Ashley Neal (Grace Marks) is thrilled to be back at Rivendell Ensemble Theatre, where she is an ensemble member and has appeared in many productions including WRENS, 26 Miles, The Walls, Be Aggressive, and others. Ashley most recently appeared in A Red Orchid Theatre’s The Nether where she also appeared in A Red Handed Otter. Other shows you may have seen her in include: London Wall, Men Should Weep and Stage Door with Griffin Theatre, The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle with Steep Theatre, as well as work with Chicago Dramatists Pine Box, Irish Theatre Company, Step Up, Jackalope Theatre, Victory Gardens, Strawdog, The Greenhouse Theatre, and others. Ashley is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and The School at Steppenwolf.

Steve Haggard (Simon Jordan) was last seen at Rivendell as Evan in Winter. Chicago credits: 3C, Sender, The Mutilated, Accidentally Like A Martyr, The Aliens, Kimberly Akimbo and The Mandrake (A Red Orchid Theatre) Tribes (Steppenwolf); Doubt, Old Glory, The Subject Was Roses, and Our Town (Writers’); Funnyman, Season’s Greetings, and She Stoops to Conquer (Northlight); Wasteland (Timeline); King Lear, As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare). Regional Credits: Arcadia, R+G are Dead, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest, Hay Fever, Comedy of Errors, and Ah Wilderness (American Players Theatre); Almost Maine (Milwaukee Repertory) and Fallen Angels (Indiana Repertory). He is an ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre and a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Jane Baxter Miller (Mrs. Rachel Lavell) is a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. RTE credits include American Wee-Pie; Falling: A Wake; Self-Defense, or death of some salesmen; Silence; Faulkner’s Bicycle; The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾; and WRENS. Additional Chicago credits include Dandelion Wine with Chicago Children’s Theatre; The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer with Next Theatre; Mr. Kolpert with A Red Orchid Theatre; The Irish and How They Got That Way at the Mercury Theatre, Cowgirls with Northlight Theatre and Pump Boys and Dinettes at Theatre at the Centre. Her film credits include NBC’s Chicago Justice and an upcoming Captive State feature film. Jane is a singer and songwriter appearing on numerous recordings through Bloodshot Records. She composed the children’s musical Dirty Cowboy (with follow RTE ensemble member Victoria DeIorio) for Lifeline Theatre. Look for her critically acclaimed solo recording, Harm Among the Willows, in fancy places like Bloodshot Records and iTunes.

Ayssette Muñoz (Mary Whitney) is an ensemble member with Teatro Vista, where her credits include Wolf at The End of the Block; In the Time of the Butterflies; Between You, Me, and the Lampshade; Romeo & Juliet; and A View From the Bridge. Additional Chicago credits include Ah, Wilderness; Marisol (Goodman Theatre) and understudying in Short Shakes! Romeo & Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre). Regional credits include The Comedy of Errors; Richard III (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival). Television credits include Chicago P.D. She was featured as one of the Chicago Tribune’s “Top 10 Hot New Faces of Chicago Theatre” in 2015 and is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency.

Maura Kidwell (Nancy Montgomery) is delighted to make her Rivendell debut in Alias Grace. In her eleven years acting in Chicago, Maura has enjoyed working on stage at Theatre Wit, The Gift, Erasing the Distance (ensemble member), and Court Theatre. Television credits include: Sirens, Chicago Fire, Chicago Justice, Mind Games and Boss. Film credits include: Canal Street and Tim Kasher’s debut feature No Resolution. Maura is an on-camera instructor at Vagabond School of the Arts. She is represented by Gray Talent Group and Principato-Young.

Amro Salama (Jeremiah/Jerome DuPont) is thrilled to be making his Rivendell Theatre debut. Chicago theatre credits include 16th Street Theater as Ali in the Jeff nominated play Yasmina’s Necklace, understudying at The Goodman, as well as staged readings for Silk Road Rising, Dramatists and International Voices Project. Regional credits: Illinois: Timberlake Playhouse; St. Louis: Mustard Seed Theatre; Los Angeles: Cornerstone Theatre, Theatricum Botanicum, Pacific Resident Theatre, The Hudson Theatre, and ACME; NYC: Variety Arts. TV and Film Credits include Ed Zwick’s The Siege, Chicago PD, Shameless, Modern Family, Law and Order, Children’s Hospital, Suite Life on Deck and an upcoming recurring role on the new Showtime series The Chi. Amro is represented by Gray Talent Group.

