M. Graham Smith (he/him)
Director, Adaptor

M. Graham Smith is a freelance Director, Educator, and Producer. Recent directing credits: World Premieres of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion, Kevin Rolston’s Deal with the Dragon (Magic Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe), The Mortification of Fovea Munson (The Kennedy Center); Father/Daughter (Aurora); White Chip, Pickleball at B Street, You for Me for You (Crowded Fire), and White (Shotgun). In development: FDR’s Very Happy Hour for The Perelman Center for the Arts, centering d/Disability and Access in an immersive environment. He teaches at A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep. He’s a graduate of Wesleyan University where he directed the first workshop of In The Heights.

Jordan Covington (he/him)
Ferdinand

Jordan is excited for his Marin Shakespeare Company’s debut. His most recent  credits include Co-Founders (ACT),  Fat Ham and Waitress (San Francisco Playhouse). He also performed in the USA premiere of Innocence at San Francisco Opera and In The Heights (Center Repertory). Jordan’s favorite roles include Wale Owusu in Nollywood Dreams (SF Playhouse), Benny in In The Heights (Berkeley Playhouse), Chase in Finding Chase (New Canon Theatre), and Teddy/Nicholas in A Guide For The Homesick (Theatre Rhinoceros). Other local credits include Richie in Chorus Line (I Can Do That Theatre); and West Side Story and Pippin (Berkeley Playhouse).

Stevie DeMott (she/them)
Stephano

Stevie is an actor, teacher, and devised theater maker. She graduated summa cum laude from SFSU with a B.A. in Theater Arts and Creative Writing, and received her M.F.A from the American Conservatory Theater. She has performed with A.C.T., Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, TheatreFirst, Word For Word, and San Francisco’s award winning devised theater company, Mugwumpin, among others. Favorite roles include Viola in Twelfth Night, Horatio and Guildenstern in Hamlet, May in Fool For Love, Sara in Stop Kiss, Orlando in Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet. Stevie has taught for CIIS, specifically at Burning Man exploring devising theater under extreme conditions, and for A.C.T.’s YC and Studio programs. She took part in Jon Tracy’s first Groundswell intensive in San Miguel de Allende, and developed and performed a piece for SMA’s theater festival, TEATRAL.

DeAnna Driscoll* (she/her)
Trinculo / Antonio

DeAnna is excited to make her Marin Shakespeare Theatre debut. DeAnna most recently played Jonathan in CenterREP’s Arsenic and Old Lace. Previous to that, she spent many years in southern California and worked with The Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cygnet Theatre, and Diversionary Theatre, among others. She played Regan in King Lear with the National Shakespeare Conservatory Theatre in NYC. DeAnna has earned two Critics Circle Awards, a Backstage Garland Award, and others for her work. Television credits:  Lincoln Heights and Veronica Mars. Film credits: Unverified, Nixon Baby, and Decaf to name a few.

John Eleby (he/him)
King Alonso

Born in Huntsville, Alabama, John was raised in Germany in several cities and military bases. Growing up in Germany and then in upstate New York, he had a love of the arts that didn’t fully mature until his late 30’s, beginning a career in Voice Over.  This led to on-camera work and eventually..  theater!  Working with productions in West Marin and San Francisco, John is always looking for that next step as an actor.  His mantra is:  “To treat every audition like it’s a job… and treat every job like an audition.”  He currently lives in sunny Marin County, California.

Maddie Garfinkel (she/her)
Ensemble

Maddie is a Bay Area local and a rising Sophomore at Stanford University studying Acting and Physics. At Stanford she has performed in Chekhov’s Three Sisters (U/S Irina) and Legally Blonde (Ensemble). Maddie is an alumni of Northwestern’s Cherubs program, and she has been in shows across the Bay Area such as Hair (Sheila), Fefu and her Friends (Julia), Les Miserables (Javert), and the Wizard of Oz (Dorothy). Maddie is thrilled to be working with the Marin Shakespeare Company this summer.

Anna Ishida* (she/her)
Ariel

Recent credits: Bay Area: Boss McGreedy (Central Works), This Much I Know and The Importance of Being Earnest  (Aurora Theater); NYC: Cymbeline, Iachimo, Henry VI Parts 1 & 2 (National Asian American Theater Company), When We Were Young & Unafraid, The Antelope Party (Dutch Kills), Trigger (Leviathan Lab). Regional: Olga in The Three Sisters (Two River Theater), Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth), Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning (American Repertory Theater), It Can’t Happen Here (Berkeley Rep), Mr. Burns: a post-electric play (A.C.T. & The Guthrie), Water by the Spoonful (Theatreworks), Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage (Shotgun/Banana Bag & Bodice: US/UK tours). Film: I Am a Ghost & Bitter Melon.  annaishida.com

AJ Jefferson
Boatswain

Chef, actor, activist, and playwright this is AJ’s second dance in the elements at Forrest Meadows. His initial role as Ray DuVal in the legislative piece The Box went on a regional tour. It was on the tour bus that he penned an article for the Pulitzer Foundation, “The Bumpy Road Less Traveled”, which became his story about life behind the walls of the industrial prison system. He’s quite comfortable in the storm that is The Tempest: he’s a surfer from Hermosa Beach California who fell in love with this community and culture.

