Our People

Rebecca Nussbaum

General Manager, lived in Japan as a girl and has lived all over the United States.  Trained as a flutist at the North Carolina School of the Arts, she enjoys playing chamber music and teaching flute and has played in a number of orchestras throughout the country.   Rebecca has worked with Open Dream Ensemble for almost four years and thanks the staff at the Kenan Institute for the Arts for all of their wonderful work on this project.  When not working or playing the flute, Rebecca loves spending time with her family.  She has a little boy with whom she loves to read, play with cars, go to the park, create music, and make pancakes.

Mollye Maxner

Creative Director, was born in Massachusetts. When she was eight years old, she rode her green bicycle to her first dance class. At the age of fourteen, Mollye left her home to attend the North Carolina School of the Arts to study ballet and contemporary dance. After graduating, Mollye started her own physical theater company (Chimaera Physical Theater, named after the mythological beast) and has spent the last ten years traveling around the world performing and creating dances. She has spent the most time in Turkey, a country she loves so much she calls it her second home. Alongside her love of the arts, Mollye loves math, science, literature and history. She is particularly intrigued by quantum physics and the study of other cultures. Her favorite book is The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Her love of academics inspired Mollye to go to Mount Holyoke College, from which she graduated summa cum laud. In the past few years, Mollye has found a way of life that integrates her loves of arts and academics: as a theater director and choreographer Mollye gets to research a multitude of subjects and then transform what she discovers into the art of live performance. When she is not working, Mollye enjoys hiking, kite flying and spending time with friends and family.

Kelly Maxner

Script Writer and Choreographer, is a Director, Choreographer, and Performer who holds two BFA degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts. The first in Contemporary Dance, 94; and the second in Drama (Directing) 2000. He holds an MFA in Choreography from Smith College, 2005. He has been a guest artist/ instructor for the North Carolina School of the Arts, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Baypath College, Amherst College, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School, Mt. Holyoke College and Mimar Sinan University (Istanbul). Kelly is a founding member and co-artistic director of the Open Dream Ensemble, a North Carolina School of the Arts multidisciplinary alumnae company supported by the Kenan Institute for the Arts. As a freelance artist, Kelly has choreographed/directed for The Golden Mean Theatre (Los Angeles), Great Lakes Theatre festival, Dallas Theatre Center, One Arm Red (NYC), the Ankara State Opera and Ballet’s Modern Dance Turkey, Dans Fabrikasi (Istanbul), Pioneer Valley Ballet, East Street Youth Ballet, Serious Play Theater Ensemble, The Little Theater (Winston-Salem) and for the Theater Alliance (Washington DC). He is a two-time Helen Hayes Award Nominee, both for his choreographic work on plays at the Theater Alliance. Mr. Maxner is also the Co-Artistic Director of Chimaera Physical Theater. As the co-artistic director of Chimaera Physical Theater, he has produced performances internationally and across America. Mr. Maxner is honored to join the faculty of the North Carolinas School of the Arts as the new Director of the High School drama program. He is thrilled to be able to dedicate his passion and creativity to the faculty and students who have given him so much.

Jonathan Gordon

Performer, is a musician who loves and pursues all of the performing arts equally. He started performing almost as soon as he learned how to speak, and his mother has many recordings of his singing from when he was 2 and 3 years old. He started trombone in 7th grade and found his love for acting in high school through the musicals West Side Story and Oklahoma!. As Jonathan continued learning about trombone in college at the North Carolina School of the Arts, he also learned to love dancing. When Jonathan isn't dancing around, singing, or playing on his trombone he likes to read all sorts of books, ride his bike, and give massages. He just recently graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with a degree in trombone performance and hopes to continue using all the performing arts together.

Kjerstin Lysne

Performer, began twirling and whirling about the family room with her Cabbage Patch doll at a very early age, when she put on her first ballerina costume, a gift received on her 3rd birthday. Her love for moving moved her into a studio in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, when she began her ballet training at the age of 8. Since then, dancing has transported her all over- from Canada to Milwaukee, from North Carolina to France and London- as she has continued her training in ballet, and tried out some new styles, like tap, jazz, African, Flamenco, Caribbean, and contemporary dance. In May 2008, she graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied not only with the marvelous NCSA dance faculty, but also with such guest artists as Neta Pulvermacher, Paul Matteson, Niki Juralewicz, Sarah Skaggs, and Jonah Bokaer. Kjerstin is excited to have the opportunity to work with Open Dream Ensemble, and looks forward to future opportunities to perform, teach, and create.

Amber Ferenz

Performer, is a musician specializing in bassoon and viola, a composer, artist and writer.  When she's not making stuff up, she is often found gardening, inventing interesting recipes, and cooking for her family, made up of two large silly dogs, two colorful parrots, a crazy cat, and two other wonderful people.   She teaches bassoon and freelances with orchestras all over North Carolina and Virginia.  Trained in traditional classical music at the North Carolina School of the Arts, she expanded her repertoire while in California to include specializations in new and world music, which resulted in giving performances as diverse as bassoon soloist with a Javanese gamelan, faculty recitals at CalPoly San Luis Obispo, and as a chamber musician with Los Angeles-based inauthentica.   Her studio credits include Spongebob Squarepants' soundtrack Best Day Ever.

Peter Shanahan

Performer, started playing the flute when he was in the 7th grade and hasn’t stopped since! This is his first year with the Open Dream Ensemble. Peter is a freelance musician in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. You can see him play from time to time with the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Western Piedmont, Salisbury, and Carolina Chamber Symphonies in this state, and with the Southwest Florida Symphony and Charleston Symphony when he feels like going to the beach for a vacation! Peter was born in Petersburg, Virginia; but they didn’t name the town after him like he thinks. He went to college at the North Carolina School of the Arts and studied in the cornfields at Indiana University. He has no dogs, cats, or mountain goats.

