Actors Shakespeare Company at New Jersey City University

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.

Promoted to Managing Director in 2009, she has also served one year as Company Manager and is currently in her fourth season as production stage 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 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 three independently produced CDs for which she was nominated for several "Newcomer Awards", and 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 founding Board member of the Actors Shakespeare Company, 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.

Bethany's grant work has helped theatre companies and other non-profits gain funding and support from entities ranging from the New York Foundation for the Arts to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). As grantwriter, Bethany works with ASC's staff and board to forward the company's relationships with those who support the arts and arts education.

As a member of the ASC Conservatory faculty, Bethany has designed and taught curricula in Shakespeare text exploration techniques, self-staging skills, body awareness and voice for actors. Ms. Reeves serves as principal voice coach for ASC's mainstage productions, drawing on a background ranging from leading opera roles to studies under Patsy Rodenburg and Kristin Linklater. A candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School for the Arts, she holds B.M. and M.M. degrees in voice, and teaches in the City University of New York system and at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. For ASC, Bethany directed King John and co-directed Hamlet; roles with the Company include Puck, Hermia, Hellen, Viola, Hermione, and numerous ensemble roles.

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.