Letters of Recommendation

Recommendation for Kara Penrose July 10, 2020

To Whom it May Concern:

I have had the great privilege of knowing Kara Penrose as a teaching artist for over five years. As theatre director for curricular
and extracurricular productions for Kettle Moraine High Schools, I have repeatedly hired Kara as a consultant because of her
professional theatre training and her outstanding work with students. Throughout these experiences Kara has shown herself as a
patient, responsible, intelligent, diligent, and kind educator who cares for quality work, the safety of all in the classroom, and
easily builds trust with students. I enthusiastically recommend Kara Penrose to your school district for any available position,
and especially for work supporting K-12 classroom instruction.

Kara’s distinguishing characteristics include a high degree of personal integrity, intellectual curiosity, flexibility, and
willingness to do “whatever it takes” to serve students and a given project well. I have witnessed these attributes as a colleague
in sessions at the Alliance for Wisconsin Theatre Education conferences, during numerous workshops and stage combat
rehearsals with my students and as a co-director for our 2020 spring play. The latter experience most stands out in my mind as
Kara pivoted with my team as the COVID-19 pandemic changed our educational delivery system overnight. Not only did she
help me brainstorm ways to turn our live stage production into a quarantine-safe virtual production, but she took on extra
organizational and directing tasks in the process. Kara shared my desire to continue our theatrical programming despite the
pandemic for both the academic and social-emotional learning needs of my students, even though it meant a much greater
challenge and more time than originally contracted. As we both learned new technology tools to engage our audience online,
Kara was a great collaborator with both me and the involved students. Despite not having a formal educational degree, Kara
has an impressive understanding of how to work with diverse learners and strategies needed to help a mixed group of students
succeed. On the whole, Kara was an integral part of the success of our production and absolutely made my job as lead educator
easier.

Kara Penrose has been an asset in my theatre classroom and I have no doubt she will be an asset to any school who hires her. I
would enjoy the opportunity to speak with you further about Kara’s exceptional personal and professional attributes. Please feel
free to contact me via telephone or e-mail as indicated below.

Sincerely,
Abigail E. Kean
Social Studies Educator & Theatre Director
Kettle Moraine High School
Kettle Moraine School for Arts & Performance
(262) 968-6273 ext. 8438; keana@kmsd.edu

July 2, 2021

RE: Recommendation Letter for Kara Penrose

To Whom it May Concern:

How lucky you are to have Kara Penrose applying for a job at your school! I have worked with Kara Penrose for over 4
years. She has worked with me in the capacity of performer and educator. Kara possesses so many skills to highlight,
for the purpose of this recommendation letter I will focus on how Kara is accepting and intuitive, creative, and extremely
organized.

Our theater classes bring a wide range of students to the classroom. Students of all backgrounds, experience, and
personality types come together to create and when Kara is facilitating the joining of all of these students, I know that
the experience for everyone will be a positive experience. Kara is welcoming and immediately sets up a classroom
environment of acceptance and trust. She has mastered the art of reading when a student needs a little extra or needs
to be asked certain questions. She truly has a beautiful way of reading each student and creating a positive learning
experience for all. Kara accepts all children and interacts with every student with dignity and respect.
This leads to a creative environment where she is able to provide learning experiences to fit all students. Her creative
curriculum, classroom activities, and showcase creation have always been a highlight for each student in her class. Kara
designs activities and plans for the classroom in order to accommodate all of the children’s needs. She is able to adapt
her learning plan on the fly when the needs of the class or a specific student changes.

Even while being adaptable, Kara is extremely organized and reliable. I 100% know that I can rely on Kara. She
communicates her needs to me effectively and efficiently. She comes prepared to each class day and every meeting.
Kara considers questions before she asks them and is a source of information for myself and other teaching peers.
During a summer camp where Kara had to co-teach with another instructor, Kara was the instructor to take the initiative
to design a schedule and teaching plan for the week before she met with the instructor and then used that as a base for
discussion and discovery with her co-teacher.

Please know that Kara is a fantastic person to work with and will be a tremendous asset for your school and for your
students and families. She truly has a love of children and respects the impact she can make on their educational
experience. If you have any further questions with regard to her work experience or character, please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Best wishes in your hiring process. Do not miss the opportunity to work with Kara.

Thank you,
Erika Navin, Director of Education
Sunset Playhouse School for the Arts
enavin@sunsetplayhouse.com
262.782.4431 x290

To Whom It May Concern:

It is my pleasure today to write a letter of recommendation on behalf of my colleague Kara
Penrose. I am the Technical Facilities Manager for the Pewaukee School District as well as a theater
educator for the high school and middle school. In this capacity I have had the opportunity to observe
Kara as our fight choreographer/director for several productions. Additionally, I have taken Classes taught
by Kara and been directed by her as I learned fight choreography for a community theater performance.

My first time working with Kara was as an adult student learning to sword fight for the first time. As
a theater educator, I know how important it is to provide a safe learning environment for students, and I
was impressed with Kara’s ability to do this despite the fact that what we were learning was inherently
dangerous. Kara did an excellent job of stressing the importance of safety while still allowing the cast to
have fun while learning this incredibly challenging skill. She also did a great job of scaffolding by
introducing basic skills and showing how they work together to create complex movements and
choreography. As the show progressed, Kara’s commitment to safety never waivered. Before each
performance she would oversee a ‘fight call’ where we would walk through all of our fight scenes to make
sure that we were maintaining the choreography and maintaining a safe environment.

Ever since working with Kara on that production, she has become my go-to resource for anything
related to stage combat, especially in an educational setting. Kara has worked with us at Pewaukee High
School on several productions whenever we have a need for staged combat. She has a great report with
our students and they have all enjoyed working with her over the years. Most recently we worked together
on a production of “She Kills Monsters” which involved over a dozen fight scenes, performer flying,
swords, battle axes, and many additional stage weapons. Throughout the process, Kara’s focus on safety
and leadership of our students allowed our production to go off without a hitch or even one single injury.
Thanks to Kara, our students were 100% committed to staying safe while having a ton of fun and putting
on an amazing performance.

Kara is a tremendous educator and does an excellent job of building report with students while
inspiring them to respect her and her process. She does not compromise on safety, and she should take
pride in how she inspires students to advocate for their own safety as well. As I said before, Kara is
always my first choice when it comes to working with my students in the classroom and on the stage, and I
wholeheartedly recommend her for any position working with students of all ages.

If you have any further questions for me or would like me to clarify anything from this letter, please
do not hesitate to reach out to me at my personal number (608) 225-7569.

Sincerely,
James Sevens
Technical Facilities Manager Pewaukee School District
sevejam@pewaukeeschools.org (262) 701-5722

Letters of Recommendation

Letter of Recommendation 1

Letter of Recomendation 2

Letter of Reccomendation 3