Cast Bios
* Indicates member of Actors’ Equity Association.
 | J. TODD ADAMS* (Reverend John Hale) Four seasons at the Great Lakes Theater and Idaho Shakespeare Festival, including Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick) and Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio); two seasons at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, including Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure(Sherlock Holmes); Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio) at Denver Center Theatre Company; four seasons at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, including Henry IV pt. 1(Hotspur), The Three Musketeers (Aramis), and AMidsummer Night’s Dream (Puck); The Importance of Being Earnest and The Real Thing at PCPA; Drawer Boy, Lonesome West, Entertaining Mister Sloane, andCyrano de Bergerac at South Coast Repertory; Gross Indecency at the Mark Taper Forum; King Lear at San Diego Repertory; I Pagliacci at the Kennedy Center, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Film/Television: GilmoreGirls, The West Wing, Flyboys and Warriors of Virtue. |
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 | TOBIN ATKINSON* (Ezekiel Cheever) Tobin returns to PTC after Much Ado About Nothing and Twelve Angry Men. Regional credits include roles at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Plan-B Theatre, SLAC, the Asolo (FL), the Studio (DC), and the Shakespeare Theatre (DC). Tobin holds an MFA in directing from the U of U and an MBA from AMU. He served as a U.S. Army rifleman in the 16th Infantry (2000-2004) and was later assigned to Army Entertainment where he led a production safely through Iraq and Afghanistan. He co-founded and ran Plan-B Theatre for eight years with Cheryl Cluff, and co-founded and currently runs Meat & Potato Theatre with Marynell Hinton.www.meatandpotato.org. |
 | ANNE LOUISE BRINGS (Mercy Lewis/us Abigail) has most recently been seen in Spark (Ali) with Pygmalion Productions. Past favorites include August: Osage County (Jean), Beowulf (Wiglaf), Boeing Boeing(Gloria), a staged reading of Mad Gravity (Dakota), As You Like It (Rosalind), The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County (Lupita), Curtains(Georgia) and Antigone (Antigone). Anne graduated from Westminster College with a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance. |
 | CLAIRE BROWNELL* (Elizabeth Proctor) is thrilled to make her PTC debut. Credits include: Broadway & National Tour: The 39 Steps. Off Broadway: Indian Ink (with Rosemary Harris). Off-off Broadway: The King’s Whore. Regional Theatre: Shakespeare Theatre Company, An Ideal Husband & The Government Inspector; Hartford Stage, Boeing Boeing! (Connecticut Critics Circle Award); American Conservatory Theatre, The Rivals; Guthrie Lab, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Gulfshore Playhouse, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Maltz Jupiter Theater & Shakespeare on the Sound. Television: Inside Amy Schumer. Film: The Inspector The Lady & The Thief, BFF, This is the Story of Ted and Alice. MFA from ACT. |
 | ANNE CULLIMORE DECKER (Rebecca Nurse) is happy to be returning to Pioneer Theatre Company. Her most recent theatre credits: Rare Bird, Righteous & Very Real Housewives Of Utah County, Thirty-Three Variations, Loss Of Appetite. Her most recent film credits: A Life Less Ordinary, Darling Companion. Most recent awards: Utah’s 15; The States Most Influential Artists—2014. |
 | BRIGHTON HERTFORD (Susanna Wallcott/us Mary Warren) Agoura Hills, CA. SAG & AFTRA member for 28 years. Eight years as B.J. Jones on General Hospital (Daytime Emmy – Drama Series 1995) Guest star roles: Dawson’s Creek, 7th Heaven, andEverwood. Irene Ryan Nomination – Pussycat in Pussycat (U of U). Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Pardoe Theatre) and Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie (HCTO). Acting Training at University of Utah and BYU. BFA Acting. |
 | BETSY HOGG* (Mary Warren) is thrilled to make her Pioneer Theatre debut with this very special play, in which she made her Broadway debut 13 years ago as Betty Parris. Other B’way: Peter and the Starcatcher (Molly Aster, closing company), Fiddler on the Roof. National Tour: Show Boat. Off-B’way/Regional: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (The New Group), The Marriage of Figaro (McCarter Theatre), On Borrowed Time (Two River Theater), The Whale (Adirondack Theatre Festival), Adult (TerraNOVA), Summer of ’42 (Bucks County Playhouse), A Maze (NYSAF). TV/Film: “Onion SportsDome,” “Law & Order: SVU,” The Missing Person, Rocket Science. Proud Northwestern graduate and AEA member. If you want to hear her read a book, check out audible.com. |
