Cast & Crew (in order of appearance)
Mandahla Rose
They/We/She
Puck
Mandahla Rose is an Australian native, an actor, visual artist and Jack of all kinds of trades. They mainly light up the “stage” in film and TV but last year joined Open Door Shakespeare Company as Sir Toby in Twelfth Night and loved it so much that they are back.
Samantha Figueroa
She/Her
Peaseblossom
Samantha Figueroa is a multi-hyphenate creator who has been acting and dancing for many years. She's loved the stories and language of Shakespeare since she was a wee sprite and is excited to meld her love of Shakespeare, fairies and burlesque in this production.
Leslie Sanchez
She/Her
Mustardseed
This Bronx native actress started her journey training at T Schreiber and HB studio in NYC. She’s currently training at Playhouse West in LA, poised to seize every opportunity that comes her way.
Liz Heathcoat
She/They
Titania
Liz Heathcoat is pleased to be joining another production of Open Door Shakespeare. She most recently completed commercial voiceover work for Teledoc, Thinkwell Media, and Trident. Other voiceover credits include Despicable Me 3, Heluva Good! Cheese, Old Navy, & Krispy Kreme. She has performed with the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company as well as various other theatres around LA. Aside from acting, Liz has also worked as a choreographer & costumer for LA theatre, enjoys cosplaying from time to time, and supporting animal rescues. Liz is grateful to be working with this talented cast and hopes you have a great time watching the show!
Alice Dranger
They/Them
Oberon
Alice Dranger (they/them) is an actor, writer, and director, here in Los Angeles, California. Having moved here after graduating from NYU: TISCH, they found themselves writing and acting on the internet. They’ve been a series regular in several web series (check out their IMDb).
They have acted in several Shakespearian plays in NYC, including Measure for Measure. They are also the Artistic Director of Open Door Shakespeare, a theater company dedicated to producing Classic Works with a modern sensibility and as Queer as possible. You can find them on instagram @OpenDoorShakespeare and Alice @6impossiblethingsb4breakfast. The End, *bows*
Liz Kyokwijuka
She/Her
Theseus
Being a lady of quality, she chose the theater and cinema as medium of self expression.
Sunny Takahashi Liao
She/Her
Hippolita
Hailing from central Illinois, movies/TV were a big pastime for an only-child surrounded by cornfields. While the seed for acting was planted early, Sunny grew up a competitive swimmer & swam varsity in college (even made it to the US Olympic Trials!). She’s most excited by sci-fi & fantasy projects where her athletic background supports the physical performance.
Recently, she was seen on screen at the 2023 Charlotte Film Festival in Hog-Tied, directed by Jack Hisatomi. Sunny also enjoys voiceover work, hosting, world-building, playing games, and taking flower pics :)
Lex Agolsove
She/Her
Egeus, Flower
As a wee child, Lex often forced her family to watch her perform silly little skits, so she’s thrilled that now sometimes people willingly come out to watch it!
Outside of acting, improv, and storytelling, she’s a big fan of causing board game chaos and general tomfoolery.
Sami Stumman
She/Her
Hermia
Sami Stumman is thrilled to be returning with Open Door for Midsummer! Most recently she was seen as Charlotte Corday in The Revolutionists at Theatre40 in Beverly Hills, and as Antonio in Open Door's production of Twelfth Night. Originally from San Diego growing up doing plays and musicals, after graduating from UC Irvine with a drama degree she moved to LA and began work in film. A favorite role so far of hers includes co-starring in the indie thriller Hide, directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper. Several films she's acted in have had multiple festival runs, including starring in the award winning short film Night at the Movies. She is absolutely stoked to be sharing this bar/stage with such an amazing group of castmates! @trusamiam
Ashley Woods
She/Her
Demetrius
Ashley J. Woods's thrilled to return to Open Door Shakespeare. She was previously seen as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night. When she is not auditioning or rehearsing Shakespeare, she can be found producing YouTube's favorite niche podcast (The Editing Podcast), working with top influencers (MrBeast, Safiya Nygaard, ZHC) or trying and reviewing celebrity acting techniques on her personal YouTube channel. Much love to Hayden, who knows that theatre can never be edited and that's the magic of it.
Adargiza De Los Santos
She/Her
Lysander
Adargiza De Los Santos is an Afro-Latina of Dominican descent, from Brooklyn, NY. Artist, Activist, Entrepreneur, Actor, Filmmaker, Director, Advocate. While she hones her skills as a filmmaker, you can catch her recurring on this season of The Horror of Dolores Roach and Abbott Elementary. Also catch her on Grey's Anatomy, I Love That For You, This Is Us, Better Things, Shameless, Bosch, Castle, Criminal Minds, Animal Kingdom, Phil Spector, and many more.
