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Philip Potempa
as Andrew Makepeace Ladd III
Philip joined The Times of NW Indiana and Illinoisin 1995 as a features writer and daily entertainment newspaper columnist. His current column Of Notoriety is also a WJOB podcast. His weekly From the Farm recipe column and other feature stories appear in The Post-Tribune and TheChicago Tribune’s newspaper chain as well as at www.chicagotribune.com. He is author of 3 published books chronicling stories, interviews, recipes and memories from his personal and professional experiences. His third book, “Further From the Farm” (2010 Pediment Press) continued the chronicle of his journalism journey and features favorite celebrated stories from his interviews. He is an adjunct instructor in communication at both Valparaiso University and Purdue University NW. When not lecturing in a classroom or in a theater seat, Philip divides his time between his family’s farm in NW Indiana and his home in Chicago.
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Kate Collins
as Melissa Gardner
KATE COLLINS is the New York Times bestselling author of the Flower Shop Mystery series. An Indiana native, Kate graduated from Purdue University with a master's degree in education. She taught elementary school for six years. Kate sold her first historical romantic suspense novel in 1995. Seven romance novels later, she switched to her true love, mysteries. The Flower Shop Mystery series was named The Best Continuing Cozy Mystery Series for 2013 by popular online review site Escape with Dollycas. In 2016, "Mums the Word," which was released in 2004, aired as a made-for-TV movie on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries cable network starring Brooke Shields as Abby Knight. The book series is set in Valparaiso, but it's renamed as the fictional town of New Chapel. The second movie in the book-to-film series, "Snipped in the Bud" aired in April 2016 with Shields once again portraying heroine Abby, the law-school drop-out turned floral designer and would-be detective.
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Jeffrey Baumgartner
John Barrymore
Jeffrey Baumgartner recently appeared as Mark Rothko in RED and John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet at The Dunes Summer Theatre. Jeffrey also recently appeared as Richard Hollander in the world premiere of The Book of Joseph at Chicago Shakespeare as well as The Three Musketeers, King John, Short Shakespeare! Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew. He played in The Comedy of Errors, King Lear, Oedipus Complex at The Goodman Theater and in Steppenwolf's Theatre's production of Cherry Orchard. Regional credits include: The Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C.; Denver Center Theater Company; Theater Squared in Arkansas (Scrooge in A Christmas Carol); Milwaukee’s Shakespeare Theater, andRenaissance Theater Works. Baumgartner founded and ran Chicago 's The Borealis Theater Company for 15 years, and its annual summer Fox Valley Shakespeare Festival. From Fort Wayne, Indiana, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting at the National Theater Conservatory.