The Company


The Taming of the Shrew

March 2010


Missing Image   LINDSAY ARELLA  - is a graduate of Florida State University's BFA Acting program. She is thrilled to be a part of Taming of the Shrew. Recent credits include The Tamer Tamed (Bianca), The Birds (Sparrow), and Gift of Peace (Economist). Lindsay has spent the last year studying improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. Love to the world!

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  COLLIN BIDDLE  - is delighted to be prompting. Prior productions with Wild Bard & New England Shakespeare Festival include Much Adoe About Nothing, Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew and Twelfe Night. Other Shakespeare productions include Othello, All's Well That Ends Well and Comedie of Errors. Collin is currently appearing in When Joey Married Bobby at the Times Square Arts Center. Other recent credits include Praying Small (Love Creek Prods.), An Actor Prepares and Three Tables (K. Janowitz Prods.), and the Narrator in both King Kong and War of the Worlds with Radiotheatre. Collin co-produced and adapted Sheridan's The Rivals in conjunction with the Titans Theatre Company. He played the lead in a recent award-winning short film, Valley of the Moon, and has appeared in a number of other films, including And Then Came Love, independent films, TV pilots, industrials, branded content and so on and so forth. With love and thanks to Ann and the girls. http://home.earthlink.net/~acbiddle/

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  JEN BROWNE  - recently returned from Belfast, Northern Ireland where she studied ensemble and creative performance with company Curious Doings at Queens University. This past summer she worked with the Deconstructive Theatre Project in New York on their new piece The Orpheus Variations as well as The Red Door Theatre Companies adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In November 2009 she directed and performed in Handler's Freedom Opera, a devised piece made in collaboration with choreographer Ryan McNally as part of the performance series Take Root at Green Space. Her script lamb was produced as part of the 2008 Houston Fringe Festival. Her short plays again and again (2009) and Love is a Blind Squirrel (2010) were both produce as part of Learning Stages Play in a Day Festival. Her new play For the Birds co-written with Irish actor/playwright Siobh'n Donnellan will have its World Premiere at this year's New York International Fringe Festival.

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  AMANDA DONELAN  - is a graduate of Hofstra University with a BFA in Theatre Arts Performance. Amanda's New York Theatre credits include the upcoming production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Zephyr Rep; performing as a member of Chocolate Cake City NY at comedy clubs across the city and comedy festivals including Chicago Sketch Fest; Memorial Days: Staged Reading and The Long Christmas Ride Home with the Red Fern Theatre Company; Beautiful Noises and Coal's of Fire with The Queen's Players; Everyman with Turtle Shell Productions; and Happy Hour with the Michael Chekhov Theatre Company. She would like to thank WildBard for giving her the opportunity to be part of such a unique production. Further, she would like to thank all her friends, family, and her mom & dad for all of their love and support. :o)

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  MICHAEL DOUGLASS  - is an actor, producer, director, choreographer, and acting teacher. He has directed or performed with Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners such as Robert DeNiro, Bernadette Peters, Tommy Tune, and Brenda Vaccaro. He has directed and acted Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, in dinner theaters, summer stock and regional theater. Productions he has directed include Mame, The Glass Menagerie, and Stop the World, among many others. He has also produced and directed many videos, including the award-winning TeenStuf.

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  SHEIRA FEUERSTEIN  - Off-Broadway: The Public Theater, Julyfest, Bleecker Street Theatre, Night of the Butterfly. Off-Off Broadway: Queens Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice); Theater for the New City, Living in a Musical; Faux-Real Theatre Company, 365 Days/Plays; Co-Op Theatre East, Questionable Content. Regional: Millbrook Playhouse, Once Upon a Mattress (Winnifred); The Theater Barn, Leading Ladies (Audrey); Philadelphia Music Theater Works, Watch the Birdie. Other credits include West Side Story (Maria), Pennsylvania Players; Nine (Carla & Saraghinna), Front Row Theatre Company; Kiss Me, Kate (Kate/Lilli Vanessi), Pennsylvania Singers Light Opera Co. Sheira is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the American Theatre Wing's SpringboardNYC. www.sheirasings.com.

