People of Green Street

JANIS ASTOR DEL VALLE – Director
JESSICA CARSO - Associate Director and Director of Development
LEX LEIFHEIT - Assistant Director
CLAUDIA FOERSTEL - Financial Coordinator and Registrar
PATRICIA SOTARELLO - Afterschool and Summer Program Coordinator
RACHEL ROCCOBERTON - Administrative Assistant
COOKIE QUIÑONES- After School Assistant
NAT HOLMES - After School Counselor
ROSE FOUNTAIN - Front Desk Assistant
EDGARDO QUIÑONES - Technical Coordinator
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Raquel Adorno
Mica Anaya
Jennifer Aniskovich
Janis Astor del Valle
David Beveridge
Lydia Brewster
Bitsie Clark
Terry Eastman
Grady Fitzpatrick
John Hennelly
Frank Kuan
Cathy Lechowicz
Peter Patton
Calvin Price
Cookie Quiñones
Rob Rosenthal
Mark Simon
Pamela Tatge
Geen Thazhampallath
Cheever Tyler

JANICE ALBERT (Creative Writing) is a writing teacher with more than 30 years of experience in the California Community College system. Her writing has appeared in newspapers and publications of the National Council of Teachers of English. Her articles on California writers can be found at the website www.CATEweb.org under Publications. She is a two-time winner of the Russell Library’s Jack Paton Storytelling contest in Middletown.

JEFFERY ALLEN is the Artistic Director of Oddfellows Playhouse, an acclaimed youth theater in Middletown.   Previously, Jeffery was Director of Education for Cleveland Public Theater, Northeast Ohio's leading alternative theater. He also spent four seasons with the Great Lakes Theater Festival in the nationally recognized Education Outreach program. Jeffery is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater's Directors Lab and Actors' Equity Association. Previous directing credits at the Playhouse include Merchant of Venice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gold in the Bones, Macbeth and Prometheus Bound.

JANIS ASTOR DEL VALLE, Director, is an award-winning writer, filmmaker and teaching artist. In addition, she has worked as a youth development specialist for A.C.T.I.O.N (Activists Coming to Inform Our Neighborhood) at The Point, a community cultural center in the South Bronx. At The Point, she developed a variety of arts and media-based initiatives designed to promote social change, including a full-length play and two short films that featured A.C.T.I.O.N members. She also spent four years working for New York University's Center Arts Team (CAT), an educational theater that specializes in conflict resolution through drama and embraces the basic tenets of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. Del Valle holds an MFA in film from Columbia University, and a BA in theater from Maymount Manhattan College. She most recently worked as the grants manager for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Grants and Services Division in New York City.

JOHN BERGERON (Sound Design), has compositions in films, videos and commercials. He has a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado and has maintained his own recording studio and recording school for the past fifteen years.  He has been the producer on over 40 released CDs for many artists, and currently teaches Audio Production and Electronic Music at Middlesex Community College. He maintains his own studio, DreamCatcher Recording Studio, in north central Connecticut.

ROSLYN N. CARRIER-BRAULT (Photography), is an award winning fine art photographer whose work uses conventional and digital photography, video and mixed media. She mastered her craft in San Diego, CA at Grossmont College, which is affiliated with the Museum of Photographic Arts. Roslyn was the Chairman for the Shoreline Art Alliance's 20th-Anniversary show for Connecticut photographers, IMAGES 2001. She has taught beginning photographic classes for children and adults at the Tracy Art Center in Old Saybrook, CT.

JESSICA CARSO, Associate Director and Director of Development, has been working in Arts Administration for the past five years.  After growing up in Portland, Carso moved to New York City and received a BA in Theatre from Marymount Manhattan College. While living in New York, Carso staged managed and directed several theatre projects, while also studying and working in arts administration.  After graduating, she returned to Connecticut to pursue a career in the non-profit arts sector, most recently as a Grants Writer at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford. Carso and her family live in nearby Middlefield.

CHRIS CRETELLA (Private Lessons, Guitar) began studying the guitar under Ron Bridgsche at the age of thirteen. He began composing his shortly thereafter. Chris has studied with Mark Kuss in composition and with David Chevan in improvisation at Southern Connecticut State University. With Dave Parmelee, Chris founded a chamber/jazz ensemble called Goose Lane. The group regularly performs Chris' compositions and arrangements. Goose Lane has recorded and released two CD's on Chris and Dave's own Rehab Music Foundation imprint and is currently working on a third. Chris can also be found playing in many other local ensembles from rock bands to jazz bands and from free improvisation groups to solo classical guitar at weddings. Chris has completed a set of six studies for guitar and a major new work for woodwind quintet and is currently working on a piece for guitar and drum set.

