President – Andalyn Courtney, Crowley Webb
Vice President – Alexandria N. Rowen, Steuben Foods
Secretary – Katie Howe, Moog Inc.
Treasurer – Mary Young, Lumsden McCormick
President – Andalyn Courtney, Crowley Webb
Vice President – Alexandria N. Rowen, Steuben Foods
Secretary – Katie Howe, Moog Inc.
Treasurer – Mary Young, Lumsden McCormick
Lewuga Benson, Interdisciplinary Media Artist
Meg Cain, Buffalo Public Schools
Bobbie Chase
Gail Evans
Jess French, Buffalo Zoo
Peter Heffley
Jacob Honan, Rupp Pfalzgraf LLC
William K. Kennedy, Esq., Rupp Pfalzgraf LLC
Robert Maefs, Argyle Technology
Zoe Peppas, Hodgson Russ
Rosa Alina Pizzi, City of Buffalo
Scott Sroka, Phillips Lytle LLP
Our Artistic Panel is a group of volunteer artists, audience members and community leaders charged with the task of selecting productions for our annual festival season. Members meet each spring to review play submissions from directors across the region, selecting two finalists for the main stage production the following year. Visit our Play Submission page for more information on the selection process and RFP.
Julie Bastedo
Barbara Bono
Rebecca Elkin
Ann Emo
Mark Humphrey
Jessica Marinelli
Darryl Semira
Patrick Tharp
Lisa Ludwig
Executive Director
Lisa Ludwig has served as the Executive Director of Shakespeare in Delaware Park (SDP) since 2006. During her tenure, she has expanded fundraising efforts, strengthened community partnerships, and enhanced the organization’s educational and outreach programs.
She has been involved with Curtain Up!, Buffalo’s annual celebration of live theatre, for more than 17 years. Lisa currently serves on the boards of the Theatre District Association (TDA) and Gay & Lesbian Youth Services (GLYS). Over the years, she has also contributed to the Erie County Arts & Cultural Advisory Board, the County Executive’s Transition Team, the New York State Council on the Arts REDC Panel, and the Institute of Outdoor Drama Committee. In 2022, she was honored with the Woman of Influence Award from Business First.
Before returning to Western New York in 1990, Lisa lived in New York City, where she performed in national touring productions and sang aboard the Spirit of New York Cruise Ship. Locally, she has appeared on nearly every professional stage in Buffalo and has directed productions both in Western New York and in North Carolina at the Highlands Playhouse. She is a multiple Artie Award winner and was a longtime co-host of the Artie Awards, which raised funds for AIDS-related charities in Erie County. Her media work has included local radio and television appearances, including co-hosting The Rob and Lisa Show on Q102, and she starred in the 2020 Pan American Film Division’s award winning film, Mother’s Day.
Lisa has a long standing passion for arts education and working with young artists. She has directed productions at Iroquois High School, Sacred Heart Academy, Amherst High School, Niagara University, Buffalo State University, and SUNY Niagara, and was an avid collaborator with the Arts Education Institute.
In 2021, she pursued a longtime personal goal and earned her cosmetology license. In her spare time she styles hair at Canterbury Woods, serving senior residents.
Above all, Lisa is the proud mother of Cydney and Griffin, a devoted dog mom to Miss Judy Garland and Mr. Minelli, and an ecstatic Granny to her beloved Della Joan.
Brendan Didio
Business Development Manager
Brendan Didio hails from Central New York, but for several years now, Buffalo has been his home. He is a graduate of the MFA Acting program at D’Youville University in partnership with The Kavinoky Theatre. He also serves as an adjunct instructor at SUNY Niagara and Niagara University. After graduating with his BFA in Theater Performance from Niagara University, Brendan joined the SDP team as a Community Outreach and Administrative Associate. He then served as SDP’s Education Coordinator until moving to Boston where he apprenticed with Commonwealth Shakespeare Co. and worked with Lanes Coven Theatre and the Gamm Theatre. Brendan now serves as SDP’s Business Development Manager. In Buffalo, Brendan has had the opportunity to play onstage and off with several companies including SDP, Irish Classical Theatre Co., Theatre of Youth, Road Less Traveled, and The Kavinoky Theatre. Brendan has studied and trained with professionals from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London as well as The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. When he’s not in the theater, the classroom, or working behind the scenes, Brendan can be found eating pizza, playing with his dog, or spending time with his wonderful wife.
