How It All Started

We met in the Master's in Applied Theatre program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. We collaborated on our thesis project together and the seeds of the business were planted there.

We believe that:

  • All voices deserve to be heard and shared

  • The arts can be instrumental for problem solving

  • Community building is essential to society

 
 

Along with our theatrical expertise, we have (among the 3 of us):

 

Serious kitchen skills
Two bakers and one chef
A clown

a dancer
two singers
a quilter

three educators
a producer
a director

two moms
three sisters and aunts
at least five master's degrees

Our Team

 
 

Anne Andre (she/hers)

is a performing artist who has traveled nationally and Internationally to share her gifts with the world. As an actor, singer, and dancer, Anne (pronounced "Ahn") was one of the original cast members of the award winning Broadway show FELA!  As a teaching artist, Anne has worked with CUNY CAT, the Salvation Army Gains Program, The Barclay's Center, and at Sarah Lawrence College. She has also facilitated workshops for The University of Rwanda, The UFT Teacher Center, and Fourth Avenue Presybterian Church. Anne also has a BS in Health Education & Promotion and a BFA in Multimedia Performing Arts from Lehman College. She is currently pursuing an additional Masters, an MS in Special Education, Grades 7-12 which she will combine with her MA in Applied Theater from the CUNY School of Professional Studies. 

As a hands-on parent Anne is diligent in the survival of children's freedom of identity and the availability of useful academics in the New York City Public School System. She fiercely believes in the importance of capturing life through every story that can be shared with all groups, cultures, genders, or whomever has an experience, passion, memory, or body of work they have yet to unveil.nline can make all the difference.

 
 

Maren Berthelsen (she/hers)

is an applied theatre facilitator and arts administrator with two decades of experience in the New York City performing arts world. She has facilitated workshops and classes for, among others, the UFT Teacher Center, the Robert N. Davoren Center at Riker’s Island, Symphony Space, The University of Rwanda, Fourth Avenue Presybterian Church, Pace University. Prior to receiving her Master’s Degree in Applied Theatre at CUNY’s School of Professional Studies, Maren worked for many years as a performing arts and theatre producer in New York City. Training includes a BFA from NYU Tisch, and additional training from Sojourn Theatre Company, Center for Performance and Civic Practice.

In addition to her work as the Producer of Performing Arts at Symphony Space, she also co-produced the award-winning Off-Broadway musical, Yank!. Maren is also a community organizer, working with White parents to raise anti-racist children.

 
 

Erin Woodward (she/hers)

is a teacher, director, and performer. She grew up as a performer and as backstage crew in school theaters and in Showstoppers, a secular theater company based in her church. With NYU Tisch, Erin was a collaborator in the 2002 memory-based piece Project 9/11: Portraits in Shock at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, directed by Elizabeth Hess, which was her first experience with retelling real human stories on stage. She has also taught for over fifteen years in NYC Department of Education Title 1 schools, during which she co-produced, directed, devised and musical theater collaborations between multiple Manhattan NYC DOE high schools. Erin has performed and directed in myriad Off-Off Broadway theaters and play festivals; she continues to work on having and making sparkly fun as a clown named Hope with Fizgig Studios’ Some Clowns.

She attributes her initial passion for social change to the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and her 15-year collaboration with Epic Theatre Ensemble (Educator Honoree, 2015). As an applied theatre facilitator, Erin has facilitated multiple workshops with EmberArts and as a member of the UFT Teachers Center Civics Working Group. She has a BFA in Theatre with a double major in English Literature from New York University, an MS in Teaching Secondary English from Pace University, and an MA in Applied Theatre at CUNY School of Professional Studies, the first such program developed in the United States.