Eileen Boevers Founder, Board Director Member Emeritus
Eileen
has directed several shows at Apple Tree Theatre: Big, the Musical , The Spitfire Grill, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Big River, Grace and Glorie, Violet, Old Wicked Songs, Denial, The Heiress, The Secret Garden (Jeff Nomination), Sleuth, Seesaw, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, Waiting for Godot, Happy Days, Sugar, Anna Karenina (Jeff Nomination), Cyrano de Bergerac, and A Little Night Music along with productions for the youth programming department . As executive/artistic director she has produced, directed, taught, performed, and written for Apple Tree Theatre, and founded the Eileen Boevers' Performing Arts Workshop in 1970. In 1998, she was recognized by the Chicago Tribune Arts and Entertainment editors as a "Chicagoan of the Year," by the Lake and McHenry County YWCA as a "Woman of Achievement," and by the National Council of Jewish Women as a "Woman of Influence." In addition to having received the Mayor's Award for the Arts and the Baha'i U. Children's Day Award, she has been named to the North Shore Walk of Fame and was featured on WGN in 'Chicago 's Very Own.' She also received the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award from the Illinois Humanities Council this past fall.
Mark has been active in the Chicago performing arts community for over 25 years as producer, performer, music director/composer/aqrranger, and song writer. He was been affiliated with Apple Tree from its earliest years and has served on its board the last five. He has also worked with many of Chicago's other leading theatrical venues including Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Marriott Lincolnshire, Candlelight Dinner Theatre and the late, great Stormfield Theatre. At Apple Tree he has served as music director for an adaptation of Moliere's Scapin; composer for Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Ross Lehman's In My Father's House; composer and lyricist for Toga Tales, a children's musical play by Mark Lococo; and sound designer for The Swan. He composed music for The Gift of the Magi, with book and lyrics by Ross Lehman and co-produced the Jeff-nominated production of the Kurt Weill revue, Berlin to Broadway at the Theatre Building. He has been a featured performer with Hollis Resnick, Bernadette Peters, Dionne Warwick, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Wilson and others. Living a dual life in both business and the arts Mark has worked in general management and business development for Fortune 500 companies like Motorola and for start-up companies in technology and life sciences. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago. Go Maroons!
Ross Lehman Artist-in-Residence
Ross directed The Unexpected Man with
Peggy Roeder and William Brown. Ross was seen on Broadway in A
Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum and Epic
Proportions. Chicago credits include A Man of No Importance, Uncle Vanya, Syncopation, Sugar, Waiting
for Godot, Amadeus, Stop the World, I Want
to Get Off, and The Dresser, for which he received
a Jeff nomination and an After Dark Award (Apple Tree Theatre); One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in Chicago, London, & New York;
The Man Who Came to Dinner, Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks (Steppenwolf);
Waiting for Godot (Goodman); Love's Labour's Lost (Chicago Shakespeare). Other recognitions include
Ford's Theatre (Helen Hayes Award) and Jeff Awards at Marriott Theatre
in
Lincolnshire and Where’s Charley at Apple Tree Theatre. He received a nomination for the prestigious Olivier Award in
London. (Rare for a “Yankee!”)
Scott serves as the Director of Youth Programs at Apple Tree Theatre where he oversees the theatre workshop and the youth programs. Piner previously served as the Cultural Arts Supervisor for the Waukegan Park District's Jack Benny Center for the Arts, and has worked with the Barnstormers Theatre Company in Tamworth , New Hampshire . Piner has taught theatre and magic classes for Christian Youth Theatre and enjoys performing and directing in addition around the Chicago land area. Piner graduated with a degree in Theatre Arts from Northern Illinois University .
Originally from Ohio, Shelley has been working in theatre for over 16 years as both actress and educator. She currently teaches for the Eileen Boevers Performing Arts Workshop at Apple Tree Theatre. Other teaching credits include Emerald City Theatre Company, and Horizon Youth Theatre. As a Chicago actress, Shelley has worked with Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, Emerald City Theatre Company, Murder Mystery Productions, Newton Learning, and independent production companies in and around the city. She occasionally tours with Millrow Children's Characters, performing the role of Tommy Toothbrush to the delight and education of school children across the Midwest. Shelley is a past winner of the Cleveland Playhouse Shakespeare Competition (competing nationally at Lincoln Center), a two time Irene Ryan nominee, and has received numerous awards in competitive speaking. She has participated in theatre intensives with Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, the American College Theatre Festival, and accomplished performers such as Svetlana Efremova and Darlesia Cearcy. Shelley is a graduate of Bowling Green State University.
Melissa Law recently moved to Chicago to pursue a theatre career in the area and has since been involved in productions with Stage Right Productions and Seanachai Theatre Company. She is currently a teacher for the Eileen Bouevers Performing Arts Workshop at Apple Tree Theatre. She has also taught at the Renaissance School for the Arts in Appleton, WI and directed at Southwest High School in Green Bay. Melissa has worked with theatre camps at the Y.M.C.A and outreach programs for youth in Colorado Springs where she is originally from. She holds a BA in theatre and music from Lawrence University. Melissa received an Irene Ryan Nomination and participated in the American College Theatre Festival. She will be performing in A Christmas Carol with the Metropolis Performing Arts Center this season.
Tim has been with Apple Tree Theatre since 1993. He is a graduate of
the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (1992),
where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater Performance
and also studied stage management. Since joining the Apple Tree staff,
Tim has had a myriad of responsibilities, ranging from the box office to
the administrative office to the stage. He understudied
the roles of Caleb and Joe for Apple Tree's production of The Spitfire
Grill and performed in Glorious Gershwin on New Year's Eve 2002. Tim coordinates
all technical aspects of Apple Tree's productions and hires designers with the
Artistic Directors.
Tom Murray, Marla Lampert, Stevi Marks, Jessica Boevers, Mark Lococo,
Matt Bogart, and Ernest Zulia.
Board of Directors
Bob Wieseneck, President
Scott
Landau, Charles Adler, Co-Vice Presidents
Hollis Axelrod, Eileen Boevers, Lut Calcote, Barbara Fuhrmann, Michael Hoffman, Marla Lampert, Ross Lehman,
Mark Lococo, Stephen Marcus, Kathy Miehls, Tim Morrison, David Multack, Diane Rochester, Len Rubin, Susan Thompson,
Margie Weiss, and Mark Weston
Associates Board
Hollis Axelrod, Wendy Kritt, Co-Presidents
Hal Axelrod, Leah Axelrod, Michael Belsky, Janet Borden, Sondra Brewer Pfeffer,
Dina Cherin,
Karen Dillon, Katie Dolney,
Miriam Glabman,
Janice Goodman,
Peggy Hayner,
Ed Kaufman, Alisa Klein, Debbie Miller Koziarz, Caren Redish, Beth Rosen, Penny Rotheiser, Sandra Scheinbaum,
Mavis Springer, Cheryl Steiger, Audrey Suffrin, Nomi Topper, and Paulette Yanow.
Artistic Board
Eileen Boevers, Jessica Boevers, David Boevers, Patrick Clear, Mary Ernster, Ray Frewen, Felicia Fields, Kurt Johns, Marla Lampert, Ross Lehman,
Mark Lococo, Stevi Marks, Susie McMonagle, Susan Moniz, Tim Morrison,
Tom Murray, Karen Berger-Nolte, Peggy Roeder, Malcolm Ruhl, Barbara Simpson, Nathaniel
Stampley Jr., Daniel J. Travanti, and Ernest
Zulia.