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  PATRICK HALLEY  - is currently playing Puck and Bottom in Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's tour of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Regionally, he has worked with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Great Plains Theatre, and 3 seasons with Door Shakespeare. He spent 4 years in Chicago, most recently in A Moon For the Misbegotten with First Folio (Jeff Nomination - Best Production) and New Leaf Theatre's acclaimed The Man Who Was Thursday. Other credits there include: The Hypocrites, Theatre Building, greasy joan, Red Tape & A Crew of Patches - a First Folio repertory company where he played Benvolio, Malcolm, and Puck, among other roles. Patrick is a Poughkeepsie native and graduate of Bucknell University.

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  NATHANAEL HARTING  - is a senior Theater/Speech Performance major at Wagner College on Staten Island scheduled to graduate in May 2010. He is thrilled to be making his debut with WildBard as Hortensio in Taming of the Shrew and is ecstatic for the chance to work with Shakespeare's wonderful language and plays. He would like to thank the wonderful people at WildBard for giving him this opportunity and also his family and friends who have supported him from day one.

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  ARIEL JACOBSON  - A multi-talented performer, actor/singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Ari Jacobson wears many hats. He spent a year touring the U.S. with The American Shakespeare Center; upon returning to NYC he promptly starred in Manhattan Rep's Getting Even With Shakespeare... After a full year playing ELEVEN characters in Hamlet, he was ready to get even! Favorite past roles include Lead Player in Pippin, Stephen in Off-Off-Broadway's longest running show Line, and his debut at the tender age of three as the title character in Desire Under the Elms. Visit the newly launched www.arijacobson.com for more info!

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  MICHELLE KOVACS (Co-Producer)  - Trained in the Meisner approach and other modern-American acting styles, Michelle was completely new to Shakespeare when she was cast as the boy prince, Arthur, in King John way back in 1998. It soon became apparent (to her anyway) that she had no idea what she was doing. She began working with a series of great teachers, including John Basil of American Globe, who introduced her to the First Folio technique, and Joanne Zipay, of the Judith Shakespeare Company, who provided many of the basic building blocks for understanding and using the text in performance. In 2004 Michelle began working with Demi Papadinis and her company, the New England Shakespeare Festival, one of the only theatre troupes working today to use the First Folio's text and action-based approach to performing Shakespeare. With New England Shakespeare, Michelle has appeared as Queen Margaret in Richard III, Kate in Taming of the Shrew, and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet. Determined to encourage the use of First Folio and energize the classical theatre community, Michelle joined forces with Ms. Papadinis and Jenifer Borntrager, another New England Shakespeare vet, to get WildBard off the ground in late 2009. As a company, we hope to get more actors up and moving while they perform Shakespeare so the audience can have as much fun watching the shows as we do performing them.

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  JENIFER KUDULIS (Co-Producer)  - fell in love with unrehearsed Shakespeare while working with the New England Shakespeare Festival several years ago. Previous perfomances with NESF include Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Juliet in The Tragedie of Romeo & Juliet, Hero in Much adoe about Nothing and the Courtesan in The Comedie of Errors. In addition to unrehearsed Shakespeare, NYC credits include Peter Quince in Midsommer Night's Dreame (Spontaneous Shakespeare Players), Jacquenetta in Love's Labour's Lost (Extants Arts Company), Lady Macbeth and Katherine the Shrew in Bardolatry (Algonquin Theatre), and numerous shows with the Looking Glass Theatre, trip ensemble, and Impetuous Theatre Group. Regional credits include Aggie in Grapes of Wrath (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Sally Bowles in Cabaret (USA Theatre), and Luciana in Comedy of Errors (USA Theatre). Jenifer holds a BFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of South Alabama. Much love to her husband, Kenny.

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  JOSHUA LAIRD  - Joshuah Laird holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern State University of Louisiana. He has toured the United States and Europe with Missoula Children's Theatre, playing such roles as Long John Silver in Treasure Island and Geppetto in Pinocchio. He performed on the Las Vegas Strip in Marc Savard's Mesmermized at the V Theater in the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Favorite roles include CB in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, and Chris Keller in All My Sons. Josh is a new arrival in New York City and looks forward to the career opportunities available here.

