AN ILIAD

Richard Beird is an award-winning actor, director and producer.  He is artistic director and co-founder of NEW FORTUNE THEATRE COMPANY in San Diego, CA. He served as Associate Artistic Director of Southwest Shakespeare Company. He is the Founding Artistic Director of POOR PLAYERS THEATRE COMPANY which produced over 20 productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries’ work. Select Acting credits include: The Old Globe (The Doll’s House), Portland Center Stage (Midsummer Night’s Dream), New Fortune Theatre Company (Dr. Thomas Stockmann), Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (Cyrano de Bergerac and The Madness of King George), Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Winter’s Tale, Cyrano de Bergerac, Two Gentlemen of Verona) ect. Richard played several roles for Poor Players including the title roles of Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Iago and many more.  San Diego Critics Circle awards for Angelo in Measure for Measure, title role of Henry V and director of Henry V. He has appeared in 51 productions of Shakespeare. KPBS and San Diego Playbill awards for his performance as Shylock in Merchant of Venice and the title role of Macbeth.

Dmitry Prokofiev, cello, obtained his bachelor’s (2003) and master’s degree (2005) at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Professor Natalia Gutman. He is a prize winner of significant international competitions, such as the A. Tansman Competition (Poland), the P. I. Tchaikovsky Competition (Russia), and the A. Janigro Competition (Croatia). Since 2000, Dmitry Prokofiev has served as the Soloist of the Moscow Virtuosos State Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov. Since 2008, he has been engaged at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and since 2016 at the Music Academy of the University of Montenegro. He is Principal Cello of the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Artistic Director of the Ars Industria Non-Governmental Organization. As a soloist, he has performed in numerous prestigious halls, as well as at many renowned festivals, including the Vladimir Ashkenazy Festival (Finland), the Oleg Kagan Memorial in Kreuth (Germany), the Moscow Autmn Festival, and KotorArt, among others. Dmitry Prokofiev has performed in chamber ensembles with Vladimir Spivakov, Natalia Gutman, Nikolai Lugansky, Jessye Norman, Jean Guillou, Ilya Gringolts, Eliso Virsaladze, and others. He recorded his first CD at the age of 16 with Aleksey Nasedkin, Professor of the Moscow Conservatory, and in 2004 recorded with Alexander Kobrin, featuring music by Debussy, Brahms, Schumann, and Paganini.