Elia Nichols - Co-Artistic director
Elia Nichols is an actress and a voice and acting coach, who has worked in theatre and film in Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Austin, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival among other places in the United States, as well as here in Florence, Italy. She has also starred in and facilitated multiple new plays/new works (including work shopping Necessary Targets with Eve Ensler at the Vassar Powerhouse Theatre Festival).
Elia received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Tulane University and her Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Texas at Austin. After a 2-year acting stint in Hollywood, she finally gave in and admitted that the ‘good life’ was here in Florence, where she performed in FITC’s The Eight—The Reindeer Monologues. She’s wild about Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams (though she finds The Glass Menagerie incredibly irritating), Caryl Churchill, and Tom Stoppard among others.
Elia's most recent performance was as Alice in "Alice in Wonderland".
Shaun Loftus - Co-Artistic Director
Shaun was born in Wisconsin, but moved to San Francisco early enough to become a native. She began her professional acting career at the age of 19, performing as Juliet for the San Francisco Shakespeare festival. She went on to play Lady Macbeth in MacBeth, Helen in Faust, Abigail in the Crucible and many other roles.
Shaun received her degree in Acting and Directing at San Francisco State University, and did her internship at San Francisco's renowned American Conservatory Theatre, serving as Assistant Director to Mr. Richard Seyd on his Production of Othello.
She has professionally directed scores of shows, from Musicals, comedies, period plays and comedies. She has served as a professor of Greek Theatre at Siracusa's Mediterranean Center for Arts and Sciences. Most recently, she has directed and adapted FESTA's Peter and the Wolf and Alice in Wonderland.
In her spare time, Ms. Loftus works as a computer geek, and lives quite happily with her young son, an overactive cocker spaniel, and a really fat cat.
Suzanne Da Silva
Born in New York City, Suzanne began her professional acting career at the age of 13. She at tented William Patterson College, and went on to train at NYU's Circle in the Square Theatre.
She has played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Sandra Dee in "Grease" - and most recently appeared in FESTA's own "Alice in Wonderland" as The Queen of Hearts.
An Accomplished singer, Suzanne performs locally with New Voices, Nehimia Brown, and the popular gospel group Spirit of the Living God. Currently, Suzanne is co-producing and choreographing this years production of Peter and the Wolf. |
