ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON (Adaptor, Director, Artistic Director) Jane Eyre is the inaugural production of Elizabeth Williamson’s tenure as Artistic Director of Geva Theatre. She has worked on Broadway, in London’s West End, Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. Recent projects include dramaturging the Young Vic/West End/Broadway production of Matthew López’ The Inheritance (Tony, Olivier, Critics Circle, Evening Standard, GLAAD, and Drama Desk Awards for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Honoree); dramaturging the Hartford Stage/ Broadway productions of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony Award for Best Musical) and Anastasia; artistic producing, co-directing and dramaturging the online version of Sarah Gancher’s Russian Troll Farm (TheaterWorks Hartford/TheatreSquared/The Civilians, New York Times’ “Best Theater of 2020”); directing and adapting Jane Eyre (Hartford Stage); dramaturging Bess Wohl’s Make Believe (Outer Critics Circle Honoree, New York Times’ “Best Theater of 2019”); and directing Henry V (Hartford Stage). Williamson’s extensive organizational leadership experience includes serving as Associate Artistic Director and Literary Manager at Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City from 2008 – 2012 and as Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development at Hartford Stage from 2012 – 2020. As a freelance artist, she has also worked for About Face Theatre, the Act French Festival, ACT, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, Court Theatre, Figurteatret I Nordland in Norway, HERE, the La Jolla Playhouse, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Primary Stages, Theatre de La Jeune Lune, Universal Studios, Westport Country Playhouse, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and London’s Young Vic. Education: M.St., Oxford University, B.A., Bennington College, trained at the École Internationale de Théàtre Jacques Lecoq and with Complicité. She is the 2007 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Literary Translation. Member: SDC, LMDA.

NICK VAUGHAN (Scenic Design) Nick Vaughan is a Houston-based interdisciplinary artist and set designer who generally collaborates with his husband Jake Margolin. Their life’s work, an ongoing series of 50 interdisciplinary installations inspired by little-known LGBTQI2 histories from each state, involves extensive original archival research and deep collaborations with local LGBTQIA+ communities. They have had solo exhibitions The Blaffer Art Museum (Houston), DiverseWorks (Houston), the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, the Invisible Dog Art Center (NYC), Art League Houston, Aurora Picture Show (Houston), Devin Borden Gallery (Houston) and non-traditional community-facing venues. Theatrical credits include: Off-Broadway: The Royale (Lincoln Center); Roosevelvis (The TEAM/Vineyard/The Royal Court); Mission Drift (The TEAM/PS122/The National [London]); Architecting (The TEAM National Theater of Scotland/The Barbican/The Public); The Lily’s Revenge (Taylor Mac/HERE). Regional: Jane Eyre, Henry V, Seder, Cloud 9 (Hartford Stage); Anything That Gives Off Light (The National Theater of Scotland/The TEAM/EIF); The Royale (The Old Globe). Opera: Barber of Seville (National Opera of China); La Bohème (Royal Opera House, Muscat, Oman); The Rape of Lucretia (Opera Company of Philadelphia); Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, Beggar’s Opera, The Soldier’s Tale, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Il Trittico (Castleton Festival). Dance [with Jake Margolin]: Calving (Unusual Symptoms, Bremen) Thank You For Coming: Space (ICA Boston/NYLA/Peak Performances) Thank You For Coming: Play (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Thank You For Coming: Attendance (Danspace Project/Walker Art Center).

EMMA ANTENEN (Scenic Design) Emma is a freelance scenic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. Recent credits include As One (The Atlanta Opera), Romeo and Juliet (The Woolgatherers), Hidden Away: A Pirate Musical (CO/LAB Theater Group), and Adam Minus Josh (Willow Theatricals). Associate design at The Guthrie, Arena Stage, 5th Avenue Theatre, McCarter Theater, Alley Theatre, and others. Emma is a proud member of USA829.

