Artistic Staff
Mary Riley*
(Producing Artistic Director) Mary Riley always loves producing and performing with her favorite Players! New York: Comedy of Errors with Inwood Shakespeare, Four by Tenn, Measure for Measure and Much Ado About Nothing with American Bard Theater Company, A Midsommer Night’s Dreame with SSP, The Winter’s Tale with American Globe Theatre. Regional: Southwest Shakespeare Festival, New England Shakespeare Festival, Mill Mountain Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, and Winnipesaukee Playhouse. M.A. in Music from Radford University, and a B.M. from East Carolina University. Thanks for creating this Amanda and Melinda, and much love to my five beautiful nieces: Grace, Sophia, Isabella, Victoria & Katherine! MaryRiley.net
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Nicole Greenbaum
(Resident Dramaturg & Co-Director) Nicole is thrilled to be a part of the Spontaneous Shakespeare Players, as an Actor and more recently as Dramaturg. She can’t get enough of those cue-scripts! NYC: Richard III, Chain of Deed, Loves Labors Lost, The Tempest, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Three Sisters. Regional: Twelfe Night, Taming of the Shrew, Much Adoe About Nothing. Also a frequent collaborator with Extant Arts Company and New England Shakespeare Festival. Thanks so much to Amanda and Melinda, and all the love in the world to friends and family (esp. ESG)! www.nicolegreenbaum.com
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Founders
Amanda Bruton
(Co-Founder) Amanda is a co-founder and former Artistic Director of SSP. She was last seen as Bellomy in The Fantasticks at the Red House Arts Center. Recent credits include: Joanne in Company (Playhouse on Park), Bea in How Deep is The Ocean? (NYMF), the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet and Heron in Conference of the Birds (ALSTF), and Maria in Twelfth Night (SSP). Next up, Amanda will be returning to the Red House Arts Center to play the Female Authority Figure in Hairspray before heading out on the road with the International Tour of The Addams Family: The Musical as Grandma Addams in 2013. Amanda holds a BFA in Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She has worked as teaching artist with SSP and The Adventure Game, Inc. She would like to thank anyone and everyone involved with SSP! www.amandabruton.com
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Melinda Stewart
(Director of Education & Co-Founder) Melinda is a loving co-founder of SSP. NYC: Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Duchess of York in Richard III, Lady M in the Scottish Play, Princess in Loves Labours Lost, Emilia in Two Noble Kinsmen, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Phebe in As You Like It, and Cressida in Troilus and Cressida. Regional: Beatrice in Much Adoe About Nothing, Adriana and Dromio of Ephesus in Comedie of Errors. Stewart has most recently been performing and writing comedy with The Other Baldwins, performing at Ha! Comedy Club in a massive sketch/rockshow and taking "A**holes on the Brink.." to the NOLA Fringe Festival in 2010. Teaching Artist with SSP, Slightly Askew Theatre Co., NESF and Annie’s Playhouse- has taught students age 6-20, all around Cleveland, OH, in NYC, NJ, NH, and in the Yale Undergraduate Drama program. Stewart adores and thanks everyone involved with SSP! www.themelindastewart.com
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2013 Current Players
Julie Baber
Julie Baber was last seen in Identity Theatre's "The Boys Next Door." Shakespearean roles include Helena in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Paulina in "The Winter's Tale," Beatrice in "Much Ado about Nothing," Miranda in "The Tempest," and "Cymbeline" with Karen Lynn Gorney. A highlight of her career was playing Karen in Austin Pendleton's "The Children's Hour." www.juliebaber.com
Justin Bennett*
Justin Bennett New York Theatre: Curse of the Starving Class, Romeo & Juliet, Cymbeline, Suits and Ties, Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), Pygmalion, 21 Stories: A Broadway Tale. Regional: Comedy of Errors, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, West Side Story, Alexander and the Terrible..., Audition for Murder, How to Eat Like a Child. National Tours: Kid Power, Slim Goodbody, Christmas Carol. Professional Directing Credits include The Boys Next Door, 45 Seconds from Broadway, and All in the Timing. Classical and Contemporary Pianist. BA in Theater Arts, LaGrange College, Summa Cum Laude.
