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 directs two to three shows with her adult troupe each year.  Her favorite part of Newton Theatre Kids is hearing her young casts sing the scores to all the musicals she loved as a child. 

​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.

Sarah Robinson Seeber
​Music Director

A true “Jill of all trades” in the musical world, Sarah’s performance experiences include everything from Mahler’s 2nd Symphony to “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. In 2015, she began pursuing a longtime goal of learning to conduct, and subsequently became Assistant Conductor of the Arlington-Belmont Chorale. In 2008, Sarah co-founded Opera51 in Concord, where she sang and directed several operettas, and served as Chorus Master for the company in productions of Fledermaus, Faust (Gounod), and Carmen. A soprano in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Sarah performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Sarah fronted her dance band Firefly for twelve years as lead singer, keyboardist, and emcee. No stranger to the rigors of close-harmony singing, Sarah sang with the award-winning a cappella group Serious Fun throughout the 90s. Sarah is also a Gilbert & Sullivan aficionado and has joined the Sudbury Savoyards onstage and as rehearsal accompanist.

Alex TayLOR
​Director/Piano Accompanist

Alex Taylor is a musician and actor with experience in songwriting, theater, film scoring, and sound design. He aims to bring a well-rounded, student driven approach to Newton Theatre Kids by fostering an accepting space where all students can discover their creative side. Alex holds a B.M. in Music Composition & Production and an M.A. in Music Business from Berklee College of Music.

Abigail Strayer
Director

Abby Strayer has worked in educational and regional theatre for over a decade, and has recently discovered the joys of teaching children! She has worked on multiple productions with Newton Theatre Kids, and hopes to work on more in the future! She holds a BA in Theatre and History from Bucknell University, and is working towards a Ph.D. in History from Boston University. 

Hannah Jacuzzi
​Director

Hannah Alexandra Jacuzzi is a theatre artist, performer, and educator originally from Memphis, TN. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Loyola University New Orleans, and an MFA in Theatre Education and Applied Theatre from Emerson College. As an educator and activist, Hannah uses theatre arts to build community, create a sense of belonging, and promote creativity among youth in Memphis through The Orpheum Theatre Group’s Education and Community Engagement programming; in Boston with The Chestnut Hill School where she teaches music and drama; and at Newton Theatre Kids as director of the Friday class.

Frances Hellums
​Director

Originally from Houston, TX, Frances received her BFA in Theatre Arts Performance from Boston University. During her time at BU she gained artistic concentrations in Musical Theatre and Directing as well as an academic concentration in Applied Human Development and Psychology. After graduation, Frances joined ARTrelief, an Expressive Arts Therapy Center in Watertown, MA as a Therapeutic Mentor where she worked with children coping with complex trauma, ASD and a variety of other psychological diagnoses. She has also worked as a substitute teacher across Boston, and in the fall of 2022, joined the Huntington Theatre as Part-Time Education Associate. At The Huntington she centers trauma-informed practices while teaching workshops for middle and high schoolers, coordinating statewide performance competitions, and co-authoring a multitude of theatrical curriculum guides. Since 2019, Frances has also worked extensively with Theater in the Open in Newburyport as an actor, teaching artist, and administrator. She currently serves as Theater in the Open's Year Round Artistic Associate and Associate Director of their Summer Arts Workshop for students aged 6 to 16.

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.

Marlene Yudelman
​Scenery Director

Marlene Yudelman has always enjoyed the arts and being creative. After immigrating as a preschool teacher from South Africa, she opened her own school, Saplings, in Newton. She is now enjoying new projects including working with the kids on scenery after joining Newton Theater Company last year.

Jesse King
​Assistant Teacher/Stage Manager

​Jesse King has been doing theatre for a good few years and recently found a love for working with children. He has worked on 6 productions with Newton Theatre Kids, with more to come. He finds working with these kids to be so fun and fulfilling because when the kids have fun, it’s hard for him not to have fun, and he enjoys seeing the kids find confidence in themselves.