THE OFFICIAL SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
Live from the Classical Actors' Couch Company
David Blixt
Actor, author, and fight director, David first appeared on the Michigan Shakespeare Festival stage in 1996, playing Mercutio and Antipholus of Ephesus. The following year he met Janice playing the quarreling lovers in The Taming Of The Shrew.
Since 2000, David has been the resident Fight Director and an Artistic Associate at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, where
he has choreographed violence and intimacy for more than forty productions, from Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet to Cymbeline and Julius Caesar. He holds a Wilde Award for best Shakespearean Actor for playing the title character in MSF's 2023 production of Macbeth, and two Wilde Awards for Best Actor In A Comedy, one for Algernon in MSF's 2014 production of The Importance Of Being Earnest, and another for the titular character in MSF's 2019 production of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Based in Chicago now, David is an ensemble member of The Artistic Home and the resident Stage Combat Instructor at the Chicago High School for the Arts. His Chicago credits include Athena at Writers Theatre (Equity Jeff Award for Fight Direction), The Brother/Sister Plays at Steppenwolf, Murder on the Orient Express, Dial M For Murder, and The Da Vinci Code at Drury Lane, and Catch Me If You Can at The Marriott, among many others.
Regionally, his work has appeared at Wayne State, Hope Summer Rep, and The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. Next month he travels to NYC's Tank Theatre to choreograph sword fights and love scenes for Malapert Love.
A published author of historical fiction, the Ann Arbor native continues to blend his love of Shakespeare in both his stage and literary work.
Diana Coates
Theatre has always had me in a bit of a vice grip. As a kid, The Lion King and Funny Girl weren’t just movies or musicals to me, they were whole worlds I lived in. I would stage semi-monthly The Lion King performances at the hair salon, complete with all the drama and voices I could muster.
Looking back, it feels pretty inevitable that I’d end up in this line of work. I’ve also been incredibly blessed to have a family who has always believed in me. My best friend, aka mom, has been a constant source of encouragement and support throughout every step of my career while listening to me belt “I’m the Greatest Star,” “Sadie Sadie,” and “My Man” on repeat! The woman is a saint.
After school, I moved to Chicago and had the chance to work with some incredible companies like the Goodman, Drury Lane, and Court Theatre while venturing into regional theatre. One of my first out-of-town gigs was right here with the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, and that’s where I was first introduced to the world of repertory theatre. I remember thinking, how in the world does one hold space for all of these stories and characters in one short summer? And then you do, and it’s beautiful and absolutely otherworldly.
One of my favorite parts of this career has been my work as a teaching artist. Whatever company I’m with, I try to spend time in their education department. At the Asolo Repertory Theatre, and more recently on The Acting Company of New York’s national tour, I’ve had the chance to speak with high school, college, and grad students alike about everything from Shakespeare to the realities of part-time work in this business. Over the years I’ve fallen in love with a mix of classical work and contemporary voices, from Shakespeare to brand-new plays that challenge and surprise. And now that New York has become home base, I continue to chase stories that matter and build a career that still more often than not feels pretty magical.
Ian Geers
Ian is currently a Chicago-based actor/musician/writer/director/
producer/educator/roommate to a cat.
Originally from Chesapeake, Virginia, he first became aware of theater when he noticed how much applause his older sister was getting in her high school production of The Music Man and thought “Hmm… How do I get in on this?”. He eventually went on to do what every parent, especially his, hopes for their child and
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
went to study Theater at a collegiate level, receiving his BFA inActing from Boston University and studying Commedia dell’Arte at the Academia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy.
Once graduated he was fortunate enough to tour the country performing the works of Shakespeare and Harper Lee with the National Players.
He eventually moved to Chicago, IL with the express purpose of studying Improvisation at several of the city’s most esteemed comedy centers only to fall in more and more with classical theater work eventually leading him to perform the works of Shakespeare, Feydoux, Behn, Christie, and Tarjan with the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival, Virginia Stage Company, Olney Theatre Center, A Crew of Patches, Montana Shakespeare in the Schools, Utah Shakespeare Festival, as well as 6 incredible seasons with the Michigan Shakespeare Festival.
In addition to acting, Ian unfortunately has a podcast, and what’s worse, he loves doing it. Ian and Lauren Grace Thompson produce/direct/write/and act in the award-winning (I know, I’m sorry) original audio comedy Fawx & Stallion *available wherever you stream podcasts…*.
He would like you to know, if you’ve made it this far, that things have changed for him from those first childish, yet reasonable impulses to join the arts. “It’s really so much more now about the family you make. The connections with the team on stage and off and the people you’re performing for. That ephemeral nature of live performance that can’t be replicated at home or online. It’s a real thing. Or the money.” He would like to give a special shout out to his amazing mom, sister, and aunt for making fun of him on a regular basis and his amazing wife, Lauren, who has remarkably chosen to put up with him.
