“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly.”

Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D. December, 1843

Charles Dickens was the son of John Dickens, a naval clerk, and Elizabeth Barrow, who aspired to be a teacher. In 1824, when he was just 12 years old, his father was sent to debtor’s prison. The family was living in a poor neighborhood in London. Charles left school to work in a rundown boot-blacking factory. In 1827, he found work as an office boy, and in a couple years began freelance reporting at the law courts of London and later for two London newspapers. He also submitted sketches to magazines and newspapers, which in 1836 were compiled in a book. His experiences left him with a concern for impoverished children, and influenced his writing, as seen in Oliver Twist (published 1838) and A Christmas Carol (published 1843), among many of his short stories, novels, and plays. A Christmas Carol was an immediate hit, selling 6,000 copies.

-Courtesy of the BBC

A Glimpse of the 1800's

1800 – Alexander Brown arrived in Baltimore from Ireland, and with his sons launched a linen business; later, they expanded into cotton, shipping and investments and became financial giants. The city’s population then was 27,000.

1807 – The College of Medicine of Maryland (later known as University of Maryland) was chartered.

1830 – B&O Railroad began America’s first commercial railroad passenger service (horse-drawn), from Baltimore to Ellicott City. Steam locomotives were added in 1832.

1835 – Edgar Allan Poe, about age 25, left his Baltimore home at No. 3 Amity Street to edit the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, VA.

1840 – With an estimated population of 102,000, Baltimore was the second largest urban center in the country. Only New York City was larger. A gritty city, Baltimore was a center of shipbuilding, trade and finance. Maryland was a slaveholding state, but Baltimore also had the largest free black community in the country, roughly 26,000 people, comprising about one quarter of the city’s population. Their rights were severely restricted and frequently challenged, leaving many destitute, but others achieved a measure of economic success in trades and built their own churches and schools. Around 1840, a wave of German and Irish immigrants poured into the city.

1840 – The city skyline of the 1840s included the Baltimore Basilica, America’s first cathedral; the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon, which was built from 1815-1829; the red brick Phoenix Shot Tower, which was for a long time the tallest structure in the city; and the St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church on Front Street. The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery -- the world’s first dental college – was founded in 1840; it is today part of University of Maryland.

1842 – Charles Dickens toured America and stayed in Baltimore at Barnum’s City Hotel, located at Calvert and Fayette Streets.

1843 – In England, the first Christmas card was invented. Prominent Baltimore attorney and Star-Spangled Banner writer Francis Scott Key died at the home of his daughter, a mansion on the site now occupied by Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church.

1844 – The Maryland Historical Society was founded. Builders of the telegraph first tried laying cable underground in 1843, and by 1844 decided instead to string the line on poles from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore; Samuel B. Morse successfully sent the message, “What hath God wrought” in 1844. Eastern High School and Western High School, for girls, opened.

1845 – Construction on Lloyd Street Synagogue was completed. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African-American abolitionist and poet who was born free in Baltimore, published her first book of poetry, Forest Leaves. Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery in Baltimore in 1838, published his autobiographical Narrative

CAST BIOS (in alphabetical order)

Greg Burgess (Scrooge)  is a CSC Company Member, and has performed in CSC’s productions of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (2024), Romeo and Juliet (2024) As You Like It (2023) Macbeth (2023), Hamlet (2023) Twelfth Night (2022), Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2; The Winter’s Tale; The Fantasticks; Richard III (2017 and 2012); Anne of the Thousand Days; Wild Oats; A Christmas Carol (2014-2023); Titus Andronicus (2015); The Importance of Being Earnest; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014 and 2010); As You Like It; The Merry Wives of Windsor; The Taming of the Shrew (2017 and 2013); and The Merchant of Venice, among many others. His training includes The Martin Blank Studio, the Shakespeare Theater, and Howard University.

