DIRECTORS

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Alex Ates
Director, The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Ates was born and raised in New Orleans and just graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA. He has performed with The Festival for four seasons. He is the Conceiver, Co-Creator, Director, and Creative Producer of The Shakespearean Jazz Show, which has been presented by ArtsEmerson, The Next Thing Festival (TNT), and SFT (last summer). In July the production will be presented as a part of the Outside the Box international theater festival. In Boston Alex has assistant directed Whistler in the Dark’s repertory productions of Our Country’s Good and The Recruiting Officer. He has also worked as a Creative Producer for ArtsEmerson and Howlround: A Center for the Theater Commons. At Emerson he appeared in The Actor, Robin Hood, and The Winter’s Tale, assistant directed The Grapes of Wrath and directed two original works for the NewFest playwriting series. Alex was the President and Artistic Director of the Emerson Shakespeare Society where he directed Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labor’s Lost, and conceived and creative produced Songs of Shakespeare.

Rebecca Frank*
Co-Director, All Things Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
Ms. Frank has performed with the Festival in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, Henry V, Corialanus, Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Comedy of Errors & Macbeth. She has worked as a voice and movement teacher for ATS for five years, as well as assisting Clare Moncrief with Much Ado and The Tempest. She holds a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has trained with the SITI Company and The Actors Center in NYC. She has been in 15 national television commercials, 3 feature length films and over 30 plays as an actor. She holds an MFA from Tulane University where she directed 5 shows; notably Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker. She directed Crimes of the Heart and Independence for the Stella Adler Studios in New York and Girls Who Drew Horses with writing collaborator Meghann McCracken. She will direct Sebastian Barry’s Whistling Psyche in Atlanta, January 2014.

Amy Boyce Holtcamp
Director, Romeo & Juliet
Ms. Holtcamp is a writer and director. Her directing credits include Julius Caesar (SFT), Arabian Nights (NOCCA), Shakespeare’s R&J (Serenbe Playhouse), Waxie Moon: Extreme Boylesque (Northwest New Works at On the Boards), Waxie Moon: Boylesque Cinematheque (Next Stage), Heavens to Betsy by Stephanie Timm (Next Stage), Wonderful Life (Washington Ensemble Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (EVE Productions), A Christmas Story (Everett Historic Theatre), Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters First 100 Years (Public Theatre of Kentucky), Sorry, Wrong Number (The Culture Project, NY), Christina and Apartment Building of the Blind (Soho Rep, NY) , and Machinal and Stage Blood at the University of Washington. Her play, Dead Reckoning, was produced as part of the Soho Rep Summer Camp Festival of New Plays and The Mystery of Chung Ling Soo (created with The Flying Carpet Theatre Company) ran in Atlanta’s Seven Stages Studio Space (Creative Loafing Award for Best Touring Show of 2005) and at festivals throughout Europe. Her plays Relevant, Adult, Uncensored, and Island of Misfits were produced in Seattle, WA and her latest work, String Theory, was performed at The Studio in New York City and Vassar College. Holtcamp is a graduate of Vassar College and holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington.

Clare Moncrief
Director, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Ms. Moncrief has been an active member of the New Orleans theatre community for more than 30 years. A three-time Big Easy Award winner, Clare most recently directed both the Festival’s 2012 and 2013 productions of Hamlet. Clare has served as Managing Director of SFT since 1999, also serving as Director of the All Things Shakespeare program from 2008-2011; directing Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Clare is also a member of the adjunct faculty in Tulane’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

