David Bridel

David is a stage director, choreographer, playwright, and master teacher of acting. For Academy Award winner William Friedkin he choreographed Ariadne Auf Naxos (Los Angeles Opera, Israeli Opera), and he joins Friedkin again for Salome and Das Gehege at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich later this year.

His recent play I Gelosi, which he wrote and directed, premiered at UCLA this Spring, and his newest, The Death of Mayakovsky, is slated for 2007. For the Franklin Stage Company, which he co-founded in 1997, he has directed Hedda Gabler, Eurydice, Dog in the Manger, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, The Lesson & The Chairs, Uncle Vanya, and co-directed The Tempest; and he has written and directed The Heretic Mysteries and The Legend of the Dead Soldier. Other directing includes Medea (Cal Rep), Glengarry Glen Ross (Actors Center, NY), Ivanov, No-one Knows How (Off-Off Broadway), Fortinbras (Crossroads New Jersey), The Tower, The Mill on the Floss, The Misanthrope, As You Like It (Tel Aviv), Rhinoceros (London), The Taming of the Shrew (Bloomsbury Theater, London, and European Tour).

His other plays include The Last Girl, Shreds & Fancies (London New Play Festival), Death of an Actress (Southwark Playhouse), 100 Years of Enchantment (Oval House and Union Chapel), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Mainbrace Theatre), and The Story of Peter Vanicek (Nitra International Theater Festival, Slovakia). Look for the reading of David's play The Actors Rehearse the Story of Charlotte Salomon this summer at FSC. David has taught and directed for many of the leading actor-training programs at drama schools and universities across the USA, including SUNY Purchase, UCLA, Cal Arts, Cal State Long Beach, Rutgers University, NYU (the Atlantic School), and The Actors Center in New York. He is currently the Head of Movement for the new MFA in Acting at the University of Southern California.

Carmela Marner

Carmela Marner is a founding member of the Franklin Stage Company. As an actress she is a veteran of 17 FSC productions, playing such diverse roles as the title role in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, Feste In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Electra in Euripides' Orestes, Caliban/Ariel in Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Isabel in Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment. Carmela attended Brown University and the three year Acting program at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Film credits include Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Puss in Boots (opposite Christopher Walken) and Quid Pro Quo (opposite Nick Stahl). Extensive television credits in England include the BBC/PBS series: The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries with Diana Rigg, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates with Patricia Routledge and Devil's Advocate with David Morrissey and Alice Krige.

Julia Collins

After a degree in drama at Bristol University, Julia spent ten years devising, directing and writing for theatre companies in the UK, including Public Parts, which she co-founded with Tim Crouch. She then retrained to become a graphic and web designer/illustrator and has since run a successful UK based design consultancy, we3. She has just completed a Masters in Sequential Illustration at Brighton University where she wrote and illustrated two children's books which she hopes to see published in the near future. Julia has spent many happy summers in Franklin with her family - husband Tim Crouch and Nell, Owen and Joe – and now designs and maintains the FSC website. You can see more of her illustration work at her website.

Tim Crouch

Tim lives in Brighton, UK. He has appeared in four productions with the Franklin Stage Company: Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Vanya in Uncle Vanya and Prospero in The Tempest.

As an actor in the UK, his work includes Endgame in Brixton Prison, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and The Good Woman of Setzuan, all for the National Theatre, where he is an Education Associate. He was a co-founder of Public Parts Theatre.

Tim’s first play, my arm, had its first ever reading at Franklin Stage in the summer of 2002. It opened at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival 2003. Since then, it has run in New York and London and toured extensively throughout Europe and North America. It is published by Faber and Faber. Tim’s adaptation of my arm for BBC Radio won a coveted Prix Italia in 2005.

Tim’s most recent play, an oak tree, opened in Edinburgh in summer 2005, and was awarded a Glasgow Herald Angel Award. In 2006, it toured throughout Europe, played for a week in Franklin, and completed a three month run at the Barrow Street Theatre, NYC. It is published by Oberon Books.

Since 2003, Tim has also completed a trilogy of Shakespeare commissions for young people from the Brighton Festival: i, caliban, i, peaseblossom and i, banquo. This trilogy plays for a month in London’s Unicorn Theatre in late summer 2006. Tim’s National Theatre commission, shopping for shoes, has toured throughout the UK, is currently in production with the Scottish company Visible Fictions, and has recently won the prestigious Brian Way award for young people's theatre. Tim won't be in Franklin this year as he is opening his new play, ENGLAND, at the Edinburgh Festival

For more information see the news from nowhere website.

