Artistic team

Producing Artistic Director

TIM ORR has been with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival as a performer since 2007. He joined the staff as the associate producing director in 2011 and became producing artistic director in 2013. During his tenure at CSF, he has helped found the CSF School of Theatre and CSF’s nationally recognized Shakespeare anti-bullying school tour, has begun the Original Practices series of Shakespeare’s plays and has led CSF through several successful capital and endowment campaigns. As an actor, he has appeared in 10 productions at CSF and in numerous theatres across California. His CSF directing credits include The Odyssey (2021), Twelfth Night (2019), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2017), Wittenberg (2015) and I Hate Hamlet (2014), as well as several touring productions. He has held lecturer positions in classical acting, voice and musical theatre at the University of California, Davis, the University of Colorado Boulder and the Berkeley Repertory School of Theatre. He holds degrees in music and arts management from California State University, Sacramento and an MFA in theater from the University of California, Davis. He was a fellow with the League of American Orchestras. (15 seasons)

Managing Director

WENDY FRANZ (Director: AW) has directed, produced and designed sound for numerous productions in the Front Range region and has served in arts administration roles in professional theatre and academia since 2001. She was a charter ensemble member and served as production manager for Denver’s critically-acclaimed Paragon Theatre and has also worked with CU Boulder’s Department of Theatre & Dance, Ashton Productions, square product theatre, Goddess Here Productions, Curious Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Colorado Dance Theatre and Little Theatre of the Rockies. Franz received her BA in theatre directing and design/technology from the University of Northern Colorado. (8 seasons)

Directors

CAROLYN HOWARTH+ (TG) is the former artistic director of the Foothill Theatre Company in Nevada City, California. Her directing credits include numerous productions with such theatres as FTC, CSF, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Lake Tahoe and Sierra Shakespeare Festivals, Capital Stage (Sacramento, California), and the Perseverance Theatre Company (Juneau, Alaska). Her CSF credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021), As You Like It (2019), You Can’t Take It With You (2018), Hamlet (2017), Troilus and Cressida (2016), Henry V (2015), Henry IV, Part 1 (2014), Treasure Island (2012), The Comedy of Errors (2011), and The Three Musketeers (2008). As an actor, she has performed in more than 50 productions with FTC, ranging from classics to new works. Other professional acting credits include appearances with the Jewish Theatre of San Francisco, the B Street, Sacramento Theatre Company, Lake Tahoe and Sierra Shakespeare Festivals, and the Maxim Gorky Drama Theatre (Vladivostok, Russia). She holds an MFA from the University of California, Davis. (11 seasons)

RODNEY LIZCANO’s (BW) CSF acting credits include Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021), Zeus / Cyclops / Tiriesas in The Odyssey (2021), Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night (2019), Paris in Romeo and Juliet (2019), Richard III in Richard III (2018), Boris Kolenkhov in You Can’t Take It With You (2018), Polonius in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2017), Robert Cecil in Equivocation (2016), Pisanio in Cymbeline (2016), Roderigo in Othello (2015), Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing (2015), Pistol / Montjoy in Henry V (2015), Trinculo in The Tempest (2014), Pastor Hugh in The Merry Wives of Windsor (2014), and Vernon in Henry IV, Part 1 (2014). Other credits include Denver Center Theatre Company (17 seasons), the Old Globe, Dallas Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Stories on Stage, Theatre Aspen and the Arvada Center. His Off-Broadway credits include Actors Ensemble Theatre and DreamScape Theatre Company. Film and TV credits include Silver City (directed by John Sayles) and Stage Struck (Bravo Network). He is a graduate of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and the National Theatre Conservatory. (8 seasons) ANTHONY POWELL+ (CO) began his professional career on a bus, touring as a performer with John Houseman’s The Acting Company. He served as associate artistic director with the DCPA Theatre Company for 18 seasons, during which he directed more than 25 productions including Wit, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Macbeth, The Dresser, Hamlet, Racing Demon, and Martin McDonagh’s Connemara Trilogy (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West). More recently, he directed the Arvada Center’s Black Box Repertory production of The Moors. He is currently artistic director of Denver’s Stories on Stage.