Drew Vidal (Thomas Kinnear) is delighted to make his Rivendell onstage debut, having started there as a Fight Director on Silence. Chicago acting credits include Famous Door, The Hypocrites, Defiant, Boxer Rebellion, Red Hen, Collaboraction and Tin Fish, among others. More recently: The Glass Menagerie (Human Race), The Book Club Play (Kansas University Repertory), Angels in America (Ball State University), and The Three Musketeers (Illinois Shakespeare Festival); and as a Fight Director, Solstice (A Red Orchid Theatre), Water by the Spoonful (Off Square Theatre Company), Holes and Dracula (Indiana Repertory). Drew leads the BFA acting program at Ball State University.

David Raymond (James McDermott) Chicago credits include Good People (Redtwist Theatre), It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Brightside Theatre), and Posh (u/s Steep Theatre, Jeff Award Winner–Best Ensemble). Bay Area credits include work with San Francisco Playhouse, Stanford Repertory Theater, and Custom Made Theatre Company’s 2015 production of This Is Our Youth for which David won an SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award (Best Principal Actor). He has also appeared in commercials and online content. David is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf (2016) and is represented by Big Mouth Talent. www.Davidraymond.me 

Eric Slater (Simon Jordan for extension performances) has been a company member at RTE since 2006 and appeared in productions of Winter, Rasheeda Speaking, Self-Defense, Expecting Isabel and Silence. Other Chicago credits include Hand To God (Victory Gardens), Kill Floor (American Theatre Co.), Diary of Ann Frank (Writers Theatre), Feathers & Teeth and Smokefall (Goodman) among many others. Off & Off-Off Broadway: Juvenal Players (The Kitchen), The Dudley’s: A Family Game! (Theatre for a New City), Our Greatest Year (Kraine & The Brick), Original Cast Gloryana (The Public Theater & The York Theatre Co.), Cyanocitta (The Becket on Theatre Row). Regional credits: Fornicated From the Beatles (American Repertory Theatre), Experiment America (ICA Boston), Hunchback (DIA Detroit), Permanent Collection (Madison Rep), Our Greatest Year (Dobama Theatre). Film/ TV: Widows, Coming to You, and Chicago Fire.

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Michael Szeles (Jerimiah / Dupontfor extension performances) last appeared onstage at Rivendell in the acclaimed production of Courtney Baron’s Eat Your Heart Out and has acted in Chicago at the Goodman, Famous Door, Center, and Chicago Shakespeare Theaters; in New York City, Off-Broadway at various theaters; and regionally across the country. In NYC, he was nominated for two New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Best Solo Performance for Goats; and Best Ensemble Cast for The Most Damaging Wound. He was the face of Motorola Razr Maxx at airports nationwide; the lead in the Indie feature film Fools (available online at Amazon Prime); and most recently acted opposite Minnie Driver and Frank Grillo in the 2017 feature film, The Crash.

Charlie Strater (Thomas Kinnear for extension performances) is an actor, painter and musician.  He last appeared onstage at Rivendell in the acclaimed production of Courtney Baron’s Eat Your Heart Out as Tom, the “jittery and easy-to-please” microscope salesman. Charlie’s vocals and guitar-playing will be featured in the upcoming winter production of Once at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, Illinois.