ILONA SOMOGYI (Costume Design) is thrilled to make her Geva Theatre premiere and be reunited with director Elizabeth Williamson. Theater Credits include: London West End: Nice Fish (Previously at St. Ann’s Warehouse and ART). Broadway: Clybourne Park. Off-Broadway: Gloria (Vineyard, Goodman Theater) Body of an American, Satchmo at the Waldorf, Dinner With Friends, My Name is Asher Lev, A Soldier’s Tale (Zankel Hall), The Lying Lesson, Almost an Evening, Scarcity (Atlantic), Maple and Vine, A Small Fire (Playwrights Horizons), Jerry Springer: The Opera (Carnegie Hall), and the original production of Wit. Recent Regional: Carousel, King Hedley II, Smokey Joe’s Café (Arena Stage), Oklahoma (Glimmerglass Opera), Grey Gardens (Ahmanson/LA), Will Rogers Follies, Anything Goes, (Goodspeed Opera House), Jane Eyre, Cloud 9, Heartbreak House, Romeo & Juliet, The Crucible, Gem of the Ocean, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hartford Stage), Richard III (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), As You Like It, Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike, Nice Fish, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Guthrie), Disgraced, 4000 Miles (Long Wharf), Julius Caesar (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Romeo & Juliet, Disgraced, Good People (Huntington Theater), Assassins, Three Sisters, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Passion Play (Yale Rep). She is a graduate of the Yale MFA program and also an Associate Professor of Design at The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Ball & Socket Arts, a creative placemaking project in her hometown of Cheshire, CT.

EMMA DEANE (Lighting Design) is an Indigenous lighting designer based out of NYC, and a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Recent credits include Confederates (Signature Theatre NYC); Three Sisters, Much Ado About Nothing (Two River Theater); BAKKHAI (Baltimore Center Stage); In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theater); Legally Blonde: The Musical (NYU Tisch); and Tiny Beautiful Things (TheatreSquared). Other credits include YELL: A “DOCUMENTARY” OF MY TIME HERE, Reykjavík, Trouble in Mind, shakespeare’s as u like it and Romeo and Juliet (Yale School of Drama); Little Boy/Little Man, Burn Book, The Light Fantastic, Mud, The Guadalupes (Yale Cabaret); Pinocchio: A Folk Musical, Fog Island (Filament Theatre); The Amish Project, Still (Interrobang Theatre Project); Hitler on the Roof, Hand in Hand, Nothing of Me (Akvavit Theatre); The Woman in Black (Wildclaw); Buddy Cop 2 (Pavement Group) and associate lighting design on Dreaming Zenzile (NYTW, St. Louis Rep) and assistant lighting design on Broadway’s Skin of Our Teeth. Additional credits include work with The Fisher Center at Bard, Court Theatre, The Goodman, Albany Park Theater Project, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Northlight Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Victory Gardens, and Shakespeare Academy at Stratford. MFA – Yale School of Drama. USA 829.

CHRISTIAN FREDERICKSON (Sound & Music Design) Christian Frederickson is a violist, composer, and sound designer who specializes in live music performance for theater and dance. He has worked at a long list of theaters in New York City, notably the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Classic Stage Company, La MaMa, and Playwright’s Horizons as well as regional theaters around the U.S. He teaches design at MIT.

He was a founding member of the instrumental band Rachel’s, who released 6 albums between 1995 and 2003. An ensemble of viola, cello, piano, guitar, drums, and percussion was surrounded by other orchestral instruments, tape manipulation, cinematic sound design, found sounds, and electronic elements. As a solo artist, Frederickson has released 7 albums since 2011: Bastard, Amidst, and Custodians of Beauty are scores for contemporary dance; Death Metal Angola was written for a documentary about the rock scene in Angola; Teratogeny, The Starving Season, and Islands of Light are collections of music from various projects.

Frederickson holds a BM in performance from The Peabody Conservatory and a MM from The Juilliard School. From 2000 to 2004 he was the viola instructor at the University of Louisville, also teaching chamber music and orchestral playing

MICHAEL KING (Wig Design) Regional credits: Geva Theatre, Tri City Opera, North Shore Music Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Disney Cruise Lines. Touring credits include Kinky Boots, A Night With Janis Joplin, Cabaret, Matilda, Warhorse, Shrek, Beauty and the Beast. Film Credits: I Care A Lot, Free Guy, City on a Hill, Hubie Halloween. Proud member of IATSE 798.

