Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
Fight Director
Fight Choreographer for Romeo & Juliet (2025), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2025), and The Pirate Ballad of Bonny & Read, written by the creators of the 50/50 Shakespeare Project: Vanessa Morosco & Peter Simon Hilton.
Fight Choreographer: for The Comedy of Errors (2025), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2024), The Importance of Being Earnest (2024), Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (2024), Macbeth (2024), Eurydice (2023), As You Like It (2023), Hamlet (2005), The Tempest (2006), Macbeth (2006), and more.
Director: Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) (2019, 2018, 2017).
Actor: Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2004), Tybalt/Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet (2007), Polixenes in The Winter’s Tale (2007), and more.
Heritage Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, NYC Opera, and company member with Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers for three years.
MFA, University of Virginia.
BA in Drama and Dance, Western Michigan University.
John Paul Scheidler is a professional actor, fight choreographer, and director with membership in Actor’s Equity Association and teacher certification from the Society of American Fight Directors. He has worked professionally with the American Shakespeare Center, Heritage Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, NYC Opera, and was a company member with Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers for three years.
His education includes an MFA from the University of Virginia and a BA in Drama and Dance from Western Michigan University. He currently chairs the Mary Baldwin University Theatre Department.
Betrayed and cast out, Prospero summons the storm that brings his enemies back into his grasp. Now he has to decide what to do with them. William Shakespeare's The Tempest returns for the Blackfriars Playhouse's 25th anniversary.
Escape to the Forest of Arden, where Rosalind takes charge, Orlando carves love into trees, and Shakespeare lets comedy run wild with moments that remind us sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself.
Two legendary pirate queens come to life in a museum, crash through the fourth wall, and pull one teen into a story of rebellion, sea shanties, and charting your own course. The Pirate Ballad of Bonny & Read is bold, brash, and ready to set sail.
How far would you go for love - and would your best friend forgive you? In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, friendship collides with romance in a fast-paced tale of loyalty, love, and the foolish choices we make along the way.
Fall into the rush of first love in the early 2000s with Romeo and Juliet—Shakespeare’s iconic story of passion, defiance, and connection that can’t be stopped. When two young hearts find each other at the turn of a new millennium in a world built on hate, they risk everything to hold on to what feels true.
As two sets of twins unknowingly cross paths, chaos and confusion erupt in this fast-paced farce, making it a must-see for fans of comedy and Shakespeare alike. Laugh out loud at Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors at the Blackfriars Playhouse, where mistaken identities, slapstick humor, and a heartwarming family reunion take center stage.
In the treacherous mountains of Transylvania, a meek English real estate agent takes a harrowing journey to meet a new and mysterious client, who also just happens to be the most terrifying and ferocious monster the world has ever known: Count Dracula! Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is a Bram-new comedy by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen filled with clever wordplay and anything-goes pop culture references. This 90-minute, gender-bending, quick-changing, laugh-out-loud take on Bram Stoker’s iconic story is perfect for audiences of all blood types.
In this uproarious comedy, Sir John Falstaff finds himself entangled in the shrewd schemes of two clever Windsor wives who unite to outwit one of Shakespeare's most endearing scoundrels. Set against the backdrop of Elizabethan domestic life and featuring an eclectic ensemble of zany characters, this irresistible comic confection weaves together romance and farce to create a joyful story of community and family.
Oscar Wilde's brilliant and wicked The Importance of Being Earnest, is a comedic masterpiece that unravels a web of mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and clever deceptions. When two young gentlemen decide to adopt fictitious personas to escape the constraints of societal expectations, a whirlwind of hilarious misunderstandings ensues. As love interests collide and secret pasts are revealed, Wilde weaves a delightful tapestry of wit, absurdity, and biting satire.
Step into an ominous world of witches, warfare, murder, and madness this season at the Blackfriars Playhouse with Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a relentless examination of the darkest depths of the human condition. This twisted tale begins with a supernatural prophecy that sets in motion a bloody course of events for Macbeth and his Lady as they descend into treachery and turmoil.
Ruhl’s wildly imaginative bittersweet comedy Eurydice reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice not through Orpheus’s infamous pilgrimage to retrieve his bride, but through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost life.
Awash in wit and exuberant in a bedrock belief that love conquers all, this beloved Shakespeare comedy races toward a happy ending and four – count them, four – weddings.
What better way to ring in the holidays than with every Christmas story ever? This fast-paced romp takes you on the Christmas journey of a lifetime, through your favorite holiday classics, and then some. Hold on tight as you take a tinsel-covered rollercoaster ride bursting with laughter, carols, and joy, and prepare to leave with memories to last a lifetime.
What better way to ring in the holidays than with every Christmas story ever? This fast-paced romp takes you on the Christmas journey of a lifetime, through your favorite holiday classics, and then some. Hold on tight as you take a tinsel-covered rollercoaster ride bursting with laughter, carols, and joy, and prepare to leave with memories to last a lifetime.
To escape death, the extraordinary Rosalind, her brave cousin Celia, and one of Shakespeare’s funniest fools flee into the woods. There, in the bewitching Forest of Arden, they discover shepherds and aristocrats, country folk and lovers – and, ultimately, life, love, joy, and freedom. Shakespeare’s glorious and wise comedy As You Like It reminds us of everything it is to be alive.
What better way to ring in the holidays than with every Christmas story ever? This fast-paced romp takes you on the Christmas journey of a lifetime, through your favorite holiday classics, and then some. Hold on tight as you take a tinsel-covered roller coaster ride bursting with laughter, carols, and joy, and prepare to leave with more Holiday spirit than you can carry.
