STUDENT SESSIONS
Now introducing Student Sessions!
Are you looking for a way to engage your student in Shakespeare?
Our new Student Sessions are a great way to get one-on-one time with a Shakespeare specialist for students of all ages and grades. We offer help with monologues, auditions, understanding the text, or anything else one might need to build their skills as an artist. Each session is tailored to the specific student and their needs. Check out the teacher bios below and email our education director at kellie@theshakespeareforum.org to arrange a timeslot!
The cost of these sessions is $25 an hour. Please don’t let money be a hindrance – the Shakespeare Forum is committed to ensuring that our sessions are never cost-prohibitive. Please mention any concerns you have in your initial email and we will work with you in every way we can.
Teacher Bios
Kelsie Jepsen
Teacher
Kelsie Jepsen is a NYC based professional actor, director and teacher. Since 2015 she has served as Program Director for The Shakespeare Forum’s Educational Programs. Her passion for teaching was ignited in 2007 when she taught her first class at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN. Kelsie is committed to working with children and under-served communities.
Her mission is to cultivate community while empowering those around her to develop social skills, build self-esteem and gain the confidence to allow their full selves to be present and seen. AEA. Training: BFA University of Utah Actor Training Program. Agent: Avanti Talent
Antonio Disla
Teacher
Antonio Disla is a theatre practitioner who received his foundational training at The Ohio State University where he attained his MFA. As a Solo Artist, he has devised and written both site-specific pieces and staged works dealing with identity and race, most notably, Nobody, a piece about race, and Travel, which dealt with identity.
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As an actor, he has been in a few of The Shakespeare Forum productions: Othello[s], Titus, and LEAR. He has also worked with The Black Lady Tehatre in the production of From the Brought of Brooklyn and Bone Soup.
Gwen Sisco
Teacher
Gwenevere Sisco is a New York-based teaching artist, passionate about creating a space for people of all ages to play, connect, explore their world, and express themselves. She has been a teacher-in-residence with Shakespeare Forum, Bright Horizons, Stages on the Sound, and Artworks, providing acting, singing, animation and storytelling sessions to young people, including those with life-limiting illnesses and special needs.
Gwen studied at Loyola University in New Orleans, British American Dramatic Academy at Oxford and Moscow Art Theatre at ART-Harvard, and American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is a NYC Teaching Fellow, earning her Masters in Special Education from Pace University.
Grace Rao
Teacher
Grace Rao is an actor and educator residing in Park Slope, Brooklyn. After graduating with her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University she worked at The Public, Santa Cruz Shakespeare Brave New World Theatre as well as several NY Off-Broadway workshops. She was last seen in the ABC DISCOVERS: New York Talent Showcase.
2020 will mark her fourth year teaching for The Shakespeare Forum where she heads up the PS108 middle school Shakespeare program. When she is not acting, coaching or writing in the third person she can be found shouting out unrequested puns.
Greg Pragel
Teacher
Greg is originally from Buffalo, NY, and graduated from Niagara University. He is an alum of the Stella Adler Studio, an AEA actor and a Resident Acting Company member for Hamlet Isn't Dead.
Greg has taught for the Stella Adler Studio, TADA! Youth Theater and his own workshops. Directing credits: the world premiere of 36 Juniper (NYIT 2019 nominated -Wrong House Productions), David's Play (NYFringe), and A.D. As You Like It (Stella Adler Studio). Favorite acting credits: Konstantin The Seagull (Harold Clurman Lab), Berowne Love's Labour's Lost (HID), BABY: the Musical.