our team

Artistic and Musical 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).

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

Rebecca was born in Vienna but moved almost immediately to Sicily. Growing up between the traditions of her father's homeland and the cultural influences of Central Europe, she discovered her passion for dance at the age of 5. Initially drawn to various styles, she chose to focus exclusively on Hip Hop at 8 years old, captivated by the energy and freedom of expression that this style offers.

Determined to perfect her technique, Rebecca moved to Rome to attend a prestigious dance academy. During this time, she participated in numerous competitions and workshops, establishing herself as a promising young talent in the dance scene. In addition to her Hip Hop Training, Rebecca also earned a Zumba instructor certification, expanding her knowledge and experience in dance as well as fitness.

Dance Teacher

It is very fitting that Lilly has returned to teach at SHOWTIME, her artistic journey began here! After spending several years in different youth musical theatre ensembles, including the Burgtheatrer’s productions of Macbeth and Troerinnen, Lilly decided to focus on dance.

She trained with the Junior Dance Academy of Performing Center Austria in various styles including classical ballet and jazz. In addition to her teaching and choreographing at Showtime and the Performing Center Austria, Lilly competes in national and international dance championships both as a soloist and group dancer.

Juniors & Drama- Guest Teacher

Throughout all of this time he has been a working theatre actor, performing in theatres in the North East of England in shows such as 'Relatively Speaking', 'Breaking the Code' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Michael has now been living in Austria for 2 years, working on several theatre projects with the likes of Theatre Initiative Burgenland, KUGA Ensemble and Musik Theatre Tage Wien. He enjoys when he gets to see and help people perform and the life altering experience he believes comes with performing on stage and falling in love with theatre.

Drama - Guest Teacher


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.”

Drama - 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.

Music - 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.  

Juniors and Drama - 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.