2008 | ImprovAcadia

JENNIFER SHEPARD In 2004, Jen and Larrance decided to open ImprovAcadia. This is the fifth year! After graduating from the University of Iowa, she moved to Chicago to study improvisation. During her nine years in Chicago, she was fortunate enough to perform at iO (ImprovOlympic) and The Playground Theater. She also worked with The Chicago Comedy Co, touring to colleges and writing corporate comedy. While in Chicago, Jennifer helped to write over 10 sketch comedy shows with The Galileo Players (Science nerds doing comedy), Gay Co! (Some gays, lesbians and a couple of straights doing comedy) and Brick (Masonry mixed with the cement of comedy). Since moving to Maine she's enjoyed teaching improv at The College of the Atlantic, the Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center, on Isle Au Haut, and at ImprovAcadia. During the winter months she joins Chicago's The Second City performing for Norwegian Cruise Line in the Caribbean. If you really love her, send her yarn. K2Tog now!.

LARRANCE FINGERHUT (Music Director) has been improvising on the piano since he was two years old. After spending 13 years performing and composing in the Bar Harbor area he went to Chicago where he was music director for iO, Baby Wants Candy, and Second City Touring Company, and a teacher and music director at Columbia College. He composes string quartets and music for theater. During the winter months he joins Chicago's The Second City cast performing for Norwegian Cruise Line in the Caribbean.

ABBY MCENANY is thrilled to be back in Bar Harbor with ImprovAcadia. She lives in Chicago and tours with The Second City National Touring Company. She is also a member of Sirens, Chicago's longest-running women's improv group. Thanks to Jen and Larrance for living the dream.

AMY ROEDER just finished her second year as an MFA student at the University of Georgia where she worked with internationally acclaimed director Robert Woodruff, was heard throughout Georgia (and the world) in a new adaptation of the radio play The War of the Worlds and won a travel grant to study Theater of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro. Amy is an original mainstage cast member of Boston's Improv Asylum, as well, which just celebrated its tenth anniversary. In addition to the Asylum, Amy has had the honor of performing at the Playground Theater in Chicago, Gotham City Improv in New York, with Storybox in Chicago and at the incomperable Improv Acadia for the past three summers. She thanks Jen and Larrance and the cast for the incredible opportunity of performing on the Improv Acadia stage. Amy would also like to thank her adorable husband Eric who is the most patient man alive for putting up

ANDREW ENINGER is a playwright, actor and director. He leads corporateworkshops for Second City Communications and teaches improv and sketch fortheir Chicago Training Center. He understudied Second City's Mainstagerevue "Red Scare", and was a founding member of GayCo Productions,performing in twelve comedy revues for them. He is the After-Dark Awardwinning composer of "Bandgeeks: A Halftime Musical", which he also directed,and has presented his solo improv show "Sybil" to audiences around NorthAmerica. This is his third visit to ImprovAcadia, and he has yet to see amoose.

BRETT LYONS has been doing improv in Chicago for the past 6 years and is thrilled to join the cast of ImprovAcadia. Brett has studied at The Second City and iO Theater. He can currently be seen performing with Deep Schwa, Super Fun Time, The Improv Match Game, and host of The Improv Jam. Brett has also appeared at the Toronto Improv Festival and Charleston Improv Festival with Aphasia. Brett would like to thank his family and friends for all their love and support.

BROOKE BAGNALL is absolutely giddy about working for ImprovAcadia. When she is not in Maine, Brooke performs with the Second City Touring Company. Originally from North Carolina, Brooke got a BA in Drama and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, where she performed with the fabulous Mama's Pot Roast. In Chicago, she has trained and performed at iO Chicago, Second City and the Annoyance. She has been fortunate to play with many amazing people in Chicago, including the groups Quincy, Blaire and the Republic, as well as in Annoyance shows like "Arm Soup" and "Love is Dead." She recently premiered her first solo show, "idiot: a love story in pieces." Love to Mom, Dad, Chip, Josh and all her family and friends.

