Angela Masi
Artistic Director: Gloamlings, Apprentices
The Gloam began with a kind of child you know well: The child who would rather live inside a book than on a sports field. The child who is thoughtful, intense, funny in a sideways way, and hungry for meaning. The child who doesn’t just want to know what happened in a story—but what it means, and what you’re supposed to do with it. That was me.
As a child, fairy tales and fantasy weren’t background entertainment. They were a framework—a way to practice courage, self-control, honesty, and loyalty before real life demanded them. And I remember wanting, acutely, a place where I could meet other children who wanted to take those questions seriously too.
Years later, I’m building the room I would have searched for.
I’m Angela, a 15+ year veteran of professional theatre. I’ve acted, directed, and produced up and down the East Coast, including tours and Off-Broadway work, and I’ve trained hundreds of performers. But this is not about training performers. Theatre’s real power is what it does for the moral imagination. It gives people of all ages a place to rehearse human realities—loyalty, temptation, mercy, bravery—without turning life into a lecture. Performance is simply a tool to make stories vivid enough to matter.
Lauren Lipman
Artist-In-Residence: Dust Bunnies
Years ago, as a theater and performance studies student at Northwestern University, Lauren developed a passion for educational theater, creative drama and immersive performance. Since then, she has devoted her career to bringing engaging and positive theater experiences to children.
Lauren has built and run the drama program at The Albrook School over the past 24 years. She has directed numerous children’s productions at schools and theater programs throughout the area. Lauren is a certified Montessori teacher who brings that student-centered philosophy to her teaching of drama. In addition, she has a Masters Degree in Interdisciplinary studies, focusing on the use of drama and movement in Montessori.
A performer herself, Lauren appears regularly in local productions. She also loves to enact various characters along with her students.
Dust Bunnies
Young children have the innate desire to explore and imagine. They are uninhibited and easily become willing participants in story creation. Tapping into the child’s natural joy in discovery, exploration, and play, the Dust Bunnies program seeks to help children become creative, imaginative thinkers who are confident in sharing their ideas.
As these youngest Gloam students participate in interactive storytelling experiences, they are encouraged to be silly and expressive, to pretend, and to help enhance the story with their unique ideas.
Through these experiences, they are learning essential theater tools such as the use of the body, voice, and imagination to create characters and express feelings.
The Gloamlings
Children around ages 8–11 enter a particular window.
They can reason and question with real force, but they are still actively forming the internal framework they’ll use to understand the world.
The Gloam exists to meet that window with something deliberate.
A small, immersive story experience where children practice core values through narrative, imagination, and real human interaction—where questions are welcome, standards are clear, and attention is taken seriously.
Within the work, they are also developing as performers—learning to listen with authenticity, respond truthfully, and contribute without fear.
These are the foundational skills on which all real acting—and much of real life—are built.
The Apprentices
For centuries, actors worked in repertory companies—small groups who rehearsed and performed together across many works. Each member was essential. The structure demanded cooperation, adaptability, and continued growth.
Today, just as artistic instincts begin to develop, many young performers are placed into competitive environments where opportunities are uneven, and growth is inconsistent.
The Apprentices program offers a different model.
Students develop strong performance skills within the structure of a working ensemble. Ideas are valued. Each participant rotates through leading, supporting, creating, and executing.
This is not a pipeline to Broadway.
It is a path toward a strong inner life and a durable social structure—both essential to performers, and to human beings more broadly.
The outcome
The Gloam is a continuous arc—from early imagination to focused, collaborative performance.
It begins with Dust Bunnies, where children learn to enter a story fully—listening, retelling, and participating rather than observing.
They move into Gloamlings, where imagination is given structure.
Children work inside a shared narrative—asking what is happening, what it means, and what must be done. They learn to listen, contribute, and take responsibility for the work.
Some continue as Apprentices, where the focus shifts to holding the room—supporting others, shaping the experience, and learning to lead without dominating.
For those who continue further, the work opens into Acting the Song, where performance is refined with precision, grounded in attention, truthfulness, and presence.
Across this arc, a specific kind of performer is formed.
Not the loudest.
Not the one who needs the spotlight.
But the one others trust to work with.
They listen closely, respond truthfully, contribute without dominating, and support the group while taking responsibility for their own work.
They are comfortable with uncertainty and able to take a moment seriously without making it heavy.
In rehearsal, they are steady.
In performance, they are alive.
And in a group, they make other people better.
“Angela has a natural ability to engage kids and encourage them to work together without telling them exactly what to do. It is a safe space for kids to be themselves, think critically, question things, and collaborate.” -Pilot Parent
Who This Is For
If you have a child who is bright, sensitive, intense, bookish—or simply tired of the usual options—and you’ve been wishing someone else understood what you’re trying to protect and cultivate—
This is for you.