Felicia Bertch is always delighted to return to The Park having had the honor of playing Rosalind in As You Like It, Jacquenetta in Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Felicia holds a BA in English from Wheaton College and an MFA in Acting from The University of South Carolina. She studied physical theater arts in Paris and has lived and worked professionally as an actor, clown and model all over the country. Felicia has taught, directed and choreographed at various institutions, including Wheaton College, The University of South Carolina, The University of Chicago and Columbia College as well as in Tanzania, East Africa. She is currently on faculty in the Theatre Arts Department at The University of Texas in Arlington. She is rarely bored. Special thanks, as always, to Andy and Mark. Shout out to the Special Sauce: Heidi. And a little crumb to the lackey: Emma.  feliciabertch.com

Reed Caciano is a senior at Wheaton College studying Christian Education. He hails from St. Louis, Missouri where he highly recommends you try a slice of Imo’s Pizza. He enjoys drawing, playing piano and reluctantly trying new things. He is currently working on a graphic novel about family, dialoguing with God, and the pain of the world. Look for it in the next ten years!

Nolan Carter graduated from Wheaton College in 2014. While a student Nolan was heavily involved in Arena Theater and the Conservatory of Music, where he studied voice under Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Holman. He was privileged to appear in Romeo and Juliet, The Secret Garden and The Tender Land in principal roles for the Arena mainstage season. Since leaving Wheaton, Nolan has performed in some of Chicago’s premiere vocal groups such as Schola Antiqua, Bella Voce, Third Coast Baroque, The Rookery and Chicago Bach Ensemble. He also starred in his first film, Cooke Concrete, an independent feature directed by Ian Martin, which was released last July. Nolan will begin his Master’s in Vocal Performance at the University of Notre Dame in the fall.

Jeff Cribbs* is thrilled to be returning to Shakespeare in the Park after playing Orsino in Twelfth Night and Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Regional theater credits include the roles of Harker in Dracula at Actors Theater of Louisville; Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at Denver Center (5x!); Jonathon in Wintertime at The Guthrie Theater; Orlando in As You Like It and Tony in You Can’t Take It With You at Great Lakes Theater Festival; Lysimachus in Pericles at The Shakespeare Theater; a season on the road and in New York City with the Acting Company as Hastings / Richmond in Richard III and Heart in Murder By Poe!; Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Harry in Morning Star at Kansas City Repertory Theater; Lancelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice at Utah Shakespearean Festival; Agis in The Triumph of Love at the Weston Playhouse; and the title role in Peer Gynt at the Pneumatickal Theatrikal Troupe in Chicago. Jeff holds a BS in Chemistry from Wheaton College and an MFA in Acting and Directing. For Glenn Dale Miller, December 1919 – August 2017, a man who taught me much about the virtues of good work, community, and mirth.

Karis Danish* (Beatrice) New York Theater Credits: Off-Broadway Hit-Lit (Dir. Robert Wuhl), The Gold (The Pearl Theater) in the New York Musical Festival. Regional Credits: How I Learned To Drive at Cleveland Playhouse and Syracuse Stage, Cowgirls at Pioneer Theater Company, Crimes of the Heart at Triad Stage, One Man Two Guvnors at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis (Dir Ed Stern), the world premiere of Tale of Two Cities (Dir. Warren Carlyle), Doubt (Dir. Anne Kauffman) at the Asolo Repertory Theater; A Thousand Pines at Westport Country Playhouse (Dir Austin Pendleton). She’s also worked at Cape May Playhouse and The Houston Shakespeare Festival. Karis holds an M.F.A. from the FSU Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. She also holds a lot of gratitude for those of you that came tonight to see Shakespeare outside in a park and hopes your experience of joy outweighs the potential for bug bites.

Keenan Dava is very grateful to return and work with this Shakespeare in the Park team. Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, he is a senior at Wheaton College, studying communications with an emphasis in theater. Aside from photographing Arena Theater’s productions, he also enjoys acting and has recently appeared in The Sneeze.

Cole Dennis is thrilled to be back and working on this phenomenal play. Cole is currently a junior at Wheaton College where he studies English. With Arena Theater, he has most recently appeared in Fiddler on the Roof and Like. In his free time, Cole enjoys being with friends and ironically watching Nicolas Cage films.

David Funck has performed in original works, musicals, opera and Shakespeare, both in regional theatres and Off-Broadway in New York. Favorite roles include John Proctor in The Crucible, Rutledge in 1776, Narrator in Our Town, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Jaques in As You Like It, Armado in Love’s Labour’s Lost and the Father in Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Theatres include the Circle Repertory Company Lab, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, and Rogue Music Theater. David was a founding member of “The Present Company”, a group focused on original works which went on to start “The New York International Fringe Festival” (FringeNYC). David is an MFA graduate of the Professional Actor Training Program at Southern Methodist University, and a graduate of Wheaton College, where he was a member of Workout. David works in software development, and his favorite and best known roles as a longtime Wheaton resident are Husband to writer Jennifer Grant and Father to Mia, Isabel, Ian and Theo.