KEVIN RICH’s* (OP) recent directing credits include Pericles, King Charles III: A Future History Play, King John, and King Edward III at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival; The Winter’s Tale and The Importance of Being Earnest at the American Shakespeare Center; and ShakesFEAR and Lord of the Flies at Nebraska Repertory Theatre. He is a member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA and an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. He holds a BA from Grinnell College and an MFA from Yale School of Drama. (4 seasons)

Playwrights

LAUREN GUNDERSON (BW) has been one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015, topping the list twice including 2019/20. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied southern literature and drama at Emory University and dramatic writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and her play The Half-Life of Marie Curie is available on Audible.com. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer, Natural Shocks, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/ Amazon. She is currently developing musicals with Ari Afsar, Dave Stewart and Joss Stone. LaurenGunderson.com

BEN JONSON (1572-1637) (OP) was an English poet and playwright, both friend and rival to William Shakespeare. His plays include Every Man In His Humour (1601), Sejanus (1603), Volpone (1607), Epicene (1616), The Alchemist (1612), Bartholomew Fair (1631), and many others. Jonson was known for his biting social satire and his plays were primarily set in his modern/urban world (in contrast to Shakespeare, whose plays were almost exclusively set in other times and places). His plays are populated by Londoners of all classes, who often put on a show of their own as they attempt to swindle each other, sell their wares, and otherwise survive life in the city. He was twice imprisoned for scandalous content in his plays, and again for killing an actor in a duel.

Dramaturgs

AMANDA GIGUERE (TG, AW) joined CSF in 2004 as a graduate student and became a full-time staff member in 2011. She received her MA and PhD in theatre history and criticism from the University of Colorado Boulder and has taught undergraduate courses at CU Boulder, the University of Northern Colorado and Lingnan University. Her book, The Plays of Yasmina Reza on the English and American Stage, was published in 2010. She completed her undergraduate work at Trinity College (Connecticut) in theatre and French and taught in Hong Kong for two years. She has worked with Curious Theatre, Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado, Rebel Shakespeare Company, North Shore Music Theatre and Cleveland Play House. Giguere’s research and work in developing CSF’s Shakespeare in the Schools Tour: Shakespeare and Violence Prevention has been nationally recognized. (18 seasons)

HEIDI SCHMIDT (BW, CO, OP) is a director, dramaturg and teacher. Dramaturgy: Colorado Shakespeare Festival (Julius Caesar, Equivocation, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, Richard III, Inspector General), Denver Center Theatre Company (Rattlesnake Kate, Disgraced, The Christians, Tribes), Local Theater Company (Faith), Curious Theatre Company (Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures). Directing: CU Boulder (Picnic, Melancholy Play), Dirtyfish Theater (Wedding Cake Vodka), CSF Education (Measure for Measure, King Lear, As You Like It), readings for Curious New Voices, Athena Project, and Paragon Theatre Company. Administrative positions: Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Local Theater Company, Repertory Dance Theatre (Salt Lake City), Women and Theatre Program. As an all-around theatre maker, she has designed props for Curious Theatre, presented pre-show talks at the Arvada Center, served as voice coach for CSF’s Camp Shakespeare and performed in a devised ensemble piece on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Schmidt holds a PhD in theatre history, criticism and dramatic literature from CU Boulder, where she regularly teaches. She serves as Resident Dramaturg and Assistant Director of Outreach and regularly teaches after-school Shakespeare classes for kids, teens and adults. (11 seasons)

Designers / Choreographers

DAVID J. CASTELLANO^ (Scenic Designer: TG, BW) is a Colorado local. This is his first summer with Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He has had the pleasure working for several companies including Richard Frankel Productions, William Ivey Long Studios, Stella Adler Studio, Actors Theatre of Phoenix and Stray Cat. His favorite projects include Little Shop of Horrors (Broadway and National Tour), Twentieth Century (Broadway), Octopus (Stray Cat), Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Actors Theatre of Phoenix) and Spring Awakening (Phoenix Theatre/NNT). He graduated from the University of Evansville with a BFA in theatre design and technology and from Ohio University with an MFA in scenic and costume design. He is a member of USA829. (1 season)

MEGHAN ANDERSON DOYLE’s (Costume Designer: TG, BW) previous credits with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Odyssey, Twelfth Night, King Charles III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, You Can’t Take It With You, The Taming of the Shrew and The Comedy of Errors. Other costume design credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Doll’s House, Xanadu, This is Modern Art, American Mariachi, The Wild Party, Sweet & Lucky, One Night in Miami, plus nearly 20 other productions (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); The Moors, Waiting for Godot and The Drowning Girls (Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities); The Secretary, The Brother / Sister Plays, A Number, Up and tempOdyssey (Curious Theatre); Caroline or Change (Aurora Fox Arts Center); as well as productions at LOCAL Theatre Company, Theatre Aspen and the National Theatre Conservatory. Doyle holds a BA in theatre from the University of Denver and an MFA in costume design from the University of Florida. (6 seasons)

