Kelley Reitmeier | Director

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Kelley Reitmeier:  Kelley studied at Emporia State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater and a Bachelor of Science in Education in Speech and Theater.  After college, Kelley toured with Missoula Children’s Theater, one of the largest traveling children’s theaters in the world, as a tour actor/director where she worked with over a thousand children throughout the United States.  She loved seeing the nation and investing in young lives through the arts. 

 

Kelley has been invited to Costa Rica on two occasions as a guest Artist in Residence where she performed and taught classes at the Centro Nacional de la Cultura in San Jose.  She taught theater at Gardner-Edgerton High School for two years where she directed and designed many shows including “Beauty and the Beast”, “Peter Pan”, “Oklahoma”, “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” among others.  Kelley was a cabin leader for three summers at Youthfront Camp South.  Here she mentored many students and saw God work in amazing ways during her time at Youthfront.

 

After joining the TCH Staff she has directed “Peter Pan”, “Aladdin Jr.” and “Once Upon a Mattress” with many more to come!  In addition to her directing work, Kelley is an instructor for the school of theater, has been seen in Storling Dance Theater’s “The Little Matchgirl”, The Culture House Summer Family Theater production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and runs the summer theater camps.  She is thankful to The Culture House for many reasons, but most importantly it is where she met her husband Kyle for the first time!  She is excited to have opportunities to perform with him and can’t wait to see what the future holds next!

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Danon Park

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Danon Nicholae Park received a B.F.A. in Acting from Avila College in 1994 and an M.A. in Theatre Theory from the University of Kansas in 2004. He has taught at both Avila and KU, as well as at The Culture House since 2005. Over the past few years, Danon directed, Trojan Women, Thirst (on two separate occasions), Hamlet, and Pierced Flesh (which he also wrote).  He enjoys the opportunity to encourage his students and witness them develop into artists.

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Todd Burd

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Todd Burd currently teaches choral music at Gardner-Edgerton High School and also has a private voice studio.  His passion for music and religion also lead him to be the choral director at Bonner Springs United Methodist Church.

 

Todd's training is varied in conducting, classical voice, music theatre and jazz.  He has a bachelor's degree in Business, Vocal Music and Education from Bethany College.  His postgraduate studies include conducting at Wichita State University, Education at Baker University and Vocal Performance at Trinity College in London, England.

 

Todd Burd's performing career includes everything from Opera to Musical Theatre to Jazz.  Classical venues across Europe and the United States include Oratorio, Opera and Song Recitals.  His music theatre roles included Liebes Lieder in "A Little Night Music", Enjorlas in "Les Miserable" and Jekyl in "Jekyl and Hyde" and Tommy in "Brigadoon".

 

Music is a passion for Todd.  One quote he often frequents is, "Music is what feelings sound like."

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Matt Walberg

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Matt has been seen in local community theater productions including Shawnee Mission Theater in the Park and The New Theatre Restaurant. He has been involved in theater since the age of 12, where he debuted as the Tin Man in his elementary school production of The Wizard of Oz. His love of theater continued to grow throughout high school and college where he appeared in numerous productions. Matt teaches Physical Education for the Olathe School District and coaches soccer for the KCFC soccer club. This is his third year with TCH and excited to work with so many talented students, including four of his own children.

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Chris Smith

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Chris Smith became involved with the Theatre Arts and experienced the power of the pen at an early age.  Teacher, Director and Actress, she’s performed in over 50 productions throughout her career, many at Highlands Community Theatre.  She’s acted in dramas, musicals and benefits, winning Best Actress twice.  Chris has been on the Board of The Children’s Academy of Theatre (CAT), for over ten years as a writer, director, acting coach, teacher and producer of the Academy’s Playbill.  Chris worked with the Children’s Theatre Company in partnership with the School Board of Highlands County in the development, co-writing and production of WAIT, a series of vignettes handling sensitive issues facing the 21st Century students. The vignettes were performed by At-Risk students.  In addition, Ms. Smith, in conjunction with C.A.T. and the Heartland Consortium developed and wrote the Arts Integration program for three counties in rural Florida with online access to all teachers desiring to incorporate ARTS in the classroom.  These lessons are currently accessed and utilized daily. Chris also worked with Moore Productions and Edutainment, performing before various State agencies bringing attention to teen pregnancy and suicide.  Chris, an Artist in Residence, taught Arts Integration for K-5th grade students, conducted after school drama programs and worked in community centers in challenged area exposing children to beginning acting and stage performance. Ms. Smith is a director and writer and has an extensive background in the Arts, training at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Orange County, California. 

