William Roth
Founder, Artistic Director
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William is the Founder and Artistic Director of St. Louis Actors’ Studio and has been a working actor in theater for over 35 years. He has performed with The Classic Theater Company, American Ballet Theater, River City Players, Magic Smoking Monkey, The Goldenrod Showboat, The International Hemingway Festival, HotHouse Theatre and Muddy Waters. He spent six years with the Orthwein Theatre Company, appearing in several shows, including The Grapes of Wrath, Our Town, Hamlet, ER, Emergency Room and Harvey. He has appeared in countless Shakespeare productions, including King Lear, Richard III, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, A Winter's Tale, As you Like It, MacBeth, Othello and Antony and Cleopatra.
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STLAS roles include: Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, Earl Moss in Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss and Ben in The Sunshine Boys, Bill in the STLAS world premiere production of Neil LaBute’s Here We Go Around The Mulberry Bush, George in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Theater Circle Award Nominee-Best Actor, Winner Best Comedy). Teach in David Mamet's American Buffalo (Theater Circle Award Nominee-Outstanding Production of a Drama), Charlie Aikin in Tracy Lett's August: Osage County. (Winner Best Supporting Actor Comedy-Broadway World) , Mervyn in Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane (Theater Circle Award Nominee-Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy), Horace in Lillian Hellman's classic The Little Foxes (Theater Circle Award Nominee-Outstanding Production of a Drama, Ensemble), Saul in Sam Shepard’s True West, Robert in Mamet’s A Life In The Theatre, Ben in The Dumbwaiter, Peter in The Zoo Story, Michael Waterman in Fiction by Steven Dietz, Charlie in The Whale (Theater Circle Award Nominee-Best Actor) by Samuel D. Hunter and most recently James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill. William was singled out as one of the top five Actors in St. Louis by the Post-Dispatch in its yearly "Go! List."
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On the big screen (or the little one streaming at home) William recently was featured in Fear The Night written and directed by Neil LaBute, Hungry Dog Blues written and directed by Jason Abrams and the upcoming Soul On Fire starring William H. Macy and John Corbett.
He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG/AFTRA
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William has produced over 80 shows since starting STLAS including New York premiere productions of Day of the Dog and four seasons of LaBute New Theater Festival at the 59E59 street theaters and The Davenport in Midtown Manhattan.
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John Pierson
Associate Artistic Director
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John appeared onstage in STLAS’s first season in The Late Henry Moss, for which he won a Kevin Kline award for Best Supporting Actor and has worked on nearly every season since then as both an actor and a director. John has served on the selection committee for the LaBute New Theater Festival since its inception and has directed numerous festival plays in both St. Louis and in NYC, including the world premieres of Kandahar, Life Model, and Hate Crime, all by Neil LaBute. He has also directed for HotCity’s Greenhouse Festival. A proud longtime Equity member, John has acted for many local companies including Upstream, The Black Rep, New Jewish Theatre, Ozark Actors Theater, Spotlight, HotCity, Muddy Water, Historyonics, Hothouse, The New Theatre, and Insight.
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He is the chair of the Theatre, Speech & Dance department at the John Burroughs School.
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Annamaria Pileggi
Associate Artistic Director
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For STLAS Anna has directed Tribes, Blackbird, Comfort, Uncle Vanya and Dr. Ride's American Beach House, The Whale and most recently With- all have been nominated for multiple Theater Circle Awards.
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Anna is a Professor of the Practice in Drama at Washington University in St. Louis who has been on the faculty of the Performing Arts Department since 1991. She is a five-time recipient of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Award recognizing excellence in teaching. Pileggi directs and teaches courses in Acting, Movement, Musical Theatre, and Theatre for Social Change. She also serves as an administrator and acting instructor for the department’s Shakespeare Globe Program in London. Pileggi has an MFA in acting from Brandeis University. In addition to her teaching, Pileggi has directed professionally at many St. Louis Theatres, including, New Jewish, Max & Louie Productions, Onsite, That Uppity Theatre, Muddy Waters, Dramatic License, and HotCity. She was also on staff at HotCity as an Associate Director and Co-Producer of the theatre’s Greenhouse New Play Development Series from 2007 until the company’s closing in 2014.
