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Ensemble Children's Theatre was founded in 2023 by Elisabeth Speckman, who serves as the main instructor for all of our current offerings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elisabeth (she/her) has 14+ years of experience teaching youth drama and writing with programs throughout the Indianapolis area.  

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She is a playwright, actor, and director and received her BA in Theatre and English-Creative Writing from Denison University and her MFA in Fiction from Butler University.

 

Teaching experience includes:

• Undergraduate courses in first-year studies, creative writing, academic writing, media studies, and screenwriting, and acting at Butler University and IUPUI.

• Graduate teaching assistantship and production assistantship in theatre at Miami of Ohio. 

• Serving as a graduate teaching fellow at Butler University for first year studies.

• Serving as a mentor and the lead elementary teacher for Butler University Creative Writing Camp from 2013-2020. 

• Serving as Director of the Butler Bridge Program, a creative writing program for central Indiana youth, having prior been a mentor, graduate assistant, and graduate marketing manager. 

• Teaching classes and workshops in playwriting, improv, and acting for area theatres and nonprofits such as the Indiana Writers Center, as well as directing for CYT Indy (now The Point), Roots' School of Theatre, Southbank Theatre Company, Fishers UMC, Carmel Theatre Company, The Artists' Studio, Hasten Hebrew Academy, Fishers Parks, and more. 

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​Acting training includes:

• Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors

• Workshops with Second City Training Center Chicago

• Online training with the Michael Chekhov School

 

Elisabeth has appeared onstage in over 50 productions, including many in the Indianapolis area.  You may have seen her onstage at one of the following:

• Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre

• IndyFringe

• Bard Fest

• Carmel Community Players

• Spotlight Players

• Amalgamated Stage Productions (The Cat)

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Elisabeth was awarded the 2015 Best Major Supporting Actress Award from the Encore Association. 

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As a playwright, her work has been produced throughout the United States and internationally. She has developed work with the Yale Writers’ Conference (now Yale Writers’ Workshop), the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, 29th Street Playwrights Collective, The Bechdel Group, The Skeleton Rep(resents), The Barrow Group, and more.  She has studied comedy and sketch writing with Upright Citizens Brigade, Bad Medicine Comedy, and The Second City.

 

Elisabeth is an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist and a two-time Henley Rose Award finalist. She adapted her play, Brothers on a Hotel Bed, and sold it to an independent LA filmmaker, who premiered the film at the Marina del Rey Film Fest before it was selected in additional festivals. Her other screenplays have been selected, nominated, and awarded at various film festivals and competitions, including the Houston Comedy Film Festival, the Austin Short Film Festival, Cindependent Film Festival, the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival, the Women's Independent Film & Television Festival, Bloomington International Film Festival, and more.

 

Elisabeth is the former education chair for the Indianapolis Playwrights Circle, and was a 2022-2023 national mentor for MadLab Theatre’s (Columbus, OH) Young Writers program. As director of the Butler Bridge Program,  she founded, curated, and edited blueprints, a literary anthology for young writers. ​She served on the board for Theatre on the Square before its transition to the District Theatre. 

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For more information on Elisabeth as a playwright and actor, please visit egspeckman.com. 

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Additionally, Elisabeth is certified in adult and pediatric CPR/First Aid/AED by the American Red Cross. She is certified in anaphylaxis and epinephrine auto-injectors by the American Red Cross.  She is a mother to two and an aunt to many! She is currently working on online certification in Drama for Wellness.