Staff & Board

Geddie holds a BFA in Musical Theatre, an MA in Arts Administration, and has performed on stages around the world. He has directed productions such as Once On This Island, Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Fences, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Dreamgirls. Prior to his arrival in Venice, FL, he cruised the world as a Company Manager and Principal Singer for Jean Ann Ryan Productions on Norwegian Cruise Line. His theatre performance credits include Ragtime, Twelfth Night, Race, Intimate Apparel, Falsettos, the premiere of the one-man show Bert Williams, Broadway Star; Angels in America, Dreamgirls and the role of “Judas” in Jesus Christ Superstar.

In addition to Geddie’s duties at Venice Theatre, he serves on the Ambassador Circle for Embracing our Differences; the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Access+ committee for Southeastern Theatre Conference, is the treasurer of the Florida Theatre Conference, the Florida State community theatre representative, and is a Board Member of the Friends of the Venice Public Library, Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative, Squeaky Wheel Theatre Group, and Vice President of the American Association of Community Theatre.

Murray Chase served as Venice Theatre’s Executive Director since 1995. As of June 2023, he is now focused on overseeing the restoration of the theatre after it sustained severe damage from Hurricane Ian.

He has been an active participant — and former board member — of Florida Theatre Conference and Southeastern Theatre Conference. He has served as President of the American Association of Community Theatre, and currently works with the organization as a member of the national Festival Commission. He has been a frequent grant review panelist for both the Florida Arts Council and the Mississippi Arts Commission. Recently he represented the United States as a delegation member to the World Congress of the International Amateur Theatre Association. Under his leadership, Venice Theatre has hosted the international theatre festival, actWORLDFEST, four consecutive times. Chase is also a former chair of the CEC for Sarasota County Arts Council and a former president of Venice MainStreet.

Actor/Director Credits: Besides the daily aspects of his job here, directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, Mary Poppins, Our Town and the award-winning productions of The Pillowman, The School For Wives, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Tartuffe and Fool For Love. He has also played a few roles on the VT stage, including Johnny in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Stuart in the Award-winning Boom Town, and George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? all with wife Lori

Benny Sato Ambush is a veteran professional director, institutional theatre leader, educator, published commentator, and consultant. He has been Artistic Director of TheatreVirginia (Richmond, VA), Oakland Ensemble Theatre (Oakland, CA), and Rites and Reason Theatre Company (Providence, RI). Previously, he was Associate Artistic Director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater; Co-Artistic Director of San Francisco Bay Area Playwrights Festival; PEW Charitable Trust/TCG Director-In-Residence for Manalapan, Florida’s Florida Stage; and Associate Artistic Director of Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard University.

He has directed at numerous professional regional theatres and has taught and directed at many university training programs (partial list): Old Globe Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival-Portland, South Coast Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Geva Theatre, Playwrights Horizon, Ford’s Theatre, Triad Stage, American Repertory Theater Institute, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, Lincoln Center Theater Institute, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, Actors Guild of Lexington, KY, Alaska Theatre of Youth, International Theatre Festival of Chicago, Sacramento Theatre Company, National Black Theatre Festival, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Gloucester Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, TheatreSquared, The Lost Colony, Underground Railway Theater, Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, Circle in the Square Theatre School, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Brooklyn College.

Ambush has a BA in Theatre Arts and Dramatic Literature from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from the University of California, San Diego. In 2020, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.