America Through The Tempest production artwork

Virtual playbill · 5

America Through The Tempest

October 24th & 25th - 2:30PM

Greenway Farms · Admission free

Dramatis personae

Meet the cast

Frederick Douglas, writing team lead, act IV dancer + cast

Kyree Brown

Kyree Brown (30) is a Chattanooga, Tennessee native whose artistic journey began with Doetry, a dynamic fusion of poetry and dance founded by Novek Newi. Through this creative space, he began exploring the power of artistic expression and storytelling, laying the foundation for his growing passion for the performing arts. Between theatrical productions, Kyree continues to share his voice and creativity through poetry, using the written and spoken word as avenues for connection, reflection, and expression.

In October 2024, Kyree made his acting debut as Florizel in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, produced by Scenic City Shakespeare. Following his debut, he continued to expand his theatrical experience through Peggy Douglas’ Mark Making, performing in three productions: Unmasking: Now We Speak, Beyond the Rainbow, and Beneath These Stones. These works explore meaningful themes of mental health, identity, and local Black history, reflecting the power of the arts to illuminate lived experiences and foster understanding. Kyree now serves as Treasurer for Scenic City Shakespeare, further deepening his commitment to the local arts community.

As both a performer and poet, Kyree is dedicated to using his artistry to tell meaningful stories, uplift voices, and cultivate connections. While he continues to grow in his craft and contribute to Chattanooga’s creative community, his greatest aspiration extends beyond the stage: to be a personification of love for all. Through his art, service, and everyday interactions, Kyree strives to embody compassion, acceptance, and humanity in everything he does.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, laundry dancer, featured suffragette fighter, Act IV dancer + cast devising lead

Maria Chattin

Maria has been on the stage and behind it for the last twenty-something years in Chattanooga. It's always a thrill when she gets to be a part of a great production. She worked with the Youth Theatre for many years at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. She has taught theatre at Baylor and with Chattanooga Recreational Therapy. She's directed countless shows and been in a few as well. Her favorite shows to perform in have been Lost in Yonkers (Backstage), Love Sick (CTC), and Midsummer Night's Disco (CTC). She has performed with Scenic City Shakespeare a few times beginning with Hamlet. She has really enjoyed playing these great characters. She is also now teaching theatre at East Ridge Elementary school. She is on a journey as an empty nester but still receives great support from her kids and thanks them for that.

Featured suffragette fighter, laundry dancer, act IV dancer, immigrant + cast

Rachel Craig

Rachel Craig hails from Nashville, Tennessee, and brings more than 20 years of experience in the professional theatre industry. She currently serves as Head of Middle School Theatre at Girls Preparatory School and works throughout the Chattanooga area as an actor, intimacy director, assistant fight director, and voiceover artist. She also co-runs Battlekat Combat with her husband, Will Snyder. This December, Rachel will earn her Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy from the University of Idaho. Her MFA exit project is a documentary film exploring the diverse theatre companies and the evolving theatrical landscape of Chattanooga. Some of Rachel’s favorite past credits include Peter Pan (Windy City Performs), Reefer Madness (Cult Camp Productions), She Kills Monsters (Ensemble Theatre Chattanooga), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scenic City Shakespeare), and Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth (Conasauga Shakespeare Coalition). Rachel would like to thank Emma and Hunter for this opportunity, as well as her husband, Will, for his unwavering love and support. Follow Rachel on Instagram at @gingerhellkat and TikTok at @rachelkatcraig for more theatre shenanigans!

King George III, Chief John Ross, John Wilkes Booth, Act IV dancer + cast devising lead

Jamie McIntosh

This is Jamie McIntosh’s second show with Scenic City Shakespeare. He loves working with this company because he learns a ton every time he is a part of a show. When he isn't playing a heightened version of himself for the theater, he plays a heightened version of himself for his daughter, Lyra. He wants to thank the cast and crew for the opportunities and fun, and he wishes to send a special thank you to his wife, Katie, whose support helps him stay afloat and stay sane.

The Bard - Country Shakespeare, Music

Roman Penney

Roman Penney is a Chattanooga native, musician, and performer with a lifelong passion for storytelling. He has performed in musical theater, live concerts, and collaborative productions throughout the Chattanooga area.
As someone who grew up in Chattanooga and has a love for history, I've always been interested in how the larger American story connects to the places and people around us. It's the story of people, their decisions, their struggles, and the consequences that follow.
“Being part of this collaboration has been incredibly rewarding! Theater is a special art form because no single person creates the finished experience. Each performer brings something different, and together we create something none of us could have created individually. Just like our American story!”

