.png){kind=small}
ACT Executive Board
.jpeg)
Amanda Emmons Shumate, President
(She|Her) With over 20 years of experience in theatre, Amanda is excited to continue serving her ACT Cincinnati family. A longtime member of Footlighters and Cincinnati Music Theatre, she has also worked with Showbiz Players, The Drama Workshop, and several regional theatres, contributing as a director, producer, set designer, stage manager, choreographer, and performer. She co-founded Union Community Theatre in 2009, serving on its board for a decade, and remains actively involved in local theatre, currently serving as 1st VP of ACT Cincinnati and secretary for Cincinnati Music Theatre. Beyond the stage, Amanda spent 17 years as an educator, mentoring as a teacher leader after earning her master’s in Instructional Leadership in 2012. She also contracts marketing and graphic design services and currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing & Development for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati. She lives in Northern Kentucky with her amazing partner, Kyle, their two sons, Jojo and Nico, and their lovable black lab, Dexter. Amanda believes the arts strengthen communities and build lifelong connections, and she’s grateful to be part of Cincinnati’s thriving theatre scene!
Mary Stone, 1st VP
Mary returns to the ACT Board this year, her first time as 1st VP Convention—she knows she has big shoes to fill! She was the ACT Marketing and Publicity chair from 2021 to 2024 and has been involved with ACT since 2013 when she joined as the responding assistant for Acting Up, Mason Community Players, Tri-County Players, and now ROYAL Theatre. She has previously served as a member at large for five years on Exhale Dance Tribe’s Board of Directors, two years as President of The Drama Workshop, three years as a member at large on The Carnegie’s Board, and nine years on the Board of The Footlighters, Inc., serving as their VP Administration and creating their newly formed VP Marketing role. She was humbled and honored to have won the 2025 OCTA President’s award, the 2022 ACT President's Award, and the prestigious Art Rouse Award in 2024.
Betsy Obermeyer, 2nd VP
Betsy is pleased to lend her talents to the ACT Board and has been active in local theater since 2006. Whether serving as a board member, committee chair, fundraising chair, ACT responder, or designing sets and decor, she is grateful for the chance to use her MFA training in a variety of roles. As the 2024 recipient of the ACT President’s Award she was humbled to be recognized among such talented and dedicated people.​ By day she is an LTL Operations Specialist at Integrity Express Logistics and enjoys exploring outdoors with her husband and daughter.
Peyton Hahn, Treasurer
Peyton is pleased to join the ACT Board as Treasurer after spending over 10 years in the Cincinnati theatre community. Peyton previously served in leadership roles at Mason Community Players, where he founded the Finance Committee and served as its chair, as well as serving terms as Vice President and President. Peyton is proud to have worked previously with ACT to establish the Joel Lind Rising Star Awards and credits Joel for introducing him to the world of ACT. On the stage, Peyton has been on many Cincinnati stages, including Loveland Stage Company, Footlighters, The Drama Workshop, and Cincinnati Music Theatre, among others. When not doing theatre, Peyton enjoys playing golf, watching sports, and spending time with his fiancee and 9 year old stepdaughter. He also has two adorable dogs, Chester and Clarabelle.
Lauren Davidson, Secretary
Lauren has been doing theatre for almost 20 years and is pleased to be sharing her talents on the ACT Board. She has been active in the Cincinnati community theatre scene since graduating from Xavier University in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and English. She has worked in many capacities such as acting, stage managing, producing, and designing with multiple community theatres in the Cincinnati area. She has also been serving as an ACT responder since 2024 and was a 2025 recipient of the Joel Lind Rising Star Award. During the day, Lauren spends her time teaching and running the drama club and student council at Holmes High School. Whenever she is actually able to take time for herself between teaching and theatre, she enjoys reading, board games, and spending time with her fiancé and her cats.
Kat Falk, Awards
.png)
Kat Falk has been around Cincinnati community theatre her whole life, and has been involved with many groups both onstage and off over the years, serving in many different cast and crew roles. She's currently a member of Footlights Inc, The Drama Workshop, Village Players of Ft Thomas, and Mariemont Players. She is very excited to be a part of the ACT Board! When not doing theatre, Kat is playing volleyball, attending local street festivals, and spending time with her husband Andrew, dog Taco, and daughter Kylie.
