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William Connell* (Stanley) is making his SCR debut. His New York City and regional credits include A View from the Bridge (2010 Broadway revival); The Coast of Utopia (Lincoln Center); Alphabetical Order and The Maddening Truth (Keen Company); Hamlet (Aspen Music Festival); One Man, Two Guvnors (Pioneer Theatre Company); The Hour of Feeling (Humana Festival); The Winslow Boy and The Mousetrap (the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); The 39 Steps (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival); Bell, Book and Candle (SF Playhouse); The Importance of Being Earnest (Gulfshore Playhouse); The Voice of the Turtle (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Pride and Prejudice (Geva Theatre Center); The Glass Menagerie (Two River Theater Company); Murder On The Nile (Dorset Theatre Festival); As You Like It (Weston Playhouse Theatre Company); Babette’s Feast (Threads Theater Company); Sherlock Holmes, The Early Years (New York Musical Theatre Festival); All’s Well That Ends Well (Theatre for a New Audience); The Dinner Party (Lincoln Center Institute); Mary Stuart (New York Classical Theatre); The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Theatreworks USA); and The Tempest and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Sonnet Repertory Theatre). His TV and film credits include Manhattan Love Story, MA, Smash, Not Fade Away, Gossip Girl, Law & Order, and Guiding Light. Connell received his BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
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Brad Culver* (Alan) appeared at SCR previously as Edward in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and Templeton in Charlotte’s Web. His other theatre credits include Alan in One Man, Two Guvnors (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Dionysus in Satyr Atlas (the Getty Villa), The Black Glass (Ballhaus Ost in Berlin), Present Tense (The Big Show Co./Oberlin Dance Collective), and The Internationalists (Istrian National Theatre in Croatia & Belgrade International Theatre Festival in Serbia). In film and television, some of Culver's credits include Extracted (Official Selection: South by Southwest Film Festival), Cartoon Network’s Regular Show, Animal Planet’s Lost Tapes, Dead in the Room (produced by Slamdance Film Festival), and A Lonely Place for Dying (featuring James Cromwell). Culver is a founding member of LA-based theatre collective Poor Dog Group. He received his BFA in Theatre from California Institute of the Arts.
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Dan Donohue* (Francis Henshall) is making his SCR debut. Donohue has been a fixture at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 1994, performing in more than 30 productions in such roles as Hamlet, Mercutio, Caliban, Iago, Henry V, Dvornichek (in Rough Crossing), and, most recently, Richard III. On Broadway, Dan was Scar in The Lion King. Other credits include Truffaldino in Servant of Two Masters (Intiman Theatre), The Night Alive (the Geffen Playhouse), The Triumph of Love (Long Wharf Theatre), The Game of Love and Chance (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Vincent in Inventing Van Gogh (Arizona Theatre Company), and roles at Portland Center Stage, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and elsewhere. Dan was an inaugural recipient of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship and a 2012 Grammy Award nominee (Best Spoken Word for Hamlet). His television and film credits include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mentalist, Shameless, Return to Zero, Water & Power, and The Closer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
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Allen Gilmore* (Lloyd Boateng) recently made his SCR debut in Peter and the Starcatcher with his friend, director Art Manke. He has previously been seen on the West Coast at Santa Cruz Shakespeare in Bach at Leipzig and The Three Musketeers (both directed by Manke); All’s Well That Ends Well; Henry IV, Pt.1; As You Like It; and The Merry Wives of Windsor. He has performed at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Arabian Nights, A Doctor in Spite of Himself and Argonautika. This season in Chicago he has been seen at Court Theatre in Waiting for Godot (Chicago’s Jeff Award nomination) and the world premiere of The Good Book by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare. In 2014, he became the first black actor to play Scrooge in Goodman Theatre’s nearly 40 years producing A Christmas Carol. Gilmore is an army infantry veteran and a 2015 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, originally from Houston, Texas.
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John-David Keller* (Harry Dangle) is a member of SCR’s resident acting company. He has been with the company since 1973 as both an actor and director. He has directed A Christmas Carol for its entire 35-year history. Among his other SCR directing credits are Godspell, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, In Fashion, The Real Inspector Hound (SCR’s first Equity show), Peg O’ My Heart and Tomfoolery. He has also acted in more than 100 productions at SCR. He recently appeared in the production of Anton Chekov’s Ivanov at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles and in Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the The Antaeus Company. Keller is the concert host for the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s fifth grade concerts. He is a member of Actors’ Equity, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and The Antaeus Company.
