Joseph McGrath, Artistic Director
Joe McGrath is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama, where he studied with Michael Kahn and Michael Langham. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, he has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, appearing in Pericles, Tartuffe, Twelfth Night, and The Country Wife. At the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Joe appeared as Horatio in Hamlet, Glendower in Henry IV, Part I, and Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing. In New York City, he directed Rough Magic: A Shakespeare Quartet. In Tucson, he is a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Stepsister in Cinderella, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Van Helsing in Dracula and, perennially, as Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Art Theatre, Arizona Onstage, Green Thursday, Damesrocket Theatre, and Old Pueblo Playwrights in such roles as Trigorin in The Seagull, Sam Byck in Assassins, John in Oleanna, and This Rock in Anger Box. For The Rogue Theatre, Joe authored and directed Immortal Longings, directed Much Ado About Nothing, The Grapes of Wrath, Uncle Vanya, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, By the Bog of Cats, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Dante’s Purgatorio, Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Kafka’s Monkey, Mother Courage and Her Children, As I Lay Dying, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron, Our Town, Red Noses, The Maids (winner of the Arizona Daily Star 2007 Mac Award for Best Play), The Balcony and Endymion, and performed in The Crucible, The Secret in the Wings, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo, King Lear, Bach at Leipzig, Celia, A Slave, Macbeth, Penelope, The White Snake, Angels in America Part One, Tales of the Jazz Age, Miss Julie, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Richard III, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, The New Electric Ballroom, Shipwrecked!, Major Barbara, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Ghosts, Naga Mandala, Othello, Krapp’s Last Tape, A Delicate Balance (winner of the Arizona Daily Star 2009 Mac Award for Best Actor), Animal Farm, Orlando, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Happy Days, The Goat, The Cherry Orchard, The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Dead and The Fever. Joe is also a scenic designer and owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.

Cynthia Meier, Managing and Associate Artistic Director
Cynthia Meier holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona. She is co-founder of Bloodhut Productions, a company performing original monologues and comedy improvisation, which toured throughout the western United States and was published by St. Martin’s Press. For The Rogue Theatre, Cynthia directed and adapted The Lady in the Looking Glass, Metamorphosis and The Dead, and directed The Secret in the Wings, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo, King Lear, Bach at Leipzig, Celia, A Slave, The White Snake, Miss Julie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Arcadia, Betrayal, Richard III, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, Shipwrecked!, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Naga Mandala, Othello, Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, The Cherry Orchard, The Good Woman of Setzuan and The Fever. She directed The Seagull (featuring Ken Ruta) for Tucson Art Theatre. For Chamber Music Plus Southwest, she directed Talia Shire in Sister Mendelssohn and Edward Herrmann in Beloved Brahms. Cynthia performed in The Crucible, Three Tall Women, The Grapes of Wrath, A House of Pomegranates, Macbeth, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America Part One, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, By the Bog of Cats, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Awake and Sing, Dante’s Purgatorio, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, The New Electric Ballroom, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron, Ghosts, Not I, Our Town, A Delicate Balance, Immortal Longings, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Red Noses, The Goat (Best Actress, Arizona Daily Star 2008 Mac Award), The Maids, Endymion and The Balcony (The Rogue Theatre), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Arizona Repertory Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Arizona Theatre Company), Blithe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Of Thee I Sing (Michigan Repertory Theatre), Romeo & Juliet and Chicago Milagro (Borderlands Theatre), Top Girls (Damesrocket Theatre), A Namib Spring (by Patrick Baliani, winner of the 1999 National Play Award), A Nightingale, Smirnova’s Birthday, The Midnight Caller, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Tucson Art Theatre), and A Maid’s Tragedy (directed by Domini Blythe of the Royal Shakespeare Company). In 2000, Cynthia was awarded the Tucson YWCA Woman on the Move Award.

