People

Stan Kang

Executive Director and Board Member
A native of Washington, DC, Stan Kang is a professional actor, director and drama teacher. Most recently, he worked as a day player on the new Touchstone TV pilot 20 Questions. Other film and TV credits include: Fallen, 12 Monkeys, Murderous Intent, Homicide: Life in the Streets, The District and Undefeatable. He has worked as a stage actor with many local DC theatres, such as Washington Shakespeare Company, Studio Theater, Horizons Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Scena Theater, and the Kennedy Center. He worked as a director with Asian Stories in America (ASIA), a theatre company that was committed to producing, performing and promoting works by Asian American playwrights. He directed the inaugural production of ASIA, Big Hunk of Burning Love and The Theory of Everything. He is a founding member and executive director of the Educational Theater Company. Stan was born in Washington, D.C. and trained locally at the Studio Theater Acting Conservatory.

Elizabeth Kitsos-Kang

Managing Director
Elizabeth Kitsos-Kang is a founding member and the Managing Director Of Educational Theatre Company. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in acting from the University of Virginia in 1991. Since then she has worked in the Washington area as a professional actor, teacher and director. An adjunct professor of acting at George Washington University since 1996, she has taught and directed at several local arts organizations including the George Washington University, Georgetown University, Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts, The Holton Arms School, Round House Theatre and The Educational Theatre Company (ETC). Elizabeth's involvement for ETC has included directing, acting, coaching and working as an ensemble leader on several productions. She continues to work on outreach projects in several Arlington Public Schools, including directing a number of long term-residencies, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream at Wakefield High School, Rainbow Fish at McKinley Elementary, and the Arlington Mill Improv Troup at Arlington Mill High School Continuation Program.

Since 1994, Elizabeth has also worked as a scriptwriter and director of issue-oriented theater (for adults and students) at George Washington and Georgetown Universities. In addition, Elizabeth adapts children's stories for the stage. Elizabeth is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association. Her professional acting credits include Tomorrowland (Theatre J), In Good Company: the Power Edition (Horizons Theater), The Invisible Room (the Kennedy Center), Escape from Happiness and Better Living (Roundhouse), and many other roles at Source, Horizons, Studio, Arena Stage and Washington Jewish Theater. Elizabeth won the Outstanding Lead Actress award at the Source Theatre Festival for her performance in Amstel in Tel-Aviv in 1996.

Sasha Olinick

Director of Education and Teacher Training
Sasha is a Washington DC based actor/ educator. Most recently he appeared as Arkady in the US premier of Brian Friel's adaptation of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons at the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio, and served as an adjunct professor of Theater Arts at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. Before settling in DC, Sasha spent two years on the road touring the country with Shenandoah Shakespeare. While on tour he performed in Romeo & Juliet, As you Like It, The Winter's Tale, Coriolanus, The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest, and designed and facilitated accompanying workshops on acting, directing and Elizabethan staging conditions for high school and college age audiences.

Sasha has taught acting workshops and classes for the Geva Theatre Summer Academy (Rochester, NY), Merry Go Round Playhouse (Auburn, NY), Shakesperience Productions (Waterbury, CT), The Educational Theater Company (Washington DC)and All Children's Theater, (Providence, RI); He has appeared in productions at several regional theaters including, Trinity Rep (Providence, RI), Vermont Stage Company (Burlington, VT), Ocean State Lyric Opera (Providence, RI), and the New Century Theater, (North Hampton, MA). This fall Sasha will appear as Chapayev in the US premier of The Russian National Postal Service by Oleg Bogayev, at The Studio Theatre in Washington DC. Sasha holds a BA in American Civilization from Brown University and an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory.

