Insha Iqbal is ecstatic to be directing Shakespeare exactly the way the Bard intended! Her recent credits include directing Vernal Roost (FronteraFest, TUBU Fest) and 26 Miles (Different Stages), dramaturgy for Summer Underground (The VORTEX) and The Happiness Gym (The VORTEX), and stage managing The Man From Earth (Bottle Alley Theatre). She is a VORTEX company member. She would like to thank this wonderful cast for trusting her on the roller coaster! Strap in, you’re in for one hell of a ride!

Lilly Percifield can be found around Austin performing in new plays, devised works, and an ever-increasing amount of barely-rehearsed Shakespeare. (Not this one, we actually rehearsed this one a lot). She recently performed her debut solo show, The Talk, right here at The VORTEX, where she is also a company member. She has a degree in both Theatre and English from Southwestern University (Shakespeare nerd alert!) and if she’s not on stage, she’s rolling nat 1s on her D&D podcast, Gals & Goblins.

Campbell hopes that everyone who reads this will immediately go buy a drink from the bar. When she isn’t onstage, Campbell can be found sewing costumes, posting on social media, or scream laughing into a microphone on her podcast, Gals & Goblins. Now go buy that drink, champ, you deserve it.

Ritika Bhattacharjee plays piano, sings, and writes music professionally and also not-professionally. She has worked on numerous short films, sound designed for an evening-length ballet, and scored a video game. She has been commissioned as composer by choirs around the country, and has been mentored by Jon Castelli (Billie Eilish, SZA) as a mixing engineer. She also waves her arms professionally, sometimes, and has conducted an orchestra playing her original video game music for SXSW 2025. When she’s not doing music, she’s probably procrastinating on her assignments for her masters degree (Berklee College of Music in Boston), bothering her two roommates (both are cats), and/or finding a new audio gear purchase she shouldn’t make.

Paisley Blair (b. 2000, Tulsa, OK) has a degree in Drawing & Painting. They have a background in dance and some theater, and are pleased to be back on a stage. After many years spent in the introspective and often individual realm of making paintings, it has been refreshing and highly rewarding to work with friends as a team towards a shared goal, and to contribute to the performance as well as the visual identity of the show. You can find their visual art and more at @technoreliquary 😼

And they said girls with brown hair and bangs can’t stage manage Shakespeare shows. Well, look at me now! Jessika’s recent stage management credits include Self Portraits V (Bottle Alley), Trash Planet (Bottle Alley), and Aurora (Bottle Alley). She has also been known to act, as seen in Bottle Alley’s “The Man from Earth” as Linda. Jessika would like to thank her fiancé, Wyatt, for constantly supporting and loving her and for providing profile photos for the entire cast. She would also like to thank Gobsmacked for the incredible opportunity.

Oskar Brian is one of those funny guys you meet and say, "Hey, I think I'll keep him". He is also an Actor, Stage Manager, Puppeteer, and Queer Theater Maker. He is a VORTEX Company Member, and thrilled to work with GOBSMACKED again. His latest shows were Gals & Goblins Live as a Jester, Stage Managing for Man of the People with Different Stages, The E(XMAS)IST with Grackle Jack Productions, and for Malum Malus Burlesque. He is a graduate of Southwestern University with emphasis in Dramaturgy, Performance, and Studio Art. He's hoping that the gin makes him evil, but we'll have to wait and see...

Dane Parker is a U.S. Navy Veteran and EMT, meaning he is authorized to perform CPR on himself after he destroys his own liver for “Art”. Dane graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southwestern University (’22), proving he is smart enough to memorize lines, but foolish enough to do it while downing shots. Recent Credits: Swordfighting Macbeth as MACDUFF (Mary Moody Northen Theatre) Seducing Verona as ROMEO (Austin Shakespeare) Sleuthing in Baskerville as DR. WATSON (Texarts) Getting dramatic in LIPSTICK as MAL (Austin Rainbow Theatre) Taking Small Steps as SKIP POWERS (Shrewd Productions) and Rolling dice as the BLADES IN THE DARK STORYTELLER (Gals & Goblins). He is a company member at The Vortex and Shrewd Productions and hopes to soon discover why the rum is always gone.

This is Olivia's fourth production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and she hopes to do at least four more before she dies. She gets up to many things in the Austin theatre scene including performing, hair & makeup designing, and directing. Her performance credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Half Baked Shakes), Mutt-Cracker (The Vortex), Stage Performer & Fighter (Sherwood Forest Faire), Villian! (The Hideout), She Kills Monsters (Southwestern University), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Druid & Bard). She is also the recipient of B. Iden Payne awards for Puppetry Design (2024) and Hair & Makeup Design (2025). She is a Vortex company member. When you're not watching her leave it all out on the stage, you can catch her behind the mic on the Gals & Goblins podcast.

Hayden Daniel Cox is thrilled to join the cast of Midsummer and put his acting AND drinking skills to the test. You may have seen him as Hanscen in UT Theater and Dance’s Spring Awakening, and can look forward to his movie Party People coming out this year! Take pains, be perfect, adieu.