Here is our delightful cast for our ninth season. Scroll and click to view photo and read biography.
JENNIFER SHEPARD is one of the owners and is proud to say that this is our ninth year! Jen went to school in Iowa and then moved to Chicago. She performed at iO and The Playground Theater and worked with The Galileo Players , Gay Co! and Brick. 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 & Frenchboro, and at ImprovAcadia. During the winter months she joins Chicago's The Second City performing aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. If you really love her, send her yarn. K2Tog now!
Stuart Ranson moved to Chicago to study improvisation after graduating from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. After completing the training centers of the Improv Olympic, Annoyance Theater, and Second City, he began a tour of duty with the Second City National Touring Company. At Second City, he also performed with the ETC cast in the Jeff Award Winning “Holy War, Batman!” Stuart is an original member of musical improv group Baby Wants Candy, with whom he attended the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Spoleto Arts Festival. Baby Wants Candy was named 2005 Ensemble of the Year by the Chicago Improv Festival and performs regularly at Chicago’s Apollo Theater and in various New York venues. His other credits include the smash hit musicals “Jedi: A Musical Tour de Force” and “Moulin Scrooge.” He lives in New York City.
Amber Gerencher is so excited to be visiting the East Coast for the first time in her life (What?!) and performing at ImprovAcadia. Amber is from the greater Chicagoland area, and moved to Chicago Proper in 2009 to be a musical theatre actor. Out of morbid curiosity, she took an improv class, and it stuck. She's studied improv at Second City and iO in Chicago, and currently plays with the Second City Training Center's music improv house enesmble, Infinite Sundaes. She was a contestant in Season 6 of Impress These Apes (impresstheseapes.com), is an ensemble member of Takin' it to the Beats (Chicago's premiere improvised A Capella group), and performs around Chicago with various amalgamations of her improv friends. She also does some of that musical theatre she went to Chicago for in the first place. Thanks to Jen and Larrance for this fantastic opportunity!
Kate Cohen is thrilled to return ImprovAcadia for season nine! Kate has her B.A. in Theatre from the University of Arizona and has been improvising in Chicago since 2004. She performs regularly with ComedySportz Chicago, Laugh Out Loud Theater and as half of the award-winning musical improv duo Kate & Mike: The Musical. Kate has also performed improv and sketch comedy throughout the Bahamas and Carribean with The Second City aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. She is a faculty member at The Second City Training Center and ComedySportz. Many thanks and much love to her family and friends!
Eric is very excited to be performing for the first time with ImprovAcadia! Eric is a Chicago native, but his mother is originally from Damariscotta, Maine, so he's been up this way a few times (buy him a lobster and he’ll prove it…he'll totally eat the tomalley). Eric has been improvising for about 7 years, but he likes to think, perhaps foolishly, that he’s been funny for longer than that. In Chicago he performs at the iO Theater with his team “Thank You, Dr. Science!”, at Second City with the Training Center's Music Improv House Ensemble a.k.a. “Infinite Sundaes”, at the Apollo Theater with “Thirsty!” (which he co-created, now in its 4th year!), and he recently ended a stint at ComedySportz with his Rec League team ‘Unofficial Ecstasy Break’. Eric enjoys reading, instrumental music, the color blue, and writing in the third person. Much love to my family!
DEANNA MOFFITT could not be happier making her return trip to ImprovAcadia. She resides in Chicago with her husband Rance Rizzutto where she's performed with ComedySportz, iO, Second City Theatricals, and WNEP. She is one half of the paring of The R&D Project that performs a completely silent improv show set to a sound track of music. She co-hosts This Much is True, Chicago's hottest story telling show, and she's also a Voice Over talent and corporate trainer.
Matthew Van Colton is a Chicago-based performer, teacher and director. He has worked with Chicago Dramatists, Northlight, Porchlight, Annoyance, Playground, Victory Gardens, iO, Royal George and TUTA theatres among others. He is a faculty member at Second City Training Center, where he teaches & directs in the music conservatory; he has also recently taught or coached for Evanston Township High School, Acting Studio Chicago, Happy Karaoke Fun Time and Clown Car to Sicily. Most recently, he directed for Citizen’s Relief Theatre Company and Vampeero Productions as well as numerous productions on Second City Training Center stages. He is a veteran of music improv and the Second City Music Improv House Ensemble. This September you can catch him in New York, with One Night Only at American Theatre of Actors or back home in Chicago, performing with Mansical (www.mansical.org) of which he is a founder . Matt is a member of Actor’s Equity.
Jon Silver is thrilled to be a part of ImprovAcadia 2012. He started improvising in 1998 and has loved it ever since. When he's not in Maine he's performing sketch and improv back in Chicago, or in his native Detroit. Jon has appeared in numerous plays and films, on TV shows such as "What the Sell" and "Pawn Queens". He wants to thank Kate, his family, and his fellow cast members for their support.