Jennifer Blackmer (Playwright) is the 2015 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award winner for Emerging American Playwright. Her plays have been seen in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Berkeley and St. Louis, and include Human Terrain, Unraveled, Alias Grace, Delicate Particle Logic, and Borrowed Babies. In 2016, Jennifer’s screenplay for Human Terrain won the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation prize through the Tribeca Film Institute, and the film is currently in pre-production. Jennifer has also been a finalist for the Sundance Film Institute Sloan Prize, the David Charles Horn Prize for Emerging Playwrights, the Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest, the Firehouse Festival of New American Theatre, and The O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference, and her writing has been short-listed for both the Princess Grace Award and the Shakespeare’s Sister Fellowship. Her work has been developed by Seven Devils, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, The Playwrights’ Center, The Lark and Activate Midwest. Jennifer is Professor of Theatre and Associate Provost at Ball State University, and is resident playwright for Chicago’s Broken Nose Theatre. Visit Jennifer’s website at www.jenniferblackmer.com.

Karen Kessler (Director) is excited to return to Rivendell Theatre, a company she was part of starting, to get to work on Alias Grace with Jennifer Blackmer. She is a member of the ensemble at A Red Orchid Theatre where she most recently directed a production of Jennifer Healy’s The Nether. Amongst Karen’s directing credits are: Wrens (1996 and 2012), The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Hamlet, and Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes at Rivendell; Solstice, Blasted, Gagarin Way, and Mr. Kolpert at Red Orchid; A Number, God of Hell, Into the Woods, and War at other theatres around Chicago; Glengarry Glen Ross at the Northern Stage Ensemble in Newcastle, UK; Macbeth, Scapin, The Three Musketeers, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and All’s Well That Ends Well at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Karen is a professor of directing and Shakespeare at Ball State University.

Brian Nitzkin (Associate Producer) has produced and developed new plays and musicals including the current Broadway production of 1984, Mother Justice by Michael Dice, Jr., The Fisher King by Michael Brennan & Mark Leydorf, Over The Top by Gary Conway, and US by Peter Gabriel & Maggie Levin.  For Richard Frankel Productions – Broadway:  The Producers, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors.  Off-Broadway:  My Old Lady, Stomp, The Water Coolers.  Brian also serves as Vice President of Business Affairs and International Operations for IM Global, where he has worked on over fifty films including Hacksaw Ridge, The Butler, Miles Ahead, and Silence. 

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Tara Mallen (Rivendell Artistic Director / Producer) is the founder and Artistic Director of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble.  An actor, director and producer, she was most recently on stage in RTE’s world premiere The Firebirds Take the Field. Prior to that she appeared in Lynn Nottage’s pulitzer-prize winning play Sweat at Arena Stage and Steppenwolf’s How Long Will I Cry: Stories of Youth Violence written by Chicago Journalist Miles Harvey. Other notable productions at Rivendell include Jeff Nominated, world premiere productions of Look, we are breathing; Rasheeda Speaking; The Walls; and Self Defense, or the Death of Some Salesmen. Tara has produced and/or acted in over thirty productions at Rivendell and received a Joseph Jefferson award for “Supporting Actress” for WRENS as well as being part of that production’s Jeff-winning “Best Ensemble”. She was nominated the following year for “Actress in a Principal Role” for her work in My Simple City. Tara co-conceived and directed the critically acclaimed World Premiere of WOMEN AT WAR, a theatrical exploration of women in today’s military that played to sold out houses in the fall of 2014 and is now touring throughout the mid-west; she also directed the Jeff nominated Midwest premieres of The Electric Baby, 26 Miles (in co-production with Teatro Vista); Fighting Words; Psalms of a Questionable Nature; and the co-production of Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue with Stageworks/Hudson. Screen credits include Steven Soderbergh’s film Contagion, Boss, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Sense8, the CBS/Sony pilot Doubt, the FOX pilot Doubt, and the independent feature film Fools.

Jackie Banks-Mahlum (Rivendell Managing Director / Producer) is an arts manager, producer, and educator based in Chicago. She was thrilled to join the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble as the Managing Director in March 2014. Jackie is also the Membership and Development Associate at Arts Alliance Illinois, and the Co-Producer for Theatricum Botanicum. Previously Jackie was in the Los Angeles area where she worked with Center Theatre Group’s P.L.A.Y., the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Theatricum Botanicum. She has also freelanced regionally where she has had the opportunity to work in a variety of performing arts including opera, ballet, modern dance, improv, and theatre. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, has a Bachelor of Science in Theatre Production. and Business Management from Bradley University, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Producing from the California In