 | MICHAEL S. JOHNSON (Hopkins/ us Reverend John Hale) is thrilled to be returning to Pioneer Theatre Company after appearing in Laughing Stock in 2013 and most recently the Play-by-Play reading ofAlabama Story. Michael is a senior in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah where he most recently appeared in The Three Penny Operaand Blue Stockings. Michael is an intern at Plan-B Theatre Company. |
 | PHILIP KERR* (Deputy-Governor Danforth) is an honors graduate of Harvard and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. A veteran of seven Broadway productions, he has also appeared Off-Broadway at Roundabout, Public Theatre, MTC, CSC, Playwrights Horizons, and Carnegie Hall. Regional/LORT: Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Yale Rep., Seattle Rep., Alley, Goodman, Hartford Stage, McCarter, La Jolla, St. Louis Rep., Cleveland Play House, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Kennedy Center, Huntington, Westport, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Chatauqua, etc., and New York, American, Colorado, Dallas, California Shakespeare Festivals. TV: NET, BBC, network. Other: Canada, Netherlands, National Dance Institute. Recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award Best Actor. Directed (SDC) over fifty productions. He will appear in Hamlet at Capital Rep. this spring. |
 | PAUL KIERNAN* (Reverend Samuel Parris) appeared with Pioneer Theatre Company in Odd Couple, Of Mice and Men, Man of La Mancha, Laughing Stock,Emma, The Tempest, The Diary of Anne Frank,Twelve Angry Men, Pride and Prejudice and Amadeus, among others. Other credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Leonato) with Kentucky Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (Friar Lawrence) with Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and Cyrano de Bergerac(Cyrano) with the Hangar Theater, Ithaca. Other productions include Macbeth, The Tempest, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing with Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. He received his MFA from Brandeis University and is a proud member of AEA. |
 | JOHN LA GIOIA* (Francis Nurse) New York credits include On Borrowed Time (director George C. Scott),School for Scandal, Right You Are, Gemini, Wars of the Roses, Titus Andronicus, Pavlo Hummel, (NY Shakespeare Fest), Over the River and Through the Woods, Doubles. Regional credits include: Hedda Gabler (Alley Theater), Enemy of the People(Williamstown Festival), Inner Voices (Spoleto Festival, USA), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, All the Rage(Pittsburg Public) and more. Musical credits includeGypsy, West Side Story, The Fantasticks, and Bells Are Ringing. A regular on all NY based soap operas, he was Johnny Dallas on The Edge of Night for five years, with roles on Law and Order and Law and Order SUV. He has toured with Red Buttons, Tom Poston as Bogie in Play it Again, Sam, and Milton Berle in The Impossible Years. |
 | FLETCHER MC TAGGART* (John Proctor) is thankful to be back working at the Pioneer Theatre Company for his second production with us. He was last seen here as Tony Wendise in Dial M for Murder. His most recent show was Murder Among Friends at the New Theatre in Kansas City staring opposite Morgan Fairchild. Some of his past productions include Noises Off at The Rep in St. Louis, Broadway: Leap Of Faith. Off -Broadway: Rose Rage, (The Duke), Biography(Pearl Theatre) Home front (La Mama) American Dreams (The Acting Company). Tours: As You Like It,(Acting Co.) Macbeth (Utah Shakespeare) Regional:The Crucible, (Barrington Stage Co.) played Reverend Hale, Contact, (Asolo Rep.), Rocket City, (Alabama Shakespeare) A Midsummer Nights Dream, (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare. Film: The Heat, dir. Paul Feig. Television: As the world turns, Law and Order, Six Degree’s BFA: Ithaca College, MFA: George Washington University. |
 | JOHN MICHALSKI* (Giles Corey) John is marking his PTC debut with The Crucible. He just completed a run as Sigmund Freud in Freud’s Last Session. Prior to that, John played Harry Dangle in the opening production of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ season, One Man Two Guvnors. Most recently, in New York, John performed briefly as Angel in the Off-Broadway comedy, Under My Skin. An Associate Artist with New York Classical Theatre John has appeared as Prospero in The Tempest, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, as well as productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, Hamlet, King Lear and as Scrooge in A Fifteen Minute Christmas Carol. Over his career, John has appeared on and Off-Broadway, in two tours with The Acting Company and in theatres from coast to coast. John acquired a few basic skills as a member of group II of the Juilliard School’s Drama Division, under the legendary John Houseman. |
