Artistic Team
Actors
Nate Beal is a senior at Trinity University and is majoring in theatre and history. He has appeared in six main stage productions at Trinity and more at Shakespeare at Winedale Summer Theatre. Past favorite shows include Dracula (Van Heilsing), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (The Player), Holiday (Edward Seaton) and Richard II (John of Gaunt). He serves as Lab Show Coordinator for the Trinity University Players’ Society and Secretary of Omega Tau of Phi Alpha Theata. His other interests include playwriting, politics, Asian studies and spending time with friends.
David Connelly most recently acted the title role in King Lear, performing with his students at the North East School of the Arts (NESA), where he created and has taught the acting component of the Musical Theater program for the past nine years. He performed on Broadway and at the Festival of Perth, Australia, in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Tony-nominated production of "The Song of Jacob Zulu." Regional credits include performances with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Goodman Theatre, the Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and the San Antonio Public Theatre. David adapted, directed and composed music for Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, produced by Chicago's Famous Door Theatre Company. Shrapnel in the Heart received a Joseph Jefferson Citation, several After Dark awards, and was named as one of the Best Productions of 1993 by both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Valerie Cortinas is a student at Trinity University and has appeared in two AtticRep's productions, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and Mr. Marmalade. Most recently, Valerie appeared in several of Trinity University’s main stage productions, such as The Laramie Project, Romeo and Juliet, Triumph of Love, and Much Ado About Nothing.
Aaron Eckman has appeared in three AtticRep productions: The last Days of Judas Iscariot, Just a Kiss, and in the inaugural production of Pinter's One for The Road, as “Victor”. His notable acting credits include Ah, Wilderness at the San Pedro Playhouse, The Laramie Project at The Georgia Cellar Theatre, and Six Degrees of Separation at the Texas State Mainstage Theatre. Aaron holds a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Texas State University.
Rick Fredrick is a recent transplant from Chicago where he enjoyed a ten year run as a company member of the critically acclaimed European Repertory Company. He has been seen in roles such there as; Woyzeck in Woyzeck, Ariel in The Tempest, Dr Lvov in Ivanov, Sammy Werlitzer in Happy End, Dr Astrov in Uncle Vanya, the Beggar in Jean Giraudoux’s Electra, was Nick in inugural AtticRep production of One for the Road and Carter in Fat Pig. Rick is proud to make San Antonio home and thrilled to work with AtticRep.
Renee Garvens made her debut performance at the AtticRep in Fat Pig and will appear in The Back of the Throat. She has been been seen on local stages since moving to San Antonio in 2001. Renee is in her sixth season as a member of the Vexler Children's Theatre Troupe. Some of her favorite past roles include Alice in Alice in Wonderland, Sarah in Beau Jest, Huck Finn in Tom Sawyer, and Charlotte in Charlotte's Web. She has also appeared in numerous local and national television commercials and independent films.
Roy Eric Gonzales has acted in classical and contemporary works around the New England states and greater San Antonio area. He was recently featured in Electricidad “Orestes”, Romeo and Juliet “Tybalt” & “Friar Lawrence”, The Return of the Shrew “Petruchio” and as the title role in Mr. Marmalade.
Eva Laporte holds a degree in acting from the University of Northern Colorado, and has trained with the National Theatre Conservatory, the National Theater Institute, Royal Shakespeare Academy in Stratford, and the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. Miss Laporte moved to San Antonio in 2003, and has performed with many of San Antonio’s theatres. In addition to recent roles, “Sally” in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, “Louise” in The Underpants and “Julie Jordan” in Carousel, she also directed the recent Cellar Theatre production of Brilliant Traces. By day, Miss Laporte works at the Sheldon Vexler Theatre. Look for her at the AtticRep’s event, Enchanted Evenings, at the McNay Museum of Art in July, and as “Lucy” in Mr. Marmalade.
