Current Teaching Artists

VOICE / MUSIC

Jermaine Manor enjoys a versatile career as a Professor of Voice, conductor, collaborative pianist and Worship & Arts Pastor. He holds a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Pedagogy and a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting. He also has completed certifications in Commercial Music from Berklee College of Music and Church music from The Royal School of Church Music (Croydon, England). Jermaine has enjoyed teaching across many vocal genres at institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, Pointe Park University, Mckendree University and now Webster University. Jermaine has also worked with COCA, The Repertory and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. As an active composer, Jermaine's works appear in the catalogs of Gentry Publications, Hinshaw Music Company, GIA and Kjos Music Press. He is proud member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity, Inc, American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), National Association for Music Educators (NAfME) and National Association of Teachers Of Singing (NATS). Jermaine is a strong proponent for diverse musical representation and not being put in a box based on your race. Music has no color, only styles. Sing what you want to sing, no matter what color you are. Jermaine lives by the mantra “what I do is a get-to, not a have to.”

Jermaine Manor
Musical Theatre Performance

Ashleigh Blevins began her singing career at the age of three, performing for packed stadiums with her father's country western band, and she has rarely been seen away from the stage ever since. Ashleigh’s favorite regional performance credits include Fairy Godmother (Cinderella), The Baker’s Wife (Into The Woods), Mina (Dracula), and The Witch (Into The Woods). Ashleigh has taught voice and theatre for over twenty years. She is a co-founder of Gateway Center for Performing Arts, where she currently serves as Education Director and Marketing Director. She has teaching experience and expertise through all ages, levels and abilities, teaching music, language, and theatre at many St. Louis institutions, including South City Community School, Miriam School and Learning Center, Delta Gamma Center and STAGES St. Louis. Favorite directing credits include The Spongebob Musical Youth Edition, Willy Wonka KIDS, School House Rock Jr., A Year With Frog & Toad KIDS, 101 Dalmatians KIDS, Elf Jr., Zombie Prom Atomic Edition, Seussical, Honk and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. She is a published composer, a recording artist, a proven educator, and a fierce advocate for her students to be transformed and to transform others through the power of music and the performing arts.

Ashleigh Blevins
Musical Makers, Show Starters

Josie Kopff
Broadway Babies,
Musical Theatre Performance

Lori Barrett-Pagano (she/her) earned her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Washington University in St. Louis.  She has been teaching voice for over 20 years – currently as an adjunct voice faculty at St. Louis University, privately out of her home, as well as voice and musical theatre classes at GCPA. Lori enjoys singing numerous styles of music and has performed with musical theatre, operetta, and opera companies.  Locally, she has performed with The MUNY, STAGES St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera, Echo Theatre, Spotlight Theatre, MainStage Musicals and SIUE Summer Showbiz.  Regional credits include The Minnesota Opera, North Star Opera, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Theatre in the Round, and The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company. Her most enjoyable performing is to sing and dance around the house with her actor/singer husband, Paul, and her most precious stars, son, Xavier, and daughter, Kalia.

Lori Barrett-Pagano
Voice

 

Sarah Vlodek has had a passion for performing from a very young age, beginning dance lessons at the age of 2, and being in her first musical at the age of 7.  Sarah recently graduated from Waldorf University where she earned both a B.A in Musical Theatre and a B.A in Vocal Performance.  Sarah discovered her love for directing and teaching when she directed her first one act play in high school, and since then she has taught private voice lessons, worked as an ensemble assistant for the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, and co-directed the Musical Theatre Showcase at her university.  Sarah has attended several summer vocal intensives where she has performed in many scenes and full length operas including Don Giovanni, Little Women, and Susannah.  Sarah has also performed in many musicals, with a few of her favorite roles being Mother in Ragtime, Pennywise in Urinetown, and Cathy in The Last Five Years.

Sarah Vlodek
Voice Studio,
Musical Theatre Performance

Brianna Faulk is a professional singer and vocal teacher whose performance career has taken her across the world!  Brianna specializes in musical theatre, contemporary, and gospel music, and has a heart for nurturing the next generation of performers. Brianna is excited to bring her experience as both a performer and teacher to the GCPA community, where she hopes to inspire students to grow in vocal development, stage presence and self expression. 

Brianna Green
Voice Studio, Modern Music, Musical Theatre Performance

Mary Mather is excited to be back in St. Louis after a decade spent working in both West and East Coast performing arts production companies. She has provided Direction, Music Direction, and/or Choreography for over 65 productions including 17 musicals, 6 plays, 4 original works, and over 40 musical revues. Selected credits include; Mary Poppins (MD), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Choreo.), Into the Woods (MD/Choreo.), Little Shop of Horrors (Dir.), The Music Man (Dir.), City of Angels (Dir.), and A Little Princess (MD/Choreo). Everlasting gratitude to her incredibly supportive husband for years of listening to musicals on repeat, watching choreography demonstrations, and helping double check rehearsal schedule drafts.

