our team

Musical Director and Artistic Director

Ariana grew-up in the Washington, D.C area.  She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and her Master of Music in Opera Performance at the University of South Carolina.  Throughout her studies and since, she has performed in numerous theater productions, worked with Opera Carolina, and in 2007 she was the State winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition.

Since her move to Vienna, Austria in 2007, Ariana has concentrated on teaching and conducting. As the musical director of Showtime, Vienna’s English Theatre’s School for Performing Arts, she has arranged and conducted a variety of musicals and choral concerts including The Wiz, One, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, West Side Story, Footloose, Grease, Life, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Annie and Sister Act and established several choirs. As musical director of Vienna’s English Theatre’s young professional company, Young V.E.T, her credits include Spring Awakening, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Blood Brothers, Into the Woods, Rent, Dogfight and Next to Normal.

Ariana is very excited about the theater’s latest educational endeavor, VETA, Vienna’s English Theatre Academy, a two-year professional acting diploma. As Head of Voice, she thrilled to play a part in shaping future generations of theatre-makers. Outside of the theater, Ariana also works as a choral conductor, performer and composer for the education program, Die Monsterfreunde.

On stage, Ariana has appeared in several theater, musical theater, operetta and opera productions in Italy and all over the United States.  A few of her favorite roles: Postcard from Morocco (Foreign Singer/Lady with a Hat Box), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown Snoopy) The Merry Widow (Olga/Clo-Clo), Die Fledermaus (Prince Orlofsky), Die Zauberflöte (Zweite Dame), The Sound of Music (Mother Abbess), Mourning Becomes Elektra (Christine), and The Merchant of Venice (Jessica).

Artistic Director


Adrienne is from Vancouver Island, Canada and has an Honours degree in both Acting and Arts in Education. She spent time teaching overseas, living in both Singapore and Japan, before settling in Vienna. She has worked over the years as an actor/director/ acting coach/teacher/theatre practitioner/writer acquiring a breadth of experience in all of these fields. 

As Artistic Director of SHOWTIME Adrienne adapts and directs the SHOWTIME musical productions for the semester courses, and workshops. She is also the Head Drama Teacher at SHOWTIME, and is responsible for the Teen Ensemble, school workshops, and adult programs. Apart from her work at SHOWTIME Adrienne is the Artistic Director of Vienna’s English Theatre’s Youth Ensemble where she has directed the musicals “Spring Awakening”, “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”, “Blood Brothers” “Into the Woods” and the upcoming production of “Rent”.  Directing credits for Vienna’s English Theatre’s main stage including “Bad Dates”, “Venus in Fur”, “Annapurna” and the school tours production “Virtual Heroes”.

As an actor Adrienne was last seen onstage at VET as Susannah in “Black Pearl Sings.”  Adrienne worked for 6 years with the International School Theatre Association, participating as an ensemble leader in theatre festivals around Europe where she developed a great respect for the importance of ensemble.  Adrienne is passionate about creativity and the imagination. “It has been very exciting seeing SHOWTIME grow and develop over the years. I am constantly learning from my students, and realising again and again how theatre brings people together, promotes confidence and team-work, and helps us to better understand one another; invaluable tools for today’s world.”

Head of JUNIORS and Drama Teacher

Laura was born in Vienna but her parents come from Columbia and Poland.  She is fluent in four languages but the main language of her international family is English. As the daughter of two artists it is only natural that Laura should follow in her parent’s professional footsteps. Her first artistic love was playing the harp, her second painting, and then finally she discovered a third love – the theatre.

Laura attended the Schauspielakademie Elfriede Ott, completing her Paritätische Reife Prufung in 2010; after which she performed in theatre productions and short films in Poland, Columbia and Austria. In 2015 Laura graduated from the University of Vienna with a degree in Anthropology specialising in the Anthropology of Theatre and Migration Theatre. She did her thesis on the Volksoper production “Die Reise” in which migrants told their personal stories as part of a collective theatre piece. She found great inspiration working with people from so many cultures and backgrounds and watching how the director pulled everyone together.

At SHOWTIME Laura is thrilled to be able to combine her love of theatre with her talent for working with children.  Laura believes that theatre allows us “the freedom to find ourselves and gives us the space to act out our creativity.”

