Meet the Board

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The Board of Geek Parties of the Grand Valley is a working board. Each of our seven members not only holds decision making authority in the organization, but functions as a laborer in nearly every event. They build sets, move equipment, cover for exhausted co-members, draft emails, distribute marketing materials, perform, direct, and all around handy-everything. The primary duty is to show up, and they all have ended up on stage.

Heather L Nicholson, Executive Director of GPGV, has always been a geek about many things, and she helped found GPGV to do geeky things with other geeks. She has been performing off and on through most of her life, and through GPGV, she has written, adapted, produced, directed, and acted in 20+ productions over the last decade including works from Shakespeare, Poe, Jane Austen, and others. She reads a ton of books, knits, sews, sometimes writes, tries to teach high school students literature and composition, and she likes to be a potato at home with her family.

Ann Hartter, Executive Director of GPGV, is accidentally a theater person, but she’s definitely a Shakespeare, literature, costumes, entertainment, party person. Her Bachelor's was in Literature, her Master's in Organizational Leadership, and she uses both these every day as a volunteer in leadership positions in this and several other nonprofits. 

She reads nonfiction, writes speculative fiction, and plays with Nerf, typewriters, and Oxford commas. She edits, draws, makes, knits, listens, volunteers, and many other verbs. She can often be found wearing a cloak, or carrying a stash of bubbles or puzzles. 

She reminds you to drink lots of water.

David Kenworthy, Executive Director of Theatre for GPGV, has been involved in the Performing Arts for nearly 4 decades. He has been performing in the Grand Valley for over 20 years, starting in 2002, when he was brought in as a professional actor for the Cabaret Dinner Theatre. David has worked with GPGV for several years, starting with the Poe Project in 2016. 

This year marks his leap into Theatre Management, and is looking forward to an exciting season. Favorite past roles include the Scarecrow and the Tin Man (different productions) in The Wizard of Oz, George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe, Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and countless others (resume available upon request.) He dedicates every show to his two favorite productions, William and Alexander.

Cas Hartter has been participating in Geek Parties since it's inception, with all types of behind the scenes work for longer than he's been on the board. He loves both the theater and party sides of Geeks, and can't wait to have more of both for you all to enjoy! He spends a lot of time reading, writing, drawing, and roleplaying, both online and tabletop. You can usually find him involved in creating a new fantasy world, or thinking about the implications of someone else's.

Kristian Hartter has acted in two plays, Geek Parties production of Much Ado About Nothing--his favorite Shakespeare work--and the first Midsummer Night's Dream. He conducted the seminal Evening with Poe in his home, preparing the dinner, the precursor to GPGV's involvement in Poe Project. He blacksmiths props for productions, and he does a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. He attends every show and most of the meetups and parties--for fun, not just because he has to.

Kaelyn Astra will submit their bio when they have time.

Bronwyn Wynter was elected to the board 2/2025 as Historian of Geek Parties.

Disclaimer: Ann has compiled all these bios from individual playbills, with some editing.