CHRISTOPHER DAY is excited to be taking part in his first season withImprovAcadia. Chris spent 12 years studying and performing in Chicago,spending a great deal of time at the iO performing with GeorgiaPacific. In the last year he experienced a change in life and has relocatedto Rhode Island to start anew as a Librarian. Expect his performance to bearranged first by subject and then by author, and to be due back after threeweeks. Fines start at 10 cents a day.

DAVE COLAN is super excited to be in Bar Harbor and to reunite with Jen Shepard. Dave and Jen first met in 1999 as founding members of the legendary, groundbreaking improv group Mr. Fancypants. Since then, Dave has performed and trained at The Playground, IO, The Annoyance, and Second City. He toured America with the Second City touring company, performed and wrote shows with Second City-Denver, and was a brief member of Second City - Las Vegas. He's now doing corporate comedy with Second City and understudying S.C.'s Chicago stages. He loves Carissa, Snargle, Steve, and the rest of his family, too.

FARRELL WALSH is excited to be part of ImprovAcadia's2008 season. Farrell is a founding member of the iOChicago house team Revolver, as well as theindependent improv group 21st Century Men. Hecurrently holds the position of Artistic Director withChemically Imbalanced Comedy, and is part of CIC'shouse team, Cornwallis. Farrell would like to thankhis wonderful wife Beth for her love and support.

JOE BURTON lives in Chicago where he paints, makes films and teaches science and improv. He also performs with Hot Pocket, Otis, The Improvised Shakespeare Company, and The Fowler Family Radio Hour, and is a co-founder of Bughouse Theater in Chicago. He likes fun things and would like to thank his family and his wife to be, Shelby for their love and support.

JOHN HARTMAN is quite excited to be performing with ImprovAcadia. Before moving to Chicago, John was a main stage cast member of the Improv Inferno in Ann Arbor, MI, and appeared in many scripted and unscripted shows at the Planet Ant Theatre, including Timeless: The Danceical (Audience Award Ð Boxfest '07). A Virginia native, he has written and performed in To Catch a President (Second City Detroit) and O Christmas Triage (Improv Inferno), for which he received an Oscar Wilde Award nomination. He has also performed around the country at the Dirty South Improv Festival (North Carolina), the Chicago Improv Festival, and the Kansas City Improv Festival. In Chicago, John performs in the weekly sketch comedy show Big News (iO Theater), in the two-person sketch duo Kapowski, and with Victory at Sea at The Playground. He'd like to thank everyone who has performed and put up with him.

JOSHUA BREIT was born and raised in South Florida. He began doingimprov in college at the University of Florida with Theatre StrikeForce. He has since moved to Chicago where he studied at everytheater that would have him. He has performed with several teams atiO Chicago, including Mr. Fahrenheit and the Deltones, iO's Musicalimprov ensemble. He is currently a proud member of both theComedySportz ensemble and the most lovable bunch of jerks you'll evermeet, Alpha Dog Omega. Go Gators!

LEAH GOTCSIK loves Maine and is excited to perform with the talent folks of Improv Acadia. She spent last summer sailing the seas with The Second City aboard the Norwegian Dawn (she actually tendered in to Bar Harbor three times!). She is one half of the sketch comedy duo Somebody's in the Doghouse and is a founding member of the mainstage cast at Boston's Improv Asylum. In Chicago, she's a faculty member at The Second City and she improvises with Baby Wants Candy and iO Theater's Revolver. If you give Leah a lobster roll, she will eat it.

LUCIANA BONIFAZI is absolutely thrilled to be joining the ImprovAcadia cast this summer. Back in Chicago, you can see her as part of the Second City Musical House Emsemble, Infinite Sundaes; the new Battle-Prov team at ComedySportz Chicago; the fabulous Comedy Shrine Players out in Naperville, IL; or the new style-heavy group Genre. She is also working on her Masters Degree in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management at Columbia College Chicago as well as finishing up her training with both ComedySportz Chicago and the Second City Conservatory. She would like to thank Rich and all her friends and family in Chicago for their love and support.

