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Guest Artists
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Robert Allen (Guest Artist, Romeo & Juliet) is Chair of the High School Certificate Acting Program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) Preparatory Department and the Managing Director of the Cincinnati Actor’s Studio. His acting credits include: Macbeth in Macbeth, Claudius in Hamlet, Friar Lawrence in Romeo & Juliet, Deputy Governor Danforth in The Crucible, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Denethor in Return of the King, and Saruman in The Two Towers. In addition to his theater work, Bob is the voice of Abraham Lincoln at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the voice of Rueben Springer in the PBS special, “Music Hall: Cincinnati Finds Its Voice.”
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Regina Cerimele-Mechley (Fight Director) is a nationally recognized movement teacher and Shakespearean specialist, a professional dance choreographer, and one of the few female Certified Teachers in the country with The Society of American Fight Directors. Gina’s work as a performer/fight and dance choreographer has been seen across the country at theaters such as the Tony-Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company; the Sterling, New York, Renaissance Festival; Alaska Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre; the Cincinnati Ballet; the Cincinnati Opera; and Clear Stage Cincinnati (for which she is also a founding member and the Education Director). She is currently one of the three teachers for the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department’s High School Acting Certificate Program. As a private acting coach, Gina was recently one of 12 teachers in the country honored with the Presidential Scholar’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Arts. Gina also has received several awards and nominations for excellence for her work as a Fight Director and supporting actress.
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Irene Crist (Guest Artist, The Glass Menagerie) has just finished three years as a resident company member of Playhouse on the Square. Her recent work includes Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Nat in Rabbit Hole; Nancy in Frozen and Alice in Retreat from Moscow at Circuit Theatre, Memphis; Jeanette in The Full Monty, Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Golde in Fiddler on the Roof at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis; and Eleanor in Lion in Winter at Theatre Memphis. She is the recipient of several Memphis Theatre Awards. Irene also teaches acting to children and adults in the Playhouse on the Square education program and most recently taught acting workshops for Rhodes College. A founding member of Round House Theatre in Maryland, Irene attended Towson University and The Creative Problem Solving Institute at NYU in Buffalo. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee, with her understanding husband, William; her charming daughter, Moira; and her neurotic dog, cats, and parrots.
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Bruce Cromer* (Guest Artist, King Lear) returns to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company after previously appearing as Prospero in The Tempest and as George in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? A Full Professor in the Professional Actor Training Program at Wright State University, Bruce is also a Resident Artist with the Human Race Theatre Company and a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. He has been a leading actor with Santa Fe Stages, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Seattle Children's Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, and Cincinnati Playhouse. His proudest accomplishments, however, are his 26-year marriage to Carol Allin, and their three sons, Charlie, Toby, and Elliot.
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Aaron Todd Douglas (Guest Director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and he earned his M.F.A. at the University of Illinois. Currently based in Chicago, Aaron is a part-time faculty member at Loyola University, a freelance actor and director, and the former Associate Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre Company. A founding ensemble member of Congo Square Theatre Company, he originated the role of Flip in the world premiere of Stick Fly by Lydia Diamond. Directing credits include In the Wine Time by Ed Bullins (The Armory Free Theater) and several original pieces he adapted to the stage, including Adam and Dawn in a Garden by Rita Nibasa (The Armory Free Theater), Splendorness of Emotion (co-author Loyola Studio Theatre), Love Chronicles (co-author Loyola Studio Theatre), Black Pearls (co-author Congo Square Educational Outreach), and Necessary Targets (Loyola University Platform Reading Series). Todd is very happy to return to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company this season, 10 years after making first contact with a hungry young group of talented and ambitious theater artists, and is proud to call it an artistic home.