Christopher Johnson, Artistic Associate and General Manager
Christopher has adapted A House of Pomegranates and The Picture of Dorian Gray for The Rogue Theatre, and has previously appeared at The Rogue in Angels in America Part One (Prior Walter), Tales of the Jazz Age (Clark Darrow), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Esteban), Hamlet (Laertes), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Tragedian), The Merchant of Venice (Salanio), Jerusalem (Luke Parsons), Dante’s Purgatorio (Ensemble), Richard III (Earl Rivers & Sir William Brandon), Mother Courage and Her Children (Eilif), The Night Heron (Dougal), Journey to the West (Tripitaka), The Winter’s Tale (Ensemble), and As I Lay Dying (Jewel). Other Rogue credits include Stage Manager (The Lady in the Looking Glass, By The Bog of Cats) and Director (The Crucible, Three Tall Women, Penelope, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Elizabeth Rex). He previously served as Artistic Director of Winding Road Theater Ensemble, The Bastard (Theatre), and Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop. The recipient of numerous Arizona Daily Star Mac Award nominations for both acting and directing, Christopher received the 2014 Mac for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of The Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret. Other accolades include nominations for The Buffalo Exchange Arts Award for Emerging Performance Artists (2011) and Tucson Weekly’s Best Local Actor (2014).

Matt Bowdren, Artistic Associate
Matt Bowdren has appeared at The Rogue in The Crucible, King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath, Penelope, Uncle Vanya, Tales of the Jazz Age, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Miss Julie, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet (2015 Mac Award for Best Actor), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Awake and Sing, Betrayal, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess, after the quake (2013 Mac Award for Best Actor), Richard III, Metamorphosis, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, New-Found-Land, The Four of Us, Six Characters in Search of an Author and The Goat. For The Rogue Theatre Matt has directed Angels in America Part One (2016 Mac Award for Best Director) and Macbeth. Other Arizona acting credits include The Pillowman with the Now Theatre and Romeo and Juliet with Southwest Shakespeare and with The Arizona Repertory Theatre in Frankenstein and Othello. Matt currently resides in Chicago where he is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of The Story Theatre. With the Story he recently directed the world premiere of Leave Me Alone! Matt holds an M.F.A in Performance from the University of Georgia.

Patty Gallagher, Artistic Associate
Patty Gallagher is a Resident Acting Ensemble member at The Rogue. She is Professor of Theatre Arts at University of California Santa Cruz where she teaches movement, mask, Balinese dance, clown traditions and Shakespeare. With The Rogue, she was last seen as Allerleira & others in The Secret in the Wings.   Other roles at The Rogue include: Siobhan in Curious Incident, Fool in King Lear,  B in Three Tall Women, the White Snake in The White Snake, Mrs. Kilbride in By the Bog of Cats, Rosencrantz in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Mabel in The Lady in the Looking Glass, Madame Moiselle in Dante’s Purgatorio, Hannah Jarvis in Arcadia, Kali in Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Red Peter in Kafka’s Monkey, Mrs. Samsa in Metamorphosis, Monkey King in Journey to the West, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Player 1 in Shipwrecked!, Alibech in The Decameron, Ariel in The Tempest, Rani in Naga Mandala, Emilia in Othello, the Player in Act Without Words, Orlando in Orlando, Sonnerie and Scarron in Red Noses, Winnie in Happy Days, Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard and Shen Te in The Good Woman of Setzuan. She was recently named an Artistic Associate at Santa Cruz Shakespeare. She has also worked with The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, The Jewel, EnActe, The New Pickle Circus, Ripe Time Theatre, Two River Theatre, RangaShankara, Jagriti, Teatro Cronopio and Grupo Malayerba. She has performed, choreographed and directed workshops in Asia, South America, Europe, and the US. She served as a Fulbright Scholar in Quito, Ecuador, and in 2014 she was awarded a Chair in Creative Studies at UCSC’s Porter College. She holds a doctorate in Theatre from University of Wisconsin–Madison and a BS from the University of Arizona. From 2002 to 2010, she was Director in Residence at Circus Center San Francisco.

Holly Griffith, Artistic Associate and Box Officer
Holly Griffith is a 6th year member of the Acting Ensemble at The Rogue. Favorite productions include Three Tall Women, Celia, A Slave, A House of Pomegranates, Macbeth, The White Snake, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America Part One, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet, and Arcadia. She also serves as a Box Officer and Co-Producer of the John & Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series at The Rogue. Holly holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Arizona, serves as an Artistic Associate and Director at The Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre, and has a fierce interest in the history, culture, and literary tradition of Ireland.

