As You Like It

His past credits include HAIR (Berger), A Little Night Music (Carl-Magnus), OR (William Scott), Titanic (Charles Clarke). He performs regularly at 54 Below and Birdland, and can also be seen on an upcoming singing show for Fox that he can’t name at the moment! This is dedicated to Yi, Pop and Grandpa. Instagram: @drinkh2ojohn @thedrinkwaterbrothers

Regional: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Theatre of Big Bend), One Night (Equalogy). Assorted New York: Shadowplay (Access Theater), The Rimers of Eldritch (The Secret Theater), Hel’s Kitchen (The Playroom Theater). TV: Shattered (Investigation Discovery). Other unfortunately recognizable moments: ruining a grilled cheese on the cooking channel Epicurious.

Derek is honored to return to The Cherry Arts after appearing as Baron Del Cedro in The Fan and Zeus in An Odyssey. REGIONAL: Our Town, The Play That Goes Wrong, Tender Rain (Syracuse Stage); By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sister Act, Romeo and Juliet, Almost, Maine (Redhouse Arts Center); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Chenango River Theatre); Murder on the Orient Express, Kiss Me, Kate! (Cortland Repertory Theatre); The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Millbrook Playhouse); The End of History, Apprentice: White House, Beckett Project (Building Company Theater). Learn more @derekemersonpowell

AJ has appeared previously with the Cherry Arts in Testosterone and The Fan. He is the Artistic Director of House of Ithaqua, most recently directing Mike Bartlett’s Contractions, and will be directing and acting in the next HOI production, Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison right here at the Cherry in September/October. AJ has worked extensively with Ithaca Shakespeare Company and The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca

RJ’s theatre credits include props management for Civic Ensemble’s Fertile Grounds and Kitchen Theatre Company’s Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, with on stage appearances in And What Happens If I Don’t and Voices of Ukraine, both at the Cherry. R.J. has studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, Dramatist Guild, Barrow Group, and Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca.

Previous Cherry: The Weight of Ants, Baba Yaga, Rosa and Blanca, Peter and the Wolf, As You Like It, Voices of Ukraine, The Wetsuitman, Pursuit, An Odyssey, Trap Door, A Day, Felt Sad Posted a Frog. Other local credits include: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson Apt 2B, Snow White (Hangar Theatre); The Thin Place (House of Ithaqua); The Turnaway Play (The Kitchen Theatre); A Great Wilderness, From the Mississippi Delta, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Homecoming Players); Delia Divided, On the Corner (Civic Ensemble); A Case for the Classics (Fitz&Startz Productions). Sylvie studied BFA Acting at The Mason Gross School at Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Actors Workshop of Ithaca.

Eric began his career as a boy soprano. Many plays in Ithaca and throughout the United States. Proud member of Actors’ Equity since 1975

Previously performing in The Fan, And What Happens If I Don’t, and Trapdoor, along with the collaboration of An Odyssey with Hangar Theatre. Some recent credits: Men On Boats (Chenango River Theatre), Fences (Redhouse Arts Center), The Skin of Our Teeth and The Inferior Sex (Hangar Theatre), Pericles: Prince of Tyre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ithaca Shakespeare), and Doubt: A Parable and Good People (Franklin Stage Company). Adara also currently hosts the NY Emmy nominated arts and entertainment program Expressions on WSKG-TV (PBS). adaraalston.com

Previous Cherry: White Rabbit Red Rabbit, George Kaplan, Felt Sad Posted a Frog, as well as voicing Storm Country, The Missing Chapter, and The Fan. Also in the Ithaca area, Dean has appeared in plays including The Cripple of Inishmaan, Swimming in the Shallows, The Chairs, Circle Mirror Transformation, Nora, Tribes, and The Children. Other area performances include Sirens, Perfect Crime, and Dancing at Lughnasa. Regionally, Dean has performed at A.C.T. (San Francisco), Trinity Repertory Theatre, American Southwest Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and New York’s Public Theatre as well as performed in the international tour of Robert Wilson’s The Black Rider. He is a founding member of the critically acclaimed The Actors’ Gang where he directed and acted in multiple plays. Dean is a graduate of the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University; he is currently an assistant professor of theatre at Ithaca College, where he teaches voice, movement, and acting.

*member, Actors’ Equity Association

Carolyn is a BFA Acting Major graduate of Ithaca College from Vienna, Virginia. Past favorite roles include Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Ithaca Shakespeare Company, as well as The Soothsayer/Octavius in Caesar, Tracey in SWEAT, and part of the ensemble in red bike at Ithaca College. She sends love to her family and friends, and thanks them for their kindness and support.

Seth is a theater, circus, and puppet artist based out of Ithaca, NY. Recent local performances include An Odyssey (Cyclops/Odysseus 11) with Cherry Arts and the Hangar, Best of Shakespeare (Richard III) with the Ithaca Shakespeare Company, and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker (Dancing Cheese/T-Rex) with CirqOvation in Syracuse, NY. Seth also works as a troupe director at Circus Culture in downtown Ithaca, creating circus shows such as ‘Unseasonable’, ‘In the Dark’, and, as part of the Hupstate Circus Festival 2022, ‘Cirquest: The Fighter’s Tale’. He holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in English from Cornell.

Anya is an actor-musician and songwriter based in Ithaca. Selected acting credits include: National Tours Roundabout’s Cabaret, and Once; Off Broadway: The Pirate La Dee Da, The Velveteen Rabbit (Atlantic Theater Company); The Mysteries (The Flea), Solina (New York Fringe Festival); Regional: Once (ZACH Theatre). Anya voices multiple characters on the audio drama fantasy podcast The Once and Future Nerd, for which she also contributes songs. B.S. Cornell University, where she studied theater performance, clown, commedia dell’arte, devising, absurdism, (with Beth Milles and more), and Industrial and Labor Relations. www.anyagibian.com