Mary Cait Walthall is just so tickled to be returning to ImprovAcadia. In Chicago, she has received training from the iO Theater, the Second City, and the Neofuturists. She loves improvising with Inkling at iO, Baby Wants Candy at the Apollo, a Dozen Red Roses at CIC, and The Improvised Star Trek Podcast at www.theimprovisedstartrek.com. She also loves writing and performing sketch comedy at places like the Annoyance, Studio Be, and friends' living rooms. Mary Cait would like to thank Jen and Larrance for the opportunity to perform in such a beautiful place for such fun and nice people.
Adam Schreck is extremely excited to be joining the cast of ImprovAcadia this season. In Chicago, he can seen be seen improvising with Fiction for The Poor and Storytown at iO and with Peach of the Neighborhood and Takin' it to the Beats! at the Playground. He is also involved in a number of sketch and writing projects, most recently writing and performing in the staged television pilots of "Pilot Season" at iO. Adam has never been to New England and can think of no better place to start than the great state of Maine.
Emily Anderson feels so fortunate to be joining the cast of ImprovAcadia this year. Originally from Pennsylvania, she studied theatre and creative writing at Northwestern University and currently trains at iO and The Annoyance. She recently graduated from The Second City Conservatory, has performed in a handful of sketch shows through The Second City Training Center, and can be seen playing with Babymouth at The Playground. She’d like to thank Jen and Larrance so much for this amazing opportunity.
Joe Burton is very glad to be back at Improv Acadia. After taking last summer off to raise an infant he has returned with a toddler in tow. Joe spends most of his year towing that toddler around Chicago where he and his wife, Shelby, call home. He is a member of the Improvised Sheakespeare Company, Laugh Out Load Theater and is a founding member of Bughouse Theater. He would like to thank his wonderful family, for all their support and especially Joe and Linda for making the trip Maine to see shows and help with Baby Crash.
SHELBY BURTON is very excited to be returning to Acadia for her sixth season! A native of North Carolina, Shelby currently lives in Chicago. She is the director of the long running improvised children's show Hogwash (www.hogwashkids.com) and is performing as an ensemble member at Laugh Out Loud Theater. She is also working with her wonderful husband Joe at Bughouse Theater (www.bughousetheater.com) in Chicago to provide a performance and gallery space for artist of all disciplines. She would like to thank her family for all of their support and of course her son, Crash for being the first ImprovAcadia baby!
Julia couldn't be happier to return to ImprovAcadia this season! Julia graduated from Indiana University in 2007 with a BA in theatre and is also an alumnus of the iO Theatre's Training Center. She currently performs with 1941 at CIC, ButchMAX at iO, and independently with Salute Jive and Eleanor. She also entertains the patients of Children's Memorial Hospital with the cast of Funny Bones. A passionate writer, Julia's work as been featured on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Paper Machete, and on a few non-equity stages, one high school auditorium and Anneliese Toft's living room. Julia would like to thank her family and friends for being made of magic as well as Jen and Larrance, who make coming to Maine feel like coming home.
Molly Jones is so excited to be a part of the ImprovAcadia cast this summer. She has just graduated from the iO Training Center in Chicago and is finishing up the Second City Conservatory. She also performs at the nation's first co-op improv theatre, The Playground with the team, The Night Shift. Molly has appeared in a few sketch shows around Chicago including Second City's, "Tales from the Friend Zone," "On The Edge", and a 2 person review with a fellow Molly-named improviser entitled, "Hot 2Mollies." She is native of Los Angeles and a proud graduate of the University of Miami, but attributes much of her creative background to Laurel South, a southern Maine-based summer camp that is a veritable heaven on earth.
Jo Feldman is so excited to join ImprovAcadia! Originally from Detroit, she received her BA in radio broadcasting from Columbia College Chicago and studied improvisation at The Second City and iO Theater in Chicago. Jo has toured the high seas with The Second City aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines, so she is excited to be near water again this summer in Maine. Back in Chicago, she improvises with so many hilarious and talented folks including Sports Team at iO, her two person team Feldmanowski, and the improvised musical Baby Wants Candy at the Apollo Theater. Thank you to my family and friends for the assurance that nothing is ever really out of reach.
Alex DiGiacinto is very excited to be performing at ImprovAcadia. Originally from New Hampshire, Alex is currently based out of Chicago where he can be seen performing at a bunch of different places including iO, the Annoyance and Playground theaters.He is a current understudy for the Second City National Touring Company. Enjoy the show!
John Loos is incredibly excited to be returning to ImprovAcadia! He has performed for Second City on two cruise ships, the NCL Jewel and NCL Pride of America, and regularly performs for Laugh Out Loud Theater (Schaumburg, IL). He recently wrote and starred in the original play A Woman's Path at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago, and was seen this summer in Steamworks: The Musical (Annoyance). When he's not enjoying the beautiful bounty of Maine, he performs as an ensemble member of GayCo Productions and can be seen around Chicago with his two sketch duos, Pinque Pony and JODY. Endless thanks to Jen and Larrance, and to the mighty glaciers or volcanoes or whatever it was that made Acadia National Park.