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Louis Lotorto* (Alfie) previously appeared at SCR as Fred in A Christmas Carol, Leslie Bainbridge in Taking Steps, Bernardo/Reynaldo/Osric in Hamlet and multiple roles in Cyrano de Bergerac. Originally from Seattle and based in Los Angeles, he has worked in regional theatre for over 25 years mostly along the I-5 corridor. His Los Angeles theatre credits include the Ahmanson Theatre in the Royal National Theatre touring production of An Enemy of the People with Sir Ian McKellen, the L.A. Philharmonic, International City Theatre, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Norris Theatre, six seasons with A Noise Within, earning an Ovation nomination for his portrayal of Camille in A Flea in Her Ear, and The Colony Theatre Company, garnering an award for his portrayal of Tom in The Glass Menagerie. His regional theatre credits include two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nominee for Ariel in The Tempest), four seasons at the California Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Portland Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, ACT (Seattle), San Jose Repertory Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre, The Lawrence Welk Resort, Rubicon Theatre and Ensemble Theatre Company (Santa Barbara). louislotorto.com
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Becca Lustgarten (Ensemble) last appeared at SCR in Molière’s Tartuffe (also at Berkeley Repertory Theatre) and Death of a Salesman. Her other favorite credits include Three Sisters at Williamstown Theatre Festival, directed by Michael Greif; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Hangar Theatre, directed by Kevin Moriarty; and a number of new plays developed and produced by the Actors Studio (NYC) and Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts. She received her BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University and studied at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. In addition to her theatrical work, Lustgarten is a writer and musician.
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Sarah Moser* (Pauline) is making her SCR debut. Her recent credits include The Great Pretender and Time Stands Still (TheatreWorks), The Lily’s Revenge (Magic Theatre), The Coast of Utopia and Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Shotgun Players), A Maze and In From the Cold (Just Theater), Eurydice (Palo Alto Players), StoryWorks (Tides Theatre), In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) and Hamlet (City Lights Theatre Company), and Almost, Maine (California Conservatory Theatre). Moser holds a BA from Stanford University and has trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She is a proud recipient of the 2014–15 Theatre Bay Area Titan Award for Acting and is a company member at Just Theater.
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Todd Pivetti (Ensemble) is making his SCR deubt. He has recently appeared in Tartuffe at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Balcony with Collected Works at the Mint in San Francisco, Cock at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, The Speakeasy with Boxcar Theatre, Threepenny Opera with San Jose Stage Company, Julius Caesar (tour) with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Imaginary Invalid with Pacific Repertory Theatre, Twelfth Night and The Mandrake at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and he played Peer Gynt in Peer Gynt at UC Santa Cruz as his master’s thesis. Todd has also done numerous readings and workshops with Playwrights Foundation, Crowded Fire Theater, and the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco.
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Helen Sadler* (Rachel) appeared at SCR previously in The Whale. Her regional credits include The Night Alive and Tribes (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Cymbeline (A Noise Within); Sense and Sensibility (Actors Theatre of Louisville and Northlight Theatre); The Maids (Writers Theatre); Blasted (A Red Orchid Theatre); Buried Child, A Taste of Honey, and Hyde in Hollywood (Shattered Globe Theatre); War (Seanachai Theatre Company); Feydeau-Si-Deau (Theater Wit); and Radiance (the Geffen Playhouse). Her television credits include Revenge and True Blood. Her film credits include Thrill Ride, Too Late, Contagion, All the Marbles, Cass, Heavy, The Coldest Winter, Wednesday’s Child, Credits, Keen, and Hush Your Mouth. Voice credits include Game of Thrones, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and The Elder Scrolls. Sadler received her BA from University of Bristol and trained at the Poor School, London.
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Danny Scheie* (Gareth) previously appeared at SCR as Nero in the world premiere of Amy Freed’s You, Nero (he also played it at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, for which he won the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Award for leading actor and at Arena Stage). He has appeared at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Cloud Nine directed by Tony Taccone (also at Trinity Repertory Company); and as Sturgis Drang in Troublemaker, or the Freakin Kick-A Adventures of Bradley Boatright. He performed for 13 seasons with both Shakespeare Santa Cruz (including as artistic director) and California Shakespeare Theater (for which he most recently received the Theatre Bay Area Award for leading actor as Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse), and has also acted at The Old Globe in San Diego, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Folger Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, A Noise Within, Two River Theater Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Aurora Theatre Company, TheatreWorks, Magic Theatre, the Marsh, Marin Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre and Theatre Rhinoceros. He holds a BA from Indiana University and a PhD from UC Berkeley.
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A.J. Sclafani (Ensemble) is making his SCR debut. He most recently he has been seen at TE San Pedro Rep in Much Ado About Nothing and The Vanek Trilogy. Sclafani is a graduate of SCR’s Acting Intensive Program, has served as Production Assistant for several staged readings, and was the Assistant to the Directors for The Tempest at SCR. He has performed on the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars stage in student productions of As You Like it, King Lear, Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, and as Juliet in an all male Romeo and Juliet. He earned his MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin College. He is a member of Roving Shakespeare and TE San Pedro Rep.