Mary Mather
Musical Theatre Performance, Musical Theatre Dance

 
 

ACTING / IMPROV

Paul Pagano (he/him), a native of St. Louis, received his BA in Drama from Washington University and Masters in Theatre Education from Fontbonne University.  As an actor, Paul has had the opportunity to work with the Guthrie Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Children’s Theatre Company, Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, Hey City Theatre, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre, the MUNY, STAGES St. Louis, HotCity Theatre, and many others.  He has worked with Hunter Foster, Kathy Fitzgerald, Peter Michael Goetz, Anne Bogart, and Dan Goggin.  Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 2001.

As an instructor, Paul has taught at COCA, the Utah Shakespeare Festival Teen Acting Intensive, St. Louis University High School, and STAGES Performing Arts Academy. When not on stage or in the classroom, Paul’s favorite roles are being a husband to wife, Lori, and father to budding stars, Xavier & Kalia.  

Paul Pagano
Acting

Cassie Gant holds a BFA in musical theatre from Chicago College of Performing Arts. After living in Chicago for the last 7 years, she has relocated to St. Louis where she grew up doing local theatre productions, including at GCPA! In addition to her credits as an actor and vocalist, Cassie’s background includes stage management, props, and experience as a professional scenic painter in Chicago. She now teaches and serves on the creative teams for multiple production companies in St. Louis.

Cassie Gant
Acting, Improv

Annalise McCann (She/They) is an actor, singer, writer, and director. She is also a GCPA alum! Most recently she portrayed Marie Curie in the Off-Broadway Premiere of “Bengal to Berlin” This past spring, her play “Just Juliet” had its Off-Broadway premiere, which she directed. Annalise is a graduate of NYU Tisch school of the Arts where she earned her BFA in Drama, where she studies at the New Studio On Broadway, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, and the Atlantic Acting School.. Off Broadway: Into The Woods as Rapunzel/Baker’s Wife understudy (The Flea Theater.) Her other credits include; Caius Cassius in RADA’s Julius Caesar Duty Sergent/Ensemble in NYU’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Velma Kelly in Chicago, Bobby Strong in Urinetown and The Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. annalisemccann.com 

Annalise McCann
Acting, Improv,
Musical Theatre Performance

Trinity Rain Madison, a St. Louis native, is an all-around creative with a passion for arts education. She received her BS from Abilene Christian University where she studied Theatre, Education, and English. Trinity has a growing portfolio including directorial work (Tapestry, IT’S A BIRD… IT’S A PLANE… IT’S SUPERMAN, In the Heights), sound engineering (The Little Mermaid, Godspell, The Coast Starlight), and writing (Grace for President: the presidential play, A Black Inheritance, The Shinnery Review).  She is also an experienced stage management, jazz and musical theatre dance choreographer, and actress. One of Trinity’s biggest joys has been teaching at Gateway Center for Performing Arts since 2021! When she’s not working, she enjoys reading, learning Swahili, and cuddling with her dog, Tempo.

Trinity Rain Madison
Acting, Improv

 

DANCE

Stephanie Fox, originally from Oklahoma, graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Music: Music Theatre and continued her studies independently in New York at studios including Jen Waldman Studio, Kimberly Vaughn: Kimberly Vaughn Performance Studio, Broadway Dance Center, and Steps on Broadway. . As a proud member of Actors’ Equity (Stephanie Long) she has performed regionally, on National tour and in New York. Favorite credits include: National Tour: Junie B. Jones (May); Regional: Company (Amy), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Millie), A Chorus Line (Diana and Maggie), Nunsense (Sr. Robert Anne), Godspell (Robin), Grease (Jan), Titanic (Alice Beane), Pump Boys and Dinettes (Rhetta), and White Christmas (Judy). In St. Louis, Stephanie has taught at COCA, STAGES, and choreographed for 8 years at Chaminade College Prep along with numerous professional choreography credits. Wednesday nights - we're back!

Stephanie Fox
Musical Theatre Dance

Mia Millican
Tiny Toes, Musical Theatre Performance


Mattie White is currently a student at Missouri Baptist University pursuing her BFA in Musical Theatre with a Minor in Dance. Mattie has worked as a choreographer for The Actor's Attic in Columbia, IL since 2022, as well as being a teacher's aid for elementary and middle school music classes at her former high school since 2021. Her love of teaching propelled Mattie into performance, where she has been seen on stage as Katherine Plumber in MBU's recent production of Newsies. Some of her other favorite roles include Juror #6 (12 Angry Jurors), Ensemble (Fiddler on the Roof), and Sandra Bloom (Big Fish). 