Andy Eninger is a Chicago-based playwright, actor and director. He serves as the Head of the Writing Program for Second City's Training Center in Chicago, where he also teaches. He has performed as an understudy for Second City’s Mainstage, and has taught thousands of corporate clients to communicate through workshops with Second City Communications. Andy is the After-Dark Award winning composer for “Bandgeeks: A Halftime Musical,” which he also directed. Andy’s solo improv show “Sybil” has been seen across the country, and in Europe, and was featured in the book “Shortcuts to Longform Improvisation.” He is currently at work on a screenplay about assassins, a sitcom pilot about fertility clinics, and a musical about Europe. He was part of the very first cast of ImprovAcadia, and is proud to be back this year.
Amy Roeder is delighted to be back at Improv Acadia for her eighth season! Most recently, she has performed with Second City Theatricals at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in "Second City 2; Less Pride, More Pork." She has also performed with Second City Theatricals at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and onboard the NCL Epic and NCL Star and in Second City's "History of Chicago" show at the new UP Comedy Club. Amy has had the great good fortune to have improv homes at Gotham City Improv in New York, the Improv Asylum in Boston, the Playground Theatre in Chicago, Improv Athens at the University of Georgia, and at the incomparable ImprovAcadia. Amy holds an MFA from the University of Georgia and her BFA from the University of Evansville. Many thanks to Jen and Larrance for the opportunity and to her husband Eric.
Zach Zimmerman is so excited to visit Maine and perform at ImprovAcadia! A Virginia native and Princeton graduate, Zach has been writing and acting in Chicago since 2010. He's lucky enough to perform with the talented folks of Birthday Girl at iO, ImprovStandsUp! at the Playground, and F*ck You, I Love You, Bye: The Rahm Emanuel Story at the Annoyance. He is part of the Mission Improvable National Touring Company and a graduate of iO and The Second City Conservatory. Big thanks to Jen and Larrance for this opportunity and Stephen King for warning him about Maine.
VINCENT KRACHT is ecstatic to once again be returning to ImprovAcadia, his "home away from home." In the Chicago area, he has performed at Laugh Out Loud and The Comedy Shrine, been an ensemble member of GayCo, and was one of the founding members of "Cast on a Hot Tin Roof," Chicago's longest running, completely improvised play. This year, Vincent has been playing Wilbur opposite Jim J Bullock's Edna in The Oasis of the Seas production of "Hairspray."
Brett Mannes has been performing sketch and improv comedy for about ten years now. He got his start in Washington, DC, as a member of the DC Improv's long-form house team, bright young things. He moved to Chicago in 2006 to train at both iO and The Annoyance. From there, Brett went on to join pH Productions, and currently serves as the company's Executive Director. He is also a core ensemble member of GayCo Productions, Chicago's premiere LGBT sketch and improv comedy troupe. Brett can currently be seen in Chicago improv shows like pHamily the Musical and pHrenzy! at pH, as well as in Skinprov at The Annoyance. Some of his previous work includes directing The Assemblers, a superhero genre satire, and performing in GayCo's holiday sketch show Lit! and pH's semi-original comedy The Breakfast Club Musical as Brain "The Brain" Johnson.
Peter Kremidas is very excited to be performing for the first time with ImprovAcadia. In Chicago he works as an improviser, actor, writer, and stand up comedian. He is an ensemble member at Comedy Sportz Chicago, and has also trained and performed in many different shows at Comedy Sportz, iO, The Annoyance, The Playground, and many other venues. He is a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf and The Second City Conservatory. He has taught classes in improvisation, ensemble energy, and acting for The Writer's Theatre, Chicago Children's Musical Theatre, and Comedy Sportz Chicago. He also teaches his own curriculum in 'Meisner for Improvisers' through the Comedy Sportz training center. Thanks so much and enjoy the show!
TYLER SMITH is intensely excited to be doing improv in the greatest harbor ever. Hailing from Chicago, you can currently see Tyler at The Playground playing with Chicago Reader recommended "Claymore." With Claymore, he will be working on the second season of a monthly sketch show, "Exquisite Corpse." Find out more at (www.claymoreproductions.com). Tyler is an alumnus of the iO Training Center, and has taken workshops with Mick Napier, Susan Messing, and Mark Sutton. Tyler would like to thank Jen and Larrance for this intense opportunity, his intensely awesome family, and he'd like to thank Mo for being intensely pretty.
BRAD EINSTEIN is incredibly excited to be joining ImprovAcadia this season. He is a member of the internationally acclaimed improvised musical Baby Wants Candy, and is a resident member of ComedySportz Theatre Chicago. He has studied improvisation at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Second City, iO, and the Annoyance, where he can currently be seen performing in a number of shows. Recently, he wrote and performed in the TimeOut and Reader-recommended "Please Love Me, High School Boyfriend" for the Chicago Fringe Festival. Much thanks to Jen and Larrance, as well as his family. Enjoy the show!
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, Europe, and Hawaii. Hear some of his music at www.larrancefingerhut.com