The Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company
Now in Their 9th Season
The Taming of the Shrew
Summer 2012
Mission Statement:
To produce Classic Theatre each summer in the Community of Half Moon Bay, California that is accessible, entertaining, challenging, educational and enlightening for both audiences and players alike.
Vision Statement:
By aligning ourselves with local arts organizations, businesses, trusts, and other entities in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and Coast, we strive to be responsive to opportunities and challenges, both artistic and economic, that will produce theatre with a deep commitment to education, outreach and audience involvement. We also seek to celebrate diversity and to enrich and enliven the existing cultural and artistic atmosphere of our community and world.
Lee Ellis (Co-Founder, Associate Producer/ Producer and Board CFO)
Lee is a founding member of Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company. She began her love of the Bard while earning a B.A. degree in English at Westminster College and thereafter taught Shakespeare to her middle school and high school students. While raising a family, she occasionally returned to the classroom while also authoring and teaching community college seminars. She later earned a CPM and enjoyed a career in project management in a large public agency in the Bay Area. There she used organizational and communication skills toward the building of large public projects.
Lee has served as Associate Producer/Producer for all 8 seasons and manages the company’s business. Those productions include Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Macbeth, Romeo Y Julieta, Twelfth Night and As you Like It. Lee resides in Half Moon Bay, CA and is involved in various community organizations including college scholarships for local women students. She loves spending time with her 2 kids and 6 grandkids who reside in Danville, CA and Boulder, Colorado.
Sue Savich (Board Member, Secretary)
Sue has been an active participant in local theatre productions (stage manager, producer, props, lighting, and sound tech) since she moved to Half Moon Bay in 2001. She developed a love for the Bard when she studied literature and writing in college at Columbia University and was delighted to find such an engaging company performing quality theatre outdoors at Carter Park. She joined the Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company as a board member in 2019. She is also a member of the board at Coastal Repertory Theatre. Sue has an MBA from San Jose State University. Her career as a Human Resources Executive spans 40+ years in the SF Bay Area across several large, global high-tech companies.
Heather McAvoy (Board Member)
Heather (she/her/hers) has been a theatre consultant for 35 years and leads the San Francisco Bay office of Schuler Shook, a theatre design firm. She earned her BA in drama from Stanford and MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. A lighting design member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE, she has designed for theatre, music, and dance in the US and abroad since 1986. She is president of the Board of Directors for the American Society of Theatre Consultants and serves on the advisory board of the Studio School of Design in New York. Her theatre planning projects include venues for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, A Noise Within, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and hundreds of commercial, civic, college, university, and secondary school performing arts facilities. She fell in love with Shakespeare (and theatre) in high school when she auditioned to play Olivia in Twelfth Night and was appointed stage manager instead. She and her husband, Bruce Krempetz, led an after-school drama program in the La Honda-Pescadero schools for 15 years. They have four adult children and one grandchild.
Jeanie Graham (Board Member)
Jeanie (she/her/hers) has been on the board of the Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company since 2016 and has volunteered for the Company since its founding. A Shakespeare fan since her teens, she got involved with local theatre when her daughter Caroline began acting in La Honda/Pescadero school and Coastside community theatre productions at the age of 8. Jeanie has focused her efforts on promotions for the Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company and participates in set build/strike, Carter Park cleanup, ticket sales, and working concessions during productions. She has also volunteered at Coastal Repertory Theatre, where she produced four plays: Rabbit Hole, Artichoke, The Underpants, and Lion in Winter. She received a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in Chemistry from San Jose State University, and in non-theatre life is a manager of technical publications and federal business development support at SRI International.
Robert Pickett (Co-Founder)
Robert has been involved with theatre in all its many facets (directing, acting, lighting design, costuming, set design, teaching) for most of his life. He studied with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain and co-founded the Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival before co-founding the Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company. His many contributions have helped maintain the artistic and cultural environment here on the coast.