Meet the Team

Gloria Minnich (director and performer) is a local drama and dance teacher, actor, director, and founder of Kitchen Sink Theatre.  Her students range in age from three to senior citizens. She teaches both students that are considered neurotypical and neurodivergent.  

She is very involved with the local theatre community and has acted in many productions.  She has appeared in several local commercials and a short film.   She was recently seen in One Christmas Eve at Evergreen Mall at Arena Dinner Theatre.  Other recent shows at Arena include The Ladies Man and Into the Breeches (Best Actress in a Leading Role of a Play Award). Directing credits include A Delightful Quarantine, Silent Sky, Brief Encounter (Best Director Award), Failure: A Love Story (Best Director Award), Peter and the Starcatcher, and Salt and Pepper.

Gloria has trained in the Hunter Heartbeat Method, which uses Shakespeare to help those on the autism spectrum develop communication skills.  In addition to Shakespeare, she has studied dance, puppetry, storytelling, Commedia dell ‘Arte, and sensory theatre.  She has trained internationally with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of England, Gyre and Gimble, Drama Resource, Little Angel Theatre, Bamboozle, and Oily Cart, where she created theatre pieces for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities. In the summer of 2023, she was the only American in a group of twelve people from eight countries around the world, that created sensory theatre pieces with Bamboozle Theatre in residence at Curve Theatre, Leicester, England.  They performed two sensory theatre pieces for a group of children on the autism spectrum and a group with profound and multiple learning disabilities.  In 2019 she was awarded the Arts United Margaret Ann Keegan Award for Arts Education.