Our Team
caroline timm Schwiebert (she/her)
PDC founder
Artistic director/executive director
Caroline Timm Schwiebert (she/her) is an actress and director. She grew up performing in music, theater, Olympics of the Mind and Forensics competitions. As a young adult Caroline traveled in the international performing arts group Up With People staying with host families, providing community service and international performance to communities around the world. Traveling with this program for over a year as a young adult instilled in her the belief that music, theater and art can provide a bridge between languages, cultures and communities. Caroline has trained in NYC and LA with so very many wonderful teachers and mentors primarily making her earlier career in commercials and voice-overs. Of all the work she has done, Caroline has found working with children the most fulfilling. She's worked with them in a musical theater setting for nearly 20 years, having grown and run summer camps and year-round after-school productions and classes for Upstage Theatre Arts Schools in Los Angeles before moving to Portland in 2015. Caroline is proud to be in her 8th year of Portland Drama Club that began with just 19 kids in a summer camp in 2016 to over 300 kids in summer camps and after-school classes so far in 2023. Caroline has 3 children, but considers every student of hers her very own child. She believes theater is a discipline to be as respected as any sport, martial art or musical instrument and that we learn about ourselves and the world around us by putting ourselves in a character’s shoes. Caroline’s goal is not creating theater stars, but well rounded, expressive, open and loving humans through theater. She knows parents will be proud of their kids, but she really wants kids to proud of themselves. Caroline wants kids to learn that jumping in with enthusiasm, trying hard, failing (and doing it all again and again) is the key to success in anything. Having natural talent on stage is nice, but learning how to work hard is better. She's seen miraculous things happen to kids of all ages/types when they hit the stage. She cries every time.
Macy Craig (she/her)
Director/Assistant Director
Macy (she/her) has always been passionate about theater (especially musicals), and has been performing in school and community theater shows since she was 10. Since graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor's in Theater Arts (directing & playwriting), she has directed and written plays for small theater festivals, and has recently started substitute teaching for Vancouver Public Schools. She is currently going back to school for her Master's in Secondary Education, and hopes to use that degree to be the kind of theater educator that had a huge positive influence on her way back when, and is thrilled to be on the Portland Drama Club team.
Kye Grant (They/Them)
Choreographer/Assistant Director
Kye Grant (they/them) is a singer, dancer, producer, curator, social practice artist, and commercial voice actor who worked in New York City for 14 years before moving to Portland, OR. A lifelong performer whose early involvement with theater arts greatly impacted their creative path, Kye sustains a performance practice through their pop alter ego, Jennifer Vanilla, and hosts the monthly Portland performance party, Club Alive. They toured internationally as a member of Brooklyn experimental indie music group, Ava Luna, for ten years and hold an MFA from Portland State University's Art + Social Practice program. They are a recipient of the PICA Precipice Fund for their ongoing art project with the 5th Grade Safety Patrol at Dr MLK Jr Elementary in NE Portland (home of KSMoCA), for which they collaboratively wrote the first-ever Safety Patrol Theme Song. You can explore all their projects at kyealive.club.
Robin Krill (she/her)
Managing Director
Robin (she/her) is passionate about helping kids receive equitable access to art and movement. She spent 17 years working in education as a classroom teacher, first for High School and Middle School English Language Arts students and then elementary Physical Education students. In addition, she managed an after school tutoring program for students in Portland. After her own wedding in 2004, she began working as a wedding planner and discovered a love for organizing and executing great events. Robin's three children have all been students of Portland Drama Club and she believes strongly in the incredible work PDC is doing and is excited to help bring theater to more youth in Portland.
Denise Neumerkel (she/her)
Director/musical director
My name is Denise, and I was born and raised in San Diego, California. I’ve been a performer for my whole life! Dance was my first hobby, starting at age 4 with ballet classes. I then began participating in community theatre productions at 11 years old. I then went on to receive my Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre from the University of Northern Colorado. After graduating, I had the amazing privilege of working as a director and music director for youth productions in the San Diego area before accepting a space in an actor’s residency program in New York City in 2019. I loved living in New York City and had the privilege of performing in some incredible places, including Feinstein’s 54 Below. During my time in New York, I began teaching private voice lessons and discovered a passion for spreading my love for singing and helping students find their own voices. It’s such a privilege for me to be working with students once again, and I look forward to meeting more of you!
