Meet Our Instructors

And discover the amazing talents they bring to Metropolitan Performing Arts!

Shannon Jung

dance

Shannon is a dancer, actor, choreographer, and arts educator based out of the Vancouver/Portland area. An alumna of Western Washington University, she is a double major in Theater (acting) and Dance (performance). She has trained heavily in tap, modern, musical theater, ballet, devising, Suzuki, viewpointing, and Stanislavski Technique. Since 2013, Shannon has been choreographing and teaching tap technique, as well as various workshops. Recent MPA choreography credits include: Matilda (2019), Willy Wonka (2018), The Fantasticks (2017), and Aladdin (2017). Other choreography credits include: Young Frankenstein (2018), 1776 (2017), Peter and the Star Catchers (2016), and Twisted (2015).

Bryce Britton

acting

An active member of Actors Equity Association and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Bryce received his BFA in Theatre from University of Puget Sound and his MFA Theatre Direction from Ohio University. Post-graduation, he trekked up the tenure track of Academia throughout Appalachia. A few of his favorite stops included Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Penn State Altoona, and working with Dramatic Adventure Theatre to create  Porajmos: The Devouring (Porajmos: The Devouring — Dramatic Adventure Theatre.)  As an Assistant Professor and Director of Musical Theatre at West Virginia University, Bryce oversaw the creation of the BFA in Musical Theatre. Since relocating to the PNW, Bryce now runs his own Insurance and Financial Agency with Country Financial and works at Spotlight Musical Theatre Academy as the Conservatory Acting Teacher and Stage Director. With over thirty years’ experience in the classroom and over two hundred shows from Shakespeare to Original Musical Theatre that spanned Off-Broadway and across Europe under his belt, Bryce has quite a few tricks up his sleeve that he can’t wait to share with you! http://www.brycebritton.com.
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Dylan Sladky

acting

Having grown up in Vancouver, WA, Dylan attended VSAA before graduating from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle with a degree in Directing/Playwriting. Since college, Dylan has worked all across the country, most recently as the Artistic Administrator for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Favorite credits include; ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA (Cornish), TWELFTH NIGHT (Bard and Bourbon Theatre Co.), and THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (Outskirts Theatre).

Jeffrey Puukka

Acting

Jeffrey Puukka is curious and passionate about actor training, and joined Metropolitan Performing Arts Academy to teach Acting Fundamentals in 2017.  Additionally, Jeffrey teaches the highly popular and successful Monday Night Acting Lab at Mt. Hood Community College, and is also a mentor and adjudicator for high school competitive speakers.  Jeffrey has directed thirty-something theatre productions in the Portland metro area over the past 15 years.  Favorites include “Women of Troy” which he adapted from Euripides and directed in 2015, “Elective Affinities” (Portland, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Cambodia), and “Dracula” (Portland, 2004).   
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William Johnson

ACTING
AERIALS & silks

After graduating from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, Will went on to get his bachelor's degree in Theater Education from Western Washington University. Since 2014 Will has been teaching Acting, Acrobatics, and Theater Technology in the Vancouver area and is the current Auditorium Manager at Skyview High School's 1000 seat auditorium. Will enjoys working in all areas of live theatre and is in his own words "an acting teacher who wants only to be an acting teacher". At Metro Will's credits include; Director (Madeline's Christmas, Broadway JR), Choreographer, Aerial Silks (Matilda, Pirates Past Noon), Playwright (Town of Gruff, Where the Wild Things Are, Doctor Dolittle and the Unfriendly Beast), Technical Director (Wonderland: Alice's Rock and Roll Adventure) and Performer (Harry Potter Live Action Roleplay, Three Musketeers: An Adventure With Music)... along with many others! Will hopes that his service to Vancouver Theatre inspires young people to pursue their dreams and inspires everyone to be kind to one another.

Pip Kennedy

makeup design
playwriting

Pip Kennedy is an actor, director, vocalist, and dramaturg based in Portland, Or. Classically trained in Meisner Technique & Victorian Period Dramaturgy, he has over 8 years of study in these areas plus, stage direction, script analysis,  new play development, musical theatre & Shakespeare. His professional training started at Concordia University, then to Portland State University & also NYU. He's traveled the country & Eastern Europe performing for various companies. He's been professionally working as an actor & director for about 20 years. 

Mark Martin

SETs

Mark is excited to bring his experience and insight to MPA. His theater history began in grade school and continued through college. He has held positions at CYT and other theater companies as Set Designer, Stage rigging engineer, Assistant director and Director, as well as a class instructor. Recent directorial credits would include Cinderella, Great American Tall Tales, Aladdin and HONK! Mark holds an Associates Degree in Arts and Sciences from Clark College. 

