Lenni Kmiec, AEA

Teaching & Program Testimonials

Professional Testimonials

“I have the fortunate privilege of working with Lenni Stone in my role as Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa Conservatory. Over the past year and a half, our high school students have flourished under her expert pedagogical approach and individualized care in the theatre classroom. Lenni works with students from all arts disciplines, with a wide variety of learning needs and experience levels in the acting realm. Her work consistently nurtures and highlights student assets in classroom and performance settings. I have been particularly awestruck by her sound teaching practices and knowledge of Shakespeare; she builds spaces for our current day adolescents to interact with his great literary works in authentic and meaningful ways. While last year was the first experience our students had digging into Shakespeare, Lenni artfully and gently guided our students to successfully embody and perform Shakespearian work that truly connected with the audience. Lenni is the cornerstone of our theatre program, building a rich, inclusive, innovative, and rigorous tradition at Iowa Conservatory.” - Dr. Beth Brown, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa Conservatory

“Lenni is an absolute pleasure to work with. As a Greek theatre practitioner, I was honoured to have been selected by Lenni and ITDP to teach American students the Greek tragedy. ITDP, is an excellent program that combines theatre lessons, excursions and visits in order to develop student's skills, technique and knowledge. Lenni was at the heart and the mind of that program, having arranged everything to the last detail, having thought the best possible outcome and prepared the most professional and amazing experience for both her students and teachers from all over the world. I would highly recommend Lenni as teacher and leader of any kind of theatrical study. I have a deep faith in her abilities, knowledge and managerial skills.” - Eleni Zachopoulou, Assistant Head of Educational Academia at National Theatre of Greece

“Lenni Stone has left an indelible mark on the lives of countless students through her intelligent and holistic approach to theatre education. With a unique ability to connect with students of diverse learning profiles, Lenni meets them where they are and inspires them to surpass their own expectations. Her compassionate teaching has guided students of all ages—many with little life experience—to fully embody the complex emotions of the characters they portray while instilling confidence in even the most introverted students to step into the spotlight. She has even managed to get most of them to appreciate Shakespeare—a true feat for our students. Lenni’s impact is not only impressive to witness but truly immeasurable.” - Olivia Bliss, Special Education Administrator

“I observed Lenni Stone's Shakespeare teaching practices while working alongside her in a program called The International Theatre and Dance Project. ITDP usually carries a number of students with a variety of theatre training and experience, and some are pretty green. Lenni's approach allows her to provide a text-based approach to Shakespeare to students across all levels of training, and then adapt the staging and rehearsal process on her feet to suit the students' needs. Lenni's style is nimble and approachable, and she has a particular ability to meet a student where they are in the process, and empower them to feel good about classical work.” - Patrick Du Laney, B’way Actor Harry Potter & the Cursed Child and colleague at International Theatre & Dance Project (ITDP)

“I had the privilege of working with Lenni at an independent special education school for students grades 6-12. Our population was full of students with incredibly diverse learning styles and needs. However, one thing consistent among our students was that they all needed to build initially or rebuild relationships with school. They held a lot of trauma from their different educational experiences, so it required a lot of relationship and trust building for students to take risks in their learning. Add Shakespeare to that, and it takes a very gifted educator to set the stage for students to not only read Shakespeare, but to buy into the learning experience fully. Lenni brought Shakespeare's work to life, and kids were genuinely excited to be in her class. She's extraordinary.” - Declan Drapeau, former colleague at The Corwin Russell School

“I have worked with Lenni for many years, and have seen her work both as a colleague, an instructor, and as a professional actress. Lenni is a person that I am incredibly proud to endorse, both as an artist, but also as a human being. She has an incredible gift of communicating with young artists (I’ve seen her work effectively with very young children, all the way through college graduates). She possesses many fine qualities including creativity, patience, innovation, kindness, responsibility and a high skill level. She is accountable and cares deeply about whatever creative endeavor she is part of, whether it is teaching or acting. Lenni’s skill set can serve many purposes and cover a lot of ground. Her attitude is collaborative and caring.” - McCaela Donovan, Former Assistant Director, The School of Theatre- Boston University and colleague at International Theatre & Dance Project (ITDP)

Testimonials from Lenni’s students

“I was given the absolute privilege of working with Lenni Stone this past year, both at the Iowa Conservatory, and at ITDP in Greece. Prior to my arrival at Iowa Conservatory, I had never taken any sort of intense acting classes, let alone Shakespeare. Upon finding out I would have Shakespeare classes throughout the year, I was incredibly uneasy, as Shakespearean text had always been something that was overwhelming and confusing to me. I never thought I would be capable of performing this type of text. However, Lenni truly changed that for me. She proved my words of “I will never enjoy Shakespeare” wrong. Her way of breaking down text into more understandable terms, analyzing the usage of Iambic Pentameter, and ultimately creating a fun and experimental environment through Shakespeare is something that I will keep in my toolbox and carry with me. Seeing the way she works in a classroom is incredibly inspiring, and will always remind me of the reason why we do what we do. She reminds me that we are here to create, to make mistakes, to try new things, to support each other, to push ourselves and to learn and grow together as a community. Anyone given the chance to work with Lenni Stone is incredibly lucky, and my admiration for her craft goes beyond what I can say.” - Londyn, graduate of Iowa Conservatory