JASON DUCAT^ (Sound Designer) has designed sound for eight seasons with CSF. Highlights of these credits include Twelfth Night (2019), Romeo and Juliet (2019), As You Like It (2019), King Charles III (2019), Cyrano de Bergerac (2018), Richard III (2018), The Taming of the Shrew (2017), Julius Caesar (2017), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2017), Troilus and Cressida (2016), Henry V (2015) and I Hate Hamlet (2014). Ducat is an artistic company member at Curious Theatre Company, where his credits include Venus in Fur, Good People, The Brothers Size, Maple and Vine, 9 Circles, A Number and Astronomical Sunset. He has served as resident sound designer with the Denver Center Theatre Company, where he designed more than 20 shows in seven seasons. His other designs include Constellations and Born Yesterday (TheatreWorks); The Few and Full Code (BETC); Lab Coats on Clouds (Prague Quadrennial); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Elemental Theatre Company); Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre); and Tribulation and The Demolition Squad (Chicago Dance Crash). Ducat received his MFA in sound design from Purdue University. (8 seasons)

KATIE GRUENHAGEN (Lighting Designer: AW, CO) is based out of Houston after many years of calling Colorado home. Her previous CSF credits include As You Like It, King Charles III (2019); Richard III, and You Can’t Take It With You (2018). Other design credits include This Is Modern Art (Denver Center Theatre Company-Off Center); The Revolutionists and Birds of North America (BETC); Peter and the Starcatcher (Town Hall Arts Center); Mamma Mia, Newsies, and West Side Story (Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre); Body of an American (Curious Theatre Company); Romeo and Juliet (Best Lighting Design, 2014 Southeastern Theater Conference); and Into the Woods (Indiana University). (3 seasons)

CLARE HENKEL^ (Costume Designer: AW) has designed for CSF since 2007. Locally, she has worked with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Phamaly Theatre Company, Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado, TheatreWorks and 3rd Law Dance Theatre. Her other theatre credits include Arizona Theatre Company, the Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego and San Jose Repertory Theatres, the Aurora Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Geva Theatre, the Indianapolis Symphony’s Pops Consortium (including Carnegie Hall), Sacramento Theatre Company, and the Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and Idaho Shakespeare Festivals. She is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Maxim Gorky Theatre in Vladivostok, Russia. She has taught at the University of California Davis, the University of California Berkeley and the University of Colorado Boulder, and is a member of the USA Local 429 union. (12 seasons)

JANICE BENNING LACEK (Costume Designer: CO) marks Coriolanus as her fourth production with CSF, with previous credits for Twelfth Night (2012), As You Like It (2006) and Richard II (1999; designs invited to represent CSF and the U.S. at the Prague Quadrennial that year). Her other national credits include Marisol, The Swan, and What the Butler Saw (La Jolla Playhouse); Scapin (ACT); Goodnight, Desdemona... (San Diego Rep); Revenger’s Tragedy (Sledgehammer Theatre); Pair of Threes (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Cymbeline (Utah Shakespeare Festival); All’s Well That Ends Well (Great River Shakespeare Festival); and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night (Tennessee Shakespeare Company). Colorado audiences have seen her work at the Arvada Center, Lone Tree Arts, and in over 20 productions with Curious Theatre Company. She is an associate professor of costume design and technology at the University of Denver, and has taught theatre costume at Kenyon College, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Memphis. She holds an MFA from the University of California, San Diego. (4 seasons)

SHANNON MCKINNEY’s^ (Lighting Designer: TG, BW) previous design credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021), The Odyssey (2021), Twelfth Night (2019), Romeo and Juliet (2019), Love’s Labour’s Lost (2018), Cyrano de Bergerac (2018), The Taming of the Shrew (2017), Julius Caesar (2017), The Comedy of Errors (2016), Troilus and Cressida (2016) (CSF); Honk! the Musical (Phamaly, Tokyo, Japan); The Liar, Stick Fly, and Bright Star (Arvada Center); Fireflies and Sanctions (Curious Theatre). Her regional credits include designs for the Indiana Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Goodman, the Court Theatre and Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago). McKinney is the recipient of seven CTG Henry Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design. She is a faculty member at the University of Denver. (12 seasons)

KEVIN NELSON (Scenic Designer: AW, CO) is excited to be working with CSF for the first time. He moved to Denver after completing his MFA training at Indiana University in 2017. When not designing, he spends his time at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts as a scenic design assistant. (1 season)

JEFFREY PARKER (Director of Voice and Text: TG, BW) is an associate professor of theatre at Metropolitan State University of Denver and a teaching artist at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He holds an MFA from University of California Irvine, and is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork and a certified associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. He has coached productions all across the country with local coaching credits including the Denver Center of Performing Arts, the Arvada Center, Curious Theatre, Vintage, Town Hall Arts Center, Performance Now, Aurora Fox, Lake Dillon, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. (3 seasons)

