Shrewd Productions presents
FEAST.
by Megan Gogerty
Megan Gogerty - Playwright
Megan Gogerty is a playwright and comedian. Her solo show Lady Macbeth and Her Pal, Megan played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won the Audience Pick of the Fringe at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Her play Bad Panda (Theatre Without Borders, Beijing; Iron Crow Theatre Co.; WordBRIDGE Boomerang Playwright honoree) is published by Original Works Publishing and was translated into Spanish for a five-month run at Del Teatro Milan in Mexico City. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed her solo show Hillary Clinton Got Me Pregnant in their yearly Top Ten Best Plays. Megan’s musical drama Love Jerry was produced in the New York Musical Theatre Festival where it won three Talkin’ Broadway Citations and four NYMF Excellence Awards including Excellence in Writing (Book). Her ten-minute play Rumple Schmumple (Dramatic Pub.) was a Kennedy Center/National ACTF honoree. Megan was a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow, a WordBRIDGE alum, and she earned her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently teaches playwriting at the University of Iowa and is a regularly returning visiting faculty for the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University.
Melissa McKnight - Director/Set and Properties Designer
Melissa McKnight (Director, Scenic and Prop Design) is a Company member of The VORTEX and Ethos Performance Troupe. She has been the Managing Director at The VORTEX since 2013. National: Encore, Eureka. Regional: Globeworks. B. Iden Payne Awards: Vampyress, Wake for the Dark Poet, Sing Muse, The VORTEX Odyssey: Underworld, Sunny Days, and Malum Malus. Austin Critics Table: Baba Yaga in Performance Park, nominated for Direction for FEAST. Directing highlights: Dracula, The Thanksgiving Play, FEAST, and The Mutt-Cracker (SWEET!). Mask and Puppetry Design highlights: Atlantis: A Puppet Opera, The Chimponauts and the Mechanical Phantom, Sarah Silver Hands, Changelings, Sunny Days, Yeoman of the Guard. Writing credits: The Chimponauts and the Mechanical Phantom, :Humpty, Serendipity, Day of the Dog, The Mutt-Cracker (SWEET!), Wizard of dOgZ.
Katherine Catmull - Actor
Katherine Catmull has appeared in over eighty plays and won nine acting B. Iden Payne Awards. Most recently she appeared in Hyde Park Theatre's Witch in 2026, Shrewd Productions' FEAST. in 2025, and in Salvage Vanguard’s Decapitations in fall 2023. Katherine is also the author of two all-ages fantasy novels with Penguin Random House (Summer and Bird, The Radiant Road) and is co-author of a collection of scary short stories with HarperCollins (The Cabinet of Curiosities). Her short play “Right Into the Night Sky” was nominated as a Payne Awards Outstanding Original Script in 2016. Her voice acting has been in heard in numerous anime and video games, including an ongoing role in DC Universe Online. She is a company member and publicity director at Hyde Park Theatre.
Shannon Grounds - Producer
Shannon Grounds is thrilled you decided to FEAST with us! She is the Producing Artistic Director of Shrewd Productions, and a company member of Vortex Repertory and Hyde Park Theatre. Some recent producing credits for Shrewd include FEAST in 2025 (Austin Theatre Critics Award Nomination), the world premiere of Small Steps by Briandaniel Oglesby, Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly, and the interactive play-by-mail Letters from Camp Shrewd. Shannon was seen onstage most recently in Scriptworks Out of Ink: Astronomical, I Wanna Be a F*cking Princess for Ground Floor Theatre (B. Iden Payne and Austin Critics Table Award Winner for Best Small Cast), and Summer and Smoke for Filigree Theatre. Coming up next, Shannon will be playing Miss Scarlett in Clue for Penfold Theatre, and producing Bad Books for Shrewd Productions in November at Hyde Park Theatre.
Valerie Johnson - Stage Manager
Valerie Johnson has been stirring up Austin theater magic since 2017. A proud board member of Ground Floor Theatre, she is passionate about creating bold, thought-provoking work that sparks conversation and brings people together through storytelling. Her recent stage management credits include Yellow Face, I Wanna Be a Fing Princess*, BOX, Pass Over, Twenty-Eight, Bright Mother, Warrior Goddess King, Ordinary Days, and Nora. She also served as Assistant Director for I See You, You’re Seen at VORTEX. When she’s not at the theater, Valerie works in Human Resources, where she enjoys building strong teams and communities. Outside of work, you’ll usually find her spending time with her dog, Eddie, her cat, Pepper, and her wonderfully supportive boyfriend, Jam.
Amy Lewis - Lighting Designer
Amy Lewis holds a BFA from McMurry University in theatre. She's a Vortex Company member. Credits include A War of the Worlds with Penfold Theatre, (B. Iden Payne Award winner for Outstanding Lighting Design) Cabarex 2 and 3 with Proyecto Teatro and Vortex Rep. (B. Iden Payne nominee for Outstanding Lighting Design), Feast with Shrewd Productions (Austin Theatre Critics Awards Nominee) (B. Iden Payne Nominee) and most recently Wakey Wakey and Witch at Hyde Park Theater, and The wolf you feed and Another Kind of Silence Vortex Rep.
Johann Solo - Sound Designer
Johann Solo is an Austin Tx based sound designer/engineer, music producer and actor. He has designed and composed for theater and film in Austin since 2017. His favorite compositions include Clyde’s at Ground Floor Theatre which won a B. Iden Payne award for outstanding sound design, and Sunny Days at The Vortex Theatre.
Johann Solo is also the founder of the Austin based music group YOSO Collective. Along with producing and performing their own music and shows, YOSO aims to support artists in their vision.
Trey Deason - Box Office Manager/Server
Trey Deason is a company member of Shrewd Productions. He is thrilled to return to his role as your maitre 'd for this revival of Feast. Previously For Shrewds, he appeared in Small Steps (B. Iden Payne nomination) by Briandaniel Ogelsby, Jump by Charly Evon Simpson, The Afterparty by Reina Hardy, and in Xmas Unwrapped and Feast Of Fools. Also as a company member of the Vortex, he's appeared in the productions of The Secret Lives of the Inbetweeners (B. Iden Payne Nomination), Lear, Cyberfest, Stars and Barmen (B. Iden Payne Nomination), A Perfect Robot, Privacy Settings: A Promethean Tale, Sunny Days (B. Iden Payne nomination) and in the immersive theatrical experience Performance Park, among many other shows. He has also worked with Austin Jewish Theatre (Fiddler on the Roof), Different Stages (The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? and An Inspector Calls), and Sky Candy (Cosmicomics and The Time Machine). He is also an accomplished playwright having been nominated for the B. Iden Payne Award for Best Original Script for his short play Brownies and his full length Cardigan. He has also contributed many scripts to Scriptworks Out of Ink Festivals in the past including Tammy Sue's Grand Finale and Angelica's Source of Power.
Piper Hawkins - Server/Front of House
Piper Hawkins is a Sophomore in college and is excited to be assisting in her first production for Shrewd Productions. She loves performing on stage, whether it be theatre, choir, or dance. Piper has performed in eleven productions throughout the years and hopes to continue performing through college. When she’s not acting, she enjoys singing, reading, baking, and riding dirt bikes.