DAVID DAVIS (Private lessons, Saxophone), was born and raised in Connecticut, is a Hartt School of Music graduate with a degree in Jazz studies and Music Management.  Davis has performed at venues along with Mary J. Blige, Deborah Cox, LL Cool J, Brian Mcknight, Keith Washington, Sean Puffy Combs, Kid Capri, Biz Markie, John P. Kee, Karen Clarke, Marion Meadows, Roy Ayers, Donald Harrison, Dave Valentine, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Sherry Winston, Chuck Loeb, Cherryl Hayes and Gloria Lynn to name a few.

MARY FARNSWORTH (Swing Dancing) director of Vinnie's Jump & Jive and the founder of Providence Swings, has earned glowing reviews for her fun and energetic teaching style. Having trained in California and NYC, Mary has a strong reputation for working well with complete beginners and experienced dancers alike in all kinds of swing including East Coast/Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, and Blues.

PRISCILLA GALE, voice/piano instructor, is a graduate of the Julliard School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Priscilla is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and currently teaches voice and opera classes at Wesleyan University. Priscilla has recorded turn of the century Irish songs with classical guitarist, Andre Mentschukoff, on Centaur Records, entitled Dream Faces.

GARY HARGER (Voice, Stage Performance), is a professional stage actor and musician with teaching credits at the Hartt School, SCSU,  and The Ensign-Darling Program.  Harger has performed on Broadway: “Shenandoah" (The Corporal - Original Cast & recording), toured with “Les Miserables” (1^st National) and “West Side Story” (Tony – International), and performed in concert as such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Merkin Hall.  He has also staged concerts and musicals for The Quick Center, Cunard Cruises, the Orange Players, and his own company, GWH Musical Productions, Inc.

SHAWN HILL (Web Design), has fourteen years of teaching experience in seven different countries, the most recent being at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (Bronx, NY) where he taught children and adults classes in Photography, Video Production and Computers. Hill serves on the board of Oddfellows Playhouse and currently works as a Desktop Support Specialist for Wesleyan University.

NAT HOLMES, After School Counselor, has been working with children and adolescents for the past 15 years in New York City and Connecticut.  He has worked in camps, residential and school settings in NYC.  For the past 10 years he has been a case manager/outreach worker for the Community Health Center's School Based Health Center programs at Woodrow Wilson Middle School and Macdonough Elementary school. Holmes was the director of the Homeroom after school and summer programs between 1997 and 2000.  He has an undergraduate degree in Peace Studies/International relations from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT.

LANCE “KAMAU” JAMES (Adv. Guitar and Jazz Piano), is a renowned music teacher. He teaches guitar, piano, African drums and instructs Jazz Workshops. He has taught over 2,000 students during his last four years and continues to work with adults and children at schools, museums, libraries and community organizations.  For audio clips of Lance James’ CD "Friends and Strangers," click here!

SCOTT KESSEL. In addition to musical performances and visual arts exhibitions, Scott Kessel's professional experiences include developing and teaching multi-disciplinary arts and academics programs, presenting teacher in-service workshops and working extensively with special needs populations.  A teacher in public schools, private schools and prisons for over eight years, Scott holds Connecticut teacher certification in art (K-12), and has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree from Wesleyan University.  He is a certified Master Teaching Artist and has received the "Celebration of Excellence" award for his teaching.

GIA KHALSA (pronounced JEE-uh CALL-suh) has been studying and living a natural lifestyle since 1970. Gia has has a degree in Art Education and has helped to operate several yoga centers. She has worked with young children in Connecticut at the Old Lyme Summer Program and psychiatric patients at Mid-State Behavioral Health. Studying ballroom and country dancing has enhanced her study and development of her own style of Middle Eastern belly dance. Gia has studied Feng Shui, the Chinese art of placement since 1990. Beginning in 1996, she began been giving Feng Shui lectures and consultations for private and commercial clients. Gia is a renaissance woman of the new century, embracing all these aspects of holistic living into her own life and extending her knowledge into her teaching workshops, classes and lectures in the areas of Belly Dance, Feng Shui and yoga.

