MAMIE GUMMER
Midsummer in Oxford ’04
Film/TV: Taking Woodstock, John Adams, Stop-Loss, Evening. Theatre: Les Liasons Dangereuses (Broadway), Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout, Theatre World Award), The Water’s Edge (Second Stage, Lucille Lortel Award nom.), Uncle Vanya (Classic Stage, Lucille Lortel Award nom.)
DONAL LOGUE
London Theatre Program ’88
TV: Gotham, Terriers, Sons of Anarchy, Vikings, Grounded for Life, ER, The Knights of Prosperity, Life, Copper; Film: The Patriot, Charlie St. Cloud, We Only Know So Much, 9 Full Moons, Tao of Steve (Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance)
RUSSELL HORNSBY
Midsummer in Oxford 1995
Film: Fences, The Hate U Give TV: Grimm, Seven Seconds, Lincoln Heights, In Treatment, Gideon’s Crossing Theatre: Fences (Broadway), Jitney (Off Broadway, Drama Desk Award Outstanding Ensemble Performance), King Hedley II (Off-Broadway), Intimate Apparel (Off-Broadway)
ANNA GUNN
London Theatre Program ’88
TV: Breaking Bad (2 Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award), Deadwood, Gracepoint
Gunn has wanted to star on the London stage since she did a term here as a drama student — “One of the best times in my life.”
Evening Standard interview with Anna Gunn 9 July 2019
Photo: Production shot from The Night of the Iguana, © Simon Annand
RAOUL BHANEJA
Midsummer in Oxford ’92
A British-born Indo/Irish Canadian, Raoul has worked extensively on screen and on stage since his graduation from the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada in 1996. A classically trained actor his first feature film was Extraordinary Visitor (Toronto International Film Festival 1998) in the role of John The Baptist opposite Mary Walsh and Andy Jones.
He has performed in features ranging from art house dramas such as Ararat (Atom Egoyan) to Hollywood thrillers like The Sentinel (Clark Johnson) to indie darlings such as Touch of Pink (Ian Rashid) and the recent romantic comedy The Right Kind of Wrong (Jeremiah Chechik). Upcoming features include the John Madden directed Miss Sloane opposite Jessica Chastain.
On television he has had series leads and major recurring roles on both American and Canadian projects ranging from the cult hit Train 48 (Global TV) to The Dresden Files (Syfy) and Runaway (CW) and guest stars on Suits (USA), Beauty and The Beast (CBS), Rookie Blues (ABC) and 10 different projects with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
On stage he has extensively toured his one man show Hamlet (solo) and his Dora award nominated musical Life, Death and The Blues. In Toronto he has premiered a number of seminal new works and most recently produced and starred in the Toronto premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar which broke box office records at The Panasonic Theatre. An accomplished musician he has lead his award winning blues band Raoul and The Big Time since 1998 and they continue to be active on tour and in the studio.
CHARLIE SANDLAN
Midsummer in Oxford 1997
Charlie Sandlan is the Executive Director & Head of Acting at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York City. He has worked in theater, film and television in NYC, LA, and regionally throughout the United States. Charlie also teaches Meisner internationally, most recently at Act4All acting studio in Lisbon, Portugal.
NICOLE OLIVER
Midsummer in Oxford ’90
TV: Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
JENNIFER STEIL
London Theatre Program 1989
Jennifer Steil is an award-winning American writer, journalist, and actor currently living in La Paz, Bolivia. Her debut novel, The Ambassador’s Wife, was published by Doubleday on July 28, 2015. The Ambassador’s Wife won the 2013 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Best Novel award and has received considerable critical acclaim, notably in the Seattle Times, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and The New York Times Book Review.
Jennifer’s first book, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (Broadway Books, 2010) is a memoir about her tenure as editor of the Yemen Observer newspaper in Sana’a. The book received accolades in The New York Times, Newsweek, and the Sydney Morning Herald among other publications. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune called it one of the best travel books of the year in 2010, and Ellemagazine awarded it their Readers’ Prize. National Geographic Travelerincludes the book in its recommended reading list. It has been published in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, and Poland. Her freelance work has appeared in the World Policy Journal, Die Welt, Vogue UK, the Washington Times, The Week, Yahoo Travel, Time, and The Rumpus.
