Melissa Bernstein, Artistic Director

Melissa Bernstein holds a BA in Theatre from SUNY-Binghamton, an MFA in Playwriting/Theatre Education from Emerson College and a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She founded the Newton Youth Players in 2006 and since then has directed over fifty productions involving close to one thousand youth actors. She is the Artistic Director of The Newton Theatre Company, and has directed all shows to date. Melissa directs the Wednesday and Thursday afternoon Kids! productions. Her favorite part of Kids! is hearing her young casts sing the scores to all the musicals she loved as a child.

Abby Lass, Director of Education

Abby Lass is a Newton native and recent graduate of Vassar College where she received a double major in Drama and Psychology with a minor in Greek and Roman Studies. Abby has an extensive theatrical background-- over the past decade, she has been involved in over 50 productions as an actor, director, designer, choreographer, intimacy coordinator, dramaturg, and producer. She has taken classes in dance, movement, musical theater, story-sharing, viewpoints, and Shakespearean verse at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Boston Children’s Theater, and Vassar College. She worked as an Assistant Director at Newton Youth Players for four summers and served as a Facilitator with Poughkeepsie Youth Theater. She has also conducted research into the psychological benefits of theater education for adolescents. Abby loves working with young artists of all experience levels and firmly believes in the importance of cultivating confidence and community through theater.
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​Neil Miller, Music Director

Neil Miller received a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT, where he followed a double major in music and electrical engineering. After college, he spent the next twelve years recording with several bands, touring the Eastern US and Canada. He now has a dual career as musician and electrical engineer. He has performed with numerous national artists including Lesley Gore, Tiny Tim, Bo Diddley and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He currently appears regularly at local venues. For the last ten years, he provided the live musical accompaniment for Newton Youth Players productions, and looks forward to working with Newton Theatre Company Kids! His greatest pleasure in working with children is seeing young performers learn how much fun it is to entertain an audience.

Anne Zasloff, Character Coach

Anne Zasloff loves language, literature, music, and teaching children. Throughout her professional life, she has helped children express themselves and find their voices. She has edited children’s books, worked as a speech-language pathologist, and now, for more than a decade, has taught reading and writing in elementary schools. She can still recite Lucy’s monologue from her 4th grade production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and satisfies her need for musical expression by singing alto with the Metropolitan Chorale. She thrills to work with the actors in the Theatre Kids! shows each season, as the players inhabit their roles and become a magical ensemble.

Margaret Remensnyder, Scenery Director

Margaret Remensnyder earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts degree in graphic design from Boston University School for the Arts. She has many years of experience teaching art to children in a variety of settings from after school programs, to art centers, schools and museums. She loves working with Newton Theatre Company Kids! as Set Designer because it's so much fun to make two and three dimensional set pieces for the plays with the kids! She is a painter who works in watercolor and gouache.

Shalini Prasad, Choreographer

Shalini Prasad is an integrative designer and brand consultant who practices under DeSha Creative, and teaches at Lesley University College of Art & Design. In addition to her role as a designer, artist and educator, she is an avid dancer, choreographer and actor and has performed in a myriad of venues. Her interdisciplinary background in both the creative arts (architecture, graphic design and art) and performing arts (classical Indian dance and theatre) allows her to seamlessly transcend platforms, and fearlessly redraw boundaries. Shalini moved to the US twenty years ago from India and has made Newton her home for the past three, where she lives with her husband, two daughters and dog. She enjoys improv cooking, karaoking, running and hiking. She is currently in the process of resuming her guitar lessons so she can master 'landslide' by Fleetwood mac... some day. She is excited to share her creative repertoire, learn and grow ideas as a new member of the Newton Theatre Company family.

Elaine Leisinger, Music Director

Newton native Elaine Leisinger holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (in viola), the University of Rochester (in math), and UMass -- Boston (in education), and performs regularly around New England as a violinist and violist. As a collaborative pianist and coach, she has worked with string players and vocalists at all levels from beginner to professional. Elaine began singing as a child, and has maintained her interest in vocal repertoire, from art songs and opera to Broadway. As a student at Newton North High School, she played, directed, and/or arranged music for shows including the Fantasticks, She Loves Me, West Side Story, and Fiddler on the Roof, and she is very happy to share her experience and enthusiasm for musical theatre with the Newton Theatre Company. In her non-musical life, Elaine is passionate about math education, and has taught math at UMass -- Boston and in the Boston Public Schools.

Nora Linssen, Assistant

As a rising sophomore at Newton South High School, Nora Linssen performs regularly in South Stage musicals, straight plays, and other community theaters in the Greater Boston area. She began singing, acting, and dancing at a young age and has continued to develop her passion for theater. Nora has received various forms of acting and musical theater training through Boston Casting, Wellesley Theater Project, Wheelock Family Theater, Weston Drama Workshop, and the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild. She participated in several Newton Youth Players (now Newton Theater Kids) shows as a young actor and is ecstatic to be working with an organization that has brought her so much joy. Newton Youth Players not only cultivated Nora’s love for theater, but made her a better actor on and off the stage. Nora is delighted to be able to work with children of many ages at Newton Theater Kids and hopes to inspire in them some of the magic she felt when she was their age.

Riya Raghavan, Assistant

Riya Raghavan is an eighth grader at Brown Middle School.  She has performed in many past productions of NTK, including Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, Bye Bye Birdie, The Sound of Music, and more. Riya is experienced in theatre and has a deep love for the performing arts.