Fauve Dela Cruz - Chair

Member, Development Committee
1+ years of service

Fauve Dela Cruz has been active with Parish Players for over three years, first as an actress in The 2023 Tens Festival and now as co-chair of the board. Deeply engaged in the community, she serves as Chair of the Lyme School PTO, is a member of the Lyme School Superintendent Search Committee and the Valley Improv steering committee, and sits on the board of the Hampshire Cooperative Nursery School. She is also co-founder of Upper Valley Salsa and former Executive Director of CommunityCare of Lyme. Fauve is passionate about the arts, education, and fostering community connections.
 

Kate Willard - Chair

Member, Development Committee
1+ years of service
Kate is a New York and Vermont-based director, writer, and adaptor of new theatre that is fantastical, absurd, and supremely silly. She recently developed and directed Extra Crispy at Joe’s Pub in collaboration with Alyssa Payne. Other recent directing credits include Rhinoceros, Peter and the Starcatcher, Bertha, and Le Quai des Brumes. Kate is a 24 Hour Plays Nationals alum, a member of Krymov Lab NYC, a recipient of the Marandon and Maguire Fellowships, and in residence at The Rehearsal Club. BA: Vassar College. MA: École Jacques Lecoq. katewillard.com

 

Martie Betts - Vice Chair

Chair, Community Engagement Committee

5 years of service

Martie Betts has been stitching since she was 8 years old and was introduced to theater by her mother and grandmother at an early age.  Martie studied theater and art history in Cleveland, Ohio, while also working in theater there and  in Nashville TN. Her career took her out of theater, but in 2020 she reached out to Parish Players. She was invited to be on the board and has been managing their costume inventory while also costuming shows. Fun fact - Martie’s mother costumed shows in the early days of Parish Players.

 

​​Ken Burchard - Treasurer

Chair, Finance Committee

12 years of service

Ken Burchard is a retired surgeon and a Professor Emeritus at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He has served as treasurer of The Parish Players theater company for approximately twelve years. Connecting with The Parish Players brought Ken in direct contact with talented actors, directors, and producers, all of whom provide for a remarkable community theater. Ken has written several plays that have focused on less than laudable “educational” experiences during medical training. Ken is hoping to champion a Theater in Medical Education program at The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. The recognition that such an effort is feasible is a direct result of Ken’s exposure and engagement with The Parish Players.

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Jeannie Hines - Secretary​

New member 2025

Jeannie lives in Plainfield, NH and works as a physical therapist in VT and NH public schools.  She has always loved live theatre.  Her first role at Parish Players was in Emma in 2004.  Cherished roles at Parish Players have been Aimee in The Humans (2023), M’Lynn in Steel Magnolias (2018), multiple roles in Love, Loss and What I Wore (2016) and Ruth in Blithe Spirit (2012).  Besides acting, she has dabbled in playwriting and would like to try directing some day.  Over the years, Jeannie has been asked more than  a few times to join the Parish Players Board.  She always responded she’ll join after all 3 kids have left the nest - which is now upon her, resulting in both joy and sadness! 

 

Robyn Noble- Corresponding Secretary

Co-Chair, Trusteeship and Nominating Committee

Member, Community Engagement Committee

1 year of service

Robyn Noble began her work with the Parish Players in 1980, as a member of their School Touring Company, and joined the board in 1981, serving for 6 years. Life took her away from Vermont in 1988 to NYC, and later to Providence, RI, where she taught in public school for 25 years. She returned to Vermont in 2022, and jumped back into the Parish Players as an actor, director and producer. She has served as the Players’ Corresponding Secretary for a year. 

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Noor Taher

Chair, Building Committee

3 Years of Service

Noor was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq. He has a doctorate in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Dartmouth College, where he now works as a research scientist. His current focus involves using mass spectrometry to study the effects of chemical modifications on the protein production machinery in cells. Noor became a member of Parish Players in 2015. Some favorite roles include Biff (Death of a Salesman), Brutus (Julius Caesar), Trevor (The Play That Goes Wrong), Bradley (Buried Child), and Berenger (Rhinoceros). Noor has served as a Parish Players board member twice in the past, when he was part of the cohort that jump-started Parish Players following the covid-driven two-year hiatus. He also produced The Play That Goes Wrong, a technically challenging undertaking that showcased the artistic ambition and creative strength of Parish Players' community.  In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and playing the trumpet with local music groups.