STEFANIE ZADRAVEC
London Theatre Program ’89
Stefanie Zadravec is a resident playwright at New Dramatists, playwright-in-residence at The Women’s Project, and the 2017 Keen Company Playwrights Lab. Her plays include Colony Collapse (Theatre@Boston Court: 2015 Kilroys List and LA Times Critics Choice); The Electric Baby (Two River Theater, Quantum Theater); Honey Brown Eyes (Theater J, Working Theatre, SF Playhouse); and currently – The Boat (The Working Theater Commission) and Tiny Houses (Women’s Project Commission). She received a 2015 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award,the Francesca Primus Prize, Helen Hayes Award, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, & the Women in Arts & Media Collaboration Award; as well as fellowships from NYFA, the Lark, Playwrights Realm, The Dramatists Guild, & Sewanee Writers Conference, and commission/developmental support from The Edgerton Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the NEA, NYSCA, The Mellon Foundation, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Lilly Awards, New York Stage & Film, The Lark, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Kennedy Center, Play Penn, The Women’s Project, Epic Theatre Ensemble, The Barrow Group, and New Dramatists.
ERIK PATTERSON
London Theatre Program ’98
Film: Another Cinderella Story (writer, WGA Award winner), TV: R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour
ZURIN VILLANEUVA
Midsummer in Oxford ’08
Theatre: Mean Girls (Broadway), Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (Broadway), Book of Mormon (National Tour), Witness, Ruined (Everyman Theatre), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Crossroads Theatre), Josephine Tonight! (MetroStage), Crowns (Arena Stage).
LIESL TOMMY
Midsummer in Oxford ’92
Liesl Tommy is an award-winning international theatre director and the first woman of color to be nominated for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. Credits include Eclipsed (2016 Tony Award Nominee for Best Direction of a Play; 2016 Lucille Lortel Award Winner, Outstanding Director), The Good Negro, The Urban Retreat, Informed Consent, A Melancholy Play, Kid Victory, Party People, Appropriate (2014 Obie Award, Direction), The White Man – A Complex Declaration of Love, Peggy Picket Sees the the Face of God, a History of Light, and Angela’s Mixtape. Liesl is known for her innovative interpretation of classics like Les Miserables, Hamlet, A Raisin in the Sun, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, as well as her critically acclaimed four-city tour of Ruined.
Her film credits include: Respect. Her TV credits include: Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, The Walking Dead, Insecure, Dietland, Queen Sugar.
She is an alumna of Trinity Rep Conservatory and a proud native of Cape Town, South Africa.
DAVID SCHWIMMER
Midsummer in Oxford ’85
“The Summer I spent in BADA’s program at Oxford University was one of the most memorable and illuminating experiences of my life. Any young actor who has the opportunity to attend Midsummer in Oxford should grab it.”
Emmy nominee, Friends; Madagascar; Band of Brothers; The Pallbearer; The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (Broadway); Some Girls (West End); co-founder, Lookingglass Theater Company.
OLIVER PLATT
Midsummer in Oxford ’86
Theatre: Tony nominee, Shining City; Guys and Dolls (Broadway); TV: Chicago Med, Huff (Emmy Nomination, Golden Globe Nomination); The West Wing (Emmy Nomination); Nip/Tuck (Emmy Nomination), The Big C Film: Kinsey; Casanova; Bulworth; Postcards From the Edge; 2012
STEVEN SKYBELL
Midsummer in Oxford 1984
Steven Skybell teaches acting both at NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, and Fordham, and has taught elsewhere at Harvard and the Shakespeare Lab at the Public Theater. His Broadway acting credits include Dr. Dillamond in WICKED, Harold Nichols in THE FULL MONTY, PAL JOEY, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! CAFE CROWN, and AH, WILDERNESS. Numerous off-Broadway appearances include ANTIGONE IN NEW YORK (Vineyard Theatre) for which he received an Obie award, The Professor in Tina Howe’s translation of Ionesco’s THE LESSON (Atlantic Theater), the US premiere of Jean-Claude Carriere’s THE CONTROVERSY (Public Theater) and the world premiere of Chris Shin’s WHAT DIDN’T HAPPEN (Playwrights Horizons). His regional credits include King Arthur in CAMELOT (Helen Hayes nomination), the title roles in UNCLE VANYA (McCarter/La Jolla) and HAMLET (California Shakespeare Festival). Other Shakespearean roles include Vanessa Redgrave’s ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Holofernes in LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, Ulysses in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (all at Public Theater), Bottom in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (CSC), title role in RICHARD 2, Buckingham in RICHARD 3, AS YOU LIKE IT (directed by Mark Rylance), and Julie Taymor’s TITUS ANDRONICUS (all for Theatre for a New Audience). Mr. Skybell was one of two Americans chosen for the inaugural season of Shakespeare’s Globe/London, where he appeared in HENRY V, and A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE, which included a command performance for Elizabeth 2 (as seen on PBS’ Great Performances). His film and TV credits include: ELEMENTARY, 666 PARK AVENUE, NYC 22, LAW & ORDER, SEX AND THE CITY, ALL MY CHILDREN, SIMPLY IRRESTIBLE, CRADLE WILL ROCK, and TOM AND FRANCIE. Mr. Skybell holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama, a BA from Yale College, and a certificate in acting from the British-American Drama Academy, Bailliol College, Oxford.
