Leadership
Jody Hovland* (Artistic Director) has been part of the leadership as well as a working artist with Riverside Theatre since its founding in 1981. She has performed at the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution (First Lady Lou), with Karamu House Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland (The Servant of Two Masters), and has toured in the solo shows The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe and Planting in the Dust. She most recently appeared as Eileen in The Cripple of Inishmaan, and in the summer Festival as Essie in Ah, Wilderness! and Lucetta/Outlaw in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other favorite performance credits include Kate Keller in All My Sons, Prospera in The Tempest, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, and Vivian Bearing in Wit. A member of Actors’ Equity, Jody holds an MFA in acting from the University of Iowa and is a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Cornell College.
Ron Clark* (Resident Artist and Production Manager) is a founder of Riverside Theatre. In addition to calling Riverside Theatre home, Ron has worked in theatres around the Midwest and Seattle. Recent work includes direction of The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Two Gentlemen of Verona as well as performing the role of Nat Miller in Ah, Wilderness! Last season on Gilbert Street he performed the role of Joe Keller in All My Sons and directed Walking the Wire. Other favorite roles include Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Diafoirus in The Imaginary Invalid, Mr. Dussel in The Diary of Anne Frank, and the title role in King Lear. He is a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Cornell College and a member of Actors’ Equity. His writing for the theatre includes Small Miracles and the plays Kindred Hearts, Grocery Stories, and Coffee and Hope. Ron holds an MFA in acting from the University of Iowa.
Production
Director Jody Hovlansd
Lighting Designer Drew Bielinski
Sound Designer Ron Clark
Stage Manager Adriana Fernandez
Actors
Tim Budd, David Busch, Ron Clark, Fannie Hungerford, Mike Moran, Janet Schlapkohl, Katherine Smith, and Jessica Wilson.
Playwrights
Brent Boyd, Dave Carley, Ron Clark, Mark Harvey Levine, Deborah Magid, George Mennenga, Mike Moran, Amanda Petefish-Schrag, Gwendolyn Rice, Janet Schlapkohl, Jen Silverman, and Amy White.
Drew Bielinski (Lighting Designer) has been on the Riverside Theatre technical crew since 2008, working as Light Board Operator, Sound Engineer, Master Electrican, and Lighting Designer. He designed lights for last year's Walking the Wire, and most recently for Feer First In The Water With A Baby In My Teeth, Telling: Iowa City (Working Group Theatre), and Holiday Cabaret (City Circle).
Brent Boyd (Playwright, "Double Barrel") is a screenwriter and playwright living in Los Angeles. His one-act play Commencement premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer. His award-winning feature film, Aurora Borealis (starring Josh Jackson, Juliette Lewis and Donald Sutherland), is based on a play he wrote while living on Muscatine Avenue in the 1990s.
David Busch (Actor) is a graduate of the UI Theatre Arts department. He has recently relocated to Iowa City, having worked in Los Angeles for 16 years as an animation producer, and doing voiceovers in shows like Racing Stripes and Black Panther. Recently he appeared in the New Play Festival's And Humbaba Came From His Strong House of Cedar.
Tim Budd (Actor) is participating for the third time with WTW, having acted twice and direceted once. More recent work include roles in The Cripple of Inishmaan and last season's All My Sons for Riverside Theatre, and Art for Old Creamery's studio series. He will be appearing in the April production of Mayberry with Working Group Theatre for Hancher. Tim finished his MFA studies toward an MFA at UI and works full time at Prairie Lights Books.
Ron Clark* (Playwright, "Third" and Actor; see bio under Leadership)
Adriana Fernandez (Stage Manager) is thrilled to return to Riverside Theatre after being part of the stage management team for RTSF 2011. Her past credits include Agbedidi and 2,280 Pints at the University of Florida, The Producers and Shakespeare in Hollywood at the Gainesville Community Playhouse, and Floyd Collins at the Squitieri Studio Theatre. Adriana has a BFA in Theatre Production from the University of Florida. She would like to thank her family for all their support.
Fannie Hungerford (Actor) is a yoga teacher, actor, choreographer and momma based in Iowa City. Prior to Iowa City, Fannie lived in Chicago making theatre, serving pancakes, teaching teens and dancing in the streets. She hails from South Carolina.
