Meet Our Magic Makers
Behind every spotlight, someone set the light. For nearly twenty years, a small, fierce, and determined group of people has been building rooms where everybody belongs — where a kid who never had a line gets the last bow, and the whole audience is on their feet.
These are the people who make the magic.
Our Founder
She wrote the book on this. Then she opened the doors and proved it.
Our Artistic Director
She took the reins a decade ago, and she has been our light, strength, and hope ever since.
Our Team & Board of Directors
From the rehearsal room to the boardroom — the people who keep the magic running.
Cindy Schneider, Founder
In January 2007, our Founder Cindy Schneider opened the doors to the Acting Antics Art Center and, ever since, has been providing music and theater programming for kids, teens, and adults of all ages and ability levels. Schneider's book, Acting Antics: A Theatrical Approach to Teaching Social Understanding to Kids and Teens was also published that year.
Acting Antics didn't happen overnight. The program was born of professional insight, observation, experimentation, and most importantly, passion.
Cindy Schneider was a special educator for twenty years at the Chester County Intermediate Unit, teaching many children with diagnoses that fell under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorders. In 2000, she was recruited by the organization, along with a speech and language clinician and an occupational therapist, to establish an "Autism Support Team" that would offer training and support to Chester County teachers working with neurodivergent populations. For seven years, this team became leading specialists in the area, and the services offered were requested far and wide. By the time Cindy retired in 2007, the team had more than doubled in size and was flourishing.
A gifted and dedicated thespian since childhood, Cindy acted and directed and was at the helm of a local community theater and children's theater program for twenty years. In 2000, she began experimenting with offering theater workshops for children on the autism spectrum. The response was so positive that she began to build a program for these children over the next several years.
In 2005, Cindy began to write a book about her techniques, and in January of 2007, Jessica Kingsley Publishing released Acting Antics, complete with a foreword written by Dr. Tony Attwood. This book is a practical guide on how to make use of theater games and techniques for youth on the spectrum.
Cindy in the News:
Drama therapy is a new tool to help those with autism
(Sun, Nov 21, 2021)
Melissa Ferkler, Artistic Director
Melissa Ferkler took the reins of Acting Antics more than a decade ago, and she has been its steady light ever since.
Ask anyone in one of our rooms — an actor, a parent, a volunteer — and you'll hear the same three words come back about Melissa: light, strength, hope. She is the one who knows every actor's name and every actor's story. She is the one who finds the role that will stretch a person exactly as far as they can go, and not one inch further.
Our Core Team
Ms. Rose
Ms. Laura
Ms. Rose
Ms. Tia
Ms. Laura
Ms. Rose
Ms. Lisa
Ms. Laura
Ms. Laura