JOHN GEIST
 (Founder and Artistic Director) received an A.B. in 1971, University of California at Riverside in Music Composition, and an M.M. in Music Composition at the University of Nevada, Reno 1975. John has created music for Bay Area theatre and classical groups since 1975, including the Kronos Quartet, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra. As an artist-producer he created the Magdalena Group, 1979-1981, a company of young professional actor-singer-dancers, producing “Magdalena,” a one-woman musical and the musical Children’s Quest for five actors and four classical musicians for school tours. In 1996 he founded, with his wife Becky Geist, Geoffrey Chaucer & Co. and has devoted full time to the artistic direction of the company and to creating a classically-based music soundtrack for the company’s productions. John is winner of two Hollywood Dramalogue awards, a National Nonesuch Commission Award for classical composition, a 1999 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Achievement for the Squire’s & Franklin’s Tales and a 1999 Dean Goodman Choice Award for Original Music for the Canterbury Tales. He was also nominated for Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Musical Score for Knight’s Tale and for Physician’s & Pardoner’s Tales: chaucertheatre@attbi.com

BECKY PARKER GEIST 
  (Founder and Executive Director) co-founded Geoffrey Chaucer & Co. in 1996. She has served as co-director and stage manager and in 1997 began performing in the role of Host Harriet Bailey. For this role,  she was nominated for a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Ensemble Performance in Nun’s Priest’s Tale (1997). Becky holds an MFA in theatre from the University of Illinois and a BA in theatre and English from Moravian College. After college, she spent three years working at Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY, assisting with new play selection and the New Play Festival. Since her arrival in the San Francisco area, Becky has performed with several Bay Area theatres and, in 1986, she co-founded EDEN2 Theatre Ensemble, a children’s theatre company.  Becky is a member of Actors Equity Association.