Shakespeare in Hollywood

Shawn Andrei

James Cagney

Shawn is excited to return to the Silicon Valley Shakespeare stage. Favorite prior roles with SVS include Grumio in Taming of the Shrew (2006) and Caliban in The Tempest (2007). Past directorial work with SVS includes The Imaginary Invalid, King Lear (assistant director under Angie Higgins), and Much Ado (About Nothing) (assistant director under Larry Barrott).

Courtney Baldwin

Film Crew

Courtney is absolutely thrilled to be returning to the SVS stage this summer! Past acting credits with SVS include Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Ensemble in Romeo and Juliet. Other favorite roles include Tragedian in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with Broadway West Theatre Company, and Narrator in A Christmas Carol with Northside Theatre Company. She most recently directed Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story at her school.

Doug Brook

Director

Doug recently directed SBMT’s Curtains, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Finian’s Rainbow, SCP’s Little Women, WCT’s The Sound of Music, and all four offerings at Theatre Chevruta in Los Gatos — where he is Artistic Director. He previously directed Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor and Crazy For You. A VP of the Association for Jewish Theatre, he has written twenty plays produced nationwide. He studied writing and theatre at Carnegie Mellon University. http://brookwrite.com/. He is also SVS’s new Executive Director.

Erik Browne

Joe Brown

Erik has performed with SVS in such roles as Roderigo in Othello, Sir William and Mr. Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice, Boult in Pericles, Snout/Wall in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. Other roles he’s enjoyed include Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, Ray in Beauty Queen of Leenane, and Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace. In his day job as a software engineer, he makes smartphones perform tricks.

Stephanie Crowley

Louella Parsons

A lifelong theatre fan, Stephanie has enjoyed ‘stomping the boards’ in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, South Carolina, and California. She has been seen locally with Dragon Productions, Palo Alto Players, Pear Avenue Theatre, Los Altos Stage Company, and Santa Clara Players. Stephanie holds a BA in Theater from Dartmouth College, a course of study which included a semester with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. She is also a certified yoga instructor.

April Culver

Olivia

April is ecstatic to return for her second show with SVS. April holds a BFA in Acting from Drake University. Recent roles include Miranda (The Tempest, SVS), Desdemona (Othello, Iowa Shakespeare Experience), Ophelia (Hamlet, Little Apple Creek Theatre), and Viola (Twelfth Night, Drake University). She would like to thank her friends and family for their constant love, humor, and support.

Lisa De Leeuw

Production Manager

Lisa has staged managed around the Bay Area and begins her production management career with Silicon Valley Shakespeare. Other companies she has worked for include Western Ballet, Los Altos Stage Company, Marin Theatre Company, The A.C.T. Conservatory, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Opera San José, San Jose Rep on Tour and San Jose Repertory Theatre. She received her BFA in Theatre Arts from the University of Arizona.

Shannon deMello

Assistant Director

Shannon is thrilled to be working with SVS for the first time. She most recently directed As You Like It for Sobrato High School and Much Ado About Nothing for her company, Savage Wilde Traveling Players. Favorite roles onstage include: Ophelia in Hamlet, the titular role in Pericles, and Helena in Midsummer. She holds an MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin College.

Alex Draa

Dick Powell 

Alex is delighted to make a return with SVS. He is an acting student at SJSU and has been acting for about 13 years. He recently played George Shearer in SJSU’s productions of Zoot Suit and Floyd Knowles in The Grapes of Wrath. Other previous roles include Doctor Zubritsky in Neil Simon’s Fools and Guy Montag in Farhenheit 451 through the Las Positas College Theater program. He would like to thank his family and friends for their incredible support.

Tonya Duncan

Stage Manager

Tonya is super excited to be working on her first production with Silicon Valley Shakespeare. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Tonya graduated from Randolph Macon College with a BA in Theatre and a love for all things dramatic. After moving to California last year, she now finds herself lucky enough to work with such an amazing and dedicated group of artists and is excited about what the future holds with them.

