Staff

lisaLisa Lang

Lisa Lang is the Founder and Artistic Director of Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop. Lisa has been performing since the age of five and for the past eleven years has been sharing her love of the theatre with children of all ages. Lisa Lang has taught Music at Lincoln School in Highland Park, Music and Drama at the AUTEC School on Andros Island, Bahamas and was the Lower School Drama Coordinator at the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, where she developed their K-4 Drama Program. Lisa has performed all over Chicago with companies including Metropolis Performing Arts Center, Light Opera Works and Chicago Kids Company. Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop is Lisa’s big dream where she works to provide students a safe environment to express themselves creatively through the performing arts while having lots of fun!

kayceeKaycee Sewchok

Kaycee Sewchok holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a concentration in Musical Theatre from the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. She has been performing since she was a child and loves sharing her passion for the arts with children. Kaycee has worked with many different age levels teaching at performing arts companies and camps, and is currently teaching with Lookingglass Theatre Company here in Chicago. In addition to teaching, Kaycee has worked in the theatre as an actor and costume designer. She is so excited to be working with Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop!

amandaAmanda Jane Dunne

Amanda Jane Dunne holds a B.A. in Theatre from Miami University. She is a theatre arts teaching artist in Chicago schools and she has worked with the education programs at Steppenwolf, Northlight, Writers’, American (ATC), Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop and Redmoon, as well as with the Los Angeles based Fringe Benefits since 2006. For Fringe Benefits she travels nationally and internationally to conduct theatre for social justice institutes, most recently traveling to the University of Winnipeg and London's Central School for Speech and Drama. She is a founding member of the Chicago-based Genesis Ensemble, with whom she is a performer and director creating ensemble-devised performances. She fell in love with theatre as a child attending musicals and loves that she gets to teach that same excitement and passion for the arts!

kristenKristen Smiley

Kristen Smiley Originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, Kristen moved to Chicago after spending two years teaching and performing with Lexington Children’s Theatre in Kentucky. Along with Dream Big, she teaches around the Chicago-land area through Hubbard Street Dance Education and Outreach, Skyline Studios Chicago, ATC’s Mosaic Project, and Lake Forest Children’s Theatre and has choreographed for Improv Playhouse's Northshore Traveling Troupe, Village Players Theatre and Emergency Theatre Company. She holds her BFA in Theatre Studies from Niagara University and has been seen in various performances in Chicago and elsewhere. And if you're looking hard enough, you can also find Kristen guiding chocoholics around the city as a Chicago Chocolate Tours tour guide!

stacyStacy Steyaert

Stacy Steyaert hails from Littleton, Colorado and is very excited to be a part of Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop! Stacy currently works as the Director of Education for Filament Theatre Ensemble and as a Lead Dance and Music Instructor for Lake Forest Children’s Theatre Company’s Chicago, Winnetka and Highland Park branches. In Chicago, Stacy has also taught with American Theater Company's Mosaic Project and Child's Play Touring Theatre. Stacy has taken her teaching skills outside of the Chicago area as well, working as a teaching artist in Fairfax VA, White River Junction VT, and Colorado Productions Performing Arts in Denver, CO. As an administrative assistant and intern, Stacy has worked in the Chicago offices of organizations such as Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Children's Theatre and The Marketing/PR Office at TTS. Stacy just recently graduated summa cum laude from The Theatre School at DePaul University with her BFA in Theatre Management and a double minor in Digital Cinema and Business Management.

jeremyJeremy Schaefer

Jeremy Schaefer performs and teaches all over Chicago. He currently improvises regularly with pH Productions, Storybox Theater, The Improv Playhouse and Laugh Out Loud Theater. He’s also been seen with Imagination Theater, First Folio Shakespeare Festival, Janus Theater, The Big Picture Group and others. He performs stand up comedy all over Chicago.

 

shannonShannon Huneryager

Recently relocating to Chicago, Shannon is a professional singer and actor working at venues around the country. Seen most recently in Ragtime with PCPA Theaterfest in California, favorite roles include Eliza Doolittle, Lady Capulet and Edwin Drood. She began her teaching artist work with an International Tour for the Missoula Children’s Theatre and has taught for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Shakesperience Productions, and locally for American Theater Company. Two of her plays for young audiences have been produced also. Shannon has a BA from Butler University and an MM from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. She is happy to be part of Dream Big!

Elizabeth Dowling

Elizabeth has taught afterschool drama programs and in-school artist residencies throughout Chicago with Dream Big as well as Lifeline Theatre, Pegasus Players, and Tangerine Arts. She also serves as Co-Education Director for the Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre, giving Shakespeare workshops to students from ages 5 to 18 (and sometimes beyond). As an actor in Chicago, Elizabeth has worked with such companies as Lifeline Theatre, Drury Lane Water Tower, Lakeside Shakespeare, Chicago Kids Company, Metropolis Arts Center, Porchlight Theatre, Circle Theatre, and Collaboraction.

Lara Dossett

After working with an educational touring theatre in London during the summer of 2006 and graduating from Illinois State University, Lara moved to Chicago to pursue theatre education opportunities. As the Steppenwolf for Young Adult Apprentice in 08’-09’, she assisted in bringing their season of The Imagination and the American Dream to students around the Chicago area through in-school residencies. Lara has also worked with Northlight Theatre, Writers' Theatre, and The House Theatre of Chicago. In addition to teaching, Lara has designed costumes and props for Pavement Group and Genesis Ensemble. Her goal is to empower every student to live more presently; to be active participants in their lives and their communities, and to have fun!