MARLA CACERES a Miami native, studied improvisation, acting and sketch comedy at the University of Florida. She currently performs with the critically acclaimed improvised political satire "Whirled News Tonight" at the iO Theatre and recently finished "Because They Have No Words" at the Piven Theatre. Marla also writes for and performs with PennyBear, a sketch comedy group thatÊ received "Best Sketch" accolades from the Tribune for their Chicago Sketchfest performance. Other credits include the iO Theatre house ensemble Cougars, the bilingual LoCo for Second City Outreach, Dinner for Six, Second City Communications, and Storybox.

MARY THERESA ARCHBOLD is thrilled to be joining the ImprovAcadia cast. She currently resides in New York City where she teaches and performs improv at The Magnet Theater. Recently, she performed for The Second City in the Mexican Riviera. She performed at the ImprovOlympic for years and did various musicals in regional theaters across the country. Favorite shows are West Side Story, The Music Man, Annie Get Your Gun and The Secret of the Old Queen: A Hardy Boys Musical. Her career highlights are her one woman show, "Make 'em Laugh; A Tribute to Donald O'Connor", her independent Television pilot "Manayunk Press" and her upcoming solo show "Jazz Hand: Tales of a One-Armed Woman" at the NY Fringe Festival. Thanks to her amazing husband Pat Shay.

MIKE SHREEMAN (SAG/AFTRA/AEA)

Mike is delighted that Jen and Larrance have invited him back for his fourth season in Bar Harbor. For The Second City, Mike has performed in the national tour of "Sex and the Second City", "Jewsical, the Musical", the "Music Improv House Ensemble", on the Norwegian cruise line, and is a faculty member of the training center. At ImprovOlympic , he was a founding member of "Frank Booth" and directed "Baby wants Candy". Some other roles Mike has enjoyed are; Corey in "Roasting Chestnuts" at The Noble Fool Theater, Fred Gayley in the national tour of the musical "Miracle on 34th Street", "Ronald McDonald", an ensemble member of all three mountings of "Musical! the Musical", spokesman for the Dusseldorf tourism bureau and improvising for Brave New Workshop on the Disney cruise line. He also founded and directs "Novel Ideas", an educational theater troupe touring the Midwest.

NATALIE SULLIVAN is a proud alum of the University of Florida where she discovered improv through Theatre Strike Force. Since relocating to less-sunny Chicago , she has trained at the iO Theatre, Second City and ComedySportz, and has written and performed sketch comedy with Johnny's Regret and Firecracker. Recently she sailed aboard the NCL Spirit with Second City at Sea. She is currently an ensemble member at ComedySportz and an understudy for the Second City National Touring Company. Huge thanks to her friends and family for their constant support and jokes. Huge thanks to Bar Harbor for blueberry fudge.

PAT SHAY is downright giddy to be back in Bar Harborfor his fourth season with ImprovAcadia. A longtimeperformer at the ImprovOlympic theater in Chicago, Patrecently joined a shipboard cast of the Second Cityfor four months along the Mexican Riviera. He alsoperformed as one of the "teachers" in the upcomingshow "Improv School" on Comedynet.com, and has donesome voices for the HBO powered site thisjustin.com.He continues to teach and perform at the PeoplesImprov Theater in New York City.

RACHEL MILLER is thrilled to return to ImprovAcadia and lovely lovely Bar Harbor. She recently performed with The Second City onboard Norwegian Cruise Line's Spirit, following contracts on the Dawn and Star. She is the vocal half of the guitar/vocal improv duet Vlad & Rachel, spent 5-1/2 years in Amsterdam with the sketch/improv theatre Boom Chicago, and while in Chicago performed in such groups as The Pat Shay Dancers, The Minions of Love, and Baby Wants Candy. She has performed at comedy festivals in Edinburgh, Singapore, Berlin and Chicago and freestyle-rapped at U2's European "Vertigo" Tour Party. Rachel studied improvisation in Chicago at The Second City, The Annoyance and iO. She loves diving, hates conga lines and will steal your blueberries if given half a chance.