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  MICHAEL LEIBRING  - most recently appeared as a toy monkey in Babes in Toyland at Avery Fisher Hall. Other past credits include Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing (Empty Chair Theater Company), Valtemand/Player in Hamlet (Invisibile Theater Company), Camillo in The Winter's Tale and Amiens in As You Like It (King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe), and Senator Fipp in Urinetown and Billy in The Real Thing (Columbia University). He will be making his Off-Broadway debut at the end of the month as Nym in the American Theater of Actors production of Henry V. BA, Columbia University.

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  SHARINA MARTIN  - Sharina is thrilled be working with Wildbard. Chicago credits include Fedra at Lookingglass, The Voysey Inheritance at Remy Bumppo and Macbeth with greasyjoan and co (Lady M). Regional credits: Indiana Repertory, Congo Square Theatre Co, Chicago Dramatists and The Eugene O'Neill Theater in New Haven, CT. Film credits: Happily After, Requited and Nowheresville. She is a graduate of Northwestern University (2007), the School at Steppenwolf and LAByrinth Theater Co's Master Class.

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  DAVID JAMES OLSEN  - is extremely grateful to be a part of the WildBard reading of The Taming of the Shrew. Though he earned a B.F.A. specifically in musical theatre from the University of Arizona, he most enjoys tackling all different forms of theatre, including such varied credits as Aristophanes' The Clouds, Prior in Angels in America, Sylvia St. Croix in Ruthless!, Polonius in Hamlet, Rooster in Annie, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Charles Guiteau in Assassins, Frank 'n' Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, the melodrama The Star Crossing, and The A.I.D.S. Monologues. He has also appeared in the short film Shadayim and produced and starred in his own original cabaret A Different Angle in NYC.

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  DEMITRA PAPADINIS (Co-Producer, Director)  - an ardent First Folio enthusiast and an expert in Elizabethan cue-script technique, Demi encourages and inspires students, teachers, directors, actors and audiences through workshops and performances across the country. She has worked with No Holds Bard in Denver, CO; The Original Practices Shakespeare Festival in Portland, OR; and is the Producing Artistic Director of the New England Shakespeare Festival, all "Original Practices" Shakespeare companies that endeavor to stage Shakespeare's plays as Shakespeare's own company did by using early texts and performance practices. Her first book, The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet: A Frankly Annotated First Folio Edition, will be released later this year by McFarland. When not immersed in the world of Shakespeare, she can be found cleaning up what comes out of either end of a cat.

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  RACHAEL PFENNIGWERTH  - is a recent newcomer to New York City and has already fallen in love with the lights, sounds, and even sometimes smell of the big city. Having graduated in May of '09 from Point Park University's conservatory program, 'unrehearsed Shakespeare' will be Rachel's first taste of sweet success that comes with such a sweet city. Thank you Demi and WildBard for the chance to experience such an exciting process! www.rachelpfennigwerth.weebly.com

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  NICHOLAS SANTASIER  - is happy to be making his debut with WildBard having just finished a wonderful reading of Hamlet with Bareshakespeare in their "Hamlet Royal Rumble" (Polonius & Hamlet). Past classical work includes Twelfth Night (Holla Holla Productions); Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Tartuffe (Niagara University); and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare in Delaware Park). Non-classical work includes Dracula (Sponge Theatricals), Crossing Delancey (Minstrel Players), and Ten Little Indians (Broadhollow Theatre). He also works as a fight choreographer and playwright.

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  LARISA SHATERIAN  - is excited to do Shakespeare from cue scrolls! She has often performed Shakespeare from full scripts. Her favorite Shakespeare roles include Viola from Twelfth Night and Escalus from Measure for Measure. This summer, she studied Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She was last seen on New York stages in Kafka's The Trial at the Gallatin School at NYU. She holds a BA in Media Studies and Arabic from NYU.

