About me
Heather Utsler-Smith is a proud graduate of Bowling Green State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Theatre, with a dual specialization in Acting/Directing and Youth Theatre/Puppetry, and also Eastern Michigan University where she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Applied Drama and Theatre for the Young, as well as a Master’s Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship. She serves as the Executive Artistic Director of Talespinner Children’s Theatre after having previously worked with theatres throughout Ohio and Michigan, and having served as the Performing Arts Director for the Hockomock Area YMCA in Massachusetts where she directed more than 60 productions. In her first two years with Talespinner Children’s Theatre, she has introduced comprehensive accessibility design to ensure that tools for patrons who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low vision, Autistic, and/or experience sensory processing disorders are fully integrated into the conception of every production. She has served as a consultant in theatrical accessibility design for such organizations as Borderlight Fringe Festival, the Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture, and the Valentine Theatre, and has designed accessibility tools for such shows as Still Life with Iris, Much Ado About Nothing, James and the Giant Peach, Richard III (EMU), Aponibolinayen in the Sky: A Tale of the Philippines, The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats, Hook and Smee, Stellaluna, A Light in the Night, Chicken Story Time, School of Fish, Last Stop on Market Street, The Toothpaste Millionaire, Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical, and A Year with Frog and Toad (Talespinner). She regularly offers workshops in accessibility, and is working to train a cohort of passionate designers and artists who will advocate for a more accessible theatre community nationwide.
