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Musical Theatre
Grace Aiello received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Summa Cum Laude, in Theatre from Wayne State University where she received extensive dance training in many musical theatre styles. She then began her professional career as an equity actress in Detroit, and has worked as a professional actress in a number of theatre companies in Chicago. She has worked professionally as a choreographer since 1983 for dozens of shows, and has directed several plays. Also, she has written several plays, including plays for casts of exclusively children actors which have been produced in upstate New York. She enjoys offering classes and summer camps at Metropolis School of Performing Arts where she has displayed her exceptional talent and love for working with children.
Marlene Flood is an equity singer-actress from Chicago. Marlene’s regional theatre credits include: Dialogues Of The Carmelites (Lyric Opera of Chicago); The Taming Of The Shrew and Sunday In The Park With George (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Fosca in Passion (Jeff Citation Award, Porchlight Music Theatre). She has also performed at Theatre At The Center, Light Opera Works, Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Pheasant Run Theatre and National Jewish Theatre.
Other favorite roles include: Eva Peron, Evita; Fanny Brice, Funny Girl; Lady Thiang, The King and I; Agnes, I Do, I Do. Marlene also created the original character roles for the musicals, The American Girls Revue and Circle of Friends, and sang with the show’s lyricist, Gretchen Cryer, to record the CD’s for both shows.
Marlene has taught workshops in voice and voice-over, acting, and character movement and conducts the Bethany Union Children’s Choir. She holds a BA in Theatre Performance, a BA in Vocal Performance and a Masters Degree in Vocal Music Performance. Marlene is honored to be a part of the teaching staff at Metropolis School of The Performing Arts.
Laura Merchut just recently graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston with a B.A. in Theatre. During her time there she not only studied theatre but kept active with the dance and music theatre communities getting to work with such notable faculty members as Lane Alexander, Billy Siegenfeld, as well as other members of the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, David Bell and Amanda Dehnert. In addition, she was a four year ensemble-member of Boomshaka, Northwestern’s premier percussion, dance and rhythm ensemble for which she choreographed and performed at NU and many local schools. Her Metropolis credits include: High School Musical (performer and dance captain), Velveteen Rabbit and Pinocchio (choreographer) and Damn Yankees (performer).
Sarah Wade is honored, excited and proud to be the Department Chair of Musical Theatre here at the Metropolis. She believes what SOPA stands for is so important. Participation in the arts teaches students life skills such as analyzing, communicating, self-assessing and possibility-thinking. On a larger scale, students that participate in the arts have a greater understanding of themselves on a personal level. Before joining the SOPA team, Sarah taught theatre and music in the public schools for five years in both middle and high school, and directed plays and musicals for both levels as well. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Education and a minor in English from Northern Illinois University. Her emphasis in the English minor was History of Theatre and Classical literature. She also studied the English Renaissance and Shakespeare at Oxford University, Oriel College with Dr. Glen Black. Presently, Sarah is working towards her Masters in Directing from the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University. Along with these degrees, she has extensive specialized training from a number of professional coaches. She is a Meisner trained actor who studied under Kathryn Gatley and has trained with both Michael Kachingwe in the Arthur Lessac vocal technique and Christine Adaire in the Linklater vocal technique. Her movement training is in the Lloyd Williamson technique. Her theatre history mentor was Christopher Jones (Chicago Tribune theatre critic and Depaul Administrative Staff.) She studied improvisational acting at Second City’s Players Workshop with Eric Foresberg and has trained with numerous Chicago Directors such as Steve Scott of the Goodman Theatre and Jason Loewith of the Next Theatre. She lives in Arlington Heights with her husband, son and their chocolate Labrador, River.
Drama
April-Dawn Gladu recently moved to the Chicago. From 1999 -2007 she was an Associate Artist for the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (OST) where she directed and wrote world premieres, classic adaptations and Theater For Young Audiences. She is most proud of her musical adaptation of The Jungle Book, which premiered in February 2006 and has since had over 10 productions throughout the USA and Canada including Imagination Stage in MD and The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Theater. Last fall OST presented the World Premiere of her adaptation of The Secret Garden and this winter Nebraska Weslyan University is premiering her musical The Pharaoh’s New Robes.
She also spent seven years writing and directing shows and special events for Walt Disney Entertainment, where she has worked with people as exciting as Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Drew Carey and 2000 international children (thank God for translators!). Since 2004 her show The Perfectly Princess Tea Party has been playing 5 days a week at the Grand Floridian Resort to sold out crowds and her show Cinderella’s Princess Court closed after over 1000 performances at the World of Disney Store in NYC.
Before moving to Orlando she worked for Women’s Project & Productions in New York City and developed new plays for companies such as Ensemble Studio Theatre, Pulse Ensemble Theatre and Six Figures Theatre Company.
Steve Leaver, Artistic Director of Imagination Theater Steve has been a Drama teacher at Metropolis since 2002. He also has worked with Imagination Theater since 1997 and has been the Artistic Director with the company since 2001. He oversees all of the programming at the theater and also leads staff development workshops and customized programming for schools. Steve has worked as a professional actor with many theaters in and around the Chicago area. He holds a BS in theater from Illinois State University.
Cortney Lowinski is a professional actress and a drama teacher to students of all ages. She has a BA in Theatre from Loyola University Chicago and an MA in Acting from the University of Essex East 15 Acting School in London. She has extensive training in acting techniques of various practitioners, voice, singing, dance, and movement. It was in London that her focus turned to physical theatre and the practices of Grotowski, Myerhold and Michael Chekov amongst others. Her desire for growth recently took her to Wroclaw, Poland to study with the Teatr Piesn Kozla Company, where she added their unique combination of ensemble unity, musicality of the body and physical approach to theatre to her repertoire. She is currently studying with the popular company 500 Clown here in Chicago.
