Actors:  Meet the FoC Staff

Nancy Smith-Watson is an actor, a trauma informed somatic bodyworker and co-founder/director of Feast of Crispian. Ms. Smith-Watson has a BA in Drama from the University of Washington and did her professional training at Circle in the Square professional conservatory in New York City, where her teachers included Nikos Psacharopoulos, founding artistic director of Williamstown Theater Festival, and Michael Kahn, artistic director of The Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C. She just completed her first year toward an MA in Drama Therapy at Kansas State University. While working as a professional actress, Ms. Smith-Watson also trained in massage and somatic bodywork therapies, retiring in 2022 with 36 years’ experience as a Hakomi Bodyworker. She trained in Integrative Somatics from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy developer, Pat Ogden. From 1997 - 2004 Ms. Smith-Watson taught the Introduction to Somatics at Big Sky Somatic Institute, in Helena, MT. In 2013, she received director training from Shakespeare & Co. and returned home to Milwaukee to launch Feast of Crispian – Shakespeare with Veterans.

Jim Tasse is an actor, director, teacher and a Vietnam Era Veteran, serving in the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman from 1971-1975. He has performed with many Milwaukee theatre companies including Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, The Milwaukee Rep, Next Act and In Tandem.  He has explored classical texts as a director and teacher and has acted with Milwaukee Shakespeare, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival and The Feast of Crispian. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He also served as Associate Artistic Director for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. He trained with UW-M’s Professional Theatre Training Program and Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA.

Bill Watson is an actor, director, and teacher of acting and theatre for four university faculties over 30 years. He is currently an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he was hired in 2005 to create an undergraduate Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting degree program that he headed for ten years before co-founding and facilitating, training and directing for Feast of Crispian. He has taught Shakespeare text and performance for over 30 years and has directed and acted professionally in dozens of Shakespeare productions, most recently working for and training with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA. Locally, he has acted with First Stage, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and In Tandem theaters, and directed for Marquette University, UWM and Feast of Crispian. Bill has also trained in psychotherapeutic skills with Phil Del Prince of the Hakomi Institute. He has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Washington, a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University.