Keenan Flagg

Daryl /
Scenic Construction

Keenan is elated to be returning to the Sanborn stage. He is playing Daryl in Shakespeare in Hollywood, and his role as Eros in Antony and Cleopatra marks his first Shakespearean performance with SVS. As well as working on stage, Keenan enjoys set-building and long-distance running. This is his third year working with Silicon Valley Shakespeare.

Ron Gasparinetti

Scenic Design

Currently, Ron is the resident scenic designer at City Lights Theater Company in San José, where he counts the world premiere of Truce: A Christmas Wish from the Great War and the Bay Area premieres of Build and Spacebar as a few of his favorite creations. Amadeus at CLTC garnered him a nomination for the TBA Award for best scenic design. To see more of Ron’s work, visit his website at www.TheSetGuy.com

Kendall Goodin

Lighting Intern /
Board Operator

Kendall is a sophomore at Leigh High School. In the two years she has been at Leigh, she has been an active member of the drama department where she has mainly worked as the light board operator.

Jackson Hoeke

Intern – Scenic Build

Jackson is Junior at Bellarmine College Preparatory, and has worked on the Bellarmine sets of Amadeus, See How They Run, and The Trial, and has worked on the backstage crew for both Hairspray and Spamalot.

Roger Hooper

Max Reinhardt

This is Roger’s first show with SVS. He is a printed circuit board designer who graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1973 with a BA in Literature and Culture of the Ancient World. He has been involved in theatre for more than fifty years, and does Shakespeare whenever he gets the chance, including roles in Macbeth, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, and Titus Andronicus.

Nick Kumamoto

Lighting Design

Nick is a lighting and video designer working in the greater San Jose area. He is the resident lighting designer at City Lights Theater Company in downtown San José. A recent graduate of Santa Clara University, he also frequently designs for Children’s Musical Theater San Jose and Palo Alto Players. Recent design credits include lighting design for Chinglish at Palo Alto Players, and Exit, Pursued by a Bear at City Lights.

Lucy Littlewood

Puck

Lucy is making her SVS debut. Some of her recent credits include; Pearl in House and Garden, Charlotte in The Real Thing (Pear Avenue Theatre), Rita in Educating Rita (Northside Theatre), Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility (TheatreWorks), Sorel Bliss in Hay Fever, Margot Wendice in Dial M for Murder (Broadway West). This fall, she will appear in City Lights Theater Company’s production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She is a graduate of the Foothill Theatre Conservatory and a proud member of Theatre Bay Area.

James Lucas

Will Hayes

James is ecstatic to be returning to his home away from home on SVS’s stage after having to take the last year off. Previous credits include Antonio in SVS’s production of The Merchant of Venice, Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet at Broadway West, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at City Lights Theater Company, and Actor/Arthur Kipp In Northside Theatre Company’s The Woman in Black.

Mae Heagerty-Matos

Costume Design

Mae has a passion for historical costumes and has been a costume designer in the Bay Area for over 35 years, working at theatres such as Hillbarn, SBMT, Peninsula Center Stage, Los Altos Stage Company, Coastal Repertory, Dragon, Northside, Pear Avenue, Youth Actors Workshop, Cal Shakes, and Broadway by the Bay. Co-producer Will Rogers Follies, Producer Ragtime. Member of the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild and Foster City Rotary Club. Mae lives in Pacifica with her husband Mike.

Walter Mayes

Oberon 

Walter last appeared on this stage in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Recent appearances include Amadeus at City Lights, The Mystery of Edwin Drood at Sunnyvale Community Players, and as the despicable M. Thénardier in Les Misérables at South Bay Musical Theatre (SBMT). He works frequently as a director, most recently helming Hairspray for SBMT. Walter is the librarian at The Girls’ Middle School in Palo Alto.

Mara McLean

Assistant Stage Manager

Mara is a sophomore at New York University. Some highlights from her work in high school and college theatre include stage managing Fiddler on the Roof and Spring Awakening, and assistant directing Macbeth, The Laramie Project, and The Three Musketeers. This is her first production with Silicon Valley Shakespeare.