AARON MONAGHAN
Midsummer in Oxford ’01
Aaron trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin. His recent work includes Stones In His Pockets at Macarter Theater, Princeton. He has worked worked extensively with the Abbey Theatre in King Lear (2013), 16 Possible Glimpses (2011), Christ Deliver Us! (2010), Arrah na Pogue (2010), Tales of Ballycumber (2009), She Stoops to Conquer (2003); and with Druid Theatre Company, of which he is an ensemble member and with which he has toured internationally in Waiting For Godot (2016-18), Shelter (2018), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (2016), DruidShakespeare (2015), DruidMurphy (2013), Penelope (2011), The Silver Tassie (2009), The Walworth Farce (2006), Empress of India (2006), DruidSynge (2005) and The Playboy of the Western World (2005). He has also worked with companies such as Fishamble, Bedrock, Yew Tree and Livin’ Dred, which he co-founded in 2004. His film and TV work includes Assassin’s Creed, The Foreigner, Maze, Float Like a Butterfly, Love/Hate, Vikings, The Tudors, Inspector Jury, Hideaways, The Other Side of Sleep and Clean Break, amongst others. He is a recipient of a Lucille Lortel Award, Manchester Evening News Award, an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award and an OBIE Award for Outstanding Performance.
MARK COLSON
Midsummer in Oxford ’84
TV: Outsiders, Banshee, Invasion, Heroes, Angel Theatre: Of Mice and Men (Theatre Banshee), Gaps in the Fossil Record (Purple Rose Theatre, world premiere)
ELIZABETH MARVEL
London Theatre Program ’88
Theatre: Picnic (Broadway), Other Desert Cities (Broadway), Top Girls (Broadway), Saint Joan (Broadway), Little Foxes (New York Theatre Workshop), The Book of Grace (The Public Theater), Fifty Words (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk nomination), Hedda Gabbler (New York Theatre Workshop), King Lear (The Public Theater) TV: House of Cards, Fargo, Homeland, Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, The District Film: True Grit, A Most Violent Year, Lincoln, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Bourne Legacy
PURVA BEDI
London Theatre Program ’94
Purva is an Associate Artist of Target Margin Theater and a member of the Actors Center. New York theater credits include: India Pale Ale (Manhattan Theater Club), Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons), An Ordinary Muslim (New York Theatre Workshop), Uncommon Sense (Tectonic Theater Project), The Idiot (Here Arts Center), Veil’d (Women’s Project); additional projects include Ten Blocks on the Camino Real, Reread Another, The Tempest, and Second Language (Target Margin); There or Here (Hypothetical Theater), The Rise of Dorothy Hale (St. Luke’s); East is East (Manhattan Theater Club & New Group); and many others. Her TV guest and recurring appearances include High Maintenance, She’s Gotta Have It, The Code, Madam Secretary, Person of Interest, Unforgettable, Nurse Jackie, The Blacklist, The Good Wife, A Gifted Man, Gossip Girl, House, Boston Legal, Alias, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Drew Carey Show, ER, Strong Medicine, and The West Wing.
CHADWICK BOSEMAN
Midsummer in Oxford ’98
“When I came back, I began to feel like, ‘Oh, now I know what it means to be an actor. There’s a difference between being able to do it and being it.’”
