MEET OUR TEACHING ARTISTS

**Leo Lion** is a director, teaching artist, and improv/RPG storyteller, and the founding Artistic Director of The Firebird Project. With a background in adapting classics and myths for the stage, Leo brings a narrative-focused approach to teaching, encouraging students to find their own creative voice by exploring well-known stories in experimental ways.
Leo has directed twelve youth productions with Firebird Youth Theater, and leads the improv branch of our education programs.
Leo also works as a performing arts teacher at the International School of Brooklyn in their Middle School division, directing their Spring Musical and leading advanced improv training for 8th grade.
More about Leo at leolion.com

**Zoe Senese-Grossberg** is a director, playwright and teaching artist who has been directing with Firebird since 2017, and serves as our Associate Artistic Director. She is a National Jewish Playwrights finalist, a National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, and she’s worked at renowned theater companies such as Rattlestick and the Workshop Theater. Zoe has a great passion for encouraging students to find their voice through text exploration and collaborative storytelling.
Zoe has been a teaching artist and associate director of seven Firebird youth productions, and leads the playwriting branch of our education programs.
About Zoe’s playwriting/directing work:
zoesenesegrossberg.org

**Benny Rendell** is an actor and teaching artist, who performs in Firebird’s resident company (*Frankenstein, Boy My Greatness, Rossum’s Universal Robots*). Trained in classical acting, he’s performed many lead roles including Hamlet, Brutus, and Benedick, and he won a National Youth Arts "Outstanding Lead Actor" award for his performance in Firebird's *Romeo + Juliet*. He’s a teaching artist in Firebird’s Summer Conservatory, and he directed an all-teen summer-stage production of *Romeo and Juliet* with New Genesis Productions.

**Isabelle Pflanz** is an actor, somatic dancer, and teaching artist, and a resident artist of the Firebird Players ensemble (*Our Town, Rossum’s Universal Robots)* who grew up in the youth ensemble *(eXpresso, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Our Town).* She specializes in physical theatre and devised storytelling, and has a background in classical acting and contact improv. With a love for telling stories through physical play, Isabelle helps students confidently engage their bodies and become supportive, collaborative ensemble members.

Wyatt Camery is a guitarist and composer from New York City. Wyatt grew up listening to classic rock and blues and continues to draw inspiration from American vernacular music as well as music from around the world, like West African "desert blues" and Greek rebetiko. A curious listener, Wyatt enjoys sharing his passion for learning music on the guitar with his students. Wyatt uses a song-first approach to teaching, supporting students to select music they want to learn and using that as a vessel for their education.

While pursuing his B.A. in Musical Studies at Oberlin College, Wyatt studied with Chris Eldridge of the Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar. Wyatt has scored several short films and has composed and performed music for theater, including two Firebird productions, Boy My Greatness (2024) and Frankenstein, Or A Modern Prometheus (2025).