Stephanie Lash Kilpatrick
Director of Development
Stephanie Lash Kilpatrick is a recent arrival from Philadelphia, where she was the lower-school drama teacher at Episcopal Academy (Devon, PA). She has worked as a teaching artist in Philly and New York City for organizations including Philadelphia Young Playwrights, The Walnut Street Theatre, Child Drama Workshops, New Jersey After Three, Brooklyn Children's Museum, The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Please Touch Museum and Capitol Repertory Theatre. She has also worked as a director and dramaturg for plays for young audiences. Currently, Stephanie teaches drama for the National Presbyterian School in Washington, D.C. and Imagination Stage in Bethesda. She is also the managing editor of Theatre For Young Audiences Today, a magazine published by Theatre for Young Audiences/USA. Stephanie has a M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University, and before becoming a drama teacher worked as a political reporter on the Hill.

Elena Velasco

Director of Shakespeare in Schools (SIS)
Elena is a well-known artist in the Washington theater community. A member of both Actor's Equity and Screen Actor's Guild, she has been performing in the metropolitan area for nearly ten years, having appeared at the Kennedy Center, Theater of the First Amendment, Arena Stage's YPT programs, Imagination Stage, and with her own youth theater company, 5 foot 2 productions. As a playwright, her work has been featured at the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater, Hirschhorn Museum, the Newseum, and festivals for the National Zoo.

A committed artist educator, Ms. Velasco has taught for Classika Theater, Interact Story Theater, Mount Vernon Community Children's Theater, and is a member of the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts' outreach education team, Imagination Quest. Her directing and choreography credits include The Wizard of Oz, Seussical, Joseph..., Anne of Green Gables, Into the Woods, Annie, and numerous original musical adaptations for ETC's partnership programs. She received her degree, Magna Cum Laude, from Catholic University's Drama Department.

Valerie Tunks
Director of Public Relations
Valerie Tunks has been working with The Educational Theatre Company (ETC) since 2006 and is currently their Director of Public Relations. While working with ETC she has assisted with two ETC Art Partnership productions - The Class of Junie B. Jones and The Tales of the Stinky Cheese Man. Valerie has been acting since she was a child has been in various productions including: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (Rosemary), Anything Goes (Hope Harcourt), Lil Abner (Daisy Mae), and Grease (Sandy). She also worked on a dramatic arts program with Habitat for Humanity in Phoenix, AZ where she led improvisation games with children ranging from five to ten. In addition to working with ETC, Valerie is also a full-time student at the George Washington University and is working toward receiving her master's degree in school counseling.

Candice Carter
Teaching Associate
Candice is thrilled to be joining Educational Theatre Company. She recently moved to the DC area this past August from Norfolk, VA where she was employed for 4 years with Virginia Stage Company (VSC), LORT, as the Education Associate and Tour Manger. Since her big move, Candice has worked for Imagination Stage as a teaching artist as well as directing Oliver Twist for Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theatre. In the past, she served on the faculty at the Virginia Governor School for the Arts and worked at several theatres up and down the east coast from her hometown of Alabama to New York as a director, stage manager and educator.

Candice’s professional credits include: Directing: Pillow Talk, Measure for Measure II.IV, How I Learned to Drive (Hangar Theatre), Visiting Mr. Green and The Lesson (JSU). Assistant Directing: Picnic on the Battlefield, The Velveteen Rabbit, Haarlem Berlin, and the world premiere of Indoor/Outdoor directed by Kevin Moriarty (Hangar Theatre), Of Mice and Men, Vincent in Brixton and Cat’s-Paw (VSC). Stage Management: Jesus Christ Superstar (JSU), Big River, Pathway to Freedom, Sword of Peace (Snow Camp Theatre), Goodly Creatures, Stowaway, King Lear: The Storm at Home, Wiley and the Hairy Man, The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi, The Fisherman and his Wife, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse and Danny, King of the Basement (VSC). Assistant Stage Management: A Christmas Carol and Treasure Island.

Candice has a BA in Theatre from Jacksonville State University (JSU).

