TERRY GSELL (Tony)
Terry is thrilled to make his Hippodrome debut and is grateful to Lauren and the rest of the crew for this opportunity!  Great fortune has allowed Terry to perform, design lighting, and musical direct throughout the entire U.S. and Canada with such theatres as The Kennedy Center, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Florida Studio Theatre, Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre, Bay Players, Stage Centre Company, Straw Hat Players, Missoula Children’s Theatre, Musicana Dinner Theatre, Post Playhouse, and Summer Music Theatre.  Some of his favorite roles are Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Eddie in Lost in Yonkers, Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore, Dr. Craven in The Secret Garden, and Michael in Dancing at Lughnasa.  Most recently he sang Maximilian in the Candide excerpts of Festival 2000: A Cultural Odyssey at the CPA with the world-class conductor Evans Haile.  He holds a BM in Voice Performance and a BA in Theatre from Hastings College and is currently pursuing his MFA in Acting with the University of Florida.  “Thanks, Mom and Dad, for your continued love and support.”

DOUGLAS MAXWELL* (Manny / Vocal Coach) 
Douglas  served as Musical Director for the last season's production of The Rocky Horror Show,  and Musical Director for the original productions and remounts of both the Hippodrome's productions of Always ...  Patsy Cline and Beehive.  Over the past four years, Douglas has acted as Sound Designer at the Hippodrome for The Lion in Winter, Sylvia, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dracula, The Glass Menagerie, Just So Stories, Frankenstein, As Bees in Honey Drown and To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he also composed and performed an original score.  He has acted as Musical Director for Sunday in the Park with George, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and The Secret Garden at the Gainesville Community Playhouse.  Last season he wrote original music for The Last Night of Ballyhoo at the Hippodrome and Our Town at the Gainesville Community Playhouse and recently composed and performed the incidental music for Hedda Gabler. 

SARA MORSEY*(Maria Callas) 
Sara spent the winter in Memphis playing the role of  “ Maria Callas” at  Playhouse on the Square.  She is thrilled to be back home at the Hippodrome where earlier in the season she  was seen in multiple roles in Frankenstein and As Bees in Honey Drown and as “Mrs. Crachit” in A  Christmas Carol.   Previous Hippodrome credits include Bella in Lost in Yonkers, Sylvia in Broken Glass, Alcandre in The  Illusion, Sara in The Sisters Rosensweig, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, Frank in Private Eyes, and Boo  in The Last Night of Ballyhoo.  Other notable regional theatre credits include Melitta in the United States  premiere of Nicholas Wright’s Mrs. Klein, Eva in the stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata  (also an American premiere), and B in Three Tall Women for which she won the Memphis Theatre Award for  Excellence as a Leading Actress in a Drama.  Featured film roles include Cilla in Germantown Film’s  Borderlines, which was produced on PBS and Sybil in The First of May with Julie Harris. 

BABE ROOT* (Sophie)
The Hippodrome is home to Babe not just as an actress but also as the Company Manager and Audience Development Coordinator.  She is excited to have the opportunity to return to the stage after her wonderful experiences in Beehive and The Rocky Horror Show.  Babe received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Florida last year.  Her credits from UF include Miss Giddens in The Innocents, Ramona in Zara Spook and Other Lures, Simon Zealot in Jesus Christ Superstar, Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, and an ensemble member in Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.  Some of Babe’s other credits include Lina Lamont in Singin’ In The Rain, Genna in The Goodbye Girl, Sylvie in The Odd Couple (the female version), Fermina in Man of La Mancha, Little Red Ridinghood in Into the Woods and a chorus member in Chess.  In addition to her acting training, Babe was recognized as an actor/combatant by the Society of American Fight Directors in 1998 and since has enjoyed working as a Fight Choreographer for the Hippodrome and other theatres.

