SF Shakespeare Festival

Rebecca (she/her) has been on the staff of the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival since 2002 and Artistic Director since 2012. She holds a BA in English and Theatre from Scripps College and an MFA in performance from U.C. Davis. She has taught and written curriculum at the elementary through college levels. As a director and teaching artist, she has worked locally with Marin Theatre Company, PlayGround, Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival, Pear Theatre, Napa Valley Repertory Theatre, Peninsula Youth Theatre, Los Altos Youth Theatre and Shakespeare At Stinson. Ms. Ennals has directed eight productions for the Festival's Shakespeare On Tour in-school touring program, six productions for the Civic Arts Stage Company program in Pleasanton, and four productions for Free Shakespeare in the Park. She also regularly writes the Festival’s Green Shows and conceived and executed the 2012 pop-up Shakespeare project "30 Days of Free Shakespeare in the Parklet" and the 2017 project “35 Famous Speeches in 35 Famous Places.” She  developed a new musical of As You Like It with The Kilbanes and Phil Wong, which was produced in Summer 2019.

Will Shattuc is an Oakland-born director, playwright, teaching artist, and graphic designer. A SF Shakes legacy, they got their start at a 2001 camp as Marc Antony wearing a pillowcase, and have since gone on to Assistant Direct The Winter's Tale and As You Like It on our main stage and served on the 35 Speeches Committee. They are currently co-directing our upcoming tour production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. They helped found Oakland Classical Theater Co., a company dedicated to putting on free productions with under-30 artists in Oakland; their most recent production was directing Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Will graduated from Hampshire College with a B.A., focusing on ensemble theater, and are an alumni of the Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, CT, and studied Viewpoints program at Divadlo Archa in Prague. They are inspired by the work of the Federal Theater Project under the New Deal and The Public Theater in New York and firmly believe in SF Shakespeare's mission of "Art for All!"

The Kilbanes are a theatrical rock band led by married songwriting duo Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses. Their rock opera Weightless was featured in the Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival in January 2019. Weightless had its world premiere at Z Space in the spring of 2018 and received the highest rating from the SF Chronicle. Their newest piece, Eddie the Marvelous, Who Will Save the World, was selected for the O’Neill National Music Conference for 2018. Eddie got its start at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor and was featured at Theatreworks’ 2016 New Works Festival. The Kilbanes are working on a commissioned piece for ACT’s Youth Ensemble as well as collaborating on a new piece with nationally-renowned playwright Lauren Gunderson at Marin Theater Company.

Phil Wong is an actor, musician, comedian, and teaching artist native to Oakland. Bay Area credits include work with Shotgun Players, Bay Area Children's Theatre, Quantum Dragon Theatre, Killing My Lobster, The EXIT, Palo Alto Players, The Lamplighters, Los Altos Stage, Ray of Light, Word for Word, and TheatreWorks. He is graduate of Oberlin College and received his physical theatre training at the Accademia dell' Arte in Arezzo, Italy. He has also written music for various SF Shakes productions including Shakespeare on Tour's Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the upcoming As You Like It musical. Phil has been a part of the Bay Area theatre scene since he was a teen and is working every day to make his art more relevant, conscientious, and empathetic. IG: @phillywongsteak & @weirdstagedirections

Neal joined SF Shakes in 2017 as our first full-time technical director and manages all things tech, including set design, graphic design, fabrication, paint, transportation, and installation for SF Shakes and several of our partner organizations. He also dabbles in lighting and sound and coordinates the infrastructure of our outdoor shows. Prior to this he spent 4 years in the advertising world as Manager of Art & Technology at Publicis, though the majority of his career has been spent as an independent designer/builder, recklessly pursuing and combining the realms of mobile architecture, pyrotechnics, electric vehicles, lighting and sound design, robotics, and graphic and web design. He holds a B.A. in Design from Stanford University. Recent intelligence suggests that he may currently be developing an autonomous, 50-foot-tall, fire-breathing, disco-dancing likeness of William Shakespeare . . .

Sean is an actor, teaching artist, and performing arts everyman. When he’s not acting he’s either tour managing a rock band, teaching theatre to all ages, or working stage crew at a Bay Area theatre. Sean earned a BA in Theatre from Emerson College in 2008, is an EMC member of Actor’s Equity, and is a Resident Artist with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. You can follow what he’s currently working on at seangarahan.com

Karen Schleifer is thrilled to be working on her first production with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival! Favorite Credits include: PSM: Life Could Be A Dream (International City Theatre) Driving Miss Daisy (The Laguna Playhouse), Fool for Love (The Lounge Theatre & Theatre for the New City), Jews, Christians & Screwing Stalin* (The Matrix Theatre), The Death & Life of Mary Jo Kopechne*, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally & Farragut North (Theatre Planners @ The Odyssey) (*denotes world premiere). Fun fact: Karen was “Kate” in the original production of Annie on Broadway for 2 years! Graduate of SUNY Purchase with a BA in Production & Directing, she is also a working musician & recording artist. She is also supremely excited to have recently relocated to the Bay Area with her hubby Pete & their fur-babies - Benny & The Jets!
AEA/SAG-AFTRA/SMA - for more info - www.curlykaren.com

Amelia Adams is a performer, director, choreographer specializing in clowning, mask work, puppetry, and partner acrobatics. She is a Resident Artist with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and a teaching artist with The Quinan Street Project, Cal Shakes, Performing Academy, Arabian Shakespeare Festival and Circus of Smiles. Amelia performs with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Berkeley's Balinese performing ensemble. Recent credits include Malvolio/Sebastian in Twelfth Night with the Arabian Shakespeare Festival. Amelia's solo work has premiered at SF Fringe and Utopia Theatre Project. She wrote and directed Fortune's Fool, a theatrical circus inspired by the Odyssey. She has toured commedia dell'arte shows to Fringe festivals on both coasts with her company AlulA Ensemble. Amelia is a graduate of Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

Sydney Schwindt is an actor, fight director, and teaching artist native to Colorado. Fight directing credits include Davis Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Livermore Shakespeare Festival, Dragon Theatre Productions, Quantum Dragon Theatre, and others. Sydney has acted nationally and internationally with such companies as Hartford Stage, Hampton Theatre Company, and Mirage Entertainment. She earned her BFA in Acting from The Hartt School and has also trained with the San Francisco Clown Conservatory and Academia dell’Arte (Arezzo, Italy). She is an advanced actor combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors and has trained with Dueling Arts International, Stage Combat Deutschland, among others.

Maryssa (she/her/they/them) is an SF Shakes Resident Artist and Bay Area based actor, director, and teaching artist. On the SF Shakes stage she has played Lady Macduff in Macbeth, Hermione in Winter's Tale and Horatio in Hamlet. Other regional performance credits include As You Like It (CalShakes), Breaking The Code and Book Club Play (Jewel Theatre Company), As You Like It, Hamlet, Merry Wives of Windsor (Livermore Shakespeare Festival), Betrayal (Pear Avenue Theatre), Persuasion (San Jose Stage), Crime and Punishment (San Jose Repertory Theatre), Enchanted April, Witness for the Prosecution (Center REPertory Company), Much Ado About Nothing, Good Person of Szechuan (Woman's Will), How I Learned to Drive, Gaslight (Hapgood Theatre Company), Picture of Dorian Gray, All About Eve (Theatre Rhinoceros). As Engagement Director for the Festival, Wanlass is helping to carry out SF Shakes' mission of making all our communities understand that their stories are as powerful and vital as Shakespeare's.