Our 2020-2021 Company
Frank Bluestein (Executive Director) is the 1996–1997 Disney National Performing Arts Teacher of the Year and the 1994 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. USA Today named Mr. Bluestein as one of the top forty teachers in the United States in 1998. Until his retirement in 2013, he served as chair of the Germantown High School Fine Arts Department; as artistic director of the school’s theatre, the Poplar Pike Playhouse; and as executive producer for the school’s three-million-dollar, Emmy Award-winning television studio. Graduates from his program include Saturday Night Live star Chris Parnell; film, television, and stage actress Missi Pyle; Emmy-winning casting director (Desperate Housewives & NYPD Blue) Scott Genkinger; NPR reporter Debbie Elliott; TSC’s Dan McCleary; and Blue Man Group actor Wes Day. Mr. Bluestein is a past winner of the American Theatre Association’s John C. Barner Award, and has served as an arts advisory panelist for numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts. He spent several years as director of shows at Opryland, USA, and he most recently wrote and directed the national touring production of Beale Street Saturday Night starring blues legend Joyce Cobb. In 2013, Mr. Bluestein was inducted into the Educational Theatre Association’s Hall of Fame in Minneapolis.
Simmery Branch (Actor-Teaching Artist/Production Assistant) TSC: The Romeo and Juliet Project. University of Memphis: Secret in the Wings, Abraham and Isaac, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Three Sisters, and Intimate Apparel. Other Credits: To Kill a Mockingbird, Elephant’s Graveyard, American Idiot, A Raisin in the Sun. Education: University of Memphis (B.F.A in Theatre Performance).
Blake Hamilton Currie (Actor-Teaching Artist/Production Assistant) TSC: As You Like It, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, Henry V. Other Credits: Struggle for Freedom, The Parchman Hour, Servant of Two Masters, Secret in the Wings, Measure for Measure, and Anon(ymous). Blake is a graduate of the University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance program with a B.F.A. in Performance.
Diane Dombrowski, Ph.D. (Co-Curator of Halloween Salon) has been teaching high school and college English for over 25 years. Her area of interest is American literature, with a focus on Poe, Fitzgerald, Douglass, Hawthorne, Alexie, Kidd, and Hemingway. She also teaches creative writing, writes poetry, and contributes to several blogs. Diane’s dissertation concentrated on the shared experiences of former high school students taking a creative writing course.
Heather Duzan (Asst. to the Costume Designer/Stitcher) Design credits: Assistant Designer for Southern Illinois University’s production of Sunday in the Park with George; Crafts Head for the 2019 Season at McLeod Summer Playhouse, which included Polkadots: the Cool Kids’ Musical, The Full Monty, Gypsy, and The Drowsy Chaperone. She served as a stitcher and costume technician for Pippin, The Jungle Book, Mamma Mia, Once Upon a Mattress, 9 to 5, The Boys from Syracuse, and Julius Caesar. Heather has been a part of a wardrobe team for the anniversary tour of Rent.
Jeremy Allen Fisher (Production Manager; Technical Director; Resident Lighting Designer) TSC: Macbeth, As You Like It, Waiting for Godot, Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill a Mockingbird, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew, Unto the Breach, It’s a Wonderful Life, Hamlet. A graduate of Oklahoma City University, Jeremy has worked with Theatre Memphis, Opera Memphis, Ballet Memphis, Broad Avenue Arts, Santa Fe Opera, Busch Gardens, and Northern Oklahoma College. Some of his other credits include lighting Memphis’ Broad Avenue Water Tower and receiving the TAC Individual Artist Award as well as 12 Ostrander Award nominations with four wins for his lighting designs between 2012-2017.
Cara McHugh Geissler (Manager of The Romeo and Juliet Project; Education Associate) has served as both TSC’s Education Manager and a Journeyman Artist-Manager. Cara played Biondello in TSC’s Taming of the Shrew and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet. While in Louisville, Cara taught children’s theatre at Encore Youth Theatre and at Adelante Hispanic Achievers. She also taught for both the University of Louisville and Spalding University. Cara served on the Board for The Bard’s Town Theatre in Louisville, where she performed in Misses Strata, Reasons to Be Pretty, and Just Like Life. Education: Murray State University (B.A. in Theatre and Political Science); University of Louisville (M.F.A. in Theatre Performance).