Artemis Preeshl*
Co-Director, All Things Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
Ms. Preeshl was a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar at Kalakshetra Foundation in India in where she directed the film, Pancha Ratna, which won Honorable Mention in Best World Cinema at Hollywood’s DIY Film Festival in 2012. One of 4 directors selected for Shakespeare: 4 Sketches, Preeshl directed Titus Andronicus in Russian in The Ukraine. A veteran of two national tours, she directed Two Gentlemen of Verona (La MaMa New York) and Commedia of Errors (La MaMa Umbria). Professor Preeshl led commedia dell’arte, and Shakespeare classes in Malaysia and Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, and Taming of the Shrew scenes in Borneo. Artemis has performed half of Shakespeare’s canon and directed 17 Shakespeare plays out of 45 plays directed nationwide, including Loyola’s Twelfth Night and All’s Well That Ends Well. She coached accents for Nine Parts of Desire, Laramie Project, Christmas Carol, Bug, Wait Until Dark, Sylvia, and Godspell (2011 Big Easy’s Best University Production). Artemis directed the world premiere of a new translation/adaptation of Aristophanes’ Wealth. In New York, Artemis played the lead in the feature, Rolarz and supporting roles in Pigeonholed, Déjà Vu and Marbles; she co-starred on the TV drama “Diary.” She directed and performed with the Babes on Caroline’s Blue Collar Comedy. Professor Preeshl was an International Acting Fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe in London in 2007. She has taught classes in acting, movement and voice at Elm Theatre, NOCCA Arts and film actor Tom Todoroff. An Associate Professor, Artemis teaches acting, movement, dialects and speech. MFA Drama, University of Arizona; MA Dance, Ohio State University. Certified Laban Movement Analyst, Fitzmaurice Voicework teacher.
AEA SAG-AFTRA

Carl Walker
Director, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
Rumored to live in unspeakably colorful, if reclusive, circumstances with a devoted dog and a vagrant cat in uptown New Orleans, Carl Walker has directed more plays than he cares to remember. These reveal an extraordinary range–from the sordid confrontation with church pedophilia and post-Vatican II parochial education in Doubt, to the equally sordid conflation of cross-dressing and the East German Stasi in I Am My Own Wife, to the even more sordid handbook of importuning and procuring in New Orleans, The Last Madam (which Mr. Walker co-wrote), as well as the groundbreaking (and sordid) series of monologues on local themes, Native Tongues. Nearly-full-time-teetotaler, occasional-smoker, and a fervent opponent of profanity and pornography, Mr. walker finds time, between his religious duties and avocation of re-translating Proust into plain English syntax, to teach at Tulane.

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PERFORMERS

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Adrian Aiello Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Aiello is a full-time musician who has played in many projects in the Boston area. At Emerson College he played mandolin in The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Kidding Around) and will be playing guitar in Hamlet. He is the lead vocalist/guitarist of Me and My Giant, a local band based in Boston who is in the process of recording their first EP.

Alex Ates
Slender in The Merry Wives of Windsor
(See bio under Directors)

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James Bartelle
Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mercutio/Prince in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Bartelle is a founding member of The NOLA Project theatre company where he has worked as a writer, actor, teacher, director and carpenter. Previous Festival credits include Fabian in Twelfth Night and Orlando in As You Like It. Other credits include James in The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Tom in The Norman Conquests, both at Southern Rep.

Brendan Bowen
Ensemble in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
Mr. Bowen is a senior political science major at Tulane who has been working as an actor with the Festival since he was 10 years old. Most recently Brendan appeared as Rosencrantz in the Festival’s summer 2012 production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead and as Horatio in Hamlet. He also helped to relaunch Shakespeare on the Road, a program in which Tulane students create a play about Shakespeare and tour it to local schools at no charge to the school.

Danny Bowen*
Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Lord Capulet in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Bowen has been an active member of the New Orleans theatre community for over 30 years. In his years with the Festival Danny has played many roles including Macbeth, Mercutio, Marc Antony, Caliban, Orsino, Petrucchio, Don Armado and Bottom. Most recently Danny directed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead for the Festival’s 2012 summer season as a co-production with Dr. Buzz Podewell’s Red Noses Theatre Company, of which Danny was a founding member. 

Patrick Bowen
Robin/Simple in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Mr. Bowen has worked on the Festival’s mainstage since 2003 in such productions as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Coriolanus and Richard III. Additionally he has appeared in the Festival’s All Things Shakespeare productions each summer since 2008 in such roles as Feste in Twelfth Night, Trinculo in The Tempest and Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most recently he appeared as Jesus in the Lusher High production of Godspell and as Jack in the Contemporary Arts Center production of A Night in New Orleans. Patrick recently received his Certificate of Artistry in Theatre from Lusher and will be attending UNO in Fall 2013 studying theatre.

