Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley

Andrew Fallaize

Andrew is a British actor living in New York City, and he is delighted to be making his Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut. Off-Broadway work includes The Lucky One (Mint Theater Company), Cornelius (59E59 Theater) and Remembrance of Things Past (92nd Street Y). Regionally, Andrew has appeared in a tour of Hamlet (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival and national tour) and a workshop for the new play Here We Are Here (McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton). In the U.K., Andrew has worked at many of the country's leading theatres; highlights include: House & Garden (Royal National Theatre); The Prince of Homburg (Royal Shakespeare Company, Lyric Hammersmith); Original Sin (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); King Lear (English Touring Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Venice Preserved, Anatol and The Spanish Tragedy (Arcola Theatre); and Cornelius and Men Without Shadows (Finborough Theatre). Film and television credits include a recent appearance in Gotham, The Death Waltz and Revealing Mr. Maugham. Andrew is a voiceover artist with several audiobooks to his name and multiple appearances on the BBC in radio drama. Andrew is a University of Cambridge graduate, and he trained as an actor in London.

John Ford-Dunker

John is honored to be making his Cincinnati Playhouse debut! His regional credits include Red (Geva Theatre Center); King Charles III and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Pioneer Theatre Company); and That High Lonesome Sound, So Unnatural a Level, A Christmas Carol and The Glory of the World (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Other credits include The Glory of the World at Brooklyn Academy of Music, soot and spit at New Ohio Theatre, Macbeth with Old Hat Theatre Company and Hands on a Hardbody at Park Playhouse. Recent television credits include “Clueless Gamer with Aaron Judge” on The Conan O'Brien Show. John is an alum of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, as well as the Professional Training Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville. A native of Fargo, North Dakota, John currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. His original music can be found on Soundcloud under his name.

Mia Hutchinson-Shaw

Mia is very pleased to be making her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut! Her off-Broadway credits include The Lucky One (Mint Theater Company) and The Birds (59E59 Theater). Other New York appearances include The Island Boys (Urban Stages Theater). Regional credits include All’s Well That Ends Well (Virginia Shakespeare Festival) and Steel Magnolias (Grandstreet Theatre). On television, Mia has appeared on the BBC Scotland pilot Shielding Nights and in a handful of short films. She received her BFA from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland, and she is a proud Interlochen Arts Academy graduate. Please visit www.miahutchinsonshaw.com.

John Keabler

John is a bluegrass junky from Kentucky, and he is ecstatic to be making his Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut so close to home. His Broadway credits include… none — he has never been on Broadway. But he has seen a few shows there, and honestly, the shows are better here. Regionally, John has performed leading roles for Shakespeare Theatre Company of D.C., The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, Perseverance Theatre, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Syracuse Stage, Portland Stage Company, Florida Studio Theatre and Creede Repertory Theatre. On television, you could have seen him on 30 Rock, Madam Secretary, All My Children, NASCAR: The Rise of American Speed and The Men Who Built America… but you probably didn’t. He received his MFA from The Old Globe Remedial Actors Training Program. John dedicates his performance to all of his wonderful family who finally get to see him in a show because it is so close. Thank you, Cincinnati, for having such a great theatre scene. Be sure to follow his shenanigans at www.JohnKeabler.com or on Instagram @johnkeabler

Maribel Martinez

Maribel is pleased to be making her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut. Her off- Broadway credits include Rip Van Winkle or Cut the Old Moon into Stars (Hudson River Valley Shakespeare Festival) and Julius Caesar (The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park). Regionally, Maribel has played at Santa Cruz Shakespeare and New Swan Shakespeare Festival in Irvine. She has taken part in workshops in developing plays by Korde Arrington Tuttle at JAGFest, Guadalís Del Carmen with SolFest and Dacyl Acevedo at The Lark. She received her MFA from University of California, Irvine. Please visit www.maribel-martinez.com. Instagram: @instamarbles