Jen Gillette (Costume Designer for Romeo and Juliet)Design credits: Digging Up Dessa and Bud, Not Buddy at the Kennedy Center; Olney National Players Tours 71 and 72; Menagerie at the Washington Ballet; Trojan Women, Don Juan, and Antigonick at Taffety Punk; Gypsy and Into the Woods at McLeod Summer Playhouse; Cymbeline at New Orleans Shakespeare Festival; Crimes of the Heart at Triad Stage; Puccini Plus for the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music; Or, Anything Goes, and Intimate Apparel for University of Memphis. Installation artist credits: Night Garden at Columbus Museum of Art; Town + Country Kitchen Document for Domestic Integrities at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Jen holds an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is Assistant Professor of Costume Design at the University of Memphis.
John Ross Graham (Actor/Teaching-Artist Fellow) TSC: The Romeo and Juliet Project. Hattiloo Theatre: Jelly’s Last Jam. University of Memphis: She Kills Monsters, Rx, Memphis Silhouettes, Memphis Murder Project, Shaming Jane Doe. John Ross is a writer, and his works have been performed across Memphis. Education: University of Memphis (B.A. in Creative Writing and Theatre Arts).
Ural Grant (Actor-Teaching Artist/Production Assistant) TSC: The Romeo and Juliet Project. Passage Theatre: Caged. Hattiloo Theatre: Jelly’s Last Jam. Ural is an award-winning theater artist and educator with a special emphasis on theater for young audiences. He has toured across the tri-state area in numerous shows geared towards young audiences, and is elated to be back home and reconnecting with the Memphis theater community. He is especially excited about his second year with The Romeo and Juliet Project and growing deeper in Shakespeare and all of TSC’s efforts to make Shakespeare accessible for all.
Lauren Gunn (Actor-Teaching Artist/Production Assistant) TSC: Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Southern Arena Theatre: Boeing Boeing, I Hate Hamlet. New Stage Theatre: Crimes of the Heart, A Christmas Carol, Cat in the Hat. Fish Tale Group Theatre: Voice of Freedom Summer. University of Southern Mississippi: Much Ado About Nothing, Night of the Iguana, Trojan Barbie, Women of Lockerbie. Unframed: Constellations, Gruesome Playground Injuries. Lauren is new to Memphis and is originally from Jackson, MS. Education: University of Southern Mississippi (M.F.A. in Acting).
Tristin R. Hicks (Actor-Teaching Artist/Production Assistant) TSC: The Romeo and Juliet Project. University of Memphis: Hamlet: Fall of The Sparrow, Inherit the Wind, Always Something More, She Kills Monsters. Other Credits: Hattiloo Theatre’s The Parchman Hour, Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts’ What I Want to Say But Never Will. Tristin is an Actor and Dramaturg who is in his fourth year of undergraduate studies at the University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre and Dance with plans to graduate in the Spring with a B.F.A. in Theatre.
Irene Keeney makes her debut on stage as an actor this season with TSC, having taught for multiple years in our Summer Camps. She is a sophomore at Muhlenberg College, where she is studying for B.A. in Theatre. She is extremely excited to be a part of the cast of The Hunting Heart: Carson McCullers. Irene would like to thank her parents for supporting her, and Tennessee Shakespeare Company for this amazing opportunity.
Michael Khanlarian (Senior Artist-Manager) TSC: Julius Caesar, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill a Mockingbird, Henry V, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet. Education: University of Memphis. Michael is a founding member of TSC.
Alison Letsos (Production Stage Manager) TSC: Romeo and Juliet Project, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Also Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Creede Repertory Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Vail Dance Festival, and Oklahoma City Ballet. Alison received her B.F.A. in Theatre Design and Production with an emphasis in Stage and Production Management from Oklahoma City University.
