the tempest | Summer Tour 2023

 Katherine Moulton has been a huge Grassroots fan for approximately a decade, and is shocked and delighted that she finally managed to work up the nerve to audition. Most of her recent theater work has been backstage, directing, costuming, and making props for Shakespeare plays and musicals such as Into the Woods and Little Shop of Horrors. Favorite past roles include Emilia in The Winter's Tale, Queen Elizabeth in Mary Stuart, and Mother/Queen Christinia in A Room Full of Glass. She wants to give an enormous thank you to her parents and Anna for helping her memorize a proportionally enormous amount of lines. 

 Miranda Maurin has been a shakespeare fiend since she was old enough to read the word 'fiend'. She's long had a soft spot for The Tempest (wonder if you can guess why), but you may have seen her make her Grassroots debut last summer as Imogen in Cymbeline. Outside of Grassroots, she's had the privilege of playing Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream, a Weird Sister in Macbeth, and Ophelia in Hamlet, (a role she adored so much that she wrote and will soon be producing and directing a show all about!) When not in a classical play, she can usually be found in a musical (Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie being her favorite), or making various elaborate gowns, corsets, and other such fripperies. She's also in a band with several of her fellow castmates (@sapphoandherfriendsband on instagram). She loves singing, songwriting, playwriting, performing, sewing, painting, directing, and every other of version of creating art she's been able to take part of! She hopes to do it for the rest of her life, even if said life ends up somehow occurring on a deserted island filled with strange creatures and spirits. Then again, that's how most of her friends would describe themselves anyway, so perhaps it wouldn't be such an odd life after all. 

 You might have seen Alyssa perform in six other Grassroots shows in the past, bringing you such characters as Cloten from Cymbeline, Claudio from Much Ado About Nothing, and Mistress Page from The Merry Wives of Windsor. This is her first performance of The Tempest, which is another point towards her goal of performing in every single one of Shakespeare's plays at least once. Over 16 productions she has 12 down, and only 22 to go. 

 Drake Hansen is a singular, exhausted manifestation of the consciousness of the universe. As much as he wishes to say he's just a little guy and it's his first day, he's celebrating his FIFTEENTH show with the Grassroots Shakespeare Company, so that's demonstrably not true. If you've seen a Grassroots show in the last four years, you've almost certainly been affronted with Drake's visage in guises ranging from Lucifer to Mistress Ford to Dogberry to Claudius to backup Romeo. He is, admittedly, thrilled to expand that range with this summer tour as he enters his horrible-little-creature era. As though he were wanting for roles with Grassroots, he also serves as the company's costume coordinator, Educational Tour artistic director, and second half of the grant writing team. At least they sometimes let him sing a Scottish Gaelic song in return. When asked what he does in his spare time, he produced a series of indignant guttural sounds mixed with what was probably laughter before strutting out of the room. Nevertheless, prolonged exposure to Drake will reveal he's a lover of fashion and costume, drag, LEGO, Doctor Who, Scottish Gaelic musical traditions, behind-the-scenes/making-of documentaries, southeast Asian cuisines, chocolate granola, moral relativism, climate justice, dismantling systems of oppression, and compassion. He'd like to thank his partner for being his anchor and always supporting him, but he can't since he doesn't have one. Instead, he'll thank his parents and his sapphics for rendering him the same service. 

 Just once a year there comes a marked chance  To join the Grassroots Shakespeare Summer tour It’s filled with friends and laughter, song and dance And never dull, of that you may be sure  So Kira, after viewing several shows Decided that the time had come to try’t  And now she’s very willing to disclose: The people are unmatched; the shows, a riot   She started with last summer’s Cymbeline, Then Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado,  And when she’s not performing in a show  May do the sound effects, and music too  Now in this show, she’s happily engaged And in “The Tempest” once more takes the stage 

Here at the Grassroots Shakespeare Company, we do not believe in shaming our actors for not submitting their bios. We simply consult The Orb to determine what their bio would look like, had they submitted one. Here's what The Orb had to say: 

Kaden Caldwell, much like sub-atomic particles, blips in and out of existence. Should you happen to be present when a feral Kaden appears, you will be privy to many marvelous delights heretofore unknown to man. Exercise wisdom in your possession of these  ethereal delights-- Danger awaits those who treat them with callow disregard! 

