DAPA -- Theatre: Meet Our Faculty

Theatre Faculty

Sara Crosby
Director, Theatre Institute for Youth

Sara Crosby graduated from Stephens College with a BFA in Theatre in 1976. For the next eight years she called New York City home and performed as an actress both in New York and regionally. Mrs. Crosby's regional credits include Althea in "The Country Wife" and Fan in "A Christmas Carol" at The Virginia Museum Theatre, Richmond, VA, and as Mollie in "The Mousetrap" at the Barter
Theatre in Abingdon, VA, as well as at George Mason University with Kevin Spacey.

Off-Broadway credits include Wilhelmenia in the critically acclaimed "The Passion of Dracula" at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and productions for the Troupe Theatre, the Perry St. Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club. She has also been seen on "All My Children." While in NYC, Mrs. Crosby studied acting with Larry Moss at the Warren Robertson Studio and ballet with Melissa Hayden. In 1984, she left NYC for Loyola University of Chicago's Graduate School of Social Work. Since that time, she has worked as a psychotherapist in Chicago, LaGrange, and Elgin, IL and Madison, WI. She specialized in teen and women's issues. She has implemented and led on-going teen and women's groups, as well as seen people in individual and family therapy.

Lee Shackelford
Assistant Director, Theatre Institute for Youth

Lee Shackelford has spent most of his adult life as a professional actor, director and acting coach. As an actor, he has had starring roles in the "The Time of Your Life," with Jennifer Love Hewitt, "Third Rock From the Sun," with John Lithgow, and "Caroline in the City," with Lea Thompson. Lee has appeared in over 75 national and international commercials for Nike, Mitsubishi, Toyota, McDonalds, Sprint, Nextel and Kellogg's to name a few.

In New York City, Lee studied at "The Creative Actor's Workshop" and the world renowned improvisation troupe "The Groundlings" in Los Angeles. He has also studied theatre at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts.

Lee has appeared on stage in Equity productions at Missouri Repertory Theater and PCPA Theaterfest as well as at the Cork Opera House in Cork, Ireland. He was director and co-founder of D&L Productions and has directed in Los Angeles and New York City. In Sioux Falls, Lee has directed and performed at the Sioux Falls Community Playhouse and at the Olde Towne Dinner Theatre in Worthing, SD.

Rose Ann Kelly
Acting Workshop

Rose Ann serves as the Community Engagement Program Coordinator at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. She coordinates the performing arts educational programming that the Pavilion provides, instructs theatre classes, and works with various community groups to bring arts experiences to the people of Sioux Falls. Prior to her time at the Pavilion, Rose Ann spent two years working as an actress and educator and one year as Interim Executive Director of the Children's Theatre Company of Sioux Falls. She has toured throughout the state through the South Dakota Arts Council's Artist in Residence Program. She received her bachelor's degree in Theatre and English from The University of South Dakota in 2005 where she acted in numerous University Theatre productions and spent a summer onstage at the Black Hills Playhouse. An Aberdeen, SD native, Rose Ann brings much experience working with students from three summers acting onstage with the Storybook Land Theatre Company and a year of coaching Oral Interpretation at Aberdeen Central High School.