About Us - Cast

All of Oldcastle's summer season productions feature professional equity actors. From up-and-coming actors from New York and across the country to well-known favorites from the stage, TV and the silver screen, each delivers the kind of moving performances unique to live theatre.

Cast Member Carlton Carpenter Carleton Carpenter — Carleton, a Bennington native, has a had a long, distinguished career on stage, in film and on television. His first Broadway appearance was in 1944 in Bright Boy. Other Broadway shows include: Almanc, Light up the Sky Hotel Paradiso, and Crazy for You. His films include Three Little Words, Two Weeks in Another Town, Fearless Fagan, Father of the Bride, Up Periscope etc. He sold more than ten million copies of the hit Abba Dabba Honeymoon with Debbie Reynolds. Carleton has acted and directed national and international tours and written songs recorded by the likes of Billy Eckstine. He has acted in many Oldcastle productions including On Golden Pond, An American Daughter, Spinning into Butter and directed The Apple Tree.
Christine Decker — Chris joined Oldcastle in 1973 and has made more than 25 appearances with the company including Who′s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Glass Menagerie, (twice as both Laura and Amanda) Lend Me A Tenor, Wonderful Tennessee, Dancing at Lughnasa, and many others. Christine performs regularly at the Comedy Warehouse at Walt Disney World's Pleasure Island. She is also a member of the Orlando Theatre Project where she appeared in All my Sons, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and A Lion in Winter.
Paul Falzone — A founding member of Oldcastle, Paul has acted in more than 30 plays with OTC including Inherit the Wind, The Price, A View From the Bridge, The Odd Couple and Postmortem. He has directed several including Dracula and wrote Raising Kane which Oldcastle premiered in 1997 and co-wrote The Yankee Tradition that was performed in a special performance before the Vermont Legislature and on Vermont Public Television. On Broadway he appeared in Macbeth with Nicol Williamsson and off-Broadway in Harvey Feirstein's Torch Song Trilogy. He has been a regular on the TV series As The World Turns and All My Children and has made several; appearances on Late Night with Conan O′Brien.
Katrina Ferguson — Katrina, a native of Australia, has made many Oldcastle appearances including Engaging Shaw which Oldcastle premiered and which she subsequently acted in with New Jersey Rep; A Moon for the Misbegotten, Judevine and Hard Times. She won the 2005 Golden Leaf Award for Best Actress at Dorset Theatre Festival for her portrayal of Eleanor in A Lion in Winter. She has toured Europe five times with A Christmas Carol.
Melissa Hurst — Melissa has appeared many times with Oldcastle in such plays as On Golden Pond, Picnic, I′m not Rappaport and her own one-woman show Baby Love. She has acted with the Atlantic Theatre Company, Soho Rep, Pittsburgh Playhouse, GEVA, Missouri Rep and appeared in the Obie winning The Houseguests off-Broadway. She made many appearances with Dorset Theatre Festival including Tom Jones, Present Laughter and Of Mice and Men. Her TV work includes Law & Order and the recurring role of Mrs. Chitwood on Guiding Light.
Willy Jones — This is Willy's 20th season with Oldcastle. His many appearances with the company include Judevine, Civil Union, Greater Tuna, Mornings at Seven and Bedroom Farce. He also directs Oldcastle's Bennington Actors' Express and hosts a show for children on CAT-TV entitled Tell me a Story. Willy is host of a twice weekly radio program on WBTN.
Cast Member Yvonne Perry Yvonne Perry — This spring, Yvonne was part of two world premieres at Theatre 440 at Proctors, where she appeared in General Desdemona and Battle of the Bands. Other regional theatre credits include Mrs. VanBuren in Intimate Apparel (Capital Rep), Mrs. Kendall in The Elephant Man (Hubbard Hall), Rosemary in Picnic and Sue in All My Sons (Oldcastle Theatre Co.), Eleanor in Reverse Psychology (Northeast Theater), Various Roles in Play By Play and Ten By Ten (StageWorks), Cassie in Inalienable Rights: Denied and Gwenda Vaughn in Agatha Christie′s Ordeal By Innocence (both NYSTI). She has acted in or directed numerous screenplay readings for Movies Without Pictures. Yvonne currently teaches acting at U Albany, and toured with other college professors in last year′s Theatre 88 production of What I Heard About Iraq. Television credits include the five years she portrayed Rosanna Cabot on the CBS soap As The World Turns (Soap Opera Award, 1993) and appearances on Guiding Light, Candid Camera, Silk Stalkings, and the sit-com pilot Dads (ABC/Tri-Star). She is an active freelance commercial actress, and can often be seen on TV as the spokeswoman for Taft Furniture - and heard on the radio as the voice for The Times Union, among many others. Last summer she spent hours in the studio narrating social studies textbooks for Random House, and will happily try to answer any questions you might have about the Ottoman Empire (!) Yvonne holds a BFA in Acting from Adelphi University, and an MA in Theatre History from UAlbany. She has also studied with A.C.T. (San Francisco) and The Royal National (London). She resides in Loudonville, NY with her husband and two daughters. Proud member of Equity, SAG, and AFTRA. Special thanks to my two Ms and my two Js.
Patrick Ellison Shea — Patrick has acted with Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Mill Mountain Theatre, Totem Pole, Utah Shakespeare, Washington's Shakespeare Theatre and Ford's Theatre. He has acted in more than ten plays with Oldcastle including K2, Raising Kane, Mornings at Seven, Hard Times, I'm not Rappaport and Jacob Marley′s Christmas Carol.
Cast Member Bill Tatum Bill Tatum — Bill has appeared on Broadway (Man of La Mancha), TV (Law & Order), all the major soaps, hosting On the Water) film (The Thomas Crown Affair) and in with Oldcastle in The Odd Couple, Raising Kane, Wonderful Tennessee, The Magnificent Ambersons, Who′s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Dinner Party. He is a member of New York's Workshop Theater Company.
Cast Member Natalie Wilder Natalie Wilder — Natalie has previously appeared in two Oldcastle Dickens' shows Hard Times and Jacob Marley′s Christmas Carol. She lives in NYC and her roles there include Phaedra in the New York premiere of Sarah Kane's Phaedras Love, Mouth in Samuel Beckett's Not I, Lady Anne in Richard II, Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Babe in Crimes of the Heart and Beth in Dinner with Friends. She has acted with the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, the Civic Theatre of Central Florida and New Jersey Rep where she is a company member and last year originated the role of Rachel in the premiere of Apostasy.

Auditions

Oldcastle Theatre Company is currently accepting pictures and resumes for its 2008 season. Open Equity auditions will be held at the Bennington Center for the Arts Friday April 25 and Monday April 28. The company is seeking stage managers and actors for the entire season beginning in May (see schedule). Please call 802-447-0564 for further details.