Erin Bone Steele (Director) is a CSC Company Member and previously directed A Christmas Carol (2021), Love's Labour's Lost, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Other CSC credits include assistant directing or dramaturgy work on The Winter’s Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Antony and Cleopatra, Pride and Prejudice, Cyrano de Bergerac, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Country Wife. She co-curated, with Michael Lonegro, CSC's exhibit on the life of Ira Aldridge and served on CSC's covid-era “Expanding the Canon” play reading team. Erin holds a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies and taught at The University of Maryland, Trinity Washington University, Anne Arundel Community College where she directed Antigone, Shepherd University where she directed Dry Land, and Loyola University of Maryland where she directed Blue Stockings. Erin currently runs the after-school theatre program for Avalon & Brookewood Schools (Kensington, MD), where she directed You Can’t Take It With You, The Comedy of Errors, Cheaper By the Dozen, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Community directing credits include Into the Woods; Men on Boats; Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight; On the Razzle; Anton in Show Business; and a different adaptation of A Christmas Carol. She also directed Finding the Sun for the Edward Albee Festival at Arena Stage, served on the literary committee at Ford's Theatre, and was a script reader for Source Festival (Washington DC). She directed Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the two inaugural productions of the Appalachian Shakespeare Project at Concord University, which marked a return to her hometown of Athens, WV where she was in her first Shakespeare play at age eight. She lives in Silver Spring, MD with her husband and two daughters and, in her spare time, sings in the Grace Episcopal Church Festival Choir and volunteers with the refugee resettlement team. https://erinbonesteele.wixsite.com/erin-bone-steele
Laura Rocklyn (Playwright) is a proud Company Member and Teaching Artist at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company where she is grateful to have appeared on stage in numerous roles, from the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol (2014,’15,’16) to Ellen Tree in Red Velvet. Laura’s one-woman play Charlotte Brontë: To Do More & Better Things was presented as part of the North American Friends of Chawton House 2021 Speaker Subscription Series; Clover, a fulllength play Laura co-wrote with Ty Hallmark, was produced by Ally Theatre Company in 2017; and Laura’s original short play Emma is presented in Washington City was performed as the curtain raiser for the Jane Austen Society of North America 2016 Annual General Meeting. Laura was the winner of the “LitMag” 2021 Virginia Woolf Award for short fiction, and her stories have appeared in literary journals “Stork” and “New Square,” and in the anthology The Twelve Adventurers and Other Stories: A New Edition. She has published articles in “Brontë Studies” and “The Revere Express”. Laura holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, and an MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. www.LauraRocklyn.com
Sarah Curnoles (Production Manager) stage managed with CSC for Much Ado About Nothing, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Dracula, A Doll’s House, The Tempest, and Henry V. Before working at CSC, she was self-employed as a life coach. She has also worked at Center Stage as the Executive Assistant to the Artistic and Managing Directors. Sarah created and directed A Fool’s Paradise: 30 Shakespeare Scenes in 60 Minutes which was performed at the Baltimore Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and various stages around Baltimore.
Kris DiBastiani (Stage Manager) returns to CSC after previous work as ASM on the education and summer productions of Macbeth, and as child minder for last season’s production of A Christmas Carol. Additional recent credits include Silent Sky (Milburn Stone Theatre); Young Playwrights Festival, Tiny Beautiful Things (Baltimore Center Stage); William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play: Abridged, Lizzie, Stage Kiss (Stagedoor Manor); A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Opera A Capella, The Wolves, and Fugitive Songs (TU). Education: Towson University, B.S. Theatre Arts.
Dan O’Brien (Technical Director) is a founding member of CSC. Daniel has performed, designed scenery, lights, and served as Technical Director for many productions (among other jobs too numerous to name). He oversaw the construction of CSC’s theatre in Baltimore and designed the sets and lighting for Macbeth (2016); for the inaugural season plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard II; Romeo and Juliet (2015-2019); A Christmas Carol (2014-2019), and many others.
Mollie Singer (Set Designer) CSC Credits (Props): Julius Caesar, Red Velvet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Winter’s Tale, The Fantastics, Richard III, Anne of the Thousand Days. Other Credits: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed (Scenic Design), Glass Menagerie (Scenic Design) Fuller (Scenic Design), Grace (Asst. Props) Acoustic Rooster (Asst. Scenic Design) My Lord What a Night (Asst. Props) Unknown (Scenic/Props), Hookman (Scenic Design) Subject to Change (Scenic Design), She Kills Monsters (Scenic Design) Souvenir (Scenic Design), Becoming Dr. Ruth (Props) Lady Day at Emerson’s… (Scenic Design).