Jen Browne
Jen is an actor, writer, and director based in New York. Sometimes she collaborates with people in far away lands and sometimes she works all by herself. She’s quite pleased to be working with SSP once again as it is always a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Her most recent roles include a sword wielding, sneezing clown in Bandage: A Fight Play as part of The Brick Theatre’s Fightfest and a girl in love in the short film Life Without Desire. She’s been seen around town performing with Rebellious Subjects Theatre, The Red Door Theatre Company, and Deconstructive Theatre Project. Several of her short plays have appeared at Learning Stages’ Play-in-a-Day and most recently her short play The Nudist and Her Son had its first read at The Looking Glass Theatre. Her play For the Birds co-written and produced with actor/writer Siobhan Donnellan appeared in last year's New York International Fringe Festival.
Ariel Francoeur
Ariel is thrilled to be performing with Spontaneous Shakespeare! She is an actor and director who has worked in all boroughs and throughout the US. Most recently she performed David Sedaris's one-woman showSeason's Greetings at the Kentucky Repertory Theater, and played Deanna in You Love Myself, a new romantic comedy by Sean David Demers, at Shetler's Bridge Theater. In Maine she has frolicked outdoors in various parks and seaside locales, as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, and Mariane in Moliere's The Miser. In Brazil she performed outdoors in touring production of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid. She has directed extensively in New York, with The Looking Glass Theater, Primary Stages, The Secret Theater, Uptown Arts, The Seeingplace Theater, etc. This fall she will begin the Directing MFA program at The University of Iowa.
www.arielfrancoeur.com Nathaneal Harting
Nathanael Harting is excited to be back with SSP for the third summer. Previous roles at SSP include: Malcolm - Macbeth. Lucentio: Taming of the Shrew. Cinna/Others: Julius Caeser. Nat would like to thank SSP for the stage and William Shakespeare for the words.
Christine A. Kahler
Christine A. Kahler (Prompter/Costume Design)- is excited to be part of such a unique and thrilling project. Past work includes: MosesMogilee's productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Dog Sees God, Marat Sade & Comedy of Errors. And most recently Skin Tight at 59E59 with One Year Lease. She has also been a wardrobe supervisor on multiple shows including The New England Shakespeare Festival and the Off-Broadway production of Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage, as well as dresser for Rent at New World Stages and a resident dresser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. She is the resident costume designer for Spontaneous Shakespeare Players. Christine is a registered member of Union 764. www.christinekahler.com
Mary McGloin*
Mary McGloin (Dromio of Syracuse) is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. She is thrilled to be part of this show. Mary hails from San Francisco, where she understudied and worked at many theaters, including ACT, Berkeley Rep, Theatreworks, CalShakes, Custom Made and Woman's Will, to name a few. She holds her M.F.A in Classical Acting from The Shakespeare Theatre's Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University in DC and moved to NYC in Sept 2009. Since moving here she has appeared on Extreme Forensics on Investigation Discovery Channel, and in several short films. She most recently played Megan in The Water Children with her production company Goodly Rotten Apple Productions and Jean Muir in Diminished Fifth with Love Street Theatre and Leonore in Family Dinner directed by Jamibeth Margolis. http://www.marymcgloin.com
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Laura Mae Baker
Laura Mae is so excited to be a part of this fun and educational Shakespeare company! She has played multiple parts in the SSP productions of Midsommer Nights Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Richard III andMacbeth, Julius Cesar and 12th Night…and loved every crazy minute of it!! Not only is Laura Mae an original member of SSP, but she met the love of her life while performing with them! Other favorite roles for Laura Mae include: Alice in Alice in Wonderland (Off B’way), Dromio of Ephesus in The Comedie of Errors(NESF), Lucy Van Pelt in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and Mrs. Soams in Our Town (Heights Players), Diana in All’s Well That Ends Well, Emilia in Othello (Hudson Shakespeare Co.) and Rapunzel inInto the Woods (Center Stage Playhouse). Laura Mae is also a member of the C.A.G.E theater ensemble where she has played Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, Sharon in Hit and Match, O in The Vengeance Room, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, and many other roles. Laura Mae is the managing director and a founding member of Cupcake Lady Productions (www.cupcakeladyproductions.com). Laura Mae will also be appearing this summer in the Renaissance Dueling Plays at the 2013 Midtown International Theater Festival and in Two Gentlemen of Verona: A Swashbuckling Comedy at the 2013 Fringe Festival. Much love to Rich- you're my forever guy. As always, every performance is dedicated to her mother, Carol.
Collin Biddle
COLLIN BIDDLE: Recent shows include Blue Chip, Southern Baptist Sissies, Closet Madness, Stuck, Dive Bar and Fade to Black, An Ideal Husband, When Joey Married Bobby, Twelfe Night, All’s Well That Ends Well. Regional credits include Measure for Measure, Much Adoe About Nothing, Romeo & Juliet and Taming of the Shrew. Appearing in the films Bad Parents and The Search for Agent Z, member of SAG-AFTRA. Additional credits and information at www.collinbiddle.com. With love and thanks to Ann and the girls.
Jennifer Carter
Jennifer Carter is elated to be performing in her first Spontaneous Shakespeare Players production! Her first show in New York City was last year in TheAlphaNYC's production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Prior she could be seen at several regional theatres in Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina. Some of her favorite roles include Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Patsy Cline in Always...Patsy Cline, Kate Keller in The Miracle Worker, Ulla in The Producers and Judy in Irving Berlin's White Christmas just to name a few. Thanks Mary for giving me this opportunity to perform The Bard's work in the original way! Thanks Mom and Aunt Jill for making the trek to NYC to see me in the Park! I Love You BEE!
Jenn Gartner
Jennifer is thrilled to be a member of SSP. Previous First Folio productions include Much Adoe About Nothing (NESF), Romeo and Juliet (Wild Bard), A Midsommer Night’s Dreame (SSP and OPSFest), and The Two Noble Kinsman (ISC). She is also a founding member of MosesMogilee. Past MM productions include Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice) and The Game (Life). Thanks to Melinda and Amanda for keeping Shakespeare this much fun!
Erin Gilbreth*
Erin Gilbreth is making her Spontaneous Shakespeare debut this summer in Comedy of Errors (Abbess) and Hamlet (Gertrude). Other favorite Shakespeare credits: Measure for Measure (Isabella), Merchant of Venice (Nerissa), Pericles (Helicanus), Much Ado About Nothing (Friar/Watch I). Erin is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Liberal Studies at SUNY Stony Brook. She serves as a trustee at her church, is proudly “married to the military” and is on Day 12 of an aptly-named plank challenge that will hopefully result in the ability to hold a plank position for 5 minutes on May 30. www.eringilbreth.net
Aaron David Kapner
Since graduating Circle in the Square theater school, Aaron David Kapner has performed in a number of projects on stage, screen and television. His work in theater includes productions of As you Like It, Romeo and Juliet, andThe Crucible; workshops and readings of King Henry VI part 1, King Lear, Winter's Tale and Coriolanus, as well as numerous original works. He can be seen onscreen in a commercial for Huntington Learning Center and in the films Echo 49, Dirty Hands and the upcoming webseries Parker & Steve: A Bromcom.
Aaron Matteson
Aaron is an actor and writer based in Brooklyn. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence's Theatre Program (2008) as well as an alum of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Acting Apprenticeship (2008-2009), recently he has performed in Shakespeare's R&J as Juliet / Benvolio and Richard II as Bolingbroke, as well as in the web series The Outs.
Brendan Sokler
Brendan Sokler has been living in New York for three years and has performed at The Barrow Group, Peoples Improv Theatre, Upright Citizens Brigade , The Pearl Theatre, Shakespeare and Company, and The Hangar Theatre. He is so excited to have a go at Hamlet in his fourth production of Hamlet.
Rich Wisneski
Rich Wisneski grew up believing that Shakespeare was boring, outdated, and overrated. Then one day Amanda Bruton taught him First Folio Shakespeare, and it changed his life. Since then he has performed, and starred in stage shows from companies such as Hudson Shakespeare, C.A.G.E., and LaBarge productions, become a founding member of Cupcake Lady Productions, and most importantly, met the love of his life Laura Mae Baker, who changed his entire world. The Spontaneous Shakespeare players are a force of good. Everyone should be taught Shakespeare like this, because it enriches your life. Thank you Amanda, thank you Mary, thank you Nicole, and thank you Melinda. He will proudly work with them, whenever possible. "Choose Life and the rest will follow" - Armand Marin
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*actors appear courtesy of Actor's Equity Association
SSP Alumni
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Laura Mae Baker
Amanda Bruton Jenifer Borntrager Collin Biddle Jen Browne Mitchell Conway Eleni Delopoulos Samuel Encarnacion |
Jennifer Gartner
Nicole Greenbaum Bill Green Nathaneal Harting Joshuah Laird James Robert Ludlum Michelle Kovacs Adam Reich* |
Alexander Richard
Mary Riley* Evan Schweitzer Melinda Stewart Justin Tyler William Welles Rich Wisnewski Michael Wolter |
* denotes a member of Actor's Equity Association
