Our director

Rebecca Lopkin BS, MA, Educational Theater, NYU

Theater has always been my happy place. From the first time I stepped onto a stage as a young child in a classroom play, to seeing my very first Broadway show, Peter Pan starring Sandy Duncan, I have been captivated. The sights, the sounds, the scents - whether on stage, backstage or in the audience - there is simply nothing like the magic of the theater. My goal is to bring that wonder and magic to our students.

Envision Theater was founded on the principle that all children are natural storytellers with voices that deserve to be heard. Their boundless imagination and creativity, coupled with the skills, confidence and discipline a theater program provides will help any child's success navigating this 21st century world.

At Envision Theater, we are committed to developing performing arts programming with a warm, professional staff of theater artists who are committed to the process as much (if not more than) the product.

Teaching artists

Noa Berger

Noa Berger is a theatre artist and recent graduate of Tulane University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Production/Design. She has a lifelong background in the performing arts, with experience in scenic design, acting, dance, visual arts, and arts education. In addition to her work in theatre, Noa has taught gymnastics, ballet, and art to children of all ages. She is passionate about creating engaging, inclusive spaces where young artists can build confidence, develop their creativity, and discover a love for theatre. Noa believes every student has something valuable to contribute and strives to foster a supportive environment where they feel empowered to grow, both on and off the stage.

Piper Chick

Piper has been working in theatre education since 2017 and cannot describe something she loves more. She graduated with her Bachelors of Arts in Theatre with minors in Education and Musical Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2025. She is now pursuing her Master of Arts in Educational Theatre with an all-grades certification at New York University. Her favorite on-stage credits include Anya in Anastasia, Enid in Legally Blonde, Fiona in Shrek, and The Queen of Diamonds in Alice By Heart. Her favorite behind-the-scene credits include stage managing for Dare to Dream at SPARC, Shrek: The Musical at CFRT, and Firebringer at Doomsday Theatre Company. She has taught theatre and musical theatre to preK-12 students. She also has taught stage management and other technical theatre elements to K-12 students.

Piper has had the opportunity to teach in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Maryland, and New York. She is passionate about teaching theatre to students of all ages and abilities. She firmly believes theatre teaches important life skills and that theatre belongs to anyone brave enough to try. She hopes to continue instilling positive theatre experiences to students to help them further their passion, talent, and knowledge of the art she loves the most.

Christine Drayer

Christine has pursued her passion of working with others who love to create for the last twenty years throughout the New York City Metropolitan Area. After graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA, she acted professionally at The McCarter Theatre and various off-Broadway theatres, including working with the legendary Elaine Stritch. She loves actively engaging in the learning process and helping others learn; her directing credits for NYC schools include West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and Romeo and Juliet. As a teaching artist, she devised plays and musicals in collaboration with City Lights Youth Theatre, Sundog Theatre, Inside Broadway, and Hartford Performs. This past spring, she directed Thornton Wilder’s one-act play, “The Happy Journey from Trenton to Camden,” revisiting Wilder’s experimental style with a group of high schoolers. The experience reminded her of her own high school performance of “Our Town,” one of her acting debuts that set her on the theatrical path. Christine is also a vocal jazz musician and loves modern dance as well as her newfound hobby, surfing. A graduate of The Steinhardt School at New York University with a Master’s in Educational Theatre, she is delighted to be on board with the faculty at Envision and reconnect with some former alumni!

Abigail Gabor

Abigail Gabor is a theatre educator, actor, and director. She is currently working towards a Master of Educational Theatre degree at City College, where she also received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. She has experience working with students of all ages and is passionate about access to the arts. Teaching highlights include working as a student teacher at Theatre Arts Production Company School in the Bronx and as a creative apprentice at White Plains Performing Arts Center’s Summer Theatre Academy, where she helped kids put on Broadway Jr. musicals. As an actor, some of her favorite roles include Dull Gret and Shona in Top Girls and the Fool in King Lear. Abigail sees every student’s potential and wants to foster a supportive and helpful environment for them to grow as theatre artists.

