Education team

PJ Escobio
Shakespeare Instructor, Director and Theatre Pedagogue
PJ has directed for the English Theatre Frankfurt Robin Hood by Kathryn Schultz Miller, Huck Finn by Sean Aita, and Girl with a Book by Nick Wood.  He is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Frankfurt, for whom he directed the film Spiritus Vitae, The Breath of Life, and for the 2023-24 season is directing Shakespeare’s Othello and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Other plays he has directed for SF include, Trojan Women by Euripides, Sweat by Lynn Nottage,  An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen,  Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, King LearMacbeth, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,  and Twelfth Night. He is a House director at the Internationales Theater Frankfurt where his production of The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh was in the Fall of 2019.  From 2015-18 he was the Director in Residence at The LOFT, where he directed Shakespeare in the Garden:Hortus Inclusus,  Shakespeare’s The TempestGrounded by George Brandt and was the co-creator of Where.  For 10 years he was the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Anyone? founded in New York City in 2005, where he directed, produced and/or performed roles from all but 5 of Shakespeare’s plays.  He was the Associate Artistic Director of WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Laboratory from 2007-12.  He also cast and directed BFA playwriting thesis projects for NYU’s Tisch school of the arts.  He has taught Acting, Scene Study, Stage Combat and Shakespeare courses at the collegiate level as well as high schools and private institutions for over 20 years. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Missouri-KC in Acting and Directing.
René Marie Becker
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue
René Marie Becker is a professional actor and improviser with over 14 years of experience as a teacher and trainer.  She has a degree in Theater from Nazareth University and has performed and studied everything from the classics to devised theater and fully improvised plays all over New York and Europe. Complementing her theater training and practical production experience, René has studied improvisation with iO Chicago, Imprology, The Maydays, Fabio Marcioni, Lee White, and Anundpfirsich. René has also several years’ experience as a Producing Director; on the board of 2 different theater companies in NYC, and most recently, for Theater Language Studio Frankfurt.  She recently directed the play Kindertransport for The ETF-Plays for Young Audiences and currently works as a freelance pedagogue and trainer, partnering with The ETF, Schultheater-Studio, ArtQ, Academy 404,  and other companies within the Frankfurt Rhein-Main region.
Conor Doyle
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue
Conor Doyle is born and raised in Ireland with stints spent in Canada and Germany.

In 2005 Conor began his education in Comedy Writing and Performance where he was taught by former SNL and SCTV cast members. Conor performed comedy on various Toronto stages, Yuk Yuks, Second City, Bad Dog Theatre and the Comedy Bar. Stand up Comedy, Improvisational Comedy and Sketch Comedy are all formats he has vast experience with.

Between 2010 and 2013, Conor returned to Ireland to pursue an education in Drama Performance and Facilitation, so he could refine his performance abilities but also learn more about sharing and teaching his passions Comedy performance and Acting. Conor performed in numerous plays and gained more experience as an actor.

Tracey Grey
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue

Tracey Grey trained at the Guildford School of Acting specialising in musical theatre and started her career touring on musical and dramatic stages in the UK. Productions include an off-musical, “Travellers” premiering at the Covent Garden Festival and Blood Brothers a the Phoenix Theatre, London. Tours include, On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard  and the musical the Red bard Murder, where she played the title role of Maria. Tracey also toured as solo-singer with the Cliff Longhurst Bigband. 

More than half her professional life has been in Germany where she has continued to successfully work as a voiceover artist, actress, director and theatre educator. In addition to performance work, she founded Stagecoach Theater Arts in Frankfurt in 2004. Currently, she runs her own studio for private voice and acting coaching, specifically supporting young performers through the highly competitive process of drama school auditions at renowned schools worldwide. Tracey Is co-founder of Shakespeare Frankfurt (with PJ Escobio) and Production Manager for the annual open air ‘Shakespeare in the Garden’ performances in cooperation with the Frankfurt Botanical Gardens, and since 2018 she has been teaching IB theatre part-time at local international school.

Varvara Pomoni
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue

Varvara comes from Athens, Greece. She has a background in ballet & modern dance and she has trained on Meisner Technique, Improvisation, Shakespeare’s Language,  Meyerhold’s Biomechanics & Physical Theatre at various theatre organisations in Germany, Austria and England. She has attended workshops on theatre pedagogics at Theaterwerkstatt Heidelberg and she trains regularly at New International Performing Arts Institute in Berlin. Some of her performance credits include the roles of Cleopatra (Antony & Cleopatra), Eckart (Baal), Kent (King Lear), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Tupolski (Pillowman), Emilia (Othello), Aslaksen (An Enemy of the People) and Hippolyta & Fairies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). She also performed for two years at The English Theatre’s production of Huck Finn. Currently, she is co-directing a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and in summer 2023, she will be playing Lady Capulet in Shakespeare Frankfurt’s production of Romeo & Juliet at the Frankfurt Botanical Garden.  

Keith Wilson
Singer, Actor, Choreographer, Theatre Pedagogue

Keith is a native Tennessean, former fourth grade educator, and currently resides in Germany.
He is a successful working singer, dancer, actor, choreographer, and educator. Keith has a diverse educational background with diplomas in Musical Theatre (American Musical & Dramatics Academy), Speech & Theatre (Austinn Peay State University); Elementary Education (Austin Peay State University), and ESL Training Certification (Cambridge University, England).
He has received accolades for his performances in the German productions of The Lion King and Starlight Express amongst many others. He has also appeared in European productions of the opera Porgy and Bess. Choreography credits include Some Like It Hot (Anhaltisches Theater Dessau), La Cage Aux Folles (Associate Choreographer and Dance Captain), Aint Misbehavin’ (US), and Jesus Christ Superstar (US) amongst others. Mr. Wilson´s professional choreography credits for youth productions in the United States include school productions of Will Rogers Follies, Grease, Once on this Island, Guys & Dolls, and Little Shop of Horrors.
In Frankfurt, Keith appeared in King Lear for Shakespeare Frankfurt and plays the role of Jim in the English Theatre Frankfurt´s youth production Huck Finn. He joined the theatre´s education team as a theatre pedagogue in 2021.

