George Orwell's 1984
Homer's The Odyssey
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cast
DANIEL RYLEE BUSH: Daniel recently graduated from Shenandoah Conservatory with a BFA in acting and moved to NYC to pursue a career in performing. Some of his favorite performances include The Dumb Waiter, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and The Whipping Man. Daniel is also a guitar player, playwright, and singer. His short Fast, Ugly, and Fucked up recently premiered at NY Winterfest where it reached the top 3 in the shorts category.
DANIEL CASSIDY: is a Liverpudlian actor based in Liverpool and Manchester. Having completed a degree in Accounting and Finance in 2016, his theatre training has since included various classes across the North-West of England, including with David Johnson and Jim Cartwright. Theatre credits include: Bottleneck (Liverpool’s Royal Court Studio/Hiding Place Theatre); Thorn (Oldham Coliseum Studio); Those Two Weeks (Gladstone Theatre). Film credits include: Being Keegan (Stephanie Zari). Daniel is also a proficient pianist.
MAGGIE McMEANS: is an NYC-based theater and film actress. She received a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she trained at the Meisner Studio. Her theater credits include Top Girls, Romeo and Juliet, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, and the North American tour of Friends! The Musical Parody.
REECE RICHARDSON: Trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Theatre credits include: The Claykickers Chorus (Wild Thyme Productions); The Tempest (The Lord Chamberlain's Men); Up 'n' Under and Oh! What a Lovely War (Oldham Coliseum); The Tempest (Stafford Gatehouse Theatre); Closer (Black Box Theatre York); Othello (Stafford Gatehouse Theatre); Home and Beauty, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Lady in the Van, A Little Night Music (all Pitlochry Festival Theatre); Macbeth (Young Shakespeare Company); Virtual Heroes (Vienna’s English Theatre); No Naughty Bits (Hampstead Theatre).
Film credits include: Hamlet (Globe Research Department); The Old Man of Waterloo (History in the Making); Dreaming of Peggy Lee (Big Mop Productions).
CAMERON ROBERTSON: After a degree in Classical Studies & History at the University of Wales, Lampeter, Cameron trained at Drama Studio London. Theatre credits include: Of Mice and Men (Selladoor UK No.1 tour); For King & Country (Southwark Playhouse); Turkey (Hope Theatre); The Miser (Garrick Theatre); Les Blancs (National Theatre); The 39 Steps (MFP); Surgeon to the Dead (Dream Team); Macbeth (Young Shakespeare Company); Letters From Everyone (Lonesome Schoolboy Productions); A Trick to Catch the Old One (Mercurius Theatre); Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Principal Theatre); Stag (Courtyard Theatre).
Television and film credits include: Saved (ITV); Conspiracy (Channel 5); The Adventurer: the Curse of the Midas Box (Cinema One SPV 5) and The Wee Man (Carnaby Films).
HANNAH SINCLAIR ROBINSON: Studied at Bath Spa University gaining a BA in Performing Arts; she then went on to train for her MA in Acting at East 15 Acting School. Since graduating in 2016 she has worked across Theatre and Television, most recently playing the role of Helena in A Midsummer Nights Dream (Shakespeare in the Squares), Mandela in Water, Bread and Salt (Tangle International), Annette in Timothy (Joyous Guard) and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Squares). Television credits include: Doctors (BBC), Eastenders (BBC), Four Weddings and a Funeral (Hulu), Killer Cops (CBS Reality). Hannah is very excited to be joining Aquila this Spring. @heyitshannahsr
creative & production crew
DESIREE SANCHEZ (Director) has been Aquila’s artistic director since 2012. Past productions for Aquila include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frankenstein, Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility, Much Ado About Nothing, Our Trojan War, Romeo and Juliet, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Philoctetes, The Tempest, Wuthering Heights, A Female Philoctetes (BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio), Twelfth Night, Fahrenheit 451, The Taming of the Shrew, Cyrano de Bergerac, Herakles (Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece, at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens and at BAM), Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Six Characters in Search of an Author. Desiree wrote the stage adaptations for Aquila’s productions of Frankenstein, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Wuthering Heights and choreographed for: A Very Naughty Greek Play, based on Aristophanes' Wasps, Julius Caesar, Catch-22, The Comedy of Errors and The Iliad: Book One. Desiree had a twenty-year dancing career, which included working as a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
STEVIE MACKIE (Lighting Design) Early in Stevie’s career he discovered the playground that is “theatre” and after a long and notable spell working Worldwide with West-End and Broadway shows such as Tap Dogs, and Kat and the Kings as well as a 12 month arena tour with Sarah Brightman in the USA. He jumped off the tour bus to join Birmingham Royal Ballet as Deputy Head of Lighting, working on many notable new works such as Carmina Burana and Arthur Part 2 as well as a full repertoire of classical ballet performing around the world. His lighting design credits include Carnival of the Animals, Concerto for Two, Lately Undone, Present Fears and Unfinished Sympathy. Recent credits include Frankenstein and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aquila Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (UK Productions); The Tiger Who Came To Tea (Nick Brooke Ltd); Aladdin (UK Productions); Swan Lake (English National Ballet, UK tour); Guys and Dolls (Kilworth House); Sleeping Beauty (English National Ballet, US tour) and UK Tour of Boxes (Purple Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse). Stevie is pleased to return to the US to create designs for 1984 and The Odyssey.
