Zack Lehtinen

Education, Credentials, Professional Background

I have been trained in music-- singing, clarinet and oboe-- starting at age seven. I performed in the Sonoma County Youth Orchestra as an oboist, and sang choral solos in performance. I am self-taught on the drum kit, and somewhat on both piano and guitar as well, having composed several original songs on these instruments. I have studied acting since my youth, and have performed in many plays as well as independent movies. During high school I participated in an Ambassadors for Peace program, living with a host family in the Ukraine-- then still part of the Soviet Union. The following year, my family hosted a Ukrainian youth through the same exchange program.

I have a BA in English from UC Santa Cruz, California. During my junior year of University, I attended abroad at the University of Birmingham, U.K. and traveled throughout Europe. At University of Birmingham, I participated in a Shakespeare Intensive course which included a residential week at the Royal Shakespeare Company and extensive study with scholar/ editors of the Oxford Complete Shakespeare. I also took numerous acting courses during university, wrote a play which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, produced and directed Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men for the stage, and produced and acted a lead role in Sam Shepard's play True West. I studied acting at the Birmingham School of Drama while in England, and received a Gold Medal for Monologue Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA).

After University, I moved to New York City, where I took numerous advanced courses with professionals in acting, directing, screenwriting and moviemaking. During this period, I acted in three feature independent movies, one of which received many festival screenings and awards, and enjoys global DVD and VHS distribution. Two of the above movies I was a collaborative co-writer on, one I wrote entirely and directed, and in all three I acted a co-lead role. During this time I also co-founded an independent multi-media arts non-profit, Inspiration Conspiracy, directed and/or acted in several New York City theater productions, and created the multi-media arts festival and open-studio art tour Art on the Hill in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

For a living during this time, I waited tables in Manhattan, spearheaded and coordinated marketing and operation of a catering operation for a family-owned small chain of three Manhattan restaurants, was a manager/ host for one of the above restaurants, and was a marketer for Image Advertising.

I have worked with children throughout my professional lifetime, as well. I worked in child care starting at age 12, worked summers throughout university at YMCA Day Camps in Sonoma County and Santa Cruz, California, worked in various child care and personal care positions for individuals and groups in Santa Cruz, CA and in both Brooklyn and Manhattan.

In the year 2000, I obtained a teaching credential and taught full and part-time for many years in Brooklyn high schools. Three of those years, I taught full-time at Paul Robeson High School, teaching English, Literacy, Music Experience and leading after-school programs in music, movie-making and creative writing/ screenwriting. In 2005, I established Brooklyn HomeSchool, a private small-scale child care and education company, serving families with children ranging in ages from 1 year to 8 years old, in groupings of rarely more than 3 children. This group-size enabled me to remain mobile with the kids, visiting Brooklyn and Manhattan parks, gardens, museums, playgrounds, etc. frequently and easily. During this time, I honed and studied educational philosophies such as “unschooling”, free schools and the Sudbury educational approach intently. Being on staff at the Hudson Valley Sudbury School seems to me the perfect use and culmination of my many life experiences, diverse interests and training, and deeply thought-out educational philosophy.

Additional skills include organic gardening and permaculture (ecological “permanent agriculture”), much experience as a working landscaper in California and Tucson, Arizona (where I established an ecological landscaping company, Tree Frog Ecology Landscaping, for one year), and Colorado; computer skills in movie editing (iMovie and Final Cut Pro), ‘blog creation (I’ve authored over 30 weblogs), Photoshop, Word and working knowledge of a few other programs; non-fluent but educated in Spanish language, and have traveled much and lived briefly in Mexico; various sports, especially soccer and basketball; poetry-writing and creative writing; and a love of mountains, hiking and wilderness.