Brent Gibbs, Resident Fight Director
Brent Gibbs teaches acting and stage combat at the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre Arts where he also serves as the Artistic Director for the Arizona Repertory Theatre. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.  For nine years Brent served as the director, fight director and production stage manager for one of the nation’s largest Outdoor Dramas, Tecumseh. He has gained recognition as an Advanced Actor/Combatant by the Society of British Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada and The Society of American Fight Directors where he also holds the rank of Certified Teacher and Fight Director.  He has taught combat master classes around the United States and Europe at various schools including The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.  For several summers he taught stage combat workshops at the International Theatreschool Festival in Amsterdam.

Megan Coy, Resident Stage Manager
Megan Coy is thrilled to have returned to her hometown to stage manage for The Rogue Theatre, beginning her position of stage manager with Middletown in the summer of 2019. She spent the prior five years working in marketing, stage management, and lighting design at The Magik Theatre in San Antonio, TX. Prior to settling in San Antonio, Megan was the stage manager and lighting director on the first North American tour of Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live! She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, training in stage management, lighting design, and dramaturgy. She has worked with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Alpine Theatre Project, and local theater and dance companies in Tucson and San Antonio. Megan is a proud mom to Eleanor and wants to thank Casey for his constant love and support.

Russell Ronnebaum, Resident Music Director and Composer
Russell Ronnebaum is most excited to be serving as The Rogue Theatre’s newly appointed Director of Music and Resident Composer. Russell holds a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the University of Arizona where he studied under Dr. Paula Fan. He currently serves as the assistant director of music at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oro Valley, as well as the staff accompanist for the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. As a classically trained pianist, Russell has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Artifact Dance Company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, and as a concerto soloist with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Russell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 performing the music of composer Dan Forrest. Past credits include The Rogue’s 2019 production of Much Ado About Nothing (Music Director, Pianist, and Composer) and The Secret in the Wings (Vocal Director). Recent composition commissions and premieres include music for voice, choir, piano, string orchestra, and dance. Recordings, sheet music, and upcoming concert dates can be found at www.RRonnebaum.com.

Peter Bleasby, Master Electrician
Peter Bleasby lit his first show at 13. Professionally, he was with BBC-TV for several years, and was an assistant to UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow during the inaugural production of the National Theatre (Hamlet, directed by Olivier.) He transferred to architectural lighting, but maintained his theatre interests by lighting many shows on both sides of the Atlantic. When the Rogue established itself at the Historic “Y” in 2009, he volunteered for the initial season, returning in 2013 with  lighting designer Don Fox, and later working with Deanna Fitzgerald. He devised the installation of the permanent wiring system that enables lighting teams to devote more time to the creative process. For the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation he directs the technical and logistical aspects of fundraisers, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.

Amy Novelli, Resident Scenic Artist
Originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania, Amy received her Cum Laude BFA from the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art & Design in 1987 and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1994. Amy Beth Novelli’s work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin Germany, Portland OR, Pittsburgh, Scottsdale and Tucson Arizona, Santa Fe New Mexico as well as several cities in Ohio, Wyoming, Utah and Oregon. Her painting “High Desert” was purchased for the permanent collection of the Wyoming State Museum from the Governor’s Award Exhibition in 2015. Novelli has lived in New York City where she worked as a sculptor for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Studio as well as New Orleans and Berlin.  She has worked as the Carnegie, Warhol and Dubois (Wyoming) Museums and taught at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Her work as lead painter for Larson Company’s Christmas and Easter Windows for Marshal-Fields Department Stores in Chicago and Minneapolis painting the Alice in Wonderland theme won the 1999 “Best Windows in the Country” award. Amy held the position of Charge Scenic Artist for four years at the Arizona Theatre Company, supervised four Public Art Projects with High School Youth for the Tucson Pima Arts Council and since 2015 Amy has completed 5 large scale murals in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona and Washington. She continues to paint as a Charge Artist/Scenic Painter for the Rogue Theatre, UA Repertory Theatre, Arizona Broadway Theatre.  Her fine art work has been exhibited at several Tucson Galleries and recently at the Tucson International Airport, Mission Coffee Imports and forthcoming at Tucson Audubon Society  Agua Caliente Gallery. Amy Novelli has been living in Tucson since 1996.  In addition to her scenic design/painting and fine art projects, Novelli gentles wild BLM horses for adoption through the Mustang Heritage Foundations TIP Program and is an avid rider and wilderness adventurer.

