Founder and Officer Bios

Susan Duprey, Co-Director of Special Events

Susan has built an impressive theatrical background both on and behind the stage. She is known around these parts for practically owning the role of Little Red Riding Hood in Sondheim's Into the Woods, which she has played three times in area theaters. She has also played Chava in Fiddler on the Roof, Sandy in Grease and Shy in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, as well as several productions of Godspell and Working. She has stage managed and house managed at both Turtle Lane Playhouse and the Footlight Club in Jamaica Plain. Professionally, she has been performing in Dillstar Productions' Joey and Maria's Comedy Italian Wedding for the past ten years, in the roles of Maria or Viola. Susan has lived in Medfield for three years with her two children, Isabella, 7, and Graham, 4, and her husband Tom, a professional musician and teacher.

Bob Eiland, Co-Founder & Co-Director of Special Events

Bob brings virtually a lifetime of theater experience to the Gazebo Players, including directing, producing, acting and writing. He has directed extensively at the Stageloft Repertory Theatre in Sturbridge and the Arlington Friends of the Drama, and has acted in a large variety of theatrical venues in the greater Boston area. He has been named Honorable Mention twice in the Writers Digest Script competition, and has had full productions and staged readings of four of his plays. His play Philosophical Differences will be published by JAC Publishing later in 2005. Among his many directing credits are Miracle Worker for Gazebo and AFD, The Night of the Iguana and Arsenic and Old Lace. A few of his acting credits include Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night; and many non-Shakespeare roles such as John Proctor in The Crucible, Charly in Flowers For Algernon, Mortimer in Arsenic and Old Lace, Applegate the Devil in Damn Yankees, Biff in Death of a Salesman, and Zach in A Chorus Line. He has also played principal roles in four straight-to-video movies, as well as a variety of murder mystery dinner productions. Bob lives in Medfield with his wife Sharlotte, and runs an executive search business for high tech.

Debbi Finkelstein, Director

Debbi has been either acting, directing, stage managing or building sets since she was a wee thing.  She's happy to bring her love of theater to The Gazebo Players after working on several shows at Brandeis University and working as a Production Assistant at the North Shore Music Theater.  Debbi has been in or worked on such musicals as Thoroughly Modern Millie, Fame, Cinderella (3 times!), Rags, Oliver, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Annie.  Her favorite shows of all time are Taming of the Shrew (Producer, Curtis, Old Man, Widow), Penelope (Storyteller, Menelaus), Wonderland (Assistant Director, Stage Manager), Merchant of Venice (Director), and Goodnight Desdemona (Goodmorning Juliet) (Director).  Debbi co-directed The Little Prince for Gazebo Players and is the Assistant Director and Stage Manager of Natick Drama Workshop and the director of the Broadway Seniors club, also in Natick.

Christine Grudinskas

Christine, a resident of Westwood, has been an active member of the Walpole Footlighters since 1985. She has acted in many productions, and has worked as stage manager, prop committee member, usher and member of the Board for the past 16 seasons. Her favorite roles are Clairee in Steel Magnolias, Maggie in Shadowbox, and Elizabeth in Angel Street. She worked as assistant to Marianne Phinney (A Midsummer Night's Dream director) on last summer's production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the first Shakespearean production ever done by the Walpole Footlighters. Christine welcomes the opportunity to work once more with Marianne on a production of the Bard, and to participate in the inaugural performance of the Gazebo Players.

Linda Kipper, Co-Director of Community Relations

Linda is a newcomer to the world of community theatre. After her daughter, Samantha Stone, became involved with the Gazebo Players with The Miracle Worker and The Merry Wives of Windsor, she became a Gazebo groupie. Now Linda is Co-Director of Community Relations and handles the box office. By day, Linda is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker working in adoption for the Department of Social Services.

Brenda Ladoulis, Director

Brenda first appeared with Gazebo Players as Pistol in The Merry Wives Of Windsor, when she got to deliver one of Shakespeare's most famous lines, "The world is mine oyster, which I with sword shall open!" Since then she has helped out backstage on numerous Gazebo productions. Brenda lives in Norfolk with her husband and two children.

Jason Lamb, President

Jason is the Gazebo Players second President. He made the mistake of accompanying his spouse, former Gazebo Director Melissa Lamb, to a Board meeting. Melissa resigned from the Board, and Jason was elected President in an knee-jerk act of retribution. Prior to assuming the Presidency, Jason worked backstage on a number of Gazebo productions.