Doll Piccotto

Dramaturg

Doll has been with Silicon Valley Shakespeare since its first production, appearing as Feste in Twelfth Night. Since then you may have seen her as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Lady M in Macbeth, the Chorus in Henry V, or most recently as Antonia in The Tempest at SJSU. Doll has a BA in English from USCB and a Masters from SJSU where she emphasized Renaissance Drama.

Spencer Stevenson

Jack Warner

Having worked with SVS actors over the years, Spencer is excited to finally appear in an SVS production. Some of his recent roles include Inspector Thomas in The Unexpected Guest, Claudius/Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Drummond in Inherit the Wind, and Creature in Frankenstein. Spencer received his theatre training at Studio A.C.T. in San Francisco.

Louis Stone-Collonge

Scenic Construction
Technical Internship Advisor 

In his third year with SVS, Louis is supporting the growing internship program and building sets. When not working with his friends at SVS, he runs The Audacity Performing Arts Project (providing performing arts programs/opportunities in the community’s poorest schools) and serves as Tech Director at Notre Dame High School in San José. Louis is an SJSU graduate in Religious Studies and loves Disneyland, lunch, naps, bad jokes, NASCAR, old-school punk rock and, most of all, his family.

Christina Sturken

Prop Design

Christina is returning for her fourth season with SVS. Recent Bay Area work includes prop designing for City Lights Theater Company’s productions of Build and M. Butterfly, and Renegade Theatre Experiment’s world premiere of Perishable: Keep Refrigerated. She also serves as a resident Stage Manager for Red Barn Productions’ Great Dickens Christmas Fair. Christina earned her BA in Theatre Arts from San José State University.

Ella Tarczy

Film Crew

Ella is thrilled to be a part of Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s Summer Acting Internship Program. Her favorite roles include Alice Miller in My Favorite Year, Rosie Alvarez in Bye Bye Birdie, and Dotty Otley in Noises Off. This past school year, Ella directed a one-act version of Spring Awakening that was chosen to perform at the 2015 California State Thespian Festival.

Jarku Virtanen

Master Electrician 

Returning for his second season with SVS, Jarku is delighted to electrify the parks of San José and Saratoga once again. Jarku is the resident lighting designer of the Cubberley Community Theater in Palo Alto; additionally, he freelances as a lighting designer, most recently with Renegade Theatre Experiment (The North Plan) and Starting Arts (Bring It On).

Adam Weinstein

Sound Design 

Adam has worked as a sound designer with SVS since 2008. Some of his favorite work with Silicon Valley Shakespeare includes Pride and Prejudice, Pericles, Much Ado About Nothing, and As You Like It. Other productions he has worked on include Educating Rita at Northside Theatre, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Children’s Hour at Broadway West. He was recently seen onstage at Broadway West in It’s A Wonderful Life.

Melissa Weinstein

Hair and Makeup Design 

Returning for her ninth season, Melissa’s SVS hats include makeup designer, actor, and Education Program Director. Since receiving her BA in Theatre (SJSU), she’s moonlighted as a makeup designer/artist for SVS, Pixar, Disney Channel UK, West Bay Opera, Opera San José, and more. Favorite SVS acting roles include Dromio of Syracuse (Comedy of Errors, 2015), Emilia (Othello), Oswald (King Lear), Hero (Much Ado), Phoebe (AYLI), and Ariel (Tempest, 2007). In a previous life, she also “daylighted” as a children’s theatre teacher/director.

Danielle Williams

Lydia Lansing

Danielle is thrilled to take the stage for the first time with SVS this summer! Her favorite past roles include Anne Dindon in La Cage aux Folles at Cabrillo Stage, Female Understudy in A Christmas Carol with San Jose Repertory Theatre, and Jean Louis Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and the title role in Emma at San José State University. Danielle thanks her wonderful family and friends for their support! Enjoy the show!