Faculty

Carol Apelt
Volunteer

Carol got involved with Sitar Arts Center in 2006 when she began volunteering for the Center’s fundraising efforts. In 2009, she became a volunteer teacher, offering a targeted course to help young performers further hone their unique acting talents. Carol holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University’s acclaimed theatre program and is currently pursuing her Masters in History at George Mason University. In addition to these pursuits, she has enjoyed a successful 12-year career in the Federal government and nonprofit arts sectors, including stints at the Federal Administration for Children and Families, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Theater Center. She continues to share her insight as an independent consultant, connecting organizations with the public policy arena and advising on Federal systems and nonprofit issues.

Acting Coaching

Melissa D'Lando
Volunteer

Melissa has been writing since she was able to pick up a pen. Because she loves to tell stories, loves kids, and kind of misses being one, she began volunteering at Sitar Arts Center in 2007. When she is not busy inspiring today's youth, she can be found searching for a decent slice of pizza in Washington, DC.

Screenplay Writing

Maureen Dwyer
Deputy Director

Maureen has performed in cabaret shows and with improvisational troupes in Washington, DC. In the past, Maureen taught early childhood music to babies, toddlers, and their care givers and drama to young children at primary schools. She is enjoying jumping back into the wonderful world of musical theater as one of the Musical Theater Workshop teachers. Maureen graduated from Catholic University of America with a BA in drama. She is currently the Deputy Director of Sitar Arts Center.

Musical Theater Workshop

Jim Gagne
Volunteer

Bio Forthcoming

Shakespeare’s Combat

Helen McMahon
Volunteer

Helen found Sitar Arts Center in 2003, on a sunny spring day in early May, when on a walk on a side street in Adams Morgan neighborhood she stumbled upon a group of young jazz musicians, hip hop dancers, face-paint artists, and poets participating in their spring semester performance week. After learning more about the Center’s mission, she thought the Center would provide a perfect avenue to put her theater background back into practice again (it had gone dormant far too long and she always enjoyed working with youth). Ever since that fateful walk on spring day, she has been coming to Sitar Arts Center where – even better than a spring day – new blossoms can be seen every season. Helen received a B.A. degree in Speech and Drama from Catholic University with a minor in Secondary Education. She has previously taught creative dramatics to teenagers at the Columbia School for the Performing Arts in Maryland.

Arena Stage Playwriting

A. Lorraine Robinson
Director of Faculty & Education

Lorraine is a professional theater dramaturge, actress and award-winning director, and has worked professionally in DC, TX, RI, NY, and OH with theatres such as Arena Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Contemporary American Theater Company, Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, Rites and Reason, Round House Theatre Company, Washington Shakespeare Theater Company, and African Continuum Theater Company. She is Artistic Producing Director of a not-for-profit multimedia theater and film production company, MuseFire Productions and recently completed a television directing observation on the Bernie Mac Show. She has taught theater at St. Mary’s College of MD, Camp Ballibay summer arts camp, and the Dallas Theater Center’s teen/children program and has been the director of Sitar Arts Center’s summer musicals The Wiz, Once Upon A Mattress, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Willy Wonka, and Beauty and the Beast. Lorraine has a master’s degree in theater from Brown University and a BA in theater and psychology (with course work in film studies) from St. Mary’s College of MD. She is currently on staff at Sitar Arts Center as the Director of Faculty and Education.

Stage Acting

Vanessa Thomas
Volunteer

Vanessa is a program manager in the Kennedy Center's Education Department, as well as the Associate Artistic Director of Horizons Theatre, the longest running women's theatre in the country. As an artist, she's been an actress, director, and playwright. When she's not in the theatre, studio, classroom, she enjoys the culinary arts and being outside and getting tons of fresh air!

Play Acting