THE OFFICIAL SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
STAFF
JANICE L BLIXT
PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
In 2023, Blixt directed the acclaimed Macbeth and adapted (from the French translation) and directed a world premiere A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau. in 2022, Henry V and Brandon Thomas' Charley's Aunt. Before pandemic, she directed King Lear starring John Lepard and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (which she adapted from the 1923 Brian Hooker translation), in 2018, Measure for Measure (Wilde Award Winner for Best of the Bard) and adapted and directed Aphra Behn's The Rover. In 2017 she directed the stunning Julius Caesar and the brilliant new translation by Alexandra LaCombe (which Blixt also adapted for the stage) of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. She also appeared onstage at the MSF (for the first time in 17 years) as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew opposite David Blixt, directed by John Neville-Andrews. In 2016 season she directed the award-winning Richard II and Karen Tarjan's play of Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels. In previous years, she directed A Midsummer Night's Dream and adapted and directed Henry IV (Wilde Award Winner - Best of the Bard) - an epic collection of both full-length Henry IV plays into one night of theatre, she directed the celebrated Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (BroadwayWorld Best Shakespeare Production, 2014)
and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde Award - Best Comedy). In 2013 she directed the hugely successful Twelfth Night, and in 2012 she directed both Richard III & George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (Wilde Award nominated for Best Comedy, Best Scenic Design, Best Actor Comedy, and Best Actress Comedy). In her first season she directed Romeo & Juliet, and in 2011 she directed both Much Ado About Nothing and the Wilde-Award Winning Best of the Bard Production of The Winter's Tale. She also adapts and directs the ongoing MSF touring productions of Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth.
Jan has been a working director in Chicago for the past fifteen years where she has helmed Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the recent critically heralded Titus Andronicus. She has also been the vocal director and text coach for Othello, Edward III, and Hamlet. She is a co-founder and Executive Director of A Crew of Patches Theatre Company, a professional Shakespearean repertory company in Chicago that produces full-length Shakespeare plays for high schools. She directed Captain Blood, Sherlock's Last Case, and Women in Jeopardy at First Folio and teaches text analysis and folio technique for professional actors and in colleges and is still, when there's time, a working actor, having appeared onstage at the JET, the Shadow Theatre Co., MeadowBrook, City Lit, First Folio Shakespeare Festival, Timeline Theatre, Next Theatre - and right here at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival.
A graduate of the Hilberry Theater of Detroit's MFA program, Jan is married to long-time MSF Artistic Associate (from long before she became AD), Author and Fight Director David Blixt, whom she met at the Festival in 1997 when they played Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. They are the parents of Dashiell and Evelyn.
JACLYNN CHERRY, CPA
ACCOUNTANT
Jaclynn has worked for three years in public accounting on a wide variety of audit and tax clients, and for four years working in nonprofit accounting,
As someone who enjoys accounting and taxes, her goal is to make finances as transparent as possible.
She is also a professional actor & improvisor, Board Treasurer for the Detroit Improv Collective (which produces the annual Detroit Improv Festival), an avid skier and racquetball player, and a baker who watches too much Food Network.