• Dani Stoller Acting Instructor

    Dani Stoller is an award winning playwright and actor from Brooklyn, New York. DC theater credits include: Which Way to the Stage, Ragtime (Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes Nomination for Best Supporting Performer); My Body, No Choice (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Nomination for Best Supporting Performer); As You Like It, Midsummer, District Merchants (Folger Theatre); The Joy That Carries You, The Humans, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Crucible (Olney Theatre Center); This Much I Know, Hester Street, Prayer for the French Republic (Theater J). She has also performed at Studio Theatre, 1st Stage, Keegan Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Playwriting credits: Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes (Signature Theater) Just Great: an adaptation of some book by F Scott Fitzgerald (recently published by Broadway Licensing), The Voices of Blackwell Island, The Possumneck Playhouse Presents... (Signature Theater SIS Program), Girlhood (Round House Theatre TPC commission), The Joy That Carries You, co-written with Awa Sal Secka (Olney Theatre Center, Winner of the Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play) Education: BFA Ithaca College, MFA CUA. Upcoming SIS Commission: Failureland at Signature Theatre. 

  • Melissa Flaim Head of B.F.A. in Acting for Theatre, Film, and Television

    Melissa Flaim is a professional actress, educator and coach who lives and works in Washington DC. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and French from The Pennsylvania State University.  She is the Voice and Speech teacher at Catholic University where she teaches Introduction to Theatre, in addition to her Voice classes for both the graduate actors and the undergraduates. As a Vocal Coach she has worked at Round House Theatre on their productions of: Handbagged, Book of Will, and Miss Bennet; Christmas at Pemberly.  She worked with Constellation Theatre on their production of Zorro. Ms. Flaim coached The Gaming Table at The Folger, and Woolly Mammoth’s production of Measure for Pleasure. For Baltimore Shakespeare Company: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Love’s Labour’s Lost. WSC/Avant Bard productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Scaramouche, Jumpers and Titus Andronicus. As a member of the faculty at CUA she has coached a number of productions including: Macbeth, Bloody Poetry, Pride and Prejudice, The Revolutionists, Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare in Hollywood, Brutus, Tartuffe, Cymbeline, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui,, The Seagull, Romeo and Juliet and Love’s Labour’s Lost.  Ms. Flaim is also a vocal coach in the private sector and has clients in government, law, business, the liturgical and not-for-profit professions.

    As an actress her performances in Washington include:  Misa in happiness and other reasons to die, and Cheryl in Not Enuf Lifetimes for The Welders; Sophie in Treadwell Bright and Dark at American Century Theatre, Haley in Bad Dates at Olney Theatre Jacqueline in Wintertime for Roundhouse Theatre, Various Roles in Antony and Cleopatra, Olivia in Twelfth Night and Rosalind in As You Like It for The Shakespeare Project; Angels in America, Parts I & II at Signature Theatre;  Two Headed, Learning Curves and The Triumph of Love at Washington Shakespeare Company; the world premier of Amstel in Tel Aviv at Source Theatre; Kyle Donnelly's production of A Month in the Country at Arena Stage; Lenox in Macbeth and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, both for The Travelling Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger Library. As a company member of Bard on Wheels, she worked on both day-long workshops and eight-week residency productions of As You Like It, The Tempest, and Much Ado About Nothing as a teacher/coach, actor and director. In 1997 with Stan Kang, Elizabeth Kitsos-Kang, Hope Lambert and Tom Mallan she founded Educational Theater Company.  She worked on their premiere project, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and directed Henry V, and An Evening with Shakespeare for the company.

  • Jenna Place Jenna Place is a director, educator, and administrator based in the DMV (DC, MD, VA area). As an administrator Jenna has been Associate Artistic Director of Olney Theatre Center, Resident Casting Director at Theater J, Associate Producer at Forum Theatre, Artistic Associate at Imagination Stage, and spent many years as a freelance Casting Director in the DC area. Her casting work included individual productions and full seasons with Mosaic Theater Company, Adventure Theatre MTC, Studio Theatre, Theatre Alliance, and more. Jenna currently teaches at Catholic University of America and directs both in the DMV and regionally with passions for new plays, Shakespeare, and musical theatre. DC directing credits include: Dance Nation (Olney Theatre Center); Tuesdays With Morrie (Theater J), The Velveteen Rabbit (Adventure Theatre), A Delicate Ship (4615),  Candlelight (Olney Theatre Center Vanguard Workshop), The Heidi Chronicles (Rep Stage), Flood City (Theatre Alliance), What Every Girl Should Know (Forum Theatre), Walk Two Moons; The Giver (National Players), The Winter’s Tale; The Wolves (Catholic University), Urinetown (Monumental Theatre Company), Lucky Stiff (Imagination Stage), JQA (American University), Cabaret (Montgomery College SDT) and others. Regional credits include Tuesdays With Morrie (25th Anniversary Tour of Michigan), James and the Giant Peach; Winnie the Pooh and Friends (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Giant Slalom (Andy's Summer Playhouse).
  • Maurice Johnson Jazz Instructor and Choreographer

    Mr. Johnson was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He received his Bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Kentucky with a minor in spanish. He studied and performed with a variety of notable dance institutions including The Lexington Ballet, Alvin Ailey Dance Repertoire, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and North Atlanta Academy School of Dance. He appeared in the HBO movie "Miss Ever's Boys" and performed in the U.S Olympic ceremonies. His choreographic talents has enabled him to work with the production teams of Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Madonna and Paula Abdul among others. Today, he is one of the area's most sought after choreographers and master teachers. Mr. Johnson is current faculty at Joy Of Motion Dance Center. He also serves as adjunct faculty for American University and The Catholic University of America.

    Marc Bryan Lilley Head of B.M. in Musical Theatre
    Vocal Coach and Accompanist 

    Marc Bryan Lilley works as an accompanist, vocal coach, and music director in and around the D.C. metro area. He currently serves as the faculty accompanist and vocal coach for the Musical Theater division. Since 2008 Marc has music directed for the Summer Dinner Theatre program at Montgomery College in Rockville Maryland. Additionally during the summer he works as music director for the MTIT program at The Theatre Lab in downtown Washington D.C. In 2009 he toured with The New Sigmund Romberg Orchestra as orchestral pianist, and assistant conductor, traveling to China and accompanying Broadway and Hollywood legend, Mrs. Shirley Jones. While earning his masters in conducting at Ithaca College he served as the graduate assistant to the Director of Opera and worked as assistant conductor for the Opera and Musical Theatre productions, accompanying all rehearsals and workshops, as well as serving as a coach, chorus master, and frequent performance conductor. In 2009 He worked as assistant music director for Merry Go Round Theatre in Auburn New York, playing for the east coast premier of Stowell and Zuehlke’s “Church Basement Ladies.”