Dr. Gretchen Teague
Executive Artistic Director & founding member
Contact Gretchen at exec@dotheatre.org
The thing that brings Gretchen joy is working collaboratively with like minded creatives. DOTS was born out of a desire to play and create. Now, several years later, we have learned many lessons from producing work for the DOTS Fringe Festival in Springfield and other Fringe Festivals around Missouri (and soon the world!). We continue growing to support original theatre through playwriting and collaborative devising. So much bubbling over joy!
In the role of Dr. Teague, Gretchen recently retired as the International Baccalaureate Theatre teacher at Central High School in Springfield, Missouri after 25 years. Although she is retired from Springfield Public Schools, you can still find her in the classroom sharing the joy of learning at SLT Academy, Drury University, and through devising classes with DOTS.
Teague holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Missouri State University, a Masters in Education from Drury University, and an Education Doctorate in Instructional Leadership from Lindenwood University. Recently, Teague continued to feed her curiosity and creativity by completing a Masters Certificate in Puppetry Arts through University of Connecticut.
As a theatre practitioner, Teague has produced 25 years worth of musicals and plays at Central High School and collaborated with local theatre organizations including High Tide Theatrical, Springfield Contemporary Theatre, and Springfield Little Theatre. Through all of these productions, Teague wears multiple hats including director, designer, performer, producer, and supporter.
Most importantly, she is passionate about creating original theatre, exploring characters physically, ensemble building, writing, researching, and the power of laughter and story. After completing her dissertation, “The Relationship between Creativity and Enrollment in Fine Arts and IB Courses,” Teague continues to ask questions surrounding the impact of creative thinking on learners and how creative thinking is fostered through inquiry and other pedagogical approaches. Continued action research has provided opportunities for Teague to publish the original multi-modal poem, “Infinity Man”, and a co-written article, “Feeding the Soul and Heeding the Echo: Building Education Leaders Inside Out,” for the English Journal. In addition, collaborative research between Teague and a former student led to the article, “Quantifying Laughter in Theatre Class,” which was featured in the IB Diploma Programme blog.
Above all, Gretchen is the incredibly proud mother of Haley, Zachary, and Charlie, dog mom to Butterbean, and wife to Shawn. Just give her a moment to brag on any and all of these humans and she will take it!
Executive Team
Taylor Roberts
Development and Grants
Taylor is a Springfield native and theatre-maker thrilled to join the DOTS company for a second year. She finds joy in crafting original work that invites wonder, laughter, and reflection—and feels deeply grateful to collaborate with artists who share a love for bold, imaginative storytelling. She can’t wait for audiences to witness the show that this ensemble has built with care, spirit, and a whole lot of heart. She’d like to give special thanks to Nathan for his unending support.
Kristin Farr
Outreach and Community Engagement & Founding Member
Kristin is known throughout Springfield as one of the most versatile actors on stage. She has been performing on local stages for almost 30 years. She came to Springfield in the fall of 1987 to pursue her B. S. in Education in Speech and Theatre, never intending to stay after graduation. A series of events and an opportunity to manage the veterinary hospital she had been working at changed all those plans.
Still needing to satisfy her passion for the theater, Kristin auditioned for her first show, Arsenic and Old Lace, at Springfield Little Theatre in the summer of 1995 and was cast in the role of Elaine Harper. Since then she has appeared on many stages in the community. Favorite roles include Elvira in Blithe Spirit, Elaine in The Miss Firecracker Contest, Suzy in Hot l Baltimore at the Springfield Little Theatre, Toby in The Gingerbread Lady, Ensemble in The Vagina Monologues at The Vandivort Center Theatre, Pat Nixon in Tea for Three at Route 66 Repertory Theatre and Mrs. Shears in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Sarah Weddington in Roe at the Springfield Contemporary Theatre. Kristin was a player in Grey Matter Theatre, a murder mystery group directed by Mick Denniston. After his passing, Kristin and another Grey Matter player began Mick’s Usual Suspects Murder Mystery Players to continue his work. She has written, produced, directed and performed in dozens of custom murder mysteries. She has also appeared in local and regional radio and television commercials.
