Paul Mason Barnes is an award-winning director, administrator and teacher based in Ashland, Oregon, where he was education director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Barnes's directing career has taken him all over the country with assignments at regional theatres, festivals and training programs from California to New York, Minnesota to Florida, and all points in between. He is the co-founder of two theatre companies: the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland, and the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota. Barnes's memoir (now in its fourth printing), Paul for Pete: Politics. Theatre Life. One Man's Adventures (or, How I Became a Septuagenarian Fanboy) recounts his experience as a grassroots fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg's 2019/20 campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, and as a member of the Pete for America and Biden-Harris Arts Policy Advisory Committees. Barnes was partnered with and married to legendary actor-director Jim Edmondson for fifty years, until Edmondson's death in April 2025. Barnes makes his home in Ashland with their beloved retrieva-labra-oodle, Rory, who has been the stalwart rehearsal mascot for this production of The Miser. Visit paulbarnesdirector.com and paulforpete.com to learn more.