Drama Teacher

Axelina has just arrived from Wales after living there six years. Her mother and father are Swedish and Irish so she multilingual. She graduated from University of Wales Trinity Saint David with a first in a BA in acting she also received the Performing Arts English Medium Award .  In Wales she worked as an actor, collaborator, stage manager and arts practitioner. During her final year she began working with various Welsh theatre companies working in areas of mental health and inclusivity, disability and children’s theatre. She has toured and gained international experience working in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. She has trained with the physical theatre company Frantic Assembly and John Wright. She is a qualified Teaching English as a Foreign Language teacher.

Axelina is thrilled to be in Vienna and looks forward to consolidate all the work she has done so far in her career. 

Dance Teacher (guest teacher)

Liane grew up in Yorkshire, England and started to dance when she was three years old. She received her full time dance training at Northern Ballet School in Manchester, England where she simultaneously completed two years of teaching practice for children ages 5-16 and qualified with a teaching diploma in R.A.D Ballet and I.S.T.D Ballet, Modern, Tap and European Folk Dance. She was honoured with the Musical Theatre Award at the end of the three year program.

Liane continued there on after as a freelance teacher/choreographer during her stage career performing in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" at the Raimund Theater, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", „Grease" and as a solo dancer in „Dance of the Vampires". She was later contracted as Dance Captain for "Elisabeth" in Theater an der Wien and "Rudolf-Affaire Mayerling" in the Raimund Theatre.

Liane developed and directed a stage concept for "Elisabeth" in concert for Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, which was performed successfully in 2004 and 2005 Open Air in front of Miramare Castle in Trieste. She also worked as a choreographer at the "Donauinselfest" as well as developing the choreography and musical staging for "Musical Christmas 2009" at the Raimund Theater.

On her return to Vienna in 2003 she started teaching dance at the Performing Center Austria in the professional musical program and in the children’s department where she also had the opportunity to choreograph for the Austrian and European Open winning 1st and 2nd places.

Liane is delighted to be joining the team at Showtime!

“My goal is to create a fun and positive environment for the kids to be able to develop their skills so they can find their form of expression and confidence through movement and dance.”

Music Teacher (guest teacher)

Paula is a viennese singer and composer. Fascinated by a city full of music, she began singing and playing classical music at an early age. This love led her to join several different viennese children's choirs, including Showtime's own, Vivid Voices. Her time as a Vivid Voice and as a Showtime Standards Course perform, helped refocus her musical studies, and since then she has dedicated herself to more modern styles. In 2020, she completed her studies in jazz singing and vocal pedagogy at Vienna Music Institute. 

Her music is influenced by her diverse heritage, and her love of language. Paula is fluent in English, German, French and Spanish. These languages and cultures are blended into everything she writes. At the moment Paula is singing and composing for “Belle Affaire” and her newest project “soulparlez”. She enjoys playing concerts all over Austria with both bands. 

Paula is thrilled to return to her second passion, teaching, and what better place than Showtime.  The performing arts school that helped change the course of her musical career, many years ago.  

Acting and Dance Teacher (guest teacher)

As a young actor/singer/dancer, Brook performed in over 100 US and international stage productions- Othello, Great Expectations, West Side Story, Singing in the Rain, Oklahoma, Damn Yankees, The Shadowbox, Will Rogers Follies, Speed The Plow, Bye Bye Birdie, Oliver, Cinderella, My One and Only, The King and I, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Peter Pan, State Fair. He also appeared in the US tour of the Broadway show Crazy for You Brook Hall now travels the world as a producer, director, choreographer and casting
assistant. His weekly acting classes became the international acting training standard in Taipei, Taiwan, and he has twice been invited to give courses at the Beijing Tian Qiao National Performing Arts Center. Most recently, he was a guest at the ShenYang (China)Poly performing arts academy. Additionally, he has choreographed and directed many musicals, events, pop star tours, music videos and feature films in Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan. In 2015, he founded and built The Lab Space theatre and Butterfly Effect Theatre Co. in Taipei, where he served as artistic director. Productions he directed there and elsewhere include: Anything Goes (National Theatre of Taiwan), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Mandarin Premiere), Tuesdays With Morrie, Tape, the Diary of Anne Frank (Taiwanese tour), Sylvia, Title of Show, Parade, A Perfect Ganesh, and many Mandarinlanguage originals.