Abigail Adams, laundry dancer, act IV dancer + cast

Sarah Roberts

This is Sarah’s fourth production with Scenic City Shakespeare, following recent appearances as Viola/Cesario in Twelfth Night and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. Other recent credits include Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the Mars Theatre, and Grace Farrell in Annie at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre.

“In a world that so often frames everything as “us vs. them,” “black vs. white,” or “all good vs. all bad,” it is refreshing to be part of a production that tells a truer story—one that holds America’s traditional heroic narratives alongside the difficult, hard-to-swallow truths that are frequently swept under the rug when we celebrate our history. For that reason above all, I am proud to work alongside these thoughtful, intentional artists and to have been included in the creation of this piece.”

The company

Creative + production team

Playwright, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Act IV dancer + Cast

Hunter Rodgers

Hunter is so pleased to be a part of a devised work for SCS. Writing and crafting this with a wonderful group of artists has been a much needed challenge. Usually, theater work requires an interpretation of an existing piece. This has been creation on the fly. And it’s been personal. The work has been hard, but so gratifying. Hunter would like to acknowledge the company of artists that researched, advocated, and performed this piece. Like kids in an attic, going through the heirlooms of their ancestors. Hunter also wants to thank Emma Collins who has spent her whole career with Scenic City Shakespeare, creating magic out of nothing. Her passion is the battery that drives us. Her knowledge informs our decisions. And her vision motivates our creativity. I am a poorer and much less productive artist without her.

Stage director, producer, original concept design, Charlotte Cushman, featured suffragette fighter, laundry dancer, act IV dancer + cast

Emma Collins

Emma Wiseman Collins is co-founder and education director at Scenic City Shakespeare. She is a graduate of the Professional Actors Training Program at Chattanooga State. Emma trained in Bunraku style puppetry with Chattanooga’s Kids on the Block where she served as a puppeteer/educator. She created Scenic City Shakespeare’s educational puppetry program for young elementary learners, “Billie the Bard’s Puppet Playhouse”, developed through funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission, and “Three Person Hamlet” for 4th-7th grades.

Emma has served as producer and dramaturg for 10 Scenic City Shakespeare in the Park productions, and as stage director for As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. She is proud to lead this project through grant funding received from Tennessee 250 and the Tennessee State Museum, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, recognize Tennessee's integral role in that event and the impact of its people on the nation's past, present, and future.

As an actor, Emma portrayed Rosalind in SCS’s 2023 As You Like It. At Chattanooga State, she’s enjoyed returning to the school’s stage for performances of Radium Girls (Mrs. Fryer) and Lucky Stiff (Landlady). Favorite roles with Chattanooga State Repertory Theatre include Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and a player in Sherry Landrum’s fully improvised musical, Luck of the Draw. At the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Emma has garnered Best Supporting Actress awards for performances as Erma (Anything Goes) and Prudie Cupp (Pump Boys and Dinettes). For Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga, Emma has portrayed Penelope Pennywise (Urinetown), Kate Monster (Avenue Q), Cordelia (Falsettos), and the title role in Violet.

Emma is a teaching artist with the Wolf Trap Institute in the UTC affiliate based at the Arts Based Collaborative, where she leads professional development residencies for teachers to successfully integrate theatre arts strategies into every early education classroom.

“Seeing America Through the Tempest from idea to finished product has been an absolute honor. Our team will never forget this opportunity to delve into our national identity through history and the words of Shakespeare. When I direct Shakespeare, honoring the true spirit of the words in performance is important to me. I want us using song, dance, fights, pantomime, all manner of gags - just like The Bard in his own time and place. This production, so beautifully written by Hunter Rodgers and compiled through the thoughtful teamwork of our entire cast and creative team, encompasses those ideas and ideals that have endeared Americans to Shakespeare for 250 years and many more to come.”