LIANNE ARNOLD (Projection Design) is a video & scenic designer and inter-disciplinary artist working in theater, opera, music, dance, film & art installation. For Aquila: Hamlet and Sense and Sensibility. Other recent credits include Jazz Singer (Abrons); The Hello Girls (59E59); Oscar at the Crown (3 Dollar Bill); Lil Buck & Jon Boogz’ Love Heals All Wounds (CAP UCLA); Words on the Street (Baruch - also co-creator); Joseph Keckler’s Let Me Die (Opera Philadelphia/FringeArts) and Joseph Keckler’s Train With No Midnight (Prototype Festival). She has exhibited video art and installations in galleries in New York and New Jersey with her collaborator Leslie Kerby. Live Design Magazine "Young Designer to Watch"; proud member of Wingspace Design Collective and USA829; MFA from CalArts. www.liannearnold.com
LAUREN GASTON (Costume Design) is a Costume Designer whose work spans film, TV, theatre, dance and print. Over the last decade, Lauren has designed 50+ productions across North & South America, Europe and Asia. Her design work has been featured by The Juilliard School (NYC), The Kansas City Repertory Theatre (MO) and The A.A. Bakruhshin State Theatre Museum (Russia). Recent design credits include: Skylight (Gulfshore Playhouse, FL) and The Drama League's DirectorFest 2018 (Featuring Gun and Powder, Winner of the 2018 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater, NYC). More recently, Lauren has lent her design eye as a Background Fitter, working for companies such as Apple, HBO & New Line Cinema. While Lauren currently calls New York City base camp, she is a woman at home in the world.
ALEX DUNCKER (Production Stage Manager) Hailing from beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Alex began her love affair with the performing arts at her local Western dinner theater. After progressing from showgirl to stage manager, she ventured east to pursue a Theatre degree from the University of Vermont. Now -- having dabbled in film, expanded her technical skills to include sound and lighting design, created a “pop-up theatre” in NYC, and produced several award-winning original works -- Alex joins the Aquila team for the second time to continue her career of working with women-led artistic endeavors.
BRYAN MARKS (Technical Director) is a Theatrical Technician and Lighting Designer based in Asheville, North Carolina. Recent design credits include The Asheville Christmas Show (Marlumor Productions); The Diary of Anne Frank (Asheville Community Theatre) as well as many one-off shows at his home base, The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. He is a graduate of UNC Asheville class of 2018, with a B.A. in Theatre. He would like to thank his mentors, Rob Bowen and Sylvia Pierce.
LUCAS CARDWELL (Sound Design) is excited to be working with the wonderful Aquila company on his very first professional production. He will be graduating from Fitchburg State University in December 2019 with a B.S. in Communications Media with a concentration in technical theatre and a Minor in music. During his time in school, he has designed sound for productions such as Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort. He has also dabbled in many other theatrical areas such as stage managing The Diviners by Jim Leonard, Technical Directing for various events and theatrical showcases around the University, and servicing as President of the Falcon Student Theatre Company. Lucas is ecstatic to learn and grow from his experience with Aquila and very much looking forward to our grand journey.
PERRY STREET THEATRICALS (General Management) David Elliott, Martin Platt and Victoria Weinberg. A multi-award-winning Producing and General Management Company in New York City.
For Aquila: the 2018-2019 tour of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the 2017-2018 tour of Sense and Sensibility and Hamlet and the 2017 Tour of Our Trojan War.
Others include Little Rock (Sheen Center); The Saintliness of Margery Kempe (Duke on 42nd Street); Georgie, My Adventures With George Rose (Davenport and U.S. Tour); Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility (Gym At Judson); Hamlet and Saint Joan (Lynn Redgrave) and New York Animals (New Ohio); Me the People (The Triad); Dear Jane (Clurman); That Golden Girls Show! (DR2); Missed Connections (New Ohio); My Life is a Musical (Bay Street) and White People (Atlantic). Upcoming: MsTrial (New World Stages).