Mason Nicholes

Mason Nicholes, a Senior at Century High school, is super excited to be a part of his 5th show at Dakota Stage! He enjoys painting and entertaining his fellow friends and family. He wants to be either a Graphic Design or a Botanist for a career. His worst fear on stage that he could possibly think of would be a meteor hitting the stage from space or a bee flying onto the stage, or getting stabbed multiple times during a scene. Real scary stuff. He would like to thank all of his family and friends for helping him become the amazing actor and person he is now.

Maddux Bryhn

Maddux is a 15 year old sophomore who enjoys debate, writing, and theater! Just Another High School Play will be Maddux’s tenth theatrical production after multiple Shade Tree and school performances. Last year’s production of Puffs was his favorite because it introduced him to conservatory theater and helped him grow as a performer. Maddux’s biggest performance nightmare is messing up on a line and making it obvious to the audience.

Jace Brannan-Jorgenson

Jace is a sophomore at Century High School and has done two past shows with Shade Tree Players as the knock-off Voldemort, Mr. Voldy, in Puffs, a parody of Harry Potter, and the semi-insane pediatrician, Buzzy Burdett, in Bone Chiller. Jace is a theater and music maniac who thinks teaching is a very needed job that is perfect for him. Jace’s acting nightmare is his having dropped someone while carrying them off stage. Jace hopes you enjoy the show and that you give him $20 after regardless of how well you know him.

Josie Hanson

Josie is 15 and going into Freshman year at Century High School. This year marks her 7th year in Shade Tree Players and 10th production locally. She recently starred in Horizon's production of Finding Nemo Jr. As Professor Ray. Along with Theater, Josie enjoys playing volleyball year round, singing, and hanging out at home with her 6 pets. Josie wishes her cast and crew good luck on all the performances and wants them all to break a leg!

Kaitlin Johnson

Kaitlin is happy to be part of Just Another High School Play! She runs cross country, and she does track and dance. Her acting nightmare is coughing or sneezing in the middle of a line during a performance. This is the second play that Kaitlin has done, and after much hard work, she hopes you enjoy the show!

Maren Francetich

Maren, a new sophomore at Century High School, is glad to be performing with Shade Tree Players for the first time as Jo from "Little Women", and other various roles in Just Another High School Play. Her worst acting nightmare (so far) would've been when she couldn't find her prop in time for an entrance and had to improvise. Maren has a wide variety of interests and loves to hang out with her friends and three pet rats in her free time.

Addyson Jeffers

This is Addyson’s first year at Shade Tree, and she’s very excited to continue her acting career here! When she’s not busy with school, she spends her time either reading or playing video games. Her biggest fear as an actor would be tripping/falling on stage.

Allison Throlson

Allison is going into her Junior year of high school at Shiloh. She has been in theater since the 7th grade. This is her 4th production with Shade Tree Players and her 11th production overall. She also participates in Speech, FBLA, NHS, and Key Club at school. Her worst acting nightmare would be being sick during a performance. She would like to thank the cast, director, stage manager, parents, and everyone who helped make this show possible. She hopes you enjoy the show!

Aspen Steichen

Good Evening, my name is Aspen Steichen. I have been in many Shade Tree productions before. Some of them are: Puffs, Wait Until Dark, and A Christmas Carol. I like to travel , draw and hang out with my cat. My character’s worst fear would be forgetting their lines.

Mina Quanbeck

Mina is fourteen years old. She is going into eighth grade. This is her first year in Shade Tree. She enjoys drawing, reading, Webtoons, and listening to K-pop. Her worst actors nightmare is the cast not being ready to perform.

Hailey Fleck

Hailey has been in many shows, such as Rumplestiltskin, where she played Snow White, and Robin Hood, where she played Lady Merle. Some other shows she has done are The Nutcracker and Snow White at Northern Plains Dance. She is 12 years old, and going into 7th grade at Horizon Middle School. She likes to do theatre, figure skate and play the piano. When she grows up, she'd like to be a nurse, orthodontist, or a lawyer. Her worst actor’s nightmare is forgetting her lines and going completely blank onstage. But she knows when that happens, she has to improvise!

Anna Sheese

Anna Sheese is 17 years old, and she is going to be a senior in highschool. She has been acting since the first grade in programs like Missoula children's theater and Shade Tree. She is in lots of extracurriculars such as Spanish club (officer), speech (placing at 4 different meets), student Congress (placing at one meet), and choir (she loves loves loves singing). Her biggest performance fear is falling off the stage during a performance like she did during rehearsal one year. She's very outgoing and is very excited for this play.

Cambrielle Bryhn

Cambrielle is a 12 year old girl whose hobbies consist of dance, theater, and hanging with friends. She has been in roughly 9 theatrical performances with Shade Tree and her school musicals. She takes ballet lessons and has also done contemporary, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and more over the last 10 years. Her worst actors nightmare happened during the play she recently got the lead in, Robin Hood, when she shot her arrow off stage and it bounced right back on, so she kicked it and gave the audience a good laugh!

Estah Erickson

Estah Erickson is a favorite daughter of Keri and Travis Erickson, she has 4 siblings and is 14 years old. Just Another High School will be her first theater performance. She is extremely excited to be a part of the Dakota Stage/Shade Tree community. Along with performing she enjoys sports, music, movies and baking. She says she has a genuine fear of tripping and falling off the stage in a show and breaking a bone. Estah was born in a sports loving family so she is enthusiastic to try something new. Estah hopes everyone has a good time and enjoys the show!!!!

Eva Brooke

Eva Brooke is a freshman attending St. Mary’s High School. She enjoys writing stories, reading books, and FaceTiming her best friends. This is her 6th year in Shade Tree! Eva’s worst acting nightmare would be forgetting her lines during the play.

Ian Combs

Ian Combs is an incoming freshman at Century High School with aspirations of becoming a pediatrician in the near future. This is Ian’s third year at Shade Tree and he is filled with joy that he gets to return to the stage for Just Another High School Play as the Assistant Director! In previous years, he has been Rumpelstiltskin in Rumpelstiltskin and J Finch in Puffs and has loved every second of it! Although he loves being on the stage, his biggest fear about acting is forgetting his lines or if a big prop were to fall on him. Outside of Shade Tree, he enjoys reading, listening to his favorite artist “Laufey” and making people smile! As far as acting, it’s one of his passions alongside speech, debate, playing piano and the saxophone. He thanks both Amandas for directing a phenomenal play and hopes he gets to collaborate with both of them again.

Isabell Rudy

Izzy is going to be a senior at Century High School. She likes to play in band, and hang out with friends in her free time. She is a chaotic person and is very friendly to people. She loves doing theater and she is excited for her first performance with Shade Tree. Her actors biggest fear is having to sneeze on stage during a line.

Julia Hanson

This is Julia's 20th show in the Bismarck acting community. This is her tenth year with Shade Tree Players. Julia is going into her Senior year of high school at Century. She enjoys playing with her cats and reading. Julia’s worst acting nightmare would be not getting enough time to change for a scene. Julia would like to wish her cast break a leg.

Katie Tschaekofske

Katie Tschaekofske is a charismatic, young musician who has recently taken a hobby of learning to play musical instruments. She was stricken with her love for music seemingly since birth and somewhere along the way took on an admiration for theater. This will be one of the many plays Katie has acted in and certainly not the last. After fulfilling half of her dream by seeing the opera, Il Trovatore, in The Royal Opera House, she hopes to become a professional opera singer and perform an opera in the same opera house. Her biggest fear as an actor would either be forgetting ALL of her lines or failing to change quickly enough for a scene.

Reagan Fode

Reagen Fode, a junior, has been in theater since the fourth grade. Just Another High School Play will be her fifth production for Dakota Stage. This actress’ dream is to move to Hollywood and become well… an actress, but her worst nightmare is that she may just not be a strong enough actress to get there.

Wilbur Gniffke

Wilbur is excited to be in another production with Shade Tree! He plays Hamlet, Tiny Tim, Male lead, and male Amy. Wilbur lives in New Salem and has played Trunchbull in Matilda the musical Jr, Donkey in Shrek the musical Jr, and played Wayne in Puffs last summer. He is also playing Percy Jackson in this summer's The Lightning Thief Musical and he would appreciate it if you came to see him in that show too. Wilbur is a senior in high school and plans to get a medical degree at UND. Wilbur thanks his family and his wonderful girlfriend Eden for being so supportive of his passion for acting. Wilbur’s biggest theater nightmare would be to perform on stage and forget everything that he was supposed to do. His close second would be if the sun exploded mid-performance.

Zachary Pieske

This is Zach’s 4th Shade Tree production. Every show he’s been in has been parodies of stuff, including this one. An interesting fact about him is that he has perfect pitch! His worst theater nightmare is forgetting his lines during the show. He would like to thank everyone for this opportunity!

Amanda Perry

Director

Amanda Perry spent most of her adolescent life involved in music and community theatre here in Bismarck. She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, IA, and has a BFA in Theatre Performance, with emphasis in acting, directing and design. For the last 20 years, Amanda has worked with Dakota Stage, Shade Tree Players, DWAC, BPS, MPS, Capitol Shakespeare, Sleepy Hollow and other organizations to educate students, train actors and directors, and create unique theatrical productions and other artistic events and opportunities. She is also the current Artistic Director of Dakota Stage.

In her career, Amanda has directed over 60 plays and musicals, most recently the DSL productions of A Dusty Echo, The Underpants and Sweeney Todd. Amanda specializes in children’s theatre, and has directed many of her own adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. She also recently directed The Little Mermaid with Sleepy Hollow, and Puffs with Shade Tree Players.

Amanda has two children, Oliver, 9, and Willow, 5, who will undoubtedly be very involved with theatre, music and art as they grow up! Amanda would like to thank her amazing husband for all he does while she is at rehearsal, and the cast and crew for all their hard work!

Amanda Allen

Stage Manager

After a 15-year hiatus, Amanda is so excited to be back stage managing for Shade Tree Players and this fantastic production with this wonderful group of young adults. Amanda started out in Shade Tree herself as a youngster, eventually transitioning to mainstage productions where she has been happily a part of for the last 20 years. She was last seen in the Dakota Stage production of “A Christmas Carol” and when she isn’t on stage, she enjoys volunteering on the board of directors and various committees within DSL. Amanda wants to thank her dear friend Amanda Perry for giving her confidence and her continuous guidance and support, and her husband Jeff for always supporting her theater endeavors. Of course, a huge thank you to all of you for coming to support these talented young people. Sit back and enjoy the show!