Teachers and Private Coaching
SpeakeasyDC offers five different storytelling classes at different levels. In each, we convey the art of storytelling in a way that will help you develop your narrative, connect with an audience, and successfully convey your unique perspective. Together, our professional staff has taught thousands of individuals and conducted trainings with organizations in the DC metro area and around the country.
SpeakeasyDC's teachers may also be hired for one-on-one coaching in person, over the phone, or using internet video such as Skype to empower individuals, professionals, executives and leaders to be dynamic communicators.
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Amy Couchoud
Teacher/CoachAmy Couchoud has been directing, coaching and teaching with SpeakeasyDC since 2007. Her directing credits for SpeakeasyDC include the sold-out runs of Chocolate Jesus, Chocolate Jesus: The Resurrection, The Sin Show and Bad Mommy Moments. Other storytelling credits include Logic, Luck and Love (co-director) and fellow teacher Joseph Price’s one many show Operating System (director). She was the co-creator and director of e-Geaux (beta). Amy is the co-producer of SpeakeasyDC’s annual Top Shelf show. Prior to joining SpeakeasyDC, Amy was a professional theatre artist who worked at Studio Theatre, Studio Theatre Secondstage, Folger Shakespeare Library and Arena Stage. She is a former faculty member of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
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Stephanie Garibaldi
Teacher/CoachStephanie Garibaldi is SpeakeasyDC's most senior teacher (which does not make her old, just wise). She curates and directs SpeakeasyDC's 2nd Tuesday monthly stage, and over the last eight years, she has personally coached more than 1,000 people in the art of contemporary storytelling. What?! It's true... this woman has no threshold when it comes to her love of storytelling!
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Meredith Maslich
Teacher/CoachMeredith Maslich has introduced hundreds of people to the art of storytelling since joining the SpeakeasyDC faculty in 2008. She has led storytelling workshops for sales people and has experience in professional development for organizations like the Meyer Foundation and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Meredith runs Possibilities Publishing and was formerly SpeakeasyDC's board president.
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Vijai Nathan
Teacher/CoachVijai Nathan is one of SpeakeasyDC's senior storytelling trainers and performers, and she is one of the leading Indian American female comedians. She was featured at the Montreal International Comedy Festival and the Smirnoff International Comedy Festival. She's also performed at the Smithsonian Museum, Kennedy Center, Constitution Hall, Library of Congress and won the award for Artistic Excellence from SpeakeasyDC. She’s gained attention from critics from her solo-shows Woman on Top: Tips from Mom, Dad & COSMO & Good Girls Don’t, But Indian Girls Do.
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Joseph Price
Teacher/CoachJoseph Price is a storyteller, playwright, and producer. His SpeakeasyDC credits include The Sin Show, Sucker for Love, and more than a dozen appearances on the 2nd Tuesday stage. He specializes in story structure and mixed media and many of his personal works focus on integrating performance and technology. His one-man show, Operating System, blended first-person storytelling with raw data and e-Geaux (beta) , incorporated live audience Facebook profiles into "social media improv" that was featured on NPR's All Things Considered.
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Adam Ruben
Teacher/CoachAdam Ruben is a writer, comedian, storyteller, and molecular biologist. A two-time Top Shelf winner before joining SpeakeasyDC’s teaching staff in 2013, Adam has taught an undergraduate stand-up comedy class at Johns Hopkins for ten years. He currently co-hosts the Science Channel’s “Outrageous Acts of Science.”
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Amy Saidman
Executive Storytelling CoachAmy Saidman, Artistic Executive Director of SpeakeasyDC, has been the driving force behind the growth of storytelling as a performance genre in Washington, DC and regionally. Called DC's "matriarch of storytelling", she's been running SpeakeasyDC's programs, telling stories, hosting, inventing new ways to present storytelling, building relationships with other local arts and culture groups, and spreading the gospel since 2001. She began coaching and teaching storytelling in 2006 and, along with the SEDC teaching staff, has developed a curriculum and pedagogy for teaching the art of storytelling that includes more than five different classes at different levels and customized trainings for corporate, government, and nonprofit clients.
