Click below to meet our 2024 Camp Teaching artists.
Summer Stock
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Lead Teacher
Youri Kim is an engaging theatre practitioner with a rich cultural background in theater across South Korea, Germany, the U.K., and now the U.S. With an MFA in Directing from East 15 Acting School, she brings a deep understanding of how theater can question societal norms and amplify minority voices. Through her work, she's directed and written plays that tackle gender and immigration issues, earning recognition and support from prestigious arts foundations. Now focusing on education in the U.S., Youri is working for afterschool programs, children musical classes, and theater courses at community college, passionately believing in the power of theater to inspire, connect, and foster creativity in the next generation.
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Choreographer
Graciela Rey is a two time Helen Hayes nominated performer and educator and is so excited to be teaching with Summer Stock this year! She has performed in 13 professional productions since the pandemic and most recently understudied Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Soprano and played the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof, both at Olney Theatre Center. She has worked on nationally recognized and award winning productions and was featured in District Fray’s list of ‘50 Up and Coming Companies, Performers, and Productions to watch’. Graciela has held a teaching residency with DC Public Schools, led a masterclass workshop for the DC commission on the Arts and Humanities (DC CAH) and was a teacher on Harvard Project Zero’s ‘Children are Citizens’ initiative. She has choreographed or directed over 17 educational productions and has served as a grant panelist for the (DC CAH) dance fellowship. Graciela has instructional experience in elementary, secondary, and collegiate settings and loves teaching dance in a way that encourages self expression, strong technique, an artistic point of view, individual empowerment and a collaborative ensemble. Graciela has a BA in Musical Theatre from American University.
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Music Director
Pamela Wilt is very pleased to be returning to Olney Theatre Center Summer Stock! She has been a theatre musical director and keyboardist for 40 years, and most recently played keyboards for The World Goes ‘Round at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, and for Olney Theatre’s The Music Man and Beauty and the Beast. Pam was a staff composer and youth music editor for The United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville and has numerous anthems and articles published with them, including the Youth Musical, “Back to Bethlehem.” She has worked extensively with school musicals, theatre camps, and childrens’ church choirs, and served many years as a substitute teacher, grades K-12 with the Scotch Plains-Fanwood (NJ) and Parkland (PA) school systems.
Musical Theatre Intensive
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Lead Teacher
Dani Stoller is an actress and playwright from Brooklyn New York. Credits include: Which Way to the Stage, Ragtime (Signature Theater, Helen Hayes Nomination for Best Supporting Performer); My Body, No Choice (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Nomination for Best Supporting Performer); As You Like It, Midsummer, District Merchants (Folger Theatre); The Joy That CarriesYou, The Humans, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Crucible (Olney Theatre Center). She has also performed at Studio Theatre, Theater J, 1st Stage, Keegan Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Playwriting credits: Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes (Signature Theater), Just Great (recently published by Broadway Licensing), The Voices of Blackwell Island, The Possumneck Playhouse Presents... (Signature Theater SIS Program), Girlhood (Round House Theatre TPC commission), The Joy That Carries You, co-written with Awa Sal Secka (Olney Theatre Center, Winner of the Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play).
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Choreographer
Nikki Mirza (she/her) is originally from Southern California, and is now a DC based theatre artist. Her experience as a creative team member and performer deeply influences and informs both her artistry and perspective. Nikki has worked regionally with theatres such as La Jolla Playhouse, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, Theater J, Imagination Stage, NextStop Theatre Company, 1st Stage, Constellation Theatre Company, Goodspeed Opera House, Weathervane Playhouse, and Creede Repertory Theatre. She frequently collaborates on projects involving youth and the arts, having worked many TYA contracts as well as in the Entertainment Department at Legoland California. She was recently selected as a 2024 Kennedy Center Local Theatre Artist in Residence for a play she’s writing and developing. Website: nikkimirza.com
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Music Director
Lydia Gifford (she/her) is a DMV-based performer, music director, and educator. Originally from Orlando, Florida, she moved to DC to pursue musical theatre at Catholic University and has been performing and teaching professionally since graduating. She often wears many hats, from music directing to choreographing and accompanying to performing, and she is passionate about encouraging the next generation of young budding artists. As an educator, she has worked with NextStop (Moana Jr.) and Signature Theater (Stage One) as well as local middle schools' productions of Wiily Wonka Jr., A Year With Frog And Toad, Matilda Jr., and Junie B. Jones (MD/choreo). Local performance credits include: Toby's Dinner Theater: A Chorus Line (Cassie), Grease (Jan), Rocky (Adrian); Angel Number Nine (Rorschach Theater); and The 4208 Group (Natural). You can keep up with Lydia at lydia-gifford.com.
