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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

by William Shakespeare

(Comedy)
September 10, 11, 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26.

Hermia: Marisa Block

Marisa just graduated from Temple and previously appeared at Old Academy in The Rose Tattoo. Other recent credits include community theater and university productions of Alice in Wonderland, The Outsiders (Philadelphia Premiere), Spring Awakening (Northeastern University) and the student film The Gamma Man Cometh.

Lysander: Kyle Paul Dandridge

Kyle has appeared at OA in Bad Seed, Member of the Wedding and To Kill a Mockingbird. Other area credits include A Soldier's Story and The Fantasticks at Stagecrafters. Kyle is happy to be gracing once again the same stage as Grace Kelly.

Helena: Laura Seeley

Laura is making her debut onstage at the Old Academy after a number of years spent behind the scenes building costumes at other theaters. She has worked at The Huntington Theatre Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and currently works at Temple University. Previous roles include Hannah Jarvis in Stoppard's Arcadia and Jaques in Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Demetrius: Christopher Wunder

Chris last appeared onstage as Father Welsh, the Irish priest, in Lonesome West and in dual roles in Almost, Maine. He has directed Here on the Flight Path and Bad Seed and assistant-directed You Can't Take It With You earlier this season. He has also produced many shows. Credits elsewhere include Hotel D'Amore, Ten Little Indians, The Mousetrap, Carnival, Move Over Mrs. Markham, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Chris is OA's treasurer.

Theseus: Ross Druker

Ross is making his debut with Old Academy. He has performed numerous Gilbert and Sullivan lead roles with the Savoy Company at the Academy of Music, Longwood Gardens, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Chalfonte Hotel in Cape May, and the G&S festival in Buxton, England. His most recent dramatic performances were as Reverend Hale in The Crucible at ActorsNet of Bucks County and Yepikhodov in The Cherry Orchard at Stagecrafters. Other favorite roles include Baron Zsupan in Countess Maritza with Concert Operetta Theater and Lord Rocberg in Fra Diavolo with ConcertOpera Philadelphia. Ross is also a professional member of The Philadelphia Singers Chorale, which performs with The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Hippolyta: Courtney Bambrick

Courtney is excited to be performing again with so many of her favorite Old Academy artists! She recently helped to coordinate the second annual Children's Arts Program. Previous performances here include Almost, Maine; Move Over, Mrs. Markham, and Murdering Marlowe. She also appeared in emerging playwright Jillian Taylor's Murder! In the 2009 Fringe Festival. Courtney hosts Poetry Potluck at the East Falls Library on the fourth Wednesday of each month and teaches writing and literature at Holy Family University and Gwynedd Mercy College, among other area schools.

Egeus: Jim Lewis

Jim previously appeared at OA in The Mousetrap in 2006. He has also done backstage work in Proof, Return Engagements and HOGWASH! (Dee Watson's very last performance). At the 2007 Barley Sheaf banquet, he was voted an "excellence in acting" award as part of the ensemble in Mere Mortal and also appeared there in The Homecoming. Jim has had roles in The Visit at Stagecrafters and Never Too Late at Footlighters.

Philostrate: Isaiah Price

Isaiah previously appeared at Old Academy in as Percy in The Miracle Worker and sang our 2009 holiday revue. He just started his sophomore year in the theater department at the High School of Creative and Performing Arts. A basso, Isaiah is in his fourth year with the Keystone Boys Choir, where he is a featured soloist

Nick Bottom, weaver (Pyramus): Robert Toczek

Robert came to the Old Academy nearly a decade ago for our production of Bruce Graham's Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, in which he played the aluminum siding salesman. Since then at OA he has appeared in An Ideal Husband, Minor Demons, Enchanted April and our summer one-act festival. He has also appeared at Stagecrafters, including in Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday.

Peter Quince, carpenter : Bernard Scally

Bernard has appeared at OA in Murdering Marlowe and The Miracle Worker. When not working his usual job as the globe-trekking, cigar-chomping, sophisticated man about town assistant editor at the Review; he serves as Minister of Information for the Esoteric Republic of Freedonia.