Film: Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Get on Up, 42, The Kill Hole, The Express. TV: Persons Unknown, Fringe, Justified, Detroit and Lincoln Heights. Theatre: Deep Azure (Congo Square Theatre, Chicago, nominated for a 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award).
PAUL RUDD
Midsummer in Oxford ’93
“After Clueless, he moved to New York to act in a play, and after his first job on a TV show, he went to study Jacobean drama at Oxford’s British American Drama Academy. Listening to him describe this period, I wonder if being 22 in Oxford might have been the happiest time in his life.
‘I loved it. I loved working on Shakespeare. I loved living in the dorms at Oxford. I loved walking the campus. I loved getting tea. I loved memorising the lines. I loved working on the plays. My hair was down to the middle of my back. I was enthusiastic and optimistic and taking everything in. It was joyous.’
It was also grounding, he says: ‘It made me feel as though my place in all of it was the right place, which was infinitesimal. I was a small cog in a wheel that’s been spinning for a long time.’ ”
Paul Rudd interviewed by Ralph Jones for ShortList, 1 August 2018
Film: Ant-Man; Ant-Man and The Wasp; I Love You, Man; Knocked Up; Forgetting Sarah Marshall; The Forty Year Old Virgin; Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy; The Shape of Things; The Cider House Rules; Clueless. Broadway: Twelfth Night, Three Days of Rain, The Last Night of Ballyhoo
SAM GOLD
Midsummer in Oxford ’96
Sam Gold is a multiple Tony, Lortel, Obie and Drama Desk award nominated director who won the 2015 Tony Award Best Direction of a Musical for Fun Home. He has collaborated with playwrights Annie Baker, Stephen Belber, Bash Doran, Will Eno, Noah Haidle, Nick Jones, Zoe Kazan, Dan LeFranc, Sam Marks, Theresa Rebeck, Betty Shamieh, Beau Willimon and others. Recent credits: We Live Here (Manhattan Theatre Club), A Doll’s House (Williamstown Theatre Festival), August: Osage County (Old Globe), Kin (Playwrights Horizons), The Coward (Lincoln Center’s LCT3), Tigers Be Still (Roundabout), Dusk Rings a Bell (Atlantic), The Aliens (Rattlestick, Obie Award in 2010 for Outstanding Direction), Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk nomination, Obie Award in 2010 for Outstanding Direction), Jollyship the Whiz-Bang (Ars Nova and Under the Radar Festival), Rag and Bone (Rattlestick), The Joke (Studio Dante), The Black Eyed (NYTW). Sam was the dramaturg at the Wooster Group from 2003-2006. He is a Roundabout Associate Artist, NYTW Usual Suspect, Drama League Directing Fellow, recipient of the Princess Grace Award and the Garson Kanin/Marian Seldes Theatre Hall of Fame Fellowship, and a graduate of the Juilliard Directing Program. Upcoming: Look Back in Anger (Roundabout), The Big Meal (Playwrights Horizons), The Realistic Joneses (Yale Rep), Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep).
NICKI HUNTER
London Theatre Program ’08
Nicki Hunter is the Artistic Producer for the Manhattan Theatre Club.
Prior to serving as the Artistic Producer for MTC, she worked in a number of positions, including as Line Producer. During her tenure at MTC, she has worked on productions including Simon Stephens’ HEISENBERG starring Mary-Louise Parker (on and off-Broadway), Qui Nguyen’s VIETGONE, Melissa Ross’ OF GOOD STOCK, Penelope Skinner’s THE RUINS OF CIVILIZATION and LINDA, Richard Greenberg’s OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR, Abe Koogler’s FULFILLMENT CENTER, Donja R. Love’s SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS, Jaclyn Backhaus’ INDIA PALE ALE, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s CHOIR BOY (Tony nominated for Best Play), and Bess Wohl’s CONTINUITY. She also runs MTC’s Directing Fellowship Program and helps put together the numerous MTC developmental readings and workshops.
Previous credits include producing at NYMF and working for Prospect Theatre Company as well as Cape Repertory Theatre. She has volunteered her time to work with the Ackerman Institute’s Gender and Family Project. Hunter interned at Calleri Casting and Binder Casting. At the Summer Play Festival, where she apprenticed, she worked on Matthew Lopez’s play TIO PEPE (later entitled SOMEWHERE) and Joe Iconis’ musical THE BLACK SUITS.
