Meet Your Core Faculty

 As of this writing, you are scheduled to work with over 25 instructors during your time at Overtures. At the heart of your work at Overtures is your core faculty, a group of 5 instructors that you will work with regularly throughout the process. This core faculty will be there from beginning to end of your Overtures journey, helping you set goals and giving you the necessary tools to achieve those goals.

Today, we thought we'd take a quick moment to introduce you to your core faculty. We can pretty much guarantee that you will love working with them.

Angie Benson (Showcase Music Director) is a music director and musician in the DC area. Signature performing credits include In The Heights, Soft Power, HAIR, Pacific Overtures, Which Way to the Stage, Into the Woods, The Color Purple, We Shall Someday, She Loves Me, RENT, Midnight at The Never Get, Ol' Blue Eyes: Frank Sinatra, Assassins, Grand Hotel and Girlfriend. She has worked on the following National Tours: A Chorus Line and Barry Manilow’s Copacabana. Her DC area credits include: Kennedy Center: Through the Sunken Lands; Studio Theatre: Fun Home; Olney Theatre Center: Singin’ in the Rain, Elf. Her regional credits include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre: Come From Away; Goodspeed Musicals: The Great Emu War; Stoneham Theatre: The Who’s Tommy; Kansas City Starlight: School of Rock, First Date; Utah Musical Theatre: Side by Side by Sondheim, West Virginia Public: Seussical; Northern Stage: A Christmas Carol: The Musical (Composer). 

Kelly Crandall d’Amboise (Dance Instructor) is a choreographer and director in the DC area. Signature credits include The Secret Garden *upcoming (Choreographer), Safety Not Guaranteed (Associate Director), The Bridges of Madison County (Choreographer), She Loves Me (Choreographer- *Helen Hayes Nominated), Grand Hotel (Choreographer), Light Years (Choreographer), An Act of God (Musical Staging), Motown 2 and Entirely Elvis (Director), Simply Sondheim and Crazy for You (Associate Director), Billy Elliot, La Cage aux Folles, Cabaret, The Studio (Associate Choreographer), Failureland! (Choreographer – Signature in the Schools).  Other choreography credits include: Frozen and The Crucible at Olney Theater Center, Newsies at Connecticut Rep, and Urinetown at NextStop Theater. Kelly has directed numerous television concerts for PBS including: An Ella Fitzgerald Christmas with Vanessa Williams; Broadway’s Brightest Lights with Megan Hilty, We are Family, and The National Philharmonic’s 2020-2021 Season (*Emmy Nominated). Kelly has directed live concerts for The American Pops Orchestra starring Ariana Debose, Michelle Williams, Norm Lewis, Kathy Najimy, Betty Who, and Liz Calloway. She has directed galas for Lincoln Center starring Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Holiday and The Kravis Center starring Chita Rivera and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Associate Director and Choreographer credits include work at Lincoln Center, South Coast Rep, Trinity Rep, Westport County Playhouse, and Busch Gardens.   Performance credits include Broadway: The Boy from Oz (OBC); Chicago; Dirty Dancing (workshop); and Last Dance (workshop). National tours: Chicago and The Producers. Other NY credits include Susan Stroman’s A Christmas Carol and The Most Happy Fella with The NYC Opera. Film:  Disney’s A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey and directed by Robert Zemeckis, What Women Want directed by Nancy Meyers, Beautiful directed by Sally Field. TV: The TONY Awards; The Academy Awards, The ESPY Awards, Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular, and The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Kelly is an Adjunct Professor at George Mason School of Dance and a graduate of The University of Michigan. Go Blue! 

Matthew Gardiner (Showcase Director) is Signature's Artistic Director and has directed and/or choreographed more than 25 productions at Signature Theatre, including Pippin, Strategic Love Play, JOB, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, HAIR, Ragtime, Into the Woods, No Place to Go, She Loves Me, RENT, A Chorus Line, West Side Story, La Cage aux Folles, Jelly’s Last Jam, and The Threepenny Opera, as well as several world premieres including Really Really, Soon, and Midwestern Gothic, and contemporary plays like Dying City and Tender Napalm. With Signature’s special commitment to producing the work of Stephen Sondheim, Matthew has directed and/or choreographed many Sondheim musicals including Into the Woods, Passion, Sunday in the Park with George, Company, Sweeney Todd and the world premiere of Simply Sondheim. Prior to being named Signature’s Artistic Director in the summer of 2021, Matthew was Signature’s Associate Artistic Director for over a decade, helping to build several groundbreaking seasons, cultivating relationships with prominent and emerging artists, and overseeing several of Signature’s new work development initiatives. Outside of Signature, Matthew has directed and/or choreographed throughout Washington, DC at Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Studio Theatre. Matthew has also worked abroad, choreographing Titanic and directing and choreographing Doctor Zhivago for OD Musical Company in Seoul, Korea. Matthew is the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical and has been honored with more than 15 nominations.  

Tracy Lynn Olivera (Voice Instructor) is an actor and instructor in the DC area. Her Signature credits include: Forum, Assassins, A Little Night Music (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical), Titanic, The Fix; Gypsy; Crossing; Company, Hello, Dolly! (Ford’s Theatre co-production); The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; Brother Russia; The Hollow; The Boy Detective Fails; Les Misérables; ACE; The Happy Time; Merrily We Roll Along; Allegro; Follies; Side Show; Sweeney Todd. BROADWAY: Ragtime (2009 revival). DC AREA: Round House Theatre: Next to Normal. Kennedy Center: Ragtime, Sunday in the Park..., Passion, Merrily We Roll Along; Arena Stage: Fiddler on the Roof, Damn Yankees; Shakespeare Theatre: Candide; Ford’s Theatre: Ragtime, 110 in the Shade (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical); Olney Theatre: Beauty and the Beast, Matilda, On the Town; Studio Theatre: Bachelorette. REGIONAL: Goodman Theatre: Candide. RECORDINGS: Because (solo LP). 

KenYatta Rogers (Acting Instructor) is a director/actor/educator with over 150 theatre, voiceover, film, and television credits. Directing credits include productions with the Kennedy Center, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Constellation Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, African Continuum Theatre Company, IN Series, Ally Theatre, and Young Playwrights Theatre. Acting credits include productions with Compagnia de’ Colombari, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Folger Theatre, Trustus Theatre, IN Series, and Shakespeare & Company. An alum of Clark Atlanta University and the University of Pittsburgh, Rogers taught at South Carolina State University, Montgomery College (where he was named the 2014 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). KenYatta has created several community-based arts programs, served on numerous grant panels, served as board president for the Welders Playwright's Collective, and participated in local and national discussions advocating for access, equity, and inclusion in collegiate and professional theatre. He is currently a faculty member in the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, where his primary research focuses on applying embodied theatre practices from the African diaspora to actor training for the 21st century.