Meet Our Team

Artistic Director

Matthew Bretschneider, MSW, LCSW (he/him) is an Adjunct Professor at Boston University where he teaches Acting & Performance. He has trained extensively with Christopher Bayes and has studied physical theater with Norman Taylor, Mary Overlie, Shannan Calcutt, David Bridel, and Gabriel Levey, among others. He has performed with the Huntington Theatre Company, (Tartuffe, Romeo & Juliet, Lehman Trilogy, Common Ground Revisited, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead), The Flea Theater, Theatre Row, The New Ohio, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Kitchen Theatre Company, and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Television Credits include Law & Order: SVU and The Path. Matthew received an MSW from Rhode Island College School of Social Work and a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with advanced professional training from The Pandemonium Studio, Movement Theater Studio & The Clown School. Matthew teaches for training programs which include Salve Regina University, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Walnut Hill School for the Arts & Suffolk University. Matthew founded Studio Playground in 2020 with Co-Founding Artistic Director, Stefanie Resnick.

matthewbretschneider.com

MSW, Rhode Island School School of Social Work

BFA, New York University, Tisch School for the Arts

“When you’re working on clown as a professional actor, it’s good for flexibility, for range, for emotional intelligence, physical intelligence, and when we offer it to children, one of the concepts we start with is the gift of laughter. Essentially, we’re trying to teach students to be generous with their work. We talk about the health benefits of laughter - the release of endorphins and serotonin, relief from stress. We’re trying to teach them that if they make someone laugh, they’re going to make that person feel better, which in turn may help them live a little longer, and therefore make the world a more compassionate place to live in. If a child is nervous about going onstage, one of the concepts we reiterate to them is that if they make someone laugh, they they’re doing something good for someone else. That’s why we risk it.”

-Matthew Bretschneider (Providence Monthly, 2023)

Camp Director, Teaching Artist

Alexander Crespo-Rosario II (he/him) is a Native Taino born in Puerto Rico (Boríken). He began his career as a B-boy representing the All-City Rockers hip-hop crew and has continued to expand his skills through other artistic forms. Theatre credits include Trinity Rep: Ariel, La Tempestad, Phaedra/Cagelle, La Cage aux Folles,Carlos, La Broa’ (Broad Street), Stan, Becky Nurse of Salem, Tobias Ragg, Sweeney Todd, u/s Fezziwig/Benedict, A Christmas Carol; Teatro en El Verano: La Mancha; Burbage Theatre Company: WITCH, JUNK. Crespo currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island as an assistant teacher at PVD Prep Charter School, an artistic associate at Studio Playground, and a dance captain/counselor with Trinity Rep’s YASI summer program. Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Fellow, Forman Scholarship Recipient in Dance, Certificate of Merit: Outstanding Ensemble Member.

BFA, Rhode Island College.

Camp Director, Teaching Artist

Ava Varszegi (she/her) is an illustrator and educator based in
Providence, RI. Although she primarily teaches visual arts, she got
her start teaching at the Children’s Circus of Middletown, where she
taught unicycling, art, and clowning. She started attending the
Children’s Circus as a camper at the age of nine ,and later started
touring with their Circophony traveling circus troupe, both run by
Oddfellows Playhouse in Middletown, Connecticut. She has a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and certificates from RISD Continuing Education in Graphic Design and
Natural Science Illustration.

BFA, Rhode Island School of Design

Graduate Certificate, Graphic Design, RISD

Graduate Certificate, Natural Science Illustration, RISD