JEFFREY HATCHER (Playwright/Director) is an award-winning writer for stage, screen, and television. His work has been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in major regional theaters in the U.S. and abroad.
His original plays and adaptations include: Three Viewings, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Never Gonna Dance, A Picasso, Scotland Road, The Turn of the Screw, Tuesdays with Morrie (with Mitch Albom), Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, Mrs. Mannerly, Murderers, Ella, Korczak’s Children, To Fool the Eye, The Falls, A Piece of the Rope, The Government Inspector, Cousin Bette, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He has written episodes of Columbo and The Mentalist, and the TV movie, Murder at the Cannes Film Festival. For the screen he has written The Duchess (starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes) and Mr. Holmes (starring Sir Ian McKellen).
His awards and grants include: NEA, TCG, Lila Wallace Fund, 2013 IVEY Lifetime Achievement Award, Rosenthal New Play Prize, Frankel Award, Charles MacArthur Fellowship Award, Edgerton Grant, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Barrymore Award Best New Play (A Picasso), and L.A. Critics Circle Award Best Adaptation (Cousin Bette). He is a member and/or alumnus of The Playwrights Center, the Dramatists Guild, the Writers Guild, and New Dramatists.
NAYNA RAMEY (Scenic/Costume Design) Nayna’s regional work includes sixteen seasons at American Players Theatre with designs including Blithe Spirit, Major Barbara, Hay Fever, Ah Wilderness, The Tempest and Uncle Vanya; The Foreigner, An Ideal Husband at Great Lakes Theatre Festival/Idaho Shakespeare Festival; A Thousand Clowns, The Diary of Anne Frank at the Intiman Theatre; Tuesdays with Morrie, Noises Off and Pygmalion at Indiana Repertory Theatre; Intimate Apparel at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; Liliom, Indian Ink, Morningstar at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; My Way, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown at the McKnight Theatre/St Paul; Grease and Hair at the Historic Pantages Theatre/Minneapolis; Snapshots, Hiding in the Open and Main Street at the History Theatre/St Paul and over 70 productions at Chanhassen Theatres including Jesus Christ Superstar, Footloose, West Side Story, and Les Miserables. Member United Scenic Artists.
MICHAEL KLAERS (Lighting Design) is a lighting designer for theatre and other events. His work has been seen at Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, Madison Repertory Theatre, The Cricket Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre and many others. He is also the lighting designer and production manager for the Daniel Group shows Triple Espresso—a highly caffeinated comedy and That Wonder Boy.
MICHAEL CROSWELL (Composer/Sound Design) is a Saint Paul based composer and sound designer. Recent theater collaborations include designing for Walking Shadow Theatre Co., Grinnell College, Mu Performing Arts, Frank Theatre, Macalester Theater Department, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Michael received a 2003 McKnight Composer Fellowship and a 2013 Ivey Award for Sound Design. Michael also has worked as a guest artist at the Saint Paul Music Academy introducing 5th grade music students to music composition.
John Markiewicz (Sound Design/SFX Design) is a performance audio, live broadcast, recording and installations specialist. He is the owner of Audio Logic Systems, located in Eden Prairie, MN, an installation and full service AV & Lighting production and rental company providing audio, video and lighting, set design and acoustic consulting services, as well as planning and consultation.
ROBERT L. GRAFF (Design Coordinator) is pleased to be making his debut with the Daniel Group. His design credits include University of Northwestern – St. Paul: Sense & Sensibility, The Phantom of the Opera, Is He Dead?, Oliver!, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Mighty Casey, Pride & Prejudice (set & costumes), Tartuffe (set & Costumes). Elsewhere: Love’s Labor’s Lost (Old Vic, England), Plaza Suite, Macbeth, The Importance of Being Ernest (Dakota Fine Arts Consortium), State Fair, Anything Goes (River Valley Theatre Co.), Titanic (Second Stage Theatre Co.), among others. Notable Honors: Award of Excellence (JFK Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC). Teaching: University of Northwestern – St. Paul, professor & Designer for the Music & Theatre Department; University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Director of Costuming.
TRICIA STOGSDILL (Wig Master) is excited to be working with the To Begin With team yet again! Tricia spends her days as a Wig Assistant at the Guthrie Theater, and is a freelance Wig and Hair Designer at night. Theater credits include: American Players Theatre, Theater Latte Da, Artistry, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Utah Festival Opera. Tricia holds an MFA in Wig and Make-Up Design from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
DR. GARY COLLEDGE (Literary Consultant)
Gary Colledge is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Bible & Theology at Malone University (Canton, OH), an adjunct faculty member in the School of Online & Professional Education at Grace College & Seminary (Winona Lake, IN) and teaches online courses for Moody Bible Institute and Moody Theological Seminary (Chicago, IL). He has over 30 years of combined teaching and pastoral experience.
Gary holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from the University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland). He took his baccalaureate degree in English Literature at Heidelberg College (Tiffin, Ohio) and his M.A. in Biblical Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary (Ashland, Ohio). And, yes, it is true—Gary was a wide-receiver on the undefeated 1972 NCAA Division III National Championship football team at Heidelberg.
He has contributed several articles to The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon Press) and is the author of God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author (Brazos Press, 2012) and Dickens, Christianity and “The Life of Our Lord”: Humble Veneration, Profound Conviction (Continuum, 2009).
Gary is a lifelong resident of Akron, Ohio where he presently resides with his wife, Marla. Gary and Marla have been married 40 years. They have four grown children and six grandchildren.