Camilla Enders

For the FSC, Camilla has played Viola in Twelfth Night and Thea in Hedda Gabler. She starred in the 2002 Academy-Award nominated short film Speed For Thespians, winning Best Actress from the New York Independent Film & Video Festival. Other film work includes leading roles in Solidarity, New York Film Festival 2005; Bodies, currently being shown on The Independent Film Channel; and the award-winning Kairos. Camilla has been featured on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Special Victim’s Unit, and originated the recurring role of Nurse Rita Gilman on One Life to Live. Her many New York theatre credits include Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, Poppy in The Shanghai Gesture, and Dawn Powell in Straight Up with a Twist. Camilla’s regional work includes L’il Bit in How I Learned to Drive at the Hangar Theatre, Lady Macduff in Macbeth at Syracuse Stage, Viola in Twelfth Night at the Delaware Theatre Company, and the title role in Molly Sweeney at the Vermont Stage Company. Camilla has also been featured in many commercials.

Peter Gaitens

For the FSC: Period of Adjustment (George), Betrayal (Jerry), The Heretic Mysteries (Pierre Maury), Golden Boy (Joe Bonaparte), A Month in the Country (Rakitin), Dog in the Manger (Tristan), and Eurydice (M. Henri). Peter's US stage credits include: Flesh and Blood (New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage), Moliére’s Shorts (St. Clement’s), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (HB Playwright’s Foundation). UK stage credits include: Giovanni’s Room (Drill Hall), Never Swim Alone (The Garage), The Glass Menagerie (Birmingham Rep).TV credits include 21 Jumpstreet, Red Dwarf, Neon Rider, Top of the Hill, and Danger Bay.

As playwright: Flesh and Blood, adapted from the novel by Michael Cunningham, produced at Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon (Chris Coleman, dir.) and New York Theatre Workshop (Doug Hughes, dir. – starring Cherry Jones, Jessica Hecht, Martha Plimpton, Jeff Weiss, and Peter Frechette), published by the Dramatists Play Service, nominated for a GLAAD Media “Best Play – Broadway/Off-Broadway” award, requested submission by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Giovanni’s Room, co-adapted with Maia Guest from the novel by James Baldwin, produced at The Drill Hall in London, England – this was the first adaptation of any of Baldwin’s works to be officially sanctioned by the James Baldwin Estate.

Peter is a recipient of grants from the Peter Reed Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Alliance Communications Corporation Canadian Talent Development Award. He held a summer residency at Dartmouth College, is an NYTW “Usual Suspect”, and a proud member of Actors’ Equity.

Charlie Kevin

For the FSC, Charlie has performed in Period of Adjustment, Orestes and The Heretic Mysteries. Charlie recently played Toddy in the national Broadway tour of Take Me Out directed by Joe Mantello. In New York, he has performed at The National Black Theatre of Harlem, Rattlestick, Lincoln Center Play Festival, Playwright’s Collective, and the Actor’s Studio. His regional theatre’s include: Dallas Theatre Center, The Old Globe, Florida Stage, The Hippodrome, Denver Center Theatre Co., Seattle Rep., The Caldwell Theatre, Milwaukee Rep., American Stage, Missouri Rep., and Playhouse on the Square.

Ed Vassallo

Ed is currently shooting his third season of The Sopranos for HBO - he plays Tony Soprano's brother-in-law Tom Giglione. Off-Broadway credits include: Havana is Waiting (Cherry Lane) as well as Eduardo Machado's Cuba and the Night and Crocodile Eyes, A Streetcar Named Desire (NYTW), The Play Company’s New York premiere of the one man show Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran. Broadway: Lincoln Center's revival of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing. London West End: Giovanni in the World Premiere adaptation of James Baldwin's Giovanni’s Room. Film: Eduardo Machado’s Exiles in New York, Pinero, Roberta (1999 Sundance Film Festival selection), Astronomy of Errors, Trifling with Fate, Project 351, Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. TV: HBO’s Sex in the City, Law and Order, Law and Order C.I., and Law and order S.V.U. Regional Theatre: A Russian Romance at Cleveland Playhouse; Two Sisters and a Piano at The Alliance Theatre. In 2005, Ed directed Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment for the FSC. As an actor he has appeared with the FSC for the seven seasons in: Dog in the Manger, Golden Boy, Rules of the Game, Uncle Vanya, The Heretic Mysteries, Orestes and Betrayal.
Added Film -

Oliver Wadsworth

Oliver is proud to be an Artistic Associate at FSC where he has been seen in Orestes and Dog in the Manger. Other Regional Theatre: Dracula and Christmas Carol (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Misalliance (Old Globe and Seattle Repertory); An Enemy of the People (Long Wharf Theatre); Fully Committed (Metroland Best Performance, Capitol Rep.); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Syracuse Stage); Peter Pan (Denver Center Theatre); The Art Room (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); Communicating Doors (Theatre VA); Stones In His Pockets, Angels in America Part l and ll (AriZoni award, Best Actor), and Nickel and Dimed (Actors Theatre of Phoenix). Off-Broadway: Endpapers (Variety Arts); Bread and Roses (New York Theatre Workshop). Film/Television: Argentino in New York, Dotty Gets Spanked, Ed’s Next Move and Law and Order SVU. He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and holds an M.F.A. in graduate acting from N.Y.U.