 | MADISON MICUCCI (Abigail) is thrilled to be performing for the first time with Pioneer Theatre Company! Favorite roles from recent productions include Dot in Sunday in the Park with George(University of Michigan) and Lisa in Orange is the New Black (Netflix). As a recent graduate of the musical theater program at the University of Michigan, she is honored to perform in such a classic play. |
 | STEPHANIE PURCELL (Betty Parris/us Elizabeth Proctor) is excited to be making her PTC debut. She has performed and filmed with companies such as Utah Light Opera, the Grand Theatre, Centerpoint Legacy Theatre, Disney, ABC Family, and Salty Productions. Some of her favorite past shows includes:Urinetown (Hope), Into the Woods (The Baker’s Wife),Les Misérables (Cosette), The Voice of the Prairie(Frankie/Francis), and Romeo and Juliet (The Nurse). Stephanie received her BA in musical theatre from Weber State University. |
 | SARAH SHIPPOBOTHAM (Mrs. Ann Putnam/Sarah Good) is thrilled to be making her debut for Pioneer Theatre Company. Previous roles include Elizabeth In the Syringa Tree for Utah Contemporary Theatre and Adult Woman in the Theatre Department’s production of Spring Awakening. Sarah is Head of the Actor Training Program at The University of Utah as well as one of the Voice and Dialect Coaches for The Shaw Festival in Canada. |
 | ROBERT SCOTT SMITH* (John Willard) NYC credits include Keeping Ishmael (Workshop); Pericles (SLANT); and the co-development of Roger Benington’s new work, Mormon Bird Play. SLC acting credits include Shhh! Burlesque, Pains of Youth, and Santaland Diaries with Tooth and Nail Theatre; Rapture Blister Burn, Good People, CHARM (World Premiere), Swimming in the Shallows, Six Years, Big Love, BATBOY: The Musical, and Gross Indecency with Salt Lake Acting Company; OUR TOWN with The Grand Theatre; and BASH with Plan-B. Robert Scott is Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory. Recent collaborations include LOST IN THE WODS with the SLC Men’s Choir; FEAST with choreographer Charlotte Boye-Christensen, NOW-ID and NYC Playwright Troy Deutsch. Education: MFA Old Globe Theatre San Diego; BFA ATP University of Utah. |
 | DAVID SPENCER* (Judge Hathorne) was last seen at PTC two seasons ago in the encore production of Les Misérables (as well as the original PTC production in 2007). In the interim he has spent quality time riding his motorcycle through the back roads of upstate New York while taking occasional jaunts to Jackson, Mississippi, to work at New Stage Theatre in The Grapes of Wrath (Jim Casy), A Christmas Carol(Scrooge), and most recently, All The Way (J. Edgar Hoover) and Peter Pan (Captain Hook). Over the past three decades he has worked so often at PTC that returning to PTC is like coming home. Sincerest thanks to Chuck Morey. |
 | STEPHANIE WEEKS* (Tituba) is truly thrilled to be making her PTC debut. She has performed Off- Broadway with Obie Award winning companies, Target Margin and Hoi Polloi. Some of her favorite roles include Salima in Ruined, Belle in A Christmas Carol, Charmian in Antony & Cleopatra and Shark in Oh My God I’m So Thirst(Y), Innovative Theater nomination. Film Ex-Doofus…, Tribeca Film Festival. Training: London Academy of Music and Drama, MFA: American Conservatory Theater. www.stephaniejweeks.com |
 | KURT ZISCHKE* (Thomas Putnam) At PTC: Julius Caesar (Brutus), 1776 (John Adams), Sherlock Holmes & The West End Horror (George Bernard Shaw), The Ladies’ Man (Gustave Aubin), 42nd Street(Pat Denning), Richard III, (Clarence) King Lear(Albany), The Tempest (Sebastian) and Camelot (King Arthur), where he met and married his Guinevere,Victoria Adams-Zischke. Broadway, Off-Broadway & National Tours include Signs Of Life, Whistle Down The Wind, The Buddy Holly Story, Baby Case, The Three Sisters, Antigone, King Lear, A Doll’s House, The Beaux’ Stratagem, George Abbott’s Broadway, Barbara’s Blue Kitchen, and Ulysses In Nighttown, among others. Regionally he has appeared in over 100 productions ranging from Jack Lawson inRace to Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. He is a graduate of Stanford University and The Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied under Sanford Meisner. |