CSF Executive Staff
Larry Nehring
Artistic Director
Larry@cleveshakes.org
In addition to his five years as Artistic Director, Larry has been
involved with the Shakes Fest since its first season when he performed
the title role in Macbeth. He has since been an active part of Cleveland's
theatre community, acting and
directing for nearly every theatre in town.
His favorite directorial credits include:
Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2(for CSF),
The Alchemist (Bad Epitaph Theatre),
Midsummer (abridged) (CSF),
Servant of Two Masters(Cleveland Play House
Children's Series), and numerous shows
for Cleveland Play House's summer camps.
He also recently appeared in Playhouse Square's I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
and will play George Washington in the PBS miniseries The War That Made America, airing in the Fall of 2005. Mr. Nehring received his MSCD from University of Rochester and
Rochester Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the National Theater
Institute (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center). He is a theatrical sign language
interpreter, stage combat choreographer, and member of Actor's Equity Association.
Matthew Solarz
Managing Director
Matthew is pleased to join the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival in its landmark 10th
season, and looks forward to continuing the festival’s mission of free Shakespeare for
modern audiences!
Matthew is a full-time theatre artist and student, having recently taken
an early retirement from Ford Motor Company to further his education in arts
Administration and English at Baldwin-Wallace College.
No stranger to performance and/or working backstage, he has appeared in numerous community venues,
including Solon Center for The Arts, Huntington Playhouse, Clague Playhouse and the Beck
Center for the Arts. Most recently, he directed Ivan Menchell's The Cemetery Club
for the Spotlights Community Theatre in Broadview Heights.
Matthew is a member of
the Society of American Fight Directors. He is also a former journalist, having
worked on the staff at the Ashland Times-Gazette and Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and some
freelance work for the Sandusky Register and Lorain Morning Journal.
Support live theatre in the Cleveland area!
Tyson Douglas Rand
Production Manager
cleveshakestyson@yahoo.com
Tyson Rand has been involved with The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival in a
wide variety of capacities since 2005. He is an actor, director and set
designer that has been a Cleveland resident for nearly twenty years -- and
a fan and supporter of the “Shakes Fest” from its very start.
Although his
design skills have only recently come to light in the greater Cleveland area,
his designs have been applauded professionally in Denver, Colorado - as
well as academically, regionally and in community theaters in his home
town of Fostoria, Ohio and the nearby communities of Findlay, Toledo,
Bowling Green and Tiffin.
His more recent set designs have enhanced
productions at Clague Playhouse, The Dover Players at Olde Town Hall,
The Idea Center’s Studio Theater in Playhouse Square, The World View
Stage for Olmsted Performing Arts and The Spotlights Stage in Broadview
Heights.
Tyson is honored to apply his project management skills to the
ongoing noble mission of The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival.
The CSF Founding Directors
Tim Perfect
Founding Director
One of the three founders of CSF, and the former Executive Director,
Tim now lives in Hudson, Wisconsin with his wife Debra and three very
red-headed girls, Meghan, Mary Catherine, and Claire Anne. For CSF,
he directed The Taming of the Shrew in the Inaugural Season, and Henry V
in the second season.
After returning to the Twin Cities area, he co-founded
Pigs Eye Theatre in 2000. He currently serves as Associate Artistic Director for
Pigs Eye Theatre, in addition to performing during the summers with Shakespeare & Company,
Minnesota's longest-running outdoor classical repertory theatre. It was Tim's
experiences with Shakespeare & Company that provided the framework for the birth of the Cleveland Shakespeare
Festival in 1998. Tim holds a BA in English from Franciscan University, and an MFA in Acting
from Case Western Reserve University.
David Frydrychowski
Founding Director
Dave has acted with Virginia Shakespeare, Cincinnati Shakespeare (Rep.
Company), Kentucky Shakespeare, NYC´s Shakespeare Project, and Cleveland
Shakespeare (The Fifteen Minute Hamlet [Season II], also director for
the Eastern US Premiere of Shakespeare´s Edward III).
In addition to his classical work, Dave has worked extensively in experimental
performance, recently collaborating with NACL Theatre on a physical
theatre/folksong project that toured to festivals in the US and Eastern Europe.
As an actor, he has workshopped new plays at 29th Street Rep, Third Eye Rep,
The Mark Taper Forum, The Cleveland Play House, and many, many small, dusty
rooms in NYC. He has appeared in several films with Myriad Arts Productions.
He has an MFA and many magical memories from the CWRU/CPH program, not the
least of which is wandering past the lawn behind Mather Hall one warm summer
evening and wondering why there wasn´t a Shakespearean play going on there.
As a director/designer, he has worked off-off Broadway (OOBR award) and in
summer stock. He holds a BA from James Madison University (Theatre/Political
Science), and has recently trained at Circle in the Square and Shakespeare &
Company (MA). He currently edits a NYC theatre website for the dough-re-mi
and resides in midtown Manhattan.
Megan Reardon
Founding Director
Megan has a BFA in Dramaturgy from Purchase College. She is currently
building websites in the San Francisco Bay Area.