Our Company

James Calvert performed in PNT’s Scapin, Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Cymbeline, The Perilous Streets of South Pasadena, The Perilous Streets of Los Angeles, School for Wives, Rip Van Winkle, The Imaginary Invalid, The Pied Piper Of Hamlin and A Christmas Carol. Also a member of Interact Theatre Company, James appeared in State of the Union, Tartuffe, Urinetown: The Musical, The Boarding House, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, Juno & The Paycock, etc. With Opera Santa Barbara he acted in Die Lustige Witwe The Pirates of Penzance. Several years and several pounds ago, James was a dancer touring with Diavolo Dance Theatre.

Mary Chalon  Co-Founder Parson’s Nose.  Born in Ontario, Canada, raised in England and New York City. Emerson College.  Theater includes: Portland Stage, The Charles Playhouse, Merrimack Theater, GeVa Stage, Syracuse Stage, International City Theater, The Kennedy Center , Manhattan Theater Club. Favorites: The Belle of Amherst, The Yellow Wallpaper, Chapter Two. Television:  As the World Turns, Texas, The Cavanaugh’s,Neon Empire and Blind Faith.  Teaching: American Academy of Dramatic Art , SpeakEasy, Director of Children’s Ministry at Saint James’ Episcopal Church.  Co-Producer Sketchy At Best (Fremont Centre Theatre, The Tiffany Theatre) .  Director: The Imaginary Invalid and School for Wives (Parson’s Nose,  Geffen Playhouse,  LAUSD school tour). Mary has appeared in PNP’s The Mi$er, Twelfth Night, Rip Van Winkle, and many Parson’s Nose Readers’ Theater presentations. Most recently Mary appeared in The Presentment (Edinborough Fringe Festival) and Arsenic and Old Lace(Covina Playhouse, Norris Center). In 2011 she was voted one of the “Fifty Fabulous Women of Pasadena”. Her best production, however, is daughter Jemma, a senior at Pepperdine University.

Marisa Chandler is from Pasadena where she attended Westridge School.  B.A. in English from Harvard University. Since college she has concentrated on teaching, auditioning and acting in local theaters.  Favorite roles include Maria in The Sound of Music, Marion in The Music Man, Laurey in Oklahoma, Fiona in Brigadoon, Sarah in Guys and Dolls, Maria in West Side Story and Louisa in The Fantasticks.  From 2006 until 2011 Marisa was the director of the Glendale Centre Theatre Summer Acting Camp.  She is also a member of the Harvard Yardbirds, a Los Angeles based acapella group consisting of Harvard alums.  Marisa is thrilled to be a part of Parson’s Nose and dedicates her performances to her husband Donny and calico cat Teej.

Lance Davis Born in Philadelphia, B.A.  Notre Dame; L’Universite Catholique de L’Ouest; MFA  University of Minnesota (McKnight Fellow). Theater: Five seasons Tyrone Guthrie Theater Company A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice,  Love’s Labours Lost, A School for Scandal, The Relapse, Becket, The Crucible, Of Mice and Men,  Solzhynitsyn’s  A Play and Anthony Burgess’ adaptation of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. One hundred professional stage productions On, Off, and Off Off Broadway, Long Wharf Theater, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Folger Theater, GeVA Stage, Atlanta Alliance Theater, Arizona Theater Company, Seattle Repertory and Pasadena Playhouse. Favorites: Mercutio Romeo and Juliet, Barnet in The National Health, Harpagon in The Mi$er. Television:  All those shows now off the air, The Adams Chronicles, Beacon Hill, Twin Peaks, Murphy Brown, Roseanne, etc. Feature film:  Anna, Heart, Barton Fink (Palm d’Or) Co-founded Parson’s Nose with Mary Chalon. Writer: Sketchy at Best, Adapted 23 classics including works by Shakespeare, Goldoni, Belasco, Boucicault, Andersen, Perrault and Grimm, Chekov,  Moliere.  Published Family Classics: Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Mi$er available at amazon.com.

Barry Gordon  B.S. Political Science, CSULA; Loyola Law School. Barry began his career at the age of three, singing Johnny Ray’s Cry on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. At six, he recorded Nuttin’ for Christmas, one of the best-selling Christmas records of all time. Tony nomination: Nick in Herb Gardner’sA Thousand Clowns, as well as starring in the film version. He continues a five decade long career in feature films and television, including series regular roles in The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Fish, and Archie Bunker’s Place.  He recurred as Larry David’s Rabbi on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.  His voice was heard for decades as the Nestle Quik Bunny and he originated the voice of Donatello on the television megahit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For Parson’s Nose he has appeared as Badger in The Perilous Streets of Pasadena, and Smirnov in Chekov Farces: The Boor, and many Readers’ Theater presentations. Barry was the longest serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was the Democratic candidate for Congress in 1998. For two years he also hosted his own political talk radio show, broadcast throughout Southern California, Barry Gordon from Left Field.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Taylor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from the University of Southern California and continued her studies at the Richard Lawson Studios.  Her previous acting credits include THE RIDICULOUS DARKNESS by Wolfram Lotz, THE FROGS by Aristophanes, the world premiere of HIT by Alice Tuan, Henry Ong’s DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER and Julie Taiwo Oni’s DENIM, as well as independent short films, LANGUAGE OF LOVE and SURREAL LOUNGE.  “Stories offered me the opportunity to let my imagination expand.  I know the power of art and how it was my saving grace and I want to offer that to other people.  That’s why I do what I do.”