Carmen-maria Mandley (Education and Outreach Manager; Volunteer Coordinator, Curator of In a Purple Mood Salon) TSC directing credits include Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. TSC acting credits include Shake(s), Rattle and Roll (ensemble), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Speed/Lucetta), As You Like It (Audrey), and Speak What We Feel: Shakespeare’s Radical Response to a Radical Time (ensemble). Prior to joining TSC, Carmen worked for Orlando Shakespeare (FL), Shakespeare & Company (MA), Advice to the Players (NH), Theatre at Hubbard Hall (NY), WE Players (CA), Portland Stage (ME), Burning Coal Theatre (NC), Theater at Monmouth (ME), and Theatre Ensemble of Color (ME). She is the founding Artistic Director of Bare Theatre and the Nickel Shakespeare Girls in Raleigh, NC, as well as Bare Portland Theatre in Maine. Carmen attended National-Louis University in Chicago and continued her training at Shakespeare & Company and at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Carmen is also a writer and visual artist.
Dan McCleary+ (TSC Founder and Nancy R. Copp Producing Artistic Director), a native of Memphis, has created, directed, and acted in 25 of TSC’s 54 productions, including the inaugural production of As You Like It, also last year’s Julius Caesar, and Waiting for Godot, The Glass Menagerie, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, To Kill a Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing, Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia Gothic, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the all-female Julius Caesar, Othello, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), and Themes from a Midsummer Night with IRIS Orchestra. As Associate Artistic Director/Communications Director at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires (1993-2005), Dan acted in and directed over 30 productions, including his acclaimed production of The Servant of Two Masters, his own adaptation of Anaïs Nin’s Henry and June, as well as Vita & Virginia (Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf), My Own Stranger (Anne Sexton), and The Fiery Rain (Edith Wharton/Henry James/Morton Fullerton). Other regional directing credits of Shakespeare and new work: Seattle Shakespeare, Orlando Shakespeare, and Georgia Shakespeare. He has played over 120 roles on stage, including Coriolanus, Richard III, Macbeth, Falstaff, Marc Antony, Caliban, Brutus, Petruchio, Bottom, Master Ford, Stephano, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, Cassio, Bertram, Demetrius, Silvius, Herman Melville, Porfiry, Charles Dickens, The Gentleman Caller, Tom Wingfield, and Bertha Bumiller in the Greater Tuna series. Dan is a published poet, and the creator/director/actor of plays Speak What We Feel: Shakespeare’s Radical Response to a Radical Time, Unto the Breach, Quintessence: Shakespeare in Performance, and this year’s Classical Creations in Quarantine. Memphis Magazine named him among the “Who’s Who in Memphis” for five years (including 2020). Dan presented his TEDx Talk “Shakespeare in Kindergarten, or Let Fall Rome” in Memphis this year, and the Germantown Arts Alliance honored him with its 2009 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts. He holds a B.A. in Advertising and Journalism from Temple University, has served on the Boards of Herman Melville’s Arrowhead and the City of Germantown’s Telecommunications Commission, and he is a Little League baseball coach. Dan is the proud dad of ten-year-old twin boys, Sullivan and Collins.
Alexandria Perel-Sams (Wardrobe for Romeo and Juliet)TSC: Pericles, The Romeo and Juliet Project, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Memphis University School: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1776, Little Shop of Horrors. Theatre Memphis: Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Man Who Came to Dinner (Ostrander nomination for Best Hair Design). Opera Memphis: A Victorian Holiday (Hair Design), Memphis Opera Festival (Hair Design). Germantown Community Theatre: Arsenic and Old Lace.
Jasmine Robertson (Actor/Teaching-Artist Fellow) Credits include The Three Sisters (Olga), Intimate Apparel (Mrs. Dickson), The Spitfire Grill (Effy), Servant of Two Masters (Smeraldina), She Kills Monsters (Vera), The Curious Savage (Ethel), Lucky Stiff (Rita), Inherit the Wind, and Anon(ymous). She would like to thank Stephanie and Dan for this wonderful opportunity.