ERIKA RANDALL (Dance / Movement Choreographer) is a teacher, dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, former chair of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Theatre & Dance, and current associate dean for student success with the CU College of Arts & Sciences. As a performer, she has worked with Anna Sapozhnikov, Megan Odom, Teena Marie Custer, Sydney Skybetter, Sara Hook, David Parker, the Bang Group, Michelle Ellsworth, the Mark Morris Dance Group and Buglisi/Foreman Dance. Her choreography has been seen in four countries and 16 states over the last 10 years and her screendance works Down for the Count, less, more and self defense—with collaborators Daniel Beahm and Markas Henry—have screened at festivals such as the Sans Souci Dance Cinema Festival, Starz Denver Film Festival, the Florence Queer Festival in Italy, and the Façade Film Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Randall co-wrote, directed and choreographed the feature-length dance film Leading Ladies, which has played to sold-out audiences at more than 65 festivals worldwide. Since 2017, Randall has had the great privilege of collaborating as the choreographer for CSF’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Odyssey, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, You Can’t Take It With You, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Taming of the Shrew. (5 seasons)

BENJAMIN REIGEL* (Fight Choreographer: AW, CO, OP) is originally from Wisconsin and has lived and worked all over the country. He has scores of credits at theatres from coast to coast including Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre, Farmers Alley Theatre, First Stage Children’s Theatre, Aspen Fringe Festival, and the Oregon, Utah, Texas, Michigan, Maine, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee Shakespeare Festivals. He received his MFA from the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) and currently resides with his family in Grand Junction, where he serves as associate professor of acting and directing at Colorado Mesa University. (1 season)

GARRETT THOMPSON’s (Projection Designer: BW) projection design work has been featured in venues all over the world. From children’s theatres in South Korea to church conferences attended by tens of thousands, he has extensive experience designing for shows of all different scales and styles. A recent transplant to the Denver area, this is his first season working with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and he is ecstatic for the opportunity to collaborate with such a phenomenal artistic community. (1 season)

Management

PAUL BEHRHORST* (Stage Manager: TG, BW, OP) most recently worked as the safety manager for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Behrhorst was the director of production for Phamaly Theatre Company and staged managed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Arvada Center, the Aurora Fox and many more. He was the 2009 CTG Henry Award winner for special achievement in stage management. He received his BFA in applied theater technology and design from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. (5 seasons)

TERESA GOULD* (Assistant Stage Manager: AW, CO) is a freelance stage manager in the Denver metro area and is thrilled to be joining the CSF team for her third season. She received her BFA in theatre from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has worked with multiple regional production companies including the Catamounts, Phamaly, the Denver Fringe Festival, BETC, square product theatre and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. When she is not stage managing, she spends her time as a house manager at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. (3 seasons)

KAYLYN KRIASKI* (Assistant Stage Manager: TG, BW, OP), from Jackson, Tennessee, holds a BA in theatre from the University of Southern Mississippi and now calls the Colorado Front Range her home. Prior to coming to Colorado, she was a member of the stage management team at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater for six seasons. Some of her production credits include Man of La Mancha, Peter and the Starcatcher and the world premiere of Gertrude and Claudius in repertory with Hamlet. She currently serves as the production coordinator for the CU Boulder Department of Theatre & Dance. (2 seasons)

CHRISTINE ROSE MOORE* (Stage Manager: AW, CO) is a stage manager for the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities Black Box Repertory Company. Her Arvada production credits include Bus Stop, Waiting for Godot, Murder on the Orient Express, Educating Rita and Sylvia. Her other regional credits include Richard III and You Can’t Take It With You (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); In the Heights, Of Mice and Men, Les Misérables, and Clybourne Park (Pioneer Theatre Company); Mary Poppins, To Kill a Mockingbird, Singin’ in the Rain, and Forever Plaid (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina); and Annapurna, Driving Miss Daisy, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Peterborough Players). She holds a degree from the University of Utah. (2 seasons)

RYAN B. MOORE (Costume Shop Manager) holds an MFA in costume design from the University of Arizona, as well as a BFA in costume design from Webster University. Throughout the academic year, he is the costume shop manager and a part-time lecturer at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His design work has been seen in print, music videos, album art, exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial in 2019 and also appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6. (3 seasons)

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Immerse yourself in Applied Shakespeare at CU Boulder

Choose from several options! NEW THIS YEAR: Applied Shakespeare CSF Weekend Comprehensive, July 28-31, 2022 Designed to provide a deep dive into this season’s plays, including dramaturgical talks, a tour of the Norlin Library Special Collections, and an invited dress rehearsal of The Alchemist.

FOR TEACHERS: a 3-credit online course, Teaching Shakespeare, in Fall 2022, taught by CSF Director of Outreach Amanda Giguere

OR APPLY FOR: the 2023 cohort of the Appled Shakespeare Graduate Certificate program!

Learn more at: colorado.edu/graduateschool/applied-shakespeare