Emily Skeen

music

Emily Skeen is a singer, teacher and native of the Pacific Northwest. She received her Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Portland State University in 2015, and her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019. Skeen has been teaching voice and piano privately for over fifteen years, and had the pleasure of teaching undergraduate classes as a pedagogy TA during her time at CU Boulder. Her students have received awards from such organizations as the National Association for Teachers of Singing and the Imig School if Music. 
As a singer Skeen has been seen in such roles as Miss Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw and Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro. Most recently she sang the role of Donna Anna in Denver Immersive Opera’s adaptation of Don Giovanni. she has received awards from such organizations as the metropolitan opera national council auditions, the national association for Teachers of Singing, the Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation, and the Jeanine B. Cowles Foundation.  This past spring Skeen made her music directorial debut in SpongeBob the Musical with MPA. She is thrilled to be music directing with MPA again this season, and looks forward to working with this group of incredibly diverse and talented students. 

Kemba Shannon

dance

Kemba Shannon received her BFA from Towson State University and trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,  Martha Graham School,  the Edge, Lula Washington,  Peridance,  and Morgan State University.  She has taught dance classes at UCLA,  Loyola Marymount,  El Camino College and Portland State University among others. Kemba‘s stage credits include: The Lion King (LA cast), The Color Purple (Broadway cast), Cirque du Soleil (Zumanity), Aida and FAME. Kemba‘s ambition and drive have won her world recognition with icons MADONNA (“Drowned World Tour”), PINK (Try This World Tour”), Celine Dion ( Taking Chances World Tour”), RIHANNA (Nike Rockstar World Tour), Kanye West, R. Kelly and FANTASIA just to name a few. Her television credits include: American Dreams (NBC), Oscars (“Chicago” Performance), MTV Music Awards (Pink performance ), the Emmys (Kristin Bell performance), World Music Awards (Kanye West & R. Kelly), NAACP Awards and the Grammy’s. Kemba‘s multifaceted dance style continues to inspire her students to be fierce and dance with their heart and soul.

Ian Anderson-Priddy

lighting

Ian Anderson-Priddy first worked with MPA as LD for ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ in 2016 - next was ‘Chicago’, ‘Shrek Jr.,’ ‘Edwin Drood,’ ‘The Hobbit’, ‘The Fantastics’, ‘Junie B Jingle Bells’, ‘Spamalot’, and ‘Into the Woods,’ and is happy to return in 2021/2022 as lighting designer for multiple shows. He has designed for OCT (Geronimo Stilton Mouse in Space, Goosebumps, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed) He won a Drammy Award for Video Design with Triangle Productions ‘American Idiot’ in June 2016.  He currently designs lights and video for Oregon Ballet Theatre, PHAME, Defunkt Theatre, Westside Dance Academy, Mac Dance, BDC Dance, Central Catholic High School, Chamber Music NW, Bodyvox Dance, and Staged!.

Melissa Sondergeld-Hood

MUSIC

Melissa is a Pacific Northwest Native and started her performing journey at age 10 playing clarinet. 
She graduated from Warner Pacific College with a degree in Music and Theater with an emphasis in education.  Since then she has worked with various companies from Nutz and Boltz, Profile (Dead Man's Cell Phone, The Antigone Project), Action Adventure, Stages Performing Arts, Portland Musical Theater Company and Lakewood Center for the Arts(Visit to a Small Planet). 
She is currently the Studio Assistant Director and Lead teacher at Confident Voice Studio. She feels blessed to be working with this lovely community of artists. 

Laura Harris

WRITING, CLOWNING

Laura Anne Harris is a theatre artist and writer raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Art in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She is a multi-award-winning artist who has toured internationally with her plays including such cities as: Syracuse, NY, New York City, NY, Lancaster, PA, Bangkok, Thailand, and Toronto, Ontario. Laura has trained for six years in clown-based performance in Montreal, and Toronto, Ontario with renowned clown instructors John Turner, Helen Donnelly, Adam Lazarus, and Francine Cote. She has trained in improv and sketch at Second City in Toronto. Most recently Laura has toured the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit with her solo show Destiny, USA about her experience working as a Relay Operator in Syracuse, New York. Her play was professionally produced by The Belfry Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia as part of their 2020 Spark Festival. Now a resident of Vancouver, Washington she cannot wait to cultivate creativity and joy at the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center.  