REBECCA SOHN is thrilled to return to ImprovAcadia andBar Harbor. In Chicago she's an alumna of The SecondCity ETC and ensemble member of The Annoyance, whereshe teaches, improvises, acts and recently directedthe smash hit surfing musical "The Perfect Wave". Sheand her husband Rich Sohn mounted their sketch show,"Idiot Tango" at The Annoyance earlier this year. Other Chicago credits include Steppenwolf and RemyBumppo. She tours internationally with the fabulouswomen of Switchboard. She'd like to thank Jen andLarrance for this great idea they made happen and Richfor all the other stuff.

RICH SOHN is excited to be back for his fourth season at ImprovAcadia. Rich is an ensemble member and teacher with The Annoyance Theater in Chicago where he can currently be seen in the shows: The Invention Show, Grabass, Bad Touch and Crickets. He was a long time member of the ImprovOlympic ensemble, The Pat Shay Dancers, but Pat Shay doesn't even have that in his bio anymore so why should Rich? He is no longer as fat as he looks in this photo.

RICH BAKER is proud to be part of the cast of Improvacadia. Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, Rich began improv at TCU where he founded the first and only improv troupe, Senseless Acts of Comedy. In Texas, Rich performed with ComedySportz Dallas. Since moving to Chicago in 2005, Rich has performed with iO's Cutlass Supreme, GENRE (a Second City director's project by James Honey), and Alpha Dog Omega. Currently, he can be seen as a performer and teacher with ComedySportz Chicago and the Comedy Shrine in Naperville. Many thanks to his parents and Lucia.

SAM SUPER hails from Portland, OR, and is just giddy to join the cast of ImprovAcadia! Since studying acting and directing at the University of Oregon and the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, Sam has called Chicago home. Sam is the Assistant Artistic Director of ComedySportz Chicago, and can also be seen in The Hot Karl, Baby Wants Candy, The Improv Match Game, & Revolver at the iO Theater. He has performed and taught improvisation across the country and abroad, including at the Chicago Improv Festival, the Toronto Improv Festival, and the Miami Improv Festival. Sam enjoys creating digital sketch comedy with his friends at Seven8nine Productions., and thanks his family and pals for their endless support.

SARAH REULE is from Michigan, where she received a Masters in Theater from MSU. While in Chicago, she has peddled KFC, Sam Adams, and Taco Bell on TV and radio, and sexed up corporate comedy for clients including Yahoo! and US Cellular. She is a current member of The Second City Music Improv House Ensemble, Laugh Out Loud, and The Indie Darlings. Sarah has also written and performed in notable sketch shows, including "Improvidate," "Always Hungry," and "Listen, Kid..." Film credits include the award winning "Mercy Date" with Popcorn Island. She can't wait to meet the guy she'll thank for support in future bios.www.sarahreule.com

SHELBY JENNINGS is very excited to be returning to Acadia this year. A native of North Carolina, Shelby currently lives in Chicago. Her most recent projects include The Fowler Family Radio hour which was selected to for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina and Hogwash - an improvised family show. She is also a proud member of two improv teams Cowlick (The Playground Theater) and Airbourne (iO Theater). She would like to thank her family,friends Joe, and Kevin for thier love and support.

TAMARA NOLTE, originally from Philadelphia, moved to Chicago to study improvisation after graduating from Boston College. In the past 5 years she has trained at Second City, iO (formerly known as Improv Olympic), the Annoyance Theater, ComedySportz and has written and performed in 4 sketch reviews with the sketch group Johnny's Regret. Currently, Tamara performs with The Beat Box (Dirty South Improv), the Del Tones (iO), Infinite Sundaes (Second City Musical Improv House Ensemble), and ComedySportz Chicago.

VINCENT KRACHT, graduated from Western Michigan University. In Chicago, he has performed with About Face Theatre, ComedySportz, The Bailiwick Theatre, Chicago Comedy Company, The Free Associates, and the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble. Most recently, he portrayed the role of Yvan in Art and originated the role of Josef in Jenny Lamb's Memento Polonia. Vincent is an original member of the long-running, improvised play, Cast on a Hot Tin Roof, and has performed in its many incarnations since conception sixteen years ago. Vincent is an artistic associate for GayCo and currently performs at The Comedy Shrine in Naperville, IL.

ImprovAcadia

Cast of 2008