RUSTY SALLING* (Stagehand) 
Rusty has appeared in 80 productions at the Hippodrome.  He acquired the nickname “Legs” from his appearance as Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Show last season.  He has appeared in all 22 productions of A Christmas Carol, the last ten in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.  Previous appearances include Frankenstein, A Streetcar Named Desire, To Kill A Mockingbird, All in the Timing, Lonely Planet, The Sisters Rosensweig, Lost in Yonkers, West Side Story, Lettice and Lovage, Accomplice, Rumors, Driving Miss Daisy, The Boys Next Door, Absent Friends, Noises Off, Season’s Greetings, Amadeus and The Elephant Man, as well as the title roles in Macbeth, The Norman Conquests, The Dresser, and Cyrano de Bergerac.  He toured the Southeast, including 11 Florida prisons, in Waiting for Godot and has appeared in two films: A Flash of Green and The Savage Hunt. Additionally, he is the Hippodrome’s Computer Geek-in-Residence and Webmaster of the Hippodrome internet site, http://hipp.gator.net.  He continues his lifelong personal quest to get jiggy with it.
 

Adam Cohen* (Stage Manager)
Adam is in his third season at the Hippodrome.  In a career that has taken him across the high seas, into huge arenas, in front of the camera, up in the control booth, and onto the stage, the experiences he has accumulated only serve to make him more aware of the value of the “jewel” the citizens of Gainesville have in their midst.  The caliber of artists that the Hippodrome attracts is surpassed nowhere, and he thanks the management for the chance to be counted in that group.  His greatest thanks must go, however, to his family, who supported his choices from the beginning and continue to be a source of inspiration and joy.

LAUREN CALDWELL (Director)
Lauren is the Hippodrome’s Artistic Director. She has directed over 40 shows on the Hippodrome mainstage, including this season's Hedda Gabler and Frankenstein.   Directing credits include:  A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rocky Horror Show, To Kill A Mockingbird,The Glass Menagerie, Dracula, Beehive (twice),How I Learned to Drive, Lost in Yonkers, Like Totally Weird, All in the Timing and The Lion in Winter.  She has frequently appeared as an actress on the Hippodrome since 1988 in such role as Sylvia in Sylvia, Madame de Volanges in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Marge in Absent Friends, Faye in The Sugar Bean Sisters, Truvy in Steel Magnolias, Louise in Always ... Patsy Cline (twice) and recently, for the second time, multiple wacky charaacters in A Tuna Christmas.  Lauren has written To Be or Not To Be...That is Two Questions, which is presently on its second statewide tour. She is also working on an original piece based on the life of poet May Sarton which will appear at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2000. She conceptualized a comprehensive curriculum guide for Hippodrome productions, Perspectives, which is distributed to Alachua County High Schools, Santa Fe Community College and the University of Florida. A native of Texas, Lauren holds a BFA in directing from Baylor University and a MFA in acting from the University of Florida. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Drama League, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. She owns and operates Legal Acts, a consulting company for attorneys, and is actively involved in the Prosecution/Public Defenders’ Program at UF. 

MIHAI CIUPE (Set Designer)
Originally from Romania, Mihai worked as a designer with some of the greatest Romanian directors: Gabor Tompa, Alexandru Dabija, Iulian Visa, Mihai Maniutiu, Victor Ion Frunza.  In 1991 he received a scholarship to attend the London International Festival of Theater.  In 1995 he was accepted into the membership of the Association of Romanian Fine Artists in the Scene Design section.  Mihai recently received a double Master of Fine Arts degree in costume and set design from Carnegie Mellon University.  At Carnegie Mellon he was awarded the George Kimberly Scene Design Award and the Oren Parker Award in Design and Production.  Before coming to the United States he was the resident designer at The National Theatre of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Early in his European career he traveled extensively in Europe on tour with shows he designed.  These tours exposed him to the various schools of theater from England, Scotland, Hungary, France, and Yugoslavia.  He joined the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Florida in the Fall of 1999 as a Professor of  Set Design. 