Brian Ruggaber (Scenic Designer) TSC: Julius Caesar, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Macbeth, As You Like It, Waiting for Godot, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Richard III. Brian is an award-winning scenic designer who currently heads the Scenic Design Program at the University of Memphis. He has designed scenery for over 160 productions, including Opera, Drama, Musical Theatre, and Dance. Prior to joining U of M’s faculty, he was an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and an Associate Professor of Design at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Education: Virginia Commonwealth University (B.F.A.); University of Massachusetts (M.F.A.). He is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.
William Shakespeare (Playwright) survived the Bubonic Plague, which was rampant during his 52 years. Just a few months after William was born in Stratford in 1564, the plague descended on the town and killed 20% of its citizens. Very little could be done to eliminate the plague other than strict quarantining. The London playhouses would be shut down for months at a time when church roles reflected at least 30 people dying in one week. As a playwright, Shakespeare lived through four extended plague quarantines that put London in lockdown. It is estimated that between 1606 and 1610, Shakespeare’s playhouses were only open for nine months, during which time he wrote Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, Coriolanus, and The Tempest. He likely worked on King Lear as well. As always, there is a lesson here for us right now.
Kaitlyn Shamley (Administrative and Box Office Manager) is a lifelong Memphian and has a passionate interest in music history and the ancient Mediterranean. Her time as a Rhodes College student sparked a desire to foster an appreciation and understanding of past cultures and their artistic works. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and visiting museums. Education: Rhodes College (B.A. in History).
Stephanie Shine+ (Resident Artist; General Manager; Education Director; Feast Coordinator, curator of multiple Salons) TSC directorial credits include Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Southern Yuletide, Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, Shake(s), Rattle, and Roll, Shakespeare Said It, Lend Me Thy Sword, 9 productions of Romeo and Juliet, and countless literary salons. On stage at TSC, she played the Abbess in The Comedy of Errors, Countess in All’s Well That Ends Well, the female roles in Unto the Breach, and Gertrude in Hamlet. Prior to joining TSC, she was Artistic Director of Seattle Shakespeare Company, a position she enjoyed for 13 years. Other directorial credits include As You Like It for Houston Shakespeare Festival, The Taming of the Shrew and The Comedy of Errors for Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the award-winning one-woman internationally-touring Marilyn Monroe Biopic, Marilyn: Forever Blonde, and several new works for Seattle’s Book-It Repertory Theatre. Her production of I am of Ireland (which she also conceived and adapted) opened Book-It’s 25th Anniversary Season in 2014. As an actor, she has performed with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, NYC’s Theatre for a New Audience, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, ACT, The Empty Space, and Seattle Children’s Theatre, among others. Roles include Juliet, Rosalind, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, Regan, Feste, Kate, Bianca, Dionyza, the Princess of France, Hero, Perdita, and the Chorus in Henry V. The Germantown Arts Alliance honored her with its 2016 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts. She is the mother of four exceptional young humans, Conor, Cahilan, Sullivan, and Collins. Education: graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts; B.F.A in Acting from the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program; M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Memphis.
Darius Wallace (curator of Creative Extremists Salon) is a native of Flint, Michigan, where he was introduced to the world of performing. He studied theatre at Interlochen Arts Academy and furthered his studies at SUNY Purchase in New York. His professional experience includes Michigan Shakespeare Festival, Flint Youth Theater, Attic Theater, and Hattiloo Theater. He is currently a company member of Playhouse on the Square and Voices of the South in Memphis. His movie and TV credits include Nothing but the Truth, Brian Banks, The World We Make, ABC’s Nashville, NBC’s Bluff City Law, and The Hallmark Channel’s Wedding at Graceland. Darius has traveled around the country performing as a solo performer as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Frederick Douglass, along with the poetry of Langston Hughes. He directed his own movie, 100 Lives, which is available on Amazon. He has worked as a speaking coach with Commercial Advisors, Nucor Steele, Sycamore Pictures, and TEDx Memphis.
Nancy Wright (Bookkeeper) has been with TSC for more than seven years and has provided bookkeeping services for small businesses in both the private and public arena for more than 20 years. She obtained her B.S. from UT Knoxville.
+ member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union.