Scott Leon Smith
(Director / Theseus / Mustardseed)
Scott is a graduate of the MFA Acting Program at West Virginia University, where he studied Shakespeare in Performance under alumni of the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre. Scott honed his craft as a member of A Crew of Patches, a Shakespeare company out of Chicago, for whom he served as an actor and director. Renaissance Theatre audiences may recognize Scott from his performances as Guiseppe Zangara in Assassins, Herr Schultz in Cabaret, and Orin Scrivello in Little Shop of Horrors. Scott has also performed on the OSU Mansfield stage: as Brutus in Julius Caesar and as Vladimir in Waiting for Godot. Scott is proud to be a founding member of the Mansfield Shakespeare Company and beyond excited to be directing and performing in this inaugural production.
Alex Trolian (Puck)
Alex Trolian is an incoming junior at Lexington High School, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is her 17th production. She has been seen in shows such as Into the Woods (Narrator/Mysterious Man), The SpongeBob Musical (Larry the Lobster/Gary), Little Women (Braxton), and most recently Trouble at the Mill (Ruff Righter/Bully Boy). Outside of performing, she is treasurer of bio club, executive treasurer of student council, president of key club, and a varsity academic challenge player. She would like to thank her friends and family as well as her English teacher for introducing her to this fun play earlier this year in class.
Lori Turner (Titania)
Lori Turner spent over 20 years in the world of classical music, where she had the great fortune to work with such illustrious conductors as Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, Andre Previn and Michael Tilson Thomas and appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Roger Wagner Chorale, and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera. She lived 10 years in Belgium with the Royal Flemish Opera, performing various operatic roles. Her musical and theatre roles include Yente (“Fiddler On The Roof”) Gallery Players; Frau Blucher (“Young Frankenstein”), Margaret ("Light In The Piazza"), Mother Superior ("Sister Act"), Frau Schneider ("Cabaret") Ida Straus ("Titanic") Renaissance Theatre Mansfield; Heidi (“Follies”), Yvonne (“Sunday in the Park with George”) Short North Stage; Ouiser Boudreaux (“Steel Magnolias”) Weathervane Playhouse; and Ruth (“Pirates of Penzance") SRO Theatre. A longtime lover of Shakespeare, A Midsummer’s Night Dream is her first foray into his plays as an actor!
Steve Russell (Oberon)
Steve has been acting in local productions since he moved to Mansfield in 2015. Most recently he appeared as Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps at the Mansfield Playhouse. He works at the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library.
Josh Carpenter (Lysander)
Josh is a student at Ashland University working on his bachelor's in Integrated Language Arts. This is his first show in 3 years and his first Shakespeare show. He is excited to be working on this show with the cast and crew.
Josie Burns (Hermia)
Josie Burns is thrilled to be part of this production and to take her first shot at performing Shakespeare. When she’s not onstage (or in the park?), she is a social studies teacher for grades 6-8 at Mansfield Spanish Immersion. She would like to thank her family and her husband Adrian for their support, and she would like to apologize for the trauma any of her students in the audience might experience from watching her have to kiss a boy in a play. Again.
Hendrick Stoops (Nick Bottom)
Hendrick is pleased to be playing Nick Bottom, and reminds the audience that the character in question is a bad actor, and that any missed entrances and/or flubbed lines are, in fact, Good Character Work. He has previously acted with the Renaissance Youth Opera Theatre, and was most recently on the production staff of the Ashland University production of Dead Man’s Cell Phone. When not onstage, he works on youth programs at the YMCA of North Central Ohio, and spends his spare time drawing; and researching, cataloging, and publishing histories of rigid airships.
Haley Noel Bedocs (Helena)
Haley Noel Bedocs is a local stage/film actress and theatre enthusiast. Her most recent credits include Patty Simcox in "Grease", "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged" (OSU-M) as herself, a member of the ensemble in "Sweeney Todd" in Concert and "Next to Normal", Lanette in "This Too Shall Pass" and she has been featured in several Emerging Artist Workshops at Theatre 166 over the past few years. In college, she thoroughly enjoyed delving into the realm of Shakespeare with her first full production of "The Tragedy of Macbeth", in which she portrayed one of the prophetic witches. Following that production, she later performed in "Julius Caesar" as Portia, Brutus’s courageous and spirited wife. Haley has directed and stage managed in the past but performing is where her heart is. She is also a founding board member of the Mansfield Shakespeare Company. Haley works at the Renaissance Performing Arts Theatre in Mansfield as the Patron Experience Manager. When Haley's not performing or working, she's busy being a mom of two and a bonus mom of one. She is incredibly grateful for the endless support for her passions that she receives from her partner, her friends, her coworkers, and her family. Enjoy the show!
Hannah Oberlin
(Hippolyta / Cobweb)
Hannah has always enjoyed Shakespeare. As a young girl, Shakespeare was one of the few things that made sense to Hannah when she was learning to read and understand words. She has been in 44 different theatre productions and can’t wait to perform this work of art.
Jill Cochran (Peter Quince)
It would seem a third time's the charm for Jill Cochran to be cast in/actually act in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Cast as a fairy in high school, that show never made it to the stage after the director tore all the ligaments in his ankle trying to teach the fairies to flit. In college, acting mostly conflicted with restaurant work and she could not commit to the vigorous rehearsal schedule. Since becoming an attorney in 2005, Jill has had the time and opportunity to be involved with a dozen shows with the Licking County Players in Newark, to take part in OSU's 2018 performance of "The Vagina Monologues," and more recently to join the Mansfield Playhouse in performances of "Angel Street" and "The 39 Steps."
Joe Trolian
(Flute / Random Grizzly)
Joe was most recently seen on the Renaissance Stage in American in Paris in Concert and Hello, Dolly. He was also seen in Something Rotten on Ren Mainstage and appeared on the Theatre 166 stage in Assassins in 2021 and Sweeney Todd in 2019. He was also seen in Sweeney Todd in concert and appeared in the Bucyrus Little Theater’s production of The Mousetrap as Detective Sergeant Trotter. This is Joe’s first attempt at performing Shakespeare and he is enjoying the new adventure.
Gary Kennedy
(Egeus / Peaseblossom)
Gary Kennedy was a professor of mathematics at Ohio State from 1991 to 2018. His most recent performances on the Mansfield campus stage were as Lucky in Waiting for Godot and as Shelly Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Elizabeth Newman
(Philostrate / Mote)
Elizabeth is a college student from Willard, playing the roles of Philostrate and Mote. She has not performed in community theatre since her role as a member of the Lullaby League in The Wizard of Oz fourteen years ago, so she is very excited to get back into the theatre and to participate in this, the Mansfield Shakespeare Company's inaugural production!
Dalton Edwards
Dalton Edwards is currently a sophomore at Mount Vernon Nazarene University majoring in Music Education. He has been involved in multiple productions over the years with many of his local theaters. Recently, you would have seen Dalton preforming the role of Lumiere in “Beauty and the Beast Jr” at Bucyrus Little Theater. He has also done many productions at Cardington-Lincoln High School in the drama club and was also a four year member of the Cardington High School !mprov team. After college, he hopes to become a high school band director and be able to direct shows at the school he works at to be able to teach the passion that he has for theater. Recently, Dalton has helped run the Bucyrus Little Theater Teen Club. In this, he has has a blast teaching different tips and tricks he has learned from basic theater skills to improv. He is excited to preform in this production with a cast full of amazing actors. Shakespeare is definitely out of the comfort zone for Dalton, but he is grateful to be a part of such a fantastic show!