DONNA DEVLIN (Juliet/Rosalind) Not originally slated to play a role in “Rome and Juliet”, Donna is thrilled to have the (albeit last minute!) chance to step into the most famous of the Bard's tragic female roles. She is proud to debut her “no holds Bard” spoof comedy “Making Sonnets By Moonlight” as the third Main Stage show this summer, having honed her skills creating and writing pilots for MTV/Broadway Video, Fox TV and Canada’s CTV and Much Music. This actress/producer/director has won awards at the Cannes, Houston and Vancouver Film Festivals and has worked for Warner Brothers TV and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation where she won major North American awards and nominations. Under the guidance of advertising guru-turned-tv-star Donny Deutsch, she carved out an award-winning career as a producer of numerous tv commercial campaigns for clients such as Pitney Bowes, Time-Warner, Volvo, Ikea and Procter & Gamble. As an actress, she's attended the world-renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, U.K. and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to numerous NYC and regional theatre roles, she’s appeared in London as Gertrude (Hamlet) and Maria (in the world premiere of "Twelfth Night: The Musical").  Other credits include an L.A. revival of Arthur Miller’s "The Price", "The Comedy of Errors" and "Hamlet" in northern California, starring in a national tour performing classical works across the United States as well as Titania ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing") with SITV in 2006. She is a veteran of day and prime time television, feature films and many broadcast tv commercials as well as being an in-demand acting teacher. She ran the most acclaimed workshops in Toronto, Canada and has taught performance workshops to thousands of students all over the U.S. As a social marketer, she has helmed PSA tv commercials, documentaries and promotional campaigns for elite athletes with physical disabilities. Her commercials for Nike headlined at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games and she has served as a marketing and press relations consultant to The Hartford Insurance Company, among others. A busy lady, she is the director of both “R & J” and “As You Like It” and created (and wrote) both “Sugar-Coated Shakespeare” Interactive Family Matinees. 

WILL HAMMOND (Romeo,Orlando) A fourth-generation Franklin, N.H. native, Will was one of the founding members of that town’s award-winning Footlight Theatre Company. After leaving the Marines, he decided to concentrate on acting and has never looked back: He has attended the renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, U.K., where he studied stage fencing with the legendary Richard Ryan (fight coordinator for the movie “Troy” and the newly-released "Stardust"). Will has performed in London, playing the roles of Cassius (Julius Ceasar) and the 83 year old Shepherd in The Winter’s Tale at the West End’s GBS Theatre. He has starred as both Antipholus roles in "The Comedy of Errors" and as Laertes in "Hamlet" in northern California. Fresh off his critically (and popularly) acclaimed "leading man hot streak" (he was Oberon  in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Benedick  in "Much Ado About Nothing" in 2006 with TUTS/SITV) Hammond spent the past year as a Stage Combat consultant and workshop teacher. He serves as Fight Choreographer for both "Romeo and Juliet" and "As You Like It" this summer.

WANDA STRUKUS is happy to be spending her first summer with Shakespeare in the Valley.  After studying film and theater at Wesleyan University, University of Arizona, and Tufts University, she has gone on to direct and create original theater projects throughout greater New England, including UMass Lowell (Tartuffe), The Revolving Museum (ArtVentures Hamilton Mill Project), Marlboro College (Angels in America), TheaterZone (The Grapes of Wrath), Educational Center for the Arts (Persephone), and the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble (Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing).   She dances and performs regularly with Daniel McCusker Dance Projects in Cambridge, MA, and has trained in Viewpoints and Suzuki with the SITI Company.  She is also an award-winning playwright with productions of original plays in Tucson, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Boston, and most recently at Louisiana Tech University (D’Arc Comedy) and Northampton Community College (Dumbo).   She is a theater educator as well as a theater artist, and regularly teaches classes and workshops in acting, voice, movement, and site-specific performance. The MFA grad will be directing both Sugar-Coated Shakespeare Family Interactive Matinees as well as the third Main Stage production, the world premiere of the Shakespearean spoof tragi-comedy, "Making Sonnets by Moonlight".