Emil Ginter is excited to be given a chance to work on his first Shakespeare in the Park production. He has yet to perform with Arena Theater during the school year but has enjoyed helping out with sets and sound during the 2016/2017 season. A sophomore at Wheaton College majoring in Ancient Languages, Emil enjoys playing the piano in his spare time.

Chad Hauge (Borachio) is grateful for the opportunity to participate in another Wheaton Shakespeare in the Park, where he has appeared previously as Costard in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Silvius in As You Like It. You can find him in Chicago currently working on the new Mercury Hamlet production and running the beverage program at Longman & Eagle. He has been clowning around Chicago at stages such as The Second City, iO, The Den, Links Hall, Strawdog, and The House Theatre.

John Ingraham is overjoyed to return to the park stage to work with the incredible people who grace it. You may have seen him two summers ago as Francis “the one who does drag” Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or as Azdak in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. This Wisconsin native is a senior studying philosophy at Wheaton College.

Ken Johnson studied acting at Wheaton College and Circle in the Square (NYC). He has acted in Wheaton’s “Shakespeare in the Park” in As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night. Ken and his wife Marian live in West Chicago. His children Eric and Ingrid are very supportive!

Chad Klopfenstein studied theater at Wheaton College, graduating in 1996. He got lost on his way to his planned acting career and ended up writing software for banks. 13 years later, he appeared in Midsummer Night’s Dream in Wheaton’s Shakespeare in the Park as The Wall. He’s since been invited to play Lazar Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof at Wheaton College. Married to Renee, Chad has three exquisite daughters and (as unlikely as it seems) a hedgehog.

Renee Pope Klopfenstein studied at Wheaton College’s Arena Theater as an undergraduate. Though much of her spare time following graduation was devoted to church-sponsored productions, she pursued a career in education. Renee has taught in multiple elementary schools in District 200 throughout the years.  She currently serves as a Reading Specialist at Pleasant Hill.  Now that her three children (Lily, Sophie and Camille) are older, Renee is thankful for the opportunity to rediscover a lost love by participating in this year’s Shakespeare in the Park production.

Andy Mangin (Dogberry) is usually working behind the scenes at Shakespeare in the Park as producer, designer or director. He last hit the stage as Bottom a few years ago in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A graduate of Wheaton College and Southern Methodist University, he has worked professionally at theaters in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Chicago. He is on faculty at Wheaton College Arena Theater where he has been teaching, directing and producing theater for the last 11 years. Shout out to Charlie, Norah, and Henry–his biggest fans–and  to his wife, Katy, for whom he is most grateful.

Lizzy May is a theater-maker and Special Education teacher in Chicago. ​Lizzy devises theatrical work with students in Chicago Public Schools. Following the development of three different performing arts programs at inner city schools, Lizzy founded a youth-focused arts organization, Backyard Chicago. Directing credits include Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and her original work, The Angels Will Let You Fall, performed both in Chicago and at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York City. With a B.A. in Philosophy from Wheaton College and four years in Arena Theater, Lizzy is eager to return to the place of her theatrical training to appear in Wheaton’s Shakespeare in the Park.

Max Pointner enthusiastically returns to the Shakespeare in the Park team. He is studying Art History at Wheaton College and its connections to Music History and Geology. Theater-making has also been a focus of study and he has appeared in productions such as The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Sneeze. A native of Winfield, Illinois, Max enjoys writing, composing, making Lego art and collecting rocks and insects. He would like to thank his family for all their support and encouragement.

Jim Poole returns for more merriment in this Shakespearean park after appearing in last year’s Twelfth Night and 2013’s As You Like It. An ensemble member of Steep Theatre in Chicago, he was last seen as Robert in Earthquakes In London. Favorite roles include Orson Welles in Orson’s Shadow, Roote in The Hothouse, Judge/Caiaphas in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Colonel Cathcart/Major Major in Catch 22, and as the President of the United States in Mamet’s November. As a filmmaker, Jim creates corporate and narrative projects for a video production company in Chicago. He is also, incidentally, the voice of Scooter in Big Idea’s VeggieTales.

Thomas Ritchie is getting into hot water in Memorial Park for the fourth year running. When Thomas isn’t asking his Workout colleagues how to act, you can find him on weekends at St. Mary’s in West Chicago, singing English and Latin mass, or on weekdays at Fox River Partners in Naperville, wondering why investors never use the nastiness of a given CEO as a stock valuation indicator.

Alyssa Stadtlander is a Boise, Idaho native and thrilled to be working with the Shakespeare in the Park company again this summer. She is a senior piano and theater major at Wheaton College and an avid participant in Arena Theater. She was last seen as Varinka in The Sneeze, Jenny in The Sparrow, and the pianist in the band the past two summers. She is thankful to Mark and the rest of the production staff for this opportunity!

Carolyn Waldee is a third generation Wheatie thrilled to be starting off her senior year with the incredible Shakespeare in the Park company. This is not her first ado of the summer, having very recently appeared as Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing with Poor Yorick’s Players in Pittsburgh, PA. She is an English major with a concentration in creative writing as well as a member of Arena Theater, where she was last seen as Tzietel in Fiddler on the Roof. Thanks to Mark, Andy, Heidi, Felicia, Jenn, and all the rest of the company.

