Elana Kepner (she/her)

Education Director, Marin Shakespeare Company

I am a theatre teaching artist, voice, dialect and text coach, director, performer and a Certified Assistant Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. My teaching practice centers on exploring a radically inclusive approach to Shakespeare for humans of all ages through imagination, acting, voice and movement work. Highlights from my career as a teaching artist include piloting Shakespeare Squadron, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s advanced teen training program, and teaching the progression of voice and speech courses for the BFA performance degree programs at East Carolina University, as well as serving as voice, text and dialect coach for mainstage productions. Most significantly, I served as Founding Artistic Director of Whirligig Stage (Greenville, NC), where my directing credits included Macbeth, Newsies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream & James and the Giant Peach for Whirligig Youth Academy with actors 7-18.

EDUCATION:

Fitzmaurice Institute- XIV Teacher Certification

Shakespeare & Company- Lennox, MA

MFA- Acting & Directing-University of Missouri, Kansas City

BA- Drama (Honors in Acting, Cum Laude)-University of California, Irvine

AFFILIATIONS: Actors’ Equity Association, Voice and Speech Trainers Association.