CAST & CREATIVES

Bruce Dean (Holmes) has appeared on a National tour, off-Broadway, and in many regional productions. Some memorable roles include - Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Aldolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone, Harry McAfee in Bye Bye Birdie, Franz Liebkind in The Producers, Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray, Moonface Martin in Anything Goes, The Monster in Young Frankenstein, Don Kirshner in Beautiful. Bruce has appeared in several short films, being nominated, and winning Best Actor awards. He has also worked in episodic television, radio & TV commercials and industrials. Bruce sharpened his funny bone doing Stand Up, Improv & Roast comedy.

Joel Trinidad (Watson) is a theater professional from the Philippines, whose body of work has granted him Permanent Residency status in the US (aka a Green Card). He has performed in over 75 plays and musicals, including the Asian Premieres of Avenue Q and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Philippines and Singapore); Something to Crow About (La MaMa Theater); and Proof (opposite Tony and Olivier Award-winner Lea Salonga). On screen, he has acted alongside the likes of Bob Hoskins (in Noriega: God’s Favorite), Connie Nielsen (in The Great Raid), Jeff Fahey (in Crash Point), and Christian Kane (in the Amazon series Almost Paradise), among many others. A prolific writer as well as an actor, Joel has penned a dozen original librettos, all of which have been successfully produced not just in his home country, but all over the world (and most of which he directed himself). These shows include Breakups& Breakdowns (music by Rony Fortich); After Ever After (story by Nicky Triviño, music by Jon Meer Vera Perez); Guadalupe: The Musical (music by Ejay Yatco); and Fairy Tale Rescue (music by Reggie Tan and Onyl Torres), to name but a few. He’s also written more than a hundred short plays (many of which have been produced in NYC). His latest musical (created with composer Lucas Hal-Jones) is the two-person comedy A Tale of Two (based on the novel by Charles Dickens), which premiered in London in July 2024.

Alexander Sculli (Sir Grover Drake-Billets)is a NYC/Tri-State area based actor, writer, and filmmaker. He most recently won “Best Actor” at the International Gombrowicz Festival in Radom, Poland for his performance in The Marriage by Witold Gombrowicz. Alex graduated from Rutgers: Mason Gross School of the Arts with a BFA in acting where he trained over six months in London, at Shakespeare's Globe and had the privilege of playing Falstaff in Henry IV Part One on the globe stage. He is also the founder of Mindful Lion Films where his debut short (Getting There) won “Best Short” at The Gully International Film Festival, Barcelona Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. Alex’s work has also been selected by Cannes Shorts, Madrid International Film Festival, LA Film Festival, Coney Island Film Festival & Chicago Film Festival. Most recent film credits include, Westhampton (Official Tribeca Selection) starring Finn Wittrock and RJ Mitte. Alex has a passion for comedy as well as heartfelt dramatic work.

Laura Whittenberger (Understudy) is an NYC-based actor and singer. Credits include originating Saavik in KHAN!!! The Musical Off-Broadway, Bella in Gaslight (FL), Maria in The Sound of Music (FL), Lucy in Bright Star (MA, FL), Guenevere in Camelot (WA), Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance (ME, MD and PA), and Amalia in She Loves Me (DE and FL), among others. Vocal highlights: An album of Irish song settings of Yeats poetry, Words that Sing in the Night, a set of French song recitals with harp as winner of the Montpelier Arts competition, and prizewinner at this year's SongSlam in NYC. More at www.laurawhittenberger.com.

James Lavender (Playwright) has appeared numerous times in Aquila’s productions since 2009. A constant and valued collaborator he takes on a new role at Aquila as playwright. His theatre credits include: Macbeth (Dukes Theatre Company); Witness For The Prosecution (County Hall); Dick Whittington (Hounslow Arts Centre); Pride & Prejudice, Macbeth, As You Like It, An Enemy Of The People, Hamlet, The Tempest, Sense & Sensibility (Aquila Theatre); Henry V (Antic Disposition); The War of The Worlds (Layered Reality); Sleeping Beauty, (Rhodes Arts Complex); Loves Labours Lost, Twelfth Night, Comedy Of Errors, The Importance Of Being Earnest (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Peter Pan, Cinderella, Jack & The Beanstalk (Sheringham Little Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Lord Chamberlain's Men); Philoctetes (BAM New York); Macbeth (Gym at Judson Theatre, New York); Adventures in Wonderland, Supermarket Shakespeare (Teatro Vivo); Aladdin (Hazlitt Theatre); The Taming of The Shrew, As You Like It (Groundlings Theatre); Jack and the Beanstalk (Millfield Theatre); Headlines (BAC); Sleeping Beauty (Georgian Theatre Royal); The Jungle Book (Birmingham Stage Company); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Greenwich Playhouse); Plebians Rehearse the Uprising (Arcola Theatre). Jamed trained at Rose Bruford.

