As You Like It - Production Staff

Stephanie Shine (Artistic Director, Director)

SSC: Artistic Director; Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard II, Wild Oats, Hamlet, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV, pt.1 (Director); King Lear (Regan), Twelfth Night (Feste), Lovers and Madmen (Woman), Richard II (Queen Isabel), Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice), Richard III (Lady Anne), As You Like It (Rosalind), The Taming of the Shrew (Kate)

This marks Stephanie’s seventh season as the Artistic Director for Seattle Shakespeare Company. Her association with the company began in 1993 when she developed a summer program for kids now known as Camp Bill. A lover of Shakespeare since the age of 8, she has acted in, directed, or produced over 38 productions of 24 of Shakespeare’s plays. She is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program and has worked at most of the theatres in Seattle as well as several regional theatres including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, The Alley in Houston, New Jersey Shakespeare, Idaho Rep, New Mexico Rep, and Arizona Theatre Company. She has adapted literature for the stage as a longtime company member of Book-It, where her work was most recently seen as adapter and director of A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. In 2001, she was a guest artist and teacher at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Stephanie also directed The Comedy of Errors for Colorado Shakespeare Festival this past summer. She is the proud mother of Conor and Cally.

Rod Pilloud* (Stage Manager)

SSC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stage Manager)

Rod has been a professional actor and stage manager for theatres around the nation over the past 30 years. He has worked with such companies as The Seattle Repertory Theatre, Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival, The Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The Empty Space Theatre, The Portland Repertory Theatre and A Contemporary Theatre.

John Kirshenbaum (Scenic Designer, Technical Director)

SSC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, The Tempest

John is honored to work with the talented cast and production crew of As You Like It. He also greatly appreciates the many hands that helped to build the set.

Ron Erickson (Costume Design)

SSC: Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet (Costume Design)

Ron Erickson has designed sets and costumes for many Seattle area theatres. Design credits include Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Empty Space, Tacoma Actor’s Guild, Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Book-It Repertory Theatre. Ron is Head of Costume Design at Cornish College of the Arts and Head of Wardrobe at Seattle Opera.

Tim Wratten (Lighting Designer)

SSC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet (Lighting Design)

Tim loves to play with light, and is delighted to return to Seattle Shakespeare Company to light As You Like It. Here he previously lit Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth. Having worked in British rep theatres (Bristol Old Vic, Manchester Library, Coventry Belgrade) for many years, in 1996, Tim and family decided to come and play in Seattle (the weather is the same). Since then he has completed 38 shows, including designs for the Empty Space Theatre, New City Theatre, Seattle University, and the Alliance Theatre Atlanta.

Kathe Balter (Properties)

SSC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Properties)

Kathe is happy to have the opportunity to prop for Seattle Shakespeare Company. In her “real” life, she is currently in her seventh season as Prop Master for Empty Space Theatre. In additon to her work for EST and other freelance theatre projects, her other artistic pursuits include fused glass, mosaics, upholstery, and fabric art. She recently returned from Russia where she assisted in the creation of a fused glass children’s mural now currently installed in the Moscow Zoo.

Kimberly White (Voice and Text Director)

SSC: King Lear (Voice and Text Director)

Kimberly is delighted to be working with the talented folks at Seattle Shakespeare Company. She has worked with Shakespeare’s text over the past 16 years as coach, teacher, director, and producer. Recently, she directed Taming of the Shrew and Romeo & Juliet in Idaho where she is Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Company of Sun Valley. She has taught and coached in the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington, Freehold, University of B.C., Otterbein College, and internationally at the Korean University of the Arts. She served as Associate Director on Richard III for Harvard/Radcliff University at the Loeb Theatre. She has been a faculty member of Shakespeare & Company for 10 years, and has taught at a dozen month-long intensives, coached for the mainstage, and has worked as “Lamentation Coach” for their ground-breaking work on Richard III. Kimberly has also worked with Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Seatle Children’s Theatre and served as Co-Director of the local innovative youth program, Young Shakespeare Workshop. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher.

Lenore Bensinger (Dramaturg)

SSC: King Lear, Measure for Measure (Dramaturg)

Lenore is a playwright and dramaturg. This is her third show with Seattle Shakespeare Company. Last season, she was dramaturg for Measure for Measure, also directed by Stephanie Shine, and King Lear. Other recent dramaturgy includes Pride and Prejudice and Travels with Charley, both directed by Jane Jones for Book-It, and Rhinoceros at the Capitol Hill Arts Center (John Farrage directing). She is currently writing, “As Your Doctor,” a play about the pharmaceutical industry and revising her 2004 Fringe/ACT play SEED, about the Greek earth goddess, Demeter, and her daughter, Persephone.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.