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Nicole Gaines

Member, Performer, Community Engagement Committee & Development Committee

1+ years of service

When Nicole Gaines moved from Dallas to Lyme, New Hampshire in 2021, she found a new home in Parish Players. A lifelong lover of performance, she has studied dance, music, theatre, and acrobatics since childhood. While completing her BBA in Finance & Marketing at SMU’s Cox School of Business, she served on the university’s Dramatic Arts Committee and appeared in productions including The Who’s Tommy, Soapdish: The Musical, and Chicago.

Her Parish Players credits include Press Pray (Voice of God, 2024 Tens Festival), Proxy (Victoria), Rhinoceros (Grocer’s Wife / Dancing Rhinoceros), and Twelve Installations (La Parisienne). She also appears in the short film Unamerican Dream, co-starring fellow board member Jonathan Rosenbloom and her son, Lincoln.

Nicole volunteers throughout both the Parish Players community and the town of Lyme, supporting families, the arts, and community connection. She especially loves sharing her passion for the performing arts with her children — Drayce, Charli, and Lincoln — who often join her in celebrating the performing arts.

Her professional background includes corporate banking, marketing, talent recruitment & development, and higher education, including supporting emerging artists at The Art Institutes of Dallas and Houston. As a Parish Players Board Member, Nicole is committed to welcoming new voices, building community, and uplifting the creative spirit of the Upper Valley.

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Brian Kenyon

Member, Buildings Committee

4 years of service

Brian has been involved with Parish Players as a lighting tech and designer, and occasionally as a director.  Outside of the theatre he is an excavating contractor and part time for the IATSE 919 stagehands union. He has very much enjoyed his time at Parish Players and hopes to continue for many years to come.

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Phil Noble

Chair, Communications Committee 

Website and Social Media Manager

1 year of service

Philip Noble has been with Parish Players for just over a year. He has acted, stage managed and provided technical assistance to several Parish productions, including Twelve Installations, as well as two iterations of the Ten-Minute Play Festival. Previously, he attended Rhode Island College studying theater tech, where he worked as a stagehand at the John Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, helping to run the college’s own productions as well as a variety of traveling shows and rental performances. His parents met in a Parish Players production in 1980.

 

Richard Noble

Co-Chair, Trusteeship and Nominating Committee

2 years of service

Richard Noble has returned to the Parish Players after a 36-year hiatus. In the 1970s and 80s he had frequently acted with the Parish Players, as well as the Panther Players on Vermont Public and the Dartmouth Summer Rep. In Providence, RI, beginning in 1990, he worked with the Perishable Theatre, Alias Stage/Gamm Theatre, and Burbage Theatre, and also with Boston’s Shakespeare on the Common. He moved back to Vermont in 2002, after 31 years of cataloguing rare books for the Brown University Library.

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Robert O'Leary

Member, Community Engagement Committee

6 years of service

Robert  joined the board first in 2013. He grew up in Boston, MA, graduated Boston Latin School, got his BA at Colgate University. Before moving to the Upper Valley in 2000, Robert worked as a VAX Cluster Operator for ENTEX Corporation. After moving here, Robert focused on raising his 4 children in Fairlee, VT. Robert has performed in dozens of plays at Parish Players and area theaters since 2011.

 

Michele Perkins

Chair, Development Committee

1+ years of service

Michele joined the board in 2024. She moved to Vermont in 2022, after completing a sixteen-year tenure as President of New England College (NH). Her academic discipline is Theatre, and she began her career teaching theatre, voice, and literature at Emerson College and Curry College. Her degrees are from Northwestern, Emerson, and the University of Pennsylvania. She has held memberships in and chaired numerous nonprofits throughout her career, mostly in higher education. She is delighted to be a part of the Parish Players, and in addition to serving on its Board and Chairing the Development Committee, she has acted in six productions in the last two years.

Beata Isaac Randall

Vice Chair, Finance Committee

1 year of service

Beata has lived in the Upper Valley for 27 years. She returned to her love of theatre years ago and has been active in NCCT and We THe People two local community theatre productions. She only recently discovered Parish Players and became a board member in 2025. By day she is an IT analyst working for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. She identifies as a white, privileged; Quaker, community theatre lover who loves Excel.

 

Jonathan Rosenbloom

1+ year of service

Jonathan Rosenbloom is a law professor, Associate Dean, and legal scholar whose work explores the intersection of environmental sustainability, local governance, and the arts. He has written extensively on how creative expression and cultural institutions can drive more equitable and resilient communities. Rosenbloom frequently collaborates with architects, urban planners, and policymakers to integrate the arts into land use and climate adaptation strategies. He has written several books and dozens of articles. He is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, New York Law School, and Harvard Law School.