Denice Hicks, Marcia McDonald, Santiago Sosa

Teaches at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Denice Hicks has been working for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival since 1990 as an actor, director, and teaching artist, and has held the position of artistic director since 2005. Educated at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, she moved to Nashville in 1980 to perform at Opryland USA. Hicks was an original company member of the Tennessee Repertory Theatre and was among the founders of both the Darkhorse Theater and of People’s Branch Theatre. An Ingram Fellowship award winner, she has edited and directed touring productions of Shakespeare’s works and developed and facilitated workshops for students of all ages. In 2014, she was honored by the Nashville Scene as one of the “Twenty-five Nashvillians who’ve shaped the city for the better since 1989” and this year was voted “Best stage actor” by the readers of the Nashville Scene.

Marcia A. McDonald is a professor of English at Belmont University. She received her Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University and has published on Shakespeare, on the humanities curriculum, and on English as a discipline. She has contributed papers to a wide variety of scholarly conferences, including the Shakespeare Association of America and the International Shakespeare Association, and has conducted research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and at the British Library and the Bodleian Library in England. Her teaching areas include Shakespeare, classical literature, early modern English literature, composition, and interdisciplinary humanities. Currently, she serves on the board of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival and as a consulting scholar; for the NSF, she has organized pre-show talks and panels and roundtable discussions. In addition to her teaching career, McDonald served as associate provost (2002–2009) and provost (2009–2010) at Belmont University.

Santiago Sosa earned a B.F.A. from Texas State University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin. As an actor, teaching artist, and/or voice and text coach, Sosa has worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Muse of Fire Shakespeare Company, Door Shakespeare, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Writers Theatre, Forward Theatre, Definition Theatre, TPAC, NCT, Nashville Rep, and Shakespeare Rep. He is the recipient of the Horton Foote award for playwriting as well as the Advanced Opportunity Fellowship for acting.