MARILYN WALL-ASSE (Costume Designer) 
Marilyn is a Hippodrome co-founder, Artistic Associate and the Costume Designer-in-Residence. She has designed and built costumes for more than 150 Hippodrome productions.  She is a four time recipient of the Outstanding Young Women in America Award and received the Margaret Sanger Certificate of Appreciation in 1987.  She has twice  received a Governor’s Award as one of Florida’s Outstanding Artists and was the only theatrical artist to be granted that award this year.  Her Hippodrome acting credits include The Madwoman of Chaillot, Cabrona, Bedroom Farce, Robber Bridegroom,  Crimes of the Heart and Season’s Greetings.  Directing credits include Macbeth, Same Time Next Year and Tangled Tales which she also co-authored.  In the film world, Marilyn has designed costumes and makeup for A Flash of Green, Shimmer, Ruby in Paradise, Gathering Evidence, Miami Hustle and the recently released Ulee's Gold with Peter Fonda and Patricia Richardson.  She has served as makeup artist to the famous faces of Phil Donahue, Al Gore and Bill Clinton at their local appearances.  Marilyn recently won an Emmy Award  for her costume designs for the children’s television show, Salsa.

Robert P. Robins (Lighting Designer) 
Bob has been Lighting Designer-in-Residence at the Hippodrome for the past 14 years.   During this time, he has designed the lighting for more than 150 productions.  He has also stage managed numerous productions including Hippodrome Mainstage, state and Theatre for Young Audiences tours.  In addition to designing and stage managing, Bob also engineers the soundtracks and sound reinforcement for all Hippodrome productions. He is an Actors’ Equity Association stage manager and a member of IATSE Local 115.   Bob has designed more than 250 productions regionally in the United States, including theater, dance, and industrials.   For the past six years, he has taught at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.  He spends what time he has away from the theater with his very supportive wife, Jodi, and their two children, Kayla and Evan.

TimOTHY J. Dygert (Production Manager) 
Tim is the Hippodrome's Production Manager and also fills the roles of technical director, scene painter, carpenter, special effects creator (a title shared with lighting designer Bob Robins), and sometimes designer. Tim has assisted in the creation of more than 70 mainstage and touring productions. Hippodrome design credits include the mainstage smash Private Eyes and the southeastern tours of To Be or Not To Be, That is Two Questions and  Canta Danca Dancers for the Theatre for Young Audience series. Tim has also designed several industrials including scenery for University of Florida’s Gator Growl, The American Heart Association’s Five Points of Life Ride, and Gainesville’s own annual social event Puttin' on the Ritz. 

Lorelei Esser (Properties Design) 
Lorelei has been designing properties for the Hippodrome since the 1994 production of Earthly Possessions.  She has long been recognized in our community for her accomplishments and contributions as an independent artist.  Her medium, the collection and assemblage of “the stuff of life” can now be experienced in the sets of the Hippodrome’s productions.  Lorelei’s understanding of time periods, cultures, the writer’s intentions, the director’s vision along with her tenacity for detail bring artistry to the craft of properties design.

JOE CERQUA (Aria Sound Master) 
Joe is a Chicago-born composer and is thrilled to be making his Hippodrome debut.  He recently completed work on Side Man at the Steppenwolf Theatre and Visiting Mr. Green at Northlight Theatre where he is the resident composer/sound designer.  Mr. Cerqua is the Artistic Director of the Cerqua Rivera Art Experience, a 13-piece jazz orchestra and 9-member dance company.  He is also Supervising Producer of the music department at Columbia College.

TAMERIN DYGERT (Dramaturg) 
Holds a B.A. in Theatre and English Education from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  As Dramaturg and Literary Manager, Ms. Dygert compiles research materials for the artistic team; contributes to production concepts; serves as features writer/editor of the curriculum guide, Perspectives; and writes articles for Ovation newsletters.  She also assists in Mainstage season selection; negotiates Mainstage production rights; and directs the New Play Reading Series which she founded in 1998.  A native of Maryland, Ms. Dygert has worked at Baltimore’s Center Stage; toured with Shakespeare on Wheels; served as a freelance dramaturg with Baltimore’s Performance Workshop, Inc.; and taught English and Drama at Bais Yaakov School for Girls.  She has taught Hippodrome theatre arts classes and directed Florida Teen Playwright Festival productions and appeared on the Mainstage in The Sisters Rosensweig, A Christmas Carol and Just So Stories.  Ms. Dygert is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), a professional association serving literary managers, dramaturgs and theatre professionals throughout North and South America