Instructor Biographies

Beth Wolf (she/her) is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Midsommer Flight, where her credits include critically acclaimed productions of Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Much Ado About Nothing. Other recent credits include Silent Sky (Citadel Theatre, Equity Jeff nomination, Best Director and Best Production), Outside Mullingar (Citadel Theatre, Equity Jeff nomination, Best Director and Best Production), The Roommate (Citadel Theatre), Non-Player Character (Red Theater, Non-Equity Jeff nomination for her Projection Co-design); and The Suffrage Plays (Artemisia). Beth is also a co-founder and the former Artistic Director of Promethean Theatre Ensemble. Previously an actress, favorite Shakespearean credits include Isabella in Measure for Measure (Promethean Theatre Ensemble) and Lucentia in Taming of the Shrew (GroundUp Theatre), among others. As an arts educator, Beth offers private coaching and classes to actors both in acting and in Shakespeare’s First Folio work. She is a proud Northwestern University graduate with a double major in theatre and gender studies. Freelance work at www.wolfatthestagedoor.com.

Mikael Burke is a Chicago-based director, deviser, and educator. A Princess Grace Award-winner in Theatre and Jeff Award-winning director, his recent credits include: OAK by Terry Guest (Urbanite Theatre, World Premiere); OTHELLO by William Shakespeare (Theatreworks Colorado Springs); SHORT SHAKES! ROMEO & JULIET (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); NOTES FROM THE FIELD by Anna Deveare Smith (TimeLine Theatre, Chicago Premiere); THE SALVAGERS by Harrison David Rivers (Yale Repertory Theatre, World Premiere); TAMBO & BONES by Dave Harris (Refracted Theatre Company, Chicago Premiere, winner of 8 Jeff Awards); BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY by Pearl Cleage (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company); THE MAGNOLIA BALLET by Terry Guest (About Face Theatre, Chicago Premiere, winner of 2 Jeff Awards); CLYDE’S by Lynn Nottage (Theaterworks Hartford). Mikael is also an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University and Roosevelt University. MFA, The Theatre School at DePaul University | mklburke.com

Christina Casano (she/her) Training: BA in Theatre (Miami University), Victory Gardens Theater’s Director’s Inclusion Initiative, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s Summer Professional Training Program. At Midsommer Flight, previously she assistant directed Cymbeline in 2023. Selected directing credits: Dear Elizabeth (upcoming Fall 2024, Remy Bumppo), I Build Giants and Poison (The Plagiarists), Henry IV Pt. 1 (Starling Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stone Soup Shakespeare), Plaid As Hell (Babes With Blades), Socks & Co. (workshop, EFCT), How To Murder… (workshop, Bramble Theatre). Other favorite projects: Short Shakes! Romeo & Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), How To Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens), Bury Me (Dandelion Theatre). She is the Creative Producer for Remy Bumppo. www.cmrcasano.com

Grant Mudge is the Executive Director and Director of Education & Community Engagement at Southwest Shakespeare Company (swshakes.org). Grant returns home to the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix/Mesa) with twenty-eight years of leadership service for three professional Shakespeare theatre companies: as founder of Richmond Shakespeare (VA), and as the Mary Irene Ryan Family Director of the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival (IN), the University’s resident Equity company, and Southwest Shakes (AZ). Grant’s directing, producing, and acting credits include more than 100 productions, among them fourteen consecutive years as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for Two Actors, and: Our Town, Les Misérables, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Rover, The Servant of Two Masters,  House of Desires, The School for Lies, and all but three of Shakespeare’s plays, and as an actor: Bassanio, Benedick, Berowne, Bottom, Costard, Dogberry, Ferdinand, Owen Glendower, Orsino, Petruchio, Speed, Trinculo, Warwick, and the title roles in Henry V and Macbeth. As a playwright, Grant has completed two commissions: a two-actor adaptation of Hamlet for the University of Pittsburgh’s Shakespeare in the Schools program, and for the Science Museum of Virginia, Shakespeare & Galileo, which then ran for ten consecutive years. His solo show, Playing with Shakespeare, has been seen in three states across twenty years: Arizona, Indiana, and Virginia. Grant continues to serve as a director, actor, speaker, and teacher nationwide.

Kathryn Walsh‘s recent directing work includes Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the Moon at Theatreworks Colorado Springs, a new adaptation of all three Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays for Columbia University’s MFA Acting Program, the world premiere of The Future is Female at Flint Repertory Theatre in Michigan (where she is an Associate Artist). A frequent director of classical work, Kathryn has coached or taught Shakespeare’s text many places in and out of Chicago, most recently as text coach for Gender Play at About Face Theatre. Photos and information about upcoming work can be found at kathrynwalshdirector.com.