Master Class: Scene Study

Peter Andersen is the artistic director of Oak Park Festival Theatre.  He is a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s MFA directing program. He is also a graduate of Emerson College where he obtained his BFA in Acting. 

Directing projects include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oak Park); The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (The Gift); The Kennedy Plays (CMU), 21 (CMU), a rock-musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (CMU), The American Myth (Shakespeare & Company), At Your Own Risk (University of Chicago), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Catskill Mountain Shakespeare), Queer Shakespeare, The Cafe Collections, O/A: The Sophocles Project, As You Like it, Macbeth, Measure for Measure.  He has also worked at Chicago Shakespeare, TimeLine Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Writers Theatre, and American Players Theatre as an assistant director.  

As an actor he has performed in several seasons at Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA); Actor’s Shakespeare Project (Boston, MA); and Company One (Boston, MA); he has also performed in New York City and Chicago.

Malkia Stampley is an actor, stage director, arts advocate, teaching artist, arts consultant and producer. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Malkia attended Marquette University where she studied theater arts. She currently serves as Goodman Theatre’s BOLD Artistic Producer. Malkia co-founded Bronzeville Arts Ensemble in 2013, serving as Producing Artistic Director for three years. In 2020, Malkia co-founded the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival and served as the founding Artistic Producer.

Theater directing credits include TimeLine, Shattered Globe, Raven Theatre, Black Arts MKE, First Stage, Skylight Music Theater, American Players Theatre, Milwaukee Jewish Community Center, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, Milwaukee Black Theater Festival, Farmers Alley Theatre and Milwaukee Fringe Festival. Malkia’s stage performance credits include a host of theaters in the Midwest, New York and two international touring productions of “Disney: On Classic” in Japan and Taiwan. TV credits include 61st Street, Shameless, Work in Progress, The Chi, Chicago PD, Chicago Med. Films include Native Son, Beats, Small Town Wisconsin, Killing Eleanor and an extensive voiceover career. Malkia has been a guest instructor for UW-Osh Kosh and Lawrence University.

Azar Kazemi is first-generation Persian American and the Founding Artistic Director at The Blind Owl, a socially-charged theatre where the political and personal collide. She most recently directed the critically acclaimed world premiere of Motherhouse by Tuckie White at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Some of Azar’s other Chicago directing credits include: the U.S. premiere of debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, the midwest premiere of Jack’s Precious Moment by Samuel D. Hunter, and Crave by Sarah Kane. Azar received her MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University in 2011, where she has also been on faculty since 2015 and received the 2020-21 Excellence in Teaching Award. She has worked at the Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare, Jackalope Theatre, Silk Road Rising, American Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In New York City Azar worked at The New Group where she assistant directed three Off-Broadway productions, two under the direction of her mentor Ethan Hawke.

Marti Lyons is the Artistic Director of Remy Bumppo and most recently directed Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon at Northlight Theatre. She recently directed the co-world premiere of Wife of a Salesman by Eleanor Burgess at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Sense and Sensibility adapted by Jessica Swale at American Players Theatre and the world-premiere of John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower at Studio Theatre in D.C. Lyons’s other productions include The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess at Writers Theatre; Cymbeline at American Players Theatre; The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe and both the stage and audio productions of Kings by Sarah Burgess at Studio Theatre; the world-premiere of How to Defend Yourself by liliana padilla, a Victory Gardens and Actors Theatre of Louisville co-production; Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee at Victory Gardens and City Theatre; Witch by Jen Silverman at Geffen Playhouse and Writers Theatre (LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Direction); Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías at Victory Gardens; Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; I, Banquo at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Title and Deed by Will Eno at Lookingglass Theatre Company; Laura Marks’s Bethany and Mine at The Gift Theatre. Marti is an ensemble member at The Gift Theatre and a proud member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Christina Casano is a theatre artist based in Chicago. Her training includes a BA in Theatre from Miami University, Victory Gardens Theater’s Director’s Inclusion Initiative, and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s Summer Professional Training Program. Selected directing credits: I Build Giants and Poison (The Plagiarists), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stone Soup Shakespeare), How To Murder… (workshop, Bramble Theatre), Blood of My Mother’s (workshop, Wayward Sisters), Plaid As Hell (workshop and full production, Babes With Blades), Deep Shadows (audio drama, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre), Fame Heaux (staged reading, Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival), The Living Newspaper Festival (Jackalope Theatre), Fighting Words Festival (Babes With Blades). Other favorite projects: Some Like It Red and The Epic of Gilgamesh, etc. (The Plagiarists), How To Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens), Bury Me (Dandelion Theatre), The Light Fantastic (Jackalope Theatre). She is the Creative Producer at Remy Bumppo and the Artistic Director of The Plagiarists. www.cmrcasano.com