Janet Haley
From September to April, you can find her in-role as Associate Professor of Theatre at The University of Michigan-Flint, where she specializes in physical approaches to actor training, ensemble theatre-making, and directing. Janet is down-on-her knees grateful to have served as Artistic Associate with Michigan Shakespeare Festival, and in 13 seasons has played over 35 roles
that run the spectrum of maids, mothers, madwomen, and magicians; favorite roles include Jacques/As You Like It, Olivia/12N, Paulina/The Winter's Tale, Portia/Merchant, Titania (twice), Gertrude/Hamlet (twice), Maria/12N, Portia/JC, Prospera, Regan, Beatrice, Mistress Quickly, Elizabeth/R3, Arkadina, Mme Pernelle/Tartuffe, and wee little Curtis in 2003's The Taming of the Shrew - her first MSF season which was also the last outdoor season for MSF.
Janet is Associate Artist with Flint Repertory Theatre Acting: The Mute in Michael Lluberes' nationally-renowned LBGTQ+ reimagining of The Fantasticks; Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Beatrice in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds; Amanda in The Glass Menagerie; Winnie in Beckett's Happy Days; The White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Directing: Flint Mural Plays, New Works Festivals. Other Michigan credits include: Thirst and Our Lady of Poison at Williamston Theatre; Elizabeth in Richard III directed by Julia Glander with Performance Network, and Nicely Theatre's 2020 One-Act Festival.
West coast acting credits include Seattle Public Theatre (Paulina/The Winter's Tale), Book-It Rep in Seattle (Rebecca/Rebecca), Harlequin in Olympia WA (Ophelia/Hamlet), Idaho Repertory Theatre (summer 1994), Idaho Theatre for Youth (national and international tours 1995-1998, including Moby Dick, the North American representative of ASSITEJ international festival in Rostov-on-Don, Russia in 1996), Boise Contemporary Theatre, and Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles.
Professionally, she’s directed several productions, including The Jungle Book and The Adventures of Huck Finn at Flint Youth Theatre. (both Wilde Award Nominees for Best TYA).
Janet's passion for making performance with/for community in her hometown of Flint, MI ignited several site-specific, ensemble-devised theatre experiences including Restoration of Spirit: Glenwood Cemetery, Awaken the Walls: Flint Riverbank Park, and 9x Nourished at the Flint Farmers' Market (script by Michael Rohd).
At UM-Flint, Janet has directed 25 theatre productions, including Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, Eurydice, Learned Ladies, Cherry Orchard, Curious Incident, Master Harold...and the Boys, Pride and Prejudice, Big Love, and Robert Kauzlaric's As You Like It. A special place in her heart goes to re-imagined classics that increasingly partner with students as concept collaborators, such as a hip-hop Antigone, Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer, and Laramie Project.
Janet has trained in Viewpoints and Suzuki practices with SITI Company of NYC continuously for the past 19 years, as well as Pacific Performance Project/east, and Peter Kyle Dance of NYC. Janet holds an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin, has received 6 Wilde Awards/8 nominations, is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association, and would like to thank former MSF Artistic Director John Neville-Andrews for hiring her for her first MSF summer in 2003, where she got to improvise the entire intermission of The Taming of the Shrew, as Curtis the Sweet Servant, sweeping the outdoor stage floor, chasing imaginary spiders, swatting at real hornets, and dancing with luminous butterflies under the night sky.
Robert Kauzlaric
Rob is an actor, playwright, director, and podcaster. He grew up in Duluth, MN, where he fell in love with the theatre at a very young age. He attended theatre conservatory in St. Louis, MO, where he met his future wife (and long-time MSF dialect coach) Elise at orientation, and THIS VERY NIGHT (September 27) is their 28th anniversary! Rob and Elise moved
to Chicago right after getting married, and have called it home ever since (along with many cats).
Rob first worked with MSF back in 2011, when Jan brought him in to direct Tartuffe, and he has been honored to call it an artistic home ever since. He’s directed ten productions here over the years, including the Wilde Award-winning Pericles, Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gents, Cymbeline, and Love’s Labour’s Lost (he has a particular fondness for the odd ones and the less-frequently-produced ones), and has performed onstage in nine productions, including appearances as Richard II, Brutus, and the Fool in King Lear.
As a playwright, Robert has written over a dozen theatrical adaptations—most of which premiered at his other main artistic home, Chicago’s Lifeline Theatre—and his plays have been performed in nearly all fifty U.S. states, as well as in Australia, Bolivia, Canada, England, Ireland, and Turkey. His scripts have won numerous Jeff Awards in Chicago and four of his scripts are licensed by Playscripts, Inc.
As an actor, Rob has appeared in over fifty productions in the Chicago area over the years. Some favorite roles include Father Flynn in Doubt and Mr. Rice in Molly Sweeney with Irish Theatre of Chicago, Jean Passepartout in Around the World in 80 Days and Richard Mayhew in Neverwhere at Lifeline Theatre, and Biedermann in The Arsonists with Strawdog Theatre Company.