Luke Foster Hayden

Luke Foster Hayden is a classical musician, theatre practitioner, and teaching artist who likes to work at the “intersection of the performing arts” and explore the tension between disciplines. He currently is working at the intersection of musicology, music education, and educational theatre.

Luke holds a Bachelor of Music Education in Secondary Choral Education from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He recently completed IU's first ever graduate level Transition-to-Teaching certificate in Drama Education. He previously held the post of choir and theatre director at Bedford North Lawrence High School and Bedford Middle School in Bedford, Indiana.

In 2025, Luke relocated from Indiana to New York City to pursue a Masters of Arts in Education Theatre for Social and Civic Engagement at New York University. His first publication "Dramatic Sonata: A Musicking" was recently featured in ArtsPraxis.

amelia huckel-bauer

Amelia is an NYC based actor and teaching artist. She has a BFA in Acting from Tisch, NYU, where she studied primarily at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, where she currently teaches Method Acting. While at Tisch, she also studied with Stonestreet Film and TV Studio, Viewpoints with Mary Overlie, Clowning with Christopher Bayes and spent a semester in Dublin. She also has an MA in Educational Theater from Steinhardt, NYU.
Amelia works as an actor and Education Director with Red Monkey Theatre Group in the Bronx, where her roles on the stage have included Hunter in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Silvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona; Chick in Crimes of the Heart. She is a company member with Emit Theatre, bringing immersive Shakespeare to NYC public schools with roles ranging from Gertrude in Hamlet to Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Other theater credits include Sally in Tally’s Folly with Bagaduce Theater, Beatrice in Measure for Measure at America Theater of Actors and she originated the role of Flannery in Mrs. Schrodinger’s Cat at NYC Fringe Festival. Amelia is producing and acting in an on-going production of John Ford Noonan’s one woman show, All She Cares About is the Yankees, which opened in Maine over the summer of 2022. She lives in the Bronx with her husband and two young children.

nathan kruman

Nathan Kruman has been the musical director of Envision Theater since its inception, and has a rich background in music, stage and film. Nathan has performed as an actor, singer, dancer, pianist, choreographer, and music director in high school, with the University of Pennsylvania’s Mask & Wig and Penn Players ensembles, and more recently with Black Box Studios and Envision Theater. He has directed, created and staged multiple shows and events at schools and colleges in Philadelphia, Boston, and Bergen County. His on-stage credits include Kazablan, Cabaret, Circle Mirror Transformation, Working and his one foray into Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Among his other credits are Aladdin, To Live Another Summer To Pass Another Winter, Annie, Milk and Honey, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and numerous original theatre workshops. His favorite Shakespeare play is King Lear and favorite character, the Fool.

jen lee

Jen Lee is an educator, actress, director and writer. She graduated from NYU Steinhardt with a master’s degree in Educational Theater in Colleges and Communities and was trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute. She also has a bachelor’s degree in Radio and TV Journalism. In the last decade, she has taught drama, literature, and jazz dance classes in both English and Mandarin in New York City, Beijing, and Tianjin, China.Her recent directing projects include Stop Kiss, The Glass Menagerie, Treasure, Hollow Cross (Asst. Dir.), and Seattle Men’s Illustrated Book (Asst. Dir.). Her recent acting credits include leading roles in The Cabin for FLOWFEST 2023 Program in NYC (produced by CHUANG Stage), Seattle Men’s Illustrated Book for Seattle First Chinese Comedy Festival (produced by Three Words Drama Club), The 1.5 Lives of Oliver Peters for Playwrights for Change Festival 2023 for American Alliance For Theater and Education (AATE), and In Between: A Collection of Short Plays for Yun Theatre. Through leadership in the arts and education, she believes art explores humanity's essence and amplifies love.

