Romeo and Juliet
Company Bios

Jeffrey Golde (Prince/Sampson/Mercutio/Capulet)

Jeffrey has most recently appeared in Brave New World Repertory Theatre’s The American Clock.  Off Broadway: The Iliad (Aquila Theatre) and Homer’s Odyssey (Handcart Ensemble).  Touring: Comedy of Errors and Romeo and Juliet (Aquila Theatre).  Regional: The Tragedy of Carmen (Boston Midsummer Opera), Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare Theatre Company-DC).  Other roles include Cassio (Othello), Adam (Complete Works of Shakespeare Reduced), Phillip (Shape of Things) and Joey (Joey and Maria's Comedy Italian Wedding).  He trained at Drama Studio London (UK) and is also a skilled musician playing piano, guitar and cello.

Rachel Griesinger (Juliet)

Chicago-area actress, Griesinger graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in the performing arts.  She has been seen in Street Scene (National Pastime Theatre), Talk Radio (State Theatre Chicago) and most recently was a puppeteer in the original new musical Stalk (LaCosta).  Rachel is very excited to be making her debut with Stone Soup Shakespeare.  There is nothing more fun to her than using her theatre skills in all forms.  She believes that theatre can breakdown walls between people and cultures. It has the power to be the great equalizer between all walks of life.

Layton Guyton (Peter)

From the first time Guyton read Merchant of Venice when he was nine he loved Shakespeare.  A 7th grade student at the Dayemi Homeschool Collective in Carbondale, Illinois, Layton has acted in two Shakespeare plays in the past year. He played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Orlando in As You Like It.  Some of his other interests are reading and playing soccer.

Tommy Herbert (Gregory/Friar Laurence/Tybalt)

Recent work includes Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest with the Barnham Players (2010) and King Henry in Becket at St Edmund's Bury Cathedral (2008).  Before that, Tommy was a member of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company, playing Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, Geoffrey in Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular and the king in Love's Labour's Lost.  He also directed Anthony Clarvoe's Pick Up Ax.

Susan Harrocks (Lady Capulet)

Susan Harrocks as a little girl, was made to watch Henry V by her mother. This fostered a love of two things - Kenneth Branagh, and Shakespeare's works. She soon found herself reading his works, and attending workshops conducted by the Royal Shakespeare Company of London. In 2009, she started her own theatre company The Three Graces Theatre, which produces new plays, as well as the classics. In her free time, she acts as much as possible. Her theatre credits include most recently Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Mona in Kill Me Deadly, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale.

Ishbel McFarlane (Director)

Scottish Actress/Director McFarlane most recently directed the opera Awesome X in Glasgow.  Recent performance credits include Ophelia in Hamlet, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Caroline in Hartland.  Additionally she toured the US with Tantrums Productions 2009 production of Eight in the role of Millie.  McFarlane holds two Masters (MSc by Research, passed with distinction, University of Edinburgh 2009 and MA Acting, Classical and Contemporary Text, passed with distinction, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, 2010).

Benjamin Diego Ponce (Nurse)

From Carbondale, theatre credits include the title role in Macbeth, Everywhere You Look, Crucible, Student Faculty Relations (SIUC); The Laramie Project, Tom Sawyer, Brighton Beach Memoirs (The Stage Co.); Les Miserables and West Side Story (CCA).  Additionally Ponce has studied sketch and improv with Second City Chicago.  He holds two Irene Ryan Nominations (2006 and 2011).

Jared Shofstall (Benvolio)

From Herrin, IL, Shofstall is the technical director for the Three Graces Theatre Company based in Murphysboro, IL.  Past shows include Dead Man's Cell Phone, The Laramie Project, The Lion in Winter, and From Shakespeare With Love.  He is making his directing debut this summer with The Taming of the Shrew.

Julia Stemper (Abraham/Romeo)

Most recently Stemper was seen at CFAN (Chicago Fringe Arts Network) performing in Paul Mitchel’s Bluebirds for Red Tape Productions in Chicago.  Other recent work includes Heuristics in the Diner (UK Tour), The Winter’s Tale (UK Tour), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Arches-Glasgow), Captain Squishy’s Yee-Haw Jamboree (DC Fringe) and The House of Yes (Stroyka Productions).  Past Southern Illinois credits include: Lily in The Secret Garden (CCA’s first All-Southern High School Theatre Project) and Rachel in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (The Stage Co.) among others.  Education: MA-Acting, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.