Our Faculty & Staff
Cindy Troup
Executive Director/Director & Teacher
Cindy has 40 years of theatre experience. She has a B.A. from Rockmont College in Secondary Education and a Teaching Certificate from Loretto Heights College in Technical Theatre. Cindy also has a Masters in Criminal Justice from the University of Colorado at Denver. Her theatre experience includes acting, pyrotechnics, directing, costuming, and lighting. Cindy played the feisty “Miss Patty” in Colorado ACTS’ production of Curious Savage, and took a stellar turn as “Lucy” in Little Orphan Girl. She has also played Sister Hubert in Nunsense and a Horse/Goose/Dancing Fish in Honk!
Cindy Oury
Outreach Coordinator/Director & Teacher
Cindy attended Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin where she majored in Theater Arts. She has been involved in the children and adult drama ministry at Christ Community Covenant Church for 22 years. Her involvement with Colorado ACTS was launched after receiving an invitation from a friend to attend her son’s performance of Tom Sawyer. It was love-at-first-show! She enrolled her own homeschooled children and then began teaching the younger classes in 2004. Cindy has written many of her own shows/curriculum such as Molly Brown and the Miners, or The Luck at Leadville, and Happy Birthday America, as well as adapting for the stage Treasure Island, Tarzan of the Apes, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and Jungle Book. Outreach Coordinator, Cindy sets up Colorado ACTS outreach performances for more than 2,500 Jefferson County students each year.
Matthew Smaldone
Director & Teacher
Matt began acting for Colorado ACTS plays when he was 12 years old. Since then, he has grown in his passion for theatre, earning a BA in Theatre at DeSales University and working with multiple professional theatres on the East Coast. Matt recently returned home to Golden to pursue his career in the Denver area. Matt’s specialties include Shakespearean acting, stage combat, playwriting, musical theatre, and comedic theatre. His credits include the Arden Theatre Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nick Bottom), the PA Shakespeare Festival Willpower Tour of Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick), and the DeSales Mainstage’s production of The Glass Menagerie (Tom Wingfield), among others.
Reece Livingstone
Director & Teacher
Filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, actor, director, and musician Reece Livingstone, a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1988, has helmed four films, over 120 stage productions, and acted in 16 movies, five TV shows and over 200 musicals/plays. He’s sold five screenplays, performed in music videos and sings with the 4Gs–Denver Jinglers. He teaches Crafting the Screenplay and Fiction to Film at University College (DU) in Denver, and plays nine instruments, instructing on several. He has taught Musical Theatre at the Arvada Center, as well as On Camera Acting, Comedy Improvisation, Beginning Guitar, and others, for over 23 years. He holds a BFA from Colorado State University and was an inaugural candidate for the California New Teacher Project, graduating with an MA in Education.
Erin Buterbaugh
Director/Choreographer
Erin has been a part of ACTS since 2000, and has performed in and/or provided choreography for ACTS shows such as Oklahoma!, Hangman’s Noose, Oliver, The Music Man, and Kilroy Was Here. She has taught ballet for Aurora Dance Arts since 2001, serving as an artistic director and contributing choreographer for productions of The Nutcracker and Are We in Kansas Yet? In 2008, Erin graduated with a BA in Professional Writing from Taylor University, where she spent three semesters as the assistant director of the Taylor Theater Organization. Taylor stage credits include Arsenic and Old Lace (Aunt Abby) and You Can’t Take it With You (Penny).
Rachel Buterbaugh
Director & Teacher
Rachel started as a student at ACTS at the age of 12 and has been involved both on and off stage ever since. She attended Colorado State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree from the School of Music and has taught private piano and voice lessons in the metro area for the past seven years. She loves the unique aspect of story-telling through live theatre and the opportunities for connection, growth and creativity it brings both performers and audiences.
Leah Nixon
Director & Teacher/SNAP Special Needs Coordinator
Leah, with a BA in Theater Performance from Tarkio College, has had her hand in theater for almost 40 years in one area or another. She is one of the founding directors of Colorado ACTS and is one of the directors of S.N.A.P. (Special Needs Acting Program) at Colorado ACTS, which is a program for teens and adults with developmental disabilities. Leah invites all of you to the S.N.A.P. shows. They’re a blast!