Moriah – Jane Lorentz
Music therapist, theatre pedagogue and performer

Moriah-Jane is music therapist, theatre pedagogue, project manager, and performer. Originally from South Africa, she has been in Frankfurt since 2017. She graduated with a music therapy degree, with a minor in drama and speech therapy facilitation. 
She is either running therapy sessions with clients, running music and theatre pedagogue programs, or heading up her creative therapy project, The Inspired Project, which works to bring inspiration and healing, targeted toward women, but open for all. She has worked mainly with children, and youth who are on the Autism spectrum. She has also been privileged enough to work as a trauma counsellor with women who have been affected by sex trafficking and trade, which has opened doors to doing this on an international level. This is what her heart bleeds for. She is passionate about creating music, art and movement, because ultimately if she can live out her creativity she can pass the tools on to others. At the end of the day, her heart is to equip each child and person with their unique voice, and she believes that music is a powerful tool to do so.

Melanie Kenny
Theatre Pedagogue

Melanie is an Irish actor/singer who grew up in Frankfurt before attending drama school at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. While in the UK she played some of her favourite roles, including Victorian boxer Violet Hunter in Joy Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science of Bruising, and Anna in the musical Spring Awakening by Stephen Sater. Not only a singer, she also loves to play music, mainly on the piano or guitar, and often accompanies herself.
She is a great lover of languages as well as music, and did her first educational acting job when she appeared in the web series So Leben Wir in Deutschland for BBC Bitesize, intended for GCSE German students in the UK.
Now back in her old home town, she has joined the Education team at the English Theatre Frankfurt as both a pedagogue and a performer, playing Maid Marian in the production of Robin Hood directed by PJ Escobio, for which she is also fight captain; putting her British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat qualification to good use.
As the daughter of a teacher, Melanie is very excited to start getting involved with theatre education, and is keen to make a difference in supporting the next generation of young creatives.

Benjamin Joel Caron
Artist and Theatre Pedagogue

Born and raised in the United States, Ben trained in musical theater at the esteemed American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York City. Since then, Benjamin has appeared in multiple off-Broadway shows, television productions, and films, including a role in „The Fantasticks” with Cabaret’s Joel Grey. His career in musical theater began as a teen with a role in „Grease”. 

Benjamin is also an accomplished musician. He plays the ukulele, harmonica, and piano, and has composed numerous songs, jingles for commercials, as well as pieces for operettas and films. Notably, he wrote all the music for an educational children’s operetta, “The Fisherman’s Clever Daughter”.

An experienced teacher, Benjamin has taught students of all age groups. His passion for teaching music, dance, and acting to young talents has led him to Stagecoach Frankfurt Nord, where he coaches the advanced group and, of course, to The
English Theatre of Frankfurt. He eagerly looks forward to continuing to use his wealth of experience and skills to help bring his students to their own personal stage of life.

Emma Teitge
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue

Emma Teitge trained at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, where she graduated with a first-class Bachelor’s degree in Acting. She spent her early life in a musical theatre school and in private singing, dancing, acting and piano lessons, to make her way onto the stage. Some of her credits include Desdemona in Othello, Cordelia in King Lear and Mariane in Tartuffe.

Emma loves working with children and witnessing their development. She has been teaching Stagecoach groups since 2015 and has attended numerous teacher training courses since then. She has also been working as a substitute teacher in a primary school and has led several after-school programmes. In her Bachelor’s thesis, she studied the impact of the performing arts on the development of children and young people and is certain that they strengthen qualities such as self-confidence, resilience, empathy and teamwork.

Emma is very excited to share her passion and fun for the stage at the English Theatre Frankfurt!

Allix James
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue
Allix trained in acting at Webber Douglas Academy in London. He worked for many years as an actor in the UK, performing both in theatre and film. He has also worked in the field of education as a drama tutor as well as years of experience creating and running theatre workshops, in both the UK and Sweden. He is a playwright; his first production Dark in The Water was performed at the White Bear Theatre, London summer 2018; the White Bear went on to produce his next play Valhalla (January 2019) which was then transferred to this year’s Brighton Fringe. Valhalla will be transferred again as Allix continues with his other writing projects. Allix loves working as a pedagogue at the English Theatre, and particularly enjoyed his title role in Claire Selby’s children show Little Red Dragon (2018/19).

Cornelia Groeger
Actor and Theatre Pedagogue

A seasoned actress and a lover of the performing arts Cornelia was born and raised in Kuwait with a British education and bilingual fluency in English & German. She started acting at a young age and rediscovered her passion when she moved to New York in 2013 cutting her teeth on stage and film. 
Residing in Wiesbaden since 2020, Cornelia is chairwoman of FEST (Frankfurt English Speaking Theatre) producing, directing and acting and was last seen on stage as Ranyevskaya in Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. Her last award-winning short film “To The Ones Left” was shot in NY in 2020. 
Cornelia holds a university degree in International Management from Mainz University, a 2-year Meisner based acting program at HM Acting, NY and trained with Giles Foreman at GFCA, London and Matthew Corozine at MCS, NY.
Cornelia loves working with children as an English teacher and theatre pedagogue in schools in NY and Frankfurt. She is excited to join the ETF education team and her passion is to motivate, support and believe in the next generation of lovers of the performing arts.