Shay, Michele

PERSONAL

Education: Carnegie Mellon University, B.F.A., acting; studied acting, voice, dialects, and writing.

Addresses:

Agent—The Geddes Agency, 8430 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 200, West Hollywood, CA 90069.

Career:

Actress. Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts, Richmond, VA, guest artist. Coach and acting instructor and worked in stress relief programs for teachers and students. Member of the theatre board for the National Endowment for the Arts, member of arts counsels in New York and New Jersey, and affiliated with the Princess Grace Foundation.

Member:

Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Equity Association, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Awards, Honors:

Obie Award, Village Voice, 1981, for Meetings; Drama Desk Award nomination (with others), outstanding ensemble acting, 1988, for The Day Room; Outer Critics Circle Award (with others), outstanding ensemble performance, and Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best featured actress in a play, both 1996, and Image Award, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, all for Seven Guitars; L.A. Weekly Award (with others), production of the year, for The Task.

CREDITS

Stage Appearances:

Vain woman, A Ballet behind the Bridge, St. Mark's Playhouse, New York City, 1972.

Clarissa Ferguson, Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1974.

Lyla, In the Deepest Part of Sleep, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1974.

Norma Jean, Heaven and Hell's Agreement, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1974.

Wife and Marigold, Terraces, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1974.

Various characters, including Bathseba, Bunya, angels, and woman at list, The World of Sholom Aleichem, Roundabout Theatre Company, Roundabout Stage, New York City, 1976.

Understudy for the lady in green, lady in purple, and lady in red, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (also known as For Colored Girls), Booth Theatre, New York City, 1976-78.

Michael, A Photograph, New York Shakespeare Festival, Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York City, 1977-78.

Amanita, The Daughters of the Mock, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1978-79.

Cortez, A Season to Unravel, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1979.

Virgilia, Coriolanus, New York Shakespeare Festival, Joseph Papp Public Theater, Anspacher Theater, and Delacorte Theater, New York City, 1979.

Woman two, Home, Negro Ensemble Company, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1979-80, Cort Theatre, New York City, 1980-81, and Theatre Four, New York City, 1981.

Jean, Meetings, Marymount Manhattan Theatre, New York City, 1981.

Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream, New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theater, 1982.

Cassandra, The Greeks, Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, CT, c. 1982.

Alea Johnson, Split Second, Theatre Four, 1984.

Gorgiane, Tamer of Horses, Crossroads Theatre Company, New Brunswick, NJ, 1985.

Title role, La Chunga, INTAR Theatre, New York City, c. 1986.

Nurse Baker and Jolene, The Day Room, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City, 1987-88.

Nora, An American Doll's House, Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, GA, c. 1988.

Jocasta, Oedipus the King, San Jose Repertory, San Jose, CA, c. 1990.

Titania, Midsummer Night's Dream, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Free Theater, Mt. Greylock Regional High School, Williamstown, MA, 1992.

Mama Benin, Playboy of the West Indies, Lincoln Center, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, New York City, 1993.

Louise, Seven Guitars, Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL, 1995, National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Waterford, CT, 1996, and Walter Kerr Theatre, New York City, 1996.

Brenda, The Waiting Room, Vineyard Theatre, New York City, 1996.

Singer, Singer's Boy, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, CA, c. 1997.

Chorus leader, Hecuba, American Conservatory Theater, c. 1998, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, Adams Memorial Theatre, Williamstown, MA, 1998.

House Arrest: An Introgression (also known as House Arrest), Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, c. 1998.

Sophie, Flyin' West, Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, CA, 1999.

Nella Wood, The God Committee, Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, MA, 2004.

Mame Wilks, Radio Golf, Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT, 2005.

Aunt Ester, Gem of the Ocean, American Conservatory Theater, 2006.

Appeared as Rachel Twyman, Common Ground, and as first love, The Task, both Mark Taper Forum; as Cleopatra, Anthony & Cleopatra, Shakespeare & Co.; as Angel, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Denver Center Theatre Company, Denver, CO; as Curley's wife, Of Mice and Men; as Miss Lamama, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, West Coast Ensemble; as Kate, The Taming of the Shrew, Tyrone Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN; and in The Vagina Monologues, Westside Theatre, New York City; also appeared in other productions. Participated at the Sundance Institute Theatre Laboratory.

Major Tours:

Appeared as Louise in a tour of Seven Guitars.

Stage Director:

Wedding Band (also known as Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White), University of Michigan, Trueblood Theatre, Ann Arbor, MI, 1997.

Director of other productions, including Blues for an Alabama Sky and Seven Guitars, both North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC; A Celebration of the Human Spirit through the Arts, Essex County College, NJ; Joe Turner's Come and Gone, CalArts; and The Woman with Orange Hands, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Directed various solo productions in Los Angeles, including Everyday Divas, a solo show by Elisa Perry; Ian Forest, a solo musical production by Tony Moss; and In the Hood with Mrs. Aronovitz, a solo show by Joey Caymen.

Television Appearances; Series:

Henrietta Morgan, Another World (also known as Another World: Bay City), NBC, 1982-84.

Television Appearances; Movies:

Sheila, Skokie (also known as Once They Marched through a Thousand Towns), CBS, 1981.

Dancing in September, HBO, 2001.

Television Appearances; Specials:

Young girl, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, ABC, 1975.

Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream, ABC and Arts and Entertainment, 1982.

Miss Cartwright, "A Different Twist," ABC Weekend Specials, ABC, 1984.

"The Trial of Bernard Goetz," American Playhouse, PBS, 1988.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

"Theresa," Miami Vice (also known as Gold Coast and Miami Unworthiness), NBC, 1987.

Montana Stone, "Badge of Dishonor," Miami Vice (also known as Gold Coast and Miami Unworthiness), NBC, 1988.

Nicole Harmon, "Petanque," The Cosby Show, NBC, 1988.

Nicole Harmon, "Adventures in Babysitting," The Cosby Show, NBC, 1991.

Dr. Susan Forsley, "Genevieve and Fat Boy," Chicago Hope, CBS, 1994.

Court reporter, "The Dance We Do," ER (also known as Emergency Room), NBC, 2000.

Laura Zaccaro, "The Out-of-Towners," Judging Amy, CBS, 2000.

"Love and Money," Family Law, CBS, 2000.

Mrs. Royston, "Dead Again," ER (also known as Emergency Room), NBC, 2002.

Film Appearances:

Virgilia, Coriolanus, 1979.

Beverly Katz, Manhunter (also known as Red Dragon: The Curse of Hannibal Lecter and Red Dragon: The Pursuit of Hannibal Lecter), De Laurentis Entertainment Group, 1986.

Drunk woman, Crooklyn, Universal, 1994.

Aunt Sally, He Got Game, Buena Vista, 1998.

June, One True Thing, Universal, 1998.

O.K. Garage (also known as All Revved Up and Taller OK), New City Releasing, 1998.

Juanita's mother, Never Die Alone, Twentieth-Century-Fox, 2004.

WRITINGS

Writings for the Stage:

Helped develop various solo productions in Los Angeles, including Everyday Divas, a solo show by Elisa Perry; Ian Forest, a solo musical production by Tony Moss; and In the Hood with Mrs. Aronovitz, a solo show by Joey Caymen.