| Tennessee Shakespeare Company's Board of Directors and Staff (from left to right): Ruth Dunning, Pat Smith (ex-member), E. Frank Bluestein, Dan McCleary, Sheri Lipman, Audrey Taylor, Robert C. Lanier, Stephanie Shine, Owen Britt Tabor, M.D., Margaret Wellford Tabor, Louise Calandruccio, Brittany Morgan, Barbara B. Apperson, Caroline Harrison, Zain Yunus. Board members not pictured: Nancy Copp, Blanche Deaderick, Tod Holtzclaw, John Paul Jones, Shaye Mandle, Raymond U. Osarogiagbon, M.D., W. Reid Sanders, Milton T. Schaeffer, and George Walters. |
Dan McCleary (Founder and Producing Artistic Director), a native Memphian, was Associate Artistic Director of the internationally-renowned Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts for the last half of his 13-year tenure. As an artist-manager, he served as the Company’s director of communications, marketing, public relations, and development, as well as performing in or directing more than 25 productions. Mr. McCleary has acted in and directed more than 150 regional theatre productions, including critically-acclaimed work as Macbeth, Richard III, Falstaff, Marc Antony, Brutus, Petruchio, and Coriolanus. Also a playwright and poet, Mr. McCleary teaches Shakespeare master classes and gives lectures frequently in theatres, colleges, and high schools across the country. He graduated from Germantown High School and Temple University’s School of Communications with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
E. Frank Bluestein (Executive Director) is the Executive Producer of the Tennessee Arts Academy, Founder and Chairman of Germantown High School’s Fine Arts Department, and Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning Germantown Community Television. He is the 1996-1997 Disney National Performing Arts Teacher of the Year and the 1994 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. In 1998, USA Today named Mr. Bluestein one of the top 40 teachers in the United States. He has served on arts advisory panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, College Board Arts Advisory Committee, Council of Chief State School Officers, and Tennessee Arts Commission. A frequent speaker and writer on arts-related issues, Mr. Bluestein is a former president both of the Tennessee Alliance for Arts Education and the Germantown Arts Alliance.
Owen Britt Tabor, MD (President) was born in Germantown (Philadelphia), PA, the only Yankee by birth at that time in a very large Southern family. He was schooled by Quakers at the William Penn Charter School, then by Methodists at Wesleyan University (CT), and finally by tobacco at Duke University School of Medicine. His wife of nearly 48 years, Margaret Wellford Tabor, has introduced him to the finer things in life, including Tennessee Shakespeare Company. Dr. Tabor has worked as a Navy Flight Surgeon (1965-68) and as an Orthopedic Surgeon since then; but now partially retired, he says, “I am excited about serving with a group of truly exceptional and dedicated people as this organization progresses. Henry V was right when he rallied to those who would recall their own service on St. Crispin's day at Agincourt - so it is with this remarkable TSC Board...it WILL be remembered!"
Robert C. "Bobby" Lanier (Vice President), a Shelby County native, was the executive assistant to three mayors of Shelby County, serving as their chief aide and advisor. Mr. Lanier was a founder and a Vice-Chairman of the Board of The Bank of Germantown and a former director of Neshoba Bank. Currently, he serves as Advisor-Director of Trustmark National Bank. He is the past President and Director of the GermantownCharity Horse Show, and is its Executive Director. Mr. Lanier is a member of the four-person advisory Board of the Germantown Festival Association, and was the 1998-99 President of the Mid-South Fair. He was also voted Germantown Man of the Year in 1963, 1976, 2005, and 2007.
W. Reid Sanders (Treasurer) is the Co-Founder and former Executive Vice President of Southeastern Asset Management, and the former President of Longleaf Partners Mutual Funds in Memphis. Mr. Sanders is a Trustee for the Hugo Dixon Foundation and Rhodes College. He serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Mr. Sanders also serves as the Director of The Pioneer Group, Inc., Boston; Director of Harbor Global Company, Ltd., Bermuda; Director of TVA Entertainment Corporation, Nashville; Chairman of the Regional Selection Committee for the Jefferson Scholarship at the University of Virginia; National Advisory Board member of SSM Venture Partners; Member of the Advisory Board of the University of Tennessee at Memphis. Mr. Sanders is a former Board Member of the Children's Museum of Memphis, Bridges/Youth Services, and the Memphis Zoological Society.
Ruth Dunning (Secretary), a teacher for 40 years, has taught in Stuttgart, Germany, Evansville, Indiana, and Shelby County. She currently teaches at the Tennessee Governor’s School for International Studies. Mrs. Dunning is the past president of the Brooks Museum League, and Chair of the Designers and Artists Showcase. She has been Teacher of the Year at Germantown High School, Shelby County Schools, and the 1986 TEA State Teacher of the Year. In addition, she was the Germantown News Teacher on the Move, and the city of Germantown Teacher of the Year. In 2001, Mrs. Dunning was named a Germantown Hometown Hero.
Barbara B. Apperson, the generous host of TSC’s inaugural outdoor performance component and mother of three, is a long-time resident of Shelby County and an active member of St. George’s Episcopal Church. Mrs. Apperson served on the Board of Directors of the Samaritan Counseling Center and the Junior League of Memphis. She is the namesake of TSC's "Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund," who mission is to bring as many Mid-South children to Shakespeare as possible.