CAROLYN KIRSCH (Acting), has performed in fifteen Broadway musicals, including How to Succeed in Business, Sweet Charity, and Chicago. She was in the original company of A Chorus Line, for which she won a Theatre World Award. Carolyn has worked extensively with the choreographers and directors Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse, and studied acting with Uta Hagen of HB Studios. She is currently on the faculty of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and the Hartford Children’s Theatre, and studies with Actor/Director/Playwright, Austin Pendleton, also of HB Studios, NYC.

MARIAH E. KLANESKI, visual arts instructor, holds a B.A. in studio arts and architecture from Wesleyan University. She is currently working as a researcher at Wesleyan University and is developing a new course entitled "Science and Art" that will debut in Spring 2005. This course has many web-based learning modules and experiments that demonstrate scientific concepts present in painting and the creation and study of art.

LEX LEIFHEIT came to the Green Street Arts Center from Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts, where she was the Press and Marketing Coordinator. She served as Interim Assistant Director at Green Street from November 2005 through February 2006, during which time Green Street saw a 60% enrollment increase in its adult and home school classes. In addition to her responsibilities as Assistant Director, Leifheit teaches playwriting for Green Street's after school program, hosts The Art Agenda on 88.1 WESU fm and serves as Vice President for the North End Artist Cooperative. She recently completed her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree at Wesleyan and has previously worked with the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the Garde Arts Center , and the Hygienic Art Gallery in Connecticut as well as several professional theater companies.  In 2003 Leifheit created a program called Arts for Awareness that generated new performance works about HIV, and was featured in the CPTV documentary "Breaking the Stigma." She has directed plays for many Connecticut arts organizations including the O'Neill Local Playwrights Conference, Secret Theatre and the Spirit of Broadway Theatre, where her production of "Our Country's Good" was named Best Play of 2003 by the Norwich Bulletin.

JUSTIN LIBERMAN (Screenwriting) graduated from Sacred Heart University in 2002 and has lived in Los Angeles for the past five years where he has directed three award-winning films and several commercials. At the outset of his career, Liberman worked with acclaimed film directors Michael Mann on Collateral and Miami Vice and David Mamet on his upcoming film Red Belt. Liberman is currently in pre-production on the feature film Three Can Keep A Secret If Two Are Dead. He is a resident of Middletown’s North End.

T. PAUL LOWRY (Improv: Short & Long-Form Comedy) has worked in New York as a stage manager, production manager, designer, director and company manager for such theaters as Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre Co. and the O’Neill Theater Center. Currently, he is the Associate Producer at Long Wharf Theatre, working on additional programming such as Jazz on the Wharf and Kids on the Wharf, as well as special projects like Olympia Dukakis’ The Tempest. In addition to his work at Long Wharf Theatre, T. Paul Lowry re-founded New Haven Theatre Company, creating and producing such shows as This Just In: You Choose the News, We Make it Up and America’s Next Great American Superhero…For America.

NATASHA D. MILES (Collage, Multi-Media), studied Technical Print Methods, the History of Painting and Drafting at the University of Hartford’s Art School. Last year, she received an Artist Fellowship in visual art making and design from the Dreyfoos School of Arts for growth of visual literacy among children. Her work has been shown locally in venues such as Visual Aide Venue South, Hardy’s Time Studio and Artworks Gallery in Hartford. Currently, she is a Drawing instructor at the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan and she is also a Visual Arts and Creative Writing instructor at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.

MEREDITH MILLER (Digital Photography) received her undergraduate degree in Visual Art from the University of Chicago. In 2003, she received her MFA in photography from Yale School of Art where she won the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize. Meredith most recently exhibited her work in a six person show entitled “Six Pack” at the LAB in San Francisco. She is also in the flat file collection of Artspace in New Haven and received an artist’s fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has taught photography and art history at the New England School of Photography, the Creative Arts Workshop, the Paier College of Art, and Southern Connecticut State University.

ERIKA VAN NATTA (Figure Drawing / Digital Photography) is an assistant professor at the University of New Haven and Gateway Community College. Her video installations have been exhibited at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, ArtSpace (New Haven) and Real Art Ways. She earned her MFA from Yale University.

ANDREW NEMR (Tap Master Class) is a founding member of Savion Glover’s company Ti Dii, and the artistic director of his own company, Cats Paying Dues. With Gregory Hines, he co-founded the Tap Legacy Foundation. He has performed nationally and internationally as a soloist and currently teaches at New York’s Broadway Dance Center.

