Our Instructors
Emily Marr
Youth Acting: Intro to Theater
Lead Teacher
Emily has been acting on stage for over 16 years. She has several years of theater experience in puppeteering and full-scale shadow puppetry, which taught her various techniques on expressing emotion through silent movement and body language. She has coached younger actors in both official and unofficial capacities in homeschool speech and debate learning environments, giving feedback on body language, posture, diction, projection, and more. She has been an assistant teacher with Classical Conversations and helped coach students on memorization, preparation of material, and physical presence on stage, and has experience in editing and performing classic literature pieces, from Shakespeare to Jane Austen. Emily's credits with Jupiter Theater Company include Love's Labor's Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hunchback.
*All of our teachers pass a background check.
Heidi Koleszar
Youth Acting: Next Level Teacher
&
Youth Acting: Intro to Theater Assistant Teacher
Heidi Koleszar has been acting since she could talk, but was not on stage until around the age of 12. Heidi absolutely loves the idea that you get to wear outrageous costumes, be super extra, and people pay to come see you. She has been involved in productions with Lighthouse Drama and Jupiter Theater Company, and JTC deemed her not annoying enough to get rid of, which she is thrilled about. Heidi assistant taught JTC's youth acting course in Spring 2022. When she's not acting, Heidi enjoys talking about Jesus, Brazilian jiu jitsu, singing, watching cheesy musicals, learning how to skateboard, wrestling her dog, laughing until she cries, and being a dingus with her friends and family.
*All of our teachers pass a background check.
Genna Pratt
Youth Acting: Next Level
Teacher
Genna started acting at a young age and began teaching as an assistant for classes with Lighthouse Drama in 2015. She continued working with them as a lead teacher and assistant director until their closure in 2020. Genna has been a part of Jupiter Theater Company as an actor since 2019, and as a teacher since 2021. She has always loved working with children — she spent her teenage years babysitting and teaching children’s ministry at her church. She is pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and has worked at Harrison Street Academy since 2018. She is excited to have her love of teaching and love of drama come together once again as the teacher of Youth Acting: Next Level. She looks forward to meeting the students and watching them discover the world of theater which she herself has come to love.
*All of our teachers pass a background check.
Felicity Harris
Youth Acting: Next Level
Assistant Teacher
Felicity has worked with children of all ages for over 10 years, the last 5 of which have been at Camp Highroad Christian Adventure Camp. Her work includes helping children and adults learn to communicate more effectively through team-building activities, gain confidence through zip-line and high-ropes challenges and grow in capability through nature and survival programs. Apart from being a dramatic extrovert naturally, she recently played the Armless Vagabond in Jupiter Theater Company’s production of Hunchback.
*All of our teachers pass a background check.
Christian Fernandez
Taking the Stage: Ancient Theater
Lead Teacher
Christian has been teaching in Northern Virginia since 2017. He received his B.A. in Literature from Patrick Henry College and his Master of Letters in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University. While in graduate school, he interned and worked with actors, directors, and personnel of the American Shakespeare Center. His directing credits include Oedipus the King (2018) and Oedipus at Colonus (2018), among others. He has taught for Lighthouse Drama (2017) and led multiple Patrick Henry College Teen Camps: Shakespeare on Stage (2018, 2019), Speech (2020, 2021, 2022), and Theater (2021, 2022). He currently works as the English, Theater, and Debate Teacher at Evergreen Christian School and as an Adjunct Professor of Classical Liberal Arts at Patrick Henry College.
*All of our teachers pass a background check.
