Rebecca Goodheart (she/her/hers)
Producing Artistic Director
Rebecca Kemper Goodheart has been a director, actor, and teacher specializing in Shakespeare and Voice for over 20 years. Having worked with over a dozen Shakespeare theaters throughout the United States, she is proud to be a lifetime member of Shakespeare Theater Association where she is chairperson for Shakespeare 2016, the year-long global celebration of Shakespeare’s 400 year legacy. After her tenure as Director of Training for San Francisco Shakespeare Festival from 2010-13, her artistic endeavors have included directing Merry Wives of Windsor for African American Shakespeare Company (as seen in American Theater Magazine May 2013), vocal/text coaching for Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, joiningPrague Shakespeare Festival for the 2013/14 season as a director, teacher and researcher. Prior to San Francisco, she served as Producing Artistic Director for Maryland Shakespeare Festival (an equity theater she founded in 1999), Artistic Director of the Metawhateverphor Theater in NYC, and Director of Education for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, as well as being a company member and text teacher for Shakespeare & Co. in Massachusetts. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, a Master of Letters in Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature, and an MFA in Directing (both from the American Shakespeare Center/Mary Baldwin College). She will receive her designation as a Linklater Voice Teacher in 2014. She has presented her research into Shakespeare’s dramatic use of rhetoric at numerous national conferences, and theatrical workshops across the country, as well as having her scholarship published in the Wooden O Journal and Shakespeare Criticism, online.
Alice-Anne Harwood (she/her/hers)
Development Director
Nonprofit authority, author, artist, entrepreneur, Alice-Anne Harwood makes her mission to create ease, moments of awe, and well-being for change-makers the foundation of each project she endeavors. Her work fosters a courageous environment grounded in ethical inquiry and collaborative analysis.
Rooted in place-owning and place-keeping philosophies, Alice-Anne integrates traditional knowledge gathering with power analysis, UX design, systems mapping, program theory and principles of self-determination to foster inspired decision-making, action, and community organizing among nonprofits and social enterprises.
With a comprehensive and panoptic view of the nonprofit and social and environmental justice landscapes, Alice-Anne readily sees gaps in resources and just as readily taps into the knowing and experience of communities to weave her solutions-oriented thinking into collective action toward real change.
Alice-Anne is an expert in the selection and management of CRM’s for nonprofits. She is a stalwart mind in the fundraising and organizational development realm, having created novel frameworks and tools to fuel the strategic and generative work of transformation. Her generosity of spirit and knowledge forge deep relationships cemented in reciprocity and growth. Alice-Anne is a gifted facilitator, powerful administrator, and a true collaborator, committed to supporting the vision and shared purpose of all whom she encounters.
Sarah Bowles (she/they)
Director of Education
Sarah has worked as an actor, director, teacher and facilitator with young people and adults for over ten years on a wide variety of theatre projects. Her approach is student-centered. Sarah graduated from CUNY with her MA in Applied Theatre in 2015. She now specializes in facilitating the creation of original devised theatre based on the interests and ideas of the participants. However, Shakespeare will always be her first love. Favorite roles as an actor include Lady Anne in Richard III, Ariel in The Tempest, and Cassius in Julius Caesar. Sarah has worked at the American Shakespeare Center, and is a company member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass. Sarah has had the pleasure of directing young people in A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, multiple productions of Romeo and Juliet, several Macbeths, several Julius Caesars, several Tempests, several Twelfth Nights, and Henry IV part 1.
James Andreassi (he/him/his)
Founding Artistic Director
James is the founder and Artistic Director of The Elm Shakespeare Company. He has performed at theaters across the United States, including the Actors Shakespeare Project, the Long Wharf Theatre, the American Repertory Theatre, the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, the Cleveland Playhouse, the Rep. of St. Louis, the Three River Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare & Co., the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and the Pioneer Theatre Co. among many others. He directed the premier of The Flaming Spider: Jonathan Edwards in Northampton at Yale's University Theatre, and, at Southern Connecticut State University, he has directed Neil Simon's Rumors and Romeo and Juliet. In 1993/94, Mr. Andreassi was the first American to appear with a Chinese theatre troupe when he performed all over the People's Republic of China, and at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, in the Shanghai People's Art Theatre/Long Wharf Theatre co-production of The Joy Luck Club, directed by Arvin Brown. He has taught and lectured on acting, Shakespeare and the theatre at Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University, the Yale Center for British Art and at the Hopkins School. Mr. Andreassi was the recipient of the 2004 Greater New Haven Arts Council award.