Lindsey Nelson (Camp Director)

Lindsey studied youth drama, directing and puppetry at the University of New Hampshire and holds a BA in Theatre and Secondary Education. This will be Lindsey’s 6th summer at PAPA Camp! She is the Rep’s Director of Youth Programming where directing credits include Charlotte’s Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harold and the Purple Crayon, James and the Giant Peach, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, HONK, Henry and Ramona and more. Other credits include: stage managing for The Players’ Ring, New Hampshire Theatre Project, and the Rep; designing puppets for The Hobbit at The Palace Theatre in Manchester, teaching at Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy, Portsmouth Middle School, St. Mary’s Academy; and performing and managing the box office at the Papermill Theatre in her hometown of Lincoln, NH. Lindsey has been the Camp Director at the Rep’s wildly popular Apprentice Stage day camp since 2006 and will be handing over the reins this summer to focus on PAPA Camp. Proud to be part of a program so deeply embedded in the community, Lindsey strongly believes that theatre and the performing arts can be used as a catalyst for self-esteem, teamwork and creativity.

Miles Burns (Music Director)

Miles has been involved with the Rep’s youth program for a number of years now, starting as a performer in Les Miserables – S.E.. Since then he has music directed a number of youth shows including: Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr., Jack and the Beanstalk, Winnie – the – Pooh, Melvin the Pelican, The Trial of Goldilocks and assistant music directed the Youth Mainstage production of Into the Woods. Miles will be the music director this summer at the Rep’s day camp, Apprentice Stage and will return for his 6th summer at PAPA Camp this August as the Music Director.

Marissa Miller (Musical Theatre Director)

Marissa is absolutely thrilled to return to PAPA Camp for her fifth year! In addition to PAPA, Marissa has worked as a counselor for the Stoneham Theatre’s Young Company and Merrimack Valley’s TTS (That’s the Spirit!) sports camp. Marissa is an original member of CellarDoor Productions: a theatre company composed of young artists of the Greater Boston area. This past summer she was seen in the Huntington Theatre’s production of “Pirates!” and also portrayed the role of Sera in the Boston workshop of the new musical “Angels”. Marissa can be heard as a soloist on “Heart and Music: an album to benefit the Hirshberg Foundation” available on ITunes. She is currently a junior musical theatre major at The Boston Conservatory where she is vice president of the BoCo Cares Outreach Team and very active in school productions. Marissa hopes to continue educating children in the arts while pursuing a career on the stage.

Sammy Reyes (Dance Director)

Sammy graduated from the University of the Arts in 2001. While at UArts, he received the Cushman Acting Award and the ensemble theater award for his outstanding achievements in dramatic arts. After college, Sammy continued his dance training with Ronen Koresh, Rennie Harris, and Kip Martin. He was rehearsal director and dance member of Dance Theater X Project, directed by Charles O. Anderson. Sammy recently completed touring the nation with television and radio artist Raven Symone’. Sammy continues to choreograph independently for numerous events including the Philadelphia Gay Pride Event at the Kimmel Center in May 2001. He has also worked with the Walnut Street Theater Educational Dept, Prince Music Theatre, 11th Hour Theater Co, the Cat Scratch Theater Company, Luna Theater and Jeffrey Marsh La Cabaret, Media Theater, Lasalle University, Drexel University, Zen One Dance Collective, Montazh Dance Company, Darimar Productions, Center City Film and Video, the singing group BADD and Lady Ru, New Jersey Garden State Arts Festival from 2004-07 and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Sammy is currently a teacher of jazz and hip-hop all over the tri-state area and has been a residential artist at Muhlenberg College 2004-2007, A professor of Hip-Hip Theater for the musical theater department at Temple University 2008-2009. A highlight of Sammy’s career occurred recently when he was nominated for a Barrymore Award in 2007 for Best Choreography for The Bombitty of Errors with 11th Hour Theater Company. Samuel is Artistic Director Sanbrooka productions in Philadelphia.

Grady O'neil (CIT Program Director/Camp Assistant)

Grady will be graduating from Bennington College with a BA double major in Drama and Education in the Spring of 2010. She has worked at camps for 9 years and will return to PAPA Camp 2010 for her 7th summer. Grady has been acting since she was 8 years old working with the Rep, Blackbox Productions, Prescott Park, Ogunquit Playhouse, The Bell Center and Garrison Players as well as productions at Bennington College. Grady has been a camp counselor for the Rep’s Apprentice Stage day camp and was the CIT Coordinator last summer at PAPA Camp is gearing up to do it again!

Robyn Barrows (Activities Coordinator)

Robyn has been working with the Seacoast Repertory Theatre for the past two years teaching classes for ages 4 – 18. She recently served as Properties Mistress for The Hobbit at the Rep and was the choreographer for Seussical in Rochester, NH. Robyn brings to camp a wealth of teaching, theatre and organizational experience including touring with Missoula Children’s Theatre, Assistant Directing the youth programming at All Children’s Theatre, choreography, production management, properties master, director of education, playwright, and theatre educator. Robyn holds a BA in Theatre with a minor in Education from Northeastern State University and her MA in Speech and Theatre from Louisiana Tech University.

Alden Caple (Senior Counselor/Sign Language Elective Instructor)

Alden is beyond excited to return for his third year at PAPA Camp! He will graduate in May ’10 with a B.F.A in Music Theatre from the Hartt School. Alden has worked as choreographer for Maui On Stage, Oyster River High School, Marshwood High School, and The Hartt School among others as well as leading dance workshops in African Dance, Jazz, and Music Theatre Styles. In 2009, Alden wrote, directed, and produced an original play at Manhattan Rep in NYC. This winter he performed in the Festival of New Artists at Goodspeed Musicals in CT. Some of Alden’s favorite roles include The Mikado in The Mikado, Eddie in The Rocky Horror Show, and Jack Lamm in Lincoln in Love (Staged Reading Music By David Friedman and Book by Peter Kellog). Alden studied American Sign Language with John LeBlond of the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, CT.

Maria Costa (Camp Nurse)

Maria got her Bachelors degree at George Mason University and her RN from NHTC. This will be her 5th time making the trip to PAPA Camp to drop off her three children, but her first time as the camp nurse there. She has been involved in theater for most of her life. Be it for her three kids or herself on stage, it has been a big part of her life. She has been a nurse now for four years at the Portsmouth Regional Hospital. She also is a substitute nurse for the Portsmouth and Hampton schools. Before she was a nurse she was a lifeguard, swim instructor, water acerbic instructor at the YMCA. Maria is very excited about being apart of such a wonderful staff and looks forward to spending time with all the campers!