Katie McCreary (Lighting Designer) is a CSC company member, and has designed for CSC’s Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Romeo & Juliet (2020, 2023), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (2020, 2023), The Diary of Anne Frank; Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2; Alice in Wonderland; The Winter's Tale; The Fantasticks; Anne of the Thousand Days; Uncle Vanya; and The Importance of Being Earnest. Other recent and favorite designs include work with Peabody Opera Theater and Dance, Catholic University of America, Rorschach Theatre (company member), Keegan Theater, and Next Stop Theater. Katie is also Director of Development and Curriculum Development and also a proud Teaching Artist for Educational Theatre Company.
Kristina Lambdin (Costume Designer) won the Broadway World Best Costume Design award for her designs for A Christmas Carol (2016). Some of her costuming credits with CSC include Dracula (2013 and 2019); The Diary of Anne Frank; She Stoops to Conquer; Alice in Wonderland; Red Velvet; Anne of the Thousand Days; The Fantasticks; Macbeth (2016); A Christmas Carol (2014-2018); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005, 2011 and 2014); The Importance of Being Earnest; The Taming of the Shrew (2006 and 2013); Romeo and Juliet (2003, 2012, and student matinees 2015-2019); A Doll’s House; As You Like It (Broadway World Best of Baltimore Award); and The Country Wife. Broadway World named her as a top artist of the 2007 Baltimore Theatre, and she won the Greater Baltimore Theater Award for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005). For more than a decade, she served as the Costume Supervisor for the Baltimore Opera Company and then Lyric Opera Baltimore..
Sarah O’Halloran (Sound Designer) is a sound designer and composer. Sarah previously worked on CSC’s A Christmas Carol (2022), Anne of the Thousand Days and Measure for Measure. Other credits include Sense and Sensibility, Be Here Now, Proof, Dinner with Friends (Everyman Theatre); The Humans, Our Town and Labour of Love (Olney Theater Center); Nathan the Wise, Compulsion, Talley’s Folly (Theater J) ; She the People: The Resistance Continues (Woolly Mammoth/The Second City); The Phlebotomist, The Brothers Size, Swimming with Whales, Trevor, and When the Rain Stops Falling (1st Stage); Cry it Out (Studio Theatre); A Chorus Within Her (Theater Alliance); In His Hands and The Return (Mosaic Theater); The Glass Menagerie, E2, The 39 Steps, The Heidi Chronicles and Things That Are Round (Rep Stage).
Caitlin Bouxsein (Props Designer) is a designer, director, choreographer, and performer who has worked with several Baltimore area theater companies including Single Carrot Theatre, The Strand Theater Company, Fluid Movement, and Submersive Productions (with whom she is a member of the Submersive Collective). At CSC, she previously designed props for A Christmas Carol (2022) and Hamlet (2023). She also produces original works with her spouse, Alexander Scally, under the name BOUXSCAL Productions, which have been featured at The Charm City Fringe Festival and other local venues. Education: B.A. Theatre Arts, Drew University
Dawn Thomas Reidy (Production Associate) is an actor, teaching artist, director, and puppeteer. She is also a company member and member of the Black Classical Acting Ensemble at CSC. You may have seen her onstage as the Provost in Measure for Measure, Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun or Lady Macbeth in the 2023 outdoor production of Macbeth. Dawn received her BFA in Acting form UMBC and her MFA in Acting from IU Bloomington. Dawn is excited to help plan, organize, a facilitate the creation of the beautiful work seen on stage working on the admin side of things in Production Management. When not at CSC, she pretends to have a whole host of illnesses as a standardized patient.
Cat Moreschi (Assistant Stage Manager) is returning to CSC for this production. Previous ASM credits include: As You Like It (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); Fela!, The World Goes 'Round, Kinky Boots, Beauty & the Beast, Dance Nation (Olney Theatre Center); All's Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, Henry V (American Shakespeare Center). Other credits include: Costume design, Sweet Charity (Bmore Broadway).
Chester Stacy (Assistant Technical Director) has designed, built, and painted many CSC productions, including Alice in Wonderland, The Fantasticks, Red Velvet, and Titus Andronicus; and for Baltimore Center Stage’s Thoughts of a Colored Man and Shakespeare in Love. Chester Creates LLC, has provided film production design for The Night Watchmen, set decoration for House of Cards and The Wire; and environmental graphics for Crunch Fitness, Royal Caribbean, Bmore Greek Grill, and Healthy Highlandtown.
Grace Srinivasan (Music Director) has programmed and arranged the music for CSC productions since 2016 as Resident Music Director. A soprano who performs a wide-ranging repertoire throughout the region, she appeared as a soloist in a program of works inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, If Music Be the Food of Love, with CSC artists, the Peabody Baroque Band, and the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble. Grace holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory and sings professionally at St. Stephen Martyr Church and the National Cathedral.
