Dan McCleary
Founder and Producing Artistic Director
Dan McCleary+ (Founder and Producing Artistic Director; Director of Complete Works and Hamlet) is a native Memphian and a graduate of Germantown High School and its Poplar Pike Playhouse. Dan directed and acted in TSC’s inaugural production of As You Like It (Jaques) and The Glass Menagerie; and he directed TSC’s The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all-female Julius Caesar, Othello, and Themes from a Midsummer Night. He also has directed critically-acclaimed productions of As You Like It at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, The Servant of Two Masters outdoors in downtown Atlanta and at Seattle Shakespeare Company, and All’s Well That Ends Well at Georgia Shakespeare Festival. At the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, he has directed the world premiere of The Stone Face and has played the title roles in Antony and Cleopatra and Richard III, Brutus in Julius Caesar, Porfiry in Crime and Punishment, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. As Associate Artistic Director at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires, Dan acted in and directed over 30 productions, appearing as Coriolanus, Macbeth, Herman Melville, Stephano, Don Armado, Hotspur, Master Ford, Bertram, and Antipholus/Dromio of Ephesus. He directed S&Co’s first production of The Servant of Two Masters, also his own adaptation of Anaïs Nin’s Henry & June, Vita & Virginia, My Own Stranger, and The Fiery Rain. Other Regional/New York theatre: Merrimack Rep, North Shore Music Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, StageWest, Alabama Shakespeare, Arden Theatre, Studio 4-A, and Huntington Theatre.
Dan is a published poet and teaches Shakespeare master classes around the country. Memphis Magazine has named him among the “Who’s Who in Memphis” each year from 2009-12, and the Germantown Arts Alliance honored him with its 2009 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts. He serves on the City of Germantown’s Telecommunications Committee, and holds a B.A. in Advertising and Journalism from Temple University. Dan and his wife Stephanie are the proud parents of two-year-old twin boys, Sullivan and Collins.
E. Frank Bluestein
Executive Director
E. Frank Bluestein is the 1996-1997 Disney National Performing Arts Teacher of the Year and the 1994 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. In October of 1998, USA Today named Mr. Bluestein one of the top 40 teachers in the United States.
Frank is a past winner of the American Theatre Association's John C. Barner Award, a national award given to one secondary school teacher whose theatre program is judged most exemplary for the year. He has served as an arts advisory panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the College Board Arts Advisory Committee, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. He is a former president both of the Tennessee Alliance for Arts Education and the Germantown Arts Alliance. Each summer he supervises the theatre division of the Tennessee Arts Academy, a statewide teacher training institute located in Nashville, TN. Frank has twice been named to Memphis Magazine's Who's Who in Memphis poll, and was presented with a community service award for his accomplishments in education by the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
At Germantown High School in Germantown, TN, Frank serves as the chairman of the school's Fine Arts Department. He is the founder and director of the school's theatre, the Poplar Pike Playhouse, and also serves as Executive Producer for Germantown Community Television (GHS-TV), the school's three million dollar educational television facility. In 1984 he helped the Germantown High School Fine Arts Department to become one of eight secondary schools in the nation to be chosen to receive the prestigious Rockefeller Brothers Fund Arts in Education Award.
Under Frank's leadership, Germantown Community Television has received over 80 first place Hometown Video USA awards for its programming and has been named seven times by the Alliance for Community Media as the Best Community Access Station in the USA. The station has been recognized with regional Emmy and Cable Ace Award nominations. Frank has also participated in the educational programs of the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and has led his team of teachers and scores of students to win a national student Emmy (2004 National Student Television Award of Excellence) for sports coverage as well as 13 regional first-place student Emmy awards.
Frank has served as a director of shows at Opryland, USA, and most recently wrote and directed the national touring production of Beale Street Saturday Night starring blues legend Joyce Cobb. He is a frequent speaker and writer on arts-related issues.
Stephanie Shine
Education Director
Stephanie Shine (Co-Productions and Education Director; Director/Adaptor of Rebel Shakespeare and His Women and A Christmas Memory; Director of the Mid-South Schools Tour; Asst. Stage Manager for Macbeth and The Tempest)spent 18 years with Seattle Shakespeare Company, 13 as Artistic Director, before departing in June of 2011 to join her husband in Memphis and the staff of Tennessee Shakespeare Company. For Seattle Shakespeare, she directed 17 productions, including The Threepenny Opera, Cyrano de Bergerac, and the lauded all-male Taming of the Shrew. Her other directorial credits include Romeo and Juliet for Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Taming of the Shrew and The Comedy of Errors for Colorado Shakespeare Festival; I Am of Ireland (which she also conceived and adapted) for Book-It Repertory Theatre; Love's Labor's Lost for Cornish College of the Arts; A Christmas Carol (also adapted) for Bainbridge Performing Arts; Romeo and Juliet for Seattle University, When the Messenger is Hot for Theater Schmeater, and the international award-winning one-woman Marilyn Monroe Biopic, Marilyn: Forever Blonde. A well-known actress in the Northwest, she has performed for Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, ACT, The Empty Space, Seattle Children's Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Tacoma Actors Guild. Regionally, she appeared with the Oregon and New Jersey Shakespeare Festivals, Houston's Alley Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, and NYC's Theatre for a New Audience. Her Shakespeare roles include Juliet, Rosalind, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, Regan, Feste, Kate, Bianca, Dionyza, The Princess of France, Hero, Perdita, and most recently The Chorus in Henry V. Ms. Shine is the newly appointed Artistic Director of the robust young company Shakespeare Walla Walla in Washington State, and she is the lucky mother of Conor, Cahilan, Sullivan, and Collins.
