Shakespeare & Company Season 2024 Playbill

LENOX, MASS.

Left to Right: Sara Linares, Naire Poole and David Gow.

Photo by Gregory Cherin.

‒ Hamlet

Night’s Dream, 2023.

Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Thanks for being here, folks, truly.

Now with COVID fading farther into the rearview mirror, we celebrate every moment that each of you shows up to participate in the vibrant tradition that is live theater.

We believe that crafting these thought-provoking and entertaining stories and eagerly unfolding them for you is a vibrant reminder of the simple value of being alive. Technology in all its forms is doing its level best to overshadow the fundamental benefits of in-person community. