MEET THE FACULTY

Faculty

Kevin Connors (MTC’s Executive Artistic Director & Co-Founder)
College Bound Program & Voice Coach
Off-Broadway: Play Like a Winner (NYMF award-winner), Prime Time Prophet, Jukebox Saturday Night, The Abandoned Loves of Frederick R., Life Anonymous, Lover: The Valentino Musical, Babes Off Broadway, Saloon and Suzy Q. Selected regional productions: The Fantasticks, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Babes in Toyland, A Christmas Carol and Baby; with such stars as Joan Rivers, James Naughton, and Johnny Mathis. He has directed over 150 MTC Equity MainStage productions including Next to Normal, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Falsettoland, Ragtime, Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Doubt, Master Class, Gypsy, (all Connecticut Critics’ Circle Award Nominations/Winners), and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, (Moss Hart Award Winner). BroadwayWorld Award Winner as Best Director for MTC’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Multiple Connecticut Critics’ Circle Best Director winner including MTC’s Ragtime and Falsettoland, and 2-time recipient of the Tom Killen Award for Outstanding Contribution to Connecticut Professional Theatre. As a composer he has penned the score for numerous musicals including It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play and The Great Gatsby: A Live Radio Play (all published by Playscripts, Inc.), and served on the faculties of The Hartt School of Music/University of Hartford, Sacred Heart University, the University of Bridgeport and Musical Theatre Works in NYC. www.kevin-connors.com

Jim Schilling (MTC’s Managing Director & Co-Founder)
College Bound Program & Acting Coach
MTC acting credits include Jacques Brel is Alive and Well..., Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down, Yours, Anne, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Doubt, Almost, Maine, God of Carnage, The Fantasticks,  Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The 39 Steps and most recently Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He was nominated for a CT Critics Circle award for Herr Shultz in Cabaret and winner of the BroadwayWorld award for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He continues as a Blue Ribbon Panelist for the Daytime Emmy Awards, and is on the voting committee for the SAG awards, and a member of “Who’s Who in the American Theatre” from 1991-present.  Jim was also an adjunct professor at Sacred Heart University (Advanced Acting, Advanced Scene Study,  Script Analysis and Directing) where he was recently nominated Best Director of a musical for his work on Godspell.

Shannon Colfer
Musical Theatre
Shannon holds her B.A. in Theatre Arts (Performance) from the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she has performed and directed a number of productions. Originally from NY, Shannon began acting as a child in musicals across Long Island including Legally Blonde (Brooke) and Fiddler on the Roof (Chava). She went on to perform and direct throughout college in a variety of different shows, from Shakespeare to new workshops. As well as work with a group of incredible voice coaches and mentors in the Hudson Valley. At the same time, she has taught improv, theatre, music, and art to ages 6 to 16 at Peconic Dunes Camp on Long Island. Favorite credits include:  Maureen in Rent (North Fork Community Theatre), Imogen in Cymbeline (SUNY New Paltz), and Ilse in Spring Awakening (SUNY New Paltz). Shannon is super excited to work with the kids at MTC!

Elissa DeMaria 
MTC Student Production MD & Choreographer, Musical Theatre, & Private Voice Coach
A professional actress residing in the NYC area, Elissa has been part of the MTC family since 2012. She has been seen on the mainstage at MTC in Falsettoland (Cordelia), Jekyll & Hyde (Lucy), Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey; CT Critics Circle Nomination), Next to Normal (Natalie) as well as others! Other select credits include: The Marvelous Wonderettes (Standby), Kiss Me Kate (Lois/Bianca), Seussical (Gertrude), Shout!: A Mod Musical (Red Girl), Light in the Piazza (Ensemble/Franca U/S). Elissa teaches musical theatre and private voice lessons at MTC. She holds a BFA in musical theatre from Point Park University. Proud member of AEA. www.elissademaria.com

Alexandra Fortin
NHA Program Student Production Director
Alexandra is a NYC city based actress and teaching artist. She loves teaching all ages and encouraging creativity and storytelling. Alexandra has taught comedy, improv, and musical theater classes at Trinity Repertory, Child’s Play NYC, and at New Hampshire’s Theater Under the Stars. In 2020, she was the founder and creator of Indoor Recess where she taught theater classes and voice lessons to children online. Currently she teaches across New England, and just recently had the pleasure of directing Annie the Musical in partnership with the Norwalk Housing Authority here at MTC! Favorite acting credits: Annelle in Steel Magnolias at The Gallery Players, Margot in The Diary of Anne Frank at Ocean State Theater Company. Additional favorites: Thea in Hedda Gabler, Babe in Crimes of the Heart, Agnes in Agnes of God, Young Woman in Machinal, Duckling in Our Countries Good, and Rosalind in As You Like It. AEA. alexandramariefortin.com

Luckenia Guerrier
NHA Dance Program
Luckenia Guerrier was born in the Caribbean island of Haiti, then moved to America at the age of four with her family. She has always had a love for movement and was really inspired from shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Luckenia started her technical dance training at The Regional Center for the Arts in Trumbull, Connecticut. Through RCA, she had the opportunity to train at the Earl Mosley Institute for the Arts in the summer of 2012. Luckenia briefly took a break from dance training throughout college and after. In that time Luckenia has earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Science with a minor in sports science and has gotten into painting and drawing as another creative outlet. Luckenia recently got back into dancing about two years ago in 2019 and has since been training with dance Company Team Leggoo, under the guidance of Paul and Brian Herman and various other choreographers. Luckenia has had the opportunity to perform in various shows and work with local artists. Luckenia aspires to expand and grow through dance and to inspire those around her to embrace and nurture their art expression.

Deborah Levy
MTC Student Production Director, Acting, Musical Theatre, and Improv
Deb has been on the faculty at MTC since 1989! Aside from teaching and directing at MTC, Deb worked at the Johnston Talent Agency for thirteen years. Deb was a commercial agent for two well known children’s agencies in New York; Abrams Artists and Associates, and Jordan, Gill and Dornbaum. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Deb studied acting at Circle in the Square in NYC. She performed in several Off Broadway productions including Inside Out and Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Summer Stock credits include Fiddler on the Roof at the New Jersey Festival Theatre, as well as roles with Keene State Theatre, Hope Theatre, and The Summer Theatre at Mount Holyoke College. Deb also performed in a live Industrial for Pepsi Cola (where she met her husband, Mark), and she also appeared in several soap operas including One Life to Live and As the World Turns. Currently Deb is a paraprofessional at McKinley Elementary School. She supports students with special needs in grades 4 and 5. She lives in Trumbull with her husband and their daughters, Leah (a graduate of the MTC College-Bound program) and Justine. Member AEA, AFTRA.

Tracey Marble
Private Voice Coach
As an actress and a singer, Tracey has performed off-broadway, way off-broadway, on TV and on the radio.  She has done live and recorded industrials, hundreds of sound-alikes and jingles for a multitude of clients--spanning the spectrum from PBS to The World Wrestling Federation. She has written and directed for Pepsico.  Tracey is a co-creator/songwriter and producer as well as one of the actresses in Another Day In Paradise, a musical that has enjoyed three New York runs to date and is now available for licensing (www.anotherdayinparadisemusical.com). She produced the first theatrical event for Mamapalooza at Off-Broadway’s Zipper Theater in Manhattan. This is the only cultural festival of its kind, celebrating moms in the arts.  In addition to being part of Music Theatre of Connecticut’s Voice Faculty, Tracey is on the Voice Faculty in the Musical Theatre Division of The Hartt School. She maintains a private studio and is an adjunct professor of voice at Fairfield University. Tracey is a member of the New York Singing Teachers Association and The National Association of Teachers of Singing.  She was the lead vocalist for the popular metro area band, Celebration for 25 years. Tracey is as comfortable with jazz, swing, pop, rock and R&B classics as she is with show tunes. And as today’s musical theatre is melting pot of these various styles, Tracey integrates these genres into her teaching.  She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University and received a BA with Distinction in Theatre and Telecommunications.  She studied voice with Margaret Harshaw and Don Pfost. Tracey continues her professional development as an artist and an educator by regularly attending Broadway Teaching seminars, workshops and master classes. She is happily married with three great kids and is living proof that family and career are not mutually exclusive.

Alex Mongillo
NHA Program Student Production Director
Alex holds a B.A. in Film, TV, and Media Arts from Fairfield University where he also performed in a multitude of plays and musicals. As a performer, some of his favorite roles include Bud Frump in How To Succeed, Rod in Avenue Q, and Claudio in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Outside MTC, Alex was the acting coach for Middletown Stage Company where he also taught a Shakespeare abridged workshop, an acting for the stage and camera workshop, and an improvisation workshop for their teen theatre camp. He has also worked on a few independent films, as a professional photographer, and in the New Haven Public Schools system as a paraprofessional. At MTC, Alex directs the Norwalk Housing Authority Student Production.