SINCE 1949!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAST & STAFF

RACHEL DYER (Duchess, Gratiana; Lady Bracknell) is a recent graduate of

Wilkes University, having earned a BA in Theatre Arts.  Some of her favorite

roles include Lily in Hotel Universe, Ismene in Antigone, and Desiree in A Little

Night Music.  So far, her favorite place to work has been Lost Nation Theatre in

Montpelier, VT, but she looks forward to adding to that list after touring the

country with National Players.  Rachel sends her love and gratitude to her family

and friends for sticking around and never giving up, and a special thanks to Bill

Gillett and National Players for this tremendous opportunity.

ADRIANO GATTO (Iago; Dr. Chausable)  is thrilled to be a part of the

National Players 58th Annual Tour. Originally from Rochester, NY, he recently

received his BFA in Theatre Studies from Niagara University. Favorite roles

include Macbeth (Macbeth), The Laramie Project (Andy Paris), California Suite

(Billy), A View from the Bridge (Alfieri), Flora the Red Menace (Harry) and

Lovers (Andy). He spent a semester abroad studying Shakespeare and

Contemporary Irish Drama at Schiller International University in London,

England. Special thanks to Bill Gillett for this wonderful opportunity and

especially to Mom, Dad and Julie for their constant love and support over the

years.

JOSH GIBBY (Montano, Senator; Lane) is a graduate of the University of

Central Arkansas.  Regional credits include Will-to-Laugh, Comedy of Errors,

and Disney's Beauty and the Beast at Arkansas Rep Theatre; Aladdin, Wiley

and the Hairy Man, and The Miss Firecracker Contest at Renaissance Rep

Theatre, as well as Captain MacDonald in the 2005 production of Tecumseh!

at the Sugarloaf Mt. Amphitheatre.  Favorite roles include the Magician in

Steve Martin's Patter for the Floating Lady, Limping Man in Fuddy Meers, and

the loveable Milky White from Into the Woods.  Gibby would like to thank his

family and friends for their love and support.

KELSEY RAE GROUGE (Desdemona; Miss Prism) is a recent graduate of

The Catholic University of America, where she has had the pleasure of working

with Jeremy Skidmore, Gary Sloan, Grover Gardner, and Naum Panovski. 

Favorite roles include Willie in This Property is Condemned, Janissery in The

Curator, Jaquenetta in Love's Labour's Lost, Sob Sister in Radium Girls, and

Fortuna in Uncle Maroje, which also toured to the Dubrovnik International

Theatre Festival in Croatia.  She is overjoyed to be a part of National Players

and would like to thank Bill for the wonderful opportunity and Mom, Dad, and

Grayson for their love and support.

HANNAH HUSBAND (Emilia; Gwendolyn) originally from the San Francisco

Bay Area, is thrilled to be joining the National Players this season.  Hannah

most recently played Beatrice in the National Players summer tour of Much

Ado About Nothing.  Her regional Credits include Twelfth Night (Actor's

Shakespeare Project); and Robin Hood, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry V (Marin

Shakespeare Company). Her educational credits include Romeo and Juliet,

King John, and The School for Scandal at the London Academy of Music and

Dramatic Arts; Dancing at Lughnasa, Trojan Women, The Lower Depths, A

Dream Play, and One Flea Spare at Boston University (BU) where she received her BFA in Acting.

ANTHONY JACKSON (Othello) Anthony Jackson is a recent graduate of

Columbus State University in Columbus GA with a B.F.A. in theatre

performance.  He is very thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the

National Players.  Previous roles include Worcester in Henry IV with the

Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Matt in The Bible, the Complete Word of God

Abridged at the Springer Opera House (GA), Chas in The Trestle at Pope

Lick Creek, Leading Player in Pippin, and Malvolio in Twelfth Night at

Columbus State University. He sends many thanks to his friends and family

for all their love and support.

WILL MORRIS (Cassio; Merriman) is thrilled to be joining the long-standing

tradition of the National Players.  He recently finished his time with the Civic

Theatre of Allentown where he was employed as a resident actor.  He performed

in roles such as Homer Wells in The Cider House Rules, Parts I and II, Michael

 in Tick, Tick . . . Boom, and Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol.  Before his

time with Civic, Will was a student at Furman University in Greenville, SC where

he received a B.A. in theatre arts.  Will would like to thank his family for their

unwavering support, Olney for giving him a chance, and his new fans from

Palmerton, PA.

