Oberlin Children's Shakespeare Project

Annie Rasiel, Founding Director

Annie Rasiel graduated from Oberlin College in 2015 with degrees in English and Comparative American Studies. Before coming to Oberlin, she trained at the prestigious Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and studied Shakespeare performance at the Children’s Shakespeare Theater of Palisades, NY and at Oxford University through the Oxbridge Summer Exchange.  In addition to four years tutoring language arts at Langston Middle School, Annie has taught writing in a wide range of contexts, including as a tutor and substitute teacher at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, NY and as a writing assistant at Artist Proof Studio’s PhotoVoice Workshop in Johannesberg, South Africa. Annie developed organizing skills and community connections by working as Oberlin’s Neighborhood Team Leader for the Obama campaign in 2012. 

 

Eric Steggall, Executive Director

Eric Steggall is the Managing Director for the Departments of Theater, Dance and Opera at Oberlin College & Conservatory. Eric has spent over 25 years helping to bring art from initial conception to fruition in a multitude of industries and forms with dozens of companies all over the country. A few companies that Eric has worked with include San Francisco Opera, Connecticut Repertoire Theater, The Lux Productions and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Eric has also worked and taught at Solano College, Central Michigan University and recently Eric was the Production Manager at the University of California, Davis where he worked with the likes of Dominique Serrand, Juliette Carrillo, Barry McGovern and Bella Merlin. He and his wife have both been working in the performing arts for over 20 years and as parents to 3 children, both have a vested interest in the ideals and importance of OCSP.

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Phyllis Gorfain, Board Member

Phyllis Gorfain is a retired Professor of English at Oberlin College with a specialization in Shakespeare studies, emphasizing interpretation through performance. She taught English department courses in drama for 38 years and has published numerous articles on Shakespeare's plays, many with an emphasis on performance.  Through Oberlin College's OCEAN program, Phyllis taught for a summer graduate level course for over a decade.  The course, Shakespeare through Performance, was offered to High School teachers, and, during the academic year, she occasionally observed high school classes and coached student scenes. In retirement, she works as the Founder and Artistic Director of Oberlin Drama at Grafton, a Shakespeare-centered prison theatre program at the Grafton Correctional Complex.

 

Lynn Powell, Board Member

Lynn Powell is the author of two books of poetry, Old & New Testaments and The Zones of Paradise, and a book of nonfiction, Framing Innocence: A Mother’s Photographs, A Prosecutor’s Zeal, and a Small Town’s Response. Old & New Testaments won The Brittingham Prize in Poetry and The New Writers Award of the Great Lakes Colleges Association. Framing Innocence received the Studs and Ida Terkel Author Award from The New Press. Powell has received Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (for her poetry) and from the Ohio Arts Council (three for her poetry and one for her prose). Her poems have been published in numerous journals, including The Paris Review, The Georgia Review, Poetry, FIELD, and Shenandoah, and in anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday and the most recent edition of The Norton Introduction to Literature. Powell worked as a Writer-in-the-Schools for over 20 years—in grades K-12, in urban, suburban, and rural schools—for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. Drawing on that expertise, Powell created Oberlin’s Teaching Imaginative Writing workshop, CRWR 450, a community-based learning course in which Oberlin students work collaboratively with her in poetry residencies in the Oberlin public schools.