The Master of Fine Arts Professional Actor Training Program at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival has produced some of the finest actors on America's stages and screens such as Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz and Emmy Award winning Michael Emerson. Please refer to this page often for Alumni News and Updates.
Class of 2007 |
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Peter Macklin
Since graduating, Peter has been performing in many New York productions such as As You Like It (The Drilling Company Inc.), #2 (Samuel French Festival), The Importance of Marrying Wells (Fringe 2005, Lucille Lortel) & many more. He also recently finished filming Horizon. A member of New Jersey Repertory, The Themantics Group and The Drilling Co. As a playwright, Peter's play Someplace Warm is published by Samuel French Inc. with excerpts appearing in Smith & Kraus' Best Women's Monologues 2002. His new full length play, A Different Time is in workshop with a projected 2007 production. Founding member of Write Club NYC. www.writeclubnyc.org |
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Colette D’Antona
Since graduating, Colette has kept busy acting in and around New York City. For ten months, she played Katerina in an original adaptation of The Brothers Karamazov, which debuted in Manhattan at the Mazer Theater. Other notable productions include Cadillac (Blueberry Pond Theater Ensemble’s Staged Series), Out of Bounds (Samuel French Finalist), and several projects at Mercy College including Julius Caesar and Henry IV Parts 1 and II. Colette has also performed at the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton-On-Hudson and for River Union Stage in Frenchtown, NJ. On a personal note, she recently relocated to the Phoenix area and just finished her first independant feature, Montauk Arizona, due out early 2008. You may have seen her playing "Clerk" in a broadcast seminar for the Arizona Supreme Court back in March. No? Don't worry, she has a copy. Colette is currently doing voice-over work for the PC videogame Crossover Point. Member Blueberry Pond Theater Ensemble and Red Monkey Theater Group. cmd436@aol.com |
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Cindy Gold, MFA Acting, 1991
Cindy Gold is an Associate Professor of Theatre, and Head of the Acting area, at Northwestern University. An active member of AEA and SAG, she has worked in New York and regionally at theatres including Madison Repertory Theatre and the Peninsula Players in Wisconsin, Shakespeare Sedona in Arizona, The Boston Shakespeare Company, and several professional improvisation groups, most notably Mental Floss! in Miami and The Next Move in Boston. She appeared on Miami Vice and The Guiding Light, as well as a number of national commercials for television and radio. She has directing credits at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in Chicago, The Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, The Lyric Stage in Boston, The Festival of Southern Theatre in Mississippi, and the 13th Street Theatre in New York City, among others. At Northwestern, Professor Gold directed the world premier of Joyce Carol Oates' The Passion of Henry David Thoreau, The Beaux' Stratagem, and Much Ado About Nothing. She works regularly as an actress in Chicago, recently performing in Frank Galati and Stephen Flaherty's new Loving Repeating, A Musical of Gertrude Stein, Pride and Prejudice at Northlight, Jewtopia at the Mercury Theatre, The Glamour House at Victory Gardens Theatre, Next Theatre's The Misanthrope, and in a co-production of Desire Under the Elms with Chicago's Court Theatre and Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, PA. Dialect coaching in Chicago includes the premiere of Robert Altman's of A Wedding and Regina, directed by Charlie Newell at the Lyric Opera, The Court, Northlight, Timeline, Famous Door, Rivendell, and Shattered Globe Theatres. c-gold@northwestern.edu |
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James Denvil
After graduation James moved to Washington, DC where he has worked with The Folger Theatre (Much Ado About Nothing), RepStage (Hamlet), and Everyman Theatre ( Candida). He will be appearing in Richard III at TheShakespeare Theatre in early 2007. jdenvil@gmail.com |
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Mendy Garcia
Mendy is currently teaching full time at California State University, Bakersfield. Her classes include Acting 1 and 2, Creative Dramatics, Auditioning, Acting Shakespeare, and Children's Dramatic Literature. During those lovely three months off in the summer, she is enjoying traveling the world to places like China, Italy and Spain. |
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Noel Velez
Noel, a resident acting company member at the Pearl Theatre Company in Manhattan, is currently in performance at the Pearl in Shaw's Arms and the Man as Major Sergius Saranoff. He is also in rehearsals for their next production, Moliere's School for Wives, as Horace, which will open mid-November. Other Pearl credits: Claudio in Measure for Measure and Sir William Davison in Schiller's Mary Stuart. Regional credits include: Jack Absolute in Sheridan's The Rivals and Demetrius in Shakespeare's Midsummer (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Christian, DeGuiche and a monk in Weston Playhouse's three-actor version of Cyrano in Weston, VT, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (with ASF Alumn Peter Macklin as Benvolio) and Valentine in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well, Horace in School for Wives (PlayMakers Rep), Young Jacob Marley in Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theatre) and Ritchie Valens in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Helen Hayes Theatre Company and Ogunquit Playhouse). TV: One Life to Live, Guiding Light. ASF Class of 99. watsmyq@yahoo.com |
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John Gadiner
Currently, John is on the broadway national tour of The Lion King understudying the roles of Timon, Pumbaa & Zazu. New York Off-Broadway Credits include: Gold Rush (Henry) at Promenade Theatre & the workshop of Gregg Coffin's Five Course Love (Dean). After graduating from ASF, John worked primarily in regional theatre performing in such shows as: She Stoops to Conquer (Tony Lumpkin), Big River (Huck), The Boys Next Door (Barry), Greater Tuna (Arles/Petey/etc.) at St. Michael's Playhouse in Burlington, VT; Sanders Family Christmas (Dennis) at American Heartland Theatre in Kansas City, MO; A Christmas Carol (Young Scrooge), The Shaggs (Kyle) at GEVA Theatre in Rochester, NY. GardinerNYC@aol.com |