“Before taking Lenni’s class, I used to find Shakespeare overwhelming and difficult to follow. Her passion for this work is highly contagious, though, and it didn’t take me long to fall in love with it as well. Lenni taught me how to analyze and discover deeper meanings inside his text that I never saw before. She completely changed my experience with Shakespeare! Thanks to her, I booked my very first professional acting gig doing a [regional] Shakespeare production!” - Melia, graduate of Iowa Conservatory

“Whether we are discussing monologues, or analyzing scenes in group exercises, working with Lenni Stone is always a joy. When I first began studying under her guidance, I was admittedly under the impression that Shakespeare’s works, although entertaining, were much too strenuous to read. I emerged from her teachings loving and understanding Shakespeare more than I ever had before. Learning to break down characters and identify their rhythms and patterns is an immensely valuable skill in the world of dramatic interpretation, and I have Lenni to thank for helping me to cultivate that skill through our work together.” - Haydon, former student at Iowa Conservatory

“My favorite class was (Lenni’s) Shakespeare scene work class. I have always had a big passion for Shakespeare, and getting to do scenes from his work on my feet was amazing. I also love studying Shakespeare and taking it apart, so the techniques taught in this class were very helpful. It is also incredible that I got to do the scene from Othello with two different scene partners. It helped me realize how different the text can be when different people are using their tactics and personalities.” -Matelyn, currently a student at the University of Mississippi

“I started taking acting lessons with no experience in Shakespeare at all. By the time I had worked on one monologue, I understood how to perform Shakespeare. I now know how to understand the text and how to approach speaking it. I now have a better understanding of and joy for Shakespeare.” - Halle, current 9th grader at Iowa Conservatory (ICON)

“I learned a lot from Lenni’s class because she’s great at recognizing actors' instincts and urging them to explore. She also taught Shakespeare in such an easy to understand and digest way.”- Jeffrey, currently a student at University of Iowa

“I REALLY enjoyed the teaching style in the Shakespeare class, how we were very hands on with the text and instructed to make choices on the spot. I feel it brought out a lot in people. Thank you, Lenni, what you do is truly amazing.”- Makenzie, currently a student at Wagner College

“Lenni taught in a way that made me kind of excited to explore more Shakespeare which I was not expecting! Thank you, Lenni, for all that you do!” - Sherrell, currently a student at San Francisco State University

Testimonials from Lenni’s classes at ITDP

“My favorite classes were Lenni’s Shakespeare and Text classes. Though I have worked on Shakespeare before, this class really started to get me to enjoy doing it. I also enjoyed it as it showed different perspectives on the same scenes which I felt taught me to not be afraid to try new things.” - ITDP 2024 student

“[My favorite class was] Shakespeare (Lenni’s class) because although I’m not a fan of Shakespeare, I feel that I learned the most about technique and also felt that the time was divided the most evenly between students.”- ITDP 2023 student

“The Shakespeare class with Lenni raised my confidence a lot, I was worried that I wouldn't know what to do but with this group, they all gave me a lot of scene context, so I didn't feel like I had to act like a 'shakespearean' “ - ITDP 2023 student

“I loved working on Shakespeare with Lenni - I love Shakespeare's plays and I've seen them performed by some amazing actors, but until this program, I had never gotten to actually work on a scene from a Shakespeare play. I loved it and I hope to find a way to do more!” - ITDP 2023 student

“The space Sean and Lenni gave to experiment was immensely valuable in growing my acting skills, and becoming comfortable taking risks and making bold decisions.” - ITDP 2022 student

Testimonials from Lenni’s Shakespeare practices in neurodiverse classrooms:

“The kinesthetic aspect provides a wiring for the information to get in. For many of the students, that path can be more effective for understanding and decoding. [This course] is giving tools to form the words in the body, and that is super useful. It becomes much less foreign when it is in their bodies.”- Senior faculty at action research host special education school

“[Ensemble-based components are] the most useful because they scaffold and practice much of the skills we already teach in our communication classes…communication skills alone are too dry, but [RSC’s ensemble activities] grounds it in context and makes the skills relevant so that they stick better." - Senior faculty at action research host special education school

“Not all the classes were easy, but I found them joyful and not just a drag. I definitely think the students came to class wanting to do this, and that gave them joy in their learning in general.”- Senior faculty at action research host special education school

I went into this unit with an open mind and left wishing the unit wasn’t over. I’d do a full year of this! [The island design project] gave lots of opportunities for out-of-the-box thinking and creativity. We could take it as far as we felt like it and hearing all the ideas was really cool." - Student at host special education school

“The acting out and watching others helped me to know what was going on. I was able to put the pieces together because I knew what movements or actions corresponded with each word. Also, putting language to movement or our own paraphrasing in small chunks was a good way of figuring out where I needed to ask questions or fill in the gaps.” - Student at host special education school

“I’ve liked working through complicated language and ideas as a group. Because I generally enjoy and am comfortable, acting the ‘get-up-and-say-weird-things’ portions of the class were right up my alley. However, I feel like I got a better handle on the text by acting scenes out or watching other people act them out then I’d get from just reading on my own or even from just reading around a table with no physicality required.” - Student at host special education school

“This approach has also made understanding some of the language in the play much easier, since much of the class is discussion-based. However, though there aren’t really any cons with the approach itself, it’s still a little difficult to follow what’s going on during the play at times. Additionally, I’m still having a hard time understanding what some of the characters are saying.” - Student at host special education school