Elia Nichols
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 workshopping 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 recently 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 is the eccentric sorority sister of the group. She is thrilled to be working with such inspiring and talented women and is also quite fond of a good FESTA! She can weld too… and we think that’s cool.
Shaun Loftus
Ms. Shaun Loftus would first like to make it clear that she is well aware that Shaun is a “boys” name, but she really, really likes it anyway.
Ms. Loftus’ theatre career began at the age of 6, as the littlest angel in a production of “The Littlest Angel”. She received this part not because of her undeniable talent, but because she was - indeed - the littlest. This was followed, a year later, by a breakout role as the Virgin Mary. This has spawned a lifelong love of religious Drama. Following the normal path of the theatre artist, Ms. Loftus continued to act and discovered directing at San Francisco State University, followed by a directing internship at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. As an Actress, Ms Loftus has played Juliet twice, Lady M once, and has been in a few dozen productions and worked commercially as a voice over actress. However, she prefers to be behind the scenes - and has worked as a technician, stage manager, production manager, university professor - and as a floor sweeper when the need was present. As a director, Ms Loftus founded “Dead White Male” in San Francisco, a readers’ theatre dedicated to reviving classical works. She has worked with the San Francisco Playwrights Festival, the American Conservatory Theatre, and has taught Greek theater at The Mediterranean Center for Arts and Sciences in Syracuse. She has directed in pretty much every genre, from Shakespeare to New Works, to Musicals and Comedy. Among her favorites have been Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart”, Stephen Sondheim’s “Into The Woods”, Aphra Behn’s “The Rover”, Paula Vogel’s “Baltimore Waltz,” and the ever popular “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom” by Charles Busch. Her ambitions for the next 2 years involve two original FESTA productions, including a re-orchestration of “Peter and the Wolf” and a new re-imagined production of “The Trojan Women.”
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.