Morganne Chu (Ghost of Christmas Past/ Louisa/ Businessperson 2) returns to CSC after portraying Belle after CSC’s 2022 and 2023 productions of A Christmas Carol. Select Previous credits include: Cumberland Theatre- Escape to Margaritaville (Ensemble), Spooky Dog… (Thelma), Comedy of Errors (Luciana), Rock of Ages (Constance), CLUE On Stage (Cook and Telegram Girl), Reefer Madness (Ensemble) Toby’s Dinner Theatre- GREASE (Female Swing), Spamalot (Ensemble and Female Swing), A Christmas Story (Ensemble); NextStop Theatre- 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies (Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Others); Annapolis Shakespeare- R&G are Dead (Ophelia ), Cabaret (Lulu), A Christmas Carol (Martha) and others. BFA in Musical Theatre from AMDA NYC/LA. www.morgannechu.com

Joelle Denise (Mrs. Cratchit) is making her CSC debut. Her recent credits include Seven Guitars (Louise), Clay’s Place (Edna), and Tears of the Soul (Vivian) with the AngelWing Project, and Laughing Stock (Sarah) at Laurel Mill Playhouse, among others. She trained at Studio Acting Conservatory in Washington, DC.

Paul Diem (Fezziwig/ Dickens) is returns to CSC after appearing in A Christmas Carol (Bob Cratchit) last year. Previous roles: …The Death of Walt Disney (Single Carrot Theatre), Year of the Rooster (Single Carrot Theatre), Accident Bear (Bob Bartlett), Samsara (Single Carrot Theatre), Poe’s Guide to Poe (Baltimore Performance Kitchen), The Memo (Single Carrot Theatre), The Flu Season (Single Carrot Theatre). Paul was a 12-year member of the Single Carrot Theatre ensemble and is the Theatre Department Chair at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology. Awards: Best Actor - City Paper 2014, Broadway World 2017.

Kate Forton (Mrs. Pickersgill/ Businessperson 3) is a senior company member with CSC. She played Audrey in As You Like It (2023), Mrs. Pickersgill in A Christmas Carol (2022), Hero in Much Ado about Nothing (2022), Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream (2018), various roles in A Christmas Carol (2014-2019), and has been in several other CSC productions. Kate has also worked with Just Off Broadway in their productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Rumors, New York, Company. (she/her)

Ali Haas (Mrs. O'Leary/ Mrs. Fezziwig/ Nancy) is making her CSC debut. Previous performances include Santa Fe Opera’s Falstaff directed by Sir David McVicar, Complete Female Stage Beauty, Die Mommie Die, and Yellow with the New Conservatory Theater Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Vallejo Shakespeare Company, Troilus and Cressida with Poltergeist Theater, The Speakeasy SF with Boxcar Theater, Two Coins for the Ferryman with 3 Girls Theater, and Infernal Motel, Alice in Wonderland, and Neverland with Epic Immersive.

Isaiah Mason Harvey (Young Scrooge/ Topper) is a Baltimore born-and-bred actor-playwright and teaching artist making an enthusiastic return to the CSC stage. Past credits include Romeo and Juliet (Paris), The Oresteia (Orestes), Hamlet (Laertes understudy and others), A Christmas Carol (Young Scrooge and others), Broadway Bound (Eugene) (Vagabond Players) and Lyra and the Ferocious Beast (Caelum) (Truepenny Collective).

Brendan Edward Kennedy (Ghost of Christmas Present/ Joshua) is a stage, film, and voice actor based in Silver Spring, MD. Previous CSC productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Francis Flute), She Stoops To Conquer (Marlowe), and The Tempest (Trinculo).  Recent regional productions include Coriolanus (Ensemble) with Avant Bard, as well as Henry IV pt. 1 & 2 (Prince Hal) and Henry V (King Henry) with Brave Spirits Theatre.  Websites: BEKennedy.net, GumptionVoiceovers.com

Elana Michelle (Neice Francis) is a Resident Company Member of CSC, is an attorney who has enjoyed a variety of roles as an actress and musician in film, television, and theatre; in CSC she has previously worked on Hamlet (Ophelia), Romeo & Juliet (Juliet), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania), Twelfth Night (Olivia), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Rosaline), A Winter’s Tale (Time / Mopsa), Mother Courage & Her Children (Mother Courage), She Stoops to Conquer (Constance), A Christmas Carol (Belle / Dorothy), As You Like It (Amiens), All’s Well That Ends Well (King of France), Henry IV Pt. 1 & 2 (Lady Percy), and Anne of the Thousand Days (Jane Seymour).