John Harnagel has appeared in the Parson’s Nose productions of Rose of the Rancho, Pied Piper, Servant of Two Masters, The Miser, Comedy of Errors, School for Wives, Rip Van Winkle, The Imaginary Invalid, and their inaugural production of Twelfth Night. He has appeared at the Pasadena Playhouse, The Carmel Performing Arts Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Syracuse Stage Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, Negro Ensemble Company, The Seattle Rep, The Group Theater of Seattle, and the Yale Repertory Theater. T.V. credits include Big Love, Medium, Star Trek Enterprise, Lyon’s Den, Miracles, Malcolm in the Middle, Everybody Loves Raymond, X-Files, etc. John is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Gary Lamb is an actor/director/writer/producer and is currently Co-Artistic Director for Crown City Theater. For PNT he Co-Directed The Government Inspector and has acted in past productions. Last year he Co-Directed The Producers and Miracle on 34th Street at the Eldorado Showroom in Reno with Andy Ferrara. He wrote and directed Somewhere in the Middle (Or Guess Who’s Coming For Passover) at Crown City and directed Romeo & Juliet for Shakespeare @ The Castle in Ohio. Also for Crown City he directed the 2014 production of Cabaret, which ran for 6 months (listed as one of the Best Productions of 2014 by BitterLemons and Broadwayworld.com and grabbed Scenie Awards for Outstanding Production, Ensemble Cast and Direction of a Musical). He’s directed Charlotte’s Web at Sierra Madre Playhouse, 3AM at Theater West, Garden of Ashes at 2cent Theater’s INKfest, as well as Dangerous Corner, Apple Tree and Wild About Harry at Crown City.

John Rafter Lee At Parson’s Nose: The Government Inspector and Too Learned Ladies. He has acted at the Mark Taper Forum, A Noise Within, The Globe Theatre in San Diego, South Coast Rep and The Road Theatre. He has been seen on the stages of all of Seattle’s major theatres as well as Tacoma Actors Guild and the New Mexico Rep. His voice can be heard in MTV’s Aeon Flux, HBO’s Spawn, and in Jet Li’s The Black Mask. He has narrated hundreds of audiobooks of every conceivable genre. His adaptations of Schiller and Racine and his original plays, Hitler’s Head, Passchendaele, Frankincense and Blood and Milk have been produced in Los Angeles and New York.

Jake’s bio is on its way. He’s been our stage manager for the past two seasons, guiding us through sound, lights, and whatever last minute alarms that go off. He must have absorbed the skills from his Mom, Michele Miner, who has been the go-to SM in Los Angeles for the past twenty years. And yes, his Dad is our own Paul Perri. We’re delighted to have him with us.

Paul Perri  Broadway: Burn This, A View From the Bridge, Macbeth, The Bacchae. L.A. Theatre: Parson’s Nose, True West, Hitler’s Head, Beethoven in the House, Ivanov, Golden Boy, Hurlyburly, Councillor at Law, Day and Nights Within, Much Ado About Nothing and Love’s Labours Lost. Film: Chaos, The Insider, Hellraiser IV, Freeway, Live Nude Girls, Gathering Evidence, Demolition Man, Memoirs of An Invisible Man, Delta Force II, Manhunter. Television: Luck, Caprica, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Without A Trace, Medium, Cold Case, Prison Break, Boston Legal, Battlestar Gallactica, CSI New York, , NYPD Blue and many more. Beautiful wife: Mary Michele Miner. Wonderful children: Giacomo and Justine.

Jen Orsini (Designer) is excited to be designing for Parson’s Nose Theater in their new home.  She studied art and design at several Southern California colleges and universities, finally earning her BA at Long Beach before moving closer to Hollywood and completing her MA at Cal State Los Angeles while teaching in the Theater Department at Pasadena City College.  Jen has also designed costumes and makeup for numerous productions.  She retired recently from PCC where she taught fashion and apparel subjects.  With her husband Tom, she shares her time between a bungalow here in Pasadena and a cabin in the Mojave desert, where they experiment with rabbit proof landscaping and watch the sunsets.

Jill Rogosheske  has enjoyed a career which has included Broadway and regional theatres, television and movies. She has played a variety of roles from Pippi Longstockings to Marian the Librarian to Trudi the Icelandic singing waitress. From Polly Peachum to Guinevere to Maria. From singing a Torch Song Trilogy to Tonka, the singing dump truck. From New York to Los Angeles, from Phoenix to Florida, from Minneapolis to Chicago. She has happily appeared in the PNT productions The Imaginary Invalid, Fairy Tales, School for Wives, The Perilous Streets of Pasadena! and as The Pied Piper of Hamlin – A Musical! She married well and is the proud mother of two fine sons.