Branford Parks and Recreation Department
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Legacy Theatre Programs: Toddlers, Youth, and Adults

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LTEd
We are excited to partner with Legacy Theatre to offer many opportunities for the community to expand your creative arts and theatre experiences. Join a class today! 

Toddler Time! (Ages 3-5)
Instructors: Chelsea Dacey and Nick Fetherston                                                       
A stimulating and engaging theatre, movement, and music class, designed for toddlers, with a new theme explored each week such as Rainbow Day, Silly Outfit Day, Under the Sea Day, and Disney Day! Engage in creative play with ribbons and scarves, enjoy singing familiar songs, and learn age-appropriate
choreography in a nurturing and supportive environment. 
Note: Parents must stay throughout class. There will not be a final performance for this class.

Elementary Theatre: K-5th Grade
Instructors: Chelsea Dacey and Nick Fetherston
For elementary school ages, this theatre class is for those beginning or looking to hone their theatre craft. Each week will explore a different theme of musical theatre perfect for those learning to explore the stage from singing, movement, acting and improvisation. Week themes include Singing, Acting, Dancing, and Improv. No prior experience needed. 

Wheel Life Theatre Troupe: All ages welcome!
Instructors: Julie Fitzpatrick and Keely Baisden Knudsen
Join our group of actors who use assisted devices (and their buddies!) as we
explore storytelling with original and classic works. Pre-Registration is required. Please email keely@legacytheatrect.org for more information and to register.



Chelsea Dacey
Chelsea’s teaching experience ranges from: Director, Fairfield Summer Stage (Frozen Jr., Lion King Jr., Finding Nemo Jr., and Little Mermaid Jr.); Director, Independent Day School (Shrek, Singing in the Rain Jr.); and Music Teacher, Independent Day School and many more. At Legacy Theatre, Chelsea’s teaching experience has included teaching Toddler Time (theatre and music class for toddlers), Fairy Tale Musical (theatre class where students create their own musical), and an audition preparation class. Her Legacy Theatre performances include: Rapunzel/Book and Music (A Princess Tea), Piglet (The Tales of Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh), Choreographer (You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown), Silly Dilly: The Musical, and Belinda (The Tales of Custard the Dragon). Other experience includes Off Broadway (Piggy Nation) and regional theatre shows. She is also a narrator on Audible (Romany Romance). For more information, visit: ChelseaDacey.com
 
Nick Fetherston
Nick is an actor operating out of the New Haven area. He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University with a degree in Theater Studies and is also an alumnus of The National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. His Legacy Theatre credits include playing Johathan in The Play That Goes Wrong, Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Rosencrantz in Hamlet. Other credits include playing Don John/The Sexton in Much Ado About Nothing (Capital Classics), Albert in Goldfish (New Haven Theater Company), and Mr. Bingley in Pride and Prejudice (The Little Theatre of Manchester). Nick is also a standardized/simulated patient for Yale University and Quinnipiac University, where he uses his acting skills to assist in the training of medical students. He has also taught Improv at The Foote School in New Haven as part of their Horizons summer program. For more information, visit: NickFetherston.com

Julie Fitzpatrick
Julie Fitzpatrick is delighted to be teaching Acting and Writing Your Solo Show with Legacy Theatre. Julie is a poet, playwright, performer and teacher who has worked locally with St. Martin de Porres Academy in New Haven, Madison Arts Barn, GreenStage Guilford Live Arts, Moses Gunn Theater Company, Drama Works, Shoreline Arts Alliance and Wheel Life Theatre Troupe. Her acting credits run the gamut from Off-Broadway to regional theater and her Film/TV work includes Law & Order and The OA. Julie is a member of the Guilford Poets’ Guild, The Playwrights Circle and Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC. Her play 77 U-Turn is published by Next Stage Press and can be purchased here. More info can be found at juliefitzpatrick.com. Julie lives with her favorite guys: her husband Pete and her sons, Fitz and Gracen.

 
Keely Baisden Knudsen
An award winning director, Keely has performed, directed, and choreographed internationally in plays, musicals, operas, and dance companies in hundreds of theatrical productions and has performed in 48 of the United States and in the UK. Realizing her vision of a new theater company on the Connecticut Shoreline, Keely’s ideals of inspiring, inclusive work that uplifts the human spirit and connects communities formalized in the creation of the Legacy Theatre with Co-Founder Stephanie Stiefel Williams, a performing colleague and dear friend. Keely has directed, choreographed,  and taught a myriad of performing arts courses at such institutions as Quinnipiac University, Yale University, Fairfield University, Hartt School of Drama, Southern Connecticut State University, Westminster College, and was the Director of Education of New Haven's acclaimed Elm Shakespeare Company for several years. Additionally a composer/lyricist and playwright, she is currently collaborating on two musicals and is a member of ASCAP. Her directing has been heralded by the Arts Paper as “…visually striking, emotionally moving” and “captivating” and of her direction of Hamlet it was said, “Knudsen has made the notoriously difficult Shakespearean language accessible.” Her creation of the Wheel Life Theatre Troupe has been an especially rewarding program as she acts and directs with those who ambulate with crutches and wheelchairs. Her BFA is from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, at which she graduated first in the class, and she received her Masters Degree in Drama on full scholarship from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Keely, her husband Brian, and five children (Saviah, Liviana, Wynter, Emery, and Reeves) reside in Guilford, CT, where she thoroughly enjoys running the Legacy with a tremendous staff and community support.
 
Mary Lou Lauricella
Mary Lou Lauricella has worked as a professional actress in regional theatre before becoming a registered drama therapist. She holds a B.A. in Theater and English from Washington College and a Masters in drama therapy from NYU. She is trained in both Meisner (Neighborhood Playhouse) and Method acting techniques. She has been the director of the Veterans’ Homefront Theater at VA Connecticut, an outpatient PTSD theater group for over 20 years. The group was an improvisational theater group creating original works that were performed within the veteran and civilian communities. The group was the subject of a documentary film “No Unwounded Soldiers” created by award-winning filmmaker Rebecca Abbott. The film was screened at the Vail Colorado Film Festival, the Connecticut Film Festival and was aired on Connecticut Public Television. She has partnered with Quinnipiac University’s Theater for Community, the Clifford Beers Clinic and the Connecticut Coalition for End of Life Care facilitating theater workshops at the MacDougal maximum security prison and the prison Volunteer Bereavement and Hospice program. She has co-chaired the North American Drama Therapy Conference, presented at the Expressive Therapies Conference, NER-AMTA Music Therapy Conference.

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