Just who IS 7SSC?
Dan Beaulieu, Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Dan Beaulieu is the Artistic Director of Seven Stages Shakespeare Company and a member of The Shakespeare Theater Association. They are also an active member of The Shakespeare Ensemble, curated by Ben Crystal & based in Wales. Dan has been a member of The Shakespeare Theater Association, Rude Grooms, New York Shakespeare Company, Midnight Theatricals, and the New Hampshire East Hockey program. Together with Kevin Condardo, Dan created and co-hosted No Holds Bard (the Shakespeare Podcast Shakespeare Would Have Listened To*). Dan is a graduate of Sacred Heart, St Thomas Aquinas High School, Anna Smulowitz studios, and attended the University of New Hampshire, Regents College in London, and briefly took an online course through Harvard University taught by Stephen Greenblatt. The course was brief because Dan and Stephen had collaborated on an evening at Lincoln Center (together with Adam Gopnik and the Tony Award Winning Claire Warden) on Hamlet’s first performance, and he and Professor Greenblatt spent the vast majority of their time at the after party discussing a shared passion of theirs: Boston Sports. Dan is the author of A Shakespeare Carol, in pre-production for debuts around the world during the holiday season of 2023. They have played Hamlet both in the United States multiple times, and in Nippon- where they also played Mercutio & Banquo while facilitating a production of Macbeth starring Dylan Kammerer & Ben Crystal. Dan has directed every Shakespeare play at least twice, and has explored the canon chronologically, in reverse chronological order, and in sundry permutations of chaotic order centered around peaceful themes. Dan has led Shakespeare workshops for folx of all ages around the globe and has reached over a million people with his message to "take Shakespeare off the pedestal, get your hands and knees a little dirty, and radically claim the words of these plays as your own." Together with their dear friend and dearest mentor John McCluggage, Dan co-created ShakesXperience- a program based in San Jose and funded by grants made possible through Silicon Valley Creates- which is built specifically for folx 65 years old and better. This program activates Shakespeare as a lens through which our elders can share the stories of their personal lives and their collective wisdom. Dan has been featured in American Theater Magazine, New Hampshire Magazine, New Hampshire Chronicles, and on radio stations around the world. Dan’s first big contribution to the Shakespeare world was the creation of ShakesBEERience, supported and fostered by Bruce Pingree and Christine Penney, at the legendary Press Room in Portsmouth NH. Since its inception, BEERience has found homes in Brooklyn and San Jose. Dan is allergic to phonies, despises sore losers, and is currently working on a new project set to launch in 2023 that has them walking around aimlessly listening to and talking to birds. The status is quo.
Kevin Condardo, Managing Director
Kevin Condardo (he/him) is currently the General Manager, Programming at the Park Avenue Armory. Prior to that, he worked as General Manager at TheaterWorksUSA and The New Group, an award-winning Off-Broadway theater company. Kevin spent three years as the Budget Manager at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and five years as a Company Manager at The Public Theater in New York City. He received his M.F.A. in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College and completed dual majors in Theater and Business Administration at the University of New Hampshire.
Tim Jacobs, Company Manager
Tim Jacobs (he/him) serves as Company Manager for 7SSC, and is also a skilled lighting designer and actor. Previous credits with 7SSC include: Pericles (7SSC Company Manager, Lighting Design, Thalliard, Leonine, Murph); Hamlet (Company Manager); Hamlet/Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Lighting Design); The Winter's Tale (Lighting Design); Much Ado About Nothing (Claudio); Romeo + Juliet: The Remix #Ahranjay (Tybalt); The Taming of the Shrew (Lucentio). Many ShakesBEERiences. Other previous credits: Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio x2); As You Like It (Orlando); Threepenny Opera (Tiger Brown); Guys and Dolls (Angie the Ox); The Odd Couple (Speed). Training: University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire.
Christine Penney, Co-Founder & Producing Director
Christine Penney (she/her) is the Co-Founder & Producing Director of 7SSC. In addition to producing all 7SSC events, her recent 7SSC credits include Pericles (Set Design, Cerimion), Othello (Set Design), The Winter’s Tale (Set Design), and What you Will, or twelfth night (Olivia). Other previous credits include: Burn This (Anna) and The Sharp Dressed Men Trilogy (Director) with Stage Force; and A Streetcar Named Desire (Stella) with Players’ Ring. Christine serves full-time as the Chief Advancement Officer at the Dempsey Center, and previously served as the Associate Director of Development at Tony Award-Winning Off-Broadway theatre New York Theatre Workshop and Associate Artistic Director at Stage Force.
Julia Sommer, Associate Artistic Director
My name is Julia Sommer (she/her/hers), a.k.a. Ghoul a.k.a. Jsom. I’m a NH native with a degree in Theatre from the University of New Hampshire, and am currently a graduate student at Mary Baldwin University working towards an M.Litt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance. Some of my recent credits with 7SSC include various characters in Pericles, a handful of ‘BEERiences, and directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Some things to know about me are that I infinitely prefer sweatshirts to sweaters, the first song I learned the full lyrics to as a kid was Irreplaceable by Beyoncé, and I’m left-handed (although I can bat righty). I am so incredibly excited to be joining as Associate Artistic Director. My vision and hope for my work with this company is far easier to talk about over coffee than it is to express through this text format, but the gist of it is to further combine the “passionate irreverence” 7SSC has always brought to Shakespeare’s texts with scholarly understanding of Early Modern textual and stage practice. In doing this my hope is to dismantle the barrier between audience and performance and to explore the ways in which Shakespeare’s works invoke community, subversion, and conversation. I am a firm believer in audience as ensemble, and I think Shakespeare was, too. Furthering the breaking down of barriers requires commitment to those values 7SSC already treasures. Accessibility, development, collaboration, and dialogue (to name a few) are vital to the healthy growth of any community, and artistic spaces are no different. I commit myself to these values with intention and alacrity. “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”