In film, he conceived and directed the opening scene for the $80 million Taiwanese Feature (M-RIDERS Voyage to PanGu). He served as First A.D. on the Hollywood feature, STAND. Furthermore, he has had the privilege to work with Oscar winners Ang Lee, Richard Linklater, and J.K. Simmons as well as Neil Patrick Harris, Jesse Tyler Fergusson, and many others.
In 2015, he worked with Marin Scorcese in creating on-camera acting/casting workshop for the feature SILENCE as well as working as a stand-in for Adam Driver on the film.

JUNIORS Teacher (Guest Teacher)

Stephanie is a theatre pedagogue and teacher based in Vienna. Even though German is her mother tongue, years of learning, travelling, living abroad and having international friends led to her being fluent in English and French. Music, language and theatre are the three big passions in Stephanie’s life.
She studied Primary school teaching in Vienna, Liège (Belgium) and Madrid and soon discovered that she wanted to incorporate music, rhythm and theatre in her teaching methods. Over the last couple of years she earned supplementary degrees in Music, Theatre, English and French.
Stephanie has taught drama to children aged 3 – 14 in various settings, directed plays and musicals in schools and independently, but switched to creating plays with kids and teens in a participative way to explore topics that are important to them. She encourages them to be curious, improvise and to create. In 2016, Stephanie started studying Theatre Pedagogy at IFANT (Institut für angewandtes Theater) to add a professional foundation to her practical experience.
In 2017/18, she was the assisting director at a Generation Club at the Viennese Burgtheater and gained work experience during an internship at a Youth Club at Theater der Jugend, where she had the chance to choreograph. Acting is a passion that Stephanie follows in her free time; she has starred in several musicals and plays over the past years.
Music has had a special place in Stephanie’s life for as long as she can remember. She plays the recorded, the piano, the guitar, tried the violin and finally found her passion in playing the flute a few years ago. She has sung in different choirs for all her life and loves the harmonies and the sense of community it creates.

“I love to encourage my students to explore their identities, gain self-confidence and independence, but also a sense of community – all through the magical power of music and theatre.”

JUNIORS Teacher and ADULT Acting Teacher (Guest Teacher)

Rosa (1989, NL) studied theatrical performance at the 'Toneelacademie Maastricht' (Academy of Performing Arts) and graduated in 2012 as a Bachelor of Arts. During and after her studies she wrote and created solo performances and participated in collaborative performances and plays. Those were shown at festivals and different theatres in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

In 2013 she published her first collection of poetry in the Netherlands. She taught drama at the Vienna International School and the Danube International School and also created her own adults workshop group, in which she focused on improvisation and building characters. At the moment she is working as an actress at the Bernhard Ensemble. As a freelancer she is creating her own solo performances.

ADULT and TEEN Acting Teacher (Guest Teacher)

Richard originally trained as a Drama Specialist (B.Ed), then as an actor at LAMDA. He continued his training and worked with Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier and Antonio Fava. He teaches, directs and performs all over the world with his theatre company, Mime the Gap. His book of the same name, ‘Mime the Gap – Techniques in Mime and Movement’ is being published by Crowood Press in 2018. In 2014, Richard worked with Andy Serkis doing motion capture work for the physical vocabulary for Iron Man and Ultron for the film ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ 2015. He was also the personal mime tutor for Carey Mulligan for the feature film ‘Suffragette,’ and was a physical comedy consultant for the RSC’s ‘Arden of Faversham,’ 2015. Richard has been a personal tutor for Ben Cohen and Kristina on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in 2013 as well as a Body Language expert for James May’s ‘Man Lab’ for the BBC. He has also taught
Physical Comedy at The National Theatre and been a slow motion expert on Tim Burton’s ‘Sweeney Todd.’ Richard has taught and performed all over the world - for the Royal Family of Dubai, Qatar and at Buckingham Palace. Other teaching merits include the Royal College of Music, Oxford and Cambridge Universities and many of the UK top drama schools.

“My aim as an instructor is to teach students how to teach themselves, encouraging and inspiring impulses, curiosity and creativity. I try to draw out self-confidence and trust, so the student becomes independent, self sufficient and well-equipped to deal with any professional situation that the world might demand of them. I want to help students find themselves as performers organically. I focus on the three aspects of the self: mind, body and spirit, encouraging students to find their own body confidence, presence and focus in performance, and in life. My goal is to encourage joy within the work, so working hard becomes a passion that, in turn, helps the student convert their dreams into reality.”