Gretchen Didio
Education & Office Manager
Gretchen is an actress and educator originally from Kingston, NY. She got her first professional acting job as a Witch in Macbeth with SDP in 2017 which is also the summer she met her now husband, Brendan! In addition to Macbeth, Gretchen has been seen on the Hill in Love’s Labour’s Lost (Lady Maria) & Measure for Measure (Isabella). Other favorite acting credits include Legally Blonde (Elle Woods) & Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Cynthia Weil) with MusicalFare, Rent (Alexi Darling) & Romeo and Juliet (Balthasar/Sampson) with The Redhouse Arts Center, and The Taming of the Shrew (Katherine) with Sh!t Faced Shakespeare in Boston.
Gretchen earned her BFA in Musical Theatre at Fredonia State University where she graduated summa cum laude. Since then, she has been living all over the northeast performing and teaching theatre and dance. Most recently she worked at The Performing Arts Connection in Sudbury, MA as a Theatre and Dance Instructor, Director, and Choreographer. She also worked as a Teaching Artist for The Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, NY and at Exploration Summer Inc. at Yale University & Wellesley College. After years of exploring other cities, she is happy to have landed back in Buffalo and with SDP. Since being hired full time as the Education & Office Manager, Gretchen has participated in Arts for Learning’s Master Teaching Artist Training Program and was a 2024-25 Cullen Fellowship Award recipient.
Gretchen has a passion for performance and education and she looks forward to bringing her knowledge and skills to the Buffalo community and beyond! When she’s not in the SDP office, you can find her on stage, reading a book, or spending time with her wonderful husband and their playful pup, Ophelia.
Norman Sham
Production and Outreach Associate
After many years of cavorting on the stage in Delaware Park, Norm has slid down the other side, splinter free, and is happy to be a part of the SDP staff. A proud member of AEA, Norm has been a fixture on the Buffalo theatre scene for the past 38 years. Before joining SDP, Norm was Production/Stage Manager/Actor for over 13 seasons and 79 productions for the Kavinoky Theatre, under Artistic Director and Founder David Lamb. Acting credits include: As You Like It, The Tempest, Comedy of Errors, King Lear, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, Merry Wives…, Much Ado…, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (SDP), Zooma Zooma, Urinetown, A New Brain, The Spitfire Grill, Rocky Horror, Sweeney Todd…, Dancing in the Dark, (MusicalFare!), Brooklyn Boy (Jewish Rep), Don’t Touch That Dial (Milwaukee Rep). The Producers, August: Osage County, 12 Angry Men, A Funny Thing…, Man of LaMancha, Cuckoo’s Nest, Guys & Dolls (Kavinoky). Norm has won the Artvoice Theatre Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical for the years 1996 (Man of LaMancha) and 1999 (Guys & Dolls). He also won for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play in 2002 as Marty for the BET. In real life Norm is happily married to his favorite scene partner, on or off the stage, the beautiful and talented Debbie Pappas.
Miss Judy Garland & Mr. Minelli
Chief Morale Officers
Sean Patrick Ryan
Interim Office Assistant
Sean is an actor, writer, and teaching artist returning home after receiving his MFA in Acting from the University of Arkansas. Sean is a founding company member of The Margins, a theatre company centered on devised theatre and new works. Sean is an adjunct instructor at SUNY Fredonia, excited to continue fostering young artists. His original plays have been produced at the Rochester Fringe Festival, The University of Arkansas, and Western Kentucky University. Sean has been seen onstage at Shakespeare in Delaware Park most recently as Pericles in Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Other stage credits include TheatreSquared, Olney Theatre, Alleway Theatre, and Buffalo United Artists. Offstage Sean is an avid audiophile and thrift store fanatic who enjoys exploring the Buffalo food scene with his best friend and fiancé Steve.
Eleen Waffner
Interim Education Coordinator
Eleen Waffner is a Buffalo-based actor, artist, and educator. She recently graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in both Theatre and English Literature, with a focus in Theatre for Young Audiences. Eleen also studied Greek Theatre with the British American Drama Academy in London, Greece, and Oxford. At Northwestern, Eleen served as one of ImagineU Theatre’s education directors and in 2025, devised and performed in Splish-Splash: A Day at the Lake, commissioned by the Goodman Theatre, with a cohort of Northwestern students under the supervision of Jamal Howard and Ellie Levine. In Buffalo, Eleen has appeared on the hill in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Pericles; she has also taught for SDP’s ShakespearIENCE program. Currently, Eleen is pursuing her EdM in English Adolescent Education at University at Buffalo where she will continue using theatre to help students succeed. Eleen is thrilled to be working with Shakespeare in Delaware Park, bringing the transformative power of Shakespeare and performance into the classroom.