Arlene Balczo, Scholarships
Arlene Balczo, who has a Telecommunications Degree from Indiana University, a Secondary Education Degree in Communications from the University of Cincinnati, and a Master’s Degree in Education from Miami University, taught drama, communications, journalism and English at Mason High School for 33 years. In the Greater Cincinnati area, she’s been a director, choreographer, producer and performer since 1988. She’s developed the theatre curriculum for Mason High School, and helped found both Acting Up and Brieabi Productions. Arlene has directed over 60 plays and musicals locally, has won numerous awards for directing, choreographing, producing and performing, won the President’s Award for Association of Community Theatre of Cincinnati twice, and in 2017 received the prestigious Art Rouse Award. Arlene has been ACT Cincinnati’s 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President, Secretary, and now Scholarship Chair. She responded to theatre for ACT from 1991-2021 and served on the Long Range Responding Committee as Chairperson, overseeing the organization’s responding system. Outside of theatre, Arlene is a talent with Heyman Talent Agency and works for the University Hospital as a standardized patient. She loves long distance running and cheering on the Reds and Bengals.
Justin Hanks, Marketing/Publicity
Justin has been involved with local theatre for 20+ years. Some of his favorite roles include Seussical (Horton), Beauty and the Beast (Beast), Wizard of Oz (Lion), Children of Eden (Father), Joseph (Pharaoh), The Play That Goes Wrong (Chris), Escanaba in da Moonlight (Remnar), and The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Norbert). When not on stage, Justin contributes as a playwright and director. He recently spent three years performing and writing for Queen City Vaudevillians – a local comedy and variety troupe. Before that, he spent seven years entertaining at the Cincinnati Zoo. Alongside his role with ACT, he currently holds staff positions at Loveland Stage Company, Loveland Shorts Film Festival, and The Story Collective. Outside of local theatre, Justin spends his days as a software director. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics.
Doug Bruening, Long Range Responding Chair
Doug has been part of the theater community in Greater Cincinnati since 2009 and has been an ACT Responder since 2014. He has worked with many community and semi-professional theaters in the area and has won numerous awards for performance, properties, set décor, lobby display and house management. Doug has served on the Board of Directors for Union Community Theater and Rivertown Players and is currently the Props Chair for Village Players. Doug lives in Burlington, KY with his wife, one of his three children and two cats. (His other two children, thankfully, still live nearby!) He works as a software engineer for Fifth Third Bank and holds a Bachelor of Business and a Master of Computer Science.
Linda Roll, Historian, Librarian, & Pre-Registration
Linda Roll has been active in community theatre since 1994. She has done most technical jobs there are from directing, producing, stage managing, costuming, lighting and just about any other job you can name. She is also an award-winning actress, costumer, producer and director on both the local and state levels.
John Wesseling, Membership Chair, Bylaws Chair
John has been involved with Community Theater for over 40 years, most of it with the Sunset Players, Inc. and ACT Cincinnati, Inc. He is an award-winning actor, director, technician, and producer. He has served on the board of the Sunset Players for almost 40 years and has served on the ACT board 30 out of the last 36 years. He was the first individual to win both of the ACT Cincinnati Inc. major awards, the Mario Pitocco Award for Excellence in Technical Theater, and the Art Rouse Award for Dedication to Community Theater. John is also a four-time President’s Award honoree. As President of the Sunset Players, John led the charge of assuming control of the Dunham Recreation Complex’s historically significant Arts building and turning it into The Arts Center at Dunham, a complete Arts center for the west side of Cincinnati. He is also the creator of “Cincinnati Community Theater Wesseling Group”, an e-mail list that shares theater information in the Greater Cincinnati area with over 1,200 theater members.
Jon Scheiding, Technology
Jon has been active in Cincinnati area community theatre for nearly 15 years, serving in numerous roles - including sound designer, music director, orchestra member, and performer - for numerous groups - including Mason Community Players, Center Stage Players, Beechmont Players, Village Players of Ft. Thomas, Footlighters, and Cincinnati Music Theatre. Highlights include performing as Mendel in Falsettos at CMT and Jamie in The Last Five Years at Village Players of Ft. Thomas, and music directing Next To Normal at Footlighters. He has served for four years as the chair of Mason Community Players' Finance Committee, and previously served on the Board for Beechmont Players. In his "other life," Jon is a software engineer and engineering manager for Instructure, the provider of Canvas LMS and other cloud education technology software. Additional interests include flying as a private pilot, and performing with his bands. Jon lives in Sharonville with his extremely talented wife, Kaleigh-Brooke Scheiding, their ornery cat Katniss, and their temperamental retired stage dog Bruiser.