Hunter graduated with high honors from Lehigh University, where she studied both Theatre and Business. She also attended the British American Drama Academy in London and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York.
Y’LAN NOEL
Midsummer in Oxford ’12
TV: Insecure, The Hustle Film: The First Purge, Slice, The Weekend
MELISSA CLAIRE EGAN
Midsummer in Oxford ’02
Melissa has been starring as Chelsea Lawson Newman on “The Young & the Restless” since 2011. She previously played the role of Annie McDermott on “All My Children” from 2006 through 2011. Her other television credits include “Bones,” “Men at Work,” “Criminal Minds,” “One Tree Hill,” and “Dawson’s Creek.” She also starred in the independent films “Wrestling,” and “The Marriage Counselor” and was in a 2006 Super Bowl commercial for Taco Bell.
Melissa has been nominated for 5 Daytime Emmy Awards.
She graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Dramatic Arts, and also studied Shakespeare at the British American Drama Academy at Oxford, England.
Originally from Bedford, New York, Melissa grew up with an extensive background in musical theatre. While still a child, she began booking national television commercials and was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency.
JOE MYDELL
Midsummer in Oxford ’84
Trained at the New York University of the Arts and BADA (1984). His theatre experience includes Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Last Confession, and The Boys Next Door, (London’s West End), The Tempest (Regent’s Park), Medea(Broadway), and A Season in the Congo(The Young Vic). Joe has starred in many productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company: Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Breakfast with Mugabe, Worlds Apart and Macbeth and the National Theatre: The Comedy of Errors, Edmond, Alice’s Adventures Underground, Angels in America, Perestroika (Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role) and Lyrics of the Hearthside (Edinburgh Fringe First). Most recent TV work includes Homeland, Midsummer Murders and The Missing. Radio credits include Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Falco, Great Escape, Henry VIII and The Lost Boys.
TAYLOR DEARDEN
London Theatre Program ’14
TV: American Vandal, Sweet/Vicious, Search and Destroy Film: The Last Champion, Heartthrob
JENNA AUGEN
London Theatre Program ’05
Theatre includes: Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (World Premiere, Wyndham’s Theatre, London); Bartholomew Fair (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion); The Knowledge (Charing Cross Theatre); The Witches (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Bad Jews (UK Theatre Award/The Arts Theatre/St. James Theatre/Theatre Royal, Bath); The Way Of The World (Chichester Festival Theatre); Rufus Norris’ Sleeping Beauty (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Chicken Soup with Barley (Royal Court); The Gondoliers (Sierra Madre Playhouse); A Christmas Carol (Grove Theater Centre); A Murder Is Announced (The Lyceum/Arrow Rock); The Boys From Syracuse, The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (Commonwealth Shakespeare Co) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Wilton Playshop).
Television includes: Episodes and The Night Watch.
Film includes: Josephine and the Roach and Penelope in the Treehouse.
Radio includes: Chicken Soup with Barley and A Year at the Races.
R. DAVIS MCCALLUM
Midsummer in Oxford 1993
Davis is the Artistic Director of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and leads the company alongside Managing Director Kate Liberman. Under McCallum’s leadership, HVSF established Full Circle, a community engagement program inspired by last year’s citizen-driven production of Our Town. This season marks the launch of HVStories, a multi-year exploration of the people, history, and culture of the Hudson Valley. His extensive background with Shakespeare and the classics includes productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Guthrie, The Old Globe, The Pearl, the American Shakespeare Center, and The Acting Company. A graduate of Princeton, he studied Shakespeare at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and trained as a director at LAMDA. He has taught acting and directing at Princeton and The New School for Drama.
SUSAN KELECHI WATSON
Midsummer in Oxford ’98
Susan Kelechi Watson currently stars as Beth Pearson on NBC’s critically acclaimed series “This Is Us,” for which she earned an individual nomination for the 49th Annual NAACP Image Awards.
Susan has appeared in numerous television series including two seasons of “Louie” on FX. Additional television credits include: NBC’s “The Blacklist” and “Third Watch”; HBO’s “Divorce”; CBS’s “NCIS”; and FOX’s “The Following.”
Her film credits include period drama “Peter and John,” starring Jacqueline Bisset, and the indie “Small, Beautifully Moving Parts.”