Cortney has performed with a number of other local companies including New World Repertory Theatre, Redmoon, Village Players, Organic and Breadline Theatre. Some of her favorite roles have included Lavinia in Mourning Becomes Electra, Yerma in Yerma and Shelia in An Inspector Calls.
As an educator Cortney has taught and directed various classes and productions both in London and Chicago. In London she taught undergraduate physical theatre workshops at East15 as well as ran youth drama programs for the Acting School. In Chicago she is working with a number of organizations leading workshops in musical theatre, acting, writing, and movement. She is a core faculty member at Metropolis Performing Arts Center where she teaches High School Acting Intensive and other youth classes in acting and musical theatre. She is also a core faculty member of the Metropolis Outreach Program working on projects ranging from on going cultural exchange workshops to one day topic themed programs.
David Marcotte (co-teacher for “Act and Sing”) returns to MPAC where he co-taught a full day workshop on theater appreciation this summer. In addition to teaching workshops David is the first and only Artistic Associate with Provision Theater Company where he, among many responsibilities, has acted in six of their last eight productions including the Jeff Nominated A Christmas Carol, The Spitfire Grill, and composed and performed the percussion track for the award winning A Cotton Patch Gospel. David is also a member of Right Brain Project where he has directed, composed, choreographed, and acted. Most recently David worked on Navy Pier understudying and performing two roles at Chicago Shakespeare in Short Shakespeare!, The Taming of the Shrew. He also recently recorded the voices of several characters for an on-line educational textbook of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Other Chicago Credits include The Problem, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, and Shaw’s Man and Superman (Rogue Theater), Johnny Tremain (Lifeline Theater), and The Empire Builders (Right Brain Project). David has also worked with Breadline Theater Group, The Side Project, Polarity Theater Ensemble, Live Wire Theater, Hi-Volt Theater, International Theatre of Chicago, Treemont Avenue Theatre and the Bailiwick. Recent film credits include Salt Creek County and Troubadours (Down State Productions, LLC) and Ray Bradbury’s The Small Assassin (Beverly Ridge Pictures, LLC). David is currently working on the film Coopersville (William and James Productions, LLC) and looks forward to working on Chicago Over-coat (Beverly Ridge Pictures, LLC), an exciting film project happening this November staring many names from TV’s The Sopranos. Also, David can be seen this fall performing in the play Number the Stars at Apple Tree Theater. David may also be heard or seen in various voiceover and commercial spots. He is proud to be “fighting the good fight” in the great city of Chicago after earning his acting degree from Western Illinois University where he also studied music (voice and percussion) and education.
Claudia Peyton is an actress, performer, acting instructor, and nationally certified Alexander Technique teacher. She discovered the Alexander Technique as a student of theatre while at the University of Illinois and The Drama Studio of London. She received her Alexander Technique teaching certification from the American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT) in Manhattan. Her background as a teacher and performance coach spans 25 years. She has extensive experience working with musicians, actors and other performing artists in major entertainment hubs such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
As an actress, Claudia has a unique perspective based on her experience and love of the creative process. In New York City she was the primary Alexander Technique Teacher/Physical Life Character Coach for Judith Shakespeare Company. She teaches Acting, Improvisation, and the Alexander Technique at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre (SOPA), and has lectured and taught for Harper College’s Music Department, Pace University of New York, Lake Forest College, Victory Gardens Theater, and Northlight Theater.
In Claudia’s free time she exercises, gardens, loves to cook, and goes to Theater.
Education Director, Annie Sisson Rezac received her B.A. in Broadcast Communications from East Stroudsburg University and her M.F.A. in Acting from Western Illinois University. She has over eight years experience directing, teaching and acting including serving as a teaching artist at Flynn Centre for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont and Metropolis School of the Performing Arts. Annie was also a director, teacher and actor for the Missoula Children’s Theater and served as the General Manager for the Vermont Stage Company. In addition, Annie has toured the country as a drama instructor for in-school drama curriculums and residencies. Since moving to Chicago, she has acted professionally in theatre, film, and commercials, as well as trained in the Second City Conservatory.
Megan Willhite has been teaching and directing for the School of the Performing Arts since 2003. Megan has taught creative drama, improvisation, and performance classes for elementary students and currently specializes in early childhood. Megan is one of Metropolis' resident Wiggle, Giggle & Grow teachers and has been teaching 2, 3, and 4 year olds since 2005. Megan is also the lead teacher for SOPA's Flourish in the Footlights program . Run in conjunction with Friends of Children in Therapy, Flourish gives teenagers and adults with special needs a chance to refine their acting techniques followed by the opportunity to create and perform a full scale production on the Metropolis stage.
Megan's Metropolis directing credits include Robin Hood and The Jungle Book with Flourish in the Footlights and Pippi Longstocking, The Wizard of Oz, and The Phantom Tollbooth with Curtains Up! In addition to teaching and directing, Megan is also a part-time employee in the Metropolis Education Department and has served in many capacities, including Education Office Manager, Assistant Camp Director for Curtains Up! and Lights Up!, and Child Coach for the production of A Christmas Carol. Megan has a BA in Theatre and Communications from Monmouth College and has performed professionally with AlphaBet Soup Productions, Shantz Theatre Company, Morton College Theatre for Youth, and at Six Flags Great America.
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contactus
Box Office
Tues–Sat 10-5 (or until showtime)
Sun 1-5
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Address
111 W. Campbell St.
Arlington Heights, Il 60005
Map to Metropolis
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