Aimée Nicole Lewis van Roekel
Artistic Director, Education Director, ShakesKIDS!
(All Classes are lead by Aimée Nicole Lewis van Roekel)
I have worked as Performing Artist, Director, Writer, and producer in NYC and Regionally; and have also appeared in films and television.
Currently I work as a director of Youth Shakespeare production. (www.vashonshakes.org) ShakesKIDS! is a youth production company dedicated to offering the community vibrant productions of Shakespeare's works in order to discover and change our community and ourselves; and to nurture and inspire the next generation of literary explorers.
I believe in FREE WILL and offer the work to the community free of charge. I turn no student away for lack of ability to pay. With the ShakesKIDS, I have produced and directed 12th Night or What You Will, The Tragedy of Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, As You Like It, King Lear, The Winter's Tale, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
While living in New York (1994-02), I co-founded Noleverage Productions, a theatrical producing company, with my partners Heather King and Deb Keller. As the CoFounder, Co- Artistic Director and Producer I produced Platonov, by Anton Chekhov at The Actors Center; Endgame by Samuel Becket at The producer's Club; Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes at NYU Performance Space; and Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley at The Producer's Club. As a Director I have directed The Bacchae at Quixotic Players in the Bay Area; and Assistant Directed Book of Days under Artistic Director Robert Kelley at Theatreworks in Palo Alto.
As a Writer, I have adapted into works of theatre works of poetry, such as the works of Marie De France in "Maria", at the Quixotic Players in Berkeley, CA, staring Daveed Diggs; I edited The Bachae as well as into a performance piece at Quixotic as well. I also write poetry.
As an Actor I have worked regionally as well as in New York City. I received my M.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and my B.F.A. from The Conservatory Theatre at Webster University. I have studied with Saratoga International Theatre Institute in NYC, modern dance with Judith Komoroske, Directing with Tina Landau, Marita Woodruf, and others. I have studied Shakespeare with Michael Langham, Lloyd Richards, Peter Francis James; as well as having received an Observer-ship with the Advanced Shakespeare Studies Workshop with John Barton at the Public Theatre. I studied dance under Judith Komoroske.
As a Teacher I have worked for The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival teaching Shakespeare Studies through their "Shakespeare Camp" program as well as "Midnight Shakespeare" a program bringing Shakespeare Studies to underserved communities. At SF Shakes I taught Voice and Movement, Stage Combat, Acting, Shakespeare Studies, Text, and Design. Recently I Assistant Directed UMO's contribution to the Seattle Beckett Festival, Fail Better. Fail Better received rave reviews and was brought back for an encore run at ACT in downtown Seattle; we followed that up with a deconstruction of Hamlet. I have locally performed at Ospace, in 14/48 (so much fun!); and A Christmas Carol.
Art will save the world.
Alex Drissel
Alex is a professional actress and singer. She is the frontwoman for several bands in the Seattle area. She also Assistant Teaches with Aimée, Shakespeare Studies and Performance. She runs her own Introduction to Musical Theatre class, as well as heading the Religious Education program at The Universalist Unitarian Church of Vashon Island.
Jeffrey Currier
Artistic Consultant
Jeffrey Currier has been an arts advocate, performer, producer, and enthusiastic audience member for over four decades. A multi-instrumentalist from an early age, he was a principal member of the Cincinnati Youth Symphony and studied classical flute and clarinet at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a teenager. In 1989, he left CCM to pursue a musical theater degree at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, where he was seen as Jack in Into the Woods. As a professional actor, he has performed at the Meadowbrook Theater in Michigan, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theater and Columbia Theater in Missouri, in roles such as Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank, Jesus in Godspell, and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. He performed the role of Dennis in the bluegrass gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain, at the Arkansas Rep and Cincinnati Playhouse, and on the first national tour (directed by Alan Bailey). In 1994, having picked up guitar and mandolin, he co-founded the NYC-based folk band “The Fixins.” In 1997, he moved to Austin, Texas, and worked on the management side for top Texas acts Asleep at the Wheel (10-time Grammy Award winners), Cooder Graw, and Jerry Jeff Walker, serving as Executive Producer for JJ’s 2004 release, Jerry Jeff Jazz. Jeffrey returned to New York in 2005, landed a job in the hedge fund world, graduated from Hunter College, completed an Olympic length triathlon, and produced an autobiographical one-man cabaret, Back Up the Beanstalk, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. In 2012, he moved to Seattle, Washington, where he works as a project manager for a boutique investment firm, and hopes to produce music and perform again in the very near future.
Jeffrey Currier has been an arts advocate, performer, producer, and enthusiastic audience member for over four decades. A multi-instrumentalist from an early age, he was a principal member of the Cincinnati Youth Symphony and studied classical flute and clarinet at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a teenager. In 1989, he left CCM to pursue a musical theater degree at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, where he was seen as Jack in Into the Woods. As a professional actor, he has performed at the Meadowbrook Theater in Michigan, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theater and Columbia Theater in Missouri, in roles such as Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank, Jesus in Godspell, and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. He performed the role of Dennis in the bluegrass gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain, at the Arkansas Rep and Cincinnati Playhouse, and on the first national tour (directed by Alan Bailey). In 1994, having picked up guitar and mandolin, he co-founded the NYC-based folk band “The Fixins.” In 1997, he moved to Austin, Texas, and worked on the management side for top Texas acts Asleep at the Wheel (10-time Grammy Award winners), Cooder Graw, and Jerry Jeff Walker, serving as Executive Producer for JJ’s 2004 release, Jerry Jeff Jazz. Jeffrey returned to New York in 2005, landed a job in the hedge fund world, graduated from Hunter College, completed an Olympic length triathlon, and produced an autobiographical one-man cabaret, Back Up the Beanstalk, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. In 2012, he moved to Seattle, Washington, where he works as a project manager for a boutique investment firm, and hopes to produce music and perform again in the very near future.