founders

Vanessa Becker Weig | Executive Artistic Director and co-founder
Vanessa Becker Weig is Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director of Voices Amplified (formerly known as The Girl Project) and is on the Part-Time Music and Theatre Faculty at Eastern Kentucky University. She trained at the professional actor B.F.A. training program at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and most recently trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company at their summer institute through Skidmore College. She has over 100 directing, choreography, and performance credits. Since moving to Lexington 15 years ago, she has directed or choreographed numerous productions for Voices Amplified, Woodford Theatre, Leeds Center for the Arts. the School for the Creative and Performing Arts,, and many more including several award-winning productions for the Itheatrics Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta. She was the Education Director for Woodford Theatre from 2015-2019 founding the Woodofrd Theatre Young Artist Program, and served as Artistic Director for the theatre in 2019 and 2020. Prior to moving to Lexington, Vanessa served for ten years as the Education Director and Resident Director/Actor for the Phoenix Theatre (now CATCO). At the Phoenix, she directed, choreographed, and appeared in more than fifty productions and designed and implemented classes, camps, workshops, and in-school residencies. Vanessa specializes in movement theatre and theatre styles such as Kabuki, Commedia Del ‘Arte, Laban, Puppets and Masks, and Musical Theatre. She was in the regional tour of the musical The Secret Garden, which incorporated both deaf and hearing actors and won several Central Ohio artistic excellence awards. Vanessa is a proud recipient of a Bluegrass Alliance for Women Impact Award and the prestigious Freddie G Fellowship from Music Theatre International. When she has a spare moment, Mrs. Weig appears on stage. Some of her favorite local roles include Gynecia in Head Over Heels with Voices Amplified, Morticia in The Addams Family with Leeds Theatre, Paulette in Legally Blonde with KCT Summerfest, Madame De La Grande Bouche in Beauty and the Beast and The Warden in Holes with Lexington Children's Theatre.

Ellie Clark | CO-FOUNDER
Ellie Clark is co-founder of Voices Amplified (formerly known as The Girl Project) and currently resides in Atlanta, GA. She is an actress, teaching artist, producer, and movement enthusiast who has spent her lifetime in love with storytelling. Her most recent Film/TV credits include The First Wives Club (BET), The Wonder Years (ABC), and a recurring role on Season 5, 6 & 7 of Tyler Perry’s Sistas. She can also be seen in numerous commercials and Independent Feature films. She has performed throughout the United States and across the pond in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Notable stage credits include Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra, Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Marie in Marie Antoinette, Agnes in Dancing at Lughnasa, Anna in Burn This, Sheila in A Chorus Line, and Emma in Stupid F*#!ing Bird. Ellie has taught acting and physical actor training for 20+ years. She is co-Artistic Director for Arvold Warner Studio in Atlanta (founded by Emmy Nominated Casting Director, Erica Arvold and Master Teacher, Richard Warner) where she works and consults with film/TV actors invested in furthering their craft. She serves as the Chair of Acting and the Movement Specialist for Kentucky’s Governor's School for the Arts and she has served as a visiting artist at several universities and acting studios. She has had the honor of being a Guest Speaker, Moderator and/or Panelist at Summits and Festivals interested in arts leadership, advocacy, and activism in the arts. Her entrepreneurial work includes Co-Founding Voices Amplified, Inc., the Atlanta based self-taping and actor coaching service, Actors Room Atlanta, and the ensemble-based theatre company, Project SEE Theatre. She served as Education Director & Associate Producer of Woodford Theatre from 2012-2015 and co-founded the Lexington Shakespeare Institute, which came to be known as Kentucky Conservatory Theatre and was a teaching artist with the program for nine years. Ellie is trained in the Meisner Approach to acting and has trained extensively with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in Viewpoints, Suzuki, and Composition in their Saratoga Summer Intensive and throughout her 10 years living in New York City. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts from Ohio University’s Professional Actor Training Program, receiving a Fellowship for her “exceptional talent and dedication to the arts.” Born and raised in Lexington, KY, she is a graduate of the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA), Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and received a BFA in Acting from the University of Kentucky. Ellie has worked with the prestigious Actors’ Theatre of Louisville in their yearlong apprentice program. You can visit her website at www.ellieclark.org.
EDUCATION TEAM (under construction)
VOICES AMPLIFIED Board
Vanessa Becker Weig |President
Whitney VanMeter| Vice President
Uma Jewels | Secretary
Laura Mancuso| Treasurer
Member At Large: Ellie Clark
the many who have helped shape our work
Emma Erwin
Kate Hadfiled- Antonetti
Ron Wilbur
Vivien Kurtz
Margaret McGladrey
Jeni Benavides
Chamara Jewel Kwakye
Trish Clark
Jill Gookin
Patrick Lee Lucas
Christy Burch
The Girl Project classes of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018
And Many More.....

