Molly Moores (Mrs. Dilber) has been a CSC Company Member and Teaching Artist since 2011. CSC productions include: Shakespeare Beyond: Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet (student matinee 2015-2020, 2022-2024); A Christmas Carol (2014-2019, 2021-2023); Much Ado About Nothing (2015, 2022); The Adventures of Pericles (2021); Macbeth (movable 2019); Macbeth (student matinee 2019, 2024); Henry IV Parts 1 and II; A Midsummer Night's Dream (2011 and 2018); The Winter's Tale; Julius Caesar; Anne of the Thousand Days; Three Musketeers; Macbeth (2016); Richard II; The Taming of the Shrew (2013); Antony and Cleopatra; Pride and Prejudice; Romeo and Juliet (2012); and The Merchant of Venice. www.mollymoores.com

Brendan Murray (Bob Cratchit) has performed with CSC in Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2), She Stoops to Conquer, and understudied multiple roles in Hamlet. Previous productions include The Mollusc (Quotidian Theatre Company), Rabbit Hole (Peter's Alley Theatre Productions), and Tangles (New Theater of Medicine). Other roles include A Walk in the Woods (Andrei Botvinnik), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Satan, Pilate, Butch), A Bright New Boise (Will), and Frost/Nixon (David Frost). TV credits include We Own This City, Copycat Killers, and Deadly Affairs.

Benny Pope (Dick Wilkins/ Businessperson 1) is a CSC Company Member and a member of CSC’s Black Classical Acting Ensemble. He has performed in the 2024 student matinee production of Macbeth, the 2023 and 2024 student matinee productions of Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol (2022) and served as an understudy in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (2024). His other credits include The Book of Grace (Rapid Lemon Productions), A Soldier’s Play (Second Star Productions), Christmas Is Comin’ Uptown, God’s Trombones, Hamlet, It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, Spell #7, Witness for the Prosecution (Arena Players, Inc). Film credit: America Gone Viral (Changing World Films)

Sam Richie (Marley/ Nicholas) returns to CSC after previously appearing in 2023 and 2022’s A Christmas Carol (Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley, Nicholas) and Henry V (Pistol). His other credits include As You Like It (Devil's Isle Shakespeare Co.) Cymbeline, Romeo & Juliet, and Man and Superman (STC Academy) Macbeth (Rapid Descent), Henry VI, and The Tempest (Do It Live!) www.samuelrichie.com

Tia Thomas (Belle) returns for her second show with CSC after swinging in Shakespeare Beyond’s A Midsummer Night's Dream. She is an actress, playwright, and teaching artist based in the DMV area with training from Baltimore School for the Arts and Towson University. Tia currently serves as an Education Associate at Signature Theatre. As a playwright, her work Eyeballs was featured in The Variations Project ten-minute play festival. IG: Tianellmedia"

YOUTH CAST

Georgina Ashford (Tiny Tim) is in the 3rd grade at Medfield Heights Elementary School. She is making her acting and CSC debut.

Everett Engler (Tiny Tim) is in the 1st grade at Monsignor Slade. He is making his acting and CSC debut. Everett has performed in a musical review at Musical Theatre Summer Camp with Musical Stages.

Lavinia Engler (Elizabeth Cratchit/ Internal Swing) is in the 3rd grade at Monsignor Slade. She is making her acting and CSC debut. At Musical Theatre Summer Camp with Musical Stages, Lavinia played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.

Devyn Holston (Little Fan) is a 8th grader at The Waldorf School. She is making her CSC debut. Previous credits include The White Snake, Santa Lucia, Joseph and His Brothers, Isis and Osiris, Julius Cesar, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Waldorf School) and Drama Club (Everyman Theater Youth Workshop).