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Mark Douglas-Jones (Guest Artist, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is a graduate of the University of Alabama/Alabama Shakespeare Festival Professional Actor Training/Master of Fine Arts Program and Indiana State University, and is a proud member of Actors' Equity. In Chicago he appeared at the ShawChicago (The Devil's Disciple); Goodman Theatre (The Beard Of Avon); Drury Lane—Oakbrook (Sherlock's Last Case); Irish Repertory Theater (Making History); Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (Salieri in Amadeus); Chicago Jewish Theatre (The Golem); Fine Arts Enterprises (Final Angel); Metropolis Performing Arts Centre (Scrooge in A Christmas Carol); and Red Hen Productions (A Dybbuk), for which he received a Jefferson Award nomination. Regional work includes Actors Theatre Of Louisville (Amadeus); Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (The Wizard of Oz); Alliance Theatre (A Christmas Carol, The Wind in the Willows); Alabama Shakespeare Festival (King Lear, The Beggar’s Opera); Maine State Music Theatre (1776); and the Georgia Shakespeare Festival (Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night—The Musical).
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Drew Fracher (Guest Director, The Glass Menagerie) is a freelance director, fight arranger, and actor currently serving as a Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors. As a director, his work has been seen at theaters around the country, including Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the Human Race Theatre Company, Florida Stage, Playhouse on the Square, the Georgia, Alabama, and Kentucky Shakespeare Festivals, and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Recent directing projects include Othello at American Stage in St. Petersburg, Florida, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Opus for ETC, and last season’s The Tempest here at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Drew lives in Northern Kentucky with his fabulous actress wife, Sherman.
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Sherman Fracher* (Guest Artist, Romeo & Juliet, Cymbeline, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is always delighted to return to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Previous shows with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company include The Winter’s Tale, A Streetcar Named Desire, Romeo & Juliet, Chagrin Falls, The Beard of Avon, Arcadia, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. She also has been seen at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in such shows as String of Pearls, Moonlight and Magnolias, Cinderella, While We Were Bowling, Sight Unseen, The Women of Lockerbie, Three Days of Rain, Private Eyes, Sleeping Beauty, Around the World in Eighty Days, Side Man, and Wild Oats. She recently appeared in Above the 37th Parallel, a one-woman show benefiting the Waddell Center for MS research. Sherman played Agnes in the Actor’s Express production of Bug in Atlanta, Georgia. Other theaters Sherman has been seen at include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, The Human Race Theatre Company, and American Stage. Sherman is a registered yoga teacher in the Kripalu tradition of yoga, and the proud wife of director Drew Fracher.
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Jim Hopkins (Guest Artist, Cymbeline, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) holds an M.F.A. in theater arts from The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He most recently appeared as Jerry Springer in Jerry Springer the Opera for Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Tennessee, and as Gary in Noises Off at the Great Plains Theatre Festival in Abilene, Kansas. Jim has performed three consecutive seasons with The Nebraska Repertory Theatre in shows such as Omnium Gatherum, the Midwest premiere of Ken Ludwig's Leading Ladies, Bus Stop, Resident Alien, Androcles and the Lion, and Ink and Elkskin, the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event, one of 15 events held nationally celebrating the Corps of Discovery. Jim also holds a B.F.A. in theater from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He has performed in theaters across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, including the Hip Pocket Theatre, Pocket Sandwich Theatre, Pegasus Theatre, Teatro Dallas, Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park, and Circle Theatre, and has appeared as Merlin in The Dallas Children’s Theatre's National Tour of Young King Arthur. Jim is a graduate of the Lone Star Comedy School of Improvisation under the tutelage of Los Angeles Groundlings alum Randy Bennett.
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Maureen Gallagher Kuehler (Guest Artist, Romeo & Juliet) is a native of Connecticut. Maureen has worked and trained in New York and Los Angeles. Some of her favorite roles include Lily in The Freedom of the City, Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and Lysistrata in The Greeks. She was most recently seen as the Princess of France in the Actors Guild of Lexington’s outdoor production of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Maureen has always had a passion for the classics and is delighted to be going back in time with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.
