A Midsummer Night's Dream
At Descanso Gardens
August 16-24, 2019
CAST
HERMIA - Devereau Chumrau
LYSANDER - Tom Gelo
HELENA - Sara Mountjoy-Pepka
DEMETRIUS - Nicholas Daly Clark
THESEUS - Jeremy Roberts
HIPPOLYTA - Farah Merani
EGEUS - Weldon Garrett
NICK BOTTOM - Fred Cross
PETER QUINCE - Aaron Leddick
FRANCIS FLUTE - Ethan Zahn
SNUG - Leesa Kim
ROBIN STARVELING - Anastasia Leddick
OBERON - Jamie Cline
TITANIA - Erin Maxick
ROBIN GOODFELLOW - Steve Collins
FAIRIES: David Matthew Rodriguez, Amanda Tran, Katie McCulla, Erik Fine, Christopher DePiazza, Jacqueline Hinton
DRUIDS: Lauren Wilmore, Tia Savage, Jessica Antenorcruz, Evienne Zander
Dance Director: Genevieve Zander
Text Director: Brian Elerding
Assistant Text Director: Fred "Assistant TO the Director" Cross
Assistant Dance Director: David Matthew Rodriguez
Production Companies: Ensemble Shakespeare Theater, Treeture
Music Director: Marc Gasway
Assistant Stage Manager: Paige Hart
Extraordinary Technical Assistance from Jennifer McCormick
Special Thanks to Emi Yoshimura, Nadia Hagen, Jenn McCormick, Mike and Felix at Descanso, the entire Descanso staff, Kristina Garnett and Sadye Harvey for costumes, Andrea Stewart, Evienne Zander, Charlie Ockwell, Jeffrey Baker, Lineage Performing Arts Center, Joe Estrella, and everyone who has helped make Midsummer a possibility.
Select Cast Bios
Jamie Cline
From Orlando, FL., he studied performance at USC, earning his MFA. He performs regularly at Universal Studios Hollywood, Pirates Dinner Adventure, and tours with Pure Praxis, a social justice theatre troupe dedicated to cultural change. Thanks so much to Brian, Genevieve, and Fred for bringing him into the forest and not letting him wander astray...too far.
Steve Collins (Puck) Steve has degrees in Theater and Physics from UC Santa Cruz. Between magical errands, he works as a guidance and control engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Weldon Garrett
Weldon joins the company from pure serendipity and luck after finding the wonderful services of Lineage Performing Arts Company’s Dance for Joy program for people with neurological disorders. Weldon is a father of two, and is a retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He enjoys life with Lisa, his wife of 34 years.
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Tom Gelo studied Theatre and Film at Southern Methodist University. Today he works in various roles in the entertainment industry and has appeared as a motion capture actor in the NBA2K Video Games. Tom also plays guitar in the folk rock band “In Wolf’s Clothing.”
Sara Mountjoy-Pepka is known for her regular work with Impro Theatre (Jane Austin UnScripted, Shakespeare UnScripted, Dorothy Parker UnScripted), Ripley Improv (DYSTOPIA, GLAM), and The Improvised Generation (fully-improvised Star Trek: TNG). Previous highlights include Hero (Much Ado) and Nerissa (Merchant) with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Lady Capulet (R&J) with GreenStage Shakespeare in the Parks, as well as Kitty Shcherbatsky in Book-It Repertory Theatre's Anna Karenina. Sara can be found on social media as @smountjoypepka, is represented by E85 Artist Management, and is pretty into dinosaurs.
Leesa Kim is an LA-based actor and writer. This is her first time working with Ensemble Shakespeare Theater and she’s been having a blast. She can demolish an 18” combo pizza by herself (www.leesakim.com).
Jeremy Roberts
Jeremy is thankful to be performing with the Ensemble again here at Descanso Gardens. Keep up with his past and future endeavors at www.jeremywroberts.com
Ethan Zahn is an actor making his debut with Ensemble Shakespeare. He is very excited to be a part of this talented cast. His previous credits include Horatio in Hamlet, Jonas Fogg in Sweeney Todd, Wilfrid Robarts in Witness for the Prosecution.
Farah Merani
Farah is a graduate of the Drama Centre London and has performed in Canada and the US, throughout Europe and in Russia. Selected tv and film credits include: Shadowhunters, Nikita, Lost Girl, Covert Affairs, and Private Eyes. In addition to being an actor, she has produced dozens of film projects with her company, Lifeguard Productions, co-founded a non-profit called Women on Screen, and participates regularly on a variety of professional panels and conferences, speaking specifically to diversity and gender issues in the film industry.
Nicholas Daly Clark is an actor, writer, and improviser based in Los Angeles. He recently performed with Impro Theatre Company in Jane Austen UnScripted at the Broad Theatre, portrayed Robert Benchley in 2018's world premiere play Nights at the Algonquin Round Table, and has appeared on numerous televisions shows including, and shamelessly shilled for corporations in dozens of commercials. Notable writing credits include Alan Tudyk/Nathan Fillion’s Emmy nominated series Con Man, TruTV’s You Can Do Better and Rooster Teeth’s Crunch Time.
Fred Cross is the co-founder and Managing Director of EST. He’s appeared in a multitude of theater shows as well as on numerous TV and movie productions and was last seen in the film Lear’s Shadow for which he won Pasadena Int’l Film Festival’s Best Actor Award last year.