Artists-In-Residence, Mentors, and Student Leadership
2024-2025 Student Admin Leadership Team
Avery Hook, Company Manager
Val Lewin, Communications Manager
Nate Kaufmann, Marketing Co-Director
Zephyr Sanders, Marketing Co-Director
Ari Collins, Dramaturg
Jaylen Foote, Accessibility Coordinator
Cassidy Harper, Special Events Coordinator
2024-2025 Artists in Residence
In support of our mission of student managed productions, our Artist-In-Residence Program was created to help facilitate mentorship and collaboration between student leaders and their professional counterparts on our productions. These artists are available to student leaders and cast members as an integral part of the educational process.
Marci Shegogue, Music Direction
Marci has served as music director for hundreds of professional, community and educational program productions in the D.C. area over the past 40 years. In addition to working with The Free Theater (Fame, Mamma Mia, In the Heights, Sweeney Todd, Pippin, Chicago, Urinetown, Footloose, 9 to 5, Mean Girls, The Prom), she is the resident Music Director for Free Range Humans, a professional immersive theater company, and serves on the Board for Free Range Kids. Marci has worked extensively with educational musical theater programs in the DMV, including American University, University of Maryland College Park, Montgomery College, and Montgomery County Public Schools. Favorite productions include The Prom (Univ of MD), Once (American Univ), Little Women (Univ of MD, and MC Summer Dinner Theatre productions) Jekyll and Hyde, Murder Ballad, Always Patsy Cline, Striking 12, 35mm (Free Range Humans), Double Trouble (Imagination Stage), Infinite Future: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein (Monumental Theater), Catch Me If You Can (Act Two at Levine), Tommy (Kensington Arts Theater), Newsies and Anastasia (Quince Orchard HS Drama), Aida and In the Heights (Northwest HS Drama), Spamalot and Forever Plaid (Rockville Musical Theater), and Beauty and the Beast (Damascus Theatre Company). She is a University of Maryland theater and music department alumnus and has trained professionally with DC and NYC artists. Marci is also a collaborative accompanist, mentor and audition coach and freelance musician.
Jordan Hersh, Production Manager
Jordan Hersh is a DC based theater-maker living in Rockville Maryland. They specialize in lighting, stage management, and production management, and work full time as the Assistant Technical Director at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown. Jordan became the Production Manager for The Free Theatre in 2024.
Sean Cooper, Assistant Production Manager
Sean is an aspiring theater professional native to MoCo. He started his journey in 2018 as a high school lighting technician where he learned technical skills and found his passion for merging the arts with technology. In 2022 he joined the Free Theatre as a lighting designer and has since taken on other duties, becoming the Assistant Production Manager in 2024, where he continues to learn leadership and project management. Outside the Free, Sean studies technical and electrical sciences in various applications, from home systems to satellites.
Rikki Howie Lacewell, Choreography Mentor
Rikki Howie Lacewell is a WATCH nominated choreographer, director and performer based in the Washington DC area. She has worked extensively in the Professional and Community Theater community over the past 20 plus years. She is the founder of Confidence Theatrics, a professional performance and consulting theatre company based in the DMV, but available internationally: confidencetheatrics.com.
Megan Holden, Scenic Design Mentor
Megan Holden is a scenic designer, scenic painter, and theatre artist. She graduated from James Madison University in 2017 and has been freelancing in the DMV area since 2019. Her first production scenic designing with the Free Theatre was Fame in 2019.
Hailey LaRoe, Lighting Design Mentor
Hailey is a Lighting and Projection Designer, who has been working in the DC area since 2018, and has worked with The Free Theatre since December 2018. She grew up in Bethesda Maryland and returned to the area after attending Ohio Wesleyan university studying History and Theatre. Theatre has been a central part of Hailey’s life ever since she started doing tech work in middle school. She believes that student leadership and technical/ design knowledge is so important for any young artist and she is so thrill to have the opportunity with The Free Theatre to pass down some theatre know-how.
You can find some of her recent work at haileylaroedesigns.com.
Kristina Martin, Costume Design Mentor
Kristina ihas a Theatre degree from The College of William and Mary, where she worked as the Wardrobe Supervisor. Her DMV Costume Designer and Wardrobe Supervisor credits include: Virginia Shakespeare Festival, NextStop Theatre Company, Infinity Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Silver Spring Stage, Studio Theatre, Theatre Prometheus, bel Cantanti Opera Company, Urban Arias, Keegan Theatre, Washington National Opera, Brave Spirits Theatre, Land and Hungry Theatre Company, 4615 Theatre, Catholic University, Towson University, and Forum Theatre Company. As the Resident Designer and Shop Manager of Transcendence Theatre Company in Sonoma, CA, Kristina won awards for 2019 Best Costume Design from Broadway World Bay Area, as well as Costume Designer of the Decade. Recent local work includes multiple productions with Imagination Stage and Montgomery College
Rooster Sultan, Patron Accessibility Mentor & Props Design Mentor
Rooster Sultan (she/her) is a Prop Designer/Artisan and Scenic Artist in the DC Metro area. She is the resident Prop Designer at Montgomery College Rockville (2021- current). Some of her recent property design credits include: Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea; Chemical Exile: Synthesis (Rorschach Theatre);
The Pursued . . . The Tired; Blackwell Island (Signature in the Schools); The Rainmaker (1st Stage). She is an alum of the Montgomery College Rockville Theatre Department and has a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology from The University of North Georgia. Rooster is a member of USITT – Chesapeake Section
You can find some of her recent work at designedbyrooster.com.
Ginger Ager (Gene’s Costumes), Costume Design Mentor
Ginger has been the proprietor of Gene’s Costumes in Kensington, MD for 30 years.. She has always loved costumes and theatre, particularly musical theatre. Some of her favorite shows she has costumed are Hello Dolly!, Wizard of Oz and Les Mis. More recent production favorites include Newsies, Spamalot, Hairspray, Beauty and the Beast and Sense and Sensibilities. Over the years, Ginger has worked with countless schools, local businesses, talent coordinators, photographers and Community Theatre Groups.