OFF-PEAK-Play • Rogue Theater Company • Ashland, OR

Meet the Artists

Michael Elich (Martin)

Michael will be appearing twice this year at Rogue Theater Company: as Martin in Off Peak and Bill in the play reading of August: Osage County. Last year, he was seen as Dan in RTC’s production of Chapatti. A Juilliard graduate, Michael spent 21 seasons as an OSF acting company member, where he was seen in roles as varied as Claudius in Hamlet; The Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance; Orsino and Feste in Twelfth Night; King John in King John; Harold Hill in The Music Man; Jaggers in Great Expectations; Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew; Kodaly in She Loves Me; Prince John in The Heart of Robin Hood; Marcus in Party People; Aufidius in Coriolanus; Buckingham in Richard III; Harry Van in Idiot’s Delight; Thersites in Troilus and Cressida; The Actor in Enter the Guardsman; Hotspur and Bardolph in Henry IV; Antonio in The Merchant of Venice; Hap in Death of a Salesman; and Moe Axelrod in Awake and Sing!, among others. In three seasons with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Michael has been seen as Long John Silver in Treasure Island; The Duke of York in the Henry VI trilogy; Macduff in Macbeth; Burbage in Shakespeare in Love; and Jaques in As You Like It. Internationally, he premiered in David Edgar’s Continental Divide as Don D’Avanzo at London’s Barbican Theatre and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Michael has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway and regional theaters including Party People at The Public Theatre; Mark Rothko in RED; Prime Minister Evans in King Charles III; Claudius and The Ghost in Hamlet at the Clarence Brown Theatre; Gregor in The Monster Builder; and as Victor (2015 Drammy Award) in The Price at Artists Repertory Theatre. Other theaters include Playwrights Horizons, The York Theatre Company, Orpheum Theatre, Hartford Stage, Milwaukee Rep, Syracuse Stage, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, the Dallas Theatre Company, and the 30th anniversary production of Inherit the Wind with E. G. Marshall and Robert Vaughn at The Papermill Playhouse. TV credits include One Life to Live and Ryan’s Hope. michaelelich.com

Robin Goodrin Nordli (Sarita)

Robin was last seen in Rogue Theater Company's production of Chapatti, (Betty), and as Nora in A Doll’s House, Part 2. She has been a company member with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 26 seasons and will be returning to perform her one-woman show VIRGINS TO VILLAINS: My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women, as a part of their 2024 season. In past seasons at OSF she has performed in 76 roles in 58 productions including: Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods (both at OSF and the Wallis Annenberg Center, Los Angeles); Gertrude in Hamlet; The Chorus in Henry V; Rosalind in As You Like It; Viola in Twelfth Night; Lady Macbeth in Macbeth; Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance; Hedda Gabler in Hedda Gabler and The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler; Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac; Margaret in Henry VI Parts One, Two/Three and Richard III; Irene in Idiot’s Delight; Becca in Rabbit Hole; Portia in The Merchant of Venice; and Rebecca West in Rosmersholm. Other theatres include California Shakespeare Theater, (two seasons), Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, (three seasons), South Coast Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Arizona Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Grove and VITA Shakespeare Festivals and Artist Repertory Theatre, among others. She authored and performed “VIRGINS TO VILLAINS: My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women” (a one-woman show), “BARD BABES” and “SHAKESPEARE’S LABORS IN LOVE.” Film/TV credits include White Mile, Eyes of Terror, Wolf, Dead Pan Alley, Amen, Cutters, and Raspberry Heaven, among others. Awards: Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship (2013), Oregon Arts Commission 2009 Individual Artist Fellowship, Bay Area Theatre Critics, Drama-logue, and Back Stage West Award. Robin holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Tulsa and an MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre. RGNordli.com

Michael Elich and Robin Goodrin Nordli have performed in 23 productions together.

Robynn Rodriguez (Director)

Robynn has directed Chapatti and Circle Mirror Transformation for RTC. She is an actor who began directing plays professionally in 2013. Once a resident actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, her acting work has been seen at the Public Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Kennedy Center, Berkeley Rep, and the Barbican (UK), among others. She has directed King John, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and As You Like It at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur at American Players Theatre, Richard III at Pacific Conservatory Theatre, Hedda Gabler at West Virginia University, and Twelfth Night at University of Texas. Robynn’s work as a director has been a welcome and challenging extension of her work as an actor. r obynnrodriguez.com

Brenda Withers (Playwright)

When not writing, Brenda is acting, directing, and helping to run the Harbor Stage Company. She's worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Hartford Stage, Firelight Theatre Workshop, McCarter Theatre, and the Guthrie. Her plays have been produced at Portland Stage, Urbanite Theatre, Amphibian Stage Productions, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, HERE, Performance Space New York, and Square Product Theatre and have been the recipients of the Clauder Prize and an Edgerton Award. She studied drama and religion at Dartmouth College, and was a resident playwright at New Georges, the Camargo Foundation, and the Huntington Theatre Company. Says Brenda, “I believe in theater as a democratizing force, something that can breed healthy discussion amongst people from all walks of life. I aim to create work that acts as a catalyst for compassion, delight, and civil debate in a larger arena. I'm deeply curious about the connection between the personal and the political and love funny plays about serious stuff.”