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At Cedar Ridge High School, the theatre department is guided by an extraordinary team of directors whose passion, creativity, and dedication have built one of the most respected theatre programs in the region. Together, they bring years of professional experience and a proven record of award-winning productions that inspire students to grow as artists and leaders.
Kristie Copeland - Theatre Director
Kristie Copeland - Theatre Director
Kristie Copeland has been the head theatre director at Cedar Ridge High School since the school was established in 2010. She has been teaching for over 18 years and has taught at both the high school and middle school level throughout her career. While at Cedar Ridge, she has directed numerous UIL One-Act Play advancing shows and award-winning musicals.
Under her leadership, Cedar Ridge musicals have consistently earned recognition at the Heller Awards for Young Artists. Most recently, Catch Me If You Can (2025) won Best Production, Best Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Choreography. Mary Poppins (2024) received awards for Best Ensemble and Best Choreography. In 2023, Chicago won Best Choreography, and in 2022, Footloose also took home Best Choreography. Earlier in her career at Cedar Ridge, Kristie directed the 2013 Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards Best Musical Production of Ragtime and the 2020 Heller Award-winning production of Legally Blonde. Cedar Ridge has also proudly won Best Choreography in the GAHSMTA for eight years under her direction. Kristie was also named Teacher of the Year for Cedar Ridge High School.
In addition to teaching in public education, Kristie is also a professional choreographer and vocal teacher who loves working with students of all ages as she shares her passion for theatre and musical theatre with the community. In 2018, she choreographed Austin’s Summer Stock production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and has worked at the Greater Austin Dance Academy as both a dance and voice teacher. Kristie graduated from Abilene Christian University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre with an emphasis in musical theatre and studied at CAP21’s Pre-Professional training program in New York. She holds teaching certifications in theatre, dance, and physical education.
Julia Smith - Theatre Director
Julia Smith - Theatre Director
Julia M. Smith has been a Theatre Director at Cedar Ridge since 2015 and has directed most of the Children’s Theatre, Shakespeare in the Courtyard, and Just for Laughs comedy and improv performances. Alongside Kristie Copeland, Julia has co-directed several winning Cedar Ridge musicals including Mary Poppins, Chicago, and most recently Catch Me If You Can, which won the Heller Award for Best Direction as part of its 2025 wins.
Julia is a collaborative theatre artist and educator who graduated from Towson University’s MFA Theatre program and also holds a BFA from New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing. Her performance, direction, and design work has been seen throughout New York City, the Baltimore/DC area, Chicago, New Orleans, Texas, and Eastern Europe, and has been recognized by The New York Times, The Austin Chronicle, Austin Critics Table Awards, B. Iden Payne Committee, and the Eastern Europe and Slavic Performance Journal.
In past years, Julia also performed at Lincoln Center in Basil Twist’s Rite of Spring, created puppetry for the Sprout Network, and designed puppetry for shows in Baltimore and Austin. Most recently, her design work outside of CRHS was featured at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin in Salvage Vanguard’s production of Casta.
Shaelin Abbatiello - Technical Theatre Director
Shaelin Abbatiello - Technical Theatre Director
Shaelin Abbatiello is an alumna of Theatre at the Ridge herself, graduating with the class of 2019! She then went on to pursue a BFA in Theatre Education at Texas State University, graduating Magna Cum Laude in the spring of 2023. While in school, she worked with the Georgetown Palace Theatre to costume shows, including a “Play That Goes Wrong” twist on A Christmas Carol. She also worked as a production assistant on Texas State’s musical Hair and was a camp counselor at the Texas State Theatre Summer Camp in 2022.
Her favorite experience was student teaching at San Marcos High School, where she assistant directed and costumed their UIL One-Act Play, Lafayette No. 1, as well as directed multiple class plays, including a version of Othello set in the 1950s. After graduation, Shaelin returned to Cedar Ridge as one of the technical directors. Under her technical direction, Catch Me If You Can won the Heller Award for Best Costume Design for the 2024-2025 season. She is excited to serve the department that sparked her love for theatre and to help carry on its tradition of excellence.
Connor Hopkins- Technical Theatre Director
Connor Hopkins- Technical Theatre Director
The newest director at Cedar Ridge, more information coming soon!
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