Deena (she/her) has privately coached many hundreds of performers in audition preparation, text, music, dialects and accents for more than forty years. As an audition, vocal and dialect coach, she enables her students to understand and present their peak abilities in auditions, rehearsals and performances. Her students work on and off Broadway, in regional theatre, film, TV, dance, radio, commercials and cabaret.

Deena is also a noted music and sound designer, composer and arranger, with credits including Lincoln Center, The NY Public Theater, The Acting Company, NY Theatre Workshop, Circle Rep, NY Shakespeare Festival, National Shakespeare Company, Williamstown, Berkeley Rep and Dublin’s Trinity Theatre. She also is a dialect coach in New York and was Westport Playhouse’s coach for Old Wicked Songs, On The Verge, David Copperfield, two seasons of A Christmas Carol, The Immigrant, Relatively Speaking; and the world premieres of Trailerville by John Dufresnes at The Blue Heron and 2econd Stage Theatre’s production of Wendy Kesselman’s The Notebook. She has frequently coached voiceover talent for NPR and Amazon/Audible, and is referred to as 'The Voice Whisperer' for her success in strengthening vocal quality.

She has been a Guest Artist and speaker at many Universities and conducts audition master classes in New York.

Deena is the co-author of Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design, published by Focal Press. Known as ‘the bible’ for sound designers, it is used widely by universities and theatre professionals. It is now in its 4th edition, with the 5th edition to be released in 2024. She is an adjudicator for the United States exhibition for the 2023 Prague Quadrennial, in conjunction with the United States Institute of Theatre Technology. In 2020, Deena was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award in Sound by USITT, as part of their annual conference, in recognition of decades of work contributing to and influencing the art of theatre, sound, and music.