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Steven Shear (Ensemble) is making his SCR debut. His recent credits include One Man, Two Guvnors (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Promises, Promises and Camelot (San Francisco Playhouse) Mr. Irresistible (Alcazar Theater), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Boxcar Theatre), Legally Blonde (Spreckels Center) and Avenue Q (Summer Repertory Theatre). Shear has also toured with two Bay Area Children's Theatre world-premiere musicals, The Gold Rush Play and Tales Of Olympus, and received a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nomination for his choreography of Camelot. His film and television credits include America Is Still The Place and Discovery Channel's I (Almost) Got Away With It. Shear holds a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and studied at the International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam, NL. For more about Shear, please visit www.steven-shear.com.
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Robert Sicular* (Charlie Clench) is delighted to be returning to SCR, having appeared in many shows including Hard Times. He has also performed with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, Center Rep, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and California Shakespeare Theater. Other theatres include the Denver Center Theatre Company; Seattle Repertory Theatre; the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Sacramento Theatre Company; the Colorado, Lake Tahoe, and Santa Fe Shakespeare Festivals; the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC; and for eight seasons, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Screen credits include General Hospital and The Young and the Restless, the sci-fi comedy thriller Never Die Twice, the Bollywood potboiler Dil Pardesi Ho Gayaa, and the role of Dad in Josh Kornbluth’s upcoming Love and Taxes. He also stars in the podcast series Dr. Dark Presents (drdarkpresents.com). Sicular attended the University of California at Berkeley and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
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Claire Warden* (Dolly) is making her SCR debut. Her
off-Broadway credits include Engaging Shaw (Abingdon Theatre) and The Libertine (Kirk Theatre). Her other New York and regional credits include One Man, Two Guvnors (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Edward IV (American Shakespeare Center) Other Desert Cities (Lake Dillon Theatre), Moon for the Misbegotten (Luna Stage), Mary Stuart (Theatreworks), Lost In Yonkers (New Harmony Theatre), Henry V (as Henry V) (Accidental Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet (The Shakespeare Forum) Romeo and Juliet (Stoneham Theatre) and Humble Boy (Publick Theatre). Her favorite U.K. credits include The Trojan Women, Women of the Sidhe, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Aladdin. Warden has starred in the films Freedom Fighter, The Factory and Departure and the T.V documentary Jack the Ripper: An Ongoing Mystery for the Discovery Channel. You can also hear her as the voice of the Open Technology Fund website. She received her BA Honours degree in Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, U.K. Warden is the director of education for the Shakespeare Forum in New York City and company fight assistant at Shakespeare and Company, MA. For more information visit www.clairewarden.com.
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Musicians
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Casey Hurt (Lead Vocals/Guitar) has spent most of his life as a performer. At an early age he was singing and playing guitar in bars and coffee shops. Since then he has toured North America and Europe playing his original music. In addition to being a performer, Hurt is also a playwright and composer. His most recent musical The Unfortunates had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and will move to American Conservatory Theater in the spring of 2016. As a recording artist, Hurt's music has been featured on television shows such as Criminal Minds, Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill, and many others. To find out more, visit caseyhurt.com.
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Mike McGraw (Lead Guitar) hails from the LA rock scene and is very excited to be a part of One Man, Two Guvnors. Born and raised in the Southern California suburbs, McGraw began playing guitar for a local band that got him gigging on the Sunset Strip at a young age. He has found a home with the Brian Buckley Band, with which he has had the opportunity to work with producer Mark Howard (Bob Dylan, U2) and is very excited for where they are headed. In addition to his band life, he continues to work as a session and touring guitarist with TV credits including ABC’s Reaper and CBS’ Criminal Minds. He is endorsed by Vemuram Custom Pedals, XTS, Wilson Effects, and Xotic Effects. He and his wife, Jessie, who’s a professional dancer, enjoy a busy and rich artistic life that they love.
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Marcus Högsta (Bass). With bass guitar as his primary instrument, Högsta writes, performs, and records music of varying styles with a number of Los Angeles-based bands. He frequently performs at Los Angeles and San Diego venues, including the Troubadour, the Roxy, the Satellite, House of Blues, and Bootleg Theater. He is a recent graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
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Andrew Niven (Percussion and Drums) was born and raised in Palo Alto and began his musical endeavors studying piano at age seven. After experimenting with guitar and bass he became infatuated with the drum set after listening to his father’s old jazz records. Niven studied marimba and orchestral percussion music with renowned percussionist and composer Dr. Eugene Novotney at Humboldt State University. He transferred to California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with jazz greats Joe LaBarbera, Charlie Haden, Alphonso Johnson, and David Roitstein, and studied Latin percussion with Aaron Serfaty. He also became involved in the institute’s Balinese gamelan program and played drums with the master guitarist Miroslav Tadić, exploring the traditional music of Bulgaria and Macedonia. After graduation he worked as a drummer for six years in LA, touring with the classic psychedelic rock group the Magic Band and working with Casey Hurt, Persian singer Sepideh, Balkan-fusion outfit Zaub Nasty, Ghostlight Orchestra, and many others. In 2014 Niven returned to the Bay Area and has been recording and performing with the Miles Schon Group, Tony Saunders, and Vela Eyes, among others.
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