Shalyce Hemby (Choreographer) returns to CSC after working on As You Like It (2023); Othe credits include: ArtsCentric: Once on this Island, Crowns, The Last 5 Years, Little Shop of Horrors, Aida, Chicago, The Color Purple, The Wiz, For Colored Girls, Dreamgirls, Snapshots DC AREA: NextStop Theatre: Beehive; Toby’s Dinner Theatre: The Wiz, Dreamgirls [Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography in a Musical], The Bodyguard, and Ain’t Misbehavin ArtsCentric/Everyman/Olney Theatre Center: The World Goes ‘Round; Olney Theatre Center: Just Arts: A Celebration of Art & Activism FILM: Step Up. Instagram: @sugasheadance
Chris Reuther (Puppet Designer) is making his CSC debut as Puppet Designer. He graduated from Towson University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Art and Design, and has spent the past ten years designing and building puppets, creatures, and scenes for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, Submersive Productions, Cohesion Theater Company and various smaller performances. He was also the Show Creator and Puppets Designer for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s Fall 2022 production, Love & ROAR!
Tyrel Brown (Production Assistant) Returns to CSC after previously working as assistant stage manager for Macbeth (2023), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (2023), and as a production assistan for last year’s A Christmas Carol. His other credits include: Twelfth Night (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), Julius Caesar (Fools and Madmen), Young Playwrights Festival (Baltimore Center Stage), Black Super Hero Magic Mama (Strand Theater), Dreamgirls (Baltimore Center Stage), The Comedy of Errors (Endangered Species Project). Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Nominee (Fuente Ovejuna) Education: Towson University, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Acting. IG & Tiktok: @ tyreltyrelbrown
AG Sherman (Costume Assistant) builds costumes each week at CSC, owns Argeaux Custom Apparel, and stitches upholstery with Seams Possible in Abingdon. Prior credits include The Wiz, Frozen, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and Hamilton at the Hippodrome Theater, the upcoming Apple TV+ project Lady In the Lake, Bucket of Blood at Yellow Sign Theater, live performance, video, and merch support for musicians including SZA, Monolord, and Santa Librada. AG was educated by her multi-generational textile artist family and apprenticed in the ateliers of Chris Roberts-Antieau, Adam Stab, Ed Dawson, and others.
Hannah Brill (Wardrobe Supervisor & Wig Consultant) is a costume and lighting designer from Baltimore. She is the Assistant Costume Shop manager for Towson University’s Department of Theatre Arts. Hannah is returning to CSC as wardrobe manager (As You Like It, Macbeth, Hamlet, A Christmas Carol 2022, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing). Other recent work includes costume design for TU Dance Company shows Echoing Visions, Legacy, and Surging (Towson University), Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes (Single Carrot Theatre), The First Thing That Happens (Acme Corporation), and lighting design for Rachel (Rapid Lemon Productions.)
Adele Russel (Wardrobe Assistant) last served as the Wardrobe Supervisor for CSC’s student matinees of Macbeth. She freelances as a costume designer, seamstress and wardrobe assistant around the Baltimore area. Adele has also been an actor for over 45 years and a teaching artist for 25 years. She has taught Shakespeare to children for CSC’s summer camps. Adele is the Director of the after school theater program at Immaculate Conception School in Towson, MD.
Trinity Joseph (Board Operator) is lighting technician and creative from Baltimore, Maryland. She is currently a junior in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University studying Theater Technology with a minor in Photography. She previously worked as a stage manager and board operator for CSC’s Veterans Ensemble’s 2023 play, The Murder of Gonzago.
Vanessa Strickland (Child Minder) is a visual and performing artist making her CSC debut. Prior to working with CSC, she has performed, directed, and stage-managed shows with Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) in Frederick, MD. She is also an accomplished puppeteer and teaching artist. Past roles with MET include: The Glass Menagerie, Frankenstein, The Elephant Man, Antigone, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula and others. (she/her)
The effervescent text of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol reveals new insights into our human condition each time I revisit it. No matter how many productions of Christmas Carol I have worked on in different capacities, I find myself wishing to return to help tell this story year after year. It is one of those rare, transcendent stories whose message is just as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was in the nineteenth.
A Christmas Carol is a fantasy, inviting us to cross into supernatural possibilities in the great 19th century tradition of holiday "ghost stories." There are two interlocking pieces that make A Christmas Carol such an effective tale. The first is Scrooge, who is our memorable companion as we witness his journey toward redemption. But just as essential is the element of community. Scrooge has been truly terrible to his fellow humans, and they have every right to feel frustration, bitterness, even anger - but in the final moment, when Scrooge sincerely makes amends and asks for forgiveness from his heart, they offer acceptance and welcome him to fully reintegrate into the community. This sense of community and fellowship - more than tokens, presents, and festive punch - is the real gift of Christmas.
