2026 Shakerspeare Playbill - The Tempest

MEET THE CAST & CREATIVE TEAM Nancy Bell* (Prospero) is an award-winning direc- tor, performer and writer with a long and happy history with the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. She has served here as Playwright- In-Residence, Literary Manager, and Founding Director of the Confluence New Play Festival. She was the director of the Festival’s productions of Into the Breeches! and As You Like It in Forest Park, and the playwright of the first five Shakespeare in the Streets productions, as well as the children’s plays, Found at Sea (with the STL Symphony) A Most Outrageous Fit of Madness, and The Runaway Cupcake. She has worked with many other theatres around the country, as well as in television and film. Here in St. Louis, her work has most recently been seen at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where she directed Athena and performed in The Roommate and Emma. Her work as a prose writer, for which she is a Pushcart Prize nominee, has been published in StoryQuarterly, The North American Review, Terrain, Shenandoah and elsewhere. Many thanks to excellent Martin and to my treasured Ivy Bell-thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter. www.nancyellenbell. com @BellGirlSTL Kathryn A. Bentley* (Alonso) has performance and directing credits with companies includ- ing The Repertory Theatre St. Louis, Cleveland Playhouse, Tesseract Theatre, Bread and Roses MO and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. She specializes in developing creative works and building community utilizing inclusive theater practices. Kathi is the Founder of The Alaiyo Collective and the Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Action Arts Collaborative. She serves on the Board of Metro Theater Company and is the Vice President of the Community Arts Training Institute Board of Directors. Jeff Cummings* (Antonio) is thrilled to return to the Shakespeare Glen for The Tempest. Most recently, Jeff appeared as The Player in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead for St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Other local work includes Romeo & Zooliet and Love’s Labor’s Lost for St Louis Shakespeare Festival; Clue, Million Dollar Quartet, and Beautiful for Stages, Hamlet, Oslo, and Million Dollar Quartet Christmas for St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and Behind The Sheet, Hold On, and Wedding Band for The Black Rep. Regional theatre credits include Brutus in Julius Caesar at Utah Shakespeare Festival, Claudius in Hamlet for Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, and in seven seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, highlights include Berowne in Love’s Labor’s Lost, Jack Worthing in The Importance Of Being Earnest , and the Duke of Suffolk in Henry VI pts 1 & 2. Jeff is also an Audie award-winning audiobook narrator with recorded works by Mark Twain, Dean Koontz, and Philip K. Dick. Jeff dedicates his work on The Tempest to the memory of Gary Wayne Barker. Michael Doherty* (Stephano) has appeared in over 80 regional the- atre productions across the country. St. Louis Shakes debut! Off-B’way/ Regional: 59E59, Guthrie Theater, Berkeley Rep (Theater Bay Area & Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards), Milwaukee Rep, Denver Center, Cleveland Play *Member, Actor’s Equity Association 22