Actor, Director, Teacher

​Welsh by blood, English by birth, European by nature, and transatlantic by profession, my dogged pursuit of excellence in theater -- both on stage and on the page -- has brought me to Staunton, Virginia, where I teach acting and directing in Mary Baldwin University's Shakespeare and Performance graduate program in association with the American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse.

Following an early professional career as an actor and director in the UK and numerous US tours of Shakespeare plays with the celebrated troupe Actors From The London Stage, I ended up staying to study in the Department of English at The University of Texas at Austin, where I completed a Ph.D in Renaissance Drama in 2012. During this time, I earned numerous B. Iden Payne and Austin Critics Circle awards and nominations for my theater work in the vibrant Austin community.

An ardent advocate of the Renaissance ideal of the multidisciplinary artist and individual, I continue to integrate my theatrical and academic careers, nurturing actor-scholars in our unique MLitt/MFA program, while engaging in dramatic projects, both as an actor and a director, that favor ensemble and inspire collaboration.

Bulletin Board

In the summer of 2023, I directed Henry V, as well as perform the role of Fluellen (my windbag stage compatriot) for Prague Shakespeare Company, thereby completing the second history cycle with that troupe. 

In the deep midwinter of 23-24, I joined fellow students and faculty to play Capulet in an Arabic-English bilingual production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Guy Roberts of Prague Shakespeare and staged at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia. Three months later, on the same stage, my co-director Doreen Bechtol and I produced the rarely performed The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.

This summer I head to the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey for the first time to play Touchstone, also a first, in As You Like It, directed by Jemma Alix Levy, returning to Staunton in the Fall to direct Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors at the American Shakespeare Center. As I head towards Jaques's sixth age, I'm relieved that at least it seems a comic one.

On the page, my chapter, "'O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain': Hamlet and the Rhetoric of Repetition," was published in Building Embodiment: a collection of exercises to illuminate poetic text," edited by Karen Kopryanski and Baron Kelly, published by Routledge. This work continues my efforts to write on subjects that turn my practice into theory. 

Meanwhile, a piece honoring my former mentor, “From Texas Hill Country to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley: The Living Legacy of James Loehlin’s Approach to Studying Shakespeare Through Performance,” was published in The Hare Online Journal of Untimely Reviews.