Elana Kepner (she/her/hers) is a theatre teaching artist, director, actor, and Certified Assistant Teacher of Fitzmaurice VoiceworkⓇ currently on the faculty at East Carolina University as well as directing for the Oakwood School in Greenville, NC, after forays in Northeast Ohio, St. Louis, Kansas City, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Elana is the Artistic Director of Whirligig Stage, where she directs Whirligig Youth Academy musicals and Shakespeare, as well as coaching young actors for college and conservatory auditions. Elana earned her MFA in Acting and Directing at UMKC, and trained with Shakespeare & Company. Elana is a proud member of AEA and VASTA.
Highlights as , director, and teaching artist include working with Dobama Theatre (Cleveland, OH), Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Repertory, Rubber City Shakespeare Company (Akron, OH) and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Elana also taught undergraduate courses in acting, Shakespeare, theatre appreciation and storytelling for East Carolina University, UMKC and Ashland University.
MFA University of Missouri, Kansas City; BA University of California, Irvine.