Staff

Steven Maler is the Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC). At CSC, he has been directing Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common productions since 1996, including Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello, The Comedy Of Errors, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Romeo & Juliet.

In collaboration with Google, he adapted and directed a first of its kind sixty minute virtual reality film of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, entitled Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, starring Jack Cutmore-Scott, Jay O. Sanders, Brooke Adams, and Faran Tahir. It is currently available for viewing on Boston public media producer WGBH’s YouTube channel; for more information, visit www.wgbh.org/hamlet360.

Other CSC works include his critically acclaimed production of Naomi Wallace’s adaptation of William Wharton’s novel Birdy, Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, the world premiere of Jake Broder’s Our American Hamlet, and the world premiere of Robert Brustein’s The Last Will. For CSC he has also directed one-night-only readings featuring Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Paul Rudd, Blair Brown, Tony Shalhoub, Leslie Uggams, David Morse, Anthony Mackie, Charles Busch, and Jeffrey Donovan among others.  He conceived and directed Shakespeare at Fenway, an evening of Shakespeare scenes performed at Boston’s beloved Fenway Park, featuring Mike O’Malley, Neal McDonough, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, Kerry O’Malley, Max von Essen, Seth Gilliam, Zuzanna Szadkowski, and Jason Butler Harner.

Other theater credits include The Turn of the Screw at New Repertory Theatre, Santaland Diaries and Chay Yew’s Porcelain at SpeakEasy Stage Company, Top Girls and Weldon Rising at Coyote Theatre, and The L.A. Plays by Han Ong at A.R.T. His production of Without You, written by and starring Anthony Rapp has been seen in Boston, Edinburgh, Toronto, London, Seoul, and New York.

He directed Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet for Boston Lyric Opera and Maria, Regina D’Inghilterra for Odyssey Opera. He directed the U.S. premiere of Péter Eötvös’ operatic treatment of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face for Opera Boston. In collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra at Boston’s iconic Hatch Shell, he directed Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as concert stagings of The Boys from Syracuse and Kiss Me, Kate, featuring Marc Kudisch and Kerry O’Malley, and Andrew Burnap.

He received the prestigious Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, as well as for Best Production, Twelfth Night; Outstanding Director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Best Production, Suburbia; Best Solo Performance, John Kuntz’s Starf***ers (which also won Best Solo Performance Award at New York International Fringe Festival). His feature film The Autumn Heart, starring Tyne Daly and Ally Sheedy was in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

Bryn Boice is an award-winning director, educator, actor, and producer. Her work with CSC began with three summers as a Showcase Director and acting coach for the Apprentice Program, directing Henry IV part 1, Henry VI part 2, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2019, she was named Associate Artistic Director and Director of the CSC Academy, which encompasses the Apprentice Program, Stage2, and other CSC education initiatives. As of 2022, she is now the full-time AAD and Director of Education and Training. 

Also for CSC, Bryn directed Universe Rushing Apart: Blue Kettle & Here We Go – two Caryl Churchill one-acts – which garnered her the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director, Large Theatre. Other recent Boston-area credits include: Gloria (Gloucester Stage); The Half-Life of Marie Curie (The Nora Company); The Sound Inside and The Children (Speakeasy Stage); Admissions (The Gamm Theatre); Last Night at Bowl-Mor Lanes (Greater Boston Stage Company); an all-female production of Julius Caesar for Actors’ Shakespeare Project; the Boston premiere of Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti (OWI Theatre); and a number of Apprentice Repertory Company and Stage2 productions for CSC.

She is also the Artistic Director of Boston fringe ensemble Anthem Theatre Company. With Anthem she created and directed multiple devised works and reimagined classics including the Red Sox/Yankees-themed Romeo vs. Juliet; I, Snowflake, a devised post-election reaction play; her original work, The Merry Way, featuring traditional Irish folk song; and My Fascination with Creepy Ladies, a devised work centering Edgar Allan Poe’s stories about “the death of a beautiful woman.”  New York and Regional credits as an actor and/or director include work with Asolo Repertory Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, InProximity Theatre Company, Theatre Row, Martha’s Vineyard PAC, Monomoy Theatre, Caroline’s on Broadway, and Manhattan Theatre Club. 

Before turning full-time to CSC, she taught at Salem State University, where her wide-ranging experience allowed her to teach Voice for Performance, Applied Stage Movement, Public Speaking, Directing, Acting III (Early Realism,) Dramatic Theory & Criticism, and Dialects, among others. A great proponent of higher education and lifelong learning, she holds an MFA in Directing from Boston University, an MFA in Acting from the Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training (FSU), and a Master’s Certificate in Arts Administration from Boston University. She also holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from Emporia State University (KS) and a BS in Journalism from the University of Kansas. For more information, visit www.brynboice.com

Victoria Townsend (she/her) is a Boston-based director, teaching-artist and occasional performer. In addition to her work on artistic programming for CSC, she also serves as the Academy Coordinator for the Apprentice Program and CSC2, as well as work on many other educational programs. Directing Credits: For CSC: As You Like It (2022) and several Boston Theater Marathon pieces; Emerging Playwright’s Festival (Wheelock Family Theater), Cosi Fan Tutte (New England Conservatory’s UGOS Program), The Memorandum (Flat Earth Theater). Assistant Directing Credits: Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, Kiss me Kate, Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare and Leadership (CSC) and L’Egisto (NEC/UGOS). She has also served as a teaching-artist for Watertown Children’s Theater and Live Arts Education. A Massachusetts native, Victoria currently resides in Woburn and is a graduate of Saint Michael’s College in Vermont with degrees in Theatre and English Literature and holds a certificate in Social Impact Management and Leadership from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice & Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University.