Rex Daugherty
Teaching Associate
Rex Daugherty is thrilled to join the staff of ETC after recently moving to the DC/Arlington area. He is currently an instructor of Acting at The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, where he teaches voice and movement and the Michael Chekhov technique. As an actor, Rex has been seen locally at The Shakespeare Theatre Company (Love's Labor's Lost, Hamlet) and at Charter Theatre as director of music for the children's company. His regional acting credits include - Wayside Theatre: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Cricket, Murry Duetch), A Christmas Story (Ralph), Othello (Roderigo); Masterworks Theatre Festival: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theseus/Oberon); Merry-Go-Round Playhouse: The Paper Bag Princess (Prince Ronald), The Fisherman and his wife (The Fisherman); The Actor's Speak Easy: Lonestar (Cletis T. Fullernoy); Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lysander/Snug), Hamlet (Player Villain), Twelfth Night (Curio); Ohio Outdoor Historical Drama Association: Trumpet in the Land (Strong Rock), The White Savage (General Hand). Rex has also directed several plays, including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Fat Pig, Waiting for Lefty (assistant director) and Stones In His Pockets (assistant director).

Rex is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, where he received his B.A. in Theatre. He has also studied the Michael Chekhov technique at the Moving Dock Theatre Company in Chicago. Rex is a proud member of the musical-comedy band Silly Songs with Silly Guys and the improv group, The Planeteers.

Ashley Hammond

Teaching Associate
Ashley Hammond is pleased to be joining the ETC staff. She attended the University of Kentucky, in her hometown of Lexington Kentucky, where she received a BFA in acting. After college she toured with various children's theatres performing and teaching all over the eastern part of the country. Her last stop landed her in Norfolk, Virginia to act and teach for the Virginia Stage Company as a part of the Emerging Artists Ensemble. She started at ETC as the Creative Camp Consultant for the Shakespeare Summer Camp. Since then she has taught summer acting camps with the Mount Vernon Community Children's Theatre, and workshops with John Robert Powers and The Little Theatre of Alexandria.

Tom Mallan

Founding member and former director of Shakespeare in Schools
Tom teaches and directs theater throughout the Washington area and over-seas, including directing credits with Washington Shakespeare Company, ETC, Le Neon, and Glamonstrosity, as well as the In Series. He has taught theatre workshops to students and teachers throughout the US for the Kennedy Center, Washington Opera, Wolf Trap and ETC. Both as an artist and educator, his unique approach to creating popularly accessible adaptations of the classics have earned critical acclaim at home and abroad, where his bilingual productions of La Vida es Sueno and A Midsummer Night's Dream won an International Award for Innovative Educational Practices. Tom currently directs and teaches theater in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Hope Lambert

Founding member and former Director of Partnership Programming
Hope has been an actor and teacher of acting for the past 10 years. She is a founding member of Educational Theatre Company. She has also worked in the education departments of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and in New York City's Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Additionally she led workshops in basic acting for the Kennedy Center while touring with their production of Little Women.

Hope has co-directed ETC Summer Classic at McKinley Elementary for the past 3 years. ETC Summer Classic is a two-week Shakespeare camp with over 40 participating campers per summer. As an actress, she has appeared in New York at the Cherry Lane Theatre Alternatives, Stage Door Acting Ensemble, Manhattan Theatre Source, and is an acting company member of NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing. Regionally, she has appeared at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Olney Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and Washington Shakespeare Company.

Jim Zidar

Jim is a member of the Actors' Equity Association who has worked at many of the professional theatres in the Washington area. He has taught drama and International Baccalaureate Theatre Arts, and directed, for the Washington International School for 13 years. He was listed in Who's Who in Education, a directory of "the top 5% of American secondary school teachers," in 1995. He graduated from the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in 1986, where he subsequently joined the faculty. He has also taught/directed for the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts, Arlington Children's Theatre's "ACT - III" and "Stage Door" programs, and Arlington Public Schools.

