SIP Team

Shakespeare in Prison￨Team

Shakespeare in Prison began with a single facilitator entering Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility to work alongside an ensemble of incarcerated women. Since 2012, our facilitation team has grown into a dedicated community of theatre artists, educators, and practitioners who bring their unique experiences, perspectives, and creative practices into the rehearsal room. None of this work would be possible without the extraordinary dedication, compassion, and creativity of our facilitators, past and present, who show up week after week to create space for connection, self-expression, and artistic exploration.

Your support makes this work possible. By making a gift to Shakespeare in Prison, you help sustain our dedicated facilitation team and ensure that we can continue creating spaces for connection, creativity, and community both inside and beyond prison walls.

Leadership

Sophia Esch

Director of Shakespeare in Prison

Sophia Esch, Director of Shakespeare in Prison, is thrilled to step into this leadership role while continuing SIP’s mission of ensemble-based, transformative theatre work. A Michigan-based theatre artist, educator, and arts manager, Sophia has worked extensively in applied theatre, community engagement, and arts administration across Southeast Michigan.

Sophia holds a BFA in Musical Theatre Performance from Oakland University and an MFA in Theatre Management at Wayne State University. Her work is grounded in the belief that theatre can foster empathy, healing, and meaningful pathways for personal and collective change.

Facilitators

Olivia Allen

Facilitator

Olivia Allen (she/her) is a director, teacher, playwright, and applied theatre practitioner in Southeast Michigan. Olivia is the Co-Artistic Director of Spinning Dot Theatre, a globally-focused theatre for young people and their families based in Ann Arbor. Additionally, she is a Part-Time Lecturer at EMU, where she teaches courses in Drama Education, Play, and Touring Children’s Theatre. Olivia has a personal passion for working with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals since she had the privilege of co-teaching Improvisation for Everyday Life at WHV through the EMU College in Prison Program; she has seen first hand the power of the theatrical process in creating space and empowering self-expression in correctional facilities.

Stefania Antonescu

Facilitator

Stefania Antonescu is a Romanian-born applied theatre practitioner, facilitator, and former actress with experience leading theatre workshops in prisons across Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where her studies focused on applied theatre and the criminal justice system. Her practice draws on forum theatre, improvisation, storytelling, and Shakespeare-based performance. Stefania has acted in Shakespeare productions and has also helped co-direct Shakespeare plays, bringing both performance experience and collaborative leadership to her work. She is passionate about using theatre as a tool for connection, raising awareness, inspiring change, and supporting meaningful community engagement.

Kyle Fisher-Grant

Facilitator

Kyle studied acting and directing at the Liverpool Institute for Kyle Fisher-Grant graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in Liverpool, England, where he holds a BA (Honors) in Acting. He then moved to NYC where he directed with the Red Door Theatre and Playlab NYC. Since moving back to Michigan he has worked as an actor and director with Waterworks Theatre in Royal Oak, Shakespeare in Detroit, Shakespeare in Prison program with DPT, and started the Livonia Shakespeare in the Park. He additionally holds a Masters in Urban Education from the University of Michigan Flint, and has worked as a high school mathematics teacher in Detroit and Ypsilanti.