 Jeanelle is so excited to be performing with Grassroots for the first time this summer. Previous credits include “A Doll’s House” (Nora Helmer) “Steel Magnolias” (Shelby) “Twelfth Night” (Olivia) “A Midsummer Nights Dream” (Helena). Jeanelle has a BFA in Acting from Brigham Young University where she was seen in “Mary Stuart” (Hannah Kennedy) “A Comedy of Errors” (Adriana) “East of Eden” (Kate) and the Nationally Acclaimed production of “Radium Girls” (Irene/ Katherine Wiley) She is so grateful to her husband for being the best teammate a girl could ask for and to her daughter for inspiring her everyday. 

 Alex Vaughn is happy to bring the THUNDER to this Summer Tour in The Tempest! Or is it the lightning? Either way! Alex first breached containment on March 15th of 2017, and spent the next several years laying low and dodging unmarked black vans. During that time she performed at the Hale Center Theatre in Sandy, bringing to life (literally) roles such as Armand St. Just in "The Scarlet Pimpernel", and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in "A Christmas Carol". If you have information regarding either of these entities, please call [REDACTED] immediately. DO NOT APPROACH. Alex found refuge with The Grassroots Shakespeare Company in late 2021 with their production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor", for which she embodied the roles of Rugby, Pistol, and Anne Page. Since then, she's lent her skill to parts such as Posthumus Leonatus in "Cymbeline", Hero in "Much Ado About Nothing", and most recently Tybalt and Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet. Again, these entities are NOT TO BE APPROACHED. Doing so may result in bodily injury or even death. The Grassroots Shakespeare Company is wanted in connection with the ongoing pursuit of Alex Vaughn. The harboring of escaped [REDACTED] property is a serious offense under the [REDACTED] act. Please contact [REDACTED] or your local unmarked SUV with information regarding this group. 

 Daisy Sherman is an actor and performer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is her 9th show with the Grassroots Shakespeare Company since she debuted with Richard III during Halloween season 2021 (count ‘em—Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, Merry Wives of Windsor, All’s Well That Ends Well, Doctor Faustus, Twelfth Night, Hamlet). On the rare occasion she’s not preparing for a Grassroots show you can find her performing as her drag alias Reija Blades (available for bookings!), baking, drawing comics, and otherwise troubling the white cisheteropatriarchy. 

 Brenner has been an avid Shakespeare fan for a very long time, although he hasn't had much opportunity to perform his works until recently, past experiences have so far included Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet and Bassanio in Merchant of Venice. You can imagine his excitement when he found out there was a whole bloody shakespeare company hiding under one of the rocks next to his home and after a grueling 5 week rite of proving he found enough favor in thier eyes to land a spot in his first ever Grassroots show. When not on this stage he is found hard at work obtaining his Acting BFA at BYU and performing in an abundance of other shows (keep an out at the Covey Center in Provo later this summer). He is a tad too hyperactive to allow himself free time, but if he ever finds it, he enjoys hiking through anything pretty or just about anything associated with DnD and card/board games. He also enjoys normal human things, like eating bread and complaining. He hopes you enjoy the show!  

Here at the Grassroots Shakespeare Company, we do not believe in shaming our actors for not submitting their bios. We simply consult The Orb to determine what their bio would look like, had they submitted one. Here's what The Orb had to say: 

Chase is happy to join Grassroots for his, I dunno, lets say 6th show? When Chase is not doing Grassroots, they are busy at University in the graduate program for supervillainy. Their doctorate thesis involves building a ray that will blast a companion monkey onto the shoulders of every person, man, woman and child that exists, has ever existed, or will exist in the future. Naturally, because Chase is not a monster (just evil-leaning), all will be given free access to their magnificent monkey wardrobe to create the perfect outfit for their new mandatory companion monkey. 

Steven Pond's last traditional theater show was over a decade ago, and since then he's done nothing but bathe in the Grassroots kool-aid. The actual number of Grassroots shows that Steven has done has long been lost to the sands of time - at last count it was around 50 - including roles like Caliban, Prince Hal, Touchstone, Macbeth, Malvolio, Mercutio, and even - that's right - the ever-present Messenger.
When he's not eating, drinking, and breathing Shakespeare, Steve can be found obsessively researching Brandon Sanderson for his YouTube channel