Hannah Kohl
Director
Hannah Kohl is a musical theater writer and producer, author/illustrator, educator, and papercutting artist. After working abroad and spending ten years working on Broadway shows in New York, she came back to the Pacific Northwest to be close to her family and is thrilled to join PDC's incredible team. On Broadway, Hannah worked as the Associate Creative Producer during the US development of Ahrens & Flaherty's musical ROCKY with a book by Tom Meehan (Annie) and Sylvester Stallone, then worked on the creative team as the Script Supervisor for the German and Broadway premieres. She worked as the Music Assistant on the 2009 Broadway Revival of RAGTIME and spent a season planning Broadway opening nights and galas. Her original musical Die Weihnachtsbäckerei is going into its 6th season in Germany and her musical THE HOUDINI BOX, based on the book by Brian Selznick, premiered at the Chicago Children's Theatre in 2016. She spent three years teaching theatre and music at the American School Foundation in Monterrey, Mexico where she founded a children's theatre, wrote lots of musicals for kids, and directed an award-winning concert choir. She currently teaches workshops around the world, including a standing gig in Oslo, Norway where she works with students two write, produce, design, and perform two original musicals every three years. In between, she is an author and papercutting artist whose work first premiered at Lincoln Center in a co-production with the NY Philharomonic and NYCity Ballet. Her work has been profiled in The New Yorker, featured in The NY Times, created on site when she was a speaker at TEDx Broadway, and is housed in the private collections of many of Broadway and film's brightest stars. She is a graduate of the University of Washington with an MS in International Education from SUNY - Buffalo and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University. www.hannahkohl.com
Julia Bray (she/they)
Director/choreographer
Julia Bray (she/they) is an actor, writer, singer, dancer, producer and teacher who has lived and created in New York City for the past 10 years, and is now located in Portland, OR. Most recently, she can be seen as "Bree" in the feature film "PIG" starring Nicholas Cage. She has performed Off Broadway in multiple productions (including two New York Premiers), and appeared in multiple television shows like “Law and Order SVU”, HBO’s “How to Make it In America” & “Boardwalk Empire” and Netflix’s “Trinkets”. As a playwright, Julia's work has been seen at Dixon Place, Fresh Ground Pepper, Theater in Asylum, The Habitat Theater Company, CoHo Theater and the variety shows “New Skin” and “All Boats”. Julia is a passionate teacher of dance & movement, meditation & kundalini yoga. She runs a side business as an astrologer & life coach, is a hospice volunteer, an animal lover, and an outdoor enthusiast. www.julia-bray.com.
Mckinley Hughes (she/they)
Theater Fun teaching artist
McKinley (she/they) is a professional actor, musician and goof ball extraordinaire! She has a BFA in musical theatre and has been working in arts education for the past decade. She is currently continuing her education by earning a masters degree in drama therapy. McKinley is extremely passionate about using theatre as a tool to empower kiddos to build confidence. In all of her classes, McKinley strives to cultivate a learning environment where kiddos are encouraged to be brave, get silly, and have fun!
Tessa May
Assistant Director
Tessa May has appeared in several, television series, on tour, web-series and theatre productions. You may have seen her on Tour with The Oregon Children's Theater, as BabyGirl in Superhero's old folks home and as a Choreographer in The Lion King Kids production put on by Portland Drama Club, to name just a few. Tessa’s ability to continue to share her love for the arts and dance with the world all while fighting Stage 4 Breast Cancer has been recognized by many all over social media and in her community. Tessa May studied Acting at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy NY, graduating in 2014. A native of Portland Oregon, Tessa May now travels where her career takes her. She quotes "I'm a work in progress, working hard to progress."
Eri Zinke
choreographer
Eri was born and raised in Japan, and moved to the US to pursue a career in the performing arts. She studied acting at Foothill Theatre Conservatory in the San Francisco Bay Area and performed in various dance and musical theater productions. After moving to Portland, she’s been regularly teaching musical theater classes and in-school workshops at Oregon Children’s Theater, and recently worked as choreographer for their mainstage productions including She Persisted: the Musical and Goodnight Moon.
She also teaches at Portland Japanese School and leads Japanese storytimes in the Portland area. She integrates drama, music, and dance in her lessons because she believes theater is the best way to enhance overall communication skills whether in one's native or non-native language. The best part is that in her classroom children don’t know they are learning because they are having so much fun! Besides Japanese and English, Eri also speaks Spanish, and is at an elementary to intermediate level in several others including Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and ASL. She hopes for all of her students to grow up to be the happiest, strongest, and the most empathetic people they can be, and believes that theatre is a fundamental aspect of that journey.
WE ARE HIRING
We are looking to assemble a part time crew who can design, build and deliver simple sets to our various locations around SE Portland. If you are interested in learning more please email info@portlanddramaclub.org
STUDENT INTERNS
Another important part of our show team is our hard working student interns! Our interns are entering grades 7 - 11 and volunteer to take on backstage crew responsibilities throughout the school year- and especially in the summer time. They’ve had a lot of experience with PDC in after school classes, online shows and camps (some since kindergarten!!). These interns are eager to share the skills they’ve learned and the JOY they’ve felt throughout their years with PDC. They learn the whole show rehearsing songs and dances in small groups and sit on mentorship teams. They are busy. They are awesome.
of course, we couldn't do what we do without our board of directors
Charity Babcock Jedeikin
Heather de Michele
Ehren Schwiebert
Gina Stack
Tavia Babb