Directors
Meet the Livermore Shakes Directors
Lisa A. Tromovitch
Founding Artistic Director
Director – The Winter’s Tale (2018)
Lisa is the founding Artistic Director of Livermore Shakespeare Festival and a tenured professor in Media X at University of the Pacific. She has over 50 professional directing credits in six states. She began her career at The Old Globe Theater where she assisted directors Jack O’Brien, Tom Moore and the late John Houseman in the rehearsal room and Bob Berlinger in the Play Discovery Program. She is a Backstage West Garland Award and Indy Award winner for her direction of Amadeus at PCPA TheatreFest. Most recently she directed The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and her own adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac for LSF, and Ecce Homo (a play about 2 performance capture artists) at University of the Pacific. Lisa was awarded a 2010 Innovation Award for “Risktakers and Dreammakers” hosted by the Livermore Chamber of Commerce. Immediate Past President, Shakespeare Theatre Association, the international member organization for Shakespeare producers worldwide. Member, Actors Equity, Theatre Bay Area. MFA, Southern Methodist University; BA magna cum laude, Dartmouth College; Phi Beta Kappa.
Michael Wayne Rice
Associate Artist
Director – Othello (2019)
Holiday Readings at Swirl on the Square
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. He was commissioned by LSF to compose a fundraising proposal to implement a summer training program for kids in the tri-valley area that coincides with the summer productions.
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
Mary Ann Rodgers
Associate Artist
Director – Complete Works (2019)
Persuasion (2016)
Mary Ann Rodgers is a director, actor, and theater educator. She was seen on the LSF stage as Titania, Dueña, and Miss Prism. She is delighted to be back in the vineyards after having begun her directing career with The Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival more than a few years ago. There, she had the privilege of directing As You Like It with Livermore Shakespeare favorite and playwright of Persuasion, Jennifer Le Blanc who played Rosalind. More recent work includes Anna in the Tropics, The Cocktail Hour (BATCC award) and Persuasion for Ross Valley Players. Mary Ann taught theater at The Bay School of San Francisco where her mission was to develop empathetic advocates for arts as well as to nurture young theater artists.
Gary A. Armagnac
Associate Artist
Director – R&J (2010), Shrew (2012), Midsummer (2016)
Gary directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2016, The Taming of the Shrew in 2012 and Romeo and Juliet for LSF in 2010. He has worked onstage in New York, Los Angeles, and at theaters around the nation. Armagnac was Artist-in-Residence and Director of Education with the Tony Award® winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. His work there included the title roles in Richard III and Pericles, Iago in Othello, and Sir Toby in Twelfth Night. He also directed touring productions of Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. He spent several seasons with Shakespeare Santa Cruz from 1986 to 2006. Television/film credits include roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Houston Knights, Brisco County Junior, and Three Fugitives. He is a Professor of Theatre Arts and Media X at University of the Pacific.
Jennifer Le Blanc
Associate Artist
Director – Sense (2015)
Jennifer Le Blanc was pleased to direct Livermore Shakespeare Festival’s production of Sense and Sensibility. Jennifer has had the pleasure of acting with the company in The Real Thing, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and Cyrano de Bergerac. She directed Lonely Planet in New York with Studio 12 Ensemble. Jennifer adapted Jane Austen’s Persuasion which received its world premiere at San Jose Stage Company directed by Kenneth Kelleher, and has since been produced by the Ross Valley Players, the Acacia Theatre in Wisconsin, and by LSF in 2016. Jennifer received her BA in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley and her MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory. She is a Resident Artist of the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, an Associate Artist of the Arabian Shakespeare Festival, and a member of Actor’s Equity.
Domenique Lozano
Director – Earnest (2018)
Domenique Lozano is a Bay Area based Director, Educator and Actress. She is a Resident Artist with the American Conservatory Theater, (ACT), where she directs the main stage production of A Christmas Carol, as well as being a core faculty member in the MFA Program, and a director in the Young Conservatory. M.F.A. projects include directing eleven graduate showcases (on tour to New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and the Will on Wheels touring productions of Twelfth Night, Othello and The Comedy of Errors. She also wrote a new translation of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which premiered at A.C.T. in 2010. Acting credits include work with such theaters as California Shakespeare Theater, A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Jose Stage Company, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Leslie Martinson
Associate Artist
Director – Lend Me A Tenor (2011), Complete Works (2008)
Leslie was the Associate Artistic Director and Casting Director at TheatreWorks, where she directed regional premieres of Water by the Spoonful, The Pitmen Painters, Superior Donuts, and Theophilus North among others. For Livermore Shakespeare Festival, she directed Lend Me a Tenor and The Complete works of Wm. Shakespeare, abraded (revised). A graduate of Occidental College, she has been a Watson Fellow in British Fringe Theatre, twice a member of Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab and has attended the LaMaMa International Directing Symposium in Spoleto, Umbria. She serves on Theatre Bay Area’s Theatre Services Committee and conducts workshops for many Bay Area universities and theatre companies.
Virginia Reed
Associate Artist
Director – P&P (2014), Merry Wives (2012), Copenhagen (2009), Proof (2008)
Ginny has directed Pride and Prejudice, Merry Wives of Windsor, Copenhagen and Proof. She has worked with: Aurora Theatre; Brava; Cinnabar; Danse Lumiere, Lunatique Fantastique; Magic Theatre; Mark Taper, L.A.; McCarter Theater; Pear Avenue; PlayGround; Playwrights Foundation; San Jose Rep.; 6th St. Playhouse; Woman’s Will; and co-founded The Shee Theatre. Ginny holds degrees from Northwestern University and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. She has taught and directed in Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa and, in CA, at The Branson School, Evergreen Valley College, University of San Francisco, University of the Pacific and University of California Santa Cruz.