Shannon Stricker
Director & Teacher
Shannon has been involved with Colorado ACTS since 1998 as an actress and teacher/director. Over the years, she has played Laurie in Oklahoma!, Mrs. Kirby in You Can’t Take It With You, Sister Mary Leo in Nunsense, and Marian the Librarian in The Music Man. Her favorite role is as director of the 8-12 year old class, one she has enjoyed since 2005. She looks forward to many more years working with aspiring actors and actresses!
Leanna Felmlee
Music Director/Teacher/Office Manager
Leanna started working with Colorado ACTS in 2006 with their performance of The Man of LaMancha. Since that time, she has been the music director for their musical productions, including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that required playing in the dark, and Nunsense where she got to speak. Leanna has a BA in Music Education, with a piano emphasis, from Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado, and a Teaching License from the State of Colorado. She has been playing the piano since she was 5 years old.
Lauriel Miranda-Troup
Teacher
Lauriel has been a part of the ACTS family since she was three years old. Her very first role was as a baby angel in The Very Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She started as a little actress and then began helping out with the children summer camps after turning 15. At 25, she now teaches, and assistant directs, and works on costumes. She has her BA in Psychology and works at University of Colorado Hospital as a behavioral Health Specialist.
Rachel Greenlee
Director & Teacher
Rachel is a theatre mom. She has enjoyed watching her three daughters as they performed in many shows for Colorado ACTS since 2012. She began taking on a larger role helping with shows in 2017. She has taught creative drama at CCE, additionally was the assistant director for Frozen Ice Particles of No Particular Color. Having done some theatre in high school, she is excited to return to the stage both in shows and directing them. She is currently the Director for the Challenge One Program for Classical Conversations, teaching 9th graders one day a week. Keeping busy homeschooling her daughters, she is also a professional photographer. She has a passion for kids and teens in theatre as she has seen the incredible transformation it has made in the lives of her daughters, one of which is currently in college studying theatre! “I am thrilled to be a part of this amazing team, I am committed to learn and lead by example.”
Angela Bryan
Teacher/Board Member
Angela took her first class with ACTS in 1999. She started as a young ballet dancer with no acting experience, yet over the last 20 years has developed into an actress able to keep up with the crazy Miranda-Troups in CandyLand. She has danced and sung her way across the stage in numerous roles – as a pirate queen for example in A Pirate’s Life For Me – and too many to mention other roles. She teaches, choreographs, sews, helps with our box office, and of course acts and dances, as well as being one of our board members. Outside of theater, Angela enjoys visiting the zoo, exploring the outdoors, and playing board games with her husband Danny, her baby girl Amelia, and their spunky little dog Alvin.
Grace Derickson
Teacher
Grace started as a student on stage at ACTS in 2015 in the production of Alice in Wonderland and soon after began learning about the backstage; from lighting to costuming to everything in between. Interested in learning more about what goes on behind the scenes, she began helping with the creative drama classes and after a year with them became a director’s
assistant for the Lincoln Academy Charter School. She has performed in a variety of shows including countless murder mysteries, Sleeping Beauty as the evil witch, and many more. She enjoys watching students learn and grow, while doing the same herself.
Cassie Draper
Teacher
Cassie started professionally teaching physical development in fitness, music, dance, skill progression, preschool prep to children. Cassie continued her studies as a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, studying Musical Theatre, Music Theory, Music History, and Dance. Cassie is often found playing the piano, or the drums, singing like no one is listening, and dancing like no one is watching. She is a fun, patient, and kind teacher and encourages her students to commit to structured experiences to drive positive results; while maintaining communication with students and parents to ensure comfortable, happy students. Cassie loves to teach and makes learning fun for everyone. Cassie hopes to teach our younger generation the fundamentals and importance of music and movement for our minds, bodies, and souls; by offering music and theatre development, Cassie hopes to someday soon get back to school and combine her education into a certified Music Therapy program of her own.”
Pilo Miranda-Troup
Board President/Operations
Porfirio, or Pilo, as everyone knows me. I graduated from Barclay College (Haviland, KS) with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 2014 and again in 2017 with a master’s in Transformational Leadership. Currently I work at Global Healthcare Exchange. I have volunteered and assistant directed for Colorado ACTS for the last 10 years. Before that, I participated in shows and helped with lights and tech since I was five years old. I have coached basketball and soccer at the middle school, high school, club, and college club levels. I love to play soccer, golf, swing dance, and spend time with my wife Rachel and dog Lillee.