She's serves as a board member for Open Door Shakespeare Company and is excited to bring another magical world from Alice's imagination to life.
Ele Woods
She/Her
Helena
Ele Woods is a multi-hyphenate actor/writer/comedian who absolutely loves working with Alice. She is thrilled to be returning to the stage after starring as Macbeth in OpenDoor Shakespeare's 2021 production of Macbeth. She is an alumni of Middlebury College and a former house team performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade. She starred opposite Keke Palmer in the Emmy Award winning web series "TURNT UP WITH THE TAYLORS", and in Snapchat's The Me & You Show. She's also guest starred on shows like The Good Place, American Princess and others. One time she made out with a skull in an off Broadway play and Variety Magazine called her 'Wonderful'.
Katelyn Hempstead
She/Her
Quince
Katelyn Hempstead is a performer, writer, and comedian. Her podcast Lizard People has been written up in Variety, Huffington Post, and The AV Club, and her new podcast VS recently launched on the Wood Elf network.
She loves Star Trek, potato salad, and telling stories.
Maisie Klompus
She/Her
Bottom
Maisie Klompus is super jazzed to be back again with Open Door Shakespeare! An alum of the Atlantic Theatre Company and the USC School of Theatre, she is currently a recurring guest star on Freeform’s Good Trouble. Other recent television credits include Hunters, Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, Life in Pieces, and Insecure. Some of her theatre credits include portraying Peg (u/s) in the award-winning Los Angeles LGBT Center’s production of Hit The Wall, and Erika (u/s) in Skylight Theatre Company’s Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea.
Mary Ann Pianka
She/Her
Snug/Lion/Moonshine
A lifelong fangirl of the Bard, Mary Ann Pianka hails from Lancaster, Pennsylvania with a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University.
An eventful decade in LA has granted Mary Ann work in all mediums- TV, features, VO, theater- as well as the chance to found her own company, The Combined Forces, which specializes in telling stories by women, about women, for everyone.
You can next see Mary Ann playing Romeo in her abridged and interactive version of the tragedy back at Idle Hour on November 17-19. Or at her monthly silent disco dance adventure events with What The Float (which are as cool as they sound). She's always doing some kind of guerilla art to thwart capitalism’s effort to steal our joy.
In her spare time she endeavors to keep her house plants alive. They’re not about it.
#SAGSTRONG
Shey Lyn Zanotti
She/Her
Snout/Wall
Shey Lyn was a proud cast member of Casey Christenson's musical comedy, Life In Boobs, performing at venues across LA, including Second City, the Comedy Central Stage and Rockwell Table & Stage. With Open Door Shakespeare, Shey Lyn has played a witch, a bitch and now, finally, an inanimate object. She has been delighted to be surrounded this fall by fae & lovers alike, all wrapped up in the magic that is the magic of Open Door since its inception in 2021. You can catch her roller skating her way through I Was A Teenage Wereskunk or as a webcam girl in Eating Cars, both on Amazon Prime. In addition, Shey Lyn can be seen in Florence + The Machine's short film The Odyssey. Please check out her first paid gig in LA, a music video for the song Muscle Junkie by Australian rockers Violent Soho, where she gets hit in the face with a corndog.
Lyndsay Brill
She/Her
Flute/Thisby
This production marks Lyndsay’s return to acting after a 15 year sabbatical. She got her BFA from Ohio University before studying performance art and non-profit arts administration at the Trinity/La Mama Program in NYC. These days, she can be found, nightly, performing her most challenging role yet, as a Labor & Delivery nurse.
Abby A-O
She/Her
Snug/Lion/Moonshine (11.4); Puck (11.11-12)
Abby A-O studied Shakespeare at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama because it seemed posh and that. Also: the fairies!!!
Originally from Baltimore, she now lives in Ocean Park with her two rescue doggies and serves you coffee every morning at Starby’s. You know, the barista girl who’s always wearing glitter at 5am? And PS, yes, I put it on at 4:30 this morning, thank you, Brenda.
Abby loves character and physical comedy, stand up, house, liquid dnb, janky-beach style and Disney-cessories. You may have seen her in a commercial, a true crime series or out the back of Gold’s Gym dancing on the pavement.
Costumes: Ele Woods
Sound: Sunny Takahashi
Directed by Alice Dranger