SHANAE TULLIS

MUSIC

Shanae Tullis fell in love with theatre at the age of 5 while performing in a production of Pinnocchi right here in Vancouver. She went on to earn a double AA in Technical Theatre & Theatre Arts, followed by a BA in Theatre with an emphasis is directing and a minor in music. After working in Washington, DC for private and performing art schools, Shanae returned to the Pacific Northwest with her husband and 4 children.  She loves teaching, directing, and performing in the Portland metro area and works with many different theaters and organizations as well as owning a private vocal studio.  Shanae is excited to be part of the Metro community!

Sean Kelly

DIRECTOR

​Sean began performing in the 5th grade with a community theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof. He attended Southern Oregon University as a BFA student with an emphasis in Performance. Sean's interests grew with his education, and he took a full course of Sound Design and Directing classes in addition to his acting, movement, speech, and dramatic literature courses. He also served as a guest lecturer for the Drama in the Western Culture class at SOU for two years, and performed at the Oregon Cabaret Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before coming North to the Portland/Vancouver area. Sean received his Masters in Teaching at Concordia University, and has been the director of the drama department at Camas High School since 2011. Sean and his department have received state-wide recognition at the 5th Avenue Awards in Seattle earning dozens of nominations and honorable mentions for scene design, lighting, directing, performance, and choreography, including 3 nominations for Outstanding Overall Production, and wins for Outstanding Direction for 2013's Into the Woods, and Outstanding Overall Production for 2015's Cabaret. Two of his students have won Outstanding Leading Actor/Actress awards, and have been sent to the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York. Sean also performed with Post5 Theater in Portland's 2015 performances of Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing.​

Jeanna Reed

CHOREOGRAPHER

Jeanna Reed is excited for the opportunity to share her love of dance and musical
theater with MPA! Jeanna has over 20 years of experience as a dance instructor and
choreographer. She finds joy in working with beginners on up to professionals. Jeanna
is the owner of "Jeanna's Forever Dance, LLC" Her local musical theater work includes choreography and performance in: Mary Poppins, Charlie Brown, Shrek, The Mikado, and tap choreography for Thoroughly Modern Millie. She also enjoys choreographing for youth productions, and some of her favorite credits include Singing; in the Rain, Aladdin, Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka Jr., and Disney’s 101 Dalmatians KIDS. Choreography credits also include two original musicals written and directed by Steve Taylor with Theater Under the Stars in Lake Chelan. One of Jeanna's greatest thrills was performing in the opening dance for The New York Radio City Rockettes. In addition to her passion for dance and theater, Jeanna has her teaching degree from Whitworth University. Jeanna taught first grade and middle school before becoming a mom of her four sons.

Erik Montague

acting

A native Montanan with BAs in English and Theatre from the University of Montana, Erik traveled the country for over two years with Missoula Children's Theatre after graduating college, teaching upwards of 5000 K-12 kids an hour-long musical in a week across 40 states before moving to Portland. In his nearly five years of living here, he has worked with Lakewood Theatre Company as Lewis in Pippin, Broadway Rose Theatre Company as Travis in Footloose, and Experience Theatre Project as Hiram in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well as many other companies around the area. He currently serves as the Education Outreach Manager at Northwest Children's Theater and the Development Director for Experience Theatre Project. He is humbled to be working with Metropolitan Performing Arts and relishes the opportunity to spread his love of theater to more kiddos!

Kristin Heller

Private lessons
directing

​Originally from Ohio, Kristin received her Bachelor of Arts and Communications in Theater Arts from Bowling Green State University. She moved from Ohio to Chicago, IL and  was Artistic Director of a non-profit theater company that focused on new play development. In 2009, she moved to Portland, OR to pursue her Master in Theatre, graduating in 2011. Kristin has apprenticed under world renowned directors such as Tito Capobianco, David Edwards and Elizabeth Bachman. She has worked as Acting, Dance, and Directing faculty for the Tyrolean Opera Program in Maurach Austria. Kristin has worked summers as Acting, Dance and Directing faculty at the Napa Music Festival and recently directed Mozart’s ‘Cosi fan tutte’ with Ping and Wolf Opera in Portland, Or, touring to Hood River, OR. Kristin is currently directing ‘Hello Dolly’ with Sherwood Foundation of the Arts.  Currently, she privately coaches voice, flute, acting, acting for singers, and Public Speaking, as well as, instructs larger Master classes on Auditioning, and Acting. She is also a voiceover actor for audio books. http://kristinheller.com

Lily Foster

MUSIC

Originally from a small town in Southeast Alaska, Lily moved to Portland to pursue her BM in Vocal Performance at Portland State University, where she currently attends, studying under Christine Meadows. She’s been very active in community theatre wherever she’s been, and some favorite credits include Alice in The Secret Garden and Christine in a concert version of Phantom of the Opera. Lily teaches private voice, and recently began teaching beginning piano and early musicianship classes as well. She has played French Horn for over 10 years and has studied music theory, vocal pedagogy, sight singing, music history, French, Italian and more.

