Summer Drama Program Faculty

Kristi Dana (AEA/SAG-AFTRA) is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Speech in the division of theatre at Southern Methodist University and is also an actor and vocal coach. Credits as an actor include New York Shakespeare Exchange’s Sonnet Project and the world premiere of Matthew Paul Olmos’ so go the ghosts of méxico, part three at Dallas’ Undermain Theatre. Her professional vocal coaching includes Liz Lerman’s tour of Healing Wars and Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep. She is a certified teacher of Miller Voice Method, Knight-Thompson Speechwork, and holds a certificate of completion from the Michael Chekhov Association. From 2016-17, she was interim head of M.F.A. acting, and graduate voice and speech teacher at Brooklyn College and from 2017-2018 served as a visiting assistant professor of voice and speech at Penn State University. She has also taught at Long Island University/Post, the College of Staten Island and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Kristi holds an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College, and a BA in Theatre Arts from Penn State University.

Stephanie Machado is a Brazilian-American actress and educator. She holds an MFA in Acting from Yale School of Drama, where she studied with Evan Yionoulis, Ron Van Lieu, Peter Francis James, Steven Skybell, James Bundy, Beth McGuire, and Walton Wilson among others. She also holds a BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University. Stephanie has most recently worked with the McCarter Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, Group.BR (where she Assistant Directed Linda Wise of the Roy Hart Theater), and more. She currently teaches actors in New York City, and does private coaching in both New York and New Haven. She received the Olivier Thorndike Award in Acting from Yale and the Greer Garson Acting Award from SMU, and is a Jerome L. Greene Fellow. She has also undergone extensive EDI training with Arts Equity and is trained in the Liz Lerman Critical Response method. She is a proud member of Actors Equity Association.

Kara-Lynn Vaeni is a theatre and opera director who focuses on highly theatrical, impossible-to-stage works by diverse and interesting writers who are often women or artists of color. She has directed productions and workshops at HERE Art Center, New York; BAM Harvey Theater, Brooklyn; the Irondale, Brooklyn; The National Theatre of Prague; Guggenheim Works & Process, New York; New Georges, New York; 2g, New York; The Flea, New York; the wild project, New York; WP Theatre, New York; Dallas Theatre Center; Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Conn.; Montana Repertory Theatre, Missoula, Mont.; and the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Jupiter, Fla.

Vaeni currently holds faculty positions at Yale University and SMU. She has also taught acting, directing, movement and Shakespeare at Seton Hall University, Hofstra University, SUNY-Stonybrook and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She has been an artist in residence or guest director at Princeton University, Yale School of Drama, Mount Holyoke College, Westminster Choir College and University of Virginia-Wise.