Camp Shakespeare
Faculty Bios

Each summer Camp Shakespeare Teaching Artists create a unique curriculum aimed at optimizing students’ physical, intellectual and artistic development. All Teaching Artists are classically trained professional actors and educators.

The energy and fervor of the faculty is one of the things I value and love best about the camp. They inspire you, and their excitement rubs off on you and makes you want to dive in.
– Sarah Hirsch, Camper

Samantha Wyer, Director of Education -Samantha K. Wyer was appointed Director of Education of Shakespeare Theatre Company in December 2010, where she provides vision and direction for STC’s School, Community Engagement, Training and Audience Enrichment Programs whose core purpose is to offer dynamic avenues of exploration that challenge individuals to seize the ideas contained in classic texts and to find the union between classic theatre and modern relevancy. Previously, Ms Wyer served as Director of Education/ Associate Artistic Director at Arizona Theatre Company for thirteen seasons, where she led the creation of the education mission, department staffing design and development of 80% of new programming during her term. In partnership with government, educational and social agencies, she created over 450 education and community enrichment activities throughout Arizona while serving as a passionate ambassador and community liaison for arts education. Under her leadership, ATC received the Outstanding Arts Education Organization award from Tucson Pima Arts and Business Council. Ms. Wyer has been a grants panelist and guest speaker for arts organizations including Theatre Communications Group, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Tucson Pima Arts Council, Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture and West Valley Arts Council and has taught and directed for University of Missouri, Arizona State University and University of Arizona. In 2007, Ms. Wyer was awarded the Buffalo Exchange Arts Award by the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. Samantha is also a proud member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers union and partial directing credits include The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Moon for the Misbegotten, To Kill a Mockingbird, Three Sisters, I Am My Own Wife, Noises Off!, Permanent Collection and Wit.

Vanessa Hope, School Programs Manager - Vanessa teaches the Master Class Acting for Business Professionals. She is an actress with the Faction of Fools Theatre Company, which is dedicated to the classical style of Commedia dell’Arte. She holds an MFA in Acting from Purdue University, where she taught Intro to Acting and Voice for the Actor, and a BFA in Acting from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She also studied Shakespeare at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Prior to living in Washington, D.C., she resided in Los Angeles, where she appeared on American Dreams, ER and All of US and was a member of the improv troupe The Berubians.

Affiliated Teaching Artists

Dan Crane’s STC credits include Lord Grey in Richard III and Hounslow in The Beaux’ Stratagem. As an actor Dan has worked at companies across the United States, including Imagination Stage (Maryland), Kitchen Theatre (New York), Idaho Shakespeare Festival (Idaho), PCPA Theaterfest (California) and Portland Center Stage (Oregon). He is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts, holds a BFA from Ithaca College and an MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

Jim Gagne is the Resident Teaching Artist for the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Acting credits include Jack the Ticket Ripper (Georgetown Theatre Company), We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay (The Hub Theatre), Heart of a Dog, Fool for Love (Spooky Action Theater), The Nature and Purpose of the Universe (Circle of Fools), Cymbeline (Dog and Pony DC), Ninja Motorcycle Babes (Notorious Women), One Man’s War (Triad Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Everyman Theatre), St. Joan, Romeo and Juliet (Olney Theatre Center), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Town (National Players Tour 55). As a teacher Jim has worked with a wide variety of students ranging from kindergartners to senior citizens. Jim received a BFA from The Hartt School at The University of Hartford.

George Grant’s Shakespeare Theatre Company credits include The Tempest, Othello, Peer Gynt, The Merry Wives of Windsor as well as All's Well That Ends Well and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Carter Barron Amphitheatre (Free For All). Other regional performance credits include the Goodman Theatre and the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Grant received his BA in Theatre from Lawrence University and his MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University as a member of the inaugural class.

Paul Hope is a 2001 MFA graduate of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting. Prior to moving to D.C. in the fall of 2009, he was based out of New York City where he worked as an actor, teaching artist, fight choreographer and music director. NYC credits include Red Bull Theatre and Folding Chair Classical Theatre, including Cymbeline, Our Country’s Good and The Oresteia. Regional credits include Lake George Theatre Lab, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre and Oregon Cabaret Theatre. D.C. credits include Burn Your Bookes, Bootleg Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida and Cymbeline with Taffety Punk Theatre Company. Paul also has a BFA from Millikin University, has studied at the Royal National Theatre Studio and is a member of Actors Equity Association.

Michelle Jackson is an actor, writer and singer. She performs with the Faction of Fools, a theatre company devoted specifically to Commedia dell’Arte. Teaching credits include Young Playwrights' Theatre, the Smithsonian and Arts-Bridge’s Shakespeare Alive program at the Mondavi Center in California. She wrote and produced the interactive educational show Ballads Unbound which exposed students to Renaissance song, drama and dance. Michelle holds a BA in Theatre and BA in English from the University of California at Davis.

Casey Kaleba has served as fight director on more than 200 academic and professional productions, including many at the Folger Theatre, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Rorschach Theatre, Studio 2ndStage and the National Players. Kaleba serves on the faculty of Rapier Wit Studios in Toronto and the Paddy Crean Workshop. A member of the Society of American Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada and the Nordic Stagefight Society, he has taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, Old Dominion University and George Mason University, and currently teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Paul Reisman is an actor, educator, graphic and web designer, and clown. Credits include Julius Caesar with the Shakespeare Theatre Company; A Commedia Romeo and Juliet with Faction of Fools (upcoming); a national tour with the American Shakespeare Center of The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice and Henry V in repertory; Richard III and Pride & Prejudice with The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Proof with TheatreFest; A Midsummer Night's Dream with the American Globe Theatre; and the film Cult of Sincerity (PBS). He has been teaching for more than 10 years and is happy to be part of the STC Education staff. AEA. MFA, the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. BFA, Montclair State University.

Esther Williamson earned her MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting in 2005. She is a company member with Taffety Punk Theatre Company and has been a proud participant in their unrehearsed Bootleg Shakespeare productions and their all-girl productions of Romeo and Juliet and Measure for Measure. She has also performed with Ford's Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle and many more. She is an Artistic Associate at Henley Street Theatre in Richmond, where she has served as a text coach and dramaturg.

Eva Wilhelm holds an MFA in Classical Acting from the Shakespeare Theatre's Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. Locally, she has appeared in productions at Folger Theatre, Studio Theatre, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Faction of Fools and Taffety Punk Theatre Company. In Chicago, she worked with Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Shattered Globe and Stage Left, among many others. She is currently an Associate Producer with Faction of Fools.

(Teaching Artists are subject to change without notice)

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