Our Season
Meet Our Directors
Sean Szaller has been involved in professional theater for the past 15 years. A Cleveland native, he is an award-winning actor, director, musical director, choreographer, musician, and educator. As an actor, he has been seen on almost every professional stage in NE Ohio including Great Lakes Theater Festival, Cain Park, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Beck Center. He attended Wright State University for training in Musical Theater. During this time in Dayton, he performed at LaComedia Dinner Theater as well as the national collegiate premier of the acclaimed musical "Parade." Upon returning to Cleveland, he taught private voice and acting, and served on the faculty of the Fairmount Performing Arts Camp from its' inception. In 2008 Sean relocated to NYC to continue his career. He has had the privilege of performing in 2 off-Broadway productions since. In addition, he has served as the Production Stage Manager for several regional theater companies including Virginia Musical Theater, West Virginia Public Theater, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and Idaho Shakespeare Festival. As a youth theater director, he has worked with Heights Youth Theatre and the Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory. Sean is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association as well as the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Recently, Sean directed the critically acclaimed Ohio premiere of "13, the musical" at FPAC. It will be remounted this fall for a return engagement. This season, Szaller will direct Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Heights Youth Theatre.
Nathaniel Motta is an established director, conductor, composer, and lyricist who is equally comfortable in the dramatic, operatic, classical, and musical theater repertoires. He holds a B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.M. from the Eastman School of Music. This is Nathan’s fourth season working with Heights Youth Theatre where he previously directed productions of Oliver!, Wizard of Oz, and Fiddler on the Roof. He has taught acting and voice at the Ensemble Theatre Community School, Civic Light Opera Academy (Pittsburgh, PA), and in private studio. Nathan has worked with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, Opera Cleveland, Eastman Opera Theater, Mercury Opera Rochester, the County College of Allegheny County (PA) theatre program, and the Ohio Light Opera Company. Other notable directing credits include Chicago, Into the Woods, Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, Beehive, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Baker’s Wife, Damn Yankees, Singing’ in the Rain, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Nathan acted as assistant conductor to Robert Page and Marvin Hamlisch in a series of Pittsburgh Symphony Pops performances entitled “A Tribute to Richard Rodgers”. His recording of the operetta Der Vogelhändler with the Ohio Light Opera was released on the Albany Records label. His first original musical titled Little White Gloves, adapted from the movie All I Wanna Do, premiered in February 2010. Nathan is currently the Upper School Music Director and Performing Arts Chair (grades 7-12) at Laurel School, Director of Music and Arts at University Circle United Methodist Church, as well as the founding Artistic Director of the Dobama Emerging Actors Program. This season, Nathan will be directing Pippin and Our Town.
Treva Offutt is a singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, and visual artist who combines these forms through an improvisational performance base. She has taught visual and performance workshops in conjunction with performances all over the country and abroad. Over the years, Treva has had the honor of working with many dynamic dance/theater/music ensembles including: Roger Guenveur Smith’s Iceland, Fred Ho’s Big Red Media in the martial art opera, The Further Adventures of Monkey, Yoshiko Chuma’s School of Hard Knocks, and The Living Room Project, Patricia Parker Nelson’s PaNic with The William Parker Quartet, Belgium’s Remote Control Productions, Ireland’s Daghdha Dance Company, India’s Adishakti Theater Company, and New York based Urban Bush Women. She has also had the great fortune to work as a vocalist with: Jamaican sacred and folk music ensemble Ancient Vibrations (also vocal arranger), the African Pop group Afro-Blue, the South African ensembles-Shyingoma, Osha, and Lucky Ngema and Friends, Mexican vocal project Choro Tajin, Phillip Hamilton, the David Murray Big Band, Sabir Mateen and Jeff Shurdett, Hammiett Blueit, Craig Harris, Dan Zanes and Friends, and with her own 8 member ensemble, a duo with guitarist Barry Salmon, and her new trio Lulutoy with Andy Ezrin and Jean Baptiste Boclé. In addition, she has written three plays, is a member of SAG, and was a curator at The Kitchen for 7 years. Treva is a Performance and Language Arts teacher at Laurel School and will be directing this season's production of The Wiz.