victoria oltarsh

Victoria Oltarsh has been a professional drama teacher and director for 30 years. She is a Rockland Council of the Arts individual artist recipient and a published lyricist on Atlantic Records with her song, “Lucky Charm.” Her adaptations of classical fairy tales have been performed for school assemblies with the River Light Theater, a touring company of adults. She has previously been employed by Arts in Ed organizations: The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Making Books Sing, Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, Pulse Performing Arts School and Opera New Jersey. She is most recently employed as a Master Teaching Artist at LeAp in NYC, where she teaches story theater, improv and LeAp Onstage, a signature playwriting program, and in-school creative writing classroom literacy residencies. Her teaching experience includes creative movement and mime for actors, original playwriting, lyric writing, and rapid-fire think on your feet comedy style improv.

mackie saylor

Mackie Saylor is a mission-driven arts educator and administrator who is committed to utilizing the arts to build and celebrate our communities. She has worked as a teaching artist with organizations such as CO/LAB Theater Group, Queens Theater, Broadway Bound Kids, and Opening Act, as well as the Broadway Jr. and Arthur Miller Fellowship programs. Currently, Mackie manages Turnaround Arts: NYC, a program of The Kennedy Center and Exploring the Arts. She is also a collaborator with the NYU Verbatim Performance Lab. Previously, Mackie managed education programs at Notes in Motion and Children’s Museum of the Arts. In 2012, she co-founded Ashworth Theatre Company in her hometown of Waukee, IA. She also publishes a monthly arts education newsletter. Mackie holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from the Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University and an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU Steinhardt.

beth selter

Beth Selter has been working in professional and regional theater for over 30 years. She graduated with a B.A. in Theater Arts from Queens College after performing in Israel while a student at Hebrew University. She then received a post-graduate degree from the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts and interned at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Beth has been directing Youth Theater in New York/New Jersey schools since 1996 and served as Drama Director for the NJY CAMPS at Camp Nesher for 17 years. Additionally, Beth writes and performs her own one-woman Cabaret shows in and around NYC accompanied by the famed Mr. Alex Rybeck. Her shows often explore the challenges of her dual passions for the performing arts and her dedication to living a traditional, Torah inspired life.Beth has also performed with Black Box Studios’ Professional Ensemble group in Teaneck, NJ and the JCC Palisades Players, and she coaches voice, theater and public speaking from her home studio in Wesley Hills, NY.

Daniella Shapiro

Daniella Shapiro is a New Jersey-based teaching artist with a lifelong passion for drama and the arts. Daniella majored in Media Studies with a focus on Film Production at Queens College. From an early age, Daniella was involved in theater and honed her skills through acting and dance training from Broadway professionals at the Dance Art Creative Center. While running a summer theater program, Daniella directed and choreographed productions such as Annie, Wizard of Oz, Aladdin, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Daniella’s dream is to impart her love of theater to her students, and educate them on how acting can help connect with emotions, enhance creativity, and gain confidence, both on and off the stage.

Marketing team

SHAY POPPERS (Social Media, website)

Shay is a speculative artist and writer who creates imagery that is representational but metaphorical. They use opposing techniques of anthropomorphization and dehumanization to explore the dichotomy between the objective and subjective body and the line between horror and comedy. They hold a BFA in Visual Arts and English from Rutgers University and an MPS in Applied Intelligence from Georgetown University. You can find their art here.

In high school, Shay participated in Envision Shakespeare. They starred as Brutus in Julius Caesar and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, directed a rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and won an award for their performance of Sonnet 23. College acting credits include Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and various roles in student short films and one-act plays. Shay has also since performed as Chaim in Molly Lopkin's Mishteh Chaim and Young Bertuccio in SPRQ Media's audio production of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Outside of the arts, Shay enjoys weightlifting, listening to rock and metal music, riding roller coasters, and watching baseball and hockey.

Tehila Strulowitz (Newsletter)

Tehila Strulowitz grew up performing in both camp and school productions, and eventually she began to take interest in the visual arts. She has done social media and graphic design for summer programs, and digital media for multiple schools throughout the years. When not designing on Canva, she is either working in the classroom as an assistant teacher or pursuing her Bachelor's in psychology. Tehila enjoys playing the drums, telling bad jokes, and trying new things - like hair products.