The Team
We bring different perspectives to the table, but we’re united by a love for purposeful work, thoughtful design, and real connection.
Betty Ilyas
Betty's greatest gift is with the very young, the ones who are still open to believing they can touch the stars. She knows that what you plant in childhood stays, and she brings that conviction into every class, inviting young actors to create, imagine, and bring stories to life together through puppetry, songs, movement, costumes, props, and lots of imagination. Her approach is rooted in interactive learning and expression, a space where every child discovers their own storytelling voice
A certified Early Childhood classroom with the New York Department of Education, Betty's career has taken her from running a middle school theatre program in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, to facilitating Broadway Bound in Pennsylvania, a preschool performance program focused on building self-confidence and helping young introverts find their theatrical voice. In Germany, she led a Mommy and Me Theatre class for three-year-olds, conducted entirely in Spanish, in a room where no one spoke Spanish and she did not speak German. That, she'll tell you, is the unifying magic of the stage.
Inspired by Mr. Rogers, Mary Poppins, and Pura Belpré, Betty has been a storyteller her entire life, one for whom music, performance, and imagination were woven into childhood like a sweet, recurring song.
Her father told her once that in the theatre, you can't be wrong. Betty has spent her career proving him right.