Marina Shay

Marina is thrilled to be back in Ohio and making her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut. She recently played Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice at Virginia Stage Company and can’t believe she gets to continue Lizzie’s journey in this delightful sequel. Marina also recently finished playing Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker and Viola in Twelfth Night in repertory at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Other regional credits include Viola in Shakespeare in Love (Cleveland Play House), Estella/Biddy in Great Expectations (Syracuse Stage, SALT Awards Best Actress nomination), Eleanor in Pulse (Guthrie Theater), Sasha in Ivanov (Trinity Repertory Company), Iphigenia in Iphigenia 2.0 (Cleveland Public Theatre) and Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac (Heartwood Regional Theater Company). New York City credits include Julie in Miss Julie (Access Theater) and Eurydice in Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (Columbia Stages). Marina can be seen next as Marie Antoinette in Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists at Gulfshore Playhouse. She received her MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity Rep and her BA in Theater from Oberlin College. Please visit www.Marinashay.com for more. Instagram: @marinashay

Kathryn Tkel

Kathryn is thrilled to be making her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut. Regionally, she’s worked with Ford’s Theatre, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Rep Stage, Mosaic Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, The Kennedy Center TYA, Perseverance Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Lorraine Hansberry, Willows Theatre Company, California Conservatory Theatre, Boxcar Theatre and Just Theater. Kathryn graduated from University of California, Irvine, with degrees in both Drama and Anthropology. She received her MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting.

Ayana Workman

Ayana is very excited to be making her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut! Her New York theatre credits include The Winter’s Tale and Romeo and Juliet (The Public Theater); Dos Worlds (Trinity Church); and Macbeth (Masterfool). Ayana’s regional credits include Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Theatre Company). Ayana has appeared internationally in Julius Caesar at The Globe Theatre (London, England); Virtual Truth at Bunker (Ljubljana, Slovenia); and Guernica Continuum at SNG Maribor (Maribor, Slovenia). On television, Ayana has appeared on Person of Interest, and you can catch her on the second season of Jessica Jones. Ayana graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University with a BFA in Acting. Ayana is dedicating her performance to her mother and her father. Please visit www.ayanaworkman.com.

Lauren Gunderson

Lauren M. Gunderson is the most produced playwright in America of 2017, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award, the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award. She is also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Three-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park produced the world premiere of The Revolutionists in 2016. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University and Dramatic Writing at New York University’s Tisch School, where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the U.S. including South Coast Repertory (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The O’Neill, The Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Synchronicity, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire and more. She co-authored Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley with Margot Melcon, which was one of the most produced plays in America in 2017. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit Pursued By A Bear, The Taming and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (The Revolutionists, The Book of Will, Silent Sky, Bauer and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr. Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon was released from Two Lions/Amazon in May 2017. Visit LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory.

Margot Melcon

Margot Melcon is a theatre artist, administrator and writer. She was the Director of New Play Development at Marin Theatre Company for seven years, where she dramaturged over 30 productions — including six world premieres — and administered the company’s two annual new play prizes and commissioning program. She has developed plays with TheatreWorks, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Ground Floor, The Kennedy Center, the New Harmony Project and the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. She is currently the Program Executive for Promoting Culture at the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Margot is a graduate of California State University, Chico.

Eleanor Holdridge

Eleanor made her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut with The Revolutionists in 2016. Her off-Broadway credits include Selma ’65 (La MaMa Theatre); Steve & Idi (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Cycling Past the Matterhorn (Clurman Theatre); and The Imaginary Invalid and Mary Stuart (The Pearl Theatre Company). Regional credits include The Crucible, and the world premieres of Fickle: A Fancy French Farce and I and You (Olney Theatre Center); the world premiere of a new adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac (Perseverance Theatre); Vanya and Masha and Sonya and Spike (The Orlando Shakespeare Company); God of Carnage and Pygmalion (Everyman Theatre); After the Revolution and Something You Did (Theatre J); Gee’s Bend (Arden Theatre Company); Hamlet, As You Like It, The Tempest and Twelfth Night (Shakespeare & Company); Educating Rita, Noises Off, Art and Other Desert Cities (Triad Stage); Julius Caesar and MacBeth (Milwaukee Shakespeare); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Festival St. Louis); Henry V (Shakespeare on the Sound). Upcoming productions include Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical (Florida Rep) and Richard II (Orlando Shakespeare Theater Festival). Eleanor has been founding Artistic Director for the Red Heel Theatre Company, Resident Assistant Director at Shakespeare Theatre and Resident Director at New Dramatists. She has worked at the Yale School of Drama, New York University and the Juilliard School, and she currently chairs the Drama Department at Catholic University. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and MFA from Yale School of Drama.

