DEAR FRIENDS,

Welcome to the 2019 season of the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, the first ever completely devoted to our community engagement programming. This is a year of a new digital playbill, which has biographies, photography, and more detail, and allows us to be a little more green in the world. It’s also a year of expanded offerings throughout South Bend's city parks aboard “Boomer,” the portable stage vehicle making it possible for us to visit our neighbors throughout our community. See below for the full schedule of performances.

We are tremendously grateful to our partners and supporters, especially the Fremont Youth Foundation, the City of South Bend’s Venues Parks and Arts Department, the College of Arts and Letters, and the Center for Social Concerns. I personally am deeply grateful to the production and full-time staff, who have worked tirelessly to create the opportunities for performance you will see throughout the next several weeks.

It is a privilege and delight to share these characters and plays with you, and this year even to see the story of South Bend residents and their own interactions with Shakespeare in both Shakespeare in Fremont Park and Shakespeare Around the Bend.

Thank you, and break a leg to all the performers, whether on stage, behind it, or in supporting roles -- moms, dads, grandparents, and extended family. You have made it all possible.

- Grant Mudge, Ryan Producing Artistic Director, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival

Kennedi Bridges (ShakeScenes - Director, Robinson Shakespeare Company) is delighted to be directing her first ShakeScene. She is a longtime member of the Robinson Shakespeare Company and has returned as an AmeriCorps Member. Kennedi will be attending Tennessee State in the fall and will be studying psychology. She would like to thank Mrs. Christy for her hard work, dedication, and always believing her.

Christy Burgess (ShakeScenes and Shakespeare After Hours Coordinating Director) is the lead teacher for the award-winning Robinson Shakespeare Company, which provides quality drama instruction to over 400 students in schools throughout the South Bend community. Christy attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks and received her M.A. in Drama and Theatre Education from the University of Warwick. Before moving to South Bend, Christy worked at the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre as Education Manager, and had the pleasure of traveling to parts of rural Alaska to teach Shakespeare workshops to youth and Alaskan native elders. In 2011-2012, she was honored to be a North American Teaching Consultant for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Christy was named a 2018 Journey Fellow, as well as Michiana’s 40 under 40, and in 2016 she was awarded the D. Susan Wisely Youth Worker of the Year Award.

Jason Comerford (Audience Development Manager) comes to Notre Dame after a 15-year career in advertising, working as a creative copywriter for agencies including Erwin Penland (Greenville, SC) and Sullivan Higdon & Sink (Wichita, KS). He was a longtime stage manager for the Upstate Shakespeare Festival in Greenville, SC, where he stage-managed multiple productions including Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry IV Part 1, and Richard III. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and for many years has been a prolific writer for newspapers (Centre Daily Times, State College, PA), magazines (Film Score Monthly, Los Angeles, CA), and record labels (Howlin’ Wolf Records, Raleigh, NC).

Ensemble Shakespeare Company (ShakeScenes - Performers) is composed of former Robinson Shakespeare Company actors Kennedi Bridges, Joshua Crudup and Precious Parker. All have been a part of the Robinson Shakespeare Company for quite some time: a cumulative 28 years. They recently returned to the company, in a different capacity, to serve as AmeriCorps members. Ensemble Shakes is excited to present this scene and hope it’s the first of many to come.

Chris Ferrer (Shakespeare After Hours - Director, Ewe Brew Shakes) is a Notre Dame graduate (class of 1994). He was the TA for Paul Rathburn’s first Shakespeare Through Performance class. In addition to performing various roles in numerous plays on the Notre Dame campus, Chris also adapted, directed, and performed multiple roles in An Evening With Shakespeare at the Boynton Beach Playhouse.

Debra Gasper (General Manager): The 2019 season marks Debra’s ninth season with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival as the General Manager. Debra came to Notre Dame from Louisville, Kentucky, where she spent 10 years as the Resident Stage Manager for Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has been a professional stage manager for 18 years and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Debra has stage managed over 60 productions, including many productions of Shakespeare. Her favorites include: The Tempest, Macbeth, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. Debra holds a BA in Theatre from Indiana University, where she teaches stage management.

Louise “Scout” Gregory (Shakespeare in Fremont Park – Costume Designer) is a rising senior FTT major with a concentration in Theatre. Her Shakespeare acting credits include Hamlet (Osric), The Merchant of Venice (Launcelot), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), and The Tempest (Gonzala).

