Elise Charny- Audition & Monologue Prep

Elise graduated Cum Laude from Marymount Manhattan in New York with a BA in Theatre Arts, concentration in Performing. Continuing with her education and experience, Elise obtained her Masters in Theatre Education from Emerson College in Boston.

Elise has served as a performer/director/educator in the theatre community for the last twenty years. In 2013, Elise established the John F Kennedy School Drama Club in Somerville, MA, which is still running today. For the last eight years, Elise has served as Artistic and Education Director of BG OnStage, creating various programming and directing all of the theatrical productions. She has also aided students in achieving their goals of attending GSA and musical theatre/drama college programs, past students have been accepted at The New York Film Academy, University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music, Northern Kentucky University, Southern Illinois University, Austin Peay State University, Louisville University, and Western Kentucky University. As Education Director, Elise is very excited to be a part of the SKyPAC family and to continue bringing quality theatre education and theatre opportunities to the community!

Isabella Sparling- Vocal Instructor

Isabella Sparling is a junior vocal performance major at Western Kentucky University studying in Dr. R. Wayne Pope’s studio. In the past three years, she has performed with Western’s University singers and Chorale. She also works as a section leader and intern at first Christian church. She has performed in Western’s production of 

Bastien and Bastienne by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and she plans to collect and perform a lecture recital of Ecuadorian art song for the support of Western Kentucky University‘s FUSE grant her senior year. She expects to graduate in the spring of 2023 with her Bachelor’s in music and Criminology, and then proceed to get her Masters in Vocal Performance.

Lea Schenk- Vocal Instructor

Léa Schenk is a current BFA Theatre student at WKU where she most recently played the lead role of Jo March in Little Women The Broadway Musical. She is a trained Mezzo-Soprano who has studied with teachers across multiple continents, notably at Antibes Conservatoire de Music et d’Arts Dramatique in France, and more locally with renowned opera singers Elizabeth Batton and Grammy winner, Garrett Sorenson. Léa is a Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts 2019 Vocal Music Alum, and Student Ambassador for GSA. She graduated from the Youth Performing Arts High School in 2020 majoring in Orchestra (viola) and Design & Production where she was heavily involved as a Stage Manager and many more positions in the theatre department. She was a part of the inaugural season of the Youth Opera Program at Kentucky Opera in Louisville. She is currently working on her solo music project Resident Alien an indie folk album that she has been working on since 2017 which she has been readapting for the stage as a Solo Performance. She is also in the process of composing and writing a musical, Ashes, that is set to be proposed as a studio show at WKU in Spring 2023.

Her love for the arts is what brought her into the world of theatre, and more recently musical theatre. She has spent her whole life rounding herself into a jack-of-all-trades and has wound up finding her place in the theatre, both behind the table as a part of the production team and as a performer. She is currently working behind the table on BG Onstage’s The Addams Family as their Stage Manager. 

Her training uses classical techniques to support modern musical styles, so to marry the modern sound with healthy and sustainable breathing and singing techniques. Though she was trained classically, she started her singing career like everyone else, with the help of modern pop and of course, The Phantom of the Opera, which she calls the gateway to classical singing.