About Rogue Shakespeare

About US

We are MFA candidates in Shakespeare & Performance at Mary Baldwin College in partnership with the American Shakespeare Center. The MFA is a one-year program with a company model. The students collaborate to jointly perform, direct, dramaturg, cast, design, choreograph, stage manage, budget, promote, teach, document, and write about a five-show repertory of early modern and early modern-inspired plays within a single calendar year across a range of venues and in a diversity of styles. The MFA is, above all, a terminal degree in theatrical collaboration and entrepreneurship.

Learn more:

Mary Baldwin College Shakespeare & Performance
ActorScholar.com
Roving Shakespeare, the 2012-2013 MFA Class
Prepare to Rove, Roving Shakespeare's book cataloguing their MFA experience

MFA Faculty:

Doreen Bechtol
Dr. Matt Davies
Dr. Ralph Alan Cohen

Meet the Rogues

Kelly Elliott

Past Experience:
Theatrical--
- Associate artistic director (1999) and general manager (2000, 2001) of the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival
- Co-founder and producer of The Dirty Shakespeare Project
- House combat choreographer for The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival (1999-2001), Willoughby Fine Arts (2000-2003), Great Lakes Theater education program (2001-present), Cleveland Public Theater (2007-2011).
- Actor for Cleveland Public Theater, Dobama Theater, Dobama Night Kitchen, Karamu Theater, Bad Epitaph Theater Company, Theater Ninjas, Great Lakes Medieval Faire, The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Theater, as well as other small or fringe companies.
Educational--
Taught acting and stage combat classes and workshops throughout Northeast Ohio, including Beck Center for the Arts, Willoughby Fine Arts, Cleveland Public Theater, Lakeland Community College for a range of ages and abilities. Teaching assistant at Mary Baldwin College's theater department for Basic Production and Acting II. Teaching Introduction to Drama: Restoration to the Present Fall 2013.

Past Education: BA in Theater Arts from Case Western Reserve University; MLitt in Shakespeare & Performance from MBC; Workshops/Classes with: Tom Cornford, Richard Ryan, K. Jenny Jones, Timberlake Weternbaker, Tonya Belov, Kathryn Pogson, Charmian Hoare, Raymond Bobgan.

Favorite early modern play: Do I have to pick just one? ummm... Macbeth. No - Titus Andronicus. Wait, that ain't it. Totally Timon of Athens. But I really like Julius Caesar! uhg!

Rebecca Hodder

Past Experience:
Acting -- Cymbeline (understudy/production assistant), Old Wive’s Tale (Venelia/Friar/Harvestman), The Ballad Of Dido (Achates/Himilco/Herald), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Princess of France/Sir Nathaniel), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena), Iolanthe (Fairy/chorus)

Design -- Margaret: A Tyger’s Heart (co-costumer), Old Wive’s Tale (assistant costumer), The Byron Project (assistant costumer), The Trojan Women (co-properties designer), Smokey Joe’s Cafe (assistant costumer)

Educational -- Communications 100 (will teach in Spring 2014), Guest Lecturer at Blue Ridge Community College (Spring 2013), Writing Center Tutor, Mary Baldwin College (Fall 2011-present), Interim Writing Center Coordinator, Mary Baldwin College (Fall 2012), Student Teacher, Sydney Middle School (Spring 2011), Student Teacher, Delhi High School (Spring 2011), Writing Center Tutor, Hartwick College (2008-2011)

Past Education: BA in English from Hartwick College; Certified in English grades 7-12 in New York State; MLitt in Shakespeare & Performance from MBC; Basic Certification in Unarmed Stage Combat (ASFD)

Favorite early modern play: Shakespeare’s Cymbeline because of it’s wonderful dark fairy tale quality and quirky humor, and Middleton and Dekker’s The Roaring Girl because Moll Cutpurse is amazing (plus who doesn’t love a play that’s all about clothes?)

Melissa Huggins

Past Experience: Adjunct Professor of English, Arcadia University; Education Intern at Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, PA; Research Intern Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Bankside, London; Costume Shop Intern at the American Shakespeare Center// Design work: Co-costumer for MBC S&P MLitt production ofTyger's Heart; co-costumer for MBC S&P MLitt production of Pericles; and assistant costumer for MBC S&P MLitt/MFA production of Massacre at Paris for the 7th International Marlowe Conference.

Past Education: BA in English literature, Arcadia University and MA in Shakespeare Studies: Text and Playhouse, King's College, London

Favorite early modern play: Of Shakespeare's--Twelfth Night (because it includes an excellent use of passive voice) and of a contemporary--Thomas Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday (you have to love a good apprentice riot involving shoes and pancakes).

Dane Leasure

Past Experience:
Past MBC S&P acting credits include: Margaret: A Tyger's Heart, Loves Labour's Lost, and Julius Caesar. Served as an ASC understudy on Two Gentleman of Verona, Julius Caesar, The Country Wife, and Henry VIII. Selected acting credits include: The Sum of Us, Joseph...Dreamcoat (Weathervane Playhouse) Big River, Taming of the Shrew, and The Diviners (University of Akron). Selected directing credits include: Honk! (Weathervane Playhouse), Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol (First Grace Arts), and Edmund Ironsides (Staged Reading, ASC). Dane is a Equity Membership Candidate and an Associate Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He is the founder of Rubber City Shakespeare in Akron, OH.

