We have a stable of CRAFTSBURY FUNNERY collaborating artists:
PETER GOULD is our founder. He has directed ninety-nine youth theatre productions. He keeps "Get Thee to the Funnery" alive, goes for the funding, and pulls together the concept and the crew of campers and directors every year. Peter is always ready to explain Shakespeare's metaphors, and the most outrageous, even bawdy, jokes. "I'm not making this up; it's right here in the text!" he'll tell you with a smile.
Peter's Young Adult novel, WRITE NAKED, published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, won the National Green Earth Book Award for its ecological content. He was the Vermont Arts Council 2016 Arts Educator of the Year. Long ago, Peter was the performing partner of Stephen Stearns in "Gould & Stearns," a physical comedy/political theater duet with more than 3000 shows under their belts. Peter's latest, HORSE- DRAWN YOGURT, (Green Writers Press) is a book of true stories about his years on the back-to-the-land commune, Total Loss Farm.
You can listen to him read his book on Audible or on your other favorite spoken book platform.
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At the age of 13, CHARLOTTE THORNLEY found her voice at the Center of the Universe (the Funnery!). She’s played many parts over the years – among them actor, intern, and collaborating artist. She finished her acting training in France during the pandemic of '20 and '21. Away from the Funnery, Charlotte works as an early childhood educator at Turtle Island in Montpelier.
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BROOK GENTRY started doing Shakespeare with Peter in 2014 on the snowy, windy Vermont/Canadian border. Since then, she has been a Funnery fixture! Brook acted in high school, and stage managed in college. Brook helps Peter keep the Funnery humming internationally throughout the year with her social media and graphic design and spreadsheet skills. Wait, is that Brook walking on the shore of Lake Superior in L'Anse, deep in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, her new home? But still, but still, two weeks every summer in the NEK.
SOPHIE LYON is from Massachusetts, but has made the journey up to the Funnery every summer since 2013. With roots in comedy and improv, Sophie has played a range of characters at The Funnery and beyond. Sophie's most notable achievements include learning to JUGGLE in two Funnery weeks, while playing the fool in Twelfth Night. When we're all together in the fresh air of Vermont, Sophie keeps our political theory on track. For example, back in 2020, Sophie got us to confront the glaring contradictions in Portia's "Quality of Mercy" speech.
DORAN HAMM is a theater performer and teacher who has worked with Peter in southern Vermont since 1999. He honed his Shakespeare and comedy skills on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and at Brattleboro's famed New England Youth Theatre. Dory is a massage therapist and a year-round children's theater director! Since 2021, he has poured his energy into the Northeast Kingdom Funnery—and performing all over with the Vermont Suitcase Company.
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ROSA PALMERI is an artist, theater teacher, and labor organizer, living in NYC but often escaping the city and jumping on Amtrak to come to Vermont. She is also a paralegal at the National Lawyers Guild. She has her Masters in Acting from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and is a proud Union Member. Way back in the day, Rosa took the two-womanTwelfth Night, which Peter conceived of and directed, all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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Hailing from the hills of Hardwick, Vermont, MARIANA CONSIDINE performed with the
Funnery for five summers before joining the collaborating staff in 2021. She is a double major recent graduate in music and theater at Mount Holyoke College and the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. She has recently worked in costume design and construction for the Hazen Union Drama Club, St. Michael's Playhouse, and at U-32 High School for Peter's May 2026 production of Juliet and Romeo. Mariana can't wait to see you at camp!
Funnery for five summers before joining the collaborating staff in 2021. She is a double major recent graduate in music and theater at Mount Holyoke College and the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. She has recently worked in costume design and construction for the Hazen Union Drama Club, St. Michael's Playhouse, and at U-32 High School for Peter's May 2026 production of Juliet and Romeo. Mariana can't wait to see you at camp!
DUCKY migrated to us from Castleton, Vermont, after working for ten years at the Governor's Institute on the Arts. As METAPHOR DUCK, he quacks to alert us to language that needs to be noticed. In his super-hero avatar, the "DUCK OF DOOM" is the number-one disciplinarian at the Funnery. Ducky missed one entire season after he was accidentally locked in a suitcase at the New England Youth Theatre (after performing at the Edinburgh Festival). Ducky had important supporting roles in Treasure Island and Robin Hood at NEYT, where, after sustaining a serious archery injury, his health and life expectancy improved with the hiring and training of a stunt-double Ducky. In 2023, after years of searching, Ducky was reunited with his birth mother in Brattleboro, Vermont.
We owe a lot to folks who have supported us for many years—the Vermont Community Foundation, Concept2,
the Monteverdi Artists Collaborative, Sterling College, Vermont Humanities, Vermont Arts Council, the Pleasants Fund, the Craftsbury Community Fund, the Green Mountain Fund, the Northeast Kingdom Fund, Highland Center for the Arts, and lots of faithful anonymous friends who love their Shakespeare, Funnery style.
the Monteverdi Artists Collaborative, Sterling College, Vermont Humanities, Vermont Arts Council, the Pleasants Fund, the Craftsbury Community Fund, the Green Mountain Fund, the Northeast Kingdom Fund, Highland Center for the Arts, and lots of faithful anonymous friends who love their Shakespeare, Funnery style.
