Sidonie Garrett
 Producing Artistic Director

Sidonie Garrett is the Producing Artistic Director of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival where she directed Twelfth Night , The Taming of the Shrew , Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing and King Henry V . Prior to joining the Festival, Sidonie worked as a freelance director. Her experience working with new plays expanded her horizons to New York City, where she directed the off-Broadway production of local playwright Ron Simonian's Thanatos . Sidonie also assistant directed the off-Broadway premiere of the interactive Aunt Chooch's Birthday Party . Locally, Sidonie directed Thanatos, SubUrbia, The Waiting Room, Desert Holiday, Spinning Into Butter, SantaLand Diaries , Omnium Gatherum and Retreat from Moscow and co-directed Light/Damage at the Unicorn Theatre. At the Coterie, she directed, Mr. A's Amazing Maze Plays, Little House on the Prairie, Little House by the Shores of Silver Lake, Of Mice and Men, Playing for Time and co-directed The Hobbit , and for several years was part of the directing team for the Young Playwright's Festival. In 2003, Sidonie directed the United States premiere of After Juliet in co-production with the Coterie. She directed Greater Tuna and Rose's Dilemma for the American Heartland Theatre and co-directed Tony & Tina's Wedding (Kansas City and St. Louis) for Fourth Wall Productions. For the Kansas City Symphony Sidonie has been staging director for their holiday program, The Magic of Christmas. Also, she was staging director for The Marriage of Figaro and Falstaff for the Civic Opera Theatre. Sidonie directed Reckless and Too Clever By Half for UMKC's Rotating Repertory. Other university productions include The Odd Couple for Avila University, Tales from Around the World at Rockhurst University and The Vagina Monologues at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Lisa Cordes
Executive Director

Lisa Cordes has been a member of the Kansas City arts community for over 20 years, serving in the field as an administrator, educator and artist. Positions have included Executive Director for Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, Director of Development and Communications for Mid-America Arts Alliance, Marketing Director for The Coterie Theatre, and Communications Manager for the Kansas City Ballet. She has taught performance at the Kansas City Art Institute and served as artist-in-residence in several area high schools and housing projects. She has also written several plays for The Coterie Theater, including scripts for their award-winning Dramatic AIDS Education Project. Other Coterie projects include two adaptations of Laura Ingalls Wilder books and an original script based on Senator Eugene McCarthy’s children’s book, Mr. Raccoon and His Friends. Cordes served as artist-in-residence at Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kansas for seven years, writing two original teen dramas for their students. Cordes is the founder of two performance companies, Eyes Wide Open and Big Fragile Stage and her interest in community-based theater led her in 1996 to create “The Bus Event”, a series of performances staged at city bus stops involving over 60 artists and musicians. She is the mother of three teenaged children.

Bess Wallerstein
Director of Operations and Community Relations

Bess Wallerstein has worked in the Kansas City arts community for over five years as an artist, administrator, producer and teacher. She is the founder of CounterClockwise Comedy, an experimental comedy group www.counterclockwisecomedy.com which performs regularly at Screenland Theatre and Westport Coffeehouse.  In addition, Bess is the producer for the Kansas City Improv Festival.  In 2005 she founded an environmental theater production company, One Time Productions, and produced/directed Tina Howe’s Museum in the Kansas City Crossroads art district.  Other plays she has directed include: Fuddy Meers, The House of Blue Leaves, Baby with the Bathwater, and Private Ear.  Bess worked on the world premiere of Touched with the William Inge Theatre Festival as well as the world premiere staged reading of Whitehorse at the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Bess previously worked as a Presentation Manager for Theater League, Inc., presenting national Broadway touring productions across the country. Recently, Bess completed the 2008 Creative Capital Workshop in conjunction with the Charlotte Street Foundation.

 

Kara Armstrong
Education Director

Kara Armstrong has worked professionally as an actor, director or stage manager for the past fifteen years.  Kara earned her M.A. in Theatre at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and was an adjunct professor of Theatre Arts at Benedictine College.  At the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival Kara has worked as Assistant Stage Manager and later, Assistant Director for our professional productions.  For HASF education programs, she has been a teaching artist, manager for our summer Shakespeare camps and created and taught the curriculum for Bard Buddies, our program for 6 – 8 year olds.   During the time she was a teaching artist for the Festival, Kara held freelance teaching artist positions with the Coterie Theatre, Academy of the Arts, and St. Peter’s School and was an Education Associate for Kansas City Repertory Theatre Education and Community Outreach Department.  Kara was also the co-founder, producer and director for her own theatre company, Princess Squid Productions for whom she directed several new works. 

 Marilyn Strauss
 Founder/Vice President, Festival Board of Directors

Marilyn is a former Broadway producer, who returned to her home town from New York where she co-produced five plays, earning a Tony award, for the Irish drama, Da, an Off Broadway award (Obie) for Getting Out and a Tony nomination for the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes. While residing in N.Y.C. for ten years, she traveled thru Europe and Asia, lecturing on American plays and theater producing. Ms. Strauss returned to Kansas City at the urging of fellow producer, the legendary Joseph Papp, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival. He gave her the mission to have her home town join the ranks of the 120 Shakespeare festivals in North America. Ms. Strauss first started a support club, and refusing recompense, worked full time to create the only Shakespeare Festival in a three state area. After six years as Artistic Executive Director, and, experiencing the deep satisfaction of the public’s embrace of the plays in the park, she turned the reins over to two talented and capable Artistic and Executive directors. The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s founder is still active in the organization, serving as a vice-president of the board, and is also an enthusiastic member of several other arts groups in the metro area.

Shirley Bush Helzberg
Chairman

Steve Chick
President

Marilyn Strauss
Founder and Vice-President, Festival Operations

Nicole Jacobs
Vice-President, Education

David Small
Treasurer

Michael A. Smoots, Jr.
Secretary  

Jeff Bremser
Daniel Bukovac
Don Dagenais
Amy Embry
Karen Holland
Jane Dickinson Kress
Lauren LaPointe
Richard M. Levin
Seth McClintock
Mark McPhee, M.D.
Ardyce Pearson
Susan Porter, M.D.
Anita Porte Robb
Kelly Privitera
Anita Porte Robb
Ed Schultz
Darren Sextro
Levi Snow

Ex Officio
Steve Lampone
Lisa Cordes
Sidonie Garrett

Education Advisory Committee

Chris Best
April Bishop
Todd Brezinka
Shelly Busby
R. Crosby Kemper III
Berit Lindboe
Ben Martin
Seth McClintock
Angie Perkins
Jenny Peterson
Pam Taylor
Katy Vogt