Van Ackerman
Van Ackerman has an M.F.A. in acting from Ohio State University and has worked professionally as an actor and director. He is the director of marketing and public relations for Cincinnati Arts Association.

Anne Arenstein
Anne Arenstein is a freelance theatre and opera critic.  She has written for the Cincinnati Post, the Enquirer, and is a regular contributor to CityBeat.  Anne was an NEA Fellow in Classical Music and Opera Journalism in 2009.

Andrew D Bacigalupo
Andrew started his theatre career in his freshman year of high school as a tap dancing cowboy in Crazy for You. Since then, Andrew has traded in the leather boots for manuals and c-wrenches to become a tap dancing Lighting Designer instead. Since graduating from NKU with a BFA in Lighting Design and Stage Management in 2007, he has collaborated with many companies including Pones Inc., Ovation Theatre Company, Clear Stage Cincinnati, Commonwealth Theatre Company, Exhale Dance Tribe, and Kings Island. Andrew is thrilled and honored to join this amazingly talented panel after receiving Acclaim for Bug with New Stage Collective.

Lyle Benjamin
Lyle Benjamin is an actor, director and producer. He is artistic director of Queen City Off-Broadway, based at Cincinnati Artist Warehouse in Northside.

Will Bradstetter
Will received a Bachelor of Music in Stage Management and Direction for Music Theater from Baldwin-Wallace College. He grew up in the Cincinnati theatre community; his professional credits include the York Theatre Off-Broadway, the National Alliance of Musical Theatre New Works Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the Key Bank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare, Lincolnshire Theatre, Cain Park, Beck Center for the Arts, and Porthouse Theatre. Will was the Production Stage Manager for the first externally-licensed production of Phantom of the Opera and has been involved with Dust and Dreams: Celebrating Sandburg, The Break-Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical and The Gig. Proud member of Actors Equity.

Dee Anne Bryll
Dee Anne Bryll is married to Ed Cohen, and together they are the busiest marrieds in local theater. Bryll is an actress, a choreo grapher, director and teacher across the region.

Rob Bucher
Webmaster
Rob Bucher has been involved with local theater for over 20 years. He created and served as webmaster for the Cincinnati Theatre Web for  seven years until it merged into www.CinStages.com where Rob serves as content editor.

Burgess Byrd
Burgess Byrd is a local actress who hads performed has performed with many theatres in the region and locally with Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Ovation Theatre, The Children's Theatre, Women's Theatre Initiative and more.

Diane Carr
Diane Carr plans and coordinates educational opportunities for theatre teachers and students for the Educational Theatre Association. She has served as the costume designer for numerous theatres – Covedale, Showboat Majestic, Footlighters, Showbiz Players, Cincinnati Music Theatre, Mariemont and Ovation. Diane is also on faculty at CCM Preparatory, a member of the board for the Cappies of Greater Cincinnati and serves on the Acclaim Panel for the Theatre Educator's Award. Diane holds a BA in English and Theatre Arts from NKU, and advanced degrees from NKU, UC and Xavier.

Ed  Cohen
Ed Cohen is married to Dee Anne Bryll. Cohen is an actor, a director and a producer. Among their current projects is the Madisonville Community Arts Center.

Julie York Coppens
Cincinnati native Julie York Coppens is Associate Editor of Dramatics magazine and Teaching Theatre journal, both published by the non-profit Educational Theatre Association. From 2004-08, she was theater critic for the Charlotte Observer; before that, she covered the arts, including Chicago theater, for the South Bend Tribune. She's a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, an alumna of the infamous "critics' boot camp" at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and the author of one (modestly) produced play.   

Gion DeFrancesco
Gion is an associate professor of theatre at Miami University where he designs scenery and serves as scenic charge artist and production manager. He has designed at a number of theatres across the country including the Gallery Players of Brooklyn, Florida Repertory Theatre, Illinois Opera Theatre, the Croswell Opera House, and the Ovation Theatre in Cincinnati. He is a member of Local 829 United Scenic Artists.

Jackie Demaline

Jackie Demaline has been theater critic and arts reporter at The Enquirer since 1994. Her first theatrical memory is from age six, at a summer stock production (at Kenley Players in Warren, Ohio, a long time ago) of The Student Prince. She was so upset that the prince dumped the barmaid and left her to serve beer to German frat boys while he pouted in the castle that Demaline swore off theater forever. Until the following year when she saw The Music Man, fell in love and never looked back. She has won numerous awards for arts criticism and arts reporting in a 30-year career.

Dan Doerger
Dan is a local actor, director, and arts educator. He has worked with such groups as the Ohio Educational Theater Association, The School for Creative and Performing Arts, The Showboat Majestic, The Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, New Gate Celtic Theater, Falcon Theater, and New Stage Collective. He has also directed for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and has appeared in several national television commercials and on stage for Paramount Productions and Walt Disney Attractions. Dan is a professor of education at Indiana University.

