These are the Artists Who Keep it All Happening

Anjanette Venutto
Administrative Support

Celeste Johnston
Design and Production Support: Costume

Chris Campbell
Design and Production (Lead)--Governing Board

Michael Peterson
Design and Production Support: Construction & Scenic
Michael's first theatrical role was the young David in a church play. Later, in college, he acted in
several student productions at Occidental college. After returning to Fresno, he spent many years at Theatre 3. He is proud to have participated in some form or another, sometimes acting, sometimes building, on one occasion directing, in every season of the Woodward Shakespeare Festival to date.

Raquel Busani
Design (Scenic) and Outreach Support

Ann Vermel
Education & Outreach--Performance Support--Artistic Advisory
Ann first went on stage at the age of five. She studied acting and directing with Uta Hagen, Ed
Hooks, Logan Ramsey and Boris Goldovsky, and in workshops with Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, Peter Schumann and LeeBreuer. She received her MFA in Theatre Arts from Fresno State University. She has performed and directed at the Hartford Stage Company, the Maine State Shakespeare Festival, and the Berkeley Arts Festival among others. Her management credits include two Shakespeare Festivals, as well as serving as the General Manager of the Pickle Family Circus and Artistic Administrator at the San Francisco Opera.

Erin Baird
Education & Outreach
Erin holds a BFA from Southern Oregon University, an MFA in Shakespeare from Mary Baldwin College, and has apprenticed with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare's Globe in London, and the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. Erin is the theatre teacher at Edison High School and helms the productions of the Edison Tiger Theatre Company.

Julia Reimer
Education & Outreach (Lead)--Performance Support--Artistic Advisory
Julia Reimer is a member of the Theater faculty at Fresno Pacific University where she has taught, directed productions, coordinated the Theater program, and advised student projects and performances since 2001. Her education is in Literature, Theater (MA), and Performance Studies (PhD). She is currently expanding her theatrical horizons through a sabbatical leave studying Applied Theater at the City University of New York (CUNY) in New York City.

Jennifer Hurd-Peterson
Education--Performance Support
Jennifer got her Theatre Arts Degree from Cal State Hayward/East Bay. She was a repertory
member with Theatre Three Repertory Company for ten years where she performed in numerous productions. Jennifer has been with Woodward Shakespeare Company since the first production of Much Ado About Nothing in which she played Beatrice. Since then, she has played the Witch in
Macbeth, Gertrude in Hamlet, and most recently, the Abbess in The Comedy of Errors. Jennifer looks forward to many years with WSF.

Greg Taber
Executive Producer
Greg holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Southern California. He has acted locally for a number of companies on and off since 1982. For five years he produced, directed, and acted in productions for Theatre Ventoux, a local company he founded with his wife, Lisa.

Hal H. Bolen, II
Governing Board (Chief Financial Officer)

Thornton Davidson
Governing Board (President)

Julie Ann Keller
Movement & Sound Support
Julie Ann Keller is owner and director of California Arts Academy in Fresno, CA, where she has taught dance and drama for nearly 20 years. She directs Celtic Motion Dance Company and the Cal Arts Summer Youth Shakespeare, and she is a founding member of Artists’ Repertory Theatre.

Erica Riggs
Outreach Support
Erica has been involved with WSF since 2006. She has played Lady Macduff in Macbeth, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Goneril in King Lear and Sue Bayliss in All My Sons. She has also directed and acted in many of the staged readings that WSF presents at the Woodward Park Regional Library.

Gabriela Lawson
Outreach Support--Performance Support--Artistic Advisory
Gabi grew up doing ballet and community theatre here in Fresno, where she was born and raised. She has performed with such local companies as Fresno Playhouse, Inc., Cynthia Merrill, Epic Theatre, the drama department at Fresno City College both as a student and as a guest artist, and as a student at Roosevelt School of the Arts. She directed Season 8's The Merry Wives of Windsor and played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Sharon Bellina
Outreach Support
Sharon holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Psychology from Allegheny College. She has studied voice and violin privately for 15 years. While at Allegheny, she sang with the College Choir, Women's Ensemble, Chamber Choir, and Chamber Singers, played violin in the Civic Symphony, and acted in a number of college plays and musicals. She also directed several one-act plays and short productions, including having directed and performed in the Chamber Singers' Opera Scenes recital. She is a recipient of two music scholarships, and has held internships at regional theatres in California, Florida, and New York. She is currently the Marketing Manager/Voice instructor at California Arts Academy and is pursuing a Master of Business Administration at Fresno State.

Matt Otstot
Performance Support--Artistic Advisory
An actor since age 5, Matt was cast as Laertes in WSF's production of Hamlet and as King Henry in Henry V. His other theatre credits include A Few Good Men (Kaffee) and Farenheit 451 (Montag). He also studied Improv comedy with The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Matt produces and hosts Live Weather and Fun on NBC affiliate KSEE 24.