David Hemsley Caldwell - Artistic Director

dcaldwell@totempoleplayhouse.org

David Hemsley Caldwell began his professional career working in casting for NBC Television, Broadway and Film.  He then moved to Actor/Literary Representation with Bret Adams Ltd. and the Agency for Performing Arts working with such artists as Judy Kaye, Robert Harling, Phylicia Rashad and Donald O’C...

onnor. David served as Artistic Director for The Gretna Timbers Theater from 1996 through 2001 and was a visiting artist for the Conservatory Theatre Arts at Webster University and Otterbein University. Caldwell has  directed nearly 100 productions in New York, Los Angeles and across the country. Most recently he directed The Best Little Wh@#%house in Texas, for Totem Pole Playhouse, Million Dollar Quartet  for the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, The Cake for Cape Fear Regional Theatre and Oystertown: An Original Evening of Storytelling and Music conceived and written by Mr. Caldwell for the Dixie Theatre Foundation, as well as nearly a dozen special events for CFRT and Otterbein University, including their annual Alumni Awards since 2014. David has worked regionally for: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Milwaukee Rep., McCoy Rigby Entertainment, Meadowbrook Theatre, Riverside Theater, Montana Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theater, CATCO, Pennsylvania Stage Company, Downtown Cabaret Theatre, Allenberry Playhouse , Flat Rock Playhouse, Max & Louie Productions, and Little Theatre on the Square. Past Productions include: The Full Monty, Speed the Plow, Mrs. Mannerly, The Fantasticks, Hay Fever, Hank Williams – Lost Highway ( 2014 DC Metro Award – Best Direction & Musical Direction) , Gypsy, The Drowsy Chaperone (2011 Columbus Theatre  Critics Awards –  Best Musical & Best Direction)Almost Maine, Urinetown ( 2007 Columbus Dispatch Top 10 Musicals), Loot, Hello Again, A New Brain (2006 Best Musical –  St Louis Riverfront Times)25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2010 Best Musical – Columbus Alive)The Pavilion, The Spitfire Grill (2005 Best Musical -Heidi Awards) and Company. Past Totem Pole productions include; Smoke on the Mountain, Pump Boys & Dinettes, Radio Gals, Sanders Family Christmas, Oil City Symphony, My Way – Sinatra, Tintypes, Mixed Emotions, Forever Plaid, Homecoming, The Taffetas, I love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Ruthless!, Hank Williams – Lost Highway, Chaps! Travels With My Aunt, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, The Nerd, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I Love a Piano – The Music of Irving Berlin, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Mamma Mia. Mr Caldwell is honored and humbled to follow in the footsteps of so many talented and innovative leaders: Rowan Joseph, Ray Ficca, Carl Schurr, William Putch and the Putch family, and the founding artistic directors Carl Genus and Muriel Benson. David has happily called Pennsylvania his summer home for nearly three decades. He is grateful and elated to begin this next chapter with Totem Pole Playhouse.


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Fern-Marie Aames - Managing Director

fmaames@totempoleplayhouse.org

Fern-Marie is honored to support the next successful chapter in the long legacy of Totem Pole Playhouse. In the past she has trod the boards and worked in costuming both at the playhouse and with A Christmas Carol during the era of the esteemed Schurr-Love team. She is delighted to be working a...

longside Artistic Director David Hemsley Caldwell and our dedicated production and administrative staffs. FM grew up in Carlisle, PA, and started her professional career in non-profit theatre while in school at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music, working in Arts Marketing & Development for The Huntington Theatre Company and the Sorkin-Cowhey Group. She returned to Pennsylvania joining The Allenberry Players as an Actor, Costume Designer, Production Coordinator, and Technician. She has worked as a Properties Artisan for Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre, and as a Production Stage Manager at Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival, The Passage Theatre, and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. FM joined the Virginia-based “Dream Team” and The Baker Street Theatre Company as a Performer, and as Company Manager and Costume Designer for the Atlantic City production of Dream, Dream, Dream. While residing in the Las Vegas Valley, she redesigned the Margaritaville Mermaid at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel. Fern-Marie’s pet project has been working with the Allenberry Murder Mystery Weekend Company’s thirty-year legacy of three-day interactive shows. Her twenty-two years of affiliation culminated in becoming the General Manager for Allenberry Playhouse. FM has enjoyed working in Costuming with Dickinson College, Messiah University, and Gretna Theatre. She served as Publicist for many school shows, teaching K-12 general and special education and Arts Enrichment, and teaching private Voice, Instrumental Music, and Theatre in Vox Studio. She was pleased to be a Co-Founder, Publicist, and Co-Chair for the David E. Baker Scholarship Trust, an organization awarding music scholarships for over twenty-five years. Fern-Marie is a proud Member of both SAI and Actors Equity Association, thankful for her supportive husband, and most proud of her greatest production, their son.


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Renee Rankin - Front of House Manager / Director of Ticketing & Patron Services

rrankin@totempoleplayhouse.org

Renee is a native of Chambersburg. She received her MFA in Creative Writing in 2011 from Goddard College in Plainfield, VT. She wrote the INSPIRATION column for JLTNews, the e-newsletter for Juneteenth Legacy Theatre. She’s had ten-minute plays produced by The Queens Players Act 5 New Play Festival in Queens,...

NY and the InGenius Fesitval and Testogenius Festival at Manhattan Theatre Source. In September 2011, her one-act play, Zap Belly, enjoyed a successful public reading at Manhattan Theatre Source as part of the Writers’ Forum New Play Reading Series.


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CoCo Sansoni - Media Consultant

CoCo Sansoni first trod the boards at the Totem Pole Playhouse back in the 90’s in Smoke on the Mountain and Sander’s Family Christmas, directed by the one and only David Caldwell  Since then she has happily returned to Caledonia to play Anna Held in Tintypes, Patsy in Always, Patsy Cline and for her one woman show: ...

ong>The First Ladies of Country Music.  She considers herself blessed to continue to work with Mr. Caldwell at one of her favorite theaters in an off-stage position.

CoCo lives in New Jersey with her four beautiful children.


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