Rob has been an avid player of tabletop roleplaying games for decades, and has recently parlayed that interest and experience into the Dark Nexus podcast—a Weird Horror actual play podcast using the Pathfinder ruleset—for which he GMs and produces. Over 150 episodes and running strong! He has also appeared on Lauren and Ian’s podcast, Fawx & Stallion, as Sherlock Holmes.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
Lauren Grace Thompson
Lauren is an actor, writer, producer, director, dialect coach, cat mom, vegetarian, and Aquarius, in case that's interesting info, you never know. Born in Tampa, Florida, she initially got into theatre because, as a shy, introverted kid, her parents thought it would be an easy way to help her make friends--and because she was heat sensitive and couldn't handle outdoor sports. Her first production was a summer camp
version of The Pajama Game, but her parents like to say her affinity for the stage came from a childhood trip to Disney World, where the Beauty and the Beast show needed a volunteer from the audience to play Angelique, the Angel from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and according to her parents, "A star was born."
She attended Howard W. Blake High School of the Arts as a Musical Theatre major and performed many shows that you could argue 15 year olds were not qualified to perform, like A Chorus Line and Company. But perform they did, and in the acting program, Mr. Mann encouraged her to work on Shakespeare around the time she was lucky enough to have two fantastic English teachers who taught Julius Caesar and King Lear, two shows she was lucky enough to perform in at MSF years later.
Lauren went on to attend Oklahoma City University to get her BFA in Acting. There, she performed in British farces like The Importance of Being Earnest, Jacobean tragedies like Tis Pity She's A Whore, French romantic comedies like Ring Round the Moon, Shakespearean plays like Much Ado About Nothing, which she's performed in three times, and new works like Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Shortly after, she moved to Chicago and, in her first production in the city, a staged reading of Henry IV: Part 1, met Ian Geers, who would one day become her fellow MSF company member and her favorite person in the world.
Lauren has spent most of her professional career darting in between Chicago and various regional festivals. She has performed at Utah Shakespeare, Montana Shakespeare, Judson Theatre Company, Studio Theatre Tierra Del Sol, Timeline Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Pride Films and Plays, and of course, MSF, where she's spent 4 summers. Her first season with MSF was their anniversary season, where she performed the role of Nina in The Seagull alongside Ian Geers. Two years later, she won the Wilde Award for Performance in a Shakespeare Play for MSF's six-person The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other roles at the festival include Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cordelia in King Lear, Ross in Macbeth, and Amy in Charley's Aunt. Non-MSF favorites include Dear Jack, Dear Louise, a two-person romantic comedy, and two back to back productions of Gaslight, the latter of which she performed alongside Maxwell Caulfield.
When she's not performing on the stage, she and Ian Geers co-write, produce, direct, and distribute independent audio dramas (modern radio plays) like Fawx & Stallion, a comedy-mystery show about Sherlock Holmes's neighbors, which stars many MSF actors of past and present. The show has won awards across the globe, from New Zealand to Minnesota, and recently wrapped its second season. She voice acts, edits, and produces on dozens of shows and truly loves working in an audio-only medium available for free to all.
On a personal note, Lauren met so many of her dearest friends through MSF. She married her fellow company member, Ian Geers, this April, and that wedding was officiated by Rob Kauzlaric, attended by David and Jan Blixt, and contained a reading from Jeremy Thompson, who would have been a company member in 2025. On our wedding day we looked out at the crowd of our loved ones and recognized scores of them from our time at MSF. Ian and I treasure our artistic home here and the time we have spent on their stage.
Rico Bruce Wade
Rico has been accused of being a “theater guy” and the evidence is overwhelming. An associate artist with the Flint Repertory Theater, he has popped up in classics like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Death of a Salesman, The Boatman, and Into the Woods—basically, if there’s a chance to yell, cry, or sing in the woods, he’s there. He has also
moonlighted with Ixion Ensemble (Broke-ology), Clarence Brown Theatre (Trouble in Mind), and Williamston Theatre (Blue Door), because why stay loyal to one stage when you can haunt them all?
As a director, Rico has helmed Hoodoo Love and The Mountaintop, proving he’s just as comfortable telling actors what to do as he is ignoring direction himself. A veteran of The Second City, he spent years collaborating on over a dozen revues—aka finding new ways to make audiences laugh at things they probably shouldn’t.
His film résumé includes Sincerely, Brenda, 490, and Songs for My Right Side, none of which were Marvel movies (yet).
In 2022, Rico even picked up an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy, which now functions as both a conversation starter and a suspiciously heavy paperweight. When he’s not racking up credits, he’s teaching—at Wayne State University, the Michigan Actors Studio, and anywhere else foolish enough to hand him a syllabus. He also co-founded “Improvisation in Business Organizations” at the Mike Ilitch School of Business, because apparently “winging it” is a marketable skill. He even coauthored the textbook Improv(e) Business, thereby putting his jokes in print so future generations can groan on paper.
Rico was a stand-up comic for over twenty years, which means he has endured hecklers in clubs from Zanies to The Comedy Castle, as well as the far scarier world of corporate banquets. In short: producer, director, actor, writer, comedian… and still waiting for someone to let him play Othello.