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Jeff
Christian
(Artistic Director) leads the company into his seventh season, having
adapted and directed Henry VI
(from Shakespeare’s trilogy), Faust
(from Marlowe and Goethe), The Parvenu (from Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme),
Ibsen’s Ghosts, Dickens’s
The Cricket on the Hearth,
the outreach program 50 Minute Hamlet,
as
well as having staged King
Lear, Love’s Labours Lost and
Somerset Maugham's The
Constant Wife for
the company. Other
directing credits include A Whistle in the Dark
(Seanachai Theatre Company), Proof
and Driving Miss Daisy
(New American Theater), A Midsummer Night's Dream
and The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(Lakeside Shakespeare), the national touring production of the
interactive comedy Sister Bernie’s Bingo Bash,
both parts of Angels in America
(The Journeymen; co-director and actor, sharing in three Jeff Awards
and an After Dark Award) and James Krag’s touring one-man show, According
to Mark
(which helped raised over $16,000 for Habitat for Humanity). Acting credits with The Shakespeare Project
include Brutus, Buckingham, Proteus, Mercutio, Bassanio, Oliver,
Amiens, Richard of York in Henry VI,
Antonio in Twelfth Night,
Hamlet in 50 Minute Hamlet,
and one of the four actor/singers in My Name is Will. He writes and directs live action and animated
sequences for the Emmy Award winning Digital Kitchen, serves as a
creative consultant to Tessera Publishing and teaches at The Artistic
Home (on whose Advisory Board he serves). Recent
film work includes Batman Begins,
Witches’ Night,
The Poker House,
The Express,
Pickman’s Muse, Helix and
Good People. He earned a BBA in Marketing and a BA in
International Relations from The University of Wisconsin, and is
currently acting in Seanachai Theatre Company’s downtown production of Scenes
From The Big Picture.
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Mara Polster
(Founder,
Executive Director) is
thrilled to see the Project into its 14th season and is looking forward
to next year's 15th Anniversary. Mara most recently adapted and
directed 50 Minute Macbeth,
the newest outreach program for The Shakespeare Project's educational
arm 50 Minute Shakespeare -- now scheduling performances in its seventh
school year. Mara started The Shakespeare Project of Chicago in May of
1995 and during her tenure as Artistic Director (May 1995 - August
2002), guided The Project through the entirety of William Shakespeare’s
canon within the first four years, and over 50 productions. She
has
directed numerous plays for the project including Romeo
and Juliet, Titus Andronicus,
Henry VIII, Comedy of Errors (twice), Two Noble
Kinsmen, Julius Caesar, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Othello, Loves Labours
Lost, King Lear, A Midsummer Nights
Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Coriolanus, Edward II, Henry V, Richard
III, King Lear, As You Like It, Timon of Athens,
Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet
-- which was
mounted as TSP’s premier production in March/April of 1999
--
and of course, Macbeth (multiple
times including during
the Project's opening season and the Tenth
Anniversary Season.
In
1996 she
adapted and directed excerpts from Richard III which were
performed for the Chicago premier of Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard;
from Twelfth Night which were
performed at the Chicago
premier of
Fineline Feature’s Twelfth Night; and from her old professor,
Tony Kushner’s Angels in America for World AIDS Day at the
Chicago Cultural Center. Mara has
acted on many of the stages here in Chicago and many others across the
country. Favorite roles include Lady Macduff in Macbeth,
Miranda in The Tempest, Emily in Our Town,
Angie in Top Girls, and Edna the Terrorist in Top
40 Terror. Mara has also performed in musicals all across the
country including Candide, Guys and Dolls, Evita, A Little Night
Music, Oklahoma, Brigadoon, Best Little Whorehouse, Sweet Charity,
Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, Zorba, and so on. On the TSP
Stage -- in addition to the roles of Artistic and Managing Director,
Producer, Stage Manager, Administrator (et al)-- Mara was lucky
enough to play many of the great Shakespearean women including Emilia
in Othello, Tamora in Titus Andronicus,Margaret
in 3-Henry VI, Paulina in TheWinter’s Tale,
Isabella in Measure for Measure, Katherina in The
Taming of the Shrew, Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra, Lady
Macbeth and also Chorus in Henry V
and is very proud to have
provided similar opportunities to many, many other actors in Chicago.
Since resigning the Artistic Directorship to the outstanding Jeff
Christian, bringing on board Laura St. John as Education Director, and
moving to the background as Executive Director, Mara has enjoyed
sharing the leadership of the Project with these two incredible talents
and growing her baby -- with its successful education arm, 50 Minute Shakespeare -- to new
heights. Mara is
a graduate of The Webster University Conservatory of Theatre Arts
and Dance in St. Louis, Missouri.
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Laura
St. John (Education Director) leads
The Shakespeare Project's educational arm, 50 Minute Shakespeare, into
its seventh year. She can be seen regularly as Gal in 50 Minute Hamlet
and in multiple roles (including Lady Macbeth and all three Witches) in
50 Minute Macbeth. Laura has worked with The Shakespeare Project of
Chicago since 1999 performing such roles as Jacquanetta (Love's Labours
Lost), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Calpurnia (Julius Caesar), 3rd Witch
(Macbeth), the Player Queen (Hamlet) and directing The Winter's Tale
and Twelfth Night. She became Education Director in 2002, overseeing
the student outreach programs and fostering relationships with schools
throughout the Midwest. Laura is a writer and drama/teaching artist for
Reading In Motion, an arts based reading program serving the children
of the Chicago Public Schools. She is a founding member of New World
Repertory Theatre and a collaborator on the children's book Through the
Cracks (Davis Publications).
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