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Kristi Gunther
Managing Producer
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Kristi is thrilled to be a part of the STLAS family for this 18th season. She is a St. Louis based director, light & sound designer, producer, and writer. Recent notable credits include Titus Andronicus, LaBute Fest, The Whale, Long Days Journey Into Night, Trump L'Oeil Off Broadway (Director), The Wiz and Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway (Investor), and she is currently sound designing An Orchard for Chekhov, at Upstream Theater. Her favorite film credits include Hungry Dog Blues and Yasha’s Tapochki (script supervisor) from Zona Pictures (https://vimeo.com/zonapictures). Much love and appreciation goes out to the whole team for being so fantastic to make art with. More love goes to her fav 5: JJHTK, who are simply the best.
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Executive Board
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Emily Huber, EFH Designs
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Mary Mennig, Community Volunteer
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Vince Bennett, McCormack Baron Salazar
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Joe Carpenter, Community Volunteer
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Laura Stefacek, CPA, Rosenthal, Packman and Co, P.C.
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William Roth (Ex-Officio)
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Staff
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Patrick Huber
Associate Director - Set Design and Lighting
Patrick studied scenic and lighting design at Webster University and dramatic literature at Washington University. He currently teaches Theatre, Design and Architecture at Mary Institute St. Louis Country Day School, and was an artist-in-residence at Washington University for the 2006-2007 school year, teaching scenic design for the Performing Arts Department. He has served as resident scenic/lighting designer for ITP in Chicago and for City Players, the Orthwein Theatre Company, ShatterMask, Actor's Rennaissance Theatre, St. Louis Shakespeare, and Upstream Theater in St. Louis. He has also designed scenery and lighting for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Muny 1st Stage, Fontbonne University and Washington University Opera.
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Wayne Salomon
Consigliere
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For STLAS Wayne has directed Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, Ivanov by Anton Chekov, Art by Yasmina Reza, Closer by Patrick Marber, and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia by Edward Albee. He is a former artistic director of the Theatre Project Company, The Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Illinois, and the Imaginary Theatre Company – then, the touring arm of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, as well as being artist in residence at the University of Nebraska and a guest artist at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and the University of Missouri/St. Louis. He was chair of the Theatre Department at John Burroughs School for 25 years. Many of his former theater students have enjoyed great success. Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm of Mad Men, Sarah Clarke of NCIS, Emmy nominee Ellie Kemper of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Tony nominee for Doubt, Heather Goldenhersh to name a few. His extensive credits as a professional director include A Delicate Balance, Seascape, The Lyons, The Taming of the Shrew, All Over Town, Catch 22, Hamlet, The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, Orphans, Loving Leah, The Mousetrap, Bleacher Bums, Much Ado About Nothing, The House of Blue Leaves, Baby with the Bathwater, Murder by the Book, Noises Off, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Barefoot in the Park, A Flea in her Ear, The Fantastiks, Guys and Dolls, The Rainmaker, The Good Doctor, The 1940’s Radio Hour, South Pacific, Man of La Mancha, Cottonpatch Gospel, The Real Thing, Hellcab and Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune. Mr. Salomon has also been a working actor in St. Louis since 1972 and a member of Actor’s Equity Association since 1978. Over the past 40 years he has been seen professionally at the MUNY, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Theatre Project Company, The St. Louis Black Repertory Company, Off the Cuff, The New Theatre, Theatre Factory and the Arrowrock Lyceum Theatre. He received professional training from the late Sonia Moore at the American Conservatory for the Stanislavski Theatre Arts in New York City.
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Amy J Paige
Stage Manager
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Amy is the resident stage manager at STLAS. She has been stage managing around St. Louis for almost 25 years and at Actors’ Studio for 16 seasons. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and the Treasurer and Regional Rep for the Stage Managers’ Association. “Once your Stage Manager, always your Stage Manager.”
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