magis logoWHO WE ARE

George headshot GEORGE DRANCE has performed and directed in over twenty countries on five continents. New York credits include The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, The Metropolitan Opera, La MaMa’s resident company the Great Jones Rep and Ralph Lee’s Mettawee River Theatre Company. With La MaMa, he has toured throughout Europe and Asia, working on several of Ellen Stewart’s original pieces and performing in the Andrei Serban/Elizabeth Swados’ epic Fragments of a Greek Trilogy. Regional credits include The American Repertory Theatre, The New Rep, ImprovBoston, and The Stonington Opera House. He earned his BA from Marquette University and his MFA from Columbia. He currently serves as Artist-in-residence at Fordham University has been a guest artist and lecturer at Columbia University, Cornell University, Marquette University, Marymount Manhattan College, Hebrew Union College, and Boston College. He has been on the faculty of the Marist International Center in Nairobi, Kenya, at Red Cloud High School on the Oglala Sioux Reservation. Film credits include Solidarity and The Light of Eons.
margi headshot MARGI SHARP has performed as a singer and actor in Off-Off Broadway venues such as HERE, PS 122, and the Connelly Theater and regionally at the Orlando UCF Shakespeare Festival and at the Opera House Arts in Stonington, Maine. Favorite roles include Hermione in A Winters Tale, Kate in Taming of the Shrew and Madeline in a new play Freudian Slips. She has worked on plays with director and puppet master Ralph Lee, regional directors Dennis Delaney and Russell Treyz, and internationally acclaimed director Andrei Serban. Margi received her BA from Duke University in Drama and English as well as a Certificate of the Arts for her work in dance and theater. She also holds an MFA from Columbia University in Acting. She is a co-founder and the Producing Director of Magis Theatre Company, which had their Off Broadway debut last year with an adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. She is also a member of Crossing Jamaica Avenue theater company and has performed numerous roles with them such as Edna in Chiori Miyagawa's Awakening, and most recently the Contemporary Woman in Thousand Years Waiting.
Frank headshot FRANK MIHELICH has worked extensively in theatre: Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and regionally. Frank has also worked in both commercials and film. Regionally Frank has worked for such companies as the Two Rivers Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Company, The Shadowland Theatre, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and the Arizona Repertory Theatre. Frank is a founding company member of Magis Theatre Company and a founding member of Threads Theater Company. Frank graduated from Columbia University in 2004 with his MFA in acting. Frank would like to thank God, his wife Allison, and his son Colton for their love and support.
Erika headshot ERIKA IVERSON was last seen with the Magis Theatre Company as Cecilia in Frances Burney's The Witlings. She has been featured in Magis productions and co-productions as Perdita in The Winter's Tale, Fruttarola in Caravaggio Chiaroscuro, and as Pam/Artist Ghost/Bright Spirit in last year’s world premiere of The Great Divorce. Other favorite roles include Elena in Haircut and The Pupil in Ionesco's The Lesson with George Drance, which won first place at the Piatra Neamt Teatrul Tineretului International Theatre Festival in Romania after a successful run at La MaMa E.T.C.. Her solo performance work with the Cosmic Joke Collective has been seen at the Knitting Factory and the Cornelia Street Cafe. Erika is a founding member of Magis and serves as the Director of Development in addition to her role as an actor/trainer.
Casey headshot CASEY GROVES has appeared in several productions at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC. He has also had two Off Broadway productions of the one man play Damien about the missionary priest who served at the leprosy settlement in Hawaii in the 1800s. Last fall Casey toured Damien throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In 2005 He played Angelo in Measure for Measure with the Garson Theatre Company in Santa Fe. Over the past three years working with Magis, he has played Polixines in The Winter's Tale and the Big Man and the Tragedian in the Off Broadway production of The Great Divorce. Healso has a recurring speaking role on One Life to Live as Officer Maloney. Casey has written two full length plays, Excavating Katrina and The Wise Man of Nyokodo which he hopes to have full productions of in the coming year. He recently graduated with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College in Vermont. He is an adjunct theatre professor at St. Peter's College in Jersey City, NJ, and he has been a guest artist and lecturer at NYU and Well's College.