Ebony Pace
ASI Springboard Fellow
Rebecca Elkin
Rebecca Elkin recently returned to her hometown of Buffalo after 15 years in New York City. She is a New York State Licensed Creative Arts therapist with a masters degree in Drama Therapy from NYU and a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University. While obtaining her BFA, Rebecca studied abroad in London and trained at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. She has incorporated Shakespeare and theatre into her teaching and therapeutic interventions with children and families in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, with teenagers in the Brooklyn public school system, abroad in India with teachers and students, with young people identifying as LGBTQIA+, as a guest teaching artist with local theatre summer camps, with justice-involved and incarcerated persons, and with people with developmental disabilities and on the Autism spectrum, among others. Currently Rebecca works in private practice as a therapist. She has also had the great joy of performing as an actor with Shakespeare in Delaware Park for 11 productions as well as with other local theatres. As someone who was personally shaped by Shakespeare in Delaware Park as a young person (really, since birth), she is excited to have the opportunity to bring the transformative power of Shakespeare and the special magic of this festival to a new generation of Buffalo’s young people. Rebecca is also thrilled at the potential to share the healing and self revelatory potential of Shakespeare and drama therapy with a wide range of local populations.
Sue McCormack
Sue McCormack is a teacher and an actress. She teaches 9th and 10th grade English at Cheektowaga Central High School. She is also a Teaching Artist with SDP, Theatre of Youth, and Second Generation. Sue has an MFA in Acting from the New School for Drama in New York City and a BA in Theater from Buffalo State. She’s performed most recently in The Bard is in Our Yard with Shakespeare in Delaware Park and Oregon Trail at Alleyway Theatre.
Gabriella McKinley
Gabriella Jean McKinley graduated with honors from Buffalo State College as the President’s Medal for Outstanding Student recipient and commencement speaker. Gabriella received her B.A in Theater, minor in Legal Studies, and was awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Theater. Throughout her undergraduate career, Gabriella studied story-based kinesthetic learning with application in local Buffalo schools. Gabriella has been featured in shows locally at Shakespeare in Delaware Park, the Kavinoky Theater, MusicalFare Theater, and Torn Space Theater. She’s previously worked with The Broadway League as a Programming Assistant and as a Company Management intern with “HAMILTON: The Angelica Tour.” Gabriella has a passion for working with underserved populations, including previously incarcerated persons, and hopes to develop Shakespeare-based programming in service of these groups.
Katie Osborn
Katie Osborn is a Buffalo born, classically trained actor and theatre educator who specializes in
Shakespeare. After graduating with a BFA in Theatre Performance from University at Buffalo, Katie
pursued acting in NYC and worked as an actor and teaching artist with Hudson Shakespeare and South
Brooklyn Shakespeare companies. In 2017, Katie was awarded with a Lincoln Center Scholars Theatre
Education Fellowship and while obtaining Masters in K-12 Theatre Education at Hunter College, taught
in Title 1 schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan. While teaching, Katie applied her Masters research which
focused on developing curriculum that utilizes Shakespeare to enhance students’ literacy and cultivate
empathy. In addition to teaching K-12 students theatre, Katie also served as an Auxiliary Program
Manager at the Berkeley Carroll Lower School, and has taught virtual and in-person workshops for
college students and adults. Katie is thrilled to be working with Shakespeare in Delaware Park and bring
her passion for Shakespeare and theatre education to the communities of WNY.
Rachel Lasda Zeller
Rachel Lasda Zeller has devoted over 40 years of her life to theatre arts with endeavors that include performance, stage management, direction, teaching, and learning. Most recently, she has directed and produced musicals at St. Andrew’s Country Day School, including Shrek the Musical, Jr., Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka Jr., Aladdin, Jr., and other one-act adaptations of classical plays. She also teaches STREAM (science, technology, religion, engineering, arts & mathematics) to preschool and elementary students at St. Andrew’s. Prior to her teaching career, Rachel served as stage manager for many award-winning productions with the Subversive Theatre Collective, ALT Theatre and the New Phoenix theatre as well as with Mission: Improvable Buffalo. Rachel received her B.A. in Theatre from the University at Buffalo. In addition to being a Drama Nerd, she loves karaoke, tiny crochet projects, and spending time with her husband, two daughters, her dog, her cat and her bearded dragon.