Sheldon Brown
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Brown is a BA Theatre Studies Acting major at Emerson College (Class of 2014). His credits include vocal performances in 99% Stone with the Theatre Offensive of Boston and Green Eyes with Company One & the Kindness. Numerous productions at Emerson including Hamlet, Winter’s Tale, Small Steps, and Paraffin & Nursing directed by Artistic Director of Company One: Shawn LaCount. His other credits include The Grand Inquisitor directed by Peter Brook through ArtsEmerson and O/A the Sophocles Project at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA.

Ben Carbo
Romeo in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Carbo is a New Orleans native who began studying drama at NOCCA|Riverfront while attending Ben Franklin until 2008. Upon graduating he attended North Carolina School of the Arts where he earned his BFA in Acting and Directing in 2012. During his four-year stint he assisted and acted in several productions including Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick), Harper’s Ferry (Tidd/Lt. Stuart), A Streetcar Named Desire (Young Collector) and The Other Woman (Director). After directing his thesis Topdog/Underdog in North Carolina, he returned to the Big Easy where he teamed up with Break the Mold Productions for Standing on Ceremony, Southern Rep’s World Premiere of Wolves (Wolf) and the reading of Dustin Lance Black’s play 8.

Tyler Catanella
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Catanella is a recent graduate of Theatre Education and Acting at Emerson College. He is Artistic Director of Paradise Lost: A collective of Boston dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists that focuses on creating improvisational art through movement and contact improv. His newest work, Nostalgia, premiered at Greene Street Studios in March. Previous performance credits include Extremities (Raul), Robin Hood (Sheriff of Nottingham) Twilight: Los Angeles; 1992, Xernona and the Grand Dragon X (Calvin Craig), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Jesus), Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (Chas) and Seascape (Charlie). Tyler is also a proud alumnus of Noteworthy, Emerson’s premiere a cappella group.

Erin Cessna
Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Ms. Cessna graduated in May from Tulane University with a BFA in Theatre. At Tulane her memorable roles include Judith Bliss in Hay Fever, Josie in The Skriker & Woman with Gavel in Chamber Music. This spring Erin wrote and produced her own one-woman show Shelby, Lemoyne, Louise, and Dick as her honors thesis. Most recently she participated in the 2013 Play/Write festival with New Noise. SFT credits include 2011’s Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night. This year she participated in Shakespeare on the Road, a program in which Tulane students create a play about Shakespeare and tour it to local schools at no charge to the school.

Silas Cooper*
Friar Lawrence in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Cooper previously appeared as Cassius in SFT’s production of Julius Caesar. Other local appearances include The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill A Mockingbird and True West for NOCCA Stage Company and Five Monologues in Search of a Play for New Orleans Fringe Festival. He has toured nationally in Noises Off and appeared in Moscow, London and New York. Regional credits include Baltimore Center Stage, Delaware Theatre Company, Colonial Theatre, Dallas Rep, Swine Palace, Southern Rep, Tulane Center Stage and Utah Shakespearian Festival. Stage appearances in Los Angeles include the Falcon, 24th Street and Colony Theatres. Directing credits include Einstein and the Polar Bear in LA, The Trip to Bountiful at NOCCA Stage Company and Driving Miss Daisy at JPAS. TV/Film credits include Snakeskin Jacket, The Green Lantern, Columbiana, Chameleon, Schizopolis, Multiplicity, Treme, Justice for Natalee, Head of the Class, Acceptance, House of Secrets, Back to The Batcave, Jag and Dr. Vegas. He holds a BFA in Theatre from Tulane and an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington’s PATP.