Nanalee Raphael, Costume Manager
Nanalee Raphael has known from age 5 that she would work in theatre. Of course, she thought it would be as an actor, not as someone who flings fabric around. She feels blessed that she has always been employed in costuming, for both professional and academic theatres, and has never had to have a "day job". Until moving to Tucson in 1995, she was peripatetic in her work situations, desiring to work with theatres all over the country. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee but was lured by the bright lights of Chicago and so moved there to teach at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Following her husband to central Illinois, she then wangled a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she created a successful costume rental program. She then gave up all that greenery to come to Tucson to teach and design at the University of Arizona. She has worked as a costume designer, costume director and/or draper in professional theatres in Michigan, (Hope Summer Repertory, Holland), Wisconsin (American Players Theatre, Spring Green), Illinois (Goodman, Wisdom Bridge, and Steppenwolf, Chicago), New York (The Public, NYC), Arizona (ART & ATC, Tucson), at Shakespeare Festivals in Vermont and New Jersey, and California (The Old Globe, San Diego). She received both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Costume Design and Technology from Syracuse University. She is one of the "Pionering Seven", the first group of women to study full-time at Dartmouth College.

Thomas Wentzel, Business Manager
Thomas Wentzel is a Scientific Programmer for the National Solar Observatory and holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona. Previously he has worked as a Data Manager for several prevention programs in the Arizona Cancer Center and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health. He has served on the Board of the Tucson Men’s Cooperative, editing its newsletter for five years, and on the Executive Committee of Sons of Orpheus—The Male Choir of Tucson. He has sung with Furry Day Singers, Sons of Orpheus, AwenRising and Arizona Repertory Singers, and has performed with Tucson Art Theatre in Viktor Slavkin’s Cerceau and Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. Thomas has designed and built The Rogue Theatre Web site, creates all The Rogue’s posters and programs and serves as Webmaster, Business Manager and Box Office Manager.

Susan Collinet, Volunteer Coordinator
Susan Collinet received her A.A. Degree from Pima Community College in 2005, and her B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in the American Theater of Brussels and the Theatre de Chenois of Waterloo, Belgium. She has worked in such positions as volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, and volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan is continually working on collections of poetry and fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, and the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in the 2010 Norton Anthology of Student’s Writing. Susan is celebrating her eighth season as Volunteer Coordinator and House Manager, and also serves on the Board of Directors.

Jerry James, Theatre Essayist
Jerry James has been an archery instructor, a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, a truck driver, a secretary, a stagehand, a telemarketer and the company clerk of A-7-2, Ft. Jackson, SC, during the Late Unpleasantness in Southeast Asia. He once spent fourteen months traveling from Washington State to Valley Forge with a wagon train—and has been getting paid for his work in the theatre since 1965. He won the 2012 New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for Excellence in Writing-Book for A Letter to Harvey Milk. The musical later had a four-month run Off Broadway. Jerry is the author of fifteen plays, variously produced in New York and other US cities, Toronto, Munich and on tour in Great Britain. Two of these were commissioned by the National Library of Medicine. He is also a prize-winning author of short fiction. During the Nineties, he wrote The Life, a column for the alternative monthly, Voices, in which he chronicled the lives of those scruffling on the fringes of the New York theatre scene. Jerry has taught at Penn State, Fordham and Hofstra, where for five years he directed the Senior Showcase. Dramaturge: Woodstock Shakespeare Festival. Alumnus: BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

THE 2019–2020 RESIDENT COMPANY

Bryn Booth

Matt Bowdren

Patty Gallagher

David Greenwood

Holly Griffith

Hunter Hnat

Ryan Parker Knox

Joseph McGrath

Cynthia Meier

Carley Preston

Aaron Shand

Matt Walley