If traffic headed south on I-94 this summer seems a little worse than usual you can blame Kevin Rich. The former Milwaukee Shakespeare star and Carthage College/UW-Parkside theater instructor is also the reason why some of your favorite Wisconsin actors aren’t on stage in Spring Green or Door County this summer.
With Deborah Staples cast in the title role of Hamlet, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in Bloomington has also picked well known Milwaukee actors Mark Corkins (Claudius) Eva Balistrieri (Ophelia) and Jonathan Gillard Daly (Polonius) for the summer repertory company that is also staging Twelfth Night and Peter and the Starcatcher. Chosen from a field of more than 700 candidates for the season that opens this weekend, the Wisconsin stars are joined by 29-year-old Milwaukee director Leda Hoffman.
Hoffman is well known for directing Staples last year in her one-woman tour de force, The Amish Project. Choosing this up-and-coming talent over more experienced directors was an easy decision for Rich.
“It’s true that Shakespeare festivals hire the same directors over and over again for plays like Hamlet,
