I’m a journeyman. I have lived and worked in Chicago (3 years), Cincinnati (1 year),
New York City (3 years) and toured the east coast and mid-west before coming to
Pittsburgh last fall. I’ve a working relationship with the New England Shakespeare
Festival since interning there in 2002, and have come to embrace the First Folio Cue-
Script Technique as the basis for all my work with Shakespeare. My girlfriend, Elizabeth
Ruelas, and I have formed the Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project, teaching workshops in
that technique, and directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Two Gentlemen of
Verona for the Unseam’d Shakespeare Company.
This is my second production of the The Tempest. My main responsibility in the last
one was to work the revolve on the stage. I had to step in and play Sebastian when the
actor playing the role had to miss a performance, and when the wife of the actor playing
Alonso went into labor I had to learn his role in 3 hours.
In this production, I play Antonio, about as unsympathetic a character as can be found in
Shakespeare. To win a Dukedom, he puts his brother and his baby niece in a leaky boat
and sets them out to sea. Once marooned on a desert island, when he’s sure no one is
looking, he leaps at the chance to kill his king in order to put a weaker man on the throne
to avoid paying tribute. I look forward to the fun of playing an unabashed, unapologetic
baddie. It is not an opportunity I’ve had in the past.
pittsburghshakespeare 