Mattie White
Musical Theatre Performance,
Musical Theatre Dance

Lilly Hetz (Musical Theatre, Musical Theatre Dance) is a St. Louis based movement artist and creative. She has loved taking her love for dance to the air throughout the past ten years. Using the stage name Lil-E-Lectric, Lilly has been hired to perform aerial arts, dance, and stilt walking at both corporate and public events in the St. Louis area and beyond. She loves to show grace, strength, and storytelling in the air. Lilly’s favorite aspect of performing is interacting with her audience to create magical and truly unique experiences. Lilly is an acrobatics, aerial. and dance instructor at various dance and performing arts studios across the St. Louis area. Watching her students improve and grow both as artists and as individuals is truly her greatest joy. It is important to Lilly that she cultivates a positive and uplifting environment for students to achieve their individual goals. She has a passion for motivating others through aerial arts and dance. Lilly graduated from Missouri Baptist University with honors in the fall of 2023 with a major in Business Marketing and a minor in both Business Administration and Dance. There, she competed on and led her collegiate dance team for four years as captain. She enjoys using what she has learned to connect with others through movement. Lilly is very grateful to have the opportunity to do what she loves everyday and to share her passions with those around her.

Lily Hetz
Musical Theatre Dance

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Jennifer Egley is a St. Louis native and recent graduate of the University of Kansas where she earned a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Education. At school she had the pleasure of studying with artists such as Christine Colby Jacques, Michelle Heffner Hayes, Tristian Griffin, Ashley Brittingham, Andie Stitt, Jerel Hilding and Patrick Suzeau. She is currently a Trainee and the Special Events Intern for The Big Muddy Dance Company. She is excited to be back in St. Louis and to start working with the amazing students and staff at GCPA!

Jennifer Egley
Show Starters


Elizabeth Egley was born and raised in St. Louis. She started dancing when she was 2, and before college, she performed with several different theatres/organizations in St. Louis, including Variety Children's Theatre, The Muny, and GCPA's Youth Theatre Company (The Music Man, Matilda, Spring Awakening, Cabaret). She graduated from Lindenwood this spring with a BFA in Musical Theatre and a Minor in Dance, where she had the opportunity to perform in several shows, including Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Ella), Ordinary Days (Claire), and Urinetown (Ensemble/dance captain). In addition, she performed in three Lindenwood University Dance Department concerts. She is so excited to return to GCPA as a teaching artist this year!

Elizabeth Egley
Leaps & Turns

Hannah Owens originally hails from Northeast Ohio where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Concentrating in Dance from Lake Erie College. She has performed professionally with the Lake Erie College and Cleveland State University dance companies. Hannah is passionate about dance education and has enjoyed teaching creative movement, modern, ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre, and dance composition to all ages for over a decade. She had the rewarding opportunity to develop the dance curriculum for ArtsCarts mobile art program and to implement the program in a variety of classroom settings, integrating both academic and arts education. She has also enjoyed choreographing many shows for high school and community theaters, including Once on this Island (Geauga Lyric Theater), The Wind in the Willows, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Light in the Piazza, and Oliver! (Rabbit Run Theater), Annie (Chagrin Valley Little Theater), The Music Man (The Fine Arts Association), All Shook Up (Madison High School), and Crazy for You, Mary Poppins, and A Chorus Line (Mentor High School). Hannah is honored and so excited to join the GCPA community. Outside the dance studio, you can find her sewing vintage dresses, gardening, cooking, reading, and going out swing dancing… and enjoying lots and lots of coffee!

Hannah Owens
Modern, Musical Theatre Dance, Tap, Musical Makers

Mary Fedak is thrilled to teach at GCPA, doing full summers of camps and production camps as well as full years in both Musical Theater Dance and Tap classes. She has been actively involved in dance and musical theater for over thirty years both onstage as a performer as well a choreographer for numerous youth theater productions as well as community theater musicals. She continues to perform herself with both the St. Louis Strutters and the St. Louis Showstoppers and has appeared multiple times on the Muny stage. She has also served as past director of the Missouri River Cloggers for many years. In addition to teaching for GCPA, she has been a teaching artist for Stages St. Louis for the past seven years and has served as choreographer and board member of Over Due Theater for over ten years. She is a past recipient of an AFL award for choreography, as well as other choreography and actress nominations. It is truly her passion to be able create musical theater experiences whether it be working with youth performers all the way through adults.