Slade Kyle
Education Manager and Resident Artist
Slade Kyle is a founding company member of Tennessee Shakespeare Company. TSC credits: As You Like It (Oliver, Fight Choreographer), A Midsummer Nights Dream (Puck/Philostrate, Fight Director), Othello (Fight Director), Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio/Prince/Friar John/Gregory, Tour Production Manager, Fight Director), Macbeth (Malcolm, Fight Director), Romeo and Juliet Schools Tour (Friar Lawrence/Mercutio/Peter/Abram, Touring Production Manager, Fight Director), The Tempest (Fight Director), and The Glass Menagerie (Tom). Slade directed Germantown High School students in Prelude Scenes performed prior to each performance of Julius Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and The Tempest. Memphis theatre credits include: Metamorphoses (Orpheus/Eros - regional premier), tick,tick…BOOM! (Michael - first non-Equity production; Theater 4 Theatre), Assassins (John Wilkes Booth), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (El-Fayoumy), Parade (Gov. Jack Slayton), Much Ado About Nothing (Don John), The Writer’s Block (Cullen - originated), The Serpent (Cain). Mid-South credits include: Exhibit This (Michael; Playhouse on the Square), Reno 911: Memphis Crackdown (Trudy Wiegel; The Backyard Players), Pandora’s Box (Zeus; Voices of the South), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Snoopy; CBW Theatrical Productions) and Lucky Stiff (Harry; Jackson Theater Guild).
A former SEWA Professional Wrestler (two-time Tag Team Champion, Light Heavyweight Champion, Organization-wide Fight Choreographer), Slade is well-versed in many forms of Stage Combat and serves as TSC’s resident Fight Director. Other Fight Directing credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Ballet Memphis), A Delicate Balance (Theater Memphis), Romeo and Juliet (Houston High School), The Beaux Stratagem (Poplar Pike Playhouse), Fences (University of Memphis), Tom Jones (Chrichton College), the films: Delusional Awareness (R&R Studios) and Victor Marx (Flashlight Media Group), and the Harry Potter’s World Exhibition Tour (American Library Association). Slade graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Memphis with a BFA in Theatre Performance with concentrations in Physical Theatre and Theatre Pedagogy.
Slade has been a regular Teaching-Artist for Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Playhouse on the Square, Theatre Memphis, The Delta Arts Council, New Day Children’s Theatre, and numerous other theatres, schools and conferences throughout the Mid-South. His teaching specialties include Stage Combat, Shakespeare, and Mask Performance. Directing credits: Dear Edwina (New Day Children’s Theatre), The Imaginators (Delta Arts Council), The Aristocats Junior (New Day Children’s Theater) and A Year With Frog and Toad Junior (New Day Children’s Theatre). Slade has also appeared on television (Sim’s Metal Management, FRED’S, AFRTS, Last One Standing – Emerson Drive), film (Victor Marx, Stained, Disturbed, Ritter), in print (Nashville Style, Jackson Sun), and on the runway (Macy’s, Clairol, Bugle Boy).
Amelia Hammond
Artist-Manager
(Amelia in Complete Works) hails from Washington, DC, and is thrilled to be returning to TSC for her second season. Audiences in Memphis and Walla Walla, WA, might remember her as Miranda in The Tempest. Regional credits include: Hamlet, Othello, Comedy of Errors, and Taming of the Shrew with Houston Shakespeare Festival; As You Like It with Virginia Shakespeare Festival; Pericles and The Servant of Two Masters with Georgia Shakespeare. Amelia is proud to have received her MFA from the University of Houston PATP, her BA from Coastal Carolina University, and she trained with the Gainesville Theatre Alliance.
Catherine Montesi
Box Office/Company Manager
Catherine is a native Memphian, and will graduate this fall with a B.A. in English from Christian Brothers University. In college, Catherine has been extremely active in the honors program, greek life, community service, and she spent the fall semester of 2009 in Rome, Italy. She has appeared in The Jury Room, the CBHS alumni production of The Taming of the Shrew, Antigone (Antigone), and The Vagina Monologues. She joins TSC shortly after participating in their annual Young Player’s Training Intensive.
Trevor Pittinger
Artist-Manager
Trevor comes from New York City and is elated to be making his debut this season with TSC. Regional credits include: Romeo and Juliet at Greenbrier Valley Theater; Much Ado About Nothing with Palo Duro Shakespeare; two years in HYPE at the Alley Theater; The Emperor's New Clothes with The Houston Children's Theater Festival; The Dispute with Theatre Collide and two years in the outdoor drama TEXAS! Film credits include: Child of God (dir. James Franco). Trevor received his MFA in acting from the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance, his BA from Rice University, and trained at the O'Neill National Theater Institute.
Nancy Wright
Bookkeeper
Nancy Wright has provided bookkeeping services for small businesses in both the private and public arena for more than 20 years. She grew up on a small, family farm in Paris, TN, and she graduated from U.T. Knoxville. Nancy is also a charter member of her church, St. Andrews Presbyterian (PCA).