Mary Edwards
Since coming to Cincinnati 30 years ago from London, Mary has been involved in community theatre. She has worked with a number of groups, most notably Mariemont Players and Cincinnati Music Theatre as a costumer, producer, stage manager and board member.
Her 'day' job is advertising account management for a local consultancy company.

Mark Femia
Mark Femia is an area actor, musician and director, and has worked with many groups, including Footlighers, Cincinnati Music Theatre, Ovation Theatre Company and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He is currently the Director of Drama for Cincinnati Country Day School, and is also on the musical theatre faculty of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's Preparatory Department.

Skip Fenker
Skip Fenker is a local director who has staged dozens of award winning productions for such groups as Cincinnati Music Theatre, Mariemont Players and Footlighters. He also served as Artistic Director for Aurelia Theatricals for five seasons.

Joesph Gorman
Joseph Gorman is a songwriter, playwright, and community organizer. Joe created the Blues Alley Cat pop-opera, a musical about Over-the-Rhine. Joe is co-writing King Fever, a screenplay about Little Willie John and Cincinnati's King Records. Joe is the producer of Longlane, a CD containing 16 original songs. His songs have been used on The Guiding Light and As the World Turns soap operas. Joe works as a community organizer in Camp Washington.

Daryl Harris
Daryl Harris is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Institute for Freedom Studies at Northern Kentucky University. He has 40 years experience in alternative, traditional, ethnic and academic theatre.

Michael W. Hatton
Michael is a Lecturer in the Theatre and Dance department at NKU. He received a BFA in Theatre Management and an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University. Mr. Hatton has worked with the Cincinnati Arts Association, Cincinnati Overture Awards, Showstoppers/Belterra Casino, Cincinnati Men's Chorus, Professional Concepts, New Edgecliff Theatre and the Performance Gallery, and volunteers with the Highlands High School Speech and Forensics team and is the NKU coordinator for the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Uptown Arts internship program.

Richard O. Jones
Richard O Jones has been covering theater and the arts in Greater Cincinnati for over 20 years. He is currently the Cincinnati Performing Arts Examiner for Examiner.com.

Roderick Justice
Roderick Justice is a graduate of NKU with his BFA in Musical Theatre Performance. Roderick is a local actor, director, choreographer, costume designer, teacher, and writer.  He was recently named the new Associate Artistic Director of the Childrens Theatre of Cincinnati after a stint Off-Broadway in New York with the new musical,
The Top Job, and is a previous Rising Star Award recipient.

Mary Lopez
Mary Lopez is a practicing attorney residing in Cincinnati. She and her husband spend all their free time enjoying the amazing performing arts that are available in Cincinnati. Her love of acting and the theatre began with a trip to see Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Drury Lane Theatre in Evergreen Park, Ill.

David Lyman
David was The Cincinnati Enquirer's theater critic back in the mid-1980s. Since then, he has written about film, dance, theater and the visual arts for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Detroit Free Press. He was also editor of the Chivas Life Guide. He is now a freelance writer/editor and a contributor to the Enquirer, writing about dance and, occasionally, theater.

Sherry McCamley
Sherry has been performing since she was 13. She acts, sings, plays piano, directs and does improv. Her many credits include singing and playing keyboards for rock & roll bands in Pennsylvania and California, cabaret gigs in New York City and San Francisco, acting and singing in touring shows across the country, and directing and performing with two professional theatre companies in California. She has been nominated for Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for her performances as Rita in Cowgirls and Ms. Pennywise in Urinetown. Sherry has been Director of Theatre at Anderson High School, sings and plays piano in a cabaret act, and is a member of "What the…" improv troupe.

Joseph McDonough
Joseph McDonough is a playwright whose work has been produced at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, and at other theaters locally and across the country.

Danute Miskinis
Danute Miskinis is currently Director of Events for the University of Cincinnati Foundation. Her background includes a master’s Degree in Theater, Television and Film Production from the University of Michigan. Before joining UCF, she produced special events including the openings of the Aronoff Center for the Arts, the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Arts and the Schuster Center in Dayton.

Sandy Osher
Sandy Osher is a Cincinnati Reproductive Surgeon, who has just discovered a profound love for the Performing Arts. He acted, poorly, in Mrs. Shreve's 4th grade Drama class and just recently recovered from the trauma.

Tom Peters
Tom is the Theatre Department chairperson for Walnut Hills High School, where he has taught for over 20 years. He has a BFA in Theatre and a BSEd in Theatre & Speech Education from Ohio University as well as an MA in Directing from Roosevelt University in Chicago. In 2007, Tom was awarded the Acclaim Theatre Educator Judges Award  in 2007 and the Acclaim Theatre Educator in 2008.

David Pyron
David Pyron has been involved in community theatre since his arrival in the Cincinnati area in 1998. He has performed with six groups, most notably Cincinnati Music Theatre and Mariemont Players. Other performing assignments have included the Cincinnati Opera, the Cincinnati Pops, and the Cincinnati Men's Chorus. As a former member of Actors Equity, David performed for five seasons at Artpark in the Niagara Falls area.