Jahfari Maddo (he/him)
Ensemble

Jahfari is a Stanford undergraduate majoring in Psychology and Theater, who is here due to collaboration with the VPUE TAPS program and Marin Shakespeare Company, hoping to pursue more professional acting opportunities and incorporate theater practices into their clinical work, they knew they had to be involved and are delighted to be working on the tempest. Jahfari is both working in the ensemble and as assistant production manager and a foray into the more technical production elements of theater projects!

Adam Mendez Jr. (he/him)
Sebastian

Adam is ready to twirl his mustache while making his MSC debut! Currently represented by MDT, Adam works as an actor in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Past credits include Alex in Sueños (Las Positas), Tomas in Tomas & The Library Lady (Childsplay), Henry Reyna in Zoot Suit (OC Shakespeare Co), Clopin in Hunchback of Notre Dame (South Bay Encore Theatre), Leaf Coneybear in 25th Annual Putnam, and Angie the Ox in Guys & Dolls (Grandstreet Theatre). Adam has also written a one person show Chicano in the Sun (Teatro Bravo in Phoenix, AZ), and is currently working on a new title.

Iyanu Olukotun (he/him)
Ensemble

Iyanu is a rising junior at Stanford University majoring in Theater and Performance Studies with a concentration in acting. He is excited to make his debut with the Marin Shakespeare Company. Past credits include: Three Sisters (Tuzenbach) with the Stanford Theater Department, Love and Information (ensemble) with BLACKstage Theater Company, and Titus Andronicus … and Zombies! (Aaron), Romeo and Juliet (Romeo) and Henry IV (Sheriff/Soldier) with the Stanford Shakespeare Company.

Kevin Rolston (he/him)
Gonzalo

Kevin is the writer / performer of the award-winning solo play Deal with the Dragon, which premiered at ACT’s Costume Shop in 2016 and just enjoyed its most recent production this summer in Palm Springs, a co-production by TigerBear & Desert Ensemble Theater. DWTD was also produced at the Magic Theater, New Conservatory Theater, Z Space, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As an ensemble actor Kevin has worked with Magic Theater, ACT, Marin Theater Co, and many others.

Stacy Ross* (she/they)
Prospero

Stacy is happily makes her Marin Shakespeare debut. Finally. Recent work includes A Whynot Christmas Carol and Fefu and her Friends at A.C.T. , Jacques in As You Like It at California Shakespeare Theatre and Diane/Dionysus in Hurricane Diane at the Aurora Theatre. Other credits include Clue at San Francisco Playhouse, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play at Berkeley Rep, The Year of Magical Thinking at Aurora, and Free For All (A New Miss Julie For a New World) at Cutting Ball. Thanks to Randy Craig who makes it all worthwhile. stacyrossactor.com

Chris Steele (they/she)
Caliban

Chris is a queer trans nonbinary performance artist, writer, and activist. She has performed with We Players, ACT, NCTC, Cutting Ball, SF Shakespeare Festival, and SF Playwrights Festival. They premiered adaptations of Angel Street, Miss Julie, Troilus and Cressida, and Dracula with Poltergeist Theatre Project; had short plays produced by The Pear, PlayGround, and Cutting Ball; debuted solo drag shows The Bride and My Grandmother Wore Pants with PlayGround Solofest; were commissioned by Custom Made to adapt The Tempest; and directed their adaptation of Rossum’s Universal Robots at Cutting Ball. Find her award-winning drag persona Polly Amber Ross on instagram @pollyamberross.

Anna Takayo (she/her)
Miranda

Regional: Shakespeare Theatre Company: Jane Anger, Our Town | Marin Theatre: Waste | Santa Cruz Shakes: Hamlet, As You Like It, Vanya & Sonya & Masha & Spike | Spooky Action: Frontières Sans Frontières | Devil’s Isle Shakes: Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It | Olney Theatre & People’s Light: Song of the Exile | Adventure Theatre: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Helen Hayes and BroadwayWorld Award Nominations) | Kennedy Center: Pulling the Switch. LONDON: Southwark Playhouse: Women in War | Tower Theatre: Hamlet | Theatro Technis: Antony and Cleopatra | Tristan Bates: Pearl City ‘Sunshine’ | Inspector Sands: Wuthering Heights | Bloomsbury Festival: Orphée. Education: Stanford: BA; RADA: MA; STC Academy: MFA.