Staff
Colette Rice - Producing Artistic Director and Play Master
Ms. Rice is a director, actor, teacher and singer, specializing in Shakespearean performance theory and practice. After considerable training and experience in regional theatre, opera, non-profit enterprise and business, Ms. Rice accepted the position of Producing Artistic Director of the newly-created Actors Shakespeare Company (ASC) in fall 2000. She was chosen at the unanimous request of its founders, a group of professional actors with a passion for classical theatre and a desire to form an acting ensemble that would focus on production, training and scholarship. She has produced over twenty Shakespeare plays, most of which she has also directed. In 2002 she launched ASC’s lauded in-school educational program for high school students, Shakespeare WINS! (Will In Neighborhood Schools). In 2003 she guided ASC in the creation of a free staged reading series known as Bare Bard. Under her leadership ASC gained early admittance to Associate Membership in the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and in 2008 was promoted to full senior member. In 2005, she began to create a partnership between ASC and New Jersey City University, which resulted in 2008 in ASC’s acceptance as a profession theatre in residence at NJCU. Ms. Rice also serves as a private coach and teacher in topics pertinent to classical acting, for ASC actors and other professionals in the field.
Jennifer America - Company and Production Manager
A 2005 graduate of the State University of New York at New Paltz, she has served as Associate Producer at Stageworks/Hudson in Hudson, New York. With a background in design and directing, she Play Mastered the 2009 Bare Bard of The Tempest and assisted on various ASC at NJCU readings and main stage productions.
Cindy Boyle - Operations and Marketing Associate
Cindy Boyle studied with George Morrison at the College at Purchase in the same class as Stan Tucci and Ving Rhames. She has worked in live theatre in and around New York City ever since. Her accomplishments include a solo concert performance at the White House during Christmas of 2000. She exhibits her fine art photography in a respected Chelsea gallery. She is especially proud of her position as a founding member, and is the ADA Coordinator for the company. Her favorite roles include Feste in 'Twelfth Night', Lady Capulet in 'Romeo & Juliet' , Gertrude in 'Hamlet' (a dream role) Elinore of Aquitaine in 'King John, and Madame Lannoy in "Three Musketeers'. In her non-Shakespeare persona, she most recently played Susan in Stephen Sondheim's 'Company' for Cagel & Company Productions in Dobbs Ferry.
She also is the song leader at her church in Greenwich Village, where she can be heard every Sunday morning.
Colin Ryan - Education Director
Colin Ryan has been an actor and company member at ASC at NJCU since 2003. At ASC, he has been seen as Henry in Henry V, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Philip the Bastard in King John, and Laertes in Hamlet, as well as in company productions of The Three Musketeers, The Tempest, As You Like It and several Bare Bard staged readings. Colin has been an acting coach for ASC productions and was an Assistant Director of Hamlet, as well as the Play Master (Director) of the ASC Women's Company reading of Henry V. He frequently teaches workshops in Shakespearean text and literature at ASC's home, New Jersey City University.
Colin received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from the Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. He has a BFA in Acting from the State University of New York at Fredonia. Colin has been a Guest Lecturer at Adelphi University’s Education Department on the subject of teaching Shakespeare As an actor beyond the ASC stage, Colin has been seen in Macbeth (Macbeth), Othello (Iago), King Lear (Edmund), This Lime Tree Bower (Frank), Waiting for Godot(Lucky), Julius Caesar (Antony) Troilus and Cressida (Achilles), Brecht on Brecht, A Streetcar Named Desire (Stanley), She Stoops to Conquer (Tony), and Measure for Measure (Claudio).