Matthew Smart

Costume Designer, was born and raised right out side the city of Chicago. He fell in love with theatre at a very young age when his parents took him to see his first show Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. He recently graduated form the North Carolina School of the Arts with a degree in Costume Design. Matthew loves to travel around the world. His most favorite trip was the summer he spent studying art in Italy. He hopes to continue traveling and designing for the rest of his life.

Rose Shields

Performer, began dancing at the age of 3 and spent her early years training at the Duluth School of Ballet in GA. She twinkled her toes continuously learning all kinds of dancing: ballet, modern, jazz, character, flamenco, and African. Her favorite color is purple and her 2 best furry friends are her kitties Hawkins and Jack. Rose grew up with 3 siblings, 2 brothers and 1 sister, with whom she shares many funny childhood stories. She loves fresh strawberries and running around outdoors finding things to climb, choreograph, or dance on. She has learned many styles of modern dance while at North Carolina School of the Arts where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She also had the opportunity to perform works by NCSA faculty and guest artists like Camille Brown, Sarah Skaggs, and José Limón. She recently taught at and performed with Dance 101 in Atlanta. Very excited to be returning to Open Dream Ensemble, Rose continues to follow her dream of giving a voice to the arts through dance and performance.

Haydee Thompson

Performer, is thrilled to be a member of this season’s Open Dream Ensemble. Since graduating from the School of Drama at the North Carolina School of the Arts, it has always been a "dream" of Haydee's to bring performance art to the wild and magical imaginations of kids everywhere. Haydee currently lives at the "Werehouse", an artist collective and performance space in Winston-Salem NC, that hosts theatrical and musical performances, by national acts, year round. In 2003 she and her roommates toured the country on a big bus that actually ran on used French fry oil! Before living in Winston-Salem, Haydee called New York City home and she spent many years as a nanny and a personal assistant to the stars. Haydee has fun playing music and singing for her band All Astronauts and has a CD out on Look Alive Records. Her friends will tell you she sings everywhere, while doing her chores, going on walks, or especially in the bathroom where she thinks she sound the best! Her favorite place to sing, however, is on stage and she has been in an enormous amount of plays and musicals over the years. A few of which include Annie, Gypsy, Showboat, and a nine month Broadway National Tour of Guys & Dolls. When she's not performing Haydee spends her time painting pictures of her friends and of her little cat Lily. She also loves visiting her family in England and someday wishes to move there.

Jennifer Wynn O’Kelly

Lighting Design, delights in the collaborative telling of a great tale whether it be through lighting, scenic, or production design. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, she began the informal study of the visual arts at an early age from both her artist parents. By the age of ten, Jennifer was working as an usher at Casa Manana, FortWorth’s famed musical theatre-in-the-round, learning the ins and outs of four dimensional narrative. From that summer on she volunteered in the theatre at every opportunity, apprenticing herself to professional designers and working at a dance studio in exchange for classes. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture at the University of Texas at Arlington and a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Design at the North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Design and Production. After earning her MFA, she began designing and painting up and down the east coast. Her lighting and scenery design and painting serve a number of performing arts organizations in North Carolina. She has studied and participated in all aspects of the visual and performing arts, including formal training in drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, lighting and scenic design, scenic art for film and theater, furniture design and construction, computer animation, and ballet technique and modern dance performance. It is this diverse focus that gives Jennifer the tools to explore new avenues of visual expression. Open Dream provides an excellent opportunity to continue pursuing this dream.

Kate Sutton-Johnson

Set Designer, grew up in Richmond, Virginia and then went to college at the North Carolina School of the Arts to study set design. When she graduated, she was offered a job at a big theatre called the Guthrie, which is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kate worked there for two seasons as a prop manager and then began to freelance in Minneapolis and around the country as a set designer. Some of the theatres she’s designed for include Mixed Blood Theatre, History Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Florida Stage, Weston Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Park Square, and many more. Recently, Kate designed Strega Nona based on the children’s book series by Tomie dePaola and High School Musical based on the popular Disney Channel movie. Kate has found that living in Minnesota is a lot different than Virginia or North Carolina. It gets really, really, really cold; sometimes it actually gets to be 30 degrees below zero! It also snows a lot! Kate doesn’t mind the weather because it makes life a cool adventure. When she isn’t designing or painting, Kate loves to read books, cook new recipes, or watch old episodes of Hawaii Five-0. She’d like to recognize her awesome parents for all their help and support; her mentors Baugher, Buddy, and Howard; and the love of her life, Grant, for making the day-to-day stuff the most special part of life.

James Stewart

Performer, composer, minister, and graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts, started taking piano lessons from his grandmother at the age of four. Even then He was interested in creating music as well as playing it. When James was ten, he began studying the alto saxophone in school. Again, he excelled in creating new music and getting other students involved. At thirteen, James began studying music theory on his own and writing songs based on the knowledge he was gaining. At fifteen he took the position of interim music minister of Temple Baptist Church in Monroe, Louisiana. He continues to be heavily involved in church music leadership. As a senior in high school, James wrote the piece Sacrifice for his school band to perform. It was the success of this piece that drove him to study music composition in college. In 2001 he graduated from Toccoa Falls College in Northeast Georgia. After college, James traveled around the country and world. In June, 2007, he completed his studies with Dr. Lawrence Dillon at the North Carolina School of the Arts where he received a Master’s of Music degree in musical composition. Now he is excited to be a performer and composer for the Open Dream Ensemble.