Francis Flute, bellows-mender (Thisbe): Griffin Brady

Griffin is a tenth grader at Germantown Friends School who has appeared in several school plays, including Loves Labour's Lost, Fiddler on the Roof, and Twelfth Night. He is happy to be making his first appearance at Old Academy.

Tom Snout, Tinker (Wall) : Norman Burnosky

Norman nurtured his love of acting at Bishop McDevitt High School and is pursuing a second degree as a Theatre major at Community College of Philadelphia. He has appeared in You Can't Take it With You, The Sound of Music, and West Side Story. When not working on acting projects or involved in other activities, he works as a detective in the Philadelphia Police Department.

Snug the Joiner (Lion) : Ken Wilson

Ken is delighted to return to the venerable stage of the Old Academy Players. In the short time since he returned to the stage following a long hiatus from acting in high school and college productions, Ken has appeared in several area plays. He made his debut last year as a member of the Old Academy in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo, followed by an appearance in John Cariani's Almost, Maine. Also a member of Footlighters Theater in Berwyn, Ken most recently played leading roles in You Have the Right to Remain Dead and Duck Hunter Shoots Angel. He also appeared in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream staged at Barnstormers Theater in Ridley Park. Now, he returns to the Bard's classic comedy as the legendary joiner and would-be Lion, Snug. Ken spends time in his parallel universe working as an attorney for the federal government in Philadelphia, rowing on the Schuylkill River as a member of Fairmount Rowing Association and living as a made man in Springfield with his loving and very patient wife, Cathy.

Robin Starveling, Tailor (Moonshine) : Cary Gottlieb

Cary has been seen in our productions of Beau Jest and Murdering Marlowe, and was last seen in the inaugural one-act festival in August 2009. Credits at other theaters include It's a Wonderful Life, Children's Theater at Plays & Players, and Habeus Corpus. Cary also enjoys pursuing work in film including Murder Below the Line. He made his producing debut at Old Academy with The Lonesome West and co-produced You Can't Take It With You. During the day he works as a hospital social worker.

Oberon: Kevin Costello

Kevin is making his fourth appearance at Old Academy. Last season he played James Keller in The Miracle Worker and the artist John Millais in The Countess. His debut was as the thuggish boyfriend in Wrong Turn at Lungfish. He also appeared in Almost, Maine at the Players Club of Swarthmore. When not on stage, Kevin can be seen in various short and feature length films, commercials, and online comedy sketches, always looking for new and exciting opportunities to expand his experiences.

Titania: Jennifer Smith

Jennifer is pleased to reprise the role of Titania in her Philadelphia-area debut. Originally from New York, she has acted in (and directed) a multitude of shows. Favorite roles include Maggie in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Agnes in Agnes of God, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Lucille in Psychopathia Sexualis, Olivia in Night Must Fall, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Estelle in No Exit, Sylvia in The Women, Titania in Midsummer, and the Stepdaughter in Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Puck: Cassie Rosin

Cassie, a seventh-grader at Radnor Middle School, is thrilled to be returning to the Old Academy as Puck. She made her stage debut in The Crucible at Barnstormers Theatre in 2006, played Lillian in Cheaper by the Dozen and Gladys in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with the Marple Newtown Players, appeared as Sarah in a King of Prussia Players production of The Miracle Worker, and joined the Old Academy Players to portray Rhoda in Bad Seed and Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. Cassie has also had lead roles in the student films Ash and Second Chances, performed in the independent films Hypocrisy and The Chest, and worked as an extra on the set of the Paramount Pictures film The Lovely Bones.

The Fairy: Phoebe Frear

Phoebe, a junior in PA Cyber Charter School, is making her stage debut. She has performed in church musicals and small musical groups. She has studied theater in the last year and is anxious to put the book learning to practical use. She is currently exercising her creative energy in creating quilts not only for herself, but for others. Phoebe is exited to be a part of this play and is thankful for the chance to perform.

fairy: Ellie Rosin

Ellie, a fifth-grader at Wayne Elementary School, is very excited to be back at the Old Academy. She played a blind girl and the voice of Jimmy in The Miracle Worker here last year and performed as Dorothy in a single act of The Wizard of Oz at Radnor Day Camp. She was also a singer and dancer in the student production Celebrities on Trial at Radnor High School, and a dancer in a senior dance composition recital at Eastern College. Ellie also played a ballet student in Hypocrisy, an independent film by Twenty/20 Productions.

