Artists-In-Residence, Mentors, and Student Leadership

2026-2027 Student Admin Leadership Team

Kylee Solt-Linville, Company Manager
Nick Snyder, Marketing Coordinator
Hayley Mulema, Marketing Coordinator & Dramaturg
Lilia Guo, Accessibility Coordinator
Tania Rivera, Special Events Coordinator

2026-2027 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, Managing Director & Music Mentor

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.

Sean Cooper, 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 came to the Free Theatre as a lighting designer and has since taken on other duties, eventually becoming the company Production Manager in 2025. Sean also works as a technician for BlackRock Center for the Arts, the current venue and home of The Free Theatre.

Jordan Hersh, Production Associate & Lighting Design Mentor

Jordan Hersh is a stage manager, production manager, and lighting designer, and the Technical Director at BlackRock Center for the Arts. They graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a double major in Theater and Environmental Studies in 2016. They have been making theater in the DMV since 2018.

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.

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

Brinlyn Cohen-Rider, Stage Management Mentor

Brinlyn is a recent Free Theatre alumni and has been in the performing arts for as long as she could walk. She was with TFT all four years in high school, serving roles from crew hand to stage manager to assistant production manager. At her school, she served as the student technical director this past year. Brinlyn is so excited to be teaching two classes this summer and hopes you all learn a lot and have fun!

Elly Makowski, Sound & Projection Design Mentor

Elly Makowski is a Senior Technical Associate at BlackRock Center for the Arts and serves as the current Technical Director and Facility Coordinator for the Carroll County Arts Council in Westminster, MD. She has been working as a sound designer on many productions, including most recently Matilda (Carroll County Arts Council), The Color Purple (BlackRock Center for the Arts), and The Revelation of Bobby Pritchard (Carroll Community College). Since graduating in 2016 from The Sheffield Institute of the Recording Arts, she has been working on all things sound related for many venues including Adventure Theatre, Everyman Theater, F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater, and many more.

Chloe Weiss, Dramaturgy Mentor

Chloe Weiss is a conductor, composer, and performing artist based in North Bethesda. After taking an introductory dramaturgy class in her first year of college, she took an instant liking to research within the arts, promptly becoming one of the youngest assistant dramaturgs for the University of Pittsburgh’s mainstage shows. Three years later, her musical research was published, and she has never looked back. A proud “professional theatre kid”, Chloe is thrilled to teach the true meaning of what it is to be a theatrical encyclopedia. When she is not hyper-analysing a musical score or script, Chloe enjoys cooking, losing track of time at Barnes and Noble, and Fleetwood Mac.

Rooster Sultan, Patron Accessibility & 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.

Sean DiGiorgio, Videography & Projections Mentor

Sean DiGiorgio is a multifaceted theatre and film artist based in the DMV and a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). His work is guided by a desire to create theatrical experiences that capture the immersion and scale of the big screen. His theatre credits include User Agreement (Director, UMBC Theatre), Murder on the Orient Express (Director, Milburn Stone Theatre), Doll Parts (Projection Designer, The Voxel), and The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (Projection Designer, Wildwood Summer Theatre). In January 2026, Sean was the Regional selection for Directing at the American College Theater Festival. His short film He Doesn’t Bite premiered at AwesomeCon in 2025 and received an Honorable Mention at the Maryland Film Festival. Sean is an Associate Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Associate Sound and Projections Supervisor at Olney Theatre Center. 
See more of his work at seandigiorgio.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.