Meet Our Teachers

All of our teachers are fully Vaccinated.

Richard Mazda

Drama, Acting Coach, and Shakespeare

Richard Mazda is a UK-born actor, writer, and director who is now a proud American. He was the Artistic Director of the Secret which he founded and built-in 2007.

Kaila Wooten

Actor, Singer and Musician

Kaila Wooten believes the voice is an instrument just like any other. She got her start singing sessions in Nashville and she now teaches private voice lessons to all ages. BFA (NYU)

Samantha Sayah

Director/ Musical Director

Samantha Sayah (Director/ Musical Director) is an NYC based Actor, Singer, Musician, and Teaching Artist. Directing credits include Matilda Jr. & Into the Woods Jr. with the Performing Arts Conservatory of New Canaan. As an actor, she was last seen playing Girl in Once at the Geva Theatre Center. Additional theatre credits include Summer Theatre of New Canaan, Astoria Performing Arts Center, Disney Cruise Line, and Tokyo Disney Resort. She received her BFA in Musical Theatre from Montclair State University. To Richard, the cast, crew, and designers- Thank You. May you never lose sight of “the thing that makes it worth the journeying.”

Regina Gibson

Actor, Writer and Singer

Regina is a professional actor and teaching artist based in New York City. Recent NYC credits: The Golden Bride (National Yiddish Opera Folksbiene), Science Fair (ArsNova ANT), and Leah in Leah, the Forsaken (Metropolitan Playhouse) Regional: Lathem Prince (DC Capital Festival), As You Like It (Connecticut Shakespeare) Charlotte's Web (Theatreworks/USA). Readings with Lark, EST, and ArsNova. Film: Spiders (Cannes Festival) She stars as Amelia in her comedy series, Honestly, Amelia at www.honestlyamelia.com BFA NYU TISCH Stella Adler.

Michael Verre

Actor, Singer and Dancer

Michael is an Actor/Singer/Dancer born and raised in NY. He is thrilled to be a part of the team at the Secret Theatre. Past credits as an actor include The Peterborough Players, The John W. Engeman Theatre, The Palace Theatre, and Red Mountain Theatre Company and as a dancer, he has performed in The Queensborough Dance Festival, Broadway By The Year at The Town Hall, and Saks 5th Ave "Theatre of Dreams." He has studied with and performed in pieces choreographed by, Max Pollak, Andrew Nemr, and Marshall Davis Jr. Follow him on Instagram @michaeljverre for videos of him busking in Central Park and pictures of pizza.

Paige ‘Queen TuT’ Stewart

Teacher, Dancer and Choreographer

Paige Stewart is a very accomplished dancer and teacher who has danced for Nick Cannon, Arianna Grande, BET, Wyclef Jean and many, many others. She has a very extensive resume as a dance teacher and choreography and is the founder of the Kingdom Dance Company based in Jamaica, Queens. She specializes in teaching Hip Hop, Street, African, and the kind of styles seen in modern pop videos. She loves to teach dance technique and is particularly proud of her work building communities within the groups and classrooms she teaches in.

Amelia Nickles

Miss Amelia left home at the age of 15 to study as a ballet major at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where she danced with Gillian Murphy. She had previously studied at the San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet on scholarship. At the college level, Amelia decided to pursue acting. She received her B.A. in Performance from Fordham University and her M.F.A. in Acting from the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University. Amelia has been teaching, choreographing, and directing for the past twelve years. She continues to perform and was in the Broadway production of The Man Who Came To Dinner with Nathan Lane.

Jeremy Kareken

Writer

Jeremy Kareken, a longtime resident of Sunnyside, is a Broadway playwright and occasional actor. His plays have been performed around the world, both written original works and works adapted from other forms of literature including creative non-fiction (The Lifespan of a Fact), graphic novels (Peter Bagge’s the Bradleys), and worked in collaboration with other writers and one molecular biologist (The Sweet, Sweet Motherhood). He was a co-writer for Hal Hartley’s film My America. He’s won a number of awards as a writer, including the John Gassner New Play Award from the Outer Critics Circle, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference Playwrights’ Award, the Hamptons Film Festival’s New Writer’s Fellowship, the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway One-Act Award, and the Ensemble Studio theater Next Step Fellowship.