CLAUDIA HILL SPARKS (Dialect Coach) Regional Theater: over 80 productions as Resident Vocal Coach at the Old Globe Theater, Hartford Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Huntington Theater Company, North Shore Music Theater, American Players Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company, numerous National Tours for Networks Presentations. Off-Broadway: Songbird (59E59 Theaters), An Octaroon (Soho Rep/Theater for a New Audience), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park), Polish Joke (Manhattan Theater Club), A Man of No Importance (Classic Stage Company), Broadway: Anastasia, Dance of the Vampires. Film: Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies. Television: Dialect Coach for Richard Easton as Ben Franklin/PBS. Faculty: The Old Globe/USD MFA Professional Training Program; Boston University BFA Professional Actor Training Program; American Academy of Dramatic Arts; The Wilma Theater, MFA in Acting, Temple University

ADRIANO GATTO (Fight and Intimacy Choreographer) Adriano returns to Geva this season having previously worked on the world premieres of Revival: The Resurrection of Son House and Heartland, as well as The Niceties, To Kill a Mockingbird, Last Gas, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Wait Until Dark (w/ Arizona Theatre Company). Regionally, Adriano’s select work as a Fight Director includes: One Man, Two Guvnors, Into the Breeches! (Chautauqua Theatre Company); Waiting for Godot, The Onion Game (Irish Classical Theatre Company): Equivocation (Kavinoky Theatre); Carmen (Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra); Amadeus, The Bourgeous Gentleman (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra); Don Giovanni, Out of Darkness/Into the Fire, and The Marriage of Figaro (Eastman Opera Theatre). As an internationally Certified Fight Director and Instructor with Fight Directors Canada, he has taught stage combat for various institutions, including the AFDC National Certification Conference (Calgary, AB), Eastman School of Music, SUNY Buffalo State and Niagara University, where he serves as the Artist in Residence. Heartfelt gratitude to the entire team and family here at Geva. Huge love to my H2RO!

FIONA KYLE (Dramaturg) Dramaturg: Family Tree, Leviathan (Clay & Water Playwright’s Retreat, Clamour Theatre Company); Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle, Faculty Portrait (3B Development Series at IRT Theater); Jane Eyre, Cloud 9, Seder (workshop), The Comedy of Errors, The Piano Lesson, Having Our Say, A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage); Bomber’s Moon (Williams Street Repertory); Beneath the Gavel (Bated Breath Theater Company at 59E59); The Lily’s Revenge, The Shape She Makes (American Repertory Theater); Boxcutter Harmonica (Minnesota Fringe Festival); BACK (Poetic Theater Productions). Assistant Dramaturg: Queens for a Year, Anastasia, Romeo & Juliet, The Body of an American, Rear Window (Hartford Stage). Education: BA Marymount Manhattan College; MA Ohio University; MFA A.R.T./MXAT Institute at Harvard University.

LAURA STANZCYK, CSA (Casting) is an independent Casting Director and Producer. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1986. She is a member of the Casting Society of America, Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. She has been nominated six times for Artios Awards for Excellence in Casting and won for the Broadway revival of Follies. She has cast dozens of Broadway, Off-Broadway and International plays and musicals including the hailed revivals of Side Show and Ragtime, as well as the universally acclaimed Duke Ellington revue, After Midnight. She has worked on multiple independent films, including the upcoming Fourth Wall Down. She was a member of the Senior Artistic Staff of the McCarter Theatre for four years and was their Resident Casting Director for six. She works with countless regional theatres across the country including The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C, the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, the Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Center Theatre Group, La Jolla Playhouse and The Alliance Theatre to name a few. She began her career with Jay Binder casting where she was an associate for eight years and cast Judgement At Nuremberg, Urinetown, Sweet Charity, Wonderful Town, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Sweet Charity and Chicago among countless other readings, workshops and productions.

KATHERINE THESING (Stage Manager) (she/ her) Katherine is thrilled to be a part of Geva’s 50th Season! Geva Theatre Center: Sister Act, Somewhere Over the Border, How to Catch Creation, Airness, A Christmas Carol, and Ring of Fire. Regional Theatre: Block Association Project, Hype Man: a break beat play, Ring of Fire, Once on this Island, A Christmas Carol, We’ve Come to Believe, You Across from Me, Pipeline, Dracula, The Santaland Diaries, and Airness. (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Ring of Fire (Milwaukee Repertory Theater). Other Theatre: Love’s Labour’s Lost (Montana Shakespeare in the Parks), Much Ado, Richard II, Julius Caesar (Kentucky Shakespeare Festival). Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

JOSH LAU (Assistant Stage Manager) (he/ him) is thrilled to return to Geva as an ASM! He previously worked backstage on Sex with Strangers and A Christmas Carol, and most recently SM for Summer Academy 2022 Showcase. He is also the Production Stage Manager at Eastman School of Music: Into the Woods, Light in the Piazza with Adam Guettel, and all of Eastman’s operas since 2014, including Hydrogen Jukebox, Marriage of Figaro, Cendrillon, Don Giovanni, and a filmed adaptation of Elizabeth Cree. He was also SM for La Bohéme (Finger Lakes Opera), Pegasus Early Music, and Bristol Valley Theatre: Who is Theo? (World Premiere), Les Misérables, Next Fall. Previous ASM credits include: Kiss Me, Kate and Annie Get Your Gun at Ohio Light Opera; Lysistrata Jones, The Andrews Brothers and A Christmas Carol (adpt. Charles Nolte) at Meadow Brook Theatre in Michigan; A Funny Thing…Forum, Barefoot in the Park, and Marvelous Wonderettes at BVT. Earlier this summer he directed the play Cowboy Versus Samurai at BVT. He has a B.A. in Theatre from Nazareth College and was born and raised in Honolulu, HI.

OLA KRASZPULSKA (Associate Scenic Designer) Ola Kraszpulska joined the Geva staff in the summer of 2021 as the Scenic Charge Artist and is thrilled to be joining the design team for Jane Eyre. She has an MFA in scenic design from Florida State University and prior to her time at Geva she was a professor at SUNY Oswego, where her many design credits include Fun Home, Farenheit 451, Arcadia, The Wizard of Oz and many others. She has also done freelance design work for Nazareth College, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Cortland Repertory Theatre.

CASEY MCNAMARA (Associate Costume Designer) is a Rochester-based theatrical designer and costume shop manager. He received a B.F.A. in Theatrical Design and Technologies from Avila University and a M.F.A. in Scenography from the University of Kansas. His credits include Costume Design for Airness, Thurgood, Million Dollar Quartet and Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End at Geva, Assassins at the Polsky Theatre (2017), Associate Costume Design for the SALT-nominated production of Parade at the Merry-Go- Round Playhouse (2017), Lighting and Scenic Design for Reckless at the William Inge Theatre (2016), Co-Costume Design for Evil Dead: The Musical for Egadz! (2016), Lighting Design for A Raisin in the Sun at the Crafton-Pryor Theatre (2015), and Lighting Design for A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline at Canterbury Theatre (2015).

ANDREW MARK WILHELM (Associate Sound Designer) Andrew is the current Sound Department Supervisor for Geva Theatre Center, as well as a Sound Designer. He most recently was the Sound Designer for How To Catch Creation. Previous Geva credits include Sound Designer for Airness, Ring of Fire, Once the Musical, and Revival: The Resurrection of Son House and Video Engineer for The Real James Bond … Was Dominican. He spent most of the pandemic working on digital audio and video content for Geva, including the Recognition Radio festival, Christmas Carol on WARM 101.3, and Where Did We Sit on the Bus? Before Geva, he was a Sound Engineer and Resident Designer for PCPA in Santa Maria, California. Hailing originally from the Detroit area, with a BFA in Theatre Technology & Design from Oakland University, Andrew is fortunate to have worked in theatres from Florida to California, before settling here in Rochester at Geva.

CHRISTOPHER MANNELLI (Executive Director) joined Geva in 2016 from Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, a Tony Award-winning institution dedicated to new plays and playwrights, where he served as Managing Director. During his five-year tenure he led the reorganization of the institution and was responsible for the strategic planning, fundraising, and audience development initiatives that created the theatre’s new business model. Chris oversaw numerous award-winning productions, increased contributed income, and launched innovative membership and audience engagement initiatives. Prior to his work with Victory Gardens, he served as Deputy Director at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, one of the largest nonprofit theatres in Chicago. He oversaw operations and helped to produce the theatre’s “World Stage” international programming, including Chicago Shakespeare’s first ever tour to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Before moving to Chicago, Chris was the Managing Director for HotCity Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri. In this capacity, he was instrumental in the company’s financial and programmatic growth, which included education programs, new play initiatives, and several collaborations with prominent arts organizations. He has served on the board of directors of the League of Chicago Theatres, as a steering committee member for Enrich Chicago (a group of arts organizations in Chicago working collectively to address racial equity), and as a board member for the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce and the community board of Emerald City Theatre. In 2017 he was appointed to the New York State Council on the Arts’ Theatre Advisory Panel, where he served for two years. He has also served on the board of directors for the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), and the Washington Square Park Community Association. He currently serves on the corporate board for the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center and the board of the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation (RDDC) as a member of the executive and nominating committees. Chris grew up on Long Island and began his career as an actor and a musician, touring nationally and internationally. He holds a B.A. in opera performance from the SUNY Geneseo School of Performing Arts, an M.F.A. in Arts Leadership from DePaul University, and an Executive Scholars Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.