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Bill Hartnett (Guest Artist, Endgame) has appeared in theaters in New York, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, and has worked with many Greater Cincinnati groups—both professional and community—including Playhouse in the Park, Showboat Majestic, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Covedale Center of the Performing Arts, Sorg Opera Company, and Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. Roles include Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Shannon in Night of the Iguana, Willie in The Sunshine Boys, the Old Actor in The Fantasticks, and Norman in On Golden Pond. He also played Harold Hill in The Music Man, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, and the King in The King and I. Bill travels throughout the Midwest with his one-man shows of Give ‘Em Hell Harry and An Evening with Mark Twain, directed and stage-managed by his wife, Ellie Shepherd.
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Rob Jansen (Ensemble, Fourth Season) is excited to return to the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company ensemble for another season. Locally, Rob has worked with the Know Theatre, Ovation Theatre Company, Women's Theatre Initiative, Cincinnati Playwright's Initiative, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. His favorites at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company include Orlando in As You Like It, George in Our Town, Troilus in Troilus and Cressida, and Don John in Much Ado About Nothing. Rob would like to thank his family for all of their support.
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Joneal Joplin* (Guest Artist, Long Day’s Journey into Night) is proud to make his debut at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and even prouder to be following in the footsteps of his daughter, Jennifer. Other Cincinnati-area performances were Copenhagen at the Ensemble Theatre (with Dale Hodges), All My Sons and Proof at the Human Race Theatre Company (with his daughter, Jennifer), and more than 20 shows at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, including A Christmas Carol (with his son, Jared), King Lear, Voice of the Prairie, Sweeney Todd, Witness for the Prosecution, She Loves Me, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Brothers Karamazov, The Little Foxes, Ah Wilderness!, The Crucible, and Wit. Favorite roles elsewhere are Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Alfred P. Dolittle in My Fair Lady, Willy Clark in The Sunshine Boys, Caldwell B. Caldwell in Urinetown (Kevin Kline Award), Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Horace Van der Gelder in Hello Dolly!, and Alfieri in A View from the Bridge. Jop has been a proud resident of St. Louis for 35 years, a proud member of Actors’ Equity for 41 years, and the proud husband of his lovely wife, Janie, for 45 years.
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Skip Lundby* (Guest Artist, King Lear) is pleased to be performing Gloucester in one of his favorite plays, King Lear. He has performed Shakespeare in NYC with the Shakespeare Project, Riverside Shakespeare, and The New Rude Mechanicals. He also has also spent many summers performing in Shakespeare festivals, and has directed and taught Shakespeare performance at Montana State University. He has been a director, designer, theater manager, and teacher, but above all has always loved performing. He lives in Chicago, where his most recent work has included The Librarian in Underneath the Lintel, Saunders in Lend Me A Tenor, and a misunderstood weir-pigeon in Splotches on the Moon with Collaboraction Sketchbook. He thanks Cincinnati Shakespeare Company for the opportunity, and his work is always dedicated to Rosemary.
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Lanny Lutz* (Guest Artist, Romeo & Juliet, Cymbeline) trained at RADA, where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal. Most recent credits include the title role in Tartuffe and Joe Keller in All My Sons at Oak Park Festival Theatre. He has played leading roles Off- and Off-Off-Broadway and in L.A., Kansas City, Omaha, Dallas, Louisville, and Chicago. A few years back, he was featured as a bad guy opposite Tony Geary on General Hospital. Most recently he shot a scene as “the bartender” in the new Batman film.
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Parker Reed (Assistant Guest Director, Educational Tours and Romeo & Juliet) couldn’t be more thrilled to contribute to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. He has enthusiastically played the role of audience member for several seasons and he is now, after a two-year sojourn to England to earn his M.F.A. in staging Shakespeare, enjoying a seat backstage.
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Nick Rose (Guest Artist, King Lear) has been a member of the Cincinnati theater scene for more than 12 years. Co-founding what would be the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company in 1994, Nick has had the honor of taking on many roles in the arts, both administrative and artistic. He has been seen as Romeo, King Lear, The Stage Manager of Our Town, and Satan. His recent favorite role is that of homeowner, where he sits on his front porch and enjoys the beautiful scenery of his Madisonville street.
