About Theatre Aspen Education

Vanessa is a proud founding member of Arts Ed Chi, an arts education advocacy and practice collective in Chicago. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied Theatre, Musical Theatre, Musical Theatre Choreography, and Political Science. Her theatre and dance pedagogy are grounded in inclusive and accessible community-based practices, curated risk taking, and resiliency.

By fostering agency, creative-decision making, self-advocacy, and play through the performing arts, she works to facilitate spaces where young people can become better communicators, collaborators, and community members.

Brittany comes to Theatre Aspen from Kansas City, where she worked as a performer, teaching artist to all ages, voiceover artist, playwright, and deviser on new works with theatres such as The Coterie, The Unicorn, and UMKC’s theatre program. She has worked with YM360, a touring youth production camp company, as both the Production Director and an actor for several summers.

Brittany holds a M.F.A. in Acting from the Conservatory at The University of Missouri-Kansas City and a B.A. in Theatre (Acting/Directing) from Samford University. She is trained in mask technique, epic and devised movement, and clown. She aims to create consent-forward environments that protect and empower the artists and their work. She is passionate about fostering the next generation of young artists who will share new imaginative stories to shape a better world through uninhibited imagination. She is driven to developing existing communities by making theatre accessible to all people.

Music Director

Dory Light is thrilled to be spending another summer with the kids and staff of Theatre Aspen! She moved from the Philadelphia area to Glenwood Springs in 2002. Dory gives private voice and piano lessons and is the music director for Aspen Community Church. You’ve probably seen Dory directing and playing in the pit for Aspen Community Theatre, CMC, and various productions in the valley. Dory lives with her husband and husky in New Castle. 

Teaching Artist

Emily Henley is a Colorado based actress that graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2019. Having returned to Colorado when the pandemic hit, she is thrilled to be back in the valley, working and auditioning. Henley is also excited to be joining the Theatre Aspen family. An actress from the Roaring Fork Valley herself, Emily has worked with many of the professional theater companies in the valley, most recently being Thunder River Theatre Company, in their production of Men On Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus.

Jess is so grateful to return to Theatre Aspen and join the summer team! Jess is an educator, actor and dancer who studied Theatre, Psychology and Social Justice at Bucknell University. After graduating, she was an Education Apprentice with Theatre Aspen and choreographer for Willy Wonka Jr. She has since worked with Portland Stage Company as the Education Intern. Some favorite past theatre projects are developing and teaching a musical theatre class at elementary schools in CT and assistant choreographing Spring Awakening with the Downtown Cabaret Theatre in Bridgeport, CT.