Margaret Ladd
(Creator and Co-Founder)
Ms. Ladd was first moved to create the Imagination Workshop when she and internationally acclaimed playwright Eugene Ionesco happened to attend a play performed by patients in a mental hospital. They witnessed, first-hand, the patients’ remarkable onstage transformation from withdrawn and disengaged to vibrant and charming. Ionesco called it, “creating from the place where dreams come from.” Ladd instantly realized what an inspirational gift such performances could be to the professional theater community, as well as what an effective tool the world of theater could offer to those with mental health challenges.
Lyle Kessler
(Co-Founder)
Kessler studied acting with Lee Strasberg and was accepted into the Director's Unit of the Actors Studio, where he wrote and directed his first one act play, The Viewing, which he subsequently directed at the Lucille Lortel Theater in New York.