Staff

Jack Hickey* (Artistic Director) for Oak Park Festival Theatre and has been with the company for nine seasons. For Festival Theatre he has directed Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Roles with Festival Theatre include the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Howard Bevins in Picnic, Touchstone in As You Like It, John Douglas in Murder by the Book, Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Jack has worked with many other theatres including ShawChicago, The Goodman, Drury Lane Oak Brook, Remy Bumppo, and Chicago Dramatists. Favorite roles include that of Buckminster Fuller in the one man show R. Buckminster Fuller: The History and Mystery of the Universe at the Mercury Theatre, and Ko-Ko in The Mikado with Light Opera Works.  This summer, Jack will return to the OPFT stage as Falstaff in The History of King Henry the Fourth and Fluellen in Henry V.

Contact him at artisticdirector@oakparkfestival.com.

(Managing Director)

Email managingdirector@oakparkfestival.com, or call (708) 401-4821

Samantha Church (Director of Development) has been active in the theatre in various capacities since the age of four. As a student at the College of Charleston where she received a BA in Theatre, she garnered numerous departmental awards, including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Villain, and the Clarence Award for Outstanding Theatrical Achievement. She also served as Vice President of Center Stage, College of Charleston’s student run production company. As Vice President, she acted as a producer for the season, and organized charitable giving and public relations events. Since moving to Chicago in 2007, she has completed the Meisner Technique Training Program at Artistic Home, during which time she was employed as the theatre’s marketing assistant, implementing and maintaining social media presence and assisting in the branding of the company. In Chicago, she’s been seen on stage in Hedda Gabler (A Room of One’s Own Productions), Walk of Shame (New Colony and Victory Garden’s Fresh Squeezed Series), The Waiting, A Dove State Andando, Everything’s Temporary (Artistic Home Studio), and Radio Goggles (Oracle Productions). Behind the scenes she’s worked at Artistic Home (Asst. Producer: The Tallest Man; Asst. Director: (The House of Yes), A Room of One’s Own Productions (Director; Playwright: Normal People; Producer: (Hedda Gabler), Oracle Productions (Stage Manager: Woyzeck), and The New Colony (Playwright: Literally Sexy 2).

When not working in the theatre, Samantha is an art model and musician. She cannot escape the arts, no matter how hard she tries.

Email her at developmentatfestivaltheatre@gmail.com, or call her at (708) 401-4821

Lucy Carr (Casting Director) has been involved with Festival Theatre since 2008. She has acted in Much Ado About Nothing, assisted directed Betrayal, Faith Healer, and Richard III. She is  thrilled to have been recently hired as Casting Director. She has worked with such companies as Shaw Chicago, Remy Bummpo, Piven, Rasaka, Irish Repertory, Lookingglass, Bailiwick, Glass Onion Shakespeare, Absolute Shakespeare, A Reasonable Facsimile, Strangeloop, Abbie Hoffman Festival and Kennedy Center (Washington DC) as well as Paskel Rudnicke, Claire Simon, Grossman Jack and Stewart Talent. She also teaches at the famed Piven Theatre Workshop.

Lucy holds a BFA from University of the Arts (Philadelphia), where she was nominated for the Kennedy Center ACTF Best Ensemble award twice, and Gaeity School of Acting (Dublin, Ireland).

Email her at opfestcasting@gmail.com

Mary Liming (Box Office Manager) Mary began her career with Festival Theatre in 1990 as Administrative Assistant to then Managing Director, Sue Levine-Kelly, and Box Office Manager for our production of Falstaff. She returned as Box Office Manager in 1992 for Dr. Faustus and has been here ever since.While she has a multitude of great memories of her time with Festival Theatre, the brightest one in her mind is her son’s special “carry on” part at the age of 4 months during a Family Day show of The Adventures of Don Quixote. There must be something in the blood, because he can’t wait until he turns 16 in two years so he can return to Festival Theatre as an intern. Mary enjoys being one of the first faces anyone sees when they arrive at Festival Theatre, but she and cameras have an on-going love/hate relationship. Hence the picture of what she likes to claim was her favorite Halloween costume; Super Kitty.