Eric Lozano is a veteran of the San Antonio theatre scene, Eric has performed in over 40 productions. His favorites include Royal Hunt of the Sun, Santos Y Santos, The Fantasticks, The Laramie Project, Proposals, and for AtticRep The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Fat Pig. His work has garnered 7 ATAC nominations and he was honored to win for his role in Hospitality, directed by Jim Mammerella, and the Forscom Award for his work in Breaking Legs
Jim Mammarella is a Professor at San Antonio College and has taught for over 30 years in the Department of Theatre and Communication. He has directed and acted at many of the community theatres in San Antonio and has been honored by ATAC as an actor, director, and producer. Jim is actively involved in the Texas Educational Theatre Association as a judge for the University Interscholastic League (UIL) and has been selected to judge the state one act play competition five times. Jim’s greatest source of pride is his recurring roles as husband, father, and grandfather to a beautiful family.
Fred Parker received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance with a concentration in acting from The University of Texas at Austin. He has performed in such roles as “Christopher Robin” in Winnie the Pooh, and “Jack” in Into the Woods. He also played “George Gibbs” in Our Town, and “Hamlet” in Hamlet. While at The University of Texas, he performed in Tennessee William’s Vieux Carre, Once in A Life Time, and as “Jaques de Bois” in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. He has also played “Henry” in the world premier of Spring Storm with Actor’s Repertory of Texas.
Kate Peckham has been a professional theatre artist for 16 years. Her partial credits include: (THEATRE) - The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Just a Kiss, One for the Road, Steel Magnolias, Bus Stop, The Good Times Are Killing Me, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Baggage, Getting Out, Beautiful Thing, Hair, Tent Meeting, Six Women With Brain Death, The Woods, The Hot l Baltimore, Off the Map, Blithe Spirit. (FILM) - Almost Famous, Frozen Stupid. Her greatest accomplishment is Waking the Witch, a play that she conceived, directed and co-wrote for the Planet Ant Theatre.
William Razavi was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up in Helotes, Texas. He is a graduate of Trinity University (BA 1995) and Brandeis University (MFA-Dramatic Writing 1997). His play Making Up For Lost Time was work-shopped at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his radio play Wenceslas Square was broadcast in Boston on WERS. His plays Macbeth, Lusitaniaand The Next-to-Last-Flight of Amelia Earhart are currently part of the curriculum at several universities. Directing credits include a Paper Heroes for the Renaissance Guild’s Act One series and Soup du Jour at the Boerne Community Theatre. His favorite roles have included Dr. Rance in What the Butler Saw at Trinity, Tiny Duffy in All the King’s Men at Brandeis, and A in Samuel Beckett’s Rough for Theatre I. He is also a contributing writer for the San Antonio Current.
E.J. Roberts is a student at Trinity University and a native of San Antonio, graduated from MacArthur High School. He performed in AtticRep's production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Just a Kiss and Trinity University's production of The Laramie Project.
Andy Thornton was born and raised in San Antonio. In 1990, he earned a BFA in Drama from the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. He lived in Russia for almost a year in 1990-91. In 1993, Andy helped start an all-original independent theatre company in rural Delaware. He moved back to San Antonio in 2003 and started working as a Theatre Director at Churchill High School almost immediately. In the summer of 2007, he was a featured performer in two plays locally-- David Lindsay Abaire's Rabbit Hole (winning an ATAC Globe Award) and Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, the latter at the San Pedro Playhouse Cellar Theatre. He appeared also in Lanford Wilson's Book of Days at the San Pedro Playhouse. In Churchill's fall 2007 season, he directed Kaufman and Ferber's The Royal Family. Andy was recently awarded the Yellow Rose of Texas Education Award by the Constance Allen Heritage Guild of San Antonio.
Directors, Designers & Stage Management
Stacey Connelly (Director and Dramaturg) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech and Drama at Trinity University. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Oklahoma and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Theatre from Indiana University. Her teaching areas include acting, dramatic literature, text analysis, and theatre history. Among her directing credits are The Cashier, Buried Child and Our Town at Loyola University Chicago; Molly Sweeney with the San Antonio Public Theatre; King Lear at North East School of the Arts; and a number of productions at Trinity, among them The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Top Girls, Tango, Spring Awakening, Candida, Present Laughter, Dracula and Hay Fever. Her scholarship on modern drama has appeared in leading national journals. Specializing in German theatre between the two world wars, she served as a Research Fellow for the German Academic Exchange Service in Berlin. Her other research interests include political theatre, especially the work of Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator.