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Eleanor Shepherd (Guest Artist, Endgame) has been involved in professional and community theatre for more than 40 years. She served on the Cincinnati Children’s Theatre Board and performed in many of its productions during its formative years. Eleanor has taught creative dramatics and utilized her art training to design sets and create makeup. She also has also taught in many local and regional theaters, including Playhouse in the Park, Showboat Majestic, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, and many others. Roles include Miss Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy, Miss Helen in The Road to Mecca, Dorothea in Eleemosynary, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Annie in Foxfire, Fonsia in The Gin Game, and Hannah in The Night of the Iguana. Ellie directs her husband, Bill Hartnett, in his one-man shows of Mark Twain and Harry Truman. She also performs in various television and radio commercials, voice-overs, and industrial videos.
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Richard St. Peter (Guest Director, Romeo & Juliet) is in his third full season as Artistic Director of Actors Guild of Lexington. His AGL directing credits include Stop Kiss, The SantaLand Diaries, Checking In, All My Sons, Fully Committed, Rounding Third, and Tartuffe. He also has directed extensively with Theatre IV’s national tours, Virginia Opera’s Spectrum Resident Artist Program and TheatreVirginia’s New Voices for the Stage. He served as Associate Artistic Director of TheatreVirginia (2001-2002) and Barksdale Theatre (1999-2001). Academically, Rick has taught or guest lectured at Rose Bruford College (London, England), the University of Kentucky, Centre College, Kentucky State University, Christopher Newport University, Virginia Union University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also the proud husband of actor and teacher Lara St. Peter and father of Olivia and Aidan St. Peter.
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Rocco Dal Vera (Voice/Speech/Text Coach, Eleventh Season) is a Professor at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. Rocco has written and edited four books, including Voice: Onstage and Off, and his fifth, Acting in Musical Theatre, is due in 2008. He teaches and lectures internationally on vocal violence and the effects of emotion on the voice, most recently at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Rocco currently coaches voice, speech, and dialects for theaters throughout the region.
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Amy Warner (Guest Artist, Cymbeline) was last seen in Richard III and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (CEA award). Other local credits include Twelfth Night, Reckless, and A Christmas Carol at the Playhouse in the Park; The Guys, The Women of Lockerbie, Permanent Collection, and Fiction at Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati; Kindertransport at CATCO; The Goat (Acclaim award) at New Stage Collective and Les Belles Soeurs (Acclaim award), produced by Dale Hodges. She worked three seasons Off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in The Orestia and Faust among others. She is a member of the Pacific Resident Theater in Los Angeles, where she was in Lady Chatterly's Lover (LA Drama Critics Circle Nomination). She performed in more than 30 plays at Allenberry Playhouse, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Agnes of God, and Shirley Valentine. She has had co-starring roles on The Practice, Boston Public, Ally McBeal, The Guardian, Strong Medicine, and E.R. Her solo show, As the Wind Rocks the Wagon, was directed by her husband, Michael Haney. Together they have produced it across the country and abroad.
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Kate Wilford* (Guest Artist, Romeo & Juliet) is honored to be back with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company with such a talented cast. She was last seen on this stage as Liubov Ranyevskaya in The Cherry Orchard. You may have previously seen Kate in Ensemble Theatre's world premiere of Wayfarer's Rest and the regional premiere of The Women Of Lockerbie, as well as Keeping The Faith and Death Defying Acts. She also has directed Dreampuffs of War (another world premiere) and acted in In Flame for Women's Theatre Initiative. Other favorite roles in the Midwest have been Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, Nancy in Oliver, and Mona Kent in Dames at Sea. She took over for her father, Otto Kvapil, as Artistic Director of Cincinnati Children's Theatre for three years, before taking on her favorite role as mother to Josh and Liza. She has done numerous commercial and industrial works for Federated Department Stores, Procter & Gamble, and LexisNexis, to name a few. She was also a featured voice for several Silly Slammers toys for Gibson Greeting Cards. She is now Executive Director of After School Acting, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing professional actors to teach acting in local elementary and high schools. She is the proud daughter of the fine actress Diane Danzi, and the wife of area painter Jay Wilford.
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* Actor appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
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