CHRISTOPHER REED (Roderigo; Algernon) is back on the road with the National

Players after playing Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew and Professor Abraham

Van Helsing in Dracula for the 57th annual tour.  Favorite past roles include: Elwood

P. Dowd in Harvey, Tartuffe in Tartuffe, and Betty/Edward in Cloud 9.  He holds a

degree in theatre arts from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University.  He thanks

Bill for the opportunity and friendship, Clay for the doses of reality and commitment

to honesty, BU for setting him on the right path, Tour 57 for Tour 57, and his family

for their perpetual love and support.  He dedicates this year to his family on the road:

the company members of Tour 58.  Make it work!

AUBRIE THERRIEN (Bianca; Cecily) is very excited to be a part of National

Players and to be playing two such wonderful roles.  Aubrie recently received

her BFA. in theatre performance at Longwood University in Virginia.  Some

of her favorite roles include Echo in Eleemosynary, Viola in Twelfth Night,

Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth, Marianne in Tartuffe, Sarah in Stop Kiss,

and Audrey in As You Like It.  Aubrie would like to thank her family and friends

for all of their love and support and her Nana for always saying her novenas. 

Thanks also to Bill Gillett for this great opportunity!

ARTISTIC STAFF 

JAMES A. PETOSA (Artistic Director)  Mr. Petosa began his association

with Players when he composed the original music score for the 32nd Tour's

production of The Tempest.  He has also directed Cyrano de Bergerac,

Dracula, Animal Farm, Amadeus, As You Like It and The Elephant Man, and

has co-directed productions of Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer

Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew and Nicholas

Nickleby.  For Catholic University's Hartke Theatre he staged the first post

Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, Cyrano

de Bergerac and Pacific Overtures.  Mr. Petosa also serves as artistic

director for the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts, where his most recent

directorial credits there include Thérèse Raquin, Death of a Salesman, Equus, A Question of Mercy,

Amadeus, Racing Demon, Cinderella, To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Becket, Broken

Glass, The Fifth Season, Night of the Iguana, The Trip to Bountiful, Sight Unseen, Shadowlands and

Voice of the Prairie.  Prior to his association with Players, he was artistic director for the St. James

Cathedral Arts Pavilion in Brooklyn where he directed J.B. and Voices.  He also served as performing

arts coordinator for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.  As a composer, he has written

vocal and incidental scores for Robert Montgomery's Subject to Fits and Snoo Wilson's Vampire, The

Soul of the White Ant and Everest Hotel at the New York Theatre Studio where his own musical

version of Peer Gynt was performed in concert.  Other New York directing credits include The Maids

and Still on the Shore at the Lincoln Center and A Good Time and The Brute for off-Broadway's

Theatre Matrix.  The past five years he has been producer and director of the Potomac Theatre Project

in Washington, D.C. where he directed Closetland, Trial of the Catonsville Nine, C.P. Taylor's Good

and Robert Chesley's The Dog Plays.  Additional accomplishments include The Boys Next Door,

Italian American Reconciliation and The Diary of Anne Frank at the Roundhouse Theatre, Brecht on

Brecht, Pins and Needles and Another Antigone at the Washington Jewish Theatre and Principia

Scriptoriae at the Studio Theatre.  He has served as theater director of “Voices From The Streets,” a

program which provides a stage for the homeless people in the D.C. area, affiliated with the

Community for Creative Non-Violence.  He serves on the advisory boards of the Actors' Center and the

Playwright's Unit of Washington, D.C.  He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Actors' Equity

Association and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

CLAY HOPPER (Director, Othello) most recently directed Much Ado About Nothing

for Summer Shakespeare at OTC. Other recent credits include The Taming of the Shrew for

Tour 57 and On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning at Contemporary American Theater

Festival’s Actor's Lab. Clay received his MFA from Boston University's College of Fine Arts

where he most recently directed Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, La Bete by David Hirson,

and Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams and

Edmond by David Mamet.  Before moving to Boston he lived in New York where he

founded and produced a new play series called New Works/After Hours at Lincoln

Center Institute's Clarke Studio Theatre. Off-off-Broadway credits include A Home Without

 by Robert Westfield, Different Zen by Clay Hopper-Third Eye Rep, Earthworms by Albert

 Innaurato (reading starring Roger Rees) The Working Group, Triage by Chris Shiea-Miranda

Theatre, and The Interrogation by Murphy Guyer-The Miranda Theatre.

.