Joel Derby
Rugby/Servant in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ensemble in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Derby is a native of New Orleans who is appearing in his first professional production since graduating from Vanderbilt University in May with a BA in Economics and a minor in Theatre. His credits at Vandy include: Petruchio in The Taming of The Shrew, Florindo in A Servant of Two Masters and Bobby Strong in Urinetown. Joel has also formerly appeared as Claudio in All Things Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Sam Dudley
Benvolio/Ensemble in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Dudley’s previous festival credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost (Boyet) and Julius Caesar (Cinna/Clitus). Sam is also the Associate Artistic Director of The NOLA Project where you may have seen him in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Flute), Romeo and Juliet (Balthasar) or Much Ado About Nothing (Don Pedro) at the New Orleans Museum of Art. He holds a BFA from NYU/Tisch where he studied at The Stella Adler Studio of Acting (NYC) and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London).

Jemila Dunham
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Ms. Dunham was born and raised in New Orleans. Being enveloped in music eventually led her to the electric bass. Since then, Jemila’s interest in the instrument has developed into a passion that grows more and more everyday. As a member of the Shakespearean Jazz Show, Jemila is revisiting her musical and cultural roots and exposing their beauty to new audiences at every show. In addition to the Jazz Show, she is an original member of the band China Fox who have played various venues across Boston, released an EP and toured the Mid-West and LA over the past three years.

Stephen Eckert
Paris/Gregory in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Eckert is a graduate of Tulane University with degrees in Theatre-Performance, Theatre-Design and Political Science. Recent acting credits include Hamlet (Rosencrantz), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Player) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Proteus). He is also the founder of Promethean Theatre Co. and directed its productions of EQUUS, Titanic and The Actor’s Nightmare. Other directing credits include the Big Easy nominated Hay Fever at Tulane, Freckleface Strawberry at the new Rivertown Theaters and several short plays for the Christopher Durang Festival. Stephen will also be appearing with the Patchwork players this summer.

Rebecca Frank*
Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
(See bio under Directors)

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Patrick Greeley
Composer, Musical Director &
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Greeley is currently a junior at Emerson College studying Theatre Performance. He composed and served as musical director for The Shakespearean Jazz Show as well as Emerson Stage’s The Winter’s Tale and The Grapes Of Wrath; Shakespeare Society’s Much Ado About Nothing and Caucasian Chalk Circle’ and Kidding Around’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Previous acting credits include Florizel in The Winter’s Tale (Emerson Stage), Robin Hood in Robin Hood (Emerson Stage), Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Enter Stage Left Theater), Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Society).

Casey Groves*
Master Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Montague/Apothecary in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Groves holds a BFA and an MFA in Acting and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. He has appeared in several productions at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC and he is touring nationally this year with a 28 character, one-man play which he wrote called Seelos: Doctor of Souls. He will play the title role in Lombardi at Le Petit Theatre this fall and will play Jim Tyrone in O’Neill’s Moon for the Misbegotten with Inner Compass Theatre in the spring of 2014.

Danny Irwin
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Irwin is a rising senior at Emerson College where he will be receiving a BA in Theatre Performance. Some of his fondest shows, besides The Shakespearean Jazz Show of course, include Oliver in The Pride, Otto in Grand Hotel and Bobby in Urinetown. He is also the music director of one of the Emerson A Cappella groups: Acapellics Anonymous.

Max Jay-Dixon
Pistol/Servant in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Hailing from Minneapolis, Mr. Jay-Dixon graduated from Tulane in 2011. Max has recently moved back to New Orleans after spending 2012 in Florida working on President Obama’s campaign. Having had enough politics for several lifetimes, Max is now returning to theater and film, and his recent roles include Jake in Project Z and Abe in The Card Game. Max is in his 3^rd season with SFT.

Clint Johnson
Ensemble in The Complete Works of Williams Shakespeare (abridged)
Credits include: Country Tonite Theatre (Featured Youth Performer); Much Ado About Nothing (Claudio), As You Like It (Charles/Amiens), Twelfth Night (Aguecheek) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck) with the Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall; King Island Christmas (The Oomiak) at New York State Theatre Institute directed by Pat Birch; The New York Renaissance Faire (Alan-a-Dale); In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Leo), and Next To Normal (Gabe) at Southern Rep; Twelfth Night (Feste) and Julius Caesar (Lucius) at SFT; Let Freedom Swing (Joey), Island Breezes (Mickey Rooney) and My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (Man 2) at The Stage Door Canteen.

