Kate Ayers has toured extensively throughout the Midwest performing in educational theatre programs in schools and museums. As Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Children’s Theatre, Inc., (90-97), Kate was active in all areas of educational theatre from playwriting, teaching, and directing. Kate directs OFT’s daytime programs including our touring group, On the Move. She has appeared locally with Capital Playhouse, Theater Artist’s Olympia, and for OFT in Lyle the Crocodile, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Go, Dog. Go!, Goodnight Moon and directed Cinder Edna.
Mandy Ryle is an original member of the “OFT family”. You may have seen her on stage for OFT in some of her favorite roles such as Sophie in The BFG, or Jo in Little Women. You also may have caught her working backstage or in the booth, or as an intern for lots of OFT camps where she may or may not have made up a song about you on the ukulele! She attended CTE for several summers and she graduated from OHS in 2011. She has directed several camps for OFT including; The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek, and Over the Rainbow. Currently she is a student at South Puget Sound Community College.
Vanessa Postil is a local performer/theater technician who has worked with almost all of our Olympia theater companies both on and off the stage. You may have seen her recently as Betsy Bear in OFT’s production of Busytown! Vanessa is originally from Los Angeles, CA and came to Olympia to attend the Evergreen State College, where she received her BA with emphasis on theater and film. She has been a Teaching Artist for over 10 years; staging shows, directing theater/film camps, and workshops with students of all ages. Here at OFT, Vanessa has co-taught an after school workshop production of Cinderella with Kate Ayers, and directed a hugely successful musical theater camp over Winter Break 2014. Vanessa is passionate about creating an environment of creative expression where students take value in the skills they develop and apply them in ALL aspects of their lives.
Brian McCracken is a spoken word artist, organizer and educator from Virginia. He is a firm believer in grassroots artistic movements, and emotional literacy as the language of liberation. Brian is the founder of Old Growth Poetry collective, which hosts the weekly poetry open-mic, Olympia People’s Mic and has been organizing shows, and performing at events throughout the Pacific Northwest since 2011. In 2014 he won a slot on the team representing the Seattle Poetry Slam at the National Poetry Slam, where Seattle ranked #8 in the nation and made it to semi-finals for the first time in 11 years. In 2015, he will be coaching Olympia’s first team at the National Poetry Slam. He is the author of a self-published chapbook Dotted Lines: A Roadside Manifesto for Word Bleeders, and has been published in Activist Writers, Underground Voices, and Calliope.
Amy Shephard is a local actor, dancer, singer, and all around performer! She received her Bachelors in Liberal Arts with a focus in performance from The Evergreen State College in Olympia in 2009. During 2011-2012 Amy attended graduate school in England at the University of Exeter and graduated with honors receiving a Master’s degree in Applied Drama. Favorite roles include The Mouse in OFT’s production of If you Give a Mouse a Cookie and Nell Gwynne in Harlequin Productions production of Or. Amy loves working in theatre that encourages community development and educational enrichment.
Jen Ryle is OFT’s co-founder and Artistic Director. She has a BA from The Evergreen State College in 2006 where she focused her studies on Business and Expressive Arts with the goal in mind of starting a children’s theater in Olympia! In 2012-13, Jen completed a certificate program- “Directing for the Stage and Screen” at the University of Washington. For OFT, Jen has directed many camps and youth shows, as well as Lyle the Crocodile, Go, Dog. Go!, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Winnie the Pooh, The Giver, Rapunzel, The BFG, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
