Teaching Artists
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 Lea Pinsky - Director of Education
Lea began her professional arts career in theatre by earning her BFA at NYU and acting on Broadway in the 1997 Tony-winning revival of A View From the Bridge. She then returned to Chicago to pursue an MA in Performance Studies at Northwestern University, and transition her career to arts education. Over the last 10 years in Chicago, she has managed and taught youth arts programs with Columbia College Chicago, Urban Gateways, the City of Evanston, Chicago Humanities Festival, After School Matters, Art Encounter, and Steppenwolf Theatre. As a teaching artist, she focuses on murals and beautification projects for schools and community spaces.
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 Elizabeth Dowling
Elizabeth is an actor and teaching artist in Chicago. As a teaching artist she has been proud to work with such great companies as Lifeline Theatre, Free Street Theatre, Dream Big Performing Arts Workshop, Pegasus Players, Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre, Gorilla Tango, and LaSalle Language Academy. As an actor she has performed with Chicago theatres such as Lakeside Shakespeare, Drury Lane Water Tower, Metropolis, and Porchlight Theatre. She has also appeared in several KidsSeries shows at Lifeline, among them Dooby Dooby Moo, Half Magic, and Giggle Giggle Quack.
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 Julie Ganey
Julie has worked as an actress, teacher and writer in Chicago for over 20 years, and has been an educator with Lifeline since 2008. Through Wavelength, an award winning comedy ensemble that performs for educators nationwide, she has created and led workshops for teachers all over the country on communication skills, bridging conflict, and improvisation. Her bullying prevention program, Stand Up on the Schoolyard, has been presented to students and educators within the Chicago Public School system and across the country. Julie has served as Outreach Director at Next Theatre, where she has led community members in the creation of civic-based theatre projects that explore social issues, and she is currently a program creator and instructor for American Girl Place.
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 Eduardo Garcia
Eddie has been involved with Lifeline Theatre since 2007. He has performed in The Mark of Zorro, Treasure Island, and Watership Down, and has been a teaching artist since 2009.
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 Mechelle Moe
Mechelle is a founding member of The Hypocrites, and works as an actor, director and teaching artist. She has been featured at American Blues Theater (Waiting for Lefty); TimeLine (The Children's Hour, Paradise Lost, Not Enough Air, The Front Page); The Hypocrites (The Bald Soprano, Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie, Arcadia, etc); Court Theater (What the Butler Saw); and Griffin Theatre (Letters Home, Stage Door - Jeff Nominated, Actress in Principal Role). She has also worked with Lifeline, A Red Orchid, Steppenwolf, and Writers, among others. Mechelle was awarded a Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Principal Actress and After Dark Award for her performance as the Young Woman in The Hypocrites' production of Sophie Treadwell's Machinal. She also received 2007 & 2010's Top Ten Performances of the Year, Chicago Tribune for her roles in What the Butler Saw and Stage Door. For more information, visit http://mechellemoe.tumblr.com/.
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 Amanda Rountree
Amanda has been performing theatre professionally since 1992 and teaching since 1998. She relocated to Chicago in 2007 from Seattle where she was a performer and instructor with Unexpected Productions and a performer and co-artistic director of Playback Theater Northwest. Amanda has entertained audiences in seven countries and countless North American cities utilizing a wide variety of styles, disciplines, and formats. Her one-woman show, The Good, the Bad, and the Monkey, premiered in 2009 and has since been on tour. Amanda has taught with Lifeline since 2007 and is also a resident teaching artist with ATC in Wilmette and the Second City in Chicago.
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 Jenifer Tyler
Jenifer has been a proud teaching artist with Lifeline’s Artists-in- Residence Program for over 10 years. She is a graduate of The Theatre School of DePaul University and has been a working actress in Chicago for over 20 years. Jenifer joined Lifeline’s artistic ensemble in 2000 and has appeared in numerous productions over the years. In 2001, she received an After Dark Award and a Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for her portrayal of Jane in Jane Eyre, and a nomination for her 2007 performance as Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night. Jenifer also directed The Velveteen Rabbit for Lifeline’s Kidseries. In addition to working with various other companies, Jenifer is a member emeritus of the writing/performance group, The Sweat Girls.
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 John Wilson
John hustles as a teacher, actor, scenic designer, and storyteller in Chicago. As a teacher, he has worked with Lifeline Theater for over five years (teaching theater to 2nd and 3rd grades in Rogers Park), and last summer taught autistic children art with Red Kite. This season he will be teaching for Steppenwolf for Young Adults. Some recent acting credits include El Grito del Bronx (Collaboraction/Goodman), a staged reading of Household Spirits (Goodman), Our Bad Magnet (Mary Arrchie; Jeff nomination for Best Ensemble), and he understudied To Kill a Mockingbird (Steppenwolf), and The Master and Margarita (Strawdog; Jeff nomination for Best Ensemble). He works as a freelance scenic designer for many non-equity and equity companies, and this last decade has designed over fifty shows here in Chicago. He performs regularly with 2nd Story. He is a company member with Collaboraction, and The Mammals. He is a proud graduate from the School at Steppenwolf ('08), and was born in Longview, Texas.
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