Elizabeth Foley

President
Elizabeth consulting practice, EHF, has provided organizational development consulting, training, and technical assistance for a wide range of small and midsize not-for-profit organizations in Washington, DC since October 2000. Elizabeth also serves as a finance specialist consultant for clients of National Arts Strategies and de Barbieri & Associates. She has extensive experience working in the areas of finance and administration with arts/human service organizations in the Washington, DC area, including positions as managing director for the Eastern High School Choir/Eastern Choral Society, associate consultant/trainer for Innovation Network's Learning Circles project 2000, 2001, and 2003, director of finance for the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, business manager for the Shakespeare Theatre and executive director for the Arlington Dance Theatre. Her accounting coursework was done at Northern Virginia Community College. As an Actors Equity Association stage manger, she has stage managed over 40 professional productions. She also served as production manager and production stage manager for the Shakespeare Theatre.

Elizabeth was a member of the Performing Arts Review Panel for the Arlington (VA) Arts Commission. She was appointed to the Advisory Council on Instruction - Arts Education Committee by the Arlington County School Board, which presented her with an Honored Citizen award in 1998 for her service to the arts in Arlington's schools. She served on the Spanish Immersion Parents' Network for four years, one as chair. She previously served on the board of directors of United Arts Organization, and currently serves on the boards of Educational Theatre Company and Little Beginnings Child Development Center. She is a member of the Greater Washington Society of CPA's Non Profit Committee and serves on their Quality Reporting and Accountability task forces. An accomplished portrait artist, she studied at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Art in Richmond, VA and at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC.

Julie Hohl

Julie is the mother of 4 sons - the oldest is in 7th grade. She and her husband, a partner at Ernst & Young, live in Arlington. She is a biologist, a self-described scientist with creative interests. She has worked for several pharmaceutical companies, specializing in regulatory affairs. She is active in the PTA, and skilled at planning, juggling many activities and keeping organized. She is an enthusiastic believer in the ETC approach and feels that her sons have benefited enormously from their involvement. ETC has become such a priority that the family makes their summer plans around ETC's camp schedule.

Susan Leighton

Lawrence MacDonald

Treasurer
Lawrence is director of communications and policy at the Center for Global Development, an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality through policy-oriented research and active engagement with rich world policy makers and the public. His work at the Center has helped it to rapidly establish an international reputation as the premier research and policy organization in the field. He oversees an integrated communications program that includes publications, events, media relations and online engagement. Before joining the Center he was a senior communications officer at the World Bank for ten years, and before that he was a reporter in East Asia, where he lived for more than a dozen years, working for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Agence France Press, and Asiaweek magazine in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Manila.

Lawrence's support for ETC grows out of his love for the theater (which dates from high school acting) and the extensive participation in ETC programs of his two teenage children, Muriel and Isaac, who have attended ETC summer camps since they were in the early elementary grades. The expressive ability and social skills his kids developed as the result of the ETC experience, the intellectual confidence they gained from working with Shakespeare texts, and the huge amount of fun they have had make Lawrence passionate about bringing the ETC experience to more kids, especially kids who are from low income families or otherwise face difficult life challenges.

Rich Taylor

Marie L. Tibor

With more than 25 years experience in media relations, communications and international marketing, Marie currently is Director of Communications at the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metro Washington, a regional, real estate trade association. Before joining AOBA in October of 2007, Marie oversaw all communications and public relations for the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI). She joined the GWI, the Board of Trade's economic development affiliate, in 1999 as marketing director. Previously, Marie was with the Washington, DC Convention and Visitors Association (now WCTC), where she served as vice president of communications and tourism from 1994 to 1999, and Director of Tourism from 1989 to 1999.

Marie's commitment to ETC is due to her teenage daughter, Julia, who loves acting and had such terrific experiences over many years with ETC's Shakespeare Theatre summer camps.

Anthony Ivener

Sumeet Seam