Charlotte Molitoris (Belinda Cratchit) is in the 7th grade at Dumbarton Middle School. Charlotte made her mainstage CSC debut in 2024’s The Oresteia as Iphigenia. Previous credits include Dragon in Shrek Jr. at Relay Elementary School.

Cassius Rife (Turkey Boy) is in 5th grade at The Green School Baltimore.  Cassius previously appeared in A Christmas Carol (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company) last year.

Paige Simmons (Martha Cratchit) Paige is in the 10th grade at Baltimore School for the Arts. She is making her CSC debut.

Jashad Washington (Peter/ William) is in the 11th grade at Carver Center A&T. He is making his CSC debut. Previous roles include This Is What I Chose, No I'm Not Sorry, and Yes If You’d Ask I’d Do It Again (Teagan), Newsies (Romeo, Seitz), and Anastasia(ensemble).

UNDERSTUDIES

Isaiah C. Evans is making his CSC debut. Regional Theatre credits include Gem of the Ocean, Hamlet, Stick Fly, Kill Move Paradise, and The Piano Lesson at Arena Players; To Sir with Love and Did You See Jackie Robinson at the Waxter Center; Serenity House at the Chesapeake Arts Center and the Harrisburg Fringe Festival. Film and Television credits include House of Cards and For My Woman. IG: @actor_isaiahevans

Lezlie T. Hatcher is making her debut at CSC in a Christmas Carol. Some of her previous work includes: Mayme-Intimate Apparel-Compass Rose Theater, Jesse-Nightmother-Anacostia Playhouse, and Lena Younger-A Raisin In the Sun-Little Rockville Theatre, For which she won a W.A.T.C.H Award for Best Leading Actress.

Jade Jones is an actor from Baltimore, Maryland. She has been in previous CSC productions such as Macbeth (Fleance and others), A Christmas Carol (Martha Crachit and others), and Twelfth Night (Lady in Waiting). She has recently graduated from Morgan State University.

Steven Todd Smith is a Baltimore area actor with over a decade of theatrical experience in the DMV, NYC, LA, regional tours, and virtually, making his CSC debut. Recent credits: King Richard (Richard II, Frederick Shakespeare Festival), Dr. Douglas (Miss Evers Boys, Laurel Mill Playhouse), Romeo (Romeo & Juliet, Chaos Theatre Collective), Guiderius (Cymbeline, Baryshnikov Center, NYC), Michael (Picking Up, DR2 Theatre, NYC), Barry (Halfway There, Regional Tour/New World Stages, NYC). B.F.A., NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

David Yezzi appeared at CSC last year’s A Christmas Carol as Mr. Fezziwig, and 2023’s Hamlet as Ghost/Player King. He recently performed the title role in the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s King Lear (Marshall Garret, dir.). Other favorite productions include The Visions of Simone Machard (Thick Description, San Francisco), Candida (Princeton Rep); Macbeth (Classic Theatre International), Faust (Gene Frankel Theatre), and Listen, Houdini (Axis Theatre). Training: Carnegie Mellon, BFA. His verse play, Schnauzer, was produced by the Baltimore Poets Theatre at Single Carrot and published by Exot Books.

Séamus Miller (Director) is a longtime CSC Company Member and Associate Artistic Director. He also serves as Chesapeake's Major Gifts Officer and is a proud member of the Shakespeare Beyond team, bringing free performances to public parks all across Baltimore and the State of Mayland. Previous CSC directing credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V (AD), and the student matinee productions of Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet. Séamus is a member of Actors' Equity Association and has appeared in over forty productions around the DMV area. CSC acting credits include Measure for Measure, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Romeo & Juliet, Wild Oats, Twelfth Night, Red Velvet, and many others. Séamus is also the Artistic Director of Devil's Isle Shakespeare Company in Bermuda and the Co-Founder & CEO of Ardan Community Living, the premiere sober living facility for women in early recovery from Substance Use Disorder in Washington, DC. BA: Cornell University. MFA: STC Academy (GWU). www.seamusactor.com/directing @almostseamus

