Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And then some!) Proudly Presented on the Henry C. Bishop Stage

Meet the Elves.

Tess Burgler - Herself

Tess has been with Ohio Shakespeare Festival for all of its 24 years. Other recent roles at Ohio Shakespeare: Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Hamlet, Joan (Saint Joan). Rosalind (As You Like It), and many more. She is very happy to continue cultivating her self-taught sound design skills. Other sound design credits at OSF include: The Woman in Black, She Kills Monsters, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Shakespeare in Hollywood, and the Quarantine Radio Program shows, which are still available for free at ohioshakespeare.com (including a full cast broadcast of A Christmas Carol!). Also, she loves her family more than anything in the whole world: Nancy, Terry, Ryan, Zelda, and Persephone.

Nancy Cates - Producing Artistic Director

Nancy Cates and her husband, Terry Burgler, founded Ohio Shakespeare Festival in 2002. The festival has grown from a summer outside to year-round production both here at Greystone Hall and outside at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. Ohio Shakespeare is dedicated to the production of classical theatre: classic plays and playwrights, plays adapted from classic literature, and plays -- like tonight's -- that pay homage to a classic, or in this case, ALL the classics!

Jenni DeLuca - Stage Manager

Jenni is so very happy to be working on another show with Ohio Shakes! Jenni has served as Stage Manager for several OSF productions, including The Wizard of Oz (2024), Twelfth Night (2023), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2023), Hay Fever (2023), The Taming of The Shrew (2022), All My Sons (2022), and Cinderella (2021 & 2022). Appearances on the OSF stage include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Ensemble, 2024), and Dracula (Ensemble, 2023). Jenni would like to thank her friends, family, and husband Doug for their endless support. And of course, the utmost gratitude to OSF and this incredible cast and crew.

Megan Herbert - Crew, Set Construction

Megan is thrilled to be working with this silly goofy cast and crew. You may have seen her recently in The Woman in Black (OSF), Much Ado about Nothing (OSF), Othello (OSF), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (OSF), The Minds of Dolls (KSU), and Dracula (OSF). Megan would like to say a big thank you to the OSF family for every wonderful friend, experience, and opportunity they have given her. Last but not least, she thanks FerFer and Eric for always supporting her in everything she does and for every sacrifice they have made for her to pursue a career in the Arts. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Geoff Knox - Director

Geoff is thrilled to be directing for the second time here at Ohio Shakespeare Festival, his first project being last year's production of Dracula. He has also acted for the company in dozens of shows starting as far back as 2003. He is a graduate of Kent State University as well as the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. He'd like to thank Nancy and Terry for giving him another crack at directing, and is eternally grateful to have such a wonderful artistic team-from the actors and designers to stage manager and crew-my goodness you guys make this job incredibly easy.

Marty LaConte - Co-Costumer Designer & Specialty Props

Her creative specialty props have been seen in numerous OSF shows including The Tempest, King Charles III, Macbeth, She Kills Monsters, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Wizard of Oz. She loved the challenge of creating life-sized puppets of mice that become horses and the cat & dove who become coachmen for Cinderella, and most recently, the munchkin puppets—now back for a visit to Santa. Among her critically acclaimed costume designs are those of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare in Love, Camelot and The Lion in Winter.

Baleigh Lynn - Crew

Baleigh is ecstatic to be working backstage with Ohio Shakespeare Festival again! The last show she worked backstage here was the spooky Woman in Black. A few previous stage credits include Conrade/Friar in Much Ado about Nothing and Mustardseed/Starvling/Moonshine in A Midsummer Nights Dream with French Creek Theater; Yvette in Clue, 8/Fox in Concord Floral, and Queen Elizabeth in Richard III with the University of Akron. She wants to thank everyone at OSF for welcoming her with open arms, her friends and family for always supporting her theatre endeavors, and her partner for being him and always encouraging her to go for it! She hopes that you sit back, relax and prepare to laugh!