AMI FORMICA comes to Waterville Valley from her studies at New York University's MFA program in Educational Theatre. Prior to this, Ami was at the world-famous McCarter Theatre where she worked as a full-time Teaching Artist in both in-school and after-school programs-- teaching classes in Shakespeare, acting, playwriting, stage combat, and costume design to students in grades K-12.  Ami has directed productions of "Through the Looking Glass" and "Hamlet", as well as many other original pieces.  She received her BA from Middlebury College with a major in Theater and a minor in Education.  She has been a guest lecturer at Middlebury College for 2 years at their Children and the Arts seminar, helping college student-teachers to integrate drama into their classrooms.  Ami has also worked in the classroom herself – most recently in first-grade at the Yeshiva of North Jersey.  An in-demand teacher, she was involved in directing and teaching children’s theatre classes at Middle Ground Children’s Theater for 3 years, and at Teen Pride of Morristown, NJ and goes on from Waterville Valley to head a two week Children's Theatre Camp in Maine.

LEILA BIRCH (Benvolia/Celia/Anne-Dark Lady) is thrilled to make her US stage debut in Waterville Valley this summer. Trained at the world’s most competitive acting schools, London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Yale University, she has long been known in her home country for her starring role as street-smart Teresa DiMarco in the UK’s top-rated drama, “East Enders”, as well as other BBC productions (most notably “One Night of Shakespeare”), the hit series “The Bill” for Thames TV and “Renford Rejects” for Nickelodeon.  Her stage work includes sold out musicals (“Aladdin” and the titular “Cinderella”), “fringe” plays at the award winning Arcola Theatre (called a “pioneering hotbed of talent”), outdoor Shakespeare festivals (Bianca in “Taming of the Shrew”), national tours (“Perfect Wedding”) and Feste in the world premiere of “Twelfth Night: The Musical” in London. Ms. Birch lives and works in both London and Los Angeles.

ELIZABETH BRESNAK-ARATA (Abbess-Housekeeper/Understudy/Queen Elizabeth) This NYC actress is no stranger to our shows, having performed the role of Juliet twice (A Small Company in America, The Long Island Shakespeare Festival) as well as Phebe in “As You Like It” with The Long Island Shakespeare Festival. A graduate of the University of Stony Brook Acting Program, she has been an Irene Ryan Finalist (for excellence in university theatre) and a member of a regional children’s touring company.

JERARD-JAMES CRAVEN (Friar John/Wrestler-Messenger/Various Understudy) An undergraduate in the University of New Hampshire’s Theatre Program, Jerard makes his professional debut with us this summer. In addition to numerous musical roles, the New Boston (NH) native has performed the classical roles of Orestes (“Electra”), Priest (“Twelfth Night”) and Prospero in “The Tempest”, for which he won a NHETG Excellence in Acting Award.

TUCKER CUMMINGS (Apothecary/Understudy/Guard-Shakespeare Women) A recent graduate of the University of New Hampshire’s Theatre Program, this Rumney (NH) native is overjoyed to be stepping into both her first professional job and into  a skirt (playing women!) within weeks of graduation. Classical roles include Caliban (“The Tempest”), Sir Toby Belch (“Twelfth Night”), Flipote (“Tartuffe”) and Ghost/Player Duke/Clown (“Hamlet”). Additionally, she has performed with UNH’s renowned “Little Red Wagon” Touring Children’s Shows.

STEPHANIE DANIELSON (Messenger-Rosaline/Various Understudy) This New York City-based, Maryland native makes her professional debut with us this summer. The former beauty queen is a graduate of the prestigious American Musical and Dramatic Academy. NYC classical roles include Helena (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), Olivia (“Twelfth Night”) and Dionyza (“Pericles”).

DANIEL LENDZIAN (Mercutio-Prince/Oliver-Adam/Shakespeare) A prolific comedy writer and improv actor whose work has been produced by Buffalo-based Venture Productions, Dan is no stranger to NH audiences, having performed with Whitefield’s historic Weathervane Theatre. In addition to numerous musical roles, his professional classical roles include Nick Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Marvel Theatre) and Orlando in “As You Like It” (Goshen Shakespeare Theatre). As well, he’s the veteran of a National Theatre for Children tour.

JEREMIAH MAESTES (Tybalt-Paris/Touchstone-Phebe/Understudy)This New York City actor is    excited to return to both the Bard and the mountains! A Colorado native, he’s played Borachio-Balthazar in “Much Ado About Nothing” at Aspen’s Shakespeare in the Park, Malcolm in    “Macbeth” (San Diego’s Sledgehammer Theatre) and Ferdinand in “A Tempest” (Iris Theatre, CA).  Other critically-acclaimed roles include Edward Kynaston in “Compleat Female Stage Beauty” and   the titular John Merrick in “The Elephant Man” (both with Theatre Works, CT) as well as his award-winning portrayal of Angel in “Jesus Hopped the A Train” (Lynx Performance Theatre, CA). He’s   studied Acting and British Drama at Oxford’s St. Clare University (U.K.) and has been a part of the   acting ensemble for the internationally-renowned, award-winning San Diego Old Globe Theatre, in their   production of “The Cherry Orchard”.

