Ohio Shakespeare Festival prides itself on our multi-talented resident company. Our artists contribute more than just their acting abilities--often, they've dedicated themselves to many on and off stage aspects of our productions.  Below, you can get a sense of just how many hats our acting company wears.  

Tess Burgler

Associate Artistic Director, Marketing Director

Tess was a founding company member with OSF at age 14, playing the unforgettable Shakespearean role of Third-Musician-from-the-Left. Throughout the following decades, her love for the company grew into a lifetime passion. In that time, she designed and managed the box office system, led customer service operations, managed website and social media content, developed and directed (and sometimes wrote) the Greenshows, and appeared in many roles onstage.  

In 2013, she became an Associate Producer, and began her OSF leadership journey under the careful guidance of the Artistic Directors (a.k.a. her parents).  She was instrumental in OSF's addition of Greystone Hall in summer 2016, and her full-time position involves the day-to-day management of the  new, indoor space.

She believes in the ability of the theatre to celebrate and protect the human story.  Inspiring and uplifting theatre does not always promise a joyful tale (though sometimes that's exactly what we need), but it does promise to inspire a community to be its absolute best.  

Ohio Shakespeare Festival is the non-human love of her life, and she loves to share it with you.

In real life, she loves nothing more than her husband Ryan, her baby Zelda, their beautiful house, and their menagerie of fur kids.

Contact: tess@ohioshakespeare.com

 


John Peters

Customer Service Manager

John is honored and humbled to be even just a small cog in the machine that produces such incredible theatre. After initially spending a summer at Stan Hywet doing box office for OSF, John is proud to be included in the operations at the Greystone Hall location full-time. Recreationally, John is a fair-weather actor and amateur writer, who one day aspires to appear in the playbill as a playwright. Elsewhere he is a student at Cuyahoga Community College with an eye for achieving a degree in Non-profit Administration.

Contact: johnpeters@ohioshakespeare.com



Natalie Steen

Production Manager

Natalie Steen is humbled to have found a home here at Ohio Shakes and is excited to step into her new position as a full-time Actor Manager! She is a recent Baldwin Wallace University graduate with her BFA in Acting. She has a background in scenic building from her time as a carpenter in the BW scene shop for all of her four years of undergrad, as well as contributing to set builds with other theaters such as Porthouse. She gained her appreciation for woodworking and carpentry from her father by helping with renovation projects around the house while growing up. As for acting, her and her siblings had been a part of a Summer Music Theatre program in her hometown, Rochester Hills, Michigan, for collectively over 20 years which was how her love for the arts all began. She decided to pursue her passion for the stage at a university level and landed at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, OH. While at school you may have seen her in Uncle Vanya as Yelena, or The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as the Lawyer Cunningham. She quickly found some summer acting opportunities with Ohio Shakes and had the most magical first summer season under the stars and has been around ever since! You could’ve seen her in the summers as Helena in A Midsummer Nights Dream, or Herself in The Complete Works…, or indoors being a nasty Stepsister in Cinderella and Ann Deever in All My Sons. She is so honored to be creating with this amazing collection of humans who she has and continues to admire. DPTL

Contact: nataliesteen@ohioshakespeare.com


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BUDDY TAYLOR

Associate Artistic Director for Design

Buddy has been with OSF since 2003, and it continues to give him enjoyment and new challenges. Even though he moved to Texas in 2008, he still returns several times a year to design lights, design sound, build set pieces, or just add his two cents to a conversation. He is eager to find some time in his busy schedule to actually work on a show at the new Greystone Hall facility. Some of his favorite OSF productions (so far) are OthelloRichard III, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Comedy of Errors. Buddy also does design and production services in Texas for some schools and smaller local venues. 


Ryan Zarecki

Resident Fight Director, Properties master

Loves his job as resident Fight Director/Actor/Manager for the Ohio Shakespeare Festival. Some favorite roles with the company include Orlando (As You Like It), Porthos (The Three Musketeers: An Adventure, with Music), Mercutio (Romeo & Juliet), Quincy Morris (Dracula), Robin Hood, Thomas Jefferson (1776), Bottom (Midsummer), Roy (Lone Star) and Charles the Cat (Cinderella).

His fight production company [They Fight], with partner Tess Burgler, works to bring safe, awesome stage violence to Northeast Ohio stages.

He is a BGSU Grad, an SAFD member and proud Papa to his amazing daughter Zelda. He is ever thankful for his heart, Tessa, Fridays, Saturdays, and all.

Check out his nerdy leather craft shop, The Buckle & Rose on Etsy.com.

Contact: ryanzarecki@ohioshakespeare.com


SCOTT CAMpBELL

Resident Composer/Musician

Scott is a composer, musician and multi-instrumentalist with the Ohio Shakespeare Festival, where he composed music and lyrics for last season’s Robin Hood: An Adventure with Music; has written various parodies and settings for Greenshow and mainstage productions, and is currently collaborating on next season’s The Three Musketeers.  Scott earned his Masters degree in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin College. He is currently currently pursuing his PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies with a focus on early modern staging practices and modern folk performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  This season sees him collaborating with Chicago movement group The Seldoms, Australia’s Black Hole Theatre, and the Madison Shakespeare Company.  Scott is an Equity Membership Candidate and an active member of the American Society for Theatre Research.


Sarah Coon

Resident DJ

DJ Mo'Ballads has been with Ohio Shakes since 2013, but assumed the official title of Resident DJ in Summer 2017. Prior to her work at Ohio Shakes, Mo'Ballads honed her craft at The Globe (nightclub). A graduate of the prestigious Jazzy Jeff School for Vinyl at Harvard University, she has certifications in both Specialty Playlist Curation and Dancefloor Fire. Mo'Ballads has been a proud member of the Northeast Ohio Society for Shakespearean DJ's  (NEOSSDJS) since last week. In her professional capacity at OSF, she specializes in party mixes and creating epic soundtracks for fight calls.

When not bumping beats, Mo'Ballads (alias: Sarah Coon) serves as an actor/stage manager with the company, as well as doing some dramaturgical and grant writing and playwright work. "Come, lay it by, and let's first see moe ballads!"


MARTY LACONTE

Specialty Props & Costume Designer

Marty has been a costume designer since her high school theater days, and later when her daughter performed on the stage at Our Lady of the Elms HS.  She was then invited to costume shows at the Coach House Theatre in productions including A Lion in Winter, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Custer.  Marty joined the Ohio Shakespeare Festival team the summer of 2015 as costume and specialty props designer for Henry V. Since then her creative side was able to run wild while creating the mystical, fantasy creatures in The Tempest and Macbeth, as well as select specialty props for Coach House and OSF productions. She was recognized with a Superior Achievement Award by the Cleveland Critics Circlefor her work on The Tempest. Marty is a retired registered nurse who resides with her husband in the city of Green.


KELSEY TOMLINSON

Resident Costume Designer

Kelsey's costuming career began in college and resurfaced during OSF's 2015 season. Since then, she has worked for two years with the Woodridge High School theatre program, as well as OSF and Coach House Theatre. Audiences may remember her recent design work in Coach House's Six Dance Lessons...A Thousand Clowns and The Mousetrap. She also designed and created the new green Greenshow costumes, which made their debut at OSF's inaugural New Years Eve Gala. Along with costuming, Kelsey acts and sings onstage whenever possible.