Desiree Sanchez Meineck (Director) has been Aquila’s artistic director since 2012 and has directed over twenty-five productions, written several theatrical adaptations, and is a co-creator and program director for Aquila’s applied theatre program, Warrior Chorus. She has currently created the Warrior Catharsis program which she has recently brought to the Bronx VA. Theatre productions she has directed include Pride & Prejudice (2023); Macbeth and The Great Gatsby (2022), Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Odyssey (2019); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Frankenstein(2018); Hamlet and Sense and Sensibility (2017); Much Ado About Nothing and Our Trojan War (2016); Romeo and Juliet, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Philoctetes (2015); The Tempest and Wuthering Heights (2014); A Female Philoctetes at BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio (2014); Twelfth Night and Fahrenheit 451 (2013); The Taming of the Shrew and Cyrano de Bergerac (2012); Herakles (2012) at the Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece and at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens and at BAM in 2013; Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest (2011); and Six Characters in Search of an Author (2010). Prior to directing, she had an extensive career in classical ballet working as a principal dancer for the former Metropolitan Opera Ballet as well as a member of Boston Ballet II and has also worked in modern and contemporary dance with choreographers such as Sean Curran, Donald Byrd, Bill T. Jones, and Doug Varone and Michele Elliman (Neo Labos Dancetheatre) to name a few. She holds an MA from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Peter Meineck PhD (Lighting Designer & Road Technician)holds the endowed chair of Associate Professor of Classics in the Modern World at New York University, where he specializes in ancient performance, cognitive science applied to antiquity, and mythology. But this year he is on sabbatical and delighted to return to his roots as Aquila’s lighting designer and road technician. Peter founded Aquila Theatre in London in 1991 and worked extensively in London theatre as a technician including at the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, many West End theatres, and the Almeida and Bloomsbury Theatres. He has a new book coming out in February, published by William Morrow (Harper Collins), Tony Stark, Odysseus and the Myths Behind Marvel: Ancient Heroes in the Modern World, which shows how the Marvel Universe is a new American mythology with deep roots in the myths and legends of the ancient world. He has also just completed another scholarly book for Routledge, entitled Catharsis: Performing an Ancient Therapy. Peter also volunteers as a Firefighter, Rescue Technician and EMT at home in New York. But none of that is nearly as exciting as getting a show up in multiple venues in many, many towns and cities throughout the United States. Peter is proud to be back on the road with his wife, Aquila’s Artistic Director, Desiree Sanchez, and can think of no better way of spending their 21 st year together than bringing great theatre across America. Hopefully somebody remembers to feed the dog. https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/peter-meineck.html

Devin Gately (Production Stage Manager) hails from Massachusetts and is the most excited Stage Manager you have ever met! As a lover of adapting and re-imagining classic works, he is over the moon to be joining Aquila for The Hound of the Baskervilles. On top of working as a Stage Manager, he is always looking for a new book, a great cocktail, and the most delicious donut he can find! Select credits include: Heaux Church (Ars Nova), The Tempest (The Public), Collective Rage (Brown/Trinity), and A Christmas Carol (Trinity Repertory Company).

Alex Duncker (Production Consultant) hails from beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and began her love affair with the performing arts at her local western dinner theatre. After progressing from showgirl to stage manager, she ventured east to pursue a Theatre degree from the University of Vermont. Since moving to New York in 2016, Alex has dabbled in film, managed several inventive new theatrical works (Meshahnye, Late Night at the Serpent, Codependent, Cartography), helped keep the arts alive in 2020-21 working on adaptive outdoor theatre through the streets of Greenwich Village (Voyeur), and produced a pop-up theatre (Destiny Manifests) in a repurposed storefront in Chelsea that presented Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love alongside original poetry, dance, live music, visual and performance art. After four years touring to over 70 different venues across the country as Production Stage Manager for Aquila, and as its Company Manager she continues her career of working with women-led artistic endeavors in her current role as Production Manager at Ars Nova.