About Us

Leadership

Ali Oliver-Krueger is a teaching artist, director, actor, classical singer and writer/composer. As a teaching artist and arts education professional, Ali has worked with schools, opera companies, and arts organizations throughout the country, and is a residency artist with The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts and the John F. Kennedy Center Education Department's DC Partnership Schools Initiative Community Program. Ali’s work as a teaching artist is rooted in creative drama and in creative opera, an emerging form of creative drama in which music and drama are fused together to tell stories and express thoughts, ideas and feelings. She is a frequent presenter at conferences on arts education and arts integration, and conducts professional development workshops and residencies on linking drama and music with content curricula. Ali is a proud member of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, and is co-chair of the organization's Professional Theatre Network. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband Peter and two fiercely fluffy dogs who are legends in their own minds.

Lenore Blank Kelner is an author, educator, educational consultant, keynote speaker and teaching and theatre artist. Lenore has presented her work in all 50 states and abroad and has been a presenter with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for 29 years. She was a Master Artist for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts for 25 years. Lenore is the author of The Creative Classroom (15th printing) and co-authored with Rosalind Flynn, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2006, 5th printing). Lenore was awarded the 2004 Creative Drama Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. In addition to conducting staff development residencies through InterAct Story Theatre, Lenore also works widely through her own company, Lenore Blank Kelner & Company and is the Director of the Creative Kids afterschool Drama Program.

Emily Townsend has worked as a teaching artist throughout the Washington metropolitan region, for organizations ranging from the Sitar Arts Center to the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where she also spent a season interning in the Education Department. Also a passionate musician, she has spent the last several years singing with some of the leading symphonic choirs in the area, and has performed with world-class conductors and orchestras both in Washington and internationally. Emily completed her graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park in Theatre History and Performance Studies, specializing in historical Shakespearean performance.