ALAN WADE (Director, The Importance of Being Earnest) has directed

several productions for National Players tours including: The Normal Heart, A

Few Good Men, Of Mice and Men, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Tartuffe and Dracula.

Mr. Wade is a professor of theater in the George Washington University

Department of Theatre and Dance and is a former chair of the department. As

a professional actor he regularly appears at Washington area theaters and

has been a Helen Hayes Award nominee. Among his film and television

credits are The Pelican Brief and Homicide: Life on the Streets. Mr. Wade

serves on the artistic board of Olney Theatre Center for the Arts, on the

advisory boards of the Washington Stage Guild and the Potomac Theatre

Project, and is an associate editor of Text and Performance Quarterly.

BILL GRAHAM, SR. (Acting Coach, Benefactor)  William H.

Graham has been associated with National Players for over fifty years as

artist and administrator. After serving in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, Mr.

Graham received his BA in Pre-Law from LaSalle University, and received an

MA in Drama from The Catholic University of America.  He has directed over

50 theatrical productions, and had leading roles in over 40 productions. Mr.

Graham has served as Managing Director of St. Michaels Playhouse,

Executive Director of Olney Theatre, and Chairman of The Catholic University

of America’s Drama Department.  He was a founder and director of the MFA

acting program at Catholic University.  He is currently the chairman of the

Board for Olney Theatre Center for the Arts.  A member of Actor’s Equity

Association (AEA), Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), and American Federation of Television and Radio

Artists (AFTRA), Mr. Graham has narrated for National Geographic, Voice of America, and PBS.

Thanks to Mr. Graham’s dedication to National Players, the touring company continues to thrive.

HALO WINES (Acting Coach) serves as Associate Artistic Director for

Olney Theatre Center and National Players, as well as co-director with Alan

Wade of OTC's acting workshops.  Ms. Wines most recent acting credits

include Daisy Werthan in Driving Miss Daisy, Ruth Steiner in Collected

Stories (a reprise of her 2001 performance at Theatre J, in Washington, DC),

Countess Aurelia in The Madwoman of Chaillot, and Miss Sook in Holiday

Memories.  Her directorial credits include OTC's productions of The Miser,

The Rivals, Tartuffe, Summer Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and the National

Players Tour 54 As You Like It.  She has been honored with five Helen

Hayes Award nominations and received the award for Outstanding Lead Actor

in a Resident Play for her performance in Cloud Nine at Arena Stage, where

she spent 25 years as a resident company member.

BILL GILLETT (General Manager, Casting Director, Director of the Olney

Theatre Institute) has been serving as General Manager of National Players

since August 2002.  Bill was a co-director of National Players Summer

Shakespeare 2002 and Tour 50.  Bill received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in

Dramatic Arts from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and a Master of Arts

degree in Theatre: history, theory, and criticism from the University of

Maryland.  Bill is an Alumnus of National Players Tours 49 and 50 where he

played the roles of Whit in Of Mice and Men, Baptista in Taming of the Shrew,

Raganeau in Cyrano De Bergerac, and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night.  Bill

also has been an actor for 7 National Players summer tours.

BARBARA PINOLINI (Booking Agent) has been involved with National

Players for the past 2 decades - first, as a performer on Tours 32 and 37 and

then as Managing Director from 1987 - 1997.  She received her MFA from the

Catholic University of America and is now an Adjunct Professor in the

Department of Performing Arts at American University in Washington, DC.  In

addition to scheduling National Players and performing, she is the Casting

Director and Make Up Artist for ScriptSmith (a local video production

company) and is a Narrator for books-on-tape at the Library of Congress. 

Barbara is an active member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the Screen

Actors' Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio

Artists (Aftra).

CASEY CONAN (National Players Apprentice) recently completed two

years in the Civic Theatre Resident Company of Allentown, PA. While at

Civic she performed as young Eva in And Then They Came for Me, Future in

A Christmas Carol 2005, Deb Jabber in Cinderella Confidential and as both

Fuzzy Stone and Lorna in The Cider House Rules. Casey has also performed

with community and dinner theatres in Florida, Maryland and Texas in roles

ranging from a mob boss' daughter to a mythological rock. She holds a

Bachelor of Science in Aviation and Aerospace Communications from

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where she presided over the Riddle

Players Theatre Company. She likes horses.

National Players is an educational outreach program of

Send mail to bgillett@nationalplayers.org with questions or comments about this web site.

©2006 Olney Theatre Center (T/A National Players)
Last modified: 03/23/06