Peter Galman - Marketing Coordinator and Ensemble Member
Like most actors, Peter Galman has learned to do other things while waiting for a juicy role, or perhaps preparing for it. In Peter’s case, it would be the role of a lifetime—shoe salesman, taxi driver, chauffeur, medical writer, editor, advertising salesman, pitchman, newspaper network coordinator, event marketing consultant and finally entrepreneur. As Marketing Coordinator for ASC, a position he accepted in June 2010, Peter is exercising skills he developed recently as a promoter of brands in movies and TV through the vagaries of product placement. An earlier career in publishing will mostly likely be of even greater value to Peter as he endeavors to meet the many deadlines that the busy ASC season demands. He has had a rich career as an actor, appearing in primetime TV, daytime TV and more than 60 stage productions, including Broadway. He has appeared with actors Julie Harris, June Allyson, Anne Bancroft, Kim Hunter, Pamela Payton-Wright, Meg Foster, Eileen Fulton, Swoosie Kurtz, Lloyd Bridges, Fritz Weaver, Don Scardino, Tom Poston, Larry Bryggman, and many other equally memorable and gifted actors. For ASC he has appeared as Shylock, Claudius, Pistol, Bottom, Richelieu and is now preparing for the role of Prospero in The Tempest this season at ASC.
Artistic Staff
Eva Lachur Omeljaniuk - Costume Master
Born in Katowice, Poland, Eva was raised in a stimulating artistic environment and began painting and drawing at an early age. She studied at an art school in Poland and with her father, renowned artist Zdzislaw Lachur. Subsequent study included private instruction under Maciej Lachur and Professor Boleslaw Stawinski, co-founder of the "Krakow Group" of the 1930s.
In 1981, she came to America with her husband and two sons and became a U.S. Citizen. With the birth of her daughter in 1988, she put her artistic career temporarily on hold. Her continuing goal in art is to show through her paintings her concern about the world and people. Currently, her paintings are under contract with Chamot Gallery (www.chamotgallery.com).
Eva has designed and built hundreds of costume pieces for the majority of ASC at NJCU's productions. For her costumes for the The Merchant of Venice, she received the 2009 “New Jersey ‘Tony Award’ for Best Costumes - 2008."
Anthony Bez - Music Master
ANTHONY BEZ, ASCAP composer and a recipient of a grant from “Meet the Composer”, has been the Music Master/Composer and Director of the Actors Shakespeare Company Consort since 2005. He began guitar studies at the age of five and began performing regularly at the age of nine. As a first trombonist of the Power Memorial Academy Orchestra he appeared at Alice Tully Hall annually during High School. Classical guitar debuts were made in his early teens at the Westchester Classical Guitar Society and in area churches. Since then he has performed throughout the country as well as in Europe. Mr. Bez has studied with guitarists Alice Artzt, Frank Koonce, Fredric Lehrman, Stephen Bell, Michael Dadap and Jorge Morel, among others. He has been influenced by leading classical musicians and musicians of other genres as well as attending numerous master classes. He has also distinguished himself as a Flamenco performer and has been featured as Flamenco Dance Theater’s guest soloist and accompanist. He has performed with “I Giulari di Piazza” of the St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City specializing in Medieval, Renaissance, and Southern Italian music. He has performed off-Broadway with MCC Theater, with the DiCapo Opera, with TIPA (Towards International Peace through the Arts), with the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival as well as in the homes of renowned artists, state legislators and diplomats. Mr. Bez is a devoted teacher and has served on the faculty of the American Institute of Guitar, the Manhattan Institute of Guitar and presently at the Hudson School. His articles have appeared in Soundboard Magazine, the publication of the Guitar Foundation of America, Guitar Review and NYlon Review. He is presently the Executive Secretary on the Board of the New York Classical Guitar Society. His CD Holy Mountain of his own compositions has been featured on WNYC’s “New Sounds” and on Public Radio here in the United States and in Canada. Other productions include a CD of “Morning Services”, a follow up solo CD Return to Mountain also recorded at the Dai Bosatsu International Zendo and recordings of “Waking in New York” as well as other pieces by the internationally acclaimed composer Elodie Lauten. Professional studies took place at Berklee College of Music, Arizona State University and Mannes College of Music. Mr. Bez is a recipient of the Medal of Merit from the Costa Rican Consulate for his outstanding musical efforts in conjunction with the Rainforest Alliance.
Denise Alessandra Hurd - Fight Master
Christopher Caines - Dance Master
Timur Kocak - Set Design and Technical Director
Michael Hajek - Prop Master