Mark Harvey Levine (Playwright, "Nicole") has had over 700 productions of his plays from New York to Seoul to Sydney to Prague. Evenings of his plays have been produced in Sao Paulo (in Portuguese), Amsterdam, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Indianapolis, Columbus and other cities. More info at www.MarkHarveyLevine.com.
Deborah Magid (Playwright, "The Cowboy") also sings, acts, directs, and composes. She is a member of the Cleveland Playwrights' Unit and on the Board of the International Cnetre for Women Playwrights. Her works have been granted, read, workshopped, and produced at Cleveland Public Theatre, Melbourne International Fringe Festival, and Los Alamos Little Theatre, among others. http://DeborahMagid.com.
Gordon Mennenga (Playwright, "Shakytown") is a native Iowan. He attended UNI and the UI where he earned an MFA in fiction writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has written monologues for Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion and won a Nelson Algren Fiction Award. He teaches fiction writing and film studies at Coe College and a variety of courses at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. He has two grown children, Kate and Andy, and lives with his wife, Lynn, in Iowa City.
Mike Moran (Playwright, "In Hank's Brain" and Actor) finds it good to be back on the Riverside stage. Since performing in last year's Walking the Wire, Moran has been hosting the monthly Goatsinger Show - a singing, storytelling, vaudville/theater venue in Mount Vernon - a the Iowa Goatsinger. And he was last seen as Fagin in Odyssey Theatre's winter production of Oliver!
Amanda Petefosh-Schrag (Playwright, "Lost in the Flood") is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Northwest Missouri State University. Beyond teaching and directing, her work includes touring her one-woman play, Supergirls! Tales of Life, Love and Captain Nebraska. Amanda is a recent recipient of the Kennedy Center National Teaching Artist Grant and Missouri Govenor's Award for Excellence in Education.
Gwendolyn Rice (Playwright, "Toots") has had play and monologues produced in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. She holds an mA in theater, literature and criticism from the University of Wisconsin, and is currently the communications director for Forward Theatre Company in Madison.
Janet Schlapkohl (Playwright, "A Pigeon in a Dress" and Actor) is a third year MFA playwrighting candidate at the UI. She is the founder of Combined Eddorts Drama, an inclusive non-profit theatre company for persons with special needs...like actors. She is a member in dubious standing with the North American Shetland Sheep Association.
Jen Silverman (Playwright, "Mia") recieved her BA from Brown University and her MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop in 2011. Her play Crane Story was recently produced Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and Akarui will open a the Cleveland Public Theatre in May.
Katherine Smith (Actor) took part in Riverside's Young People's Intensive last summer. She is heavily involved in CHS's drama department and a regular in Combined Efforts Drama. Next year she will attend UNI, with a scholarship award in Theater.
Amy White (Playwright, "Inner Child") is the director of the Lisbon Public Library, a member of the Mt. Vernon/Lisbon Community Theatre's board, a volunteer speech coach at Mt. Vernon High School, and a charter member of the Black Doggers playwrighting group. This is her fourth Walking the Wire monologue at Riverside and she is very grateful to be part of the show.
Jessica Wilson (Actor) is delighted to appear in Riverside Theatre's Walking the Wire for the third year in a row. Other previous roles include Lady Fidget in The Country Wife, Bianca/She in Christopher Marowitz's The Shrew, and Angie in The Glory of Living. She is a former Iowa Arts Fellow and recieved her MFA in nonfiction from the UI.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, appearing under a Special Appearance Contract.
Ron Clark, Resident Artist/Production Manager
Jody Hovland, Artistic Director
Jennifer Holan, Development Director
Zachary Begley, Technical Director
Sarah Burnett, Marketing Director
Clare Martin, House Manager
Nan Martin, Patron Services Manager
Sharyn Reitz, Business Manager
Chair: Aaron Schaefer
Vice Chair: Patricia Heiden
Ed Benjamin, Kristi Bontrager, Chris Brus, Madgetta Dungy, Linda Farkas, Scott Finlayson, Minnetta Gardinier, Angie Schmidt, Jesse Singerman, Heather Warner, Paul Weller, Natasha Wendt, Ryan West, and Gary Whittington.
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