Louise Collier Calandruccio is an active member of the Memphis Garden Club. She recently illustrated a brochure on Riverwoods, a Tennessee State Natural Area, in Germantown. Mrs. Calandruccio is a volunteer for the Emmanuel Center, including the Art Camp, as well as the Episcopal Church Women scholarship committee. She has served for many years on the Board of Advisors for Bridges USA. She is the wife of Dr. Jim Calandruccio, and the mother of two.
Nancy Copp has served on the Board of Directors of the Crippled Children’s Hospital, Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis Academy of Arts, and St. George’s Episcopal Day School. Mrs. Copp also founded and served on the Board of Memphis House, a drug-rehabilitation facility. In Maine, she was associated with the Prouts Association, the Prouts Neck Run Centennial Celebration, and the Winslow Homer Studio.
Blanche Deaderick, a Memphis and Shelby County teacher for 39 years, was named Teacher of the Year for Germantown High School, Shelby County Schools, and the Germantown Community. She was twice named Tennessee Council for Social Studies Outstanding Teacher, and in 2007 was named to the Tennessee Teacher Hall of Fame. She has served on the Boards of Bridge Builders, the Memphis Junior League, and Planned Parenthood. A trained mediator for civil and commercial disputes and a graduate of Leadership Memphis, she is also a member of the Facing History and Ourselves National Teacher Leadership Team. She holds a B.A. from Rhodes College and an M.A. in History from The University of Memphis. Mrs. Deaderick is Associate Director of the Tennessee Governor’s School for International Studies.
Tod Holtzclaw, a transplant to Memphis from Louisiana, has been employed with International Paper Company for over 17 years. Tod is an active member of the Memphis Area Gardeners, on the host committee of Opus One with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and a founding member of the GIVE 365 program at the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. He is the husband of Anna McQuiston Holtzclaw and the father of 4 year-old Caroline.
John Paul Jones, after graduating from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia Law School in 1948, joined the Memphis law firm of Wrap and Hernly, with offices in Washington, DC. He later went into private practice where he specialized in interstate commerce transportation, and labor law. In 1960, Mr. Jones became publisher of Memphis Daily News, a family-owned business and legal newspaper, that has published since 1886. Mr. Jones retired from the practice of law in 1992. A lifelong resident of Memphis, he is a past president of the Tennessee Press Association, the American Court and Commercial Newspapers, Inc., and also a past member of the Memphis Literacy Council. Mr. Jones is a board member of the Benjamin C. Hooks Library, the Rock n, Soul Museum, located in the FedEx Forum, and a founder of the Memphis Economic Club. Mr. Jones is a lifelong devotee of Thomas Jefferson and William Shakespeare.
Sheryl Lipman is the University Counsel and Adjunct Professor at the University of Memphis. Ms. Lipman is a Board member of the Memphis and Shelby County Sports Development Corporation, and Past Chair and current Board member of Memphis Regional Planned Parenthood. Additionally, Ms. Lipman is on the Board of Advisors of Facing History and Ourselves and on the Board of Directors of the Memphis Jewish Federation. The Memphis Business Journal selected Ms. Lipman as one of the Top 40 under 40 in 1998, and in 1995 she was a member of the Merit Selection Panel to Choose Federal Public defender for Western District of Tennessee. She studied at the University of Michigan and New York University School of Law.
Shaye Mandle (bio coming soon)
Raymond U. Osarogiagbon, MD FACP, is a hematologist, medical oncologist (blood, cancer specialist). Director of the University of Tennessee Cancer Institute’s Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology, Dr. Osarogiagbon is an alumnus of Cambridge University’s Shakespeare Summer School and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. “I advocate active performance of all texts, but believe that everything begins with Shakespeare. Great poetry and drama, by providing psychological insights, foster mutual understanding. Every community needs Shakespeare.”
Milton T. Schaeffer serves on the Board of Directors of both the Germantown Performing Arts Center and IRIS. Mr. Schaeffer is a partner of Oak Ridge Investments, Dallas, Texas, and he is the retired owner of Bluff City Buick in Memphis.
Margaret Wellford Tabor graduated from The Hutchison School, received her BA from Connecticut College and her MA from the University of Memphis. In addition, Mrs. Tabor attended the graduated schools of English at Duke University, the University of Memphis, and Exeter College at Oxford University in England. She has been a full- and part-time teacher at The Hutchinson School and MUS and an instructor at the Meeman Center at Rhodes College. Mrs. Tabor is an active supporter of the arts and education in Memphis. She and her husband, Dr. Owen Tabor, support Teach for America and often plan vacations where excellent Shakespeare productions may be found. She is a full-time mother and grandmother.
Audrey Taylor is a long-time resident of Shelby County. She and her family are the owners of Wildwood Farms in Germantown. She has been a member and President of the Board of Directors of the Crippled Children’s Hospital. Mrs. Taylor is a former member of the Junior League of Memphis and the Little Garden Club.
George Walters (President emeritus) is a long-time and influential community volunteer in Germantown and Shelby County. He is a past Chairman of the Germantown Performing Arts Center and past President of the Germantown Community Theatre. In addition to serving on numerous Boards and commissions, Mr. Walters is a Co-Founder and the current President of Germantown Community Television (GHS-TV), and the President of the popular Germantown Festival.
