Leadership

Current Board of Directors and Officers, 2022

Directors are elected for 2-year terms and Officers for a 1-year term.

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Gordon L. Gidlund

Secretary for 2023; Playwright of Mock Trials; Director since 2016

A retired attorney with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel for 35 years and previously an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law for 17 years, Mr. Gidlund is naturally concerned with the intersection of the Bard and the law. Inspired by the efforts of Justice Anthony Kennedy, he has written four mock trial scripts subjecting Shakespearean characters to forensic examination. He is an Oxfordian and a signatory of the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt. In his youth, he taught English as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea. He has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota.

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Laura Ganz-Holtan

Treasurer for 2023; Director since 2020

Laura has a BA in Drama from UCSD and has acted locally in San Diego and New York City. She has worked as a paralegal in Family Law. She is a docent at The Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park and has been teaching yoga for 17 years. She assisted the San Diego Actors Theatre with their 30th Anniversary Celebration and has acted in their theatrical productions and staged readings. Through the Fine Artists program, Laura taught art at Vista Grande Elementary School in San Diego for 8 years and coordinated the annual students’ art exhibition. Laura also created the “King Lear” program for the Society’s staged reading in 2019 and has participated in the monthly open readings. Laura is currently cataloguing her late father’s original paintings and sculptures for future exhibitions.

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Amanda Walter

President for 2023; Lecture Series, Marketing, and Committees Coordinator; Director since 2020

Amanda is a Florida native that recently moved to San Diego. She earned her master’s degree from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon and focused her thesis on authenticity in Shakespeare performance. She has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company in England and received a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarship to study at the Polansky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, New York. She is a high school English teacher with over 8 years of teaching experience and specializes in rigorous literature and writing courses.

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Steven Jensen

Vice President for 2023; Director since 2022

A member of the Society for 15+ years, his involvement with Shakespeare includes more than 40 years of reading, attending dozens of performances, acting in play productions, and participating in other public performances. He previously served on the board of the Bay Theatre Collective, a Berkeley-based theater troupe that produced classical plays in the SF Bay Area. Steven is a retired high school science teacher from Sweetwater UHSD.

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Thomas Haine

Director since 2023

Tom is one of the founders of the San Diego Shakespeare Society and an attorney. His prior directing and acting credits include Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Tartuffe, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, Hedda Gabler, You Can’t Take It With You, Bury the Dead, Rumors. Tom has received formal training in directing from the Berkeley Rep and from Cambridge University in the UK. He is a graduate of the British American Drama Academy Mid-Summer Oxford Program (BADA).

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Additional Supporters

Kevin G. Manley

Open Readings Coordinator, Central County; since 2020

Kevin has acted in dozens of San Diego stage and film productions over the past several years. He is a full time math teacher who developed a love of theatre by going to his high school’s productions. This eventually led to becoming the theatre program’s assistant director. He also teachers film production. Kevin is a graduate of Larry Silverberg’s True Acting Institute. His current passions are reading with SDSS, performing live true story-telling with So Say We All and The New Narrative, and working on short films with his daughters.

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Patrick McBride

Open Readings Coordinator, North County; since 2021

Patrick McBride has directed, acted and taught for over 25 years. He is a Teaching Artist with Young Audiences of San Diego, Playwrights Project, and CoTA. He has a B.F.A in Directing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He’s played roles as diverse as Laurence in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bullshot in Bullshot Crummond, Fagin in Oliver, Benidick in Much Ado About Nothing, Billy in Anything Goes, and James Joyce in Travesties. Numerous professional credits at The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, PCPA Theaterfest, Cygnet, Intrepid, and North Coast Rep. Other regional and local credits include Assistant Director on Broadway for The School for Scandal (with Tony Randall,) The Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland, San Diego Jr. Theatre, Moonlight, Diversionary, as well as Shakespeare Festivals in Lake Tahoe, San Luis Obispo and Atlanta.

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Genevieve Foster

Social Media Coordinator; since 2020

Genevieve is a junior at Patrick Henry High School and has had onstage and backstage roles at San Diego Junior Theatre, JCompany Youth Theatre, and the Broadway San Diego Awards. Credits include: Macbeth (First Witch) at JCompany Youth Theatre; Twelfth Night (Lady Olivia), The Tempest (Miranda), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Peaseblossom) at San Diego Junior Theatre; and Much Ado About Mean Girls (Regina George) at Intrepid Theatre (virtual camp).

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Tim Laufer

Events Coordinator; since 2019

Tim has worked for the US Navy since 2005. He is currently an Intelligence Officer.

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Prior Board Members: