This Saturday, the 17th at 7:30pm iin Ardrey Auditorium is the performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, NAU Community Music and Dance Academy, and NAU Treble Vox Choir!
Before the concert, join us for the pre-concert reception in the Kitt Recital Hall Atrium from 6 pm to 7:25 pm for light snacks, drinks, and community! Also – most of the items from the “My Favorite Things” online auction will be on display for you to browse and bid on. The “Chat with Charles” and Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival director Christine Schmidle will be at 6:30pm in Kitt Recital Hall.
Justus Burkitt as Theseus/Oberon
Justus Burkitt has been performing Shakespeare across Arizona for over 20 years, most recently with Laark Productions in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Oberon (a role he is happy to be reprising for you now!) and with Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival in their 2023 production of Twelfth Night as Orsino. His other FlagShakes credits include Iago in Othello and Dromio of Syracuse in A Comedy of Errors. He has also appeared in Laark Productions shows as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Laertes in Hamlet and Caliban in The Tempest. He has appeared with Southwest Shakespeare Festival as Macduff in Macbeth. Justus owes much of his happiness in life to his wife, Bree, and their two dogs (Jill and Sonora) and cat (Indigo).
Paige Latendresse as Puck/ Egeus /Philostrate
Paige Latendresse has been performing in Arizona since 2017. Her most recent credits include the Nurse in FlagShakes summer production of Romeo and Juliet and Angelo in Comedy of Errors. Paige currently manages two cafes in Uptown Sedona and spends her free time at home with her four dogs and wonderful partner Nathan. She is very excited to be a part of such a unique performance with FlagShakes and FSO.
Becky Zaritsky as Titania / Hyppolyta
Becki Zaritsky is thrilled to be returning to A Midsummer Night’s Dream for her third time! Select credits: Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest, Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Halina in Indecent, and Rosalind in As You Like It (Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival); Callie in Consequences (24-hr Theatre Project with The Phoenix Theatre Company), Harriet in The Bremen Town Musicians (The REV on Tour); understudy Tatiana Racón in The Comedy of Tenors (Walnut Street Theatre); Assistant Stage Manager for West Side Story (International Tour). Becki is also part of the Flagstaff improv team Chomsky School of Business, and is an aerialist at Momentum Aerial. www.BeckiZaritsky.com @BeckZarit #BeckSideStory
Hannah Fontes as Helena/Snug/Fairy/Peaseblossom
Hannah Fontes is an actor, aerialist, and arts administrator based in Flagstaff, where she is the Marketing Director at the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. Besides marketing, she is the producer and a co-host on their podcast Untamed Shrews, a podcast about being a woman in theater. Her favorite acting credits include Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Othello (Desdemona), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena), Shakespeare in Love (Nurse), meg jo beth amy & louisa (Meg/Anna), Sense and Sensibility (Lucy/ Fanny), The Tempest (Caliban), and Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Quickly). She also wrote a one woman show titled I Am Playing Me that has been touring around the southwest and beyond for the past year. Hannah has also worked with Sweet Tea Shakespeare, Island Shakespeare Festival, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse (The Rev), Utah Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Southwest Shakespeare Company, Bridge Initiative, Tier5 Theatre Company, Neil Simon Festival, and Canyon Moon Theatre Company. Hannah holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from Southern Utah University. When Hannah isn’t doing theatre, you can find her doing aerial arts, baking, thrifting, volunteering at her church, and petting dogs.
David Scandura as Demetrius/Bottom
David Scandura has called Flagstaff home for nearly 17 years. He graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in English Secondary Education and a minor in Cinema Studies. A lifelong writer and performer, David is a former guest columnist with Flag Live! and a spoken word poet across Northern Arizona. He wrote and starred in the television pilot The Masterpiece (Malcolm West) with Alyra Productions. On stage, David has performed in Macbeth (Donalbain) with NAU. His original play Visiting Hours was featured in a dramatized reading as part of NAU’s New Works Festival. His most recent performance with Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival was Two Noble Kinsmen. In his spare time, David is a diehard heavy metal fan, a full-time cat dad, and discusses movies every week on The Greatest Movie Ever Made Podcast along with fellow FlagShakes member Justus Burkitt.
Marcus Winn as Lysander/Flute/Cobweb/Mustardseed
Marcus Winn is super privileged to be portraying Lysander. Recent credits include Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Arcite in Two Noble Kinsmen. He would like to thank God, his mom and brother, family and friends, and his teacher and mentor Don K. Williams.
Audrey Young as Hermia /Quince/ Moth
This is Audrey Young’s seventh season with FlagShakes with her most recent productions including Two Noble Kinsmen (Emilia), Twelfth Night (Feste), Othello (Emilia), and the Viola Award winning Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Gerte Schulte). Additional 2022-2023 credits include Cyrano de Bergerac (Roxane) with Red Earth Theatre Co., Almost, Maine (Sandrine, Gayle, Rhonda), Eurydice (Little Stone/Eurydice US), and The Great Gatsby (Daisy Buchanen) with Emerson Theater Collaborative. In 2020, Audrey was the recipient of the Viola Award for Emerging Artist.
Christine Schmidle – Director
Christine Schmidle is a freelance director and text coach and worked on over 60 productions at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. She received her MFA at Mary Baldwin College. Christine’s working experience includes the American Shakespeare Center, the Neuss Shakespeare Festival (Germany), the Prague Shakespeare Festival, and of course Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. She has been published in the Shakespeare Bulletin and Shakespeare Quarterly and translated “Der Bestrafte Brudermord” (a German Renaissance adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet) into English for Hidden Room’s puppet show, which has been touring worldwide. Follow her work at www.ActShakespeare.com.
Shari Snodgrass – Stage Manager
Shari Snodgrass has been running around backstage with various theatre companies in Washington and Arizona for 20 plus years. Some of her favorite productions she’s participated in include: Two Noble Kinsmen (Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival) Avenue Q (Theatrikos Theatre Company), Sweeney Todd (Theatrikids) Rent (Flagstaff Musical Theatre), Into the Woods (Leavenworth Summer Theatre), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (LST), Phantom of the Opera (Wenatchee District Musical), and Chicago (Music Theater of Wenatchee). Many thanks to a great cast and crew and much love to my family, Jenny, Victor, Dylan, and Elaina; thanks for sharing Auntie and letting her play with her friends.