Tim Hedgepeth (Director) serves as managing director of AtticRep and directed The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as well as two lecture/cabarets presented in partnership with the McNay Art Museum. Prior to returning home to San Antonio, he was the executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission in Jackson where he also founded Renaissance Theater Workshop and directed Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, among others. Locally, he appeared in The Underpants and Rancho Pancho at the Church Bistro & Theatre. Later this season he will direct Les Liaisons Dangereuses for Trinity’s Department of Speech and Drama.
Roberto Prestigiacomo (Director) Directing credits in professional and academic theatres (representative): King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, The Triumph of Love, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Marisol, How I Learned to Drive, One for the Road, Fat Pig, Back of the Throat, and original works like pastiche, Sabbia and Guernika. His creative work includes the development of community-based theatre through improvisation and storytelling techniques, and the creation of original physical theatre pieces. At Trinity University, Roberto teaches directing, acting, physical theatre, community-based theatre, and contemporary performance. He is a member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC), American Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), and is a native of Rome, Italy.
Yinelly Arnold (Production Stage Manager - Actor) Some of her past credits include Pain of the Macho, Baby with the Bathwater, Twelfth Night, Charlotte’s Web, Just a Kiss, and Stage Manager for Las Nuevas Tamaleras.
Jimmy Honsaker (Light Designer) studied lighting and scenic design at the University of Colorado. Design credits include Company, Dr. Faustus, and Six Flags Fiesta Texas’s Creature Feature.
Jodi Karjala (Costume Designer) is the Costume Designer and Costumer for the Department of Speech and Drama at Trinity University. This is her second production with AtticRep, having designed the costumes for One for the Road. Outside of Trinity, Jodi designed costumes for Sister Mary Ignatius and Actor's Nightmare at the Church Theater, and Enchanted April at the San Pedro Playhouse Cellar Theater. She has received ATAC Globe awards for her costume designs for Into the Woods, School for Scandal, Triumph of Love and Anything Goes. Jodi holds an MFA in Stage Design from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Martha Penaranda (Scenic and Costume Designer) studied textile design in her native Colombia. She studied scene and costume design at the Academy of Fine arts in Florence, Italy, and has a dual master’s degree in scene and costume design from Carnegie Mellon University. Martha has designed sets and costumes for the AtticRep production of The Last Day of Judas Iscariot, and scenery for Fat Pig. Other favorite projects included; The Water Children, directed by the playwright, Wendy MacLeod, and Conference of the Birds, with costumes designed by Paul Tazewell. Until 2003, she was Assistant Professor of Drama at Kenyon College. Creation of her work is made possible in part by an Award from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, and the Robert L. B. Tobin Foundation for the Performing Arts.
Nick Johnson (Light Designer) is a sophomore at Trinity University and has been involved in the theater department during his time here. He plans on double majoring in business and drama. Nick has worked on almost every main stage show at Trinity. He was the lighting designer for The Laramie Project, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Fat Pig, assistant lighting designer for Romeo and Juliet and Anything Goes, was a stage manager for Triumph of Love, was a stagehand for Hay Fever, and has worked in the set and prop shop for numerous other shows.
Sara Valdes (Stage Manager) was last seen as “Sheila” in the Boy’s Next Door at the Sheldon Vexler Theatre and made her debut at AtticRep as a member of the Stage Management Team for Fat Pig. Her favorite performing roles are “Rose Mary” in Picnic and “Florence Unger” in the female version of The Odd Couple, both produced at Cast Theatrical in Rosenberg, Texas.
Sigi Ragnar (Photographer) is a native of Iceland and his work as a photographer has been influenced by the harsh conditions, beautiful landscape, and distinctive light of the Northern Atlantic. As a photographer, his mission is to capture and tell the stories of today’s world. Siggy lives in San Antonio with his wife and two children. For more of Siggi's work click on sRagnar.
Tickets, Reservations & Directions