Choreographer, featured dancer (page turn, laundry, Act IV), “Ole Green Eyes” + Cast

Monica Alicia Ellison

Monica Alicia (Coates) Ellison is a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator with a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University. Her professional performance credits include Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2, Balance Dance Theatre in New York City, Sudden Enlightenment Theatre in New York and Seoul, Korea, and North Shore Music Theatre’s production of Susan Stroman’s Contact. Since moving to Chattanooga, Ellison has danced and choreographed throughout the community, including choreographing Treemonisha and The Gondoliers for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She has also danced and choreographed for numerous Scenic City Shakespeare productions, work that she especially loves. Ellison currently serves as Making Moves Coordinator for Chattanooga Ballet and is the co-founder and Executive Director of Art To Empower, home of Move N Groove Kidz and Capoeira Chattanooga.

Fight Director, the personal swordsman of King George III, Mr. Anti-Suffragist + Cast

Will Snyder

Will Snyder is a fight director and actor currently living in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors and an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).
Fight direction credits include: Peter Pan (Smee/Fight Director) and Oliver! (Bill Sikes/Fight Director), Windy City Performs (Chicago); She Kills Monsters (Miles/Fight Director), Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga; Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt/Fight Director) and Hamlet (Laertes/Fight Director), Conasauga Shakespeare Coalition; and Macbeth (Fight Director), Hamlet (Fight Director), and As You Like It (Charles/Fight Director), Scenic City Shakespeare. He has also served as Fight Director for numerous productions throughout the Chattanooga area, including work with UT Chattanooga, Scenic City Shakespeare, and Conasauga Shakespeare Coalition.
Favorite acting credits include: REGIONAL: TECUMSEH! (Roundhead); Dracula in Tombstone (Dracula), Jenny Wiley Theatre; The Caterpillar Hunter (Caterpillar Hunter), Traveling Lantern Theatre. CHICAGO: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (The Bad Guy/Wrestling Trainer), Red Theatre; The Gothic Arch (Nobleman), Forget Me Not Theatre; Fall of the House of Usher (Supernumerary), Chicago Opera Theatre.
Will is the coordinator of Scenic City Slam, a regional stage combat workshop held every October at UTC. He can also be seen performing at the upcoming Chattanooga Renaissance Faire.
Will would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire cast and crew of America Through the Tempest for their talent, trust, and hard work.
To hire Will or learn about upcoming classes and workshops, visit www.battlekatcombat.com.

Costume Design

Brenda Schwab

Brenda Schwab has spent the past 40 plus years working in theater – professional, community and educational – acting, directing, costuming, coaching actors and singers and producing. She was co-founder of the New Harmony Theatre, a professional theater in New Harmony, Indiana, where she was in charge of the educational wing of the theater and directed the children’s theater program. The past 18 of those years she has spent at Chatt State where she is the resident costume designer and teaches costume design and construction. She has appeared onstage at Chatt State and other theaters in the area. In the Chattanooga area as a director she has worked with the Signal Mtn. Playhouse, Oak Street Playhouse, Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley Theatre in Spring City. She was the resident costume designer at the Cumberland County Playhouse for a number of years and was part of the first professional acting company hired there.

Producer / Technical Director

Ryan Laskowski

Ryan Laskowski founded Scenic City Shakespeare in the Fall of 2019 and has served as Artistic Director and Technical Director for all productions. Ryan trained in acting and improvisation with Rex Knowles and Sherry Landrum through the Professional Actor Training Program and is an alumnus of Center for Creative Arts' Musical Theatre Department's under Allan Ledford and Lindsay Fussell. Our audiences most recently saw Ryan on stage as Iago in our production of Othello. His directing credits with us include Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, Macbeth, and our Shakespeare Double Feature of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Comedy of Errors. He also appeared as Touchstone in our 2023 production of As You Like It. For The Tempest, Ryan serves as our technical director and stage manager.

Additional credits include the role of The Modern Major General in Chattanooga State's 2008 and 2018 productions of The Pirates of Penzance, The Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol, Gooper (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), and Dr Mendel (Falsettos). As a long-time member of the Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga, Ryan has taken part in numerous local premieres such as Avenue Q (Nicky), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Ed) and Stoning Mary (Husband). His work behind the scenes includes lighting design for NOOGAVision Theatre Company’s For Colored Girls, technical direction for Lookout Live’s The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and serving as Interim Emcee for the Nightfall Summer Music Series.
Ryan wishes to thank ArtsBuild and Hope for the Inner City for their unwavering support of our community.

Sniteman Cabin glowing with candles at dusk — So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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