May Chang Sandbox

William Church is the director of theatre at Interlochen Center for the Arts and serves as the artistic director for the Interlochen Shakespeare Festival, which he founded in 2008. Church has performed for theatre companies throughout the United States, including the American Repertory Theatre, California Theatre Center, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Publick Theatre, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Recent performances include Scrooge in A Christmas Carol in Prose with Parallel 45; Captain Nick Flanagan in The Guys, Prospero in The Tempest, and Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, all at Interlochen. His directing credits range from Shakespeare to contemporary work, including a touring children's theatre troupe he founded while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa. Directing credits at Interlochen include The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, Othello, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear for the Shakespeare Festival; Hamlet, An American in Paris, The Winter's Tale, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, My Fair Lady, RENT, Amadeus, Spring Awakening, and West Side Story at the Academy; as well as several productions at Camp. Church is a member of Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. He has won multiple Wilde Awards for Best of the Bard for his professional Shakespeare productions and was named a Distinguished Teacher by the US Presidential Scholars Program. Church is a graduate of the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, has an M.F.A. from the Moscow Art Theatre School, a B.F.A. from Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts, and is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy.

View Full Bio

Stephen John holds an M.F.A. in Directing for the Theatre from the University of Idaho and a B.A. in Theatre from California State University at Fullerton. Stephen has worked professionally for over 15 years and has multiple professional credits as a Producer, Director, Designer, Stage Manager, Production Manager, and Technical Director. Directorial and Design Collaborations include University of Idaho, Chapman University, Cardinal Stage Company, STAGEStheatre, Fullerton College, Soroptimist International of Fullerton, Mysterium Theatre, Stage Works at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa Arizona, Crazy Red-head Productions (Scotland), Handless Man Productions and 3D Theatricals.

View Full Bio

Laura Ames Mittelstaedt's professional acting credits include Proof (Catherine) at New Paltz Summer Repertory, A Mid-Summer Night's Dream (Helena) and King Lear (Regan), and As you Like It (Phebe) at Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and Romeo and Juliet (Juliet) with the Trinity Repertory Summer Shakespeare Project in Providence, Rhode Island. Chicago credits include work with TimeLine Theatre Company and Chicago Dramatists. Mittelstaedt is an Artistic Associate and founding member of the Interlochen Shakespeare Festival, where she directed the 2014 production of The Tempest and has played roles including Kate in Taming of the Shrew and Portia in The Merchant of Venice. Mittelstaedt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Pennsylvania State University and her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance from Rhode Island College.

Matthew Lindstrom is originally from Lake View, New York. He is currently an Instructor of Dance and Theatre at Interlochen Arts Academy. Before coming to Interlochen, Lindstrom was Assistant Professor of Dance at Colorado Mesa University. He has given master classes and set work at Cornell College, University of Northern Iowa, West Texas A&M University, Iowa Wesleyan College, Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Company, and many others. As a performer, Lindstrom spent eight years as dance captain for Stephen Foster: the Musical in Bardstown, Kentucky. His choreography has been presented in Aspen, Boulder, Denver, New York, Costa Rica, San Juan, and throughout the Midwest. In 2010, his piece "If I were, you'd be(e)" was chosen to close the American College Dance Association's Northwest Region gala concert. Lindstrom has appeared in several Interlochen Shakespeare Company productions, and frequently performs in Interlochen Arts Academy's full-length ballets.