Lauren Engler (Production Manager) a CSC Touchstone Company Member, has stage managed CSC’s productions of Macbeth (2023), The Adventures of Pericles, Loves Labour’s Lost (2019), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2018) and has performed with CSC in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014), A Comedy of Errors (2015), and A Christmas Carol (2017).  Locally, Lauren has performed in Do or Die Productions’ Poe’s Last Stanza, Cohesion Theatre Company’s Coriolanus, and StillPointe Theatre’s Sweeney Todd. She also stage manages at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Lauren holds a BA in Performance Theater and Studio Art from High Point University.

Samba Pathak (Production Stage Manager) is an arts administrator, marketer, producer, and award-winning stage manager based in the DMV. DC AREA: Type One-Derful (Stage Manager, Workhouse Arts Center), Junk (Rehearsal Stage Manager, Silver Spring Stage), The Road to the End (Stage Manager, DC Capital Fringe), OLNEY: Disney’s Frozen (Production Assistant), Vanguard Arts Fund (Stage Manager). NEXTSTOP: In the Heights (Sub ASM), Ordinary Days (Sub ASM), The Mountaintop (Projections Design). THEATRE WEST: Little Shop of Horrors (ASM), The Play That Goes Wrong (Stage Manager), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (PSM). Samba is the Administration and Operations Manager at Theater Alliance, where he is active in the execution of the company’s production season. www.SambaPathak.com | IG: @SambaPathak.

Dan O’Brien (Technical Director/Set Designer) is a founding member of CSC. Daniel has performed, designed scenery, lights, and served as Technical Director for many productions (among other jobs too numerous to name). He oversaw the construction of CSC’s theatre in Baltimore and designed the sets and lighting for Macbeth (2016); for the inaugural season plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard II; Romeo and Juliet (2015-2019); A Christmas Carol (2014-2019), and many others.

Luis Garcia (Lighting Designer)is a lighting and media designer based in College Park, MD.  He holds an MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park (2024) and a BA in Theatre Arts from Stetson University (2016). He currently serves as the Co-IDEAS Coordinator for the USITT Lighting Design and Technology Commission and is an alumnus of the 2017 OSF F.A.I.R. Program and the 2016 USITT Gateway Cohort. Selected credits include: Professor Woland’s Black Magic Show at Quinnipiac University, Beautiful Carol King Musical at Fulton Theatre, The Waverly Gallery at 1st Stage, Funny Girl at Maine State Music Theatre, Kumanana at GALA Hispanic, Espejos:Clean at Studio Theatre. Web: luisgtech.com (he/él)

Kristina Lambdin* (Costume Designer) won the Broadway World Best Costume Design award for her designs for A Christmas Carol (2016). Some of her costuming credits with CSC include Dracula (2013 and 2019); The Diary of Anne Frank; She Stoops to Conquer; Alice in Wonderland; Red Velvet; Anne of the Thousand Days; The Fantasticks; Macbeth (2016); A Christmas Carol (2014-2018); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005, 2011 and 2014); The Importance of Being Earnest; The Taming of the Shrew (2006 and 2013); Romeo and Juliet (2003, 2012, and student matinees 2015-2019); A Doll’s House; As You Like It (Broadway World Best of Baltimore Award); and The Country Wife. Broadway World named her as a top artist of the 2007 Baltimore Theatre, and she won the Greater Baltimore Theater Award for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005). For more than a decade, she served as the Costume Supervisor for the Baltimore Opera Company and then Lyric Opera Baltimore.

Grace Srinivasan* (Music Director) has programmed and arranged the music for CSC productions since 2016 as Resident Music Director. A soprano who performs a wide-ranging repertoire throughout the region, she appeared as a soloist in a program of works inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, If Music Be the Food of Love, with CSC artists, the Peabody Baroque Band, and the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble. Grace holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory and sings professionally at St. Stephen Martyr Church and the National Cathedral.

