San Francisco Shakespeare Festival Staff

Administrative Staff

Toby Leavitt (Executive Director) oversees all aspects of the Shakespeare Festival's programs (Free Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare On Tour, Bay Area Shakespeare Camps, and Midnight Shakespeare). She did her undergraduate work at the University of Chicago, and received her Masters from the University of Chicago Business School in 1997. Prior to joining the Festival in 1998, she served as General Manager for Chicago's Court Theatre. She oversaw their financial growth from a $1.6 million to $2.8 million annual budget, guided the theatre in developing a 5-year strategic plan to become the National Center for Classic Theatre, and managed the ensuing strategic growth of the organization. Prior to her four years with the Court, she worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as Senior Editor and Director of Marketing Communications. Her accomplishments in audience development have been recognized by the Arts Marketing Center of Chicago and the Marshall Fields Foundation. She has served as a management consultant for Chicago Opera Theater, the Piven Theater Workshop, and Roadworks Theater Company, and has served as a panelist for the San Francisco Art Commission's Cultural Equity Initiatives Grant program. (Back to 'Staff List')

John Western (Marketing Director) has been a fan of Free Shakespeare in the Park since its inception in 1983 with The Tempest. He is responsible for the marketing and advertising of all Festival programs, including Shakespeare On Tour and Bay Area Shakespeare Camps. He received his BA from Cleveland State University and received continuing education credits in the advertising program at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Extended Learning. Mr. Western has been on the Festival staff since 1998, and has ten years of experience in theater advertising and promotion, plus two years of management experience in the public relations field. (Back to 'Staff List')

Becky Kemper (Education Outreach Director) until recently, served as the Producing Artistic Director of the Maryland Shakespeare Festival, an equity theater company that she founded in 1999. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, a Master of Letters in Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature, and an MFA in Directing from the American Shakespeare Center & Mary Baldwin College. Her acting and directing projects have taken her to such places as Russia, China, and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. She is a company member and  classical text teacher at Shakespeare & Co. in Lennox, MA and  has served as the Artistic Director of the Metawhateverphor Theater in NYC, the Director of Education for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, and the chairman of the Artistic Council for the Shakespeare Theater Association of America.  She has presented her research into Shakespeare’s dramatic use of rhetoric at numerous national conferences, and theatrical workshops across the country. She currently resides in San Francisco where she continues her acting, directing, and research activities. (Back to 'Staff List')

Daniel Holloway (Development and Marketing Associate) received his M.A. in English from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. He also holds a B.A. in English from Mississippi College. He spent six months hiking all 2,179 miles of the Appalachian Trail, moonlights as a playwright and is happy to have Shakespeare be a part of his every day life. (Back to 'Staff List')

Artistic Staff

Kenneth Kelleher (Resident Director) has been with SF Shakes since 2003, where he has previously directed Love’s Labours Lost, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Pericles, The Comedy of Errors and Two Gentlemen of Verona. He has also directed for California Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Theatreworks, San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Jose Stage Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, Pacific Repertory Theatre and Shakespeare at Stinson. He is the recipient of two Dean Goodman awards for outstanding direction. (Back to 'Staff List')