Company Profiles
|
 |
Robert Currier co-founded Marin Shakespeare Company
in 1989. He holds a B.A. in Drama and an M.F.A.
in Directing from U.C. Irvine, where he helped
establish the Objective Drama Project with the
legendary theatrical guru Jerzy Grotowski in
the early 1980's. An actor, director, writer
and designer, Robert co-founded Encounter With
the Theatre at the Woodstock Illinois Opera
House (artistic home of the young Orson Welles)
in 1971 and the Ukiah Players Theatre in 1977.
He and Lesley initiated Baja Shakespeare, Baja
del Sur's only live classical theatre company
in Los Barriles, Mexico in 2001. Robert has
directed well over 100 productions. For Marin
Shakespeare Company he has directed The
Comedy of Errors (1992), The Tempest (1993),
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bay Area Theatre
Critics Award, "Best Overall Production." 1994), Much Ado About Nothing (1995), Peter Pan (1996),
Taming of the Shrew, ("Best Production
in Marin" 1997), The Complete Works of
WiIIm. Shkspr. (abridged) (1998, Critics
Circle nominee, 1999).Twelfth Night (1999),
The Merchant of Venice ("Best Production
in Marin," 2000), The Servant of Two
Masters (Dean Goodman Choice Award for
Direction, 2001), Hamlet (2001), Macbeth (Choice Award for "Best Direction" and
"Best Overall Production", 2002), The
Merry Wives of Windsor (Choice Award for
Direction, 2003) and A Midsummer Night's
Dream (2003.) He has been an Adjunct
Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Dominican
University of California.
|
 |
Lesley
Currier is the founding Managing Director of Marin Shakespeare Company, which she has worked to develop as a community cultural and educational resource since 1989. She holds a B.A. in Religion from Princeton University, where she was awarded the Frances LeMoyne Page Award for Theatre. Lesley spent three years with the Ukiah Players, where she acted, produced and served as fundraiser coordinator for the Phase II building expansion. In 1988, while in Ukiah, she initiated the New American Comedy Festival. After a season acting at Ashland's Oregon Shakespeare Festival, she studied at U.C. Irvine's M.F.A. Program in Acting, before being invited to Marin with Robert to found Marin Shakespeare Company. Her original adaptation of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which she directed, was one of five nominees for "Best Overall Production of 2002" by the Bay Area Critics Circle. She also adapted and directed Alice in Wonderland for Marin Shakespeare Company in 2006. Lesley is past President of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, served on Theatre Bay Area's Theatre Service Committee for six years, and has twice served on grants panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, Lesley was elected the Marin Women's Hall of Fame. [Women's Hall of Fame.]
|
| Associate Artists |
 |
Heath Belden / Stage Manager
Heath came to Marin Shakespeare Company in 2004. He has recently stage-managed Laughter on the 23rd Floor for Center REPertory Company, A Streetcar Named Desire for Pacific Alliance Stage Company, Once Upon A Mattress, starring Lea DeLaria, for 42nd Street Moon, and five operas with Donald Pippin’s Pocket Opera. He has worked as an ASM at the American Conservatory Theatre and San Jose Musical Theatre. Heath has worked on such new plays as Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, Ken Weitzman’s Spin Moves, and Charles L. Mee’s Wintertime. He received an M.F.A. degree from UC San Diego and is a member of Theatre Bay Area and Actors’ Equity Association.
|
 |
Rob
Clare / Guest
Artist
Formerly an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Dr. Clare also worked as an Assistant Director to Sir Peter Hall before completing a D.Phil. at Oxford University on the theatrical interpretation of Shakespeare ‘s verse and prose. Rob has taught at many of the leading actor training schools in the British Isles, and now coaches actors at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He created and led the Masters Program in Classical Acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, and as an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University he also taught Shakespearean Acting at London's Globe Theatre. He has also worked on Shakespeare in India, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, and is currently a visiting Research Fellow at Warwick University, preparing a practical guide for actors and directors to differing approaches to Shakespearean verse, and how to give it theatrical life. Rob co-directed with Robert Currier the 2007 MSC productions of Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.
|
 |
James
Dunn / Guest
Director
James is a native of Marin County and was Founder
and Chairman of the College of Marin Drama Department,
where he directed and taught for 30 years.