Susan currently serves on the board of Drama Club, an organization that uses theater to mentor incarcerated youths in NYC. Started in 2013, Drama Club’s mission is to provide theater and positive mentor relationships to youth throughout each step of their journey through the criminal justice system.
Susan is also a proud Epic NEXT youth development mentor with the Epic Theatre Ensemble, a professional theater company with a mission to promote vital civic discourse and social change through drama. She co-created and continues to lead Epic NEXT’s Annual New Play Festival that showcases original plays about social justice issues as written, directed, and performed by Epic NEXT students.
She received her BFA from Howard University and MFA from NYU.
MICHAEL MEDICO
Midsummer in Oxford ’96
MICHAEL MEDICO started directing on a dare. During a particularly low moment personally, financially and creatively, fellow BU alum (and “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner) Krista Vernoff dared him to try something new by writing and directing a one-minute short for no money. As in zero. The short, entitled “Bitch.”, premiered at Outfest and was a hit on the festival circuit before being named best short film of 2009 by Frontiers LA magazine.
It seems Krista Vernoff is one smart cookie.
Over the next six months, Michael directed five more projects. He created and directed multiple spots for the A2IM’s anti-piracy campaign entitled “Stealing Sucks,” and one of his two promos for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, “Miss March Mishap,” went viral receiving over a million hits. Let’s just say he caught the directing bug. Big time.
While developing other projects he began to shadow some of his favorite TV directors: Mark Mylod—Shameless”; Debbie Allen, Rob Corn and Tony Phelan—“Grey’s Anatomy”; John Fortenberry—“Instant Mom”; Michael McDonald—“Benched”; Erin O’Malley—“New Girl”; Norman Buckley—“The Fosters”; and Ian Toynton—“Bones.”
Between shadowing, he co-created and directed the web series pilot, “Paige a Day,” starring (BU Classmate) Michaela Watkins, Holland Taylor, and Jason Biggs, and conceived and directed the Father Tiger music video, “First Love,” that received acclaim from both The Advocate and It Gets Better Campaign.
His work and drive gained the attention of TV writer/creator Peter Paige (another BU alum!), who gave Michael his first directing job on television: “The Fosters.” He ended up directing three episodes in the last two seasons of this acclaimed, award-winning show—including the first part of the three-part Series Finale. In the meantime, his mockumentary short “Walk It Out” premiered at the Palm Springs Int’l ShortFest and he directed the Krista Vernoff scribed short “Divorce: The Greatest Hits” starring Jay Harrington, Beau Mirchoff, and Tracie Thoms which premiered at the LA Int’l Shorts Festival.
He was thrilled to reunite with his “Fosters” family directing two episodes of the groundbreaking spin-off “Good Trouble” for Freeform. In 2019, Sony hired Michael to direct an episode of “Atypical” for Netflix. Then, Sony and Freeform hired him a month later to direct their reboot of “Party of Five.” He also had the privilege of working with Debbie Allen who hired him to direct two episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” in the first half of Season 16.
Before directing Michael spent many years in NYC and LA as an actor. TV credits include: “Grace and Frankie,” “Will & Grace,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bones,” “Two and a Half Men,” “House,” “Sex and the City,” among others he can no longer remember. Film credits include: “Day Out of Days,” “For a Good Time Call…,” “Kiss the Bride,” and “Life’s Too Good.” He also worked in some of the nation’s top regional theatres including The Old Globe, The McCarter, Huntington Theatre Co., Seattle Rep, Arden Theatre Co, The Shakespeare Theatre, The Rubicon and Off-Broadway: LaMama. And he’s done a million commercials.
One.
Million.
Michael received a BFA in Theatre from Boston University and was the recipient of their highest alumni honor: The 2010 Distinguished Young Alumni Award. He was also the creator and executive producer of HOT IN HOLLYWOOD, a celebrity-driven benefit that raised more than half a million dollars in three years for domestic and international AIDS organizations. He lives in Los Feliz with his husband, Brian, their daughter and son, Everly Rose and Bowie, and two silly mutts, Lady and Charlie.