Wendy headshot WENDY MAPES New York Stage credits include Twinkle, Twinkle, Desdeomona: A Play About a Handkerchief, The Parables of Chang Chou, Animal Farm, Murder, The Comedy of Errors, Cowboy Mouth, Uncle Vanya, California Suite, and Our Town. Wendy played the lead in the short films Fear of Falling(Dusty Award Winning Film), Last Summer and Barnyard. She is a graduate of The New Actors Workshop and Antioch University’s MA program in Theatre. Wendy teaches Acting for contemporary and classical plays at St. Jean Baptiste High School.
Elizabeth M. headshot ELIZABETH LEE MALONE is a current MFA Candidate in Acting at Columbia University. With Magis, she played The Tousle-Headed Youth and the Artist Spirit in The Great Divorce at Theatre 315. Other credits include: Julie in Miss Julie at Chashama, Anastasia in OTMA (Atlantic Stage 2), and Church with Young Jean Lee's Company at The Public. She is a member of Magis Theatre Company and Threads Productions. BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, MFA Candidate Columbia University.
Gabriel headshot GABRIEL PORTUONDO is a native of Brentwood, Long Island, a graduate of Bucknell University and has an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. A founding member of Magis, Gabriel is also the chairman of the Education department and a company trainer. He has appeared in their productions of The Witlings by Frances Burney and The Great Divorce by CS Lewis. He is currently work-shopping his one man show, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in tandem with Urban Aura an original work. Recent credits include: Angelo in Measure for Measure with Shakespeare & Co, Laertes in Hamlet with American Globe Theatre and Edmund in King Lear with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Recent Film & TV Credits include: American Bomber (Sundance Film Festival 2011), 12 Corazones on Telemundo and Baggage on GSN. Gabriel has also directed the film shorts: The Dark Elf, The Man by the Sea, Tea Time and
Wine & Happiness. Other credits include: Oberon, in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Horatio, in Hamlet with the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. Count Orsino, in Twelfth Night with Manhattan Repertory Theater. Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III and Macbeth with The Inwood Shakespeare Festival Javier, in When Santo Domingo Isn’t Enough, which won best play in 2006 at the Cherry Lane Theater during the Downtown Urban Theater Festival. Andres, in Breaking Walls, also at the Cherry Lane Theater.
d THOMAS PIPER has appeared in numerous Off-Off Broadway productions including Richard 3 (Richard), La MAMA ETC (directed by Andrei Serban); As I Lay Dying, Ohio Theatre; We Killed Kurt Cobain, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Trojan Women, American Studio Theatre; and in Magis productions The Winter’s Tale (Florizel) and The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis). Regionally, Thomas has appeared in Andrei Serban’s Pericles at American Repertory Theatre; A Christmas Carol and the upcoming Doubt, The Alliance Theatre; Metamorphoses and Measure for Pleasure, Florida Studio Theatre; Our Town, Waiting for Godot, and Summer and Smoke, Theatrical Outfit; The Diviners and Cash on Delivery, Theatre in the Square, Barefoot in the Park, Aurora Theatre; One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Dad’s Garage Theatre; Hamlet and As You Like It, The Stonington Opera House, and once again Hamlet (title role), Othello (Iago), Macbeth (title role), Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio), and Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick and Dogberry) with Piper Theatre Productions (no relation… no kidding). TV and Film: “Law and Order:SVU”; “As The World Turns”; Open Book, Vodka Rocks, Doomer Chicks. Thomas has also directed several productions regionally and in New York. He is an Artistic Associate with Dad’s Garage Theatre in Atlanta, GA and a member and trainer with Magis Theatre Co. in NY. Thomas is a graduate of Duke University and has a MFA in Acting from Columbia School of the Arts.