Olivia Wilder graduated from Wheaton College in 2016 with a degree in Communication and Theater.  While at Wheaton, she was privileged to perform leading roles in Romeo and Juliet, Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Julius Caesar.  Olivia has since pursued her acting work through Shakespeare study in Chicago as well as mask and clown work at the Pig Iron Theater in Philadelphia.  She is delighted to participate in Wheaton’s Shakespeare in the Park for the first time as a graduate and hopes to further her theatrical development by exploring graduate programs in the coming year.

Micah Ziegler is a senior at Wheaton studying theater and cultural anthropology with the aim of being a theater maker in all of its forms and facets. Beside this, Micah loves trying his hand at all other art forms, especially drawing and photography. This is his second venture with Shakespeare in the Park, his first being a part of Oberon’s fairy train in Love’s Labour’s Lost two years ago. In addition to Shakespeare in the Park, Micah has appeared in Till We Have Faces (2014), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2015), Fiddler on the Roof (2016), and Like (2017). Through the years, Micah’s family has been a constant source of support and encouragement and he shares his gratitude.

Mark Lewis has acted in or directed over twenty productions of Shakespeare’s plays. Productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar (New York Public Theater and Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Othello (The Acting Company), The Taming of the Shrew (Riverside Shakespeare Company), The Tempest and Love’s Labour’s Lost (The Dallas Shakespeare Festival) and The Winter’s Tale (Colorado Shakespeare Festival). He has taught at Wheaton College for 22 years, and has directed over 40 plays in Wheaton’s Arena Theater.

Jenn Miller Cribbs is delighted to be a part of the Wheaton College Arena Theater community again. This is her 6th year teaching and coaching as a part of the program. She also recently played Viola and Titania in previous Wheaton Shakespeare in the Park productions. Jenn has played in theaters all over the country, including The Denver Center, The Guthrie, The Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Acting Company, Two River Theater Company, The Coterie and others. Jenn holds a BA from Wheaton, an MFA in Acting and Directing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and an MSW in Social Enterprise Management from Columbia University. She has continued post-graduate training with Michael Howard and Patsy Rodenburg.  A Rodenburg Registered Teacher, Jenn teaches voice and presence in major corporations, and government agencies, universities, after-school programs for at-risk and justice-involved youth and as part of Wheaton’s Summer Shakespeare program. She is thrilled to be here with her husband and exuberant daughters. For Grandpa – who loved a good story, especially one for which people will gather together.

Maggie Ritchie is a professional songwriter and singer. She loves to create soundtracks to support theater and she is delighted to work alongside Mark Lewis and the cast by adding her musical touch to Shakespeare. Maggie has recorded a solo album titled Something Wonderful, and is part of the Sparrows Lullaby Band, who have released two albums: Songs of Home and I Wonder as I Wander. Maggie is honored to be a part of Shakespeare in the Park for another summer of magic.

Diane D. Fairchild is happy to be returning for her 5th year with Shakespeare in the Park. Other current and upcoming design credits include work with Raven, Wilmette Parks District, and Citadel Theater.

Zuriel Merek is excited to join Wheaton’s Shakespeare in the Park for the first time. As an electric violinist and solo artist, he specializes in live looping (the recording and playback of music in real-time), and his freshly reimagined arrangements of popular contemporary songs span a wide range of music artists. Zuriel also composed for, produced, engineered and played all the instruments on his 2017 debut solo instrumental album, The Tao Less Traveled, an original, emotive blend of post-rock cinematic soundscapes.

Margaret Winchell graduated from Wheaton in 2015. While a student there, she studied music education in the Conservatory of Music and was also significantly involved in Arena Theater. Currently, she teaches music at Downers Grove South High School and is thrilled to be involved in Shakespeare in the Park this year.

Michaeli Bunk is a spatial artist and choreographer in Austin, Texas. An Art and Theology degree from Wheaton College set a post-graduate pursuit of the language of line, beauty and the intangible realities that stop our breath. Current paintings and movement explore intuitive gesture and the mystery of sacramental life. Honored to support Arena Theater in this fantastic work! Break a leg y’all!

Emma Baker is a recent Wheaton graduate (as of 3 months ago!) who loves Shakespeare in the Park enough that she wriggled her way into coming back. She has performed in Arena Theater’s productions of Fiddler on the Roof, The Spitfire Grill and Dancing at Lughnasa. Thanks to Mark and the whole company for another magical August.

Grace Holmen is a sophomore at Wheaton college studying Studio Art. Making things with her hands and working hard are her two favorite things to do when she isn’t loudly listening to Taylor Swift, although sometimes she does both at once. As a member of the Arena Theater ensemble, she has yet to appear on stage with them. However, she was on the stage management team for all 4 shows this past 2016-2017 season, due to her constant desire to step up, help out and get to work. She is grateful to keep her stage management streak going with Much Ado About Nothing.​