TODD QUICK (Lord Montague-Nurse/Charles-Silvius) Fresh off his travels with Encore Theatre’s regional tour, Todd is thrilled to get a “do over” with TUTS/SITV, having been forced to bow out of the 2006 inaugural season. No stranger to the classics, he is a 3 year veteran of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, playing 1^st Lord-Jailer (“Cymbeline”), Caliban (“The Tempest”), Sicinius (“Coriolanus”), Falstaff (“Henry IV, Part One”) and Angelo (“A Comedy of Errors”). Additional Shakespeare roles include the titular King Lear at SUNY Geneseo (where he received his BA In Theater Performance) and Prince Escalus in “Romeo and Juliet” at New York State’s Capitol Theater.

SVEN SALUMAA (Lord Capulet/Fredrick-Duke Senior/Understudy) With a world-ranking of 25^th in doubles to his credit, this former professional tennis player is a man of many talents: As an actor, he has played Ross-Witch-Seward in “Macbeth” (San Diego’s Excellent Motion Shakespeare Company), Rogers in “Ten Little Indians” (Coronado Playhouse) as well as George Bailey (“It’s A Wonderful Life”), Murray The Cop (“The Odd Couple”) and Maj. Frank Burns (“M*A*S*H”) for the Estonian-American Theatre, where this son of Estonian immigrants performed in both NYC and Tallinn. In addition to his acting kudos, Sven is also one of only four players in the history of Indiana tennis to be named to the All-Big Ten team three times and remains Indiana U's career singles win record holder. On the professional tennis tour for many years, he played all of the Grand Slam events several times and says Wimbledon and the US Open (where he was a Grandstand Court doubles semifinalist in 1990) “never lost their thrill”.

CHRIS DEVLIN-YOUNG (Set Designer/Abilities Consultant) A disabled veteran paralyzed in a Coast Guard plane crash, Mr. Devlin-Young is a 15 year veteran of the US Disabled Ski Team. In his tenure, he has won Paralympic, National, World Cup and World Championship titles many times over. He is the pioneering founder of the Trench Digger 5000—the first mono-snowboard for paraplegics as well as the first man to win a world title against an able-bodied field (in the World Synchronized Ski Championships). He won ESPN’s inaugural Disabled Skier-Cross at the 2005 X Games and was the first disabled skier to compete in both the National Extreme Ski and Snowboard Championships. With his wife, Donna, he was the founder and Head Coach of the New England Disabled Ski Team at Loon. In his roster: several Paralympic champions from 2002 and 2006 and the 2004 and 2005 World Cup Women’s Overall winner. As well, he placed an athlete on the US Team every year that he was Head Coach. On the Board of Waterville Valley-based "AbilityPLUS" and a coach for the adaptive ski program there, Chris travels the globe advocating for (and coaching persons with) physical disabilities. He volunteers his skills on behalf of the Disabled Veteran’s National Winter Sports clinics each year as well as countless other hours devoted to advocating on behalf of the physically challenged. He is the first disabled athlete asked to serve on the Board of Directors of the New England Ski Museum, an institution dedicated to the preservation and archiving of ski history as well as helping to shape the sport’s future. Christopher designed and constructed the sets for the highly-acclaimed 2006 TUTS/SITV summer season and will do so again in 2007. He is an accomplished carpenter, builder and craftsman of fine furniture designed for wheelchair use.

MICHELE LANDRY (Costume Seamstress) A 3rd generation Franklin, N.H. native, since 1996 Michele has been costumer and seamstress for the award-winning Footlight Theatre, designing and sewing costumes for “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Annie”, “Oliver!” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, 2005's smash hit “Beauty and the Beast” (for which her inventive creations were nominated in the Best Costume category at the 2005 NH Theatre Awards) and was co-costumer (with daughter Esther) for Shakespeare in the Valley's inaugural 2006 Season, gaining kudos for her beautiful work, which was a stand-out with audiences. “Proud Mama” Michele is delighted to be a part of Shakespeare in the Valley, making it a “family affair” as she works alongside son Will (Executive Manager and Fight Choreographer), creating costumes for all 3 Main Stage shows this summer.