Mark Fedak
Musical Theatre Dance,
Jazz, Tap,
Musical Theatre Performance

 

Michael Harp is a St. Louis native and graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston. New York: Jimmy Awards®. Chicago: Lyric Opera, “Kurt” The Sound of Music, Drury Lane “Michael” Billy Elliot, Paramount Theatre “Rolf” The Sound of Music, “Ralphie” A Christmas Story. Television: NBC’s ‘Chicago Fire,’ HBO’s ‘Somebody Somewhere.’  Regional: Bucks County Playhouse White Christmas “U/S Phil, Jimmy.” Michael has won the St. Louis High School Musical Award for ‘best actor’ in both 2019 and 2020. He has also appeared in more than 20 productions at The Muny in St. Louis, including The Addams Family as “Pugsley” and as “Michael” in Billy Elliot for which he won Best Supporting Actor (Broadway World). He is now the resident host for the Ken Page Awards. 

Michael Harp
Tap

Todd Weeks has over four decades of dance experience, and he is excited to be in his third year of teaching Ballet and Jazz at GCPA. Todd has extensive performance and choreography credits in the STL dance community, including many Muny contracts, teaching ballet for UMSL for seven years and serving as the Artistic Director for MADCO (Modern American Dance Company) for over ten years. Todd was also the owner and director of Midwest Dance Academy for nearly twenty years. His extensive dance background has given him a passionate perspective on the body and dance, and he loves sharing his love of the craft with his students.

Todd Weeks
Ballet, Modern, Jazz

Laura Roth, a native of Jacksonville, IL, is a freelance dancer, teacher, and choreographer based in St. Louis, MO. Laura has performed with companies and collectives including Leverage Dance Theatre, Smashworks Dance, Common Thread Contemporary Ballet, and pH eXchange Dance Theatre, and she has had the pleasure of collaborating with Masterworks Chorale on multiple projects. She has performed in Dance St. Louis’ Spring to Dance, Kansas City Fringe Festival, City in Motion’s A Modern Night at the Folly, Dine on Dance, 60x60 St. Louis, Dancing in the Street and National Dance Week.  In addition to teaching at GCPA, she has taught dance and musical theatre at STAGES, DaySpring School for the Arts, COCA, Vitality Ballet, and more. A graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and a minor in Religious Studies. She is also a licensed Physical Therapist Assistant.

Laura Roth
Ballet

Originally from Lawrence, Kansas, Taylor Lee started dancing at the age of 13 with Lawrence Arts Center School of Dance and Point A School of Dance. Taylor had the opportunity to attend the AXIS Dance Company Summer Intensive in 2024 and seeks communities and spaces that are accessible and value disabled artist’s voices. She recently graduated from Webster University in May 2025 with a BFA in Dance with an Emphasis in Modern Dance. Her past St. Louis performances include “chew & spit” sponsored by Space Station and in collaboration with Marlee Doniff as well as in “Refractions of Being” and “Dine on Dance” as an apprentice with Leverage Dance Theater. She is thrilled to get back to teaching with GCPA and continue to perform and create in St. Louis.  

Taylor Lee
Dance,
Musical Theatre Performance

Substitute and Guest Teaching Artists

Gwendalyn Sinclair

Juno Meyer

Zion Thomas

Carole Anne Miller has been working as a professional actor and educator for almost a decade. Carole Ann holds a BFA in Acting and is completing her MFA in Theatre Pedagogy this year. Locally, she has been a part of the Riverboat Cruise Shows at the Gateway Arch, Jest Murder Mystery Company, and the Polar Express, and nationally has been a member of the Victorian Horror Troupe Phantasmagoria since 2019. Phantasmagoria has inspired Carole Ann's love of all things whimsically macabre, and brought this "Halfway to Halloween" workshop to (after)life! Carole Ann will be bringing excerpts from authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to explore the spookier side of literature and performance.

Carole Ann Miller
Acting

David Struckman holds a BA in Theatre and an MA in Education from Missouri State University, as well as an MA in Theatre from Regent University. He is a classroom teacher, theatre teacher, director and performer. Directing credits include Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Wind in the Willows, and his first semi-professional production this past summer titled The Time of My Life. He has performed on stage and in independent films such as Mostellaria, The Bear, and Silence for Sixty Years (original play). Independent films include September (Five Star Pictures) and The Day the Sky Fell (Winner of the Top Shorts Film Festival). David can't wait to get to know his students and help spark a lifelong love for the arts.

David Struckman
Acting, Improv