John Coyne

John is excited to return to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park where he previously designed I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti. He has designed sets for numerous companies across the U.S. including By the Way, Meet Vera Stark for Alliance Theatre; Les Miserables, Henry IV, Of Mice and Men and Tartuffe for Dallas Theater Center; Charly’s Aunt for Guthrie Theater; Rough Crossing for The Old Globe; Macbeth for The Shakespeare Theatre Company; and Hamlet for The Public Theater. John’s design work has been seen at Goodspeed Musicals, Yale Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Triad Stage, TheaterWorks Hartford, Ford’s Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Triad Stage, Santa Fe Stages, The Juilliard School and Chautauqua Theater Company, among others. Opera credits include Die Meistersingers von Nurnburg, The Ballad of Baby Doe and L’Elisir D’Amore at San Francisco Opera; Simon Boccenegra, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at San Diego Opera; and Die Fledermaus at Washington National Opera; as well as designs for New York City Opera, Fletcher Opera Theater, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Center. John received his MFA from Yale University and is currently the Director of Scenic Design at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Helen Q. Huang

Helen is pleased to be making her Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut. Design credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, Classic Stage Company, Children’s Theatre Company, Arena Stage, The Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Signature Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Company and Disney Entertainment. Opera credits include Boston Lyric Opera. Ballet credits include The Washington Ballet. International credits include set and costume design for National Opera House of China and the Central Television of China. Awards include the Helen Hayes Award and Ivey Award. Exhibitions that Huang’s design works have been presented in include The Prague Quadrennial, the Costume Design at the Turn of the Century exhibit in Moscow and Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance in New York. Huang is a professor of MFA Costume Design Program at University of Maryland, College Park. Please visit www.helenqhuang.com.

Nancy Schertler

Nancy is pleased to return to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, having most recently designed here for Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End in 2017. Broadway credits include productions of Bill Irwin’s Fool Moon and Largely New York (Tony Award nomination). Off-Broadway productions include Hilda (directed by Carey Perloff), and Texts for Nothing and The Regard Evening (directed by Bill Irwin). Her collaborations with director Eleanor Holdridge include designs for The Crucible, Fickle, Hay Fever and The Who & The What. She has designed for regional theatres across the country, including American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage and Seattle Repertory Theatre. World premiere opera productions include The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, which was commissioned by A.C.T.; and Shadowboxer, Clara and Later the Same Evening, commissioned by Maryland Opera Studio.

Matthew M. Nielson

Matthew made his Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut in 2012 with The Three Musketeers and has since returned for Abigail/1702, The Book Club Play, Clybourne Park, 4000 Miles, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, Peter and the Starcatcher, Buzzer, Sex with Strangers, Mad River Rising, Mothers and Sons, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Summerland, Treasure Island and Misery. Off-Broadway credits include The Public Theater/ NYSF, Lincoln Center Theater and 59E59 Theaters. Regional credits include Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Delaware Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre, Theater Alliance, Olney Theatre Center and Contemporary American Theater Festival. Film and television credits include Death in Time, Elbow Grease, Blue, Epix Drive-In, From Hell to Here, The Good Ways of Things, The Long Road and Too Like the Lightning. Matthew is a founding member of the audio theatre company The Audible Group and creator of the series Troublesome Gap. Nielson has won several awards for his work in the D.C. area, regionally and in film. He is currently running Sound Lab Studios, a recording studio and production house. Samples can be heard online at www.CuriousMusic.com.

Justin Schmitz

Justin is delighted to be making his Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut! His New York credits include Cow Play (Dixon Place). Regionally, he has designed for The Kennedy Center and The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Theater J, Olney Theatre Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre, Imagination Stage, Constellation Theatre Company, Keegan Theatre, Rorschach Theater, Forum Theater, WSC Avant Bard, Chautauqua Theatre Company and Triad Stage. He has also designed for The University of Maryland, Catholic University of America and Gallaudet University, amongst others. He has received two Helen Hayes nominations: The Wild Party (Constellation Theatre) and I Call My Brothers (Forum Theatre). Design fellowships include The Kennedy Center (2015) through the Kenan Institute, Chautauqua Theater Company (2013) and The Orchard Project (2011). If you would like to hear samples of his work, see upcoming projects or learn more please visit www.justinschmitztheatre.com.