Past Education: MLitt in Shakespeare & Performance, Mary Baldwin College; BA in Humanities, The University of Akron; Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors.

Favorite early modern play: Edward III.

Celi Oliveto

graduated magna cum laude from Fairmont State University with a double major in secondary education and French. She thought she wanted to be a French teacher until she was cast in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and it was all down hill from there. She is thrilled to be a part of the 2013/14 MFA company and working with her talented, giving company members.

Charlene V. Smith

Past Experience: Acting-- Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Margaret: A Tyger's Heart (Margaret), Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice), Measure for Measure (Isabella), Love's Labor's Lost (Rosaline/Costard), Picnic (Millie), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Helen). Directing-- The Spanish Tragedy, Richard III, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Co-Director), The Comedy of Errors (Assistant Director), and A Long Day's Journey into Night (Assistant Director). Charlene is the co-founder of Brave Spirits Theatre in Washington, DC.

Past Education: MLitt in Shakespeare & Performance; BA in theatre and English from the College of William and Mary; London Dramatic Academy.

Favorite early modern play: Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy; Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

Mary Beth Geppert

Past Experience:
Mary Beth’s performance history stretches over 40 years: ranging from performing in a blues band to acting, directing, and producing theatre and music. Soul Kitchen, a blues band, was Mary Beth's passion in America and an all female rock band, White Rabbit Adventure, continued her musicianship in the UK. As an active member of Carpe Diem Theatre Company (Resident theatre company of Shakesperience, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK), Mary Beth designed and facilitated workshops for Stratford’s Youth Hostel, Evesham’s Arts Centre, and Leeds Grand Opera House. She also worked in after school drama clubs, and taught acting, piano, guitar, and voice classes. Mary Beth was the founding Executive Director of the State Theatre Summer Drama Academy and a member of the Nittany Valley Shakespeare Festival where she recently directed Much Ado About Nothing.

Stephanie Howieson

holds an M.Litt in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin College and a BFA in Acting/Directing from Kent State University. She has worked as an actor, director, playwright, and stagehand in seven states (forty-three to go).

Cyndi Kimmel

received her Bachelor of Arts from George Fox University in theatre performance and Spanish. Following her studies at Mary Baldwin College, Cyndi hopes to continue working with her love for both Shakespeare and Spanish through bilingual theatre education and translation studies.

Julia Nelson

Past Experience:
Acting -- Stitch (Edmund Ironside -- Staged Reading),
Fantastic/Eumenides (Old Wive's Tale), Princess/Sir Nathaniel (Love's Labor's Lost), Cinna/Lepidus/Titinius (Julius Caesar), Robot Maria (Metropolis), Angel (The Angel Play: A Suicide Burlesque), Chorus (Henry V), Balthazar (The Merchant of Venice)

Production Roles -- Dramaturg (A King And No King, The Panther's Scream, Oedipus The King, Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare Abridged, The Crucible), Assistant Director/Movement & Text Coach (Pinocchio Commedia)

Past Education: Julia holds a BA in Drama and a minor in Literature from Texas Woman's University. Last May she received her Master of Letters in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin College.

Favorite early modern play: Julia loves working with corrupted play texts such as Q1 Hamlet and The Insatiate Countess, but Shakespeare's Cymbeline will always have a special place in her heart.

Jessica Schiermeister

Past experience: I have acted in plays/musicals since 2003, been working with early modern texts since 2007, and directed Neil Simon's Fools (North Iowa High School 2009), Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (Waldorf College 2010), and a staged reading if The Second Shepherd's Play (Waldorf College 2008). I have costume and props experience, as well as stage management and hospitality experience. I have been the lead counselor of Waldorf's Midsummer Playcademy (2009), the teaching assistant for Waldorf's Shakespeare class (2011), a teaching artist for Pigeon Creek Shakespeare's Will Power Day Camp (2013), and the dramaturg for the American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp twice (Much Ado in 2012; As You Like It, Pericles, and John Fletcher's The Wild Goose Chase in 2013). I acted as co-dramaturg with Melissa Johnson on Margaret: A Tyger's Heart (S&P 2013) and assisted with part of The Shakespeare Project at Benton Community High School (2009). With the American Shakespeare Center, I have been a guest lecturer for both their spring teacher seminar and touring actor training (2013).

Past education: MLitt in Shakespeare & Performance from MBC, BA in Theatre with minors in Shakespeare and Humanities from Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa.

Favorite early modern play: Much Ado About Nothing or As You Like It

Riley Steiner

has worked in theater and television for three decades. Highlights of her work include Ophelia in Hamlet directed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, the brave but fatally doomed Page Bowen on General Hospital, a busy career in television commercials and a voice actor in several Disney films. As a writer, two of her plays have been featured in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Plays in Progress series. Here in Staunton, she created Classic Theatre Group, directing The Seagull, Three Sisters, and Miss Julie, and has directed four plays at the American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp. This fall, she is an MFA candidate in the Shakespeare & Performance program at Mary Baldwin College.