Photo Gallery

Three Willows Favorites return for Over the Tavern

Cindy Goldfield is a familiar face to Willows Theatre Company patrons, having appeared on the Willows stage in Dames at Sea, Hide and Seek, Moon Over Buffalo, three of Danny Goggin’s poplular “Nunsense” series (Nunsense, Nunsense – The Second Coming and Nuncrackers), In The Beginning, Merrily We Roll Along, and Brimstone, for which she won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award.  Other regional theater roles include: Mrs. Fezziwig in A Christmas Carol for American Conservatory Theatre, the title role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood at Center REPertory Company, Fran in Another Midsummer’s Night for TheatreWorks, Lenny in Crimes of the Heart with Playhouse West, Nancy in Oliver! at Broadway by the Bay, Joan in Moving Bodies for Marin Theatre Company,  Dot in Sweet Adeline and Pat in PeggyAnn for 42nd Street Moon, and most recently as Earth Mother in Menopause the Musical at Theatre 39 in San Francisco.

Not only has Cindy performed at the Willows, she directed and choreographed several Willows shows, including Singing Fools and Annie Warbucks, and choreographed Rags and 1776.  She is also responsible for the creation of the very successful Willows Theatre Conservatory, starting out by teaching a “Triple Threat” class to a group of the kids from the cast of Annie Warbucks, who were joined by a few of the kids from the production of Rags.  Her extensive directing and choreography work includes productions for 42nd Street Moon, Shakespeare at Stinson, Lauren Mayer Productions, CUBIT Productions and the Dance Palace Summer Stock Players.

In addition to her stage work, Cindy enjoys a successful voice-over career as well as video and live performance, Scripting, Casting and Directing, and Wardrobe and Concept Design for such corporate clients as GAP Inc., Banana Republic, Old Navy, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Network Associates, Genentech, Siebel, Dreyers, Williams-Sonoma, PeopleSoft, Washington Mutual, and Bill Graham Presents/Clear Channel.  The San Francisco resident and native of Point Reyes Station received her theater training at UC Irvine;  is also a two-time recipient of both the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award and the Dean Goodman Choice Award; and is part of the cabaret collaboration of Goldfield and Koldewyn with the inimitable Scrumbly Koldewyn.

Twenty years ago, Barbara Grant auditioned for the CitiArts production of Quilters, and the rest, as they say, is Willows Theatre Company history.  She has appeared in numerous Willows productions over the years, including The Spitfire Grill, You Can’t Take It With You, Joyful Noise, Funny Girl, Once Upon a Mattress, The Rothschilds, Auntie Mame, Nunsense Jamboree, Rags, and Brimstone, for which she won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actress, and she received a Dean Goodman Choice award for her role as Eliza Gant in Look Homeward, Angel.  She has also performed with Center REPertory, Role Players and the Celebration for Life AIDS benefits. 

Her involvement with the Willows Theatre on the administrative side began with volunteer work, helping with fund-raising events and eventually becoming president of the board of directors.  This led Barbara to a position on staff, working part time on grants and fundraising, and from there to the position of development director 10 years ago. 

A Bay Area Native, Barbara lives with her husband Rob (who is a physician with Kaiser) in Alamo.  They have a daughter, who is a physician in Portland, and a son, who is a rock star/tour musician (and potential physician).  Appropriately for this role, she attended Catholic school for both grammar and high school, and memorized thousands of Baltimore Catechism answers.  She is basing Sr. Clarissa on vivid memories of Sr.Mary Edward, her teacher in 6th grade at St. Anselm’s School.

Richmond resident Michael Ray Wisely returns to the Willows to play Over the Tavern’s patriarch Chet Pazinski.  Willows audiences may also remember him as Captain Smollett in Treasure Island, Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Dillard in Foxfire.  Most recently, Michael Ray appeared at the Magic Theatre in the American premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball. Other local credits include: A Christmas Carol for Center Repertory Company, Fugitive Kind at Marin Theatre Company, On the 20th Century with American Musical Theatre, Love's Labours Lost with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Desire Under the Elms at San Jose Repertory Theatre, and The American in Me at the Magic Theatre, as well as performing for San Jose Stage, Pacific Alliance, Shotgun Players, and others.

In addition to his stage work, Michael Ray has co-starred in film; television movies and series; and is currently the host of Home Transformations, a weekly television show on the DIY Network, which he notes is a very different style of working than either theatre or film. 

When not acting he also works as an independent producer, director and writer, and has been directing projects for Comerica Bank and directing and segment producing a documentary with the working title “The American Dream,” about the mortgage banking system. 

His other full-time job – which he shares with his wife Wendy – is raising their daughter Olivia.  With both Michael Ray and Wendy working in “the business” (she is a director and a college professor of Theatre) scheduling can be difficult, and Olivia has been known to attended a rehearsal or two in her time!  Olivia was also the cause of one of Michael Ray’s most memorable days in theater: watching her come into the world at 8:00 AM and going on stage at the Willows at 8:00 PM in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (something he will have to explain to her eventually!).