Our Directors

Cathy has been working in theatre since she was a girl, starting when she was with the Tom Thumb Players in Chicago at the age of 14. She attended Drake University where she graduated with a BFA in Theatre. After college, Cathy got her equity card doing dinner theatre at Drury Lane. She also acted in commercials, modeled, worked trade shows and acted in industrial films. Cathy was even a Honey Bear for the Chicago Bears! Later, Cathy became an agent for David and Lee and started their acting and live modeling division. After getting married and having children Cathy was asked to help with the "Main Show" for the Winnetka Children's Fair, which she did for many years. Next, she became involved with CTW – first with choreographing, then directing. Cathy was with CTW for 25 years and loved and enjoyed every minute!  "It's so exciting to see the children that I have worked with going on to Broadway and Hollywood."

Randy White and his family recently moved to Chicago when his wife accepted a position in the English Department (Shakespeare) at the University of Chicago. 
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Randy has extensive experience directing/teaching in New York and at Regional theaters across America, including the off-Broadway production (and 3-year national tour) of Theatreworks USA’s Max and Ruby. In New York, Randy also assisted on Disney’s The Lion King and was resident director at New Dramatists for two years.
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Randy has also directed at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and other Regional theaters. More recently, Randy was the founding artistic director of Cardinal Stage Company in Bloomington, IN. At Cardinal, Randy directed the likes of West Side Story, August: Osage County, Next to Normal, The 39 Steps, A Streetcar Named Desire, To Kill a Mockingbird, Les Miserables, and The Grapes of Wrath. Randy also directed numerous Theatre for Young Audience shows, including A Year With Frog and Toad, Willy Wonka, Mary Poppins, Junie B. Jones, 
The Sound of Music, Oliver!,
 Shrek:the Musical, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Annie, and Charlotte’s Web.

As a theatre educator, Randy has directed and/or taught at Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, University of Minnesota/Guthrie, University of Alberta, Fordham, and NYU Tisch. He also taught for several years at NYC’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
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Randy holds an MFA in directing from the University of Alberta in his native Canada.

Stephen has been acting, directing, choreographing, producing, casting and teaching professionally around the country for over a decade. He has acted in equity productions in Chicagoland theatres and regional theatres elsewhere, receiving three equity Jeff Award nominations and a Barrymore Award for acting, as well as a non-equity Jeff Award nomination for his directorial work on Urinetown and his choreographic work on Dogfight the Musical (Bohemian Theatre Ensemble). In Chicago, Stephen has worked at the Marriott Theatre, Writers Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Mercury Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Chamber Opera Chicago, Goodman Theatre, and the Ravinia Festival.

He has taught acting and musical theatre at the Actors Training Center in Wilmette as well as at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan in Connecticut. He is the Artistic Director and company member at BoHo Theatre in Chicago, where he recently directed its production of Urinetown, nominated for eight Joseph Jefferson awards for non-equity productions, including Best Director and Best Production. He is a founding member and managing director of the Chicago Artists Chorale, and had served as the Casting Director and Associate Producer at Writers Theatre in Glencoe. Most recently, Stephen was a full-time lecturer of musical theatre at Northwestern University, and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre for The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Stephen is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama and a proud member of the Actors Equity Association. Stephen is also a CTW Alum!

Annamarie brought to our kids 40 years of vocal education expertise and performance experience in concert halls and opera stages around the world. She holds a bachelor's degree in music, a master's in vocal pedagogy, and did post-graduate work on development of adolescent voices. Annamarie has been musical director for amateur and equity plays for many years including the production of Fiddler on the Roof  at the University of Illinois which involved a statewide selection of talented high school kids for the cast and played to a 3000 member audience. Annamarie also taught three generations of singers at New Trier, and received the coveted Distinguished Teacher Service Award when she left to focus on individual student development and her work with Children's Theatre of Winnetka. Learn more about Annamarie by reading her book, Whad'ya Say Your Name Was, Sweetie?  

Barbara Eskilson fell in love with theatre her Freshman year at Horace Mann High School, in Gary, Indiana. At Connecticut College for Women, she continued in East Lynne, Antigone and The Heiress among others, narrowly winning the lead from fellow student actor Joan Molinsky (AKA Joan Rivers.)  At Indiana University she continued in The Misanthrope, Elizabeth the Queen and Twelfth Night – the latter was the history-making first play telecast from IU stage live.  After graduation she taught English, dramatics and coached the debate team at Muskegon High in Michigan, while spending summers at Northwestern graduate school in Theatre.

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Her acting career took a vacation from 1958 until 1965 when she started directing class plays at Lincoln School in Evanston and religious scenarios at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Evanston.  In Winnetka (circa 1969), she and her friend Lu Sunkel directed several of the Main Show plays at the Winnetka Children’s Fair. In 1972, Barbara started 3 classes at the Community House involving acting for Children and conducted them for over 10 years. In 1974 she approached Tom Fritz, then director of the Winnetka Community House, about a children’s theatre. And so began The Winnetka Children’s Theatre, later changed to Children’s Theatre of Winnetka.  The tenor of the plays gradually changed as the students became more aware of theatre - from children’s stories like Maria’s Loom and Earthworms, Door Knobs, Milkweed and Ziggernauts to classics like Tom Sawyer and The Hobbit then early musicals like Wonderful Town and The Boy Friend, until finally doing Top Broadway Shows like Fiddler on the Roof and My Fair Lady.  In 2017, after 43 years of directing and producing plays, Barbara retired- but remains on the Board.