Lynn Holbrook (Costume Shop Manager) returns to NDSF for her eighth season. Recent costume design credits include Dead Man’s Cell Phone with Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, and Candide with Opera Notre Dame. Lynn previously served as wardrobe supervisor and costume shop manager for BalletMet Columbus as well as costume shop manager for the University of Michigan. She designed costumes for seven new works at BalletMet Columbus, including Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and toured with many performances of Beauty and the Beast and The Nutcracker. Lynn earned her BS in Textiles and Clothing from Ohio State University and her MFA in Costume Design from Wayne State University, where her designs were featured in three productions that traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is originally from Ohio, and is happy to be at Notre Dame.

Don Hunter (Production Manager) is the Chair of the Theatre Department at Bethel University and returns to the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival for his fifth year. He has his B.A. in Theatre Arts from Bethel College and his M.F.A. in Stage Management from Wayne State University. Don has production-managed for Waterworks Theatre Company in Royal Oak, MI, and for the last nine years at Bethel University. Don has spent the last sixteen years stage-managing and designing. Recent credits include set design for Like Watchmen and To Kill a Mockingbird, sound design for Pericles, the Prince of Tyre, Fiddler on the Roof, and Anne of Green Gables, stage manager for Candide (Opera Notre Dame), four years working with the Southold Dance Theatre, and three years of directing for Bethel’s traveling theatre group. Recent acting credits include Andrew Carnes in Oklahoma and Russian in Fiddler on the Roof.

Scott Jackson (Mary Irene Ryan Family Executive Director) provides executive oversight for the many Shakespeare-related programs housed at the University of Notre Dame, with a particular focus on engaging our local community through the works of William Shakespeare. Previously he served as Executive Director for the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre in Fairbanks, Alaska. At FST, he produced and performed in outdoor Shakespeare productions staged under the midnight sun at venues throughout Alaska and toured around the globe (most notably at VIII World Shakespeare Congress in Brisbane, Australia, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland). From 2000-2003, Scott was the Business and Legal Affairs Coordinator for Brighter Pictures, LTD (now a part of Endemol UK), one of the United Kingdom’s most successful independent television and film production companies. He holds a BA in Theatre from Indiana University Bloomington, as well as intensive study in acting at the London Centre for Theatre Studies. Scott served as the Treasurer for the Shakespeare Theatre Association from 2013–2017 and is an instructor of Acting Process at the University of Notre Dame. A firm believer in the power of Shakespeare and the theatre arts to effect positive social change, he is currently teaching a weekly Shakespeare in performance course at Westville Correctional Facility near Michigan City, IN, and is the co-founder of the Shakespeare in Prisons Network.

Stephanie Konrady (Company Coordinator) is a recent graduate of Notre Dame, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English and History. While attending ND, Stephanie participated in as much theatre as she could, spending most of her time in DPAC. Some of her favorite memories include playing Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, Ada in In Paradisum, and Dinah in Asylum, as well as designing props for OperaND, Student Players, and ND Theatre Now! Stephanie also previously worked as a Stage Manager for NDSF in 2014 and again in 2018. She has loved the opportunity to work with the larger Shakespeare at Notre Dame department this past year and hopes you all enjoy NDSF 2019!

Emery Lade (Assistant Stage Manager) is delighted to be a part of her first Shakespeare in Fremont Park production! Other stage management credits include the midwest premiere of The Totalitarians (University of Indianapolis), and Proof (Assistant Stage Manager, Western Illinois University). Previously, she studied acting and musical theatre at the University of Indianapolis and Western Illinois University. As an actress, some of her favorite credits include Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Irene Ryan Nomination), Aaron Kreifels in The Laramie Project, Emilia in Tim Slover's March Tale, and Mrs. Stevenson in Sorry, Wrong Number.

Laurisa LeSure (ShakeScenes and Shakespeare in Fremont Park - Director, Shakespeare After Hours - Performer) is proud to be directing for both ShakeScenes and Shakespeare at Fremont Park. She also directs the Drama Club at Saint Matt’s, whose recent productions include The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Back to the Summer. Other youth shows under Laurisa’s direction include The Fantasticks and The Little Mermaid Jr. She has also written an ongoing series of Christmas stories entitled The Nativity Tales. She is no stranger to Shakespeare at Notre Dame; she has participated in ShakeScenes and Shakespeare After Hours, and played Friar Francis in the 2017 Professional Company production of Much Ado About Nothing. She offers her perpetual gratitude to her family and friends for all their undying support, love, and encouragement.