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Amy Sander

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Amy grew up in Topeka, KS and had her acting debut at age six at a little theater called Vassar Playhouse. After performing in "Annie", she was hooked and spent her youth performing in theatrical and dance productions (tap is her favorite!). During high school, Amy discovered she had a strong passion for working with youth and began teaching dance and directing a summer theatrical program.

After 17 years of training and teaching, Amy became the founder and director of a youth performing troupe, Topeka Youth Players (for ages 9-13). Within 10 years, Amy had worked with hundreds of youth, directed over 20 productions, choreographed and music directed more than 10, and also served as set, lighting and costume designer for almost all of the shows.

Amy’s favorite directing credits include "Snoopy", "Wanna Play?", "Tales from Hans Christian Andersen", "Alice in Wonderland", "Pippi Longstocking", "Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day", "Alexander Who Is Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move", "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing", and several productions that Amy wrote specifically for her youth troupe.

Amy's favorite performance credits include "42nd Street", "Anything Goes", "Once on the Island", "Grease", "Music Man" (several times), and "Fiddler on the Roof" (high school production where she met her future husband).

 

Amy currently resides in Olathe and works as a freelance graphic designer and as the Marketing Communications Supervisor at a life/dental/health insurance third party administrator. Amy's true "role of a lifetime" is her role as a wife and mother of two ... "it is the most rewarding and challenging role I have ever played."

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Cary Mock

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Cary Mock is becoming a familiar face in the KC theatrical community.  Known for his rich lyric baritone voice and captivating physical / charismatic performing style, Cary’s local professional stage credits include featured roles at Quality Hill Playhouse, Musical Theater Heritage at Crown Center, Theatre for Young America at Union Station, The Lyceum Theatre at Arrow Rock, MO, Great Plains Theatre in Abilene, and The Chestnut Theatre in Olathe.  Additionally, Cary has performed major community theatre roles at Theatre in the Park, Church of the Resurrection and the Jewish Community Center.  Favorite roles include Hook in Peter Pan, Joseph in …Dreamcoat, Beast in Beauty and the Beast,  Fagin in Oliver,  God in Children of Eden.  After many years of public school choral directing and serving as a full-time worship pastor, Cary is married to his beautiful and equally-talented wife, Alicia, and has four amazing children. 

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Lana Jensen

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Lana was born and raised in Olathe, KS and is glad to be living here still!  She has been involved in theatre in some way or other since she was just a young girl.  Through school Lana has taken a wide range of theatre based acting and vocal classes.  After graduating high school, Lana spent a year in the Artist Development Program where she studied acting, directing and Shakespeare among other things.  While in the program Lana discovered a new interest in dance and has been training in Jazz, Modern and Ballet ever since.  Over the years she has performed in multiple musicals, plays and choir productions.  Her favorite performance credit was Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof.  Lana has assisted directed many productions, some of the most recent include Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan and Aladdin. She is currently directing the lovable musical Honk!.  When not performing, teaching or directing Lana enjoys reading great books, spending quality time with people she loves, traveling the world, eating ice cream, perusing antique stores and photography.  In the future Lana hopes to see the rest of the world. 

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Lori Tracy

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Lori has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater with a Broad-field major that includes Early childhood Education through Elementary. She has been teaching for over twenty years. She currently teaches 4Th grade at Maranatha Academy.Lori enjoys helping young children develop their imagination through Literature and Dramatic play.

She has produced and directed several Preschool programs. She also has had the opportunity to direct a Christmas play for a Maranatha Christmas program. This is Lori's 3rd year teaching at The Culture House, having taught Fall and Spring semester classes as well as several Summer camps.

Lori has also developed and headed the Make-up committee since the Theater program began at The Culture House.

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Emily Bartlett

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Emily studied Theatre at Emporia State University and graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Education with an emphasis in Theatre.  She also studied English while in college and recieved a Secondary Certification in English and Creative Writing.  Since then, she has been freelance directing, working on plays such as Steel Magnolias, Richard III, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).  She has also overseen and helped with many productions at Shawnee Mission North High School, her alma mater, and also where her husband Ben currently teaches theatre.  Her creative writing has been featured in the Literary Magazine Quivira, and continues to write for different media outlets.

 

She has worked for 6 summers at YouthFront Camp South where she mentored teenagers and staff alike, spending 11 weeks with her husband each year down by LaCygne Kansas.  It was there that she first fulfilled her desire to help teenagers with life and relationships, and see them grow closer to God.  It was also at camp where she first dreamed of  a job where she could put her relationship with God and her love of quality fine art together.

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Andi Fredrickson

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