Teaching Artists

Meet our incredible lineup of Teaching Artists!

For the past 10 years we’ve been sending professional writers and actors into classrooms all over Southwestern Pennsylvania and down into West Virginia. Our art driven education model allows our teachers to infuse joy into the student’s more traditional curriculum. If you are interested in joining our teaching artist team, contact Bricolage’s Head of Education, Sam Turich, and ask how you can be a part of our Bricademy teacher training course.

“Dear Bricolage, Every Wednesday I would get so excited and it kind of made it hard because you were my last class of the day, but it was worth the wait. I’d have to say my favorite part about Bricolage was everything from practices all the way to the performance. I loved it all. You guys broke me out of my comfort zone and now I think anything is possible. You made me feel like I can do anything. Thank you!” – Teurissa Denny (Feng)

Aaron Crutchfield

Aaron is a commercial actor living in Wexford PA. He works on camera in industrials, training films, regional and national commercials, and also in print. Aaron played multiple years in the cast of Arcade Comedy Theater’s “High Scores” improv music ensemble, with “Penny Arcade”, and producing and hosting the ‘Beta-stage’ show. Steel City Improv Theatre helped him create “Always Be Sharp” a very successful longform musical. On stage he played the role of Adam in Complete Works Of Shakespeare abridged, zoom-Cymbeline and Midsummer Night’s with Pittsburgh Shakespeare int he Park, staged readings with Rustic Mechanicals in WV, and co-created ‘Patterns of Pride’ performance art project for The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.  He also helps coach a local high school ultimate Frisbee team. He’s been a teaching artist with Bricolage since ____

Alex Dolinger

Alex is an artist and educator who joined the Midnight Radio Education team in the fall of 2022. They graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 after studying scenic art and creative writing. After spending a year in the AmeriCorps tutoring the loveliest group of sixth graders, Alex was a scenic charge artist at Saint Michael’s Playhouse before their return to Pittsburgh. They’ve worked as a scenic artist on Kennywood’s Phantom Fall Fest, Pittsburgh Public Theatre’s A Raisin in the Sun, A Christmas Story, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Harlem, and Steel Magnolias, as well as the Carnegie Melon University Music Department’s Cosi Fan Tutte and The Kaiser of Atlantis. Alex has greatly enjoyed the opportunity to blend their passions for art and education with the Midnight Radio Education team and empower the next generation of artists.

 

Lisa Ann Goldsmith

Lisa Ann is a professional actor, director, teacher and dialect coach with over twenty-five years of experience. She has worked with such notable artists as Jason Alexander, Russell Crowe, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hank Azaria, and many more. She has been working with Bricolage leading residencies in schools with their Midnight Radio in the Schools program for the last nine years, helping students write radio plays about the curriculum they are currently studying, then bring them to full performance with voice work and foley sound effects.  Lisa Ann is the Co-Creator and Co-Host of The Bardcast: “It’s Shakespeare, You Dick!” an irreverent, funny, trademarked, and incorporated educational podcast currently with listeners in six continents, and listed on the U.S., U.K., and World Arts Podcast charts. We are thrilled to have recently won Best Podcast or Audio Presentation 2021 at the New York Shakespeare Awards. She has served on the board of the Ohio-Pittsburgh branch of SAG-AFTRA since they merged in 2012 and has taught at such prestigious universities as Point Park Conservatory of the Performing Arts, Carnegie Mellon, Fordham, and many others.

Maria Gismondi

Maria (she/hers), is a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT), Certified Yoga Teacher (CYT-200), and process-oriented teaching artist who holds undergraduate degrees in Theatre and Education, and a Master of Science in Dance/Movement Therapy from Pratt Institute. She joined the Midnight Radio Ed team in 2021, bringing decades of experience in performance, theatre education, artistic team leadership and mental health to her role as a teaching artist and playwright. An instructor at Yoga Innovations, and a therapist at Fine Art Miracles, Maria has partnered with organizations such as Attack Theatre, Jefferson University and The Children’s Museum to engage participants of all
ages and developmental stages in the collaborative creative process. She sits on the Pennsylvania Board of Directors of the American Dance Therapy Association and the national Multicultural and Diversity Committee Leadership Team. Maria is honored to share the transformative power of the creative arts with her community.

Brendan Kepple

Brendan began adventuring with Bricolage in 2011, when he attended a Foley workshop at WYEP.  Hopping into the control booth for Season 3 of Midnight Radio, Brendan mixed for every live studio audience, for the next 9 seasons, including live broadcasts of War of the Worlds and It’s a Wonderful Life. In 2012, Brendan visited the many Freddys of STRATA, watched Batman filmed from not-Bricolage’s roof. Brendan joined Bricolage on the 2013 maiden voyages of OjO, Midnight Radio Education Program, and the 2014 much anticipated San Diego reboot, OjO 2: WOW. Brendan is a Classroom Technologist at Duquesne University.

Gayle Pazerski

Gayle is a playwright and actor based in Pittsburgh, PA, Gayle Pazerski has been working with the Midnight Radio Education Program since 2015. She holds a BFA from the University of Kentucky and studied in the Masters Acting Program at Rutgers University under William Esper. Gayle owns and operates The Garden Café in Pittsburgh’s Northside, where she lives with her husband, daughters, and cats.

Rachel Pfenningwerth

Rachel’s radio play journey with Bricolage started via the internet in the summer of 2021. That school year she directed three original scripts, via video meetings, and completed her first in person residency in the fall of 2022. Rachel also works as the K-8 th Grade Program Coordinator at Act One Theatre School where you can find her teaching acting class, writing original scripts and co-directing the spring musical. Other teaching credits include a 13-month contract in China with Fantasy Children’s Performing Arts School where she developed the curriculum for a musical theatre program and multiple tours with Prairie Fire Children’s Theatre. Rachel has enjoyed this fabulous journey of learning and teaching the art of Foley and radio performance and is excited to continue with the Bricolage team.

Jacob Pleakis

Jacob is a keyboardist and composer whose music has been heard from coast to coast – Birdland to bowling alleys, theaters to “Teen Mom.” He has written music for films (The Ability Exchange), podcasts (We Hate Movies), and his own Pleaktunes Trio. Jacob has also worked extensively as a sideman, arranger, and copyist. Jacob has held teaching positions at Emory & Henry College and the Church Street School for Music and Art. He holds a M.M. in composition from New York University and a B.M. in jazz performance from Purchase College. Jacob currently lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Dana and their Jack Russell rescue, Myla. Jacob has been working as the music director of the Bricolage Production Company’s Midnight Radio Education Program since fall 2019.

Saige Smith

Saige is a teaching artist, actor, singer songwriter, and production manager based in Pittsburgh, PA. She’s worked with theaters such as Quantum Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh CLO, City Theatre Company, PICT Classic Theatre, TheaterSquared, CORNINGWORKS, and Vigilance Theater Group. She holds a B.F.A in Musical Theatre from Point Park University. She’s had the pleasure of working as a teaching artist for Bricolage’s Midnight Radio Education Program since 2021.

Headshot photo of Saige Smith in a beautiful lace peach top