In the 1960's he was co-founder and director
of the California Shakespeare Festival.
In the 1970's he was artistic director of the
California Act Theatre. He has been a
guest director with California Actors Theatre,
the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, the Julliard
School in New York City, the Monterey Shakespeare
Festival, the Marin Theatre Company, the Denver
Theatre Center, Shakespeare at Stinson and the
Marin Shakespeare Company. He has been
the director of the Marin Mountain Play since
1994. He has received many awards including
six "Best Direction" Awards from BATCC
as well as Dean Goodman Choice Awards for his
direction of Marin Shakespeare Company's As
You Like It and Cyrano de Bergerac.
|
 |
Ellen
Brooks / Lighting Designer
Ellen has acted,
directed and designed at theatres all over the
Bay Area. She won a Dean Goodman Choice Award
for Lighting Design for the 2001 Marin Shakespeare
Company season.
|
 |
Billie
Cox / Composer
Billie has composed
and designed sound for Marin Shakespeare Company
since 1995. A multi-talented artist, Billie
also directs children's theatre, writes original
musicals, authors CD-Roms, and has composed
for theatre, video and film. She is founder
of Dig Deal Theatre Company. |
 |
Joel Eis / Prop Designer
Joel is a professional scenic/lighting designer and university professor. He has designed over 250 shows, and written two books on theatre. He and his wife Toni currently own The Rebound Bookstore in San Rafael. He loves finding ridiculous plastic do-dads for actors to stick in their belts, on their heads, and he likes getting lots of other stuff too.
|
 |
Bruce
Lackovic / Set Designer
Bruce has designed
and built sets for Marin Shakespeare Company
since 1996. A welder, sign-maker, and all-around
technical guru, Bruce has served as a California
Artist in Residence at Redwood High School and
as Technical Theatre Consultant for the Ross
Valley Community for Schools.
|
 |
Richard Lane / The Academy of the Sword / Fight Direction
The Academy of the
Sword was founded and is run by Richard Lane,
a Certified Teacher/Fight Director with the
Society of American Fight Directors. Richard
has directed fights at Berkeley Repertory Theatre,
the San Francisco Opera, Magic Theatre, Theatreworks
and nationwide, amassing numerous awards. Richard
has served as Fight Director for the Marin Shakespeare
Company for more than ten years. He is the author
of Swashbuckling: The Art of Stage Combat
and Theatrical Swordplay.
|
Staff |
 |
Kevin Johnson / Education Director
Kevin Johnson has an MFA in Performance from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a BA in Theatre Arts from Sonoma State Univesity. He has taught and directed youth theatre in California and Oregon and was most recently Office Manager of the Solano Youth Theatre, where he directed more than 14 student productions. He spent two and half years as an actor with the Traveling Lantern, performing educational theatre in schools.
.
|
 |
Elias Escobedo / Administrative Assistant
A San Francisico native, Elias received his BA in Dramatic Arts from U.C. Davis. He has acted with Marin Shakespeare Company in Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; King Lear and as Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet (Dean Goodman Choice Award.) Elias has worked with Cal Shakes, TheatreWorks, Berkeley Rep, SF Playhouse, Valley Shakes, New Conservatory Theatre, Theatre Rhino, Belrose Theatre, Curtain Theatre, and Summer Repertory Theatre. His commercial and TV credits include Albertson’s, Save-Mart, Longs Drugs, Kaiser Permanente, and Blind Date. He belongs to AEA, AFTRA and Theatre Bay Area. www.EliasEscobedo.com
|
| |
Karen West / House Manager
Karen's passions are
theatre and literature. She worked for six years
in author promotions for Barnes & Noble. Prior
to that, she piloted a 5 year Theater-in-the-Galleries
program, acting in and directing over 30 plays.