AMY MARIE NESBITT (Hip-Hop Dance) is a Connecticut Dance Alliance master teacher. She has taught hip-hop for the Hartt School, the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Farmington Valley Arts Center and the Hartford Conservatory. In addition to teaching, Amy performs regularly with the Spectrum in Motion Dance Theatre Ensemble, artists-in-residence at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford.

DAN NOCERA (Videography), has worked and taught in all areas of media production for the past sixteen years. He has a BA in Television Production from Ithaca College and a MALS with a concentration in Film from Wesleyan’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program.  Currently Nocera is the coordinator of the Corporate Media Center at Middlesex Community College where he produces, directs and edits award-winning films (corporate, documentary, fiction). A recent television ad he produced won three national awards including a Telly, a Communicator and a Gold Medallion.

DAVID POLON (Salsa) has been teaching dance for nine years in Connecticut and California. He trained in competitive Ballroom and Latin disciplines as well as street-style Salsa and Tango. Polon currently coaches and choreographs for dance teams in Hartford and at Central Connecticut State University. He has had the honor of working with southern California’s top Salsa performers and has appeared on numerous television specials.

GWEN STENGEL POND (Music Alive) is an early childhood music teaching artist with an extensive background in vocal studies, performance and in musical theater. Gwen holds an ARC (Alternate Route to Certification) certificate for K-12 music education in the State of Connecticut. She has enjoyed directing children’s musicals and a youth choir, as well as composing original songs and collaborative songs with her children’s author mom, Joyce Stengel—look for Alexander and His Fuzzy Duck at www.gwenpond.com! Gwen received her BA in English from the University of Connecticut and has begun working towards a graduate degree in Music.

CARRIE SWIDER (Drawing) has been a teaching artist in Connecticut for eight years. She has a BS in Art and Art Education from NYU and an MALS degree with a Studio Art concentration from Wesleyan University. She has taught art to students of all grade levels in the public school system and has been a Master Artist for after school and summer programs such as the Arts Councils Neighborhood Studios. Carrie has exhibited her own work in galleries in the Hartford area since 2000 and produced several exhibits at Artspace Hartford.

DAN POPE (Writers Workshop) is the author of In the Cherry Tree (Picador, 2003). His stories have appeared in numerous publications including Best New American Voices 2007, McSweeney’s (No. 4) and Gettysburg Review. Dan is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a 2006 Connecticut Fellowship recipient for fiction. He is an adjunct professor at Trinity College.

RACHEL L. ROCCOBERTON (Ballet), teaches at Arts in Motion in Willimantic, directs for EO Smith High School, serves on the Board of the Windham Theatre Guild and choreographs any number of shows that come her way. She holds a BA in Dance and Theater from Muhlenberg College in Allentown PA and has enjoyed sharing her love of dance with students of all ages for the past two years. Her training includes the study of ballet, modern, jazz, tap, swing, improvisation, West African and Baroque dance techniques. Currently she teaches in Willimantic and Coventry. She also directs and choreographs any number of shows that come her way.

SARI ROSENBLATT (Creative Writing) writes fiction and non-fiction. Her publications include short fiction in Glimmer Train, Nimrod International Journal of Poetry & Prose (2002, 2004), and The Iowa Review (1998, 1986). Her writing awards include the Glimmer Train Award in Short Fiction, 2007; PEN New England New Discovery Award in Fiction, 2003; Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, 2002; and New Millennium Writings Fiction Prize, 2002. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

FRAN RZEZNIK (Videography) is an award-winning filmmaker who has written, directed and produced a wide variety of projects including social commentary documentaries, reality television series, and feature films. Her awards include two

National Emmys from NBC Sports and a Los Angeles Local Emmy for her writing and production work on a ‘tween series for the Discovery Channel. Fran has shared her love and knowledge of film with others as a teacher in Los Angeles, where she developed and taught a film curriculum to students at an urban middle school. An inner city kid from the Bronx herself, Fran particularly enjoys helping immigrant and African-American students find their filmic voice to tell their unique stories.

JILL VAUGHN (Watercolors), visual artist and painting instructor, earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design where she majored in painting with concentrations in drawing and printmaking. She studied independently in Rome, Italy and exhibits actively in Connecticut. Vaughn was the former President of the Essex Art Association and is currently on the council. Since 1999, she has been the Art Department Head at the Oxford Academy teaching art and photography to high school students.