Education team

PJ has directed for the English Theatre Frankfurt Huck Finn, Shockheaded Peter (Covid cancelled) and for this season will direct Girl with a Book by Nick Wood.   He is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Frankfurt, for whom he directed the film Spiritus Vitae, The Breath of Life, and for the 2021-22 season is directing Travelers, Fools and Thieves, Antony and Cleopatra and next years Garden production As You Like It. Other plays he has directed for SF include, Trojan Women by Euripides, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors (Covid cancelled) and An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen.    His production of The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh was at the Internationales Theater Frankfurt in the Fall of 2019. From 2015-18 he was the Director in Residence at The LOFT, where he directed Shakespeare in the Garden:Hortus Inclusus,  Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Grounded by George Brandt and was the co-creator of Where.  For 10 years he was the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Anyone? founded in New York City in 2005, where he directed, produced and/or performed roles from all but 5 of Shakespeare’s plays.  He was the Associate Artistic Director of WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Laboratory.  He also cast and directed BFA playwriting thesis projects for NYU’s Tisch school of the arts.  He has taught Acting, Scene Study, Stage Combat and Shakespeare courses at the collegiate level as well as high schools and private institutions for over 20 years. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Missouri-KC in Acting and Directing.

Tracey Mitchem was born in Wiesbaden to an American military family. She studied music and theatre at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, California. Her stage appearances in the USA include included leading roles in Mame, Oklahoma, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Hello Dolly, Kismet, and Cinderella and Pippin amongst others. Tracey also appeared in the television series Fame (produced in Hollywood, California) .In New York City Tracey landed a leading role in the new musical The Tap Dance Kid on Broadway. During this time Tracey studied dance with Maurice Hines of the world famous dance team The Hines Brothers. Tracey is also very experienced in vocal coaching as so she studied classical voice under Madam Luba Tcheresky. Thereafter Tracey began performing with several opera companies throughout New York City and California. Tracey’s 2008 move to Frankfurt gave her the opportunity to expand her private voice and performance studio, where she provides acting and singing classes to students of all ages. Tracey currently works as a theatre pedagogue for the English Theatre, where she runs workshops for school groups and creates and directs theatre productions for the childrens´charity, Arche.

Conor Doyle is an Irish performer and theatre practitioner. He recieved his training in Dublin at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. Thereafter he continued his studies in Toronto, Canada where he studied Comedy Writing and Performance. Conor is involved with the English Improvisational comedy scene in Frankfurt, as well as performing with the following groups such as The Loft, FEST and TLS. Conor became involved with the English Theatre as an actor, performing in the play for young audiences, The Canterville Ghost. Since then Conor has become part of the Education Team, running workshops for teachers and students.

Evan Schweitzer was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY with a stint in Milford, PA. Performing has always been a part of Evan’s life. His first Broadway show was a huge family outing to see Fiddler on the Roof. From what his mom tells him, he looked at her and said: “Mommy, I want to be up there.” His fate was sealed.

 

He has been a professional actor since he was a teenager performing in various musical and non-musical theater. He has performed with TheaterworksUSA, New England Shakespeare Company, Spontaneous Shakespeare Company, Trap Door International (an extension of Trap Door Theatre in Chicago), Gorilla Rep and more. Evan received his degree in Theatre Arts from Rutgers University and has studied at Upright Citizens Brigade and the Barrow Group in NYC, and St. Mary’s University in London. In 2012 he moved to Barcelona and received his certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. While in Barcelona he joined Barcelona Improv Group (BIG) and began performing, directing, and teaching with them. He was also involved in several film projects, commercial work, voiceover projects, and theater projects. Since 2017, Evan has lived in Frankfurt. He’s been performing and teaching with TLS Frankfurt and other improvised projects such as Dangerous Play: Neil Simon and Dangerous Play: Agatha Christie. He has also continued to teach English to various levels including Abitur Preparation, Business English, Conversation, Presentation Preparation, as well as group classes of all ages including kids.

 

Throughout the year, Evan is traveling around Europe attending international improvisation festivals such as BIG IF in Barcelona. Additionally, he teaches improv at the Rutgers Summer Acting Conservatory and various theater workshops through The English Theater Frankfurt. He is currently touring primary schools in Germany with Galakto-logisch with the cabaretist, Malte Anders as well as performing in the children’s musical The Little Red Dragon at the English Theater Frankfurt.

Allix trained in acting at Webber Douglas Academy in London. He worked for many years as an actor in the UK, performing both in theatre and film. He has also worked in the field of education as a drama tutor as well as years of experience creating and running theatre workshops, in both the UK and Sweden. He is a playwright; his first production Dark in The Water was performed at the White Bear Theatre, London summer 2018; the White Bear went on to produce his next play Valhalla (January 2019) which was then transferred to this year’s Brighton Fringe. Valhalla will be transferred again as Allix continues with his other writing projects. Allix loves working as a pedagogue at the English Theatre, and particularly enjoyed his title role in Claire Selby’s children show Little Red Dragon (2018/19).

Moriah-Jane Lorentz is a music therapist based in Frankfurt. Originally from Cape Town, she has travelled the world working, working with children and youth with organizations like Operation Rescue, bringing therapeutic theatre and music programs to life in India, Philippines, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Before moving to Frankfurt she worked primarily as a performer and flautist at Artscape and Baxter Theatre, under the company of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. In Frankfurt, she heads up the music programs at Link n Learn for international families, teaches drama through AWO, and founded creative The Inspiration Project for women. She joined the education team of The English Theatre on September 2018. Ultimately her heart is to equip each individual with their unique voice, and she believes that the arts are a powerful tool to do so.

Tracey Grey trained at the Guildford School of Acting specialising in musical theatre and started her career touring on musical and dramatic stages in the UK. Productions include an off-musical, “Travellers” premiering at the Covent Garden Festival and Blood Brothers a the Phoenix Theatre, London. Tours include, On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard  and the musical the Red bard Murder, where she played the title role of Maria. Tracey also toured as solo-singer with the Cliff Longhurst Bigband. 

More than half her professional life has been in Germany where she has continued to successfully work as a voiceover artist, actress, director and theatre educator. In addition to performance work, she founded Stagecoach Theater Arts in Frankfurt in 2004. Currently, she runs her own studio for private voice and acting coaching, specifically supporting young performers through the highly competitive process of drama school auditions at renowned schools worldwide. Tracey Is co-founder of Shakespeare Frankfurt (with PJ Escobio) and Production Manager for the annual open air ‘Shakespeare in the Garden’ performances in cooperation with the Frankfurt Botanical Gardens, and since 2018 she has been teaching IB theatre part-time at local international school.