Who's Who

Maya Martin

Maya is beyond excited to be performing with SBO alongside these incredibly wonderful and talented people! She was previously in last years production of Twelfth Night! When not teaching elementary students or performing Shakespeare, Maya sings with Windy City Performing Arts. She has had a deep love of Shakespeare since she was 9 and performed the Bard’s plays in children’s community shows up through high school in New York. Enjoy the twisted twisted tragedy and dark humor of the Scottish Play’s world!

Evelea Solgos

Evelea is delighted to join Shakespeare Blood Oath this year! Most recently, she played in the York Mystery Play Cycle at the University of Toronto, and her past Shakespeare experience includes Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Juliet in Romeo & Juliet.

Sean Marciniak

This is Sean's 5th season with the Shakespeare Blood Oath company; previous roles include Touchstone in As You Like it and Gravedigger in Hamlet. He's also a comedian and podcast host, you can listen to him talk with his voice on the Marsh Land Media podcast network. He'd like to thank this company for coming together once again to provide theater for our community and our community for providing the support we need to create.

Rob Grabowski

This is Rob's second show with Shakespeare Blood Oath. He was last seen as Rosencrantz (or was he Guildenstern?) in Halmet. Rob can be seen regularly with Clued In: An Improvised Murder Mystery, Hitch*Cocktails: an improvised thriller, Comedy Sportz Chicago, and the iO house team Kohl's Cash.

Molly Smith

Molly hails from Sacramento, California and earned a BA in Theatre and Creative Writing from UC San Diego. Since 2015 she’s graced the stages of Chicago comedy; including performing sketch & improv at Second City, iO Chicago, The Annoyance, Bughouse Theatre and The Goodman. See her weekly with Comedy Sportz Chicago! Molly enjoys flower arranging, playing bocce and bothering her cat, Denise from HR.

Alyse Dionne

Alyse Dionne is a Chicago based actor, writer, and improviser. This fall they’ll be directing a dramatic improv anthology at Theatre Momentum and adding costumer to their resume. When not shakes-ing in the park; you can find them at iO as a part of Malarkey Comedy's Expo League Sundays at 6PM and at the Music Box for Rocky Horror!! As well as running around town as an Influenza, with Influenzastheseries. This is Alyse’s first year with SBO.

Louis hirsch

Has been doing improv and acting for almost 20 years. He is one half of the legendary improv team, McGarnackle.

Vinny Tangherlini

Vinny Tangherlini is a Southern California native, a published poet, a more-than-amateur plumber, and a "registered" anarchist. While this is his first year with Shakespeare Blood Oath, he is no stranger to the Bard, having performed in five seasons with the New Swan Shakespeare Company, having specialized in Shakespeare and Improvisation at UC Irvine, and having written an essay on Romeo and Juliet one time for English class. An avid improviser, he can be seen weekly in ComedySportz, Honk!, and Improv Near Me. Vinny enjoys reading 60s Sci-Fi, listening to 70s Rock, rejecting 80s Politics, and being a 90s Kid. Professionally, he's now a maintenance guy (he's got small hands) and feels like that brings a level of pragmatic realism to his roles. He bats right and plays right.

Amber Laskanza (née Vignieri)

This is Amber's first year with Shakespeare Blood Oath! Her previous acting credits include Grace Fryer in Radium Girls, Veronica in Figments, Helene Rosenthal in The Beautiful Disaster, Miss Willie in The Curious Savage, and Margot Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank. She is deeply grateful to be part of this delightful and dedicated company and encourages you to join us next year!

Bill Goff

Bill Goff is an actor from Chicago. He's a Gemini, loves long walks on the beach, sunsets, and Reese's' Bill has been in Shakespeare productions since he was 12 years old, most recently he was Antonio in Twelfth Night (2024) with SBO and Laertes in Hamlet (2023) with SBO again. Bill has been a regular with AlphaBet Soup productions, has appeared on film in "Granny Shot" (2018) and was an avid member of the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival where he played Orlando in As You Like It (2012) and was the understudy to Iago in Othello (2011) Bill couldn't be prouder of the cast and crew he's working with on his favorite Shakespeare Play in his dream role.

Will Nelson

Will (they/them) is thrilled to return to SBO as Prince Malcolm after playing Maria in last year's Twelfth Night. When Will was six, they got invited onstage after the intermission of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and they're half-convinced that Oberon dosed them with love-in-idleness because they've had the Shakespeare bug ever since. When not acting or doing dramaturgy, Will can be found writing Hamlet fanfic, knitting shawls, or reading two books at once. Thank you to everyone on this brilliant team, and to the most supportive mom anyone could hope for!

Philip Dufresne

Philip escaped from the Shrieking Pines Sanitarium for the Perpetually Deranged in 2006 and immediately found employment as a Marine Corps officer followed by 10 years in the US Federal Government. Citing "irreconcilable fractures in the fabric of reality" he left government service and moved to Chicago to pursue a lucrative career in guerilla-style Shakespearean stage acting. He's previously played Claudius in Hamlet, Apemantus in Timon of Athens, and an unhinged constabulary in Twelfth Night.

Jay Oak Stellar

Jay is a recovering improviser and a current drag king and clown under other names. They have a background in Meisner and voice acting. If you like this, Jay does a podcast called The Oasis Midnight Broadcast where they play an entity that lives in the vents at a highway rest stop.

Christopher Owen

When not participating in theater and comedy, Christopher Owen's greatest passion is is writing about himself in the third person.

Makeda Reynolds

Makeda is originally a native Clevelander, but has called Chicago home for 20 years, and 3 of those have been devoted to SBO. Previous SBO roles include Horatio in Hamlet, a clown in Twelfth Night and currently serves as dedicated prop master and alternate in Macbeth. On off days, time is spent singing with the Windy City Treble Quire, taking long walks, drinking piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain. Big thanks goes to friends, parents, and partners for their unwavering and invaluable support, and to such talented cast mates for their teamwork and encouragement.

Peyton Brown

A Co-founder of Shakespeare Blood Oath he was last seen as Hamlet in Shakespeare Blood Oath's production of Hamlet.

Linus Lee

Linus is happy to be back performing with SBO. He previously appeared in Midsummer Night's Dream (Peter Quince), Taming of the Shrew (Hortensio), As You Like It (Duke Senior), and Timon of Athens (Painter/Lucius/Philotus).

Josh Segovia

This is his fourth year with SBO having previously played in As You Like It (Phebe), Timon Of Athens (Timon), and Hamlet (Rosencrantz). When not directing or speaking the speech, he can be seeing doing improv around town with Malarkey Comedy (Comedy Sportz & Honk) and Whirled News Tonight.

Junella Carla Gabriel

Junella is the heart of this show and was too busy working on it to write her bio - Josh

Michael Fernandez

A Co-founder of Shakespeare Blood Oath, he likes theater, photography, computers, and cycling, all of which help inform his collaborative, cutting-edge spirit.