Doug Kaye:  

Doug Kaye has been with Jeff Watkins and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company since 1986, when they were still setting up a stage at Manuel’s Tavern.  He was the first Bottom in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, and then portrayed the first Launcelot Gobbo and Prince of Aragon in MERCHANT OF VENICE.

He first appeared on the current stage in 1996, playing Stephano in THE TEMPEST and Polonius in HAMLET, and has been a regular part of the company ever since.  Two more productions of MERCHANT followed—one in which he was both the suitor Princes, Aragon and Morocco, as well as the Duke—before he finally got to put his stamp on Shylock, for which he was nominated for a Suzi Bass Award.  Since he’d played Tubal and a couple of smaller parts in previous productions before moving to Atlanta, MERCHANT holds the record for how many different parts he’s played in a single Shakespeare play.

Doug has been featured in character roles in many plays here—ROMEO & JULIET, OTHELLO, JULIUS CAESAR, ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, MACBETH, CYMBELINE, A WINTER’S TALE, AS YOU LIKE IT, TAMING OF THE SHREW, TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, COMEDY OF ERRORS, LOVE’S LABORS LOST, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, TROILUS & CRESSIDA, and all the Histories and Henries between (and including) RICHARD II and RICHARD III.

Audiences have also enjoyed him in many non-Shakespeare plays here as well, including THE FANTASTICKS, THE CRUCIBLE, THE RIVALS, GALILEO, and OF MICE AND MEN, for which he was nominated for a second Suzi Bass Award.  He’d also directed his own translation/adaptation of Aristophanes’ THE FROGS, back in ‘98, and hopes that it will someday find its way back onto the Tavern’s schedule.

Doug has directed and acted with LEND ME AN EAR since it began in 2004—a benefit evening of Old Time Radio, put on by Atlanta’s union talent, which the Tavern plays host to each fall.

Outside of the Tavern, he serves on the Actors Equity Liaison Committee, the local AFTRA board, and as a SAG BookPAL, reading to grade school children every week.  He is a member of the Georgia Production Partnership and serves on the board of the Friends of East Atlanta Library.  He holds theatre degrees from USF (BA) and FSU (MFA) and has been an Atlanta resident since 1975.

He is the author of several short stories and poems, and the co-author of musical comedies based on Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.  He is currently developing a fantasy/mystery involving things Shakespearean with writer Brad Strickland.

And he never forgets, in any bio, to send his love to his wonderful Leslie.

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