Grant Mudge (Ryan Producing Artistic Director) is in his eighth year with the University and his twenty-third as an artistic director producing Shakespeare. Grant previously served as the Founding Artistic Director for the Richmond Shakespeare Festival (VA) at Agecroft Hall. Highlights there included helping to develop Richmond CenterStage, touring to 23 states and more than 200,000 people, and fourteen consecutive years playing Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for Two Actors. Filmed for Virginia PBS affiliate WCVE-TV, it is still regularly rebroadcast each holiday season. At Notre Dame, Grant created a touring program for regional schools, NDSF: ON TOUR, bringing Shakespeare performances and accompanying workshops to thousands of students throughout northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan, as well as Shakespeare After Hours, Shakespeare in Fremont Park, and Shakespeare Around the Bend. Grant’s directing and acting credits include more than 50 productions, among them Death and The Maiden, As You Like It, Macbeth, The Tempest, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, Henry IV 1 & 2, Henry V, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Our Town, Les Misérables, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Rover, and at Notre Dame, The Servant of Two Masters, Clybourne Park, Much Ado About Nothing, and Romeo and Juliet. His 2005 play, Shakespeare & Galileo, was commissioned by the Science Museum of Virginia and recently marked eleven years of regular touring and performances. Grant recently completed two years on the Executive Committee of the Shakespeare Theatre Association, whose annual conference Shakespeare at Notre Dame hosted in January of 2016, part of the global celebration of the playwright’s legacy: 1616-2016.

The Music Village (Performers: Shakespeare After Hours) is Michiana's community musical arts center located in the heart of downtown South Bend. We believe that where the arts flourish, so do people and communities. We welcome people of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels to learn about, create, experience and participate in music and dance. Tonight's performers, The Music Villagers, are the result of our weekly community jams, which are open to everyone at no charge. Regardless of skill level and experience, all are invited to join in and make new friends and great music: Ukulele Jam: Mondays, 6-8pm, Acoustic Jam: Tuesdays, 6-8:30pm. Don't have an instrument? No problem, you can borrow one of ours!

Connor Reilly (Assistant Stage Manager) is a senior English and Classics major at Notre Dame from Cleveland, Ohio. He has acted and done lighting design for the Notre Dame's Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Company. He would like to thank all the kids in the show for their enthusiasm and making the show such a fun experience!

Siôn Shelpley (ShakeScenes - Director, Michiana Mechanicals) is participating in his twelfth ShakeScenes and his third in the directing position. Other directing credits include A Cold Day in Hell and Jasper in Deadland (student assistant director) both at Clay High School. Siôn has performed in many productions in the Michiana area, including Hairspray, A Few Good Men, Noises Off, Rent, Big Fish, Skylight, Cinderella, Fiddler on the Roof, I Hate Shakespeare, Beauty and the Beast, and Romeo and Juliet. Siôn will be attending Indiana University Bloomington in the fall to study Secondary Education in both Social Studies and Theatre. He would like to thank his friends, teachers, and family for their constant support through the years. Siôn would also like to thank his marvelous cast for listening to his crazy ideas and for putting up with his obsession with Hamlet for the course of three months.

Nich Sikorski (Lighting Designer) is a graduate of IU South Bend with a BA in Theatre Design with a concentration in Lighting Design and a minor in Dance. His IU South Bend Theatre and Dance Company credits include Lighting Designer for Almost, Maine, Lighting Design for Bare, Director for Peter Rabbit, Lighting Designer for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Assistant Light Designer for Shakespeare Abridged. Other favorite credits include Assistant Stage Manager for Pippin, Scarecrow for The Wizard of Oz, and being a member of the IU South Bend Tap Kickline.

Laura Moran Walton (ShakeScenes - Director) has worked as an assistant director for shows at South Bend Civic Theatre, including To Kill a Mockingbird, Tea at Five, Mrs. Bob Crachit’s Wild Christmas Binge, and The Explorers Club. This fall, she’ll be stage-managing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at SBCT. She's grateful to have the opportunity to work with this bright, hard-working, and creative cast of young women from Good Shepherd Montessori School.