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Clayton Boyd A.K.A. Christopher Boyd
A 2006 graduate, Clayton is working, living and auditioning in New York city. Hopefully there will be some exciting news to report soon. boyd80@hotmail.com |
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David Furr, MFA Acting, 1998
David Furr appeared on Broadway as Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin, in King Lear with Christopher Plummer, and in The Rivals at Lincoln Center. David has also performed Off-Broadway and extensively in leading roles around the country at such theatres as The Old Globe, The Denver Theatre Center (Ovation and Henry Award nominations), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, LongWharf Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, NC Shakespeare Festival and many others. Film and Television appearances include all the New York soaps, 45 Words, and the role of Ralph Hanover in the upcoming Focus Features film Evening. In 2007, David will reprise the role of Nick in the National Broadway Tour of Virginia Woolf?. DaveFurr@aol.com |
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Stephen Weitz
Stephen Weitz has an MFA in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival where he appeared in roles such as Iachimo in Cymbeline and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice. He spent five years as an actor and director in New York before moving to Boulder to pursue his PhD in Theatre. Most recently, he was seen at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival performing Leontes in A Winter’s Tale, Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice, Charles the Wrestler in As You Like It, and the Duke in Othello. In March of 2006, Stephen directed the University of Colorado productions such as CU’s Life’s a Dream, Chasm View’s Fool for Love, and Intimate Apparel at the Arvada Center. Stephen co-founded the Boulder Ensemble Theatre company and recently directed the first production of the 2006-07 BETC season, Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of the Greek Tragedy Antigone. |
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Lauren Bloom
Lauren graduated in 2006 and has since moved to New York. Roles at ASF include Viola in "Twelfth Night", Celia in "As You Like It", Olga in "The Three Sisters", and Virgilia in "Coriolanus". When she has more to report, she will! la_bloom@hotmail.com |
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Michael Sheldon
Michael spent the 2 years following graduation working for ASF as a Stage Op, working his way up to Octagon Stage Supervisor before leaving ASF to work as the Production Stage Manager for Seaside Muisc Theater. He spent a year and half helping SMT open there new theater with runs of Cats, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, A little Night Music, and Singin in the Rain. Mike then left SMT to become a Professor at Alma College in his home state of Michigan. sheldon@alma.edu |
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Martin Noyes
His most recent fight directing credits include "The Prince and the Pauper", "Life is a Dream", "Ridiculous Fraud", "Bach at Martin currently teaches acting and stage combat in the youth, adult and professional conservatories at South Coast Repertory. He has performed there in such shows as "Hitchcock Blonde" (Husband) and "Ridiculous Fraud" (Kap). In "Ridiculous Fraud" he got the chance to work with Beth Henley and found the experience to be amazing. |
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Thomas Ward
Thomas Ward is an associate professor of acting at Baylor University in Waco, TX. Along with acting he teaches stage combat and movement, as well as choreographing fights for main stage productions. Since graduating from ASF in 2002 Thomas has worked as an actor, stand up comedian, and playwright. In Atlanta he worked on stage with Georgia Shakespeare and Theatre in the Square. His play, Keeping Watch was premiered by Theatrical Outfit under the direction of Tom Key in 2006. It was hailed as the season's "best all around play" by Creative Loafing. Since arriving in Texas Thomas has worked with the WaterTower Theatre in Dallas, playing Felix in the play Humble Boy. He and his wife Sherry ('03 graduate, theatre management) have a son named Christopher. To see baby pictures go to www.thomasward.info |
| Christian Rummel
Since graduating in 2005, Christian has appeared as Jake in STONES IN HIS POCKETS at the Depot Theatre in He also created the role of The Criminal in the world premiere of TIGER BY THE TAIL at the Wings Theatre in NYC and appeared as drug dealer Marco Penzler on the LAW & ORDER episode ‘Remains of the Day.’ In addition to acting, Christian does a great deal of voice-over work for Random House, Audible.Com and the American Foundation for the Blind. He lives in Kensington, |
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Aaron Munoz
Since ranting about MFA casting, grilling at his apartment in Woodmere, and showing everyone his bare ass, Aaron has been working steadily since graduating in ‘03. He is currently playing Michal in The Studio Theatre’s production of THE PILLOWMAN in Washington DC and just completed an independent feature film, THE GADARENE SWINE. (www.thegadareneswine.com) Recently, Aaron has been seen on ESPN Classic’s Who’s # 1, and on a commercial for MTV. His voiceover work includes radio spots for Shoneys, and on TV rapping for Pepto Bismol. His NY credits include Frankie in FRANKIE with Audax Theatre Group and a myriad of roles in THE EAST VILLAGE CHRONICLES VOL. II with Metropolitan Playhouse. He played Jake in the St. |
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Kim Ders
Kim graduated with her MFA in the class of 1997. It was with great pleasure that she was invited to return to the Festival over the years to play many wonderful and challenging roles. Some of her favorites include: Maudy, Beulah and Geneva in Fair and Tender Ladies, Nancy in Oliver!, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Bessie Legros in Sheppy, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Belinda Blair in Noises Off, Mrs. Candor in School for Scandal, Renee in Dark Rapture and the Queen in Cymbeline. Kim has also been seen as Olivia in Twelfth Night at the Clarence Brown Theater, Amanda in Private Lives at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and Belinda Blair in Noises Off at the Portland Stage Company. |