Mary Eilers-Fielding

Teaching Artist

Mary Eilers-Fielding
Mary received her BA in musical theatre at the University of the Pacific and went on to get her teaching credential at SF State. She has been a classroom teacher for a variety of age groups including middle school and first grade. Mary has been seen in Shakespeare’s Associates’ Sonnet Cafe this year and in The Taming of the Shrew at LSF 2013. Additionally, Mary has worked with Curtain Theatre on several of their summer Shakespeare productions. Mary is currently the 6th Core & Theater Acting at Joe Michell K-8 School in Livermore.

Caitlin Evenson

Teaching Artist

Caitlin has taught theatre camps with TheatreWorks, Cal Shakes, and SF Shakes, and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. In addition to working with these companies, she also teaches in-school residencies with SFArtsEd. She has toured with the TheatreWorks educational OSKAR shows teaching children about anti-bullying and gender expression and with SF Shakes’ school tour production of MACBETH. She also works with Berkeley Interactive Theatre to help with social and cultural awareness in university settings. Selected Bay Area theatres include Livermore Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, the Breadbox, Cutting Ball Theater, Ragged Wing Ensemble, PlayGround, Theatre Pub, Los Altos Stage Company, and PianoFight. She holds an honors degree in History and a minor in Theatre and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley and is a proud recipient of the 2015-16 TBA TITAN award.

Deborah Lagin

Program Manager, Teaching Artist

Deborah Lagin loves working for Livermore Shakespeare Festival. She was seen recently on the LSF stage as Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in Persuasion and The Tempest. She graduated from University of California at Irvine with a Bachelor’s in Drama and a minor in Comparative Literature. Among her favorite roles at UC Irvine were Thomasina in Arcadia, Miranda in The Tempest, and Tillie in Effect Gamma Rays of Man in the Moon Marigolds. She served as an Acting Intern at Marin Shakespeare Company and appeared as Young Elizabeth in Richard III. Deborah also went to Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts for their conservatory program, where she had the honor to perform as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

Cynthia Lagodzinski

Teaching Artist

Cynthia has served as the Production Manager for LSF. She has also designed props for several shows, and appeared in LSF’s Pride and Prejudice  as Lady Catherine and Mrs.Gardiner. She played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at Las Positas College. Other recent credits include Mrs. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth at Douglas Morrisson Theatre, Claire in Proof at Hillbarn Theatre, and Marie in Ladies Man at Role Players Ensemble. She holds a BFA in Acting and Playwriting and a Post Baccalaureate in Directing from UC Santa Cruz.

Jennifer Le Blanc

Associate Artist, Teaching Artist

Jennifer performed the leading roles in LSF’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, and The Real Thing. Jennifer has worked with Denver Center Theater Company, TheatreWorks, Pacific Rep, Shotgun Players, and the Arabian, Colorado, Marin, and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals. Jennifer is a member of Actor¹s Equity; her MFA is from the National Theatre Conservatory. She also teaches with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and with the Arabian Shakespeare Festival. Jennifer is a produced playwright and adaptor.  She directed LSF’s production of Sense and Sensibility and wrote the adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Ryan Lee

Teaching Artist

Ryan recently moved from New York City where he worked as an actor, director, and theatre teacher. He has enjoyed working in Regional Theatres around the country such as Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Artists Repertory Theatre, Rubicon Theatre Co, Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Theatre Co, having played such Shakespearean roles as Hamlet, Berowne, Feste, Mark Antony, Polixenes, Cassio, Edgar and ALL OF THE ROLES in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a teacher, he currently teaches for San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and Bishop O’Dowd High School, and has taught for the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Queens Theatre, Stagedoor Manor, and was an adjunct professor at Lee Strasberg Institute, NYU and CSULB. He was the Artistic Director and teacher of a theatre education program in NYC, where he taught in over one hundred public schools. www.ryanleetheatre.com

Martie Muldoon

Teaching Artist

Martie Muldoon has been involved in all areas of production throughout the Tri-Valley area. Currently she’s on the board of Encore Players, music directing with Tri-Valley Rep, and acting at Broadway Rep (Brentwood). Her previous experience with Livermore Shakes includes acting, music directing and as a volunteer.

Michael Wayne Rice

Associate Artist, Director of Swirl & Othello (2019), Teaching Artist

Michael is a graduate of the University of Missouri @ Kansas City with an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing. He has taught acting at 3 universities (University of Missouri, University of the Pacific and currently at the University of San Francisco). Michael has acted in over 30 productions on stages in Missouri, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. 

He has been with LSF for about 14 years, as an actor/teaching artist/director and has acted on the stage there in over 9 times. He some of his favorite roles with LSF include Trigorin in The Seagull, Cloten in Cymbeline, and Jaques in As You Like It. As Martin Luther King Jr, THE MOUNTAINTOP, was a Theatre Bay Area Editor’s pick, Theatre Bay Area Recommended Production, a SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle “Go See” Pick 2016, as well as being nominated as Best Production by the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle for their awards series.

You can find more information about Michael at www.MichaelWayneRice.com

Sydney Schwindt

Teaching Artist

Sydney Schwindt was LSF’s fight director in 2017 for Cyrano de Bergerac and 2019 for Othello and The Complete Works, in which she also performed. Acting Credits Include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Davis Shakespeare Festival), Hamlet(SF Shakespeare Festival) She Persisted The Musical (BACT), Blithe Spirit,The Miss Firecracker Contest (Lucky Penny Productions) . Education: BFA Hartt School of Music, Dance, and Theatre, Society of American Fight Directors, SF Clown Conservatory. www.sydney-schwindt.com

Elissa Beth Stebbins

Teaching Artist

Elissa appeared in Livermore Shakespeare Festival’s Pride & Prejudice in 2014 as Elizabeth Bennet, played Ophelia in Hamlet in 2012, and Viola in Twelfth Night. Elissa works as an actor and as a Teaching Artist all over the Bay Area. She is a proud recipient of Theatre Bay Area’s Titan Award and is a 2013 TBA FACES honoree. She has a BA in Theatre and English from Santa Clara University. www.elissabethstebbins.com

Darius Stone

Teaching Artist

Darius Stone recently moved back to the Bay Area after spending the last 22 in NYC. He’s an actor, college professor, teacher, artist, and musician. Darius has been a professional actor for almost years. He’s performed in countless off and off off broadway theaters in New York as well as every region in the US. He’s delighted to be working with Livermore Shakespeare Festival.