She is a founding member of Courtyard Shakespeare
and has acted with PCPA Theatrefest and run box
office for PCPA and Cal State Fresno. She has
a B.A. in Theatre from SFSU.
|
 |
J
Bell / Web
Designer
Judy joined Marin Shakespeare in November
of 2003. Formerly web mistress for the
insider parent pages of RL Stevenson School,
Pebble Beach, and webmistress at www.softech.org,
she is a Jill of all trades. Over the years
she has developed web pages, spreadsheets, phone
directories, databases and helped her husband
create the program that eventually computerized
the Marin Swim league in the early 90s. She
particularly enjoys the artistic process of
working with the images that make the pages
come alive. www.jbelldesigns.com |
Past Associate Artists |
| |
Josh Costello / Past Education Director
Josh Costello received
his BFA in Theatre Education and Stage Direction
from Boston University and his MFA in Directing
from the University of Washington in Seattle.
He was the founder and first Artistic Director
of Impact Theatre, a Berkeley company specializing
in new work by emerging playwrights for today's
younger generations. Josh has taught for the
California Shakespeare Theatre, San Francisco
Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre,
South Coast Repertory Theatre, UC Riverside,
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Vector
Theatre. As a director, he has worked at the
Magic Theatre, The Marsh, Shakespeare-by-the-Sea
and Impact Theatre, among others. www.joshcostello.com
|
 |
Robert
W. Golsby / Guest Director
Robert has had a long and distinguish career
in the theatre. He is best known in the Bay
Area as a founder of the American Conservatory
Theatre's MFA Program, Chair of U.C. Berkeley's
Theatre Department for 25 years, and a founder
of the Berkeley Stage Company, which staged
new work for ten years in Berkeley. He is a
Moliere scholar and translator and he has directed
at numerous major regional theatres including
South Coast Rep and the Mark Taper Forum.
|
 |
Jonathan
Gonzalez / Past
Education Director
A New Mexico native,
Jonathan has taught and directed in numerous
schools in Marin and beyond, most recently for
Dixie Elementary, Neil Cummins, Rancho Elementary,
St Isabella's, and the Coleman School.
He is an artist-in-residence with Youth-in-arts
in San Rafael and runs the drama club for St.
Catherine's middle school in Burlingame. In
seven years with the San Francisco Shakespeare
Festival, he directed tours of Romeo and Juliet
and Macbeth, performed in six tours, and appeared
in two seasons of Free Shakespeare In The Park.
In addition to leading numerous Marin Shakespeare
Young Company sessions, Jonathan has directed
Teen productions of The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, She Stoops to Conquer,
King Lear and Troilus and Cressida.
In 2005 he is directing the Teen Touring Company's As You Like It.
In 2004 he taught a weekly Shakespeare class
at San Quentin prison which culminated in a
night of scenes and monologues featuring professional
actors and inmates. As an actor, Jonathan has
been seen at Berkeley Rep, The California, Stinson,
and Carmel Shakespeare Festivals, Theatre Rhinoceros,
Center Rep, Western Stage, and Pacific Rep,
among others. For Marin Shakespeare Company,
Jonathan appeared in Cyrano De Bergerac,
Much Ado About Nothing (Dean Goodman choice
award for supporting actor) A Thousand and
One Arabian Nights, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Othello, She Stoops to Conquer, and Taming
of The Shrew. Professional Directing work
includes Town Hall Theatre, The Exit Theatre,
Masque Unit, and Penninsula Youth Theatre.
|
| |
Amy
Young Hatch /
Box Office Manager
Amy is a College of Marin graduate and a Journeyman
member of IATSE Local #16, which services theatre,
film, commercials and industrials, she has worked
in a large variety of positions at many leading
entertainment and cultural organizations and
has been associated with Marin Shakespaere in
various capacities for four years.
|
 |
Pamela
Johnson / Costume Designer
Pamela has been
the resident Costume Designer at Sonoma State
University since 1990 and has designed over
100 shows for theatres from Mendocino to San
Francisco. She won a Dean Goodman Award for
her Costume Design for Marin Shakespeare's Cyrano
de Bergerac.
|
|
Cynthia
White / Guest Director
Cynthia was Associate Director and Director
of New Play Development at the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival from 1991-1996. She has directed
at many regional Theatres including Milwaukee
Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival,
Utah Shakespearean festival and the Virginia
Shakespeare Festival. Cynthia is artistic
director of Golden Fish Theatre in Seattle Washington
and hold an M.F.A. in Directing from Southern
Methodist University
. |
|
|
