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 well-rounded theater professional, originally from Upstate New York. She earned her degree in Theater at Nazareth College of Rochester and moved to New York City where she joined the DAP Ensemble, a group of Directors, Actors, and Playwrights from the New School’s Actors Studio. In addition to performing as part of their acting company, she went on to serve as their Producing Director for nearly 2 Years. René later began working with The Gallery Players in Brooklyn and served on their Board of Directors as well as Producer of their annual Black Box New Play Festival until leaving for Germany in 2007.  After moving to Frankfurt, René co-founded Theatre Language Studio (TLS) Frankfurt, an English language production company and Theater School in Frankfurt am Main. On top of her on-going work as Producing Director, Performer, and Instructor at TLS, she has also taught Drama club at the Strothoff School, coached local improvisation and acting troupes, and developed a literacy project aimed at bilingual children, Storytime with Rita Storee. Complementing both her theater degree and practical production experience, René has studied improvisation with iO Chicago, Imprology, The Maydays, Fabio Marcioni, Lee White and Anundpfirsich.
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.

Anne-Sophie Brunold
Theatre Pedagogue

Theatre has always been a part of her life. She studied to be a primary school teacher with German and English as her main subjects, but it was during this time that she returned to theatre and began working in theatre education. With various school projects, assistant directorships and freelance theatre work as well as collective productions, she went freelance in 2021. Since 2022 she has also been studying for a Master’s degree in Performative Arts in Social Fields. Since then, her educational and artistic work has focused on theatre, dance, performance art and installations. She loves working with non-professionals in artistic fields as well as being a performer herself.

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).