A longtime volunteer with the arts community in Springfield, Kristin spent 15 years on the Artsfest Planning Committee, an annual community art event benefiting Springfield Regional Arts Council. During her time on committee, she created an original event, Arf-fest Dog Parade and Beauty Show which she ran for 10 years, returning a few years later to manage the Live Artists area.
After leaving the veterinary profession after over 20 years, Kristin now spends her time curating vintage clothes and other treasures for her online and flea market shops, always looking for the next unique find.
Aubrey Smith
Education and Music & Founding Member
Aubrey comes from Springfield, Missouri. She has a Bachelor of Music Education in Voice from Drury University in Springfield, MO (2016). She completed a teaching assistantship in Choral Conducting with Dr. R. Paul Crabb at the University of Missouri (MU) in 2019 and a teaching assistantship in Vocal Performance with Prof. Steven Tharp (MU) in 2022. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Ozarks Technical Community College since 2019 and teaches music history, choir, and voice. In addition to her work at OTC, Aubrey teaches a private voice studio at Palen Music Center and is music director for the Springfield Catholic Schools theater department. She studies voice with professional soprano Jennifer Forni and most recently sang the role Sandra Bloom in Springfield Contemporary Theatre’s production of Big Fish, the role of Mrs. Potts in Springfield Little Theatre’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and also covered the role of Donna Elvira in Ozarks Lyric Opera’s production of Don Giovanni.
Aubrey is excited to work with Devising Original Theatre Springfield to create new works and innovate existing material for modern audiences.
Bryant Turnage
Playwright and Dramaturg, & Founding Member
An Albuquerque native, Bryant moved to Las Vegas at the age of eighteen. Years later, the self-proclaimed “Desert Rat” discovered seasons other than “Summer” and “Slightly Cooler Summer” when he moved to Springfield, MO in 2004 after receiving his MA in Theatre in MFA in Playwriting at UNLV under the tutelage of the late Davey Marlin-Jones. He began his Springfield theatre career by performing in several shows at many of the local venues in the city and has been lucky enough to count such roles as Prospero in The Tempest, Claudius in Hamlet, Paul in The Christians, Einstein in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Milet in Is He Dead?, and Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream among the dozens of plays he has taken part in since finding his way to Missouri.
Also a talented playwright, he is most known for Hamlet vs Zombies: Something is Rotting in the State of Denmark, a play which one a Best Of at the San Francisco fringe. He also has a ten-minute silent play about Kristallnacht called Shattering Crystal that won an award at the ACTF Region Eight Festival. And had the pandemic not thrown the world into general disarray, his one-man show about his life as a carny called Anything Behind Be would have been put up at the New York One Act Play Festival. He has seen his share of directing duties as well. Recently putting up The Real Inspector Hound, and twice having the good fortune to stage Waiting for Godot. He has also directed numerous productions for Shakespeare at the Columns, including Titus Andronicus and Romeo & Juliet.
And finally, acting as a dramaturg since graduate school, he continues to assist new playwrights to fine tune their work and is thrilled to be a part of DOTS where new and exciting pieces of art can be brought to life and shared with an appreciative audience.
Charlie Teague
Young Artists & Founding Junior Member
Charlie is a Freshman at SLT Academy. They are passionate about theatre performance, world creating, and storytelling. Charlie has written several short stories already and is working on developing scripts with DOTS. For the 2024 DOTS Fringe Festival, they collaborated to write and perform in The Gizzard. Most recently, Charlie performed the role of Ringtail in Fosgate: Ferret Loan Officer written by Ned Wilkenson for the 2025 DOTS Fringe Festival.
Charlie is a member of the SLT YES Troupe and Teen Players. They have been seen in Wizard of OZ, Mary Poppins Jr., Elf, Beauty and the Beast, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Lightning Thief at the Landers Theatre with Springfield Little Theatre as well as The Addams Family, Newsies Jr, Freckleface Strawberry, Wonka Jr., High School Musical Jr,, and Treasure Island with the SLT Education Department. Charlie was also featured as Young Will in Big Fish at Springfield Contemporary Theatre.
Outside of theatre, they regularly serves as a Dungeon Master for a variety of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
Charlie is thrilled to be representing the voice of young artists through DOTS.
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE MADE DOTS POSSIBLE!
Amy newsom
Jon Herbert
springfield Contemporary Theatre
springfield little Theatre & springfield little theatre Education department
high tide theatrical
