Austin Tichenor is an actor, playwright, and the co-artistic director of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, with whom he’s appeared multiple times off-Broadway, in London’s West End, and in theaters around the country including Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, American Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and Chicago's Royal George, as well as in the TV film The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). Chicago credits include The Book of Will (Northlight Theatre), In The Garden: A Darwinian Love Story (Lookingglass Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Back Room Shakespeare Project), Beethoven & the Killer B's (In The Realm of Senses), and returning to the Goodman this fall for his second year as the alternate Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. TV credits include recurring roles on 24, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Alias, Felicity, and Gilmore Girls, and guest appearances on Chicago Med, E.R., The X-Files, and The West Wing. Recent directing credits include his own William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) (Folger Shakespeare Theater) and Hamlet’s Big Adventure! (a prequel) (London In Tel Aviv Festival in Israel); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Starling Shakespeare Company); Twelfth Night (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company); and Much Ado About Nothing (Pacific University). Austin is the co-author of Pop-Up Shakespeare plus eleven RSC comedies (licensed by Broadway Play Publishing), and since 2006 has produced and hosted the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast, the world’s longest-running weekly theater podcast.
[Bio as of August 2023]