Making a donation of $35 pays for a child's costume. Making a donation of $75 pays for a full day of quality performing arts experiences for one child.
Our Students
- I had lots of fun, made new friends and learned a lot!
- Opening night is my most memorable moment because I know all of my hard work paid off!
- I learned to act, sing, dance, work hard, make new friends and learn lots of stuff about theater.
Staff / Board of Directors
Staff
(in alphabetical order)
Tim "Coley" Carroll (Musical Director) has studied at Westminster Choir College, Glassboro State College, and Rowan University. He teaches music, and plays the piano for numerous theatres, schools, and churches. He is particularly proud of being a member of LAUDA! Chamber Singers.
Amanda Grady (Asst. Choreographer) is a 16 year old Junior at Clearview Regional High School where she is an Honors Society member. She has been involved with Learning Stages since she was 8 years old. She has performed at Six Flags, 76ers games, Disney World, Boscov's Parade, Labyrinth Theatre Company in NYC, and with Roseann Bruna School of Dance for 14 years.
Caroline Kohler (Costume Design-Daydreamers) is a high school senior at Gateway Regional High School and has performed in many musicals throughout her high school career. Caroline plans to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in the fall to study fashion design. She has worked as assistant costume designer for Learning Stages for 2 years.
Aileen Oldt's (Costume Designer/Props Mistress) most recent works include: Cabaret (CCC), Annie Get Your Gun (Pitman High School) Romeo and Juliet (Camden County College), Into the Woods (Gateway H.S.), A Christmas Carol (Rutgers U., Camden), Our Town (w/Learning STAGES and CCC), and Damn Yankees (Learning STAGES) in 2001 and has many other credits to add to the list.
Michele B. Peraino (Set Designer/Artist/Carpenter) is entering her second year on staff after a spectacular year of Alice in Wonderland and Little Shop of Horrors. Michele had volunteered her services for three years prior. Michele has worked as a professional scenic artist/carpenter for professional theaters such as: The Wilma, The Walnut Street, the Arden, and the Annenberg Theater as well as working for local scene shops that built projects for the Mum Puppet Theater, Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Line, Calvin Klien and The Philadelphia Flower Show. She has taught Set Design for Upper Darby's Summer Stage. As a working artist, Michele has been creating fine art, murals, tompe l'oiel, stained glass, clay work, soft sculpture, costumes, metalwork for commercial and private clients. Michele looks forward to fulfilling her vision with the set of Annie and part of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and the joy of watching the kids shine!
John Perovich (Class ACT coordinator/teaching artist) instructs students as a Complex Director and Adjunct Professor of Playwriting at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Perovich’s play, wash with the out, was recently selected to be presented at the Mid-America Theatre Conference in Chicago.
Renee J. Post (Executive Director/Producer) is the Executive Director of Learning Stages. Her responsibilities include: producing all Learning Stages productions, fundraising, marketing, board and member recruitment, and hiring and training staff. She also works closely with the Board and the Artistic and Education Director to uphold the artistic mission and vision for the organization. Directing credits include: You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, Our Town, Lives of the Great Waitresses, Overtones, Flying Lessons, The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry, and Fabulous Fable Factory. Producing credits include: 42nd Street, Kiss Me Kate, Bye Bye Birdie, Grease, West Side Story (2000), Strolling Players, Turning 10 and Learning STAGES' 9/11 benefit, America CenterStage. Renee is also an adjunct professor at Rowan University, Camden County College and Gloucester County College. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Elizabethtown College and a Master of Arts degree in Communications from Rowan University.
Scott Purcell (Musical Director-StarGazers) is currently a sophomore voice performance major at Westminster Choir College. He recently toured the mid-west with the Westminster Choir, one of America’s premiere Choral ensembles.
Erin Putman (Head Teacher/Director) a veteran of Learning Stages and previously Gloucester County Summer Drama Workshop, joins the Daydreamers program as head teacher/director for the ninth consecutive year. She works during the months of September-June for Voorhees School District as a special education teacher at the elementary level. Her two loves are teaching and theater- and the Daydreamers program allows her to combine the two!
Joe Salvatore (Artistic and Education Director) is a theatre artist and educator based in Manhattan. He is on the faculty of the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University where he teaches courses in acting and directing, directs productions for the program, serves as the artistic director of the Shakespeare Initiative and trains teachers and teaching artists to integrate dramatic activities into the elementary and secondary classroom curricula.
Joe holds an MFA in Theater (Dramaturgy/Directing) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an Honors BA in History from the University of Delaware. He is also a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.
Chelsea Sutter (Asst. Director-StarGazers) is a former graduate of AMDA, a musical theatre program in New York City. She has worked with Learning Stages for two years and is a working actress in the Delaware Valley.
Charles (Chic) Walker's (Director, StarGazers) singing and acting career took him not only to some of the greatest orchestras and opera companies in the world (Rome, Vienna, LaScala, Houston, Seattle, the National Symphony, PBS, RAI, ORF, Wolf Trap, Ravinia, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center) but also to Broadway, U. S. regional theaters and the international theater festivals of Edinburgh, Heidelburg, Caracas, Rio de Janierio and Munich. Since 1996, during the academic year Mr. Walker has been on the voice faculty at Westminster Choir College in Princeton and last year was named Director of the 2008 Westminster Choir College High School Solo Vocal Artist Summer Program. In the past 3 years Chic has staged The Fantasticks, Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof and Once Upon a Mattress for Gateway Regional High School, Godspell and Little Shop Of Horrors for Learning Stages and three concerts of Scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at Westminster. He is also the staff church musician at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Ewing N.J. as well as the former artistic director of the Lauda! Chamber Singers.
Board of Directors
Renee Post, Executive Director / Marketing & Fundraising Chair
Chris Peraino, Board Member/Parent Advisory Board
Joe Salvatore, Artistic & Education Chair
Professor, Theater and Education
New York University, New York, NY
Dean Post, Treasurer Senior Program Coordinator
American Association for Cancer Research Philadelphia, PA