Susan Lanigan
Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Ms. Lanigan is a classically trained actor who has completed conservatory training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and received a BFA in Theatre Performance from Tulane University in 2012. She has appeared in numerous leading roles in both New Orleans and New York.

Thomas Michailidis
Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Mr. Michailidis is a New Orleans based character actor who earned his BFA from C.W. Post University. He previously appeared in the SFT’s Hamlet were he played a variety of roles including the 2^nd Grave Digger, Osrick and the Player Queen. Outside of the Festival Thomas has also performed in The Tempest as Ferdinand, The Roaring Girle as Trap-door and as the Grave Digger in the 2012 New Orleans Fringe show Ringing Out the Dead.

Wendy Miklovic*
Nurse in Romeo & Juliet
Previous shows at SFT: Julius Caesar and Macbeth. Other New Orleans credits: Equus (Dora Strang), The Bikinis (Carla), Torch Song Trilogy (Torch Singer/Laurel), Let Freedom Swing (Eileen), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Woman #2), and OnePiece (Hester). Los Angeles credits: Evita (Eva), Cabaret (Sally), Closer Than Ever (Woman #1), Putting it Together (Roxie), Oklahoma! (Ado), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck) and Crimes of the Heart (Meg). Film credits: Grudge Match, Ender’s Game, Now you See Me, Angry Little God, Green Lantern and Bending The Rules. TV Credits: Oxygen, Common Law, Breakout Kings, Providence and Sister,Sister. Wendy is also a cake artist. www.justcakebywendy.com

Carl Palmer*
Master Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Mr. Palmer is a veteran of over fifty Off-Broadway and major regional theatre productions. Off-Broadway credits include The Skin Game and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Mint), Our Town (Transport Group), Rapt (The Culture Project) and his solo show: The Nature of a Fool.  Regional credits include Richard III directed by Michael Kahn (Shakespeare Theatre of Washington DC), To Kill a Mockingbird (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Pianissimo (L.A. Philharmonic), Caliban in The Tempest (Rubicon), Polonius in Hamlet and the title role in Julius Caesar (Theatricum Botanicum in LA) along with Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Justice Shallow in Merry Wives (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Milwaukee Rep), and various other plays with Barrington Stage, Swine Palace, PCPA Theatrefest and Arkansas Rep. Film and TV credits include Treme, The Dallas Buyers Club, White Rabbit, Bonnie and Clyde: Dead and Alive, The Sopranos and see him this summer in The Hot Flashes and Ghost Shark.

Joey Pilka
Fenton/Host in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sampson/Paris’ Page in Romeo & Juliet
Mr. Pilka was last seen on the stage at Florida Southern College where he earned dual BFAs in Theatre performance and tech. He’s spent time studying acting in NYC at the Stella Adler Studio, and some of his favorite roles include Anthony in Sweeney Todd, Damis in Tartuffe, Sebastian in Twelfth Night and Rick Taylor Batboy. He has also worked in the world of scenic carpentry at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, FL.

Jenna Rogalski
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Ms. Rogalski is currently a rising senior studying Musical Theatre at Emerson College. Emerson Stage credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other Emerson credits include West Side Story (Anita), The Baker’s Wife (Denise), Songs of Shakespeare and The Shakespearean Jazz Show. For the past decade she has worked with Upper Darby Summer Stage in Philadelphia, most recently in Hairspray (Velma Von Tussle) and Titanic (Kate Murphy). She also choreographs for their Children’s Theatre program. Jenna is the Vice President of Emerson College’s Musical Theatre Society.

Emily Russell
Juliet in Romeo & Juliet
Ms. Russell recently graduated from Tulane University with a BFA in Theatre and Economics. During her final undergraduate year she performed in Ionesco’s The Lesson and Almost, Maine by John Cariani. She was recently an ensemble member of Shakespeare on the Road, where Tulane students create a performance piece about Shakespeare and his works and tour it to local schools free of charge.

Adam Salameh
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Salameh is a Boston based musician and a Berklee College of Music alumnus. He is the drummer of Osaka Street Cutter, a local Boston indie/rock quartet. Last fall he performed in The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Emerson Stage’s The Grapes of Wrath both as the percussionist. He has also performed with Me and My Giant, The Casey Sullivan Band, James Montgomery, Mike Roberts and many more.