fairy: Jessica Hobbs-Pifer

Jessica, a fourth grader at Germantown Friends School, was a blind girl and the voice of Jimmy in OA's The Miracle Worker and recently played Zomo the rabbit in the GFS production of Trickster Tales. Jessica's thespian experience began in kindergarten as the narrator in Dr. Suess's Star-Bellied Sneeches. Jessica is a native Fallser.

fairy: Nicole Bishop

Nicole is an eighth grader at St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Fairmount. She appeared in local productions of The Miracle Worker and The Crucible and in Jake's Women at Stagecrafters in Chestnut Hill. This is her first appearance at Old Academy.

fairy: Wynn Geary

Wynn, an eighth grade student at the Project Learn School in Mount Airy, is pleased to return to Old Academy after working on the lighting crew for OA's production of Almost, Maine last November, and performing in our holiday revue. He played agent and songwriter Albert Peterson in Project Learn's production of Bye Bye Birdie and sang with the Keystone State Boychoir this past year.

fairy: Grace Kauffman-Rosengarten

Grace is in seventh grade at Friends' Central School. Her entry into drama was as Sing, the little girl who knew the meaning of life, in her first grade play. Roles at Friends' Central include Little Mary in The Women. She also has directed her sisters in many back-yard productions and thanks Old Academy for welcoming her into the community.

fairy: Mira Kauffman-Rosengarten

Mira, a fifth grader at Friends' Central, is enjoying this opportunity to get in touch with her inner-fairy. In school she has played Alice in Alice in Wonderland, a frog in the Indian Folk Tale, and the mother bunny rabbit in a kindergarten show. She is happy to be in her first OA production.

fairy: Ruby Kauffman-Rosengarten

Ruby, in second grade at Friends' Central, has been visited by the tooth fairy several times during rehearsals, which makes her all the more able to embrace the role of Moth, the littlest fairy. With her sisters, she is pleased to be at OA and very happy to be working with her first-grade teacher, Alice McBee, who directed her as the bamboo cutter's wife in The Eight Shining Princesses.

Director: Carla Childs

Carla, a Distinguished Member, has been an active member of Old Academy since 1993, when she brought several children to audition for a play and got herself a part as well. Directing highlights at OA include Our Town, The Winslow Boy, Driving Miss Daisy, Smash, Charley's Aunt, To Kill a Mockingbird, Enchanted April and The Miracle Worker. She has also acted in several shows, including Separate Tables and HOGWASH! She directs the Anne Frank Theater Project under the auspices of the Holocaust Awareness Museum, teaches at Germantown Friends School and Chestnut Hill Academy, and works on many student productions.

Producer: Helga Krauss

Producer: Dale Mezzacappa

Dale has co-produced a number of shows, including Smash, Enchanted April, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Countess, Murdering Marlowe and her enduring favorite, Driving Miss Daisy. Among her many onstage appearances are Nunsense, Ravenscroft, Charley's Aunt, The Bad Seed, The Constant Wife, The Rose Tattoo, and in last month's one-act festival as an aging British war bride in a play by Lisa Lutwyche.

Producer: Alice McBee

Alice appeared last season in the title roles in The Countess and The Miracle Worker. Other OA roles include Anita Marendino in Wrong Turn at Lungfish, Angie in the world premiere of The Audition, Mabel Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, Miranda Frayle in Relative Values, Mayella Violet Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird, a ballet-dancing nun in Nunsense and a young bride in The Member of the Wedding. She has been acting since she was nine, and finds theatre endlessly rewarding.

Set Design: Larry Chapman

Larry, a retired architect, enjoys offering his knowledge and experience to assist Carla and Helga (his wife) in conceiving and creating the look of the play. His Old Academy credits include The Miracle Worker (2009), Enchanted April (2008), Murdering Marlowe (2008), An Ideal Husband (2007), Relative Values (2007), The Constant Wife (2005), and Don't Dress for Dinner (2004).

Costuming: Sarah Swearer

Costuming: Ginny Kaufmann