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Julian Lopez-Murillas* (Nun's Priest) is a well-known West Coast actor and director who has been living and working in the Bay Area since 1972. In 15 years with the Berkeley/California Shakespeare Festival, including a term a Associate Artistic Director, he played roles including King Lear, Shylock, Brutus, Macbeth, Malvolio, Prospero and Dogberry. He directed, among others, the tempest, All's Well that ends Well, Henry IV Part I, Coriolanus, King John and Pericles. Other acting and directing credits include productions with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre (most recently in Pentecost-as a priest), the Eureka and Magic Theatres, San Jose Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks of Palo Alto, Denver Center Theatre Company, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Court Theatre of Chicago and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is winner of six Hollywood Dramalogue awards for Outstanding Achievement in acting and directions and two Bay Area Critic Circle Awards for outstanding Achievement in Direction.
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Michael Oakes* (Merchant)) is the Artistic Director of Live-Oakes Educational Theater, based in Mill Valley, which tours living-history characters to schools, theaters, groups, and events. He portrays John Muir, Jack London, William Shakespeare, and a Gold Rush era sea captain based on Two Years Before the Mast. He is well known for his interactive , one-man show, “Writer, Rancher, Revolutionary: A Conversation with Jack London.” He appears regularly with the Marin Shakespeare Company, where he has portrayed Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood. Favorite roles include Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire, Starbuck in The Rainmaker, and Jaques in As You Like It. Mr. Oakes Directing credits include A Midsummer Nights Dream in the Sonoma Valley and the New American Comedy Festival at Ukiah Players Theater.
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William Dean O'Neil* (Reeve) is a well known character actor about the bay area in the fields of film, television and stage. His television credits include Hallmark Hall of fame, Midnight Caller and Nash Bridges. He has performed with Berkeley Rep, The San Francisco Opera, and Marin Theater Company, as well as Marin Opera and opera companies in Nevada and southern California. He has a wide resume of character voices and has appeared in numbers of radio commercials, video games and documentary narrations. His role as the Reeve, et al, represents a welcome return to his first love, live theater.
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Nathan Aaron Place has appeared in The Cutting Ball's productions of As You Like It, Drowning
Room, Mayakovsky: A Tragedy, Hamletmachine and also appeared in The Cutting Ball's staged reading of Kevin Oakes' The High Priest of Bad
Math. He has been in productions at the well known Guthrie Theater & Childrens' Theater Co. in Minneapolis, The California Shakespeare Co., Theater of Yugen,
The Eastenders Repertory Co., George Coates Performance Works, Art of the Matter & CRISUS in San Francisco and La Mama in New York. He was Dutch in Full
Shackle by CRISUS and Isaac Newton/Los in 20/20 BLAKE with the George Coates Performance Works. Mr. Place has also starred in many Independent Films including the recent
"Beak of Death".
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Becky Parker* (Hostess Harriet Bailey) began as Host in The Monk’s Tale (1997). As Harriet her favorite internal characters are Dorigen in The Franklin’s Tale, the crone in The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Pertelote in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, and her first Chaucer role: Dame Prudence in The Tale of Melibee. Some of her favorite roles outside the Canterbury Tales include Holly in Foxfire (Marin Theatre Co.), Mary in On the Verge with Common Cultural Practice, Shen Te/Shui Ta in Good Woman of Szechwan (Illinois Repertory Theatre) Pantalone in Androcles and the Lion (EDEN2 Theatre Ensemble). She co-directed the first four sets of Canterbury Tales with her husband John Geist. Becky was nominated for a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Ensemble Performance in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale with co-actors Thomas Lynch and Julian Lopez-Morillas. Becky also serves as Executive Director for Geoffrey Chaucer & Co. She holds an MFA in theatre from the University of Illinois and a BA in theatre and English from Moravian College.
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Jessica Parker* (Dyer) Has performed in several of Geoffrey Chaucer & Co.'s productions; 1996 The Miller, Reeve and Cooks Tales,1999 The Clerk's Tale as well as the 2000 production of All That Glitters. She is a sophomore at Marin Academy where she has been in productions of As You Like It,
Sarita, The Good Person of Szechwan. and Kiss Me Kate. Aside from acting, Jes is active in her school, plays soccer both indoor and out, is in the school choir and plays the oboe.