Katherine Ross (Props Artisan) is a DMV theatre technician and producer, who is delighted to join up with CSC again for Midsummer and Shakespeare Beyond. Catch more of her props work on stages this summer at Nu Sass (Bright Room Called Day) and Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre (Big Fish), and then catch her wandering about the Maryland Renaissance Festival this fall, where she's stage managed annually for over a decade.

Quae Simpson (Assistant Director & Dance/Movement Choreographer) is excited to make his debut as the assistant director and choreographer for A Christmas Carol. Quae is a Baltimore native and a proud Actors Equity Association member with over 25 years experience traveling the globe as an entertainer, teaching artist, director, choreographer and music director. He is the founder and executive artistic director of Q Entertainment. Q Entertainment is multifaceted entertainment company specializing in education, performing arts and media communication. During the school year, Quae works as a theater consultant for Baltimore County Public Schools. He is also the choreographer at Carver Center for the Arts and Technology and music director and choreographer at The Baltimore School for the Arts. Quae would like to thank the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company for this wonderful opportunity.

Dawn Thomas Reidy (Production Associate) is an actor, teaching artist, director, and puppeteer. She is also a company member and member of the Black Classical Acting Ensemble at CSC. You may have seen her onstage as the Provost in Measure for Measure, Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun or Lady Macbeth in the 2023 outdoor production of Macbeth. Dawn received her BFA in Acting form UMBC and her MFA in Acting from IU Bloomington. Dawn is excited to help plan, organize, a facilitate the creation of the beautiful work seen on stage working on the admin side of things in Production Management. When not at CSC, she pretends to have a whole host of illnesses as a standardized patient.

Lloyd Ekpe (Foley Sound Engineer) is a member of CSC’S Black Classical Acting Ensemble and returns after previously performing in Shakespeare Beyond’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2024), Romeo and Juliet (2024) The Oresteia (2024), the summer production of Macbeth (2023), the student matinee of Macbeth (2022), and A Raisin in the Sun (2022). His previous credits include: A Civil War Christmas at the Strand Theatre, Girls on a Dirt Pile as a part of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He was nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Award and won 'Outstanding Performance in a Play Reading'.

Andrew Pfluger (Board Operator) is making their CSC debut. They have stage managed Small Mouth Sounds and Hotel Cassiopeia at the Community College of Baltimore County, where they graduated with an A.A. in Theatre Design/Production in 2023. They have also stage managed with Stevenson University (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark) and lighting programmed with Bethesda Conservatory of Dance. They have held a variety of positions at Drama Learning Center—including production manager, technician, and carpenter—across over 20 productions.

Chris Reuther (Puppet Designer) graduated from Towson University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Art and Design, and has spent the past ten years designing and building puppets, creatures, and scenes for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, Submersive Productions, Cohesion Theater Company and various smaller performances. He was also the Show Creator and Puppets Designer for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s Fall 2022 production, Love & ROAR!

Hannah Brill (Wardrobe Supervisor) is a costume and lighting designer from Baltimore. She is the Assistant Costume Shop manager for Towson University’s Department of Theatre Arts. Hannah is returning to CSC as wardrobe manager (Romeo and Juliet, The Oresteia, As You Like It, Macbeth, Hamlet, A Christmas Carol 2022 & 2023, Twelfth Night). Other recent work includes costume design for A Year with Frog and Toad (Towson University), TU Dance Company shows Multiplicity, Echoing Visions, Legacy, and Surging (Towson University), Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes (Single Carrot Theatre), The First Thing That Happens (Acme Corporation), and lighting design for Rachel (Rapid Lemon Productions.)

Hana Clarice (Wardrobe Assistant) returns to CSC after previously performing in The Oresteia. Previous credits include The Code Switch and The Sleepover (Sisters Freehold), The Rocky Horror Show, Hurricane Diane, Head Over Heels, Bare, and Collective Rage: A Play In 5 Betties (Iron Crow Theatre), The Trip (Best Medicine Rep), Hamlet (Endangered Species Theatre Project), and Intimate Apparel (Silver Spring Stage). She has also done work with Washington Improv Theater, KIT District, the Capital Fringe Festival, and the One-Minute Play Festival. Hana earned her BFA in acting from University of Maryland Baltimore County and completed the core training program at The Studio Acting Conservatory.