Cooper Poole

sound

Cooper is a pacific northwest artist involved with MPA as the resident sound designer for their main stage shows. He has taken on the role of Artist in Residence assisting with MPA's classes on a daily basis. He is also excited to be teaching guitar lessons and is currently accepting new students! Cooper has worked on shows for Metropolitan Performing Arts, Staged!, Enso theater, and a few others.

Tristan Boesch

ACTING

Tristan is an actor, writer, and movement coach based in both the Portland and Los Angeles areas. Hungry to learn as much about the craft of acting as possible, he left his home of Portland for LA upon acceptance to the BFA program at CalArts. Tristan’s professional credits
include ‘Good Boys’ (Pasadena Playhouse), ‘Comedy of Errors’ (Classical Theatre Lab), ‘But
First, A Parade’ (Siren Theater), and ‘Daisy’ (Experience Theatre Project). Additionally, he has devised pieces touring to various schools in the Portland area. Tristan is passionate about theater education in all forms. The training lineage he hopes to pass
forward pulls from many excellent teachers, many of which he first encountered at CalArts. Master teachers: Marissa Chibas (On Camera), Elizabeth Swain (Shakespeare), Daniel Passer (Clown), Bart DeLorenzo (Scene Study), and Anthony Nikolchev (Movement/Devising). Tristan is grateful to teach ongoingly with Community Arts Partnership in Los Angeles, Northwest Children’s Theater, and right here at Metropolitan Performing Arts. He is a proud recipient of the 2022 CalArts Alumni Seed Grant, currently researching to bring his next project to light.

Ian Timmons

MUSIC

Ian is a Performer/Musician- and a proud Portland native- which he assures lends credence to that man bun of his….. A graduate of Portland State University with a B.M in Performance and an alumni of the international award winning Portland State Chamber Choir, his recent work includes roles and chorus with the Oregon Symphony, Opera Theater Oregon, Astoria Music Festival/Portland Summerfest. Portland State, and The Eugene Concert Symphony. He has worked with performers and directors from around the world. including Frederica von Stade. Ian is the music director at Kairos Milwaukie UCC in Portland and had the distinct pleasure of music directing MPA’s ‘Into The Woods’ - he’s excited to be joining the MPA staff (let him know if you want voice lessons)

Matthew Sepeda

STAGE COMBAT

Originally from the central valley of California, Matthew Sepeda moved up to Portland to study and receive a B.A. in Drama from the University of Portland. He's been working ever since as an actor around the Portland area. Some of his favorite stage credits are The 25th Annual Putnam County SpellingBee  and Urinetown with Anonymous Theatre Company, Tomás and the Library Lady (traveling show) with Oregon Children’s Theatre as well as Lydia, Alebrijés, and Wolf at the Door with Milagro. He has also been studying fight choreography with the illustrious Kristen Mun for a little over two years now and is very excited to be able to share that knowledge with these young actors.

Barbara Richardson

musical theater 

Barbara Richardson, MPA's previous Executive Director, is an actor, singer and voice over currently residing in Spain and teaching at MPA in the summers. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Vanguard University of Southern California (VUSC) and took part in the 2009 NYC Making it on Broadway intensive studying under Jodie Llangel, Nick Wyman, Erin Dilly, Kim Steiner, Dave Clemmons, Ryan Stanza, Judith Fredricks & Pasek and Paul. In 2011 she started her own private vocal studio and has been a vocal coach and musical director for several productions in the Vancouver/Portland area. Barbara is passionate about arts education and creating a safe space for kids to be unapologetically themselves. When not working she enjoys listening to jazz music, reading and hanging out with her dog, Barack. ​​

Amy Palmer-Cole

​MUSIC DIRECTOR

Ms. Cole is currently performing with Opera Quest Northwest as the Ingenue in “Opera the Great.” A private vocal teacher and manager at Cole Studios in Battle Ground, she has sung roles in several operas including Emmy in Albert Herring and Armchair in L’enfant et les Sortileges with Portland Opera, and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Vancouver Children’s Opera. She has been a featured soloist with the Oregon and Vancouver symphonies, performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, toured Europe with the Portland State University Chamber Choir and was soprano soloist on the CD On American Shores. In her spare time, Cole enjoys traveling, garage sales and activities with her three children.