, “OTHER” was published in Theatre Unbound’s “Bittersweet” Monologue Collection and “Zoom Like No One is Watching” was published in the “UNTITLED COVID SHORT PLAY ANTHOLOGY” by Flower Song Press. She is also a member of the Dramatists Guild, Westchester Collaborative Theatre, Cut Edge Collective, and participant in the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and Women’s Theatre Festival (WTF) Directing Program. For more information, visit http://www.serenanorr.com/

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Traci Redmond

Traci is a Dobbs Ferry based improviser, Proud SAG-AFTRA actor and voice over artist.  She has been improvising longer than she would like to admit, but here she goes, admitting that her first official improv class was in 1994 while studying acting at the University of Oklahoma. She soon became a core member of the Oklahoma based group Mystery Murder Cafe and performed with them for 2 years. In 1999 after relocating to Georgia, she co-founded Atlanta’s first long-form improv team Comedy Response Unit and Atlanta's first all female improv/sketch group the Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy.  Over the last *cough*20*cough* years she has performed, studied or coached improv at Red Chair Theater (Atlanta), IO West RIP (Los Angeles), Dad’s Garage Theater (Atlanta), Funny Women’s Festival (Chicago), People’s Improv Theater (NYC), Upright Citizens Brigade (NYC), National Comedy Theater (NYC) and is now excited to play with and coach in her beloved River Towns with River’s Edge Theater Co.  Traci’s approach to improv lends itself to the playfulness of short-form theater games (we’ve all seen Who’s Line Is It Anyway) and the storytelling and relationships we develop in long-form improv.To find out more about Traci and her upcoming projects, visit her website at www.traciredmond.com and follow her in Instagram @tracired 

 

Julia Schonberg

Julia Schonberg (she/her) is an actor, theatre maker, applied theatre artist, facilitator, educator, and arts administrator living in Tarrytown, NY. Julia received her BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University and her MA in Applied Theatre from CUNY's School of Professional Studies. By way of Cleveland and Boston, Julia moved to New York in 2014, working as an actor and theatre educator with ages PreK-adults. Along the way, Julia deepened her practice by training in acting, physical theatre, and community-centered theatre methods with The Barrow Group, Double Edge Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theater Company, and Sojourn Theatre. Julia is a founder and core company member of The Neighborhood Theatre Project, a company that creates original, verbatim theatre from interviews and conversations. In June 2022, Julia joined the team at Bethany Arts Community in Ossining as the community engagement & outreach coordinator. juliaschonberg.com, theneighborhoodtheatreproject.org.

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Meredith Siegel

Meredith Siegel is a theatre artist, teacher, business owner, and mom. As an educator she has taught second grade at Packer Collegiate Institute and children’s theatre for Sleepy Hollow Performing Artists and the YMCA in Tarrytown. As an actor she has studied with Earle Hyman, Sabra Jones and Manuel Duque. Off and Off Off Broadway credits include work with Mirror Rep and Rolling Rep. Meredith is a graduate of Brandeis University, magma cum laude, with a BA in theater and has completed post graduate work in Education at Hunter College.

 

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