Lysander Mills - Board Op

Lysander is excited to be here. Their latest acting credits include: The Wizard of Oz (Actor-Musician), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby (Wackford), Twelfth Night (Sea Captain), Love’s Labour's Lost (Musician), Cinderella (Ensemble), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Guitarist), A Joyful Blend (Himself), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Arturo Ui), and Clue (Wadsworth). When Lysander is not acting on stage they are usually seen playing music and acting like a knucklehead in their band Sander Mander and the Banana Hammer. They would like to thank their mom, dad, their partner, and Borko (their dog).

John Peters - House Manager

John feels at home whenever back at it again with the Ohio Shakespeare Festival! When not managing the front of House, John is most often found treading the boards as an actor in various area theatres including OSF. Ohio Shakespeare Festival credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Philostrate), Hamlet (English Ambassador), Dracula: Laboratory Performance (Arthur Holmwood), Romeo and Juliet (Apothecary), Ensemble roles in Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz, as well as numerous ShakesBEER's over the years. John was also a chairperson and organizer of the 2018 StageFest theatre festival and was the House Manager for Cleveland Musical Theatre's world premiere of the revised musical Jane Eyre.

Natalie Steen - Herself, Set Design & Construction

Natalie enjoys her position as resident Scenic Designer and Production Manager for Ohio Shakespeare Festival. She is a Baldwin Wallace University graduate with her BFA in Acting. Previous Ohio Shakes credits include: Twelfth Night as Viola, A Midsummer Night's Dream as Helena and The Taming of the Shrew as Hortensio, all under the stars. Indoors, she has been seen in Dracula as Lucy, All my Sons as Annie, Hay Fever as Jackie, Cinderella as Grace the nasty stepsister, and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as Nicholas' love interest(s). She is honored to be creating with this amazing gaggle of humans. Many thanks to The Rude Sea, you are all brilliant and my favorite people. Their music is on any listening platform and CDs for sale in the lobby! She thanks her ever supportive family, friends, and you for coming out and supporting the arts! Enjoy the show! DPTL

Mark Stoffer - Lighting Designer

Mark is a Resident Designer for our space at Greystone Hall, and has been performing and designing in NE Ohio for decades. Some particularly memorable designs include The Glass Menagerie, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, and A Moon for the Misbegotten, all at Coach House Theatre, A Long Day’s Journey into Night at Weathervane Playhouse, and Camelot on our Henry C. Bishop stage. His dozens of on-stage performances include such varied roles as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at Western Reserve Playhouse, Prince Arragon in The Merchant of Venice, Le Beau in As You Like It, and The Traveler in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, all on Ohio Shakes’ stages, Sam Carmichael in Mamma Mia! at Weathervane, and Canon Ambrose Pennefather in “Murder on the Nile” and Sherlock Holmes in Baskerville, both at Coach House. Mark lives in Cuyahoga Falls with his exceptionally patient and supportive wife, Sherri.

Kelsey Tomlinson - Co-Costume Designer

This year marks Kelsey's 10th season with Ohio Shakespeare Festival! In addition to acting with the company, Kelsey serves as one of the resident costume designers for Ohio Shakes. Notable designs include costumes for The Three Musketeers, Cinderella, Dracula, co-designing The Wizard of Oz, and the redesign of Greenshow to all-green. Here's to many more years of the joy that theatre brings her. Much love and gratitude to friends, family, and her best friend and husband, Emerson Thoenen.

Ryan Zarecki - Himself, Properties, Set Construction

Ryan loves his job as a resident actor-manager at the Ohio Shakespeare Festival. He's played Bottom, Orlando, Porthos, Mercutio, Quincy (Dracula), Robin Hood, Thomas Jefferson (1776), and Roy (Lone Star). His fight production company [They Fight], with partner Tess Burgler, works to bring safe, affordable, and awesome stage violence to Northeast Ohio stages. Ryan is a Bowling Green State University graduate, a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, and he loves his pups, kittehs, and girls Zelda and Persephone. He is ever grateful for his Tessa, Fridays and Saturdays and all. Check out his leather goods shop, The Buckle & Rose on Etsy.com.