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Robert Parnell* (Plowman) his credits include The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Camping with Henry &
Tom, and Inspecting Carol, all performed for Pacific Alliance Stage Co., Romeo & Juliet and An American Daughter for TheatreWorks and The Gin Game
for Playhouse West in Walnut Creek. Bob has also appeared at the Magic Theatre, The One-Act, Berkeley Jewish Theatre, Marin Theatre Co, The Eureka, and in the long running hit
Noises Off at the San Francisco Marines’ Memorial. He is the recipient of two Dramalogue Awards, a Bay Area Theatre Critics Award and a Florida Critics Award. In addition, Bob appears in film and TV and was seen as Karl Malden’s boss in Back to the Streets of San Francisco and as Robert Downey Jr.’s boss in Heart and Souls.
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Stephanie Prentice (Haberdasher) is delighted to be making her first appearance with Geoffrey Chaucer & Co. A Bay Area native, Stephanie received her BA in Theatre and Dance from Santa Clara University and has worked with Berkeley Rep, The Marsh, Shakespeare at Stinson, and Theatre Rhinoceros among others. She most recently appeared as Regan in Darkroom Productions’ King Lear. Other past credits include: Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth in Macbeth, and Dee in Under the Influence. Many thanks to Zach for his endless understanding.
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John Sugden (Clerk) received his BFA in Acting (cum laud) from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and his MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco. His most recent performances in the Bay Area include Graham in
"The Entertainer" at the Aurora Theater, Jim in "The Glass Menagerie" at Certer Repertory Theater of Walnut Creek and Man in Coma for Cutting Ball Theater's production of
"Chain Reactions." He toured the mid-west for four months across fourteen states performing a two man version of "Oliver Twist" and
"The Life of William Shakespeare" for Traveling Lantern Theater Company. Other favorite Bay Area roles include Dan the Vicar in "A Mouthful of
Birds" for the ACT MFA Project and Bassianus in "TITUS: The Musical" at Yerba Buena Gardens. A faculty member of ACT's internationally renowned Young Conservatory for seven years, John has taught improvisation, Shakespeare, audition techniques, acting and original play creation to students of all ages. He is also an artist-in-residence in Bay Area public and private schools.
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Wendell J. Willat (Lawyer) has performed as the lead in The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
at the Phoenix Theatre, On the Verge at the Bayfront, Burger Girl Jingle at Marin Theater Company, and Winter Soldier at Life on the Water. His TV and film credits include
Young and the Restless , Waiting for Max , and The Adventure Begins . His training has included study with Joseph Chaikin. After a stint in L.A. he has returned to the Bay Area where he truly loves spending time with his friends, and family, teaching drama at Drake, working with critically-acclaimed Common Cultural Practice, and exploring the vast and colorful Geoffrey Chaucer.
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Richard Winters* (Miller) career in theater spans three decades and well over 100 different productions. His works as an actor has earned his productions numerous awards and nominations including local Ellys for his work in Tally’s Folly and The Lion in Winter. He has worked at Sacramento Theater Company, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, The National Theater of the Performing Arts, and many others. He has created ten original pieces, including his current one-man show Dancing Naked in the Universe, and adaptations of literature for the stage. He founded a teen improv troupe and spent 9 years working as a theatre instructor at Tokay and Granite Bay High Schools.
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Neil Flint Worden*(Manciple) The Manciple is only of the worldly and seedier side of classical characters played by Neil. A history of infamous characters in his career.
includes Claudius from Hamlet, Conrade from Much Ado About Nothing, the Colonel from La Ronde, Torvald from Nora, Menelaus from Trojan Woman: A Love Story, and the Scottish King
. He has been seen at Sierra Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, American Musical Theater, Playhouse West, TheatreWorks, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz locally, and Seattle Repertory, Tacoma Actors Guild, The Treehouse Theatre, Utah Shakespeare, Idaho Repertory and Fairbanks Shakespeare regionally. The idea of a company devoted to Chaucer still sets this theatre apart from all others. And it is with humble appreciation for the character sculpting Chaucer did so well that he submits this Manciple to the crowd of listeners gathered today. Thanks for the opportunity to savor Chaucer’s words in public.
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*member Actors Equity Association
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