Lauren A. Cook is a Boston-based stage director, intimacy choreographer, and voice teacher. Intimacy direction and staging credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Apprentice Repertory Company, MassOpera’s immersive La Traviata, The 39 Steps with Greater Boston Stage Company, Queens with Moonbox Productions (winner of the BroadwayWorld Boston “Best New Play” award), and the world premiere of Nighttown with Lowell House Opera at Harvard University (winner of the 2023 American Prize in composition), as well as a number of educational workshops and lectures. A former faculty member of the Holden Voice Program at Harvard University, she holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Pedagogy from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and continues to teach both actors and singers in voice, speech, and dramatic interpretation. Her writing on consent-based and ethical performing arts teaching is featured in Trauma and the Voice: A Guide for Singers, Teachers, and Other Practitioners, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2023.

Brittney Holland (she/her/hers) is a non-profit arts administrator with a background in costumes and arts education. She previously spent over six years working with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA as the Company Manager and Intern Program Coordinator and Education Tour Coordinator, and has worked in Company Management at Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC, Theatre by the Sea in RI, and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in NY and interned with Headlong Theatre in London, UK. Film credits include Production Coordinator for Down with the King (2021) and Wardrobe Supervisor for I’m Not Him (2020).

In addition to her administrative work, Brittney also works as a freelance costume designer, primarily for educational theatre. Recent credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park) and numerous productions in Shakespeare & Company’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare with local high schools including Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth.

She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Dramatic Arts and English.

Corey Cadigan (he/him/his) is a non-profit arts marketer with a background in directing and arts education. He previously spent five years working with The Company Theatre in Norwell, MA, as the Director of Marketing.

In addition to his marketing work, Corey also works as a freelance director and stage manager. Recent credits include Puffs and Wonderland: Alice’s Immersive Adventure at The Company Theatre and Mary Poppins, Sister Act, and West Side Story at The Stadium Theatre. He received an assistant direction award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for his work on A Christmas Carol, and his production of Wonderland won “Best In-Person Play 2021” from BroadwayWorld Boston.

He is a graduate of Bridgewater State University with a BA in Communications with concentrations in LGBT Theatre and Documentary Theatre.

Katalin (Kati) Mitchell is the Media Relations Representative at CSC. She retired from her position of Director of Press and Public Relations of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in 2017 after twenty-seven years in charge of national and international press relations, publications, and promotions for the A.R.T. Mainstage productions and offerings on its second stages, as well as the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training; she also collaborated with New York producers and publicists on the transfer of several A.R.T. productions to Broadway. She worked with major international theater and film artists, and was instrumental in maintaining the theater’s institutional image under three Artistic Directors. Previously Kati served for seven years as the Executive Director of the early music ensemble The Boston Camerata, managing the general operation of internationally-acclaimed early music ensemble, including their touring and recording projects. She was a founding member of the arts advocacy group, the Boston Arts Marketing Alliance, where currently she holds the post of President. Kati was born in Hungary and raised in Brazil, and has made Boston her home for over 40 years.

Christopher Robinson joined Boston University as staff ASL/English interpreter in 2005 and when on to become the Coordinator of Outreach and Training at Boston University Disability & Access Services (DAS) in 2013. He has practiced as a Performing Arts ASL/English Interpreter since 1994. Much of his work as an ASL/English interpreter has been influenced by his conversations with the late playwright August Wilson. When not interpreting, he is a stage and television actor. Christopher has over 25 years experience as an ASL/English Interpreter, Mentor and national presenter in the content areas of inclusion practices in the Performing Arts, Mentorship for Interpreters, and Cross-Cultural Mediation within Deaf and hearing communities.

In 2001, Christopher entered the Conference Interpreter Mentorship Program (CIMP), a collaborative project with the then Northeastern University Interpreter Education Project and Boston University Center for Interpreter Education (BUCIE). Upon completion of the program in 2003, he went on to become coordinator of the program until 2006. From the Fall of 2007 to the Fall of 2008, Christopher was one of two lead facilitator trainers for the Gallaudet University Regional Interpreter Education Center (GUREIC) interpreter mentoring project, and most recently he was a program advisor and the lead facilitator for the National Community of Practice for ASL/English Interpreters for the College of St. Catherine’s Graduation to Certification program in 2017-2018

He is also Certified Facilitator in the LEGO® Serious Play™methodology. In this capacity, he organizes facilitated sessions to adjust student group programming practices, mitigate program barriers that obstruct the participation of persons with disabilities in campus life.

Alexandra Pool (she/her) is an arts manager and fundraising professional with a background in theater and higher education. She has worked for the Great Barrington Public Theater in the Berkshires since their return from COVID-19 as the Deputy Managing Director, and previously worked in Development at Colorado State University, in administration for the Connecticut Repertory Theater, and as an intern for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston and the Lake Dillon Theater Company in Colorado.

Alexandra is a lifelong devotee of theater. Now retired from the stage, she was an actor from the age of six, spent her childhood attending Shakespeare camp, and studied theater performance in college. Attending and discussing theater remain among her favorite pastimes.

She is a 2023 graduate of the University of Connecticut with an MFA in Arts Leadership and Cultural Management, and holds a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management from Colorado State University.

Isabel Pongratz (she/her/hers) is a non-profit fundraising and arts professional. She previously worked for Wheaton College (MA) as the Assistant Director of their Annual Fund. She started her relationship with CSC in 2019 as an Apprentice, since then she has served as part of the Apprentice Alumni Committee, and a casting assistant for the Apprentice program. Past admin, performance, and education experience includes work with Plimoth Patuxet Museums, American Repertory Theater, and ImprovBoston.