Kay Sloan
Kay is the author of two novels and several books on American cultural history. A professor of literature and film studies at Miami University, she has taught at universities in Belgium and Greece. Her novels, Worry Beads and The Patron Saint of Red Chevys, have won The Ohioana Book Award Fiction and the Barnes and Nobles' choice as a "Discover Great Writers" selection. She has also written an award-winning collection of poetry and directed a film documentary, Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema, shown at film festivals throughout Europe.

Derek Snow
Derek has been on stage most of his life, continuing a journey that began at seven years of age at Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts. In addition to regular shows with the Know Theatre and Performance Gallery, Derek has also performed extensively in North Carolina, Chicago, New York and Minneapolis. He is employed as an engineer by day, but just can't resist the temptations of his night mistress, the stage.

Kate Spencer
Kate began directing and starring in neighborhood productions of her own plays at age 11, but recognized that her true calling was as a scholar and teacher of literature and theatre. Advanced degrees in both fields led to 20 years teaching around the country. At Cincinnati State Tech & Community College, she collaborated with local theatre artists to develop theater courses, and she created a partnership with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to bring live theatre to Cincinnati Public Schools. Kate is delighted to contribute her skills and passion for theatrical excellence to the local community, as an adjudicator for the local ACT chapter; and as a member of the Acclaim panel.

Cathy Springfield
Cathy Springfield is the director of performing arts at Xavier University. She was a professional actor for 12 years and has appeared at Alliance in Atlanta and Seattle Repertory. She was a co-founder of ART Reach Touring Theatre and Peanut Butter Theatre.

Joshua Steele
Joshua Steele is Theatre Manager of The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, where he produces the organization's theatre series and facilitates nearly 120 performances and events annually. A Cincinnati native, he holds an MA/MBA from CCM's Arts Administration program, and spends much of his "spare time" acting on local stages.

Jim Stump
A native of Cincinnati, Jim has a B.A. in Theatre from Indiana University and is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. His performance resume includes credits from around the U.S. and Canada as well as an extensive list of local performances.

Kimberly Sullivan
Kimberly Sullivan is marketing communications manager for People Working Cooperatively Inc., a former editor at the Community Press, and a freelance writer in Cincinnati for over 20 years. A graduate of Fordham University in New York, Kim was a theater minor and studied acting at the HB Studio in NYC.

Timothy Waldrip
Timothy Waldrip began his acting career playing the title role in Oliver at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Over the years he has worked on Broadway with Yul Brynner, appeared on television and film with James Earl Jones, Aiden Quinn, Sigourney Weaver, John Malkovich and many others. Tim is acting and directing theater and film locally and is the Midwest Acting Instructor for both Barbizon and International Model and Talent Association (IMTA). Tim, also, is a private coach for actor of all ages and levels out of his studio in Northside.

Chris Wesselman
Chris Wesselman is a Cincinnati native currently finishing up his B.A. in Theatre at Northern Kentucky University. He's been seen onstage in productions at NKU, New Stage Collective, and Know Theatre, as well as the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He's also the co-founder of Artemis Exchange, a small production company. Chris is proud and excited to continue furthering his support of Cincinnati's fantastic arts community without which he would have so much less.

Kate Wilford
Kate is familiar to Cincinnati audiences from several performances at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati. She was artistic director for Cincinnati Childrens' Theater for several years, and has directed for the Women's Theater Initiative and Xavier University as well.  She is currently the executive director of Afterschool Acting, a non-profit dedicated to bringing local professional actors into underserved schools to teach and mentor.

John Williamson
John is the Program Director for Cappies of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, an education and awards program for high school theatre. With 15 years of experience directing student and community musicals, he is currently directs for the Fort Thomas Community Theatre. He holds degrees in English and leadership from Columbia University and Morehead State. In addition to serving as Superintendent of the Fort Thomas Independent Schools, he is an adjunct professor of English at Thomas More College. In 2008, he was named as one of the 40 Under 40 by Cincinnati Business Courier.

Julie Woffington
Julie Woffington has been active as an actor, producer, and musical director in local theater with many groups such as the Footlighters, Falcon Theater, Showboat Majestic and Covedale Performing Arts Center. She is a Marketing Director for Procter & Gamble and has her MBA from University of Chicago and BA from Duke University. She is married to Jay Woffington, also involved in Cincinnati theater, and has two young children, Wendy and Brett. 

Caren Young
Caren Young has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Bluffton University and is the owner and proprietor of the Cincinnati Costume Company. She enjoys hanging out with her eleven year old son, Joe, reading, gardening, and of course, seeing lots of theatre.

Samuel J. Zachary
Sam is Professor of theatre at Northern Kentucky University where he currently serves as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Previously, Sam taught at the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. For twelve years he served as play director and later as Associate Managing Director at Ohio's Huron Playhouse and then as Artistic/Managing Director at the UNCG Summer Repertory Theatre and Parkway Playhouse, both in North Carolina. When not involved with work, Sam enjoys escaping to the mountains where he bikes, hikes, kayaks, and otherwise acts much younger than he really is.