Howard Dent

Howard is excited to be at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He retired in 2015 after 45 years as an educator in elementary, middle and high schools. Since retirement, he has been the assistant lighting designer on productions at Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Maryland; Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland; and Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York. He is happy to work again with Eleanor Holdridge, John Coyne and Nancy Schertler. Howard holds a BA in Drama and an MA in Education from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Stephanie Klapper, CSA

Stephanie is thrilled to continue her collaboration with Blake Robison and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, having cast Shakespeare in Love, Mr. Joy, Be Here Now, Marie and Rosetta, Sooner/Later, Treasure Island and Murder for Two last season. Previously for the Playhouse, she cast A Prayer for Owen Meany, Disgraced, A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, Summerland, All the Roads Home, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, The Secret Garden, Sex with Strangers, Mad River Rising, Native Gardens, The Revolutionists, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mothers and Sons, Bad Dates, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, Safe House, Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical, Circle Mirror Transformation, Peter and the Starcatcher, Buzzer, Fly, Seven Spots on the Sun, Clybourne Park, 4000 Miles, Pride and Prejudice and A Delicate Ship, as well as Shipwrecked! An Entertainment; The Book Club Play; Leveling Up; Abigail/1702; The Three Musketeers; and The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead. Her work is frequently seen on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally, as well as on film and television. She has many exciting projects running and upcoming. Stephanie is a member of the Casting Society of America.

Brooke Redler

Brooke is pleased to return for her fourth season with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Her off-Broadway credits include Breathing Time, The Faire and From White Plains (production stage manager, Fault Line Theatre). Regional theatre credits include Million Dollar Quartet, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Summerland and Native Gardens (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Hair: Retrospection, Stillwater, The Whipping Man, August: Osage County, Cabaret and five seasons of A Christmas Carol (production stage manager, Kansas City Repertory Theatre); Peter and the Starcatcher and Richard II (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Center Stage in Baltimore); and The Drowsy Chaperone, Is He Dead? and Harry the Great (Creede Repertory Theatre). Assistant stage management credits include Our Town, A Flea in Her Ear, Clay, Jitney and Love, Janis (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); and work at Starlight Theatre, Stages St. Louis and Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. Brooke also has worked in opera, with credits including Moscow, Cherry Town and Medea (PSM, Opera Long Beach); and The Coronation of Poppea, Frida, Die Fledermaus and Tosca (ASM, Cincinnati Opera). She also spent two seasons at The Santa Fe Opera.

Jenifer Morrow

A stage manager at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park since 1994, Jenifer became the PSM (head of the department) in 2005. She has worked on more than 100 productions, including a number of regional and world premieres, and has traveled to several other theatres to bring co-productions back to the Playhouse. Her recent credits include Misery, Murder for Two, Marie and Rosetta, An Evening With Groucho, Shakespeare in Love, Little Shop of Horrors, The Second City’s Holidazed & Confused Revue, A Prayer for Owen Meany, To Kill a Mockingbird, Low Down Dirty Blues, The Secret Garden, Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical and The Three Musketeers. Jenifer served as the PSM at Santa Fe Stages for several seasons. She has also stage managed at Cleveland Play House, La Jolla Playhouse, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Long Wharf Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, Virginia Shakespeare Festival, The Ordway and Players Theatre Columbus. One of her most memorable experiences was stage managing the U.K. tour of Miss Evers’ Boys at The Barbican Centre in London and at the historic Bristol Old Vic.

Suann Pollock

In more than 20 years at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Suann has stage managed many productions. Her favorites include Company; The History of Invulnerability; Three Sisters; Othello; Pure Confidence; This Wonderful Life; Love, Janis; Crowns; Leap; A Christmas Carol; The Crucible; Hiding Behind Comets; and The Smell of the Kill. Regionally, she has served as production stage manager at Music Theatre Wichita, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, BoarsHead Theater and Cincinnati Ballet. Suann has directed Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse and The Phantom Tollbooth for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s Off the Hill outreach tours. Other favorite directing credits include Pride and Prejudice; Rent; Urinetown; and Bat Boy, The Musical. Suann teaches Musical Theatre Acting for University of Cincinnati’s College- Conservatory of Music Prep Department and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.