Your Partner in Lasting Impact

“I am thrilled to share our outstanding experience with Jennifer Katona as our Education Consultant at the Sharon Playhouse. Over two half days, Jenn’s hands-on approach transformed our Education Department by helping us develop a comprehensive Strategic Plan.

In just 8 hours, she expertly guided our staff in identifying strengths and weaknesses, resulting in a clear roadmap for our educational programming over the next five years. This strategic clarity has been invaluable, enabling us to successfully secure grants and donations from foundations, businesses, and private individuals.

Jenn’s work has not only ensured funding for the next 20 years but has also significantly bolstered the health and sustainability of the Sharon Playhouse for decades to come. We cannot thank her enough for her exceptional contribution!”

— Michael Baldwin -Education and Community Director Sharon Playhouse

Too often we see a revolving door of low-impact school partnerships by organizations and individuals who want to save the world without getting their hands dirty. When I first came to PS161, the school had 40+ cultural arts partnerships, and even had made the news with recent school celebrity appearances by Yo Yo Ma and Beyonce. And yet, we were struggling to get real arts programming off the ground - the kind where kids are really singing, acting, dancing, designing, and developing as artists. That's where Dr. Katona's vision was different. She did not impose a program but worked with us to learn what our community needed and helped us build something immersive and authentic,
- Arts Education Liaison PS 161, NYC

“Dr. Jennifer Katona has worked with Starlight for years as a choreographer but in 2013 she joined our team as curriculum advisor. We had just completed the musical “Little Mermaid” with a cast of 46 ranging from second to twelfth grade. It was a great show but the question out there was, are we meeting every single children’s developmental needs and are the older students being challenged?

That’s when Dr. Katona sat with us and helped us define our mission statement and articulate what our goals are for each student. This concluded with Dr. Katona laying out the lesson plans for two different age group shows. One for students 1-6th grade that was an hour junior production designed specifically for that age group and where the students who were 4-6th graders could take on lead roles. The second group would be for 7-12th graders, allowing them to present more challenging productions such as Les Miserable, Into the Woods, Newsies and Starlight Express on roller skates.

Dr. Katona held workshops for the teens on audition monologues for college applications, explored with them all the different career opportunities for a theater major and defined the difference between a BFA and a BA. She also arranged for a meet and greet with cast members of “Come From Away” in NYC.

Through the years, Jennifer’s guidance has been the rock we stand on especially now during Covid-19, as we learn how to do theater classes on Zoom. Today, because of Jennifer, we are holding 11 different Zoom theater classes and last spring our musical grew from a total of 46 students to 140, 78 in the younger group and 62 in the older group.

These examples are just a small drop in the ocean of knowledge and guidance Dr. Katona has shared with us, for which we will forever be thankful.”

-Starlight Community Theater