Maximilian Sangerman
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Mr. Sangerman is a recent grad of Emerson College (BFA Musical Theatre) and has been a part of Emerson Stage’s Man of La Mancha, The Grapes of Wrath, Café Variations (Anne Bogart and SITI Company), The Winters Tale, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Valentine) and ArtsEmerson’s reading of What to Listen For (Kathleen Tolan). Max will be joining the company of Blue Man Group in January of next year.

Diana Shortes
Lady Capulet in Romeo & Juliet
Ms. Shortes is a graduate of Antioch College and has been working in New Orleans as a performing artist and educator since 2000. Ms. Shortes has had the great good fortune to work with many of the city’s finest theatre professionals and is the proud recipient of two Big Easy awards for best actress. Most recently she was seen as Cassandra in Tennessee Williams’ first play Battle of Angels at the Allways Theatre. Diana has written and produced several original works including White Sauce and Diaper Babies: An exploration of the life and work of poet Anne Sexton; The Baroness Undressed: a solo performance based upon the incredible history of the Baroness Pontalba; and Ventriloquist Verses: Voices from Beneath the Water’s Edge: a body of work inspired be the artist’s direct experience with Hurricane Katrina.

Emily Skeggs
Ensemble in The Shakespearean Jazz Show
Ms. Skeggs has appeared at the Huntington Theatre in David Cromer’s Our Town, Off-Broadway in Take Me Along at the Irish Repertory Theatre (Drama Desk nomination, Best Revival of a Musical) and Ripcords at the NY International Fringe. Regional credits include The Shakespearean Jazz Show at the Festival. Film credits include The Monster of Mad Mooney’s Lake and Meat Me in Plainville (Greth Productions). Workshop credits include What to Listen For by Kathleen Tolan (ArtsEmerson, dir. Melia Bensussen), Middle of the Night (w/ F. Murray Abraham) and Spring Awakening (Emerson Shakespeare Society). She is a 2012 graduate of Emerson College (BA Acting and Writing). Favorite credits include Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), Much Ado About Nothing (Hero), Robin Hood (Maid Marian), Dancing at Lughnasa (Rose) and Six Characters in Search of an Author (Little Girl).

Burton Tedesco
Resident Fight Director
Dr. Caius/Nym in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Tybalt in Romeo & Juliet
Burton holds a BA and MFA in Theatre Performance. Recently he served as an actor and fight director for SFT’s productions of Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. Some of his favorite roles include Jake in A Lie of the Mind, Lynch in Finer, Noble Gases, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Gayev in Cherry Orchard, Fredrick Fellows in Noises Off, Hitch in Hitchcock Blonde, Macbeth in Macbeth and Egeon/ Nell in Comedy of Errors. His film credits include Hotcakes, Trailer Park Jesus and the A&E series Breakout Kings. Burton is a Dueling Arts International Associate Instructor.

Andrew Vaught
Ensemble in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
Andrew is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Cripple Creek Theatre Company. He has written The Future is a Fancyland Place, A Crude Trilogy, Mjr. Swelling’s Salvation Salve Medicine Show and acted in Madwoman of Chaillot, The Ubu Cycle, Lysistrata. He has directed An Enemy of The People, Waiting for Lefty and many of the company’s shows. He has been seen around town in such varied roles as Norman in The Norman Conquests, E.E. Cummings in ee me and Pollack Thee: An Opera and Oberon in the NOLA Project’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Cassie Worley
Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Cassie Steck Worley played Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in 1984, the first production at this theatre, directed by Buzz Podewell. Since graduating from Newcomb College in 1985, she has performed such roles as Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream, second witch in Macbeth, and most recently Valeria in Coriolanus. Cassie is happy to work with Danny and Clare Bowen once again, having starred with them in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf at the CAC in 1991. After 25 years of producing and directing children’s theatre, she has assumed the role of Executive Director at Le Petit Theatre. Cassie sits on the board of the Tulane Shakespeare Festival.

*denotes members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors & stage managers