BLAKE ROBISON
Midsummer in Oxford 1986
Blake is Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, where he has directed A Prayer for Owen Meany, the world premiere of Karen Zacarías’ Native Gardens, Mad River Rising, Peter and the Starcatcher, Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical, Pride and Prejudice, 4000 Miles, The Book Club Play, The Three Musketeers and the world premiere of Abigail/1702. Over the summer, he staged Native Gardens at the renowned Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Previously, he collaborated with John Morris Russell and the Cincinnati Pops as director of their concert staging of The Music Man starring Will Chase and Betsy Wolfe. Blake has directed classics, musicals and new plays at theatres across the country including Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Folger Theatre, Round House Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, National Shakespeare Company and Vermont Stage. Internationally, he directed the Tennessee Williams classic Summer and Smoke at English Theatre Berlin and has worked several times at the renowned Avignon Festival in France. As an adapter, he created successful stage versions of Alice McDermott’s beloved novel Charming Billy and Jay Parini’s The Last Station. Before joining the Playhouse, Blake served as producing artistic director of Round House Theatre in metro Washington, DC.
SARAH STERN
London Theatre Program ’96
Sarah Stern is a dramaturg and the Artistic Director of the Vineyard Theatre, where she has helped develop and launch more than 50 world-premiere plays and musicals, including Avenue Q, [title of show], The Scottsboro Boys, God’s Ear, Middletown, Wig Out!, Brooklynite, Gloria.
MARGARET ODETTE
Midsummer in Oxford ’15
Margaret Odette is a Haitian American actor from Harlem, NYC. She enjoys playing violin, learning new languages (currently working on Spanish), and has a unique capacity to micro-nap almost anywhere on the planet.
Margaret completed her MFA training at NYU Tisch Grad Acting. Along the way, her first feature film, Sleeping with Other People, debuted at Sundance and screened at Tribeca Film Festival; and she trained at the British American Dramatic Academy in Oxford, England.
Margaret co-founded Homebase Theatre Collective, a community of playwrights, directors, and actors from Juilliard and NYU Tisch.
TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY
Midsummer in Oxford 2005
Tarell won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Moonlight, based on his play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. He is best known for his acclaimed trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays: The Brothers Size, In the Red and Brown Water, and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet which have been performed at the McCarter Theatre, The Public Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre, and the Young Vic (Olivier Award nomination) in London. Tarell has received the prestigious Whiting Award and Steinberg Playwright Award, the inaugural NY Times Outstanding Playwright Award, and the inaugural Paula Vogel Playwriting Award.
QERIT QUEALY
Midsummer in Oxford 1994
Gerit Quealy is the author/editor of Botanical Shakespeare. As a journalist, she has covered everything from lipstick to Shakespeare, with pieces ranging from dollhouses to birdhouses; beauty, brownies, and brides, in outlets including The New York Times, Country Living, Woman’s Day, Modern Bride, and more. She’s had her hand in a number of other books, which pulled in former stints as actor & model, but her overriding passion is for history (& paleography), embracing the Renaissance tenet of ‘Learning through Delight.’
ALYSIA REINER
London Theatre Program ’90
Alysia Reiner is best known for her role as Natalie “Fig” Figueroa, the tough-as-nails assistant warden everyone loves to hate on the Netflix hit series Orange Is the New Black(2013), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild award as part of the ensemble cast. She also played Sunny in the FX show Better Things (2016). Additionally she played District Attorney Wendy Parks on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder (2014), Lilian Izikoff on Rosewood (2015) and Fiona in the TNT series Search Party (2016).
On the film front, Reiner starred with Anna Gunn (LTP ’88) in Equity (2016) about the first female-driven Wall Street film, which she also produced. The film premiered at Sundance, was immediately acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, and was released in theaters nationwide. Other recent film includes “School Spirits,” “Shine,” and Whitney Cummings’ “The Female Brain.”
Reiner loves working as a change maker for women, and has been invited to The White House, The United Nations, S.H.E. Summit, Google, and Cannes Lion to speak about breaking barriers for women in all fields. Additionally, she was awarded the Sarah Powell Huntington Leadership Award by the Women’s Prison Association, and she has been honored with the Voice of a Woman Award, the Pioneer In Filmmaking Award, and the CSC’s Founders Award for Support. She was recognized as an Intelligent Optimist in Ode Magazine and profiled by New York Women in Film and Television as a woman to watch.
JORDAN THALER
Midsummer in Oxford ’85
New York City casting director for more than 25 years in theatre, film and television, based at the Public Theater. Has cast more than 150 productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, including Hair and The Tempest.