walker

WALKER LEWIS divides his time between directing and acting, and recently directed Life Is A Dream as part of the Magis Workshop Wednesdays Series. He directed Liddy’s Sammiches, Potions, And Baths at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and was Assistant Director for Ricardo Khan’s productions of Train to 2010 at the Tony Award-winning Crossroads Theatre and FLY at the Vineyard Playhouse. In New York he has directed at the Flamboyan Theater, the Kraine Theater, One Arm Red Theater, Shapiro Theater, and at Concordia Conservatory. Regionally he has directed at the Swallow Theater, SOMArts, and the Jones Repertory Theater. Walker has also directed and taught in France, Hungary, Russia, and Japan.  As an actor, Walker most recently played Colonel Snopes in FLY and Oliver in As You Like It at the Vineyard Playhouse, and played King Dushyanta in the Magis production of Shakuntala (dir. George Drance) at La Mama. Off-Broadway credits include Orgon in Tartuffe (dir. Brian Kulick), Octave in Scapin (dir. Niky Wolcz), and Andrey in Three Sisters (dir. Pavol Liska) at Classic Stage Company, the Czar in Ubu Roi (dir. Stephen Burdman) at New York Classical Theatre, An Air Balloon Across Antarctica at Cherry Lane Theatre, Trigorin in The Seagull and February (dir. LeeSaar) at La Mama, and Timbuktu (dir. Richard Schechner) at East Coast Artists. Regional credits include Quarry (dir. Meredith Monk) at Spoleto USA, My Doorstep (dir. Marcela Lorca) at Guthrie Lab, Romeo and Juliet (dir. Tom Rowan) at Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival; and tours of Europe and Japan. As a singer, Walker has performed in the San Francisco Jazz Festival with the Crushing Spiral Ensemble and with the rock bands Bedlam Royals and Sportcoat. Walker trained at the Lecoq School and received his MFA from Columbia University.
soneela SONEELA NANKANI has appeared in several Off-Broadway productions including: Tartuffe Supreme (Marianne, dir. Alfred Preisser, Classical Theatre of Harlem), Midsummer Night's Dream (Hermia, dir. Jeff Janisheski, Classic Stage Company), Tea With Chachaji (Mrs. Gupta, dir. Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, Making Books Sing), Ovid's Metamorphoses (Ceres, dir. Alessandro Fabrizi, Riverside Theatre), An Air Balloon across Antarctica (Caitlin Evans, dir. Darragh Martin, Cherry Lane Theatre). Regional: The Clay Cart (Samsthanaka's Slave Girl, dir. Bill Rauch, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Comedy of Errors (Grace, dir. Penny Metropulos, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Sure Thing (Betty, dir. Linda Alper, Black Swan Theatre), Passing Glances & Seven Great Loves (dir. Michael Rohd, Sojourn Theatre), American Value (dir. Michael Rohd, NaCl Theatre). As a singer, Soneela has won several awards and performed with John Legend. TV: All My Children. MFA: Columbia University
sajeev SAJEEV PILLAI started his explorations with theatre in the late summer of 2002 at Northlake Community College in Texas. His first role was that of a tree in Shakespeare's Greatest Hits at Northlake. His inablity to keep still eventually caught on with directors and allowed him to explore 'moving' roles including: Freedom (The Drilling Company), Soccer Mom’s from Hell (TSI Main Stage), The Time of Your Life (St Jeans Players), The Father of the Bride (Artisan Center Theatre, TX), Phantom of the Opera - The Melodrama (Pocket Sandwich Theatre, TX) and Shakuntala with Magis Theatre. Training includes Circle in the Sqaure Theatre School - Summer 2006.  He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, a major that perhaps couldn't be any further away from the the world of theatre!
colista COLISTA K. TURNER has been a member of Magis Theatre Company since January 2009. She holds a B.A. in Theatre and Africana studies from Cornell University, and when she's not onstage teaches Pre-school, as well as Drama and Movement. Performances with Magis include: Shakuntala and St. Joan. Colista has worked with Epic Theatre Ensmble, Take Wing and Soar Productions, HERE Arts Center, and Black Spectrum Theatre. Previous roles include Antigone (Antigone); As You Like It (Rosalind); Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), and The Winter's Tale Paulina. Colista would like to thank all the Magisties for their inspiring radiance!
taylor TAYLOR VALENTINE From childrens theatre to summer stock to outdoor shakespeare to regional theatre, Taylor has been seen on all types of stages, all over the country. He has been in NYC since April 2008 and a member of Magis since January 2009, and can be seen as the Clown in their February 2010 production of Shakuntala. He truly loves being a Magisian and is so grateful for the opportunity. It may have actually saved his life...!
stephanie STEPHANIE BROOKOVER (Stage Manager) has been working with Magis Theatre Company since 2008. Past productions include The Witlings, Her Name is Vincent, and Shakuntala. When not running the show backstage Stephanie is a swim instructor for SwimJim, and Macy’s Elf Bobble each winter. She obtained a BS in Theatre Arts Education at Appalachian State University. She is honored to work with such an outstanding company, and is thankful for each performance.