Young Players Theater

Kristen Lynch
Founder/Educational Director

Kristen Lynch is an actress and educator and has been working with children in Paris and New York for the past decade. In Paris, she created the English Theater Workshop. This program teaches the English language through theater. She has taught drama and dance in schools throughout New York City and has directed various school productions. She has worked with TADA! Youth Theater, Young Audiences NY, and the Reader’s Theater Workshop. She is a consultant for the Read to Me Program, a family literacy program that encourages teen parents to read with their babies. Kristen has performed in several Off-Broadway productions at HERE, Theater for the New City, and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. She is also the Co-Director of Urban Gypsy Productions and continues to produce theater and film events. One of UG projects was the French Short Film Festival, which was held at the Pioneer Theater from 2000-2004. She also programmed an international children’s film series at the International School of Brooklyn. Kristen has a BFA in Drama from NYU TISCH School of the Arts. She is also a graduate of La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts with a major in Dance. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

Deanna Pacelli (Teaching Artist)

Deanna Pacelli works as an actor and theatre artist in New York City since graduating from New York University’s Experimental Theatre Program in 2000. For the past six years, she focused on creating her own interview-based, documentary theatre through a company she co-founded: Word on the Street Productions. Her company’s first show, There Goes the Neighborhood, a documentary theater piece about the gentrification of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, was on the cover of the Metro Section of The New York Times and ran for nearly three years in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker’s production company expressed interest in turning it into a television series. Most importantly, the show’s success enabled her to start work on a second piece of documentary theatre about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans. In the past few years, Deanna combined her theatrical experience and yoga teacher certification with the teaching arts. She enjoys teaching theatre to children of all ages all over the city.

Scott Davis (Musical Theater Teaching Artist)

Originally from New Jersey and having lived and worked in Boston for five years, Scott has made what he expects to be his most important move, to the theatre and cabaret community of New York. Scotts credits as a performer include playing Will Roger in The Will Roger Follies, and Gabriel in the World premiere of Moby Dick: An American Opera. Scott's off Broadway credits include playing Cory in the Actors Playhouse production of Joy, as well as understand the leading role of Paul. After touring the west coast with a show called Route 66, which was nominated Best Musical at the Oregon theatre awards, and where he was nominated best actor in a musical, Scott decided it was time to come to New york and write his own show entitled Both Sides Now, which was an autobiographical one man show about his life up to this point. The show opened to rave reviews at Don't Tell Mamas. As well as performing, Scott also works as a teaching artist for companies such as City Lights, Tada! Youth Theatre, Arts Connection, Steps on Broadway, UpBring Dance company, as well as working as a teaching artist throughout the country. As a composer Scott has written songs for many organizations and productions; one of his songs has been chosen for the off Broadway production of Tada! Youth Theatre’s maingstage production of Everything About a Family Almost. Currently he is working on a few different projects, working towards a stage reading and musical theatre festival submissions. Scott gets incredible fulfillment working with children, teaching them to love the art of musical theatre as much as he always has. He is grateful for the multitude of opportunities to do so here in New York City.

Mathilde Dratwa (Teaching Artist)

After living in Belgium and Spain, Mathilde Dratwa moved to England to study at Cambridge University where she got her BA in English Literature and her Post-Graduate Certificate of Education as an English and Drama teacher. She launched the Drama department of the International School of Toulouse in France where she taught full-time for two years. In Toulouse, Mathilde also co-founded the Malaprops Theater Company, designed to help ex-pat teenagers integrate into the local community. Along with a colleague, Mathilde wrote and directed “Balconies” for the company. The multi-lingual piece was produced at the Theatre du Pave, Toulouse. This show marked the beginning of Mathilde's interest in Drama as a means of language acquisition. Mathilde then moved back to England to get her MFA in classical acting from Drama Centre London. Now that she lives in New York, Mathilde is a performance trainee at the Ward Acting Studio. She loves working with Young Players Theater and teaching children Drama in English, French or Spanish.

Celia Caro (Visual Teaching Artist)

Celia Caro is a teaching visual artist with an extensive background in working with students of all ages in both private and public schools throughout New York City. She holds a Masters Degree in Art Education from Pratt Institute and is committed to fostering inventive and motivating approaches to student-centered art education with an emphasis on individual learning styles, creative problem-solving and social consciousness. The core of her teaching practice is centered on Inventive play and performance and collaborative art making, and includes a wide variety of visual media including bookmaking, puppetry, animation and sculpture. Celia’s personal work has been exhibited throughout the metropolitan area.