Vanessa Strickland (Youth Coach) is a visual and performing artist making her CSC debut. Prior to working with CSC, she has performed, directed, and stage-managed shows with Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) in Frederick, MD. She is also an accomplished puppeteer and teaching artist. Past roles with MET include: The Glass Menagerie, Frankenstein, The Elephant Man, Antigone, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula and others. (she/her)

Monique Chambers (Rehearsal Stage Manager) is Rehearsal Stage Manager for A Christmas Carol. Monique Graduated early from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia with a degree in Stage Management. Past Experience includes The Bridgerton Experience as Front of House Manager, and work as a stage manager and mentor at Duke Ellington School of Arts in DC & Iron Crow Theater.

Griffin DeLisle (Assistant Stage Manager) is Baltimore based Theatre Artist & Technician. Griffin was previously Technical Supervisor on Shakespeare Beyond (Chesapeake Shakespeare); Board Op: POTUS (Everyman); Showrunner: Katalepsis and The Boundary (Submersive Productions); Associate Director: Alight, Sweet Hearted (The Strand); Dramaturg: Recipes for Community (Towson University, MFA); Stage Manager: Technical Difficulties II (Flying V Fights). Performance credits include The Monroe Doctrine (Balt. Theatre Project); Codeswitch (Sisters Freehold); Young Playwrights Festival (Baltimore CenterStage); Here We Are (Interrobang), I Know These Roads (Truepenny Collective) Griffin holds a BFA in Acting from Towson University and is a Collective Member with Submersive Productions.

Chester Stacy (Assistant Technical Director) has designed, built, and painted many CSC productions, including Alice in Wonderland, The Fantasticks, Red Velvet, and Titus Andronicus; and for Baltimore Center Stage’s Thoughts of a Colored Man and Shakespeare in Love.  Chester Creates LLC, has provided film production design for The Night Watchmen, set decoration for House of Cards and The Wire; and environmental graphics for Crunch Fitness, Royal Caribbean, Bmore Greek Grill, and Healthy Highlandtown.

Gabby Grant (Backstage Swing) Returns to Chesapeake Shakespeare Company after previously working on Macbet.  Other credits include Slime, shout (The Queer Theatre Project), The Grown-Up, You Can See Me in the Dark, She Kills Monsters, This Remains, and Heathers: The Musical (UMBC), Much Ado About Nothing and Puffs (Spotlighters Theatre), Alice by Heart (Wildwood Summer Theatre).

LEADERSHIP

Ian Gallanar (Founding Artistic Director, As You Like It Director) In addition to founding the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in 2002, Ian has worked as a professional actor, director, and writer for more than 150 professional productions. He has directed 40 productions for CSC. Previously, Ian has served as Artistic Director for the National Theatre for Children, Minnesota Shakespeare in the Park, and the Repertory Theater of America. Ian is a proud member of the distinguished National Theatre Conference and the Dramatists Guild of America; a Helen Hayes Tribute Award, Telly Award, and Howie Award (Howard County Arts Council) winner. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he is a Member of the College of Fine Arts Advancement Council. He is Immediate Past President of the international Shakespeare Theatre Association, an organization for professional Shakespeare companies around the globe.

Lesley Malin (Producing Executive Director) is a founder of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, and served as its Executive Director since 2003. She managed CSC’s building renovation of an 1885 bank into our modern Shakespeare playhouse as well as the associated $6.7 million capital campaign. She has performed in 28 CSC productions and previously in New York. She was, for 20 years, Vice President of the Board of Trustees of The Lark, the landmark new play development center in New York City, where she earlier was Managing Director. She served for five years on the Executive Committee of the international Shakespeare Theatre Association and organized its annual conference that CSC hosted in Baltimore in 2017. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, NYU’s Arts Management program, Leadership Howard County, and LEADERship Baltimore (2018).