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  DUDLEY STONE  - Dudley Stone is Artistic Director of Triangle Theatre on East 88th Street in Manhattan. Favorite roles: the Colonel in Journey's End, seven Shakespeare roles including the title role in Julius Caesar and the Porter in Macbeth; Pishchik in his own version of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard; and the Baron in The Madwoman of Chaillot with Anne Jackson and Kim Hunter. He has also had productions of his own versions of Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, and his translation of Moliere's Tartuffe. His play, Macdeath, was produced Off-Off-Broadway in 2005. Dudley will be back at the Mid-Manhattan Library on Fifth Avenue, on April 26, where he performed his one-man show, Mark Weston's Meet George Orwell, last September. He will present an evening of the Poetry of W.B. Yeats.

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  KYLER TAUSTIN  - received a BA from Emerson College and has appeared in Merchant of Venice (Gratiano), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom), and Twelfth Night. Other Credits include The New World Order (Lionel), One for the Road (Victor), and Marisol (Lennie) with Rareworks, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Rosencrantz) with EC Shakespeare Society as well as Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Einstein) and Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World (Scooter). Kyler has also appeared in Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, and Once on This Island. His directorial credits include Prelude to a Fall (Roots and Wings Theatrical), Crave, Civil Blood (Rareworks Theatre), and No One Asks.

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  CHRIS TRIANA  - is a graduate of the William Esper Studio. He is also a trained baritone in Italian Bel Canto under the tutelage of George Gavira and Antonio Barasorda. Theatre: Risky Revolutionary (Castillo Theater, NYC) Where the Sun Never Shines (American Theater of Actors, NYC) King Lear (National Black Theater, NYC), Balm in Gilead (303 Playhouse, NYC) Caligula (Theater Row, NYC), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged (Coco Grove Playhouse, Miami), Don Juan in Chicago (Center for Performing Arts, Miami), Fools (Hollywood Playhouse, Hollywood), Titus Andronicus (Jackie Gleason Theater, Miami), and Blood Weddings (Coco Grove Playhouse, Miami). Film: The Quiet Room, Wednesday's Farwell, Every Saturday Night, and A Revisited Fate.

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  AMY KATHRYN WHITE  - A young and fresh face to New York City, Amy Kathryn White is recent college graduate taking the big city by storm. A member of the State University of New York Class at Fredonia of 2009, Amy Kathryn graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Musical Theatre and a minor in dance. Consistently hailed for her dedication and positive attitude, she was acclaimed for many of her collegiate performances such as Elmire in Tartuffe (2007), Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (2009) and Merge:Woman in Autobahn (2008). She is certified in unarmed stage combat and certified with recommendation in knife stage combat. In addition, she completed an extensive senior independent study in Advanced Shakespeare Technique which included her work as the text coach for Romeo and Juliet. Professionally, she has worked for the summer stock seasons of Theatre West Virginia in Grandview, WV from 2007-09. There, she was praised for her portrayals of Cinderella in Cinderella (2008) and Sharpay in High School Musical (2009). In addition, she has worked for Venture Production Company of Fredonia, NY where she appeared as Eleanor in Silent Heroes (2009) and Joyce in Mother's Day Card (2008). She also starred in the WYNF Fredonia Television mini-series Ante Meridiem (2007-08).

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  AMANDA YACHECHAK  - Off-Off-Broadway: three Sisters Vanishing (Irina) at LPAC, Uncle Pirate (Captain Jack) with Vital Theatre, directed by Jeremy Dobrish; Christmas Rappings with the Theatre at Judson, directed by Russell Treyz; Walking From Rumania (Gittel) with Theater for the New City, Artifex (Paride) with Sad Kids Productions, The Father of Songs with Schapiro Theatre. Regional: West Side Story (Maria) and Fiddler on the Roof (Chava) with Garage Theatre; Who Took Tom Turkey? and What's Up, Mount Olympus with BroadHollow Theatre Company; Biographies from the Court 2008 season with St. George Productions; Singin', Dancin', a Little Romancin' with Hunterdon Hills Playhouse; From Broadway with Love with Manor Club Theatre. Film: Getting Caught, Last Days of Simon, Interview with Hannah Arendt, Camper, Look Closer, Only Go There At Night: Darkness Rising. Several short films, commercials and voice-overs. Company dancer with Kennedy Dancers.

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