Wendy Nystrom, Director

Wendy's debut with Gazebo Players found her spouting Shakespeare with an outrageous Welsh accent as Sister Ethel in The Merry Wives Of Windsor. Wendy has been acting and directing since she was first able to rope her siblings into putting on shows, and studied theatre at the University of Michigan, where her favorite role was Joanna in Home Free. Other favorite roles include Zubaida Ula/ensemble in Laramie Project, Heidi in Fuddy Meers, the Wolf in Riding Hood, and the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. She has directed various short plays of emerging playwrights and recently directed The Importance of Being Ernest at The University of Massachusetts, Boston. Wendy can also frequently be found costuming shows, and in her spare? time, is working on becoming a published author.

Marianne is a regular director, and Board member, with the Walpole Footlighters, where her credits include Other People's Money, Close Ties, Towards Zero, All My Sons, Educating Rita, and the Footlighters' first foray into Shakespeare last summer, All's Well that Ends Well. Prior to the Footlighters, she worked with the Southwest Repertory Organization in El Paso, Texas, where she directed Shirley Valentine, Pal Joey (co-directed with Edward Hamilton), and Dramas in the Air, a staging of the radio plays War of the Worlds and The Shadow. Her acting credits include Kate in Sylvia, Sarah in Company, the title roles in Shirley Valentine and Lysistrata, Rita in Educating Rita, Truvy in Steel Magnolias, and Emily in The Marriage of Bette and Boo. She has also worked as a dialect coach since 1984, and as an announcer and on-air host with KCOS-TV in El Paso. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Loretta Porter-Fahey, Director

Loretta is the drama director at the T. A. Blake Middle School in Medfield. Each year she writes, produces, and directs an original production featuring as many Blake students as possible (usually around 100). Gazebo has entered into a partnership with Loretta's drama program, pooling resources and supplying mutual aid to improve the school's auditorium over the long term.

Director of Education

Theater has been a constant part of Jean's life since she was 15 years old. She has worked as a dancer, actor, choreographer, director and teacher. She has acted and toured with History-Making Productions out of Boston for four years now performing in three different plays for schools throughout New England. She received her B.A. in Dance from the University of Oregon, and then spent five years in New York City studying dance, voice and acting. During this time, she also traveled to perform in many favorite shows, including West Side Story (with Bebe Neuwirth) at the Cleveland Opera, A Chorus Line, Peter Pan, Music Man, Brigadoon and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, to name a few. While living in Seattle for eight years, she performed for the prestigious 5th Avenue Theater in Kismet and Singin' in the Rain, and appeared in a variety of national commercials. She has lived in Medfield since 1998 with her husband Jim and children Michaela and Andrew. She teaches drama for the Medfield Parks and Recreation Department, and has written and directed short plays for children in our area. She has also taught musical theater and tap at Paulette's Ballet Studio in Newton. She is a certified yoga instructor and teaches several classes in Medfield and Dover as well.

Barbara Schapiro, Director

Barbara rekindled her theatrical activities a few years ago by appearing in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well at the Walpole Footlighters. Since then she has appeared in all of the Gazebo Players' Shakespeare productions, most recently playing Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Barbara trained in theater at the University of Michigan, Northwestern University's Summer Theater Institute, and the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival. Her latest role was that of Arlene in the Walpole Footlighters production of 45 Seconds From Broadway. Barbara is a professor of English at the Rhode Island College. She lives in Sharon with her husband Glenn, a musician, and her children Mira and Owen.

Cynthia Small, Co-Director of Community Relations

Cynthia Small previously served as Gazebo Director of Publicity. She has appeared onstage in three Gazebo productions; her favorite role was Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs. She has also produced two productions. She and her husband Steve (see below) have two budding thespians of their own, Juliana and Cameron.

Steve Small, Publicity Director & Webmaster

Steve has worked onstage or backstage in six Gazebo Players productions. He lives in Medfield and is a software engineer by trade, which apparently qualifies him to be the Gazebo Players Webmaster in the absence of another volunteer. He is a Past President of the Medfield Lions Club.

Larry Stone, Treasurer

Larry is new to the world of community theater. He was entranced when his daughter Samantha performed as a Perkins Girl in the Gazebo Players' production of The Miracle Worker. He has offered to share his not-for-profit board member expertise as Treasurer of the Gazebo Players. He is also the founder of Stone Consulting, Inc., an actuarial and human resource consulting firm in Medfield.

Jane Walsh

Jane has the talents for any job in the theater, although the prefers to work backstage. She served as Set Designer for Gazebo's production of Brighton Beach Memoirs and was one of the Costumers on The Taming of the Shrew. When here upcoming nuptials are concluded she'll be listed here under a different name.