Staff Bios

Kristen Lynch
Founder/Director

Kristen Lynch is the Director and Founder of Young Players Theater. She is an actress and educator and has been working with children in Paris and New York for the past decade. In Paris, she created the English Theater Workshop, This program teaches the English language through theater. She has taught drama and dance in schools throughout New York City and has directed various school productions. She has worked with TADA! Youth Theater, Young Audiences NY, and the Reader’s Theater Workshop. She is a consultant for the Read to Me Program, a family literacy program that encourages teen parents to read with their babies. Kristen has performed in several Off-Broadway productions at HERE, Theater for the New City, and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. She is also the Co-Director of Urban Gypsy Productions and continues to produce theater and film events. One of UG projects was the French Short Film Festival, which was held at the Pioneer Theater from 2000-2004. She also programmed an international children’s film series at the International School of Brooklyn. Kristen has a BFA in Drama from NYU TISCH School of the Arts. She is also a graduate of La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts with a major in Dance. She lives in Park Slope with her husband and two daughters.

Deanna Pacelli (Teaching Artist)
Deanna Pacelli works as an actor and theatre artist in New York City since graduating from New York University’s Experimental Theatre Program in 2000. For the past six years, she focused on creating her own interview-based, documentary theatre through a company I co-founded: Word on the Street Productions. Her company’s first show, There Goes the Neighborhood, a documentary theater piece about the gentrification of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, was on the cover of the Metro Section of The New York attachTimes and ran for nearly three years in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker’s production company expressed interest in turning it into a television series. Most importantly, the show’s success enabled her to start work on a second piece of documentary theatre about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans. In the past few years, Deanna combined her theatrical experience and yoga teacher certification with the teaching arts. She enjoys teaching theatre to children of all ages all over the city.

Mathilde Dratwa (Teaching Artist)
After living in Belgium and Spain, Mathilde Dratwa moved to England to study at Cambridge University where she got her BA in English Literature and her Post-Graduate Certificate of Education as an English and Drama teacher. She launched the Drama department of the International School of Toulouse in France where she taught full-time for two years. In Toulouse, Mathilde also co-founded the Malaprops Theater Company, designed to help ex-pat teenagers integrate into the local community. Along with a colleague, Mathilde wrote and directed “Balconies” for the company. The multi-lingual piece was produced at the Theatre du Pave, Toulouse. This show marked the beginning of Mathilde's interest in Drama as a means of language acquisition. Mathilde then moved back to England to get her MFA in classical acting from Drama Centre London. Now that she lives in New York, Mathilde is a performance trainee at the Ward Acting Studio. She loves working with Young Players Theater and teaching children Drama in English, French or Spanish.

Pyeng Threadgill (Music Teaching Artist)
Pyeng Threadgill is a vocalist, songwriter, teacher of voice and certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. She is a faculty member in the voice department at the Brooklyn Conservatory and Of The Air Studios, her private teaching studio. Pyeng’s third and most recent album, Portholes To A Love & Other Short Stories, earned her a fellowship in music composition from New York Foundation For The Arts in 2008. All Music Guide reflected on Threadgill saying, “She paints her blues shiny black and pushes them headlong into a future where tradition and history are processes of evolution…”. In 2006 Threadgill was asked to be a featured player in the documentary film starring Youssou N’Dour entitled “Retour A Goree” by director Pierre Yves Borgeaud. Ms Threadgill is a native New Yorker and proud Lower East Sider. She lives in Brooklyn with her 6 year old daughter Luna and her husband Nikolai.

Celia Caro (Visual Teaching Artist)
Celia Caro is a teaching visual artist with an extensive background in working with students of all ages in both private and public schools throughout New York City. She holds a Masters Degree in Art Education from Pratt Institute and is committed to fostering inventive and motivating approaches to student-centered art education with an emphasis on individual learning styles, creative problem-solving and social consciousness. The core of her teaching practice is centered on Inventive play and performance and collaborative art making, and includes a wide variety of visual media including bookmaking, puppetry, animation and sculpture. Celia’s personal work has been exhibited throughout the metropolitan area.

Carolynn Murphy (Environmental Educator/Music and Movement Teaching Artist)
Carolynn Murphy is an environmental educator, musician and dancer.
She has a bachelors degree in environmental science from Cornell University and has been performing as a singer and tap dancer ever since she could utter the name Ann Miller.
By sharing her passion for nature, movement and song she invites children to develop their own appreciation and wonder for the natural world and their creativity.
Her goal has an educator is to help chidren see that nature is all around us if we know where to look for it.

Rachel Cohen (Summer Program Assistant)
Rachel is currently a student at Penn State University, working on attaining her bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies. After completing a Leadership Training program, Rachel has worked with children as a camp counselor at an eight-week overnight summer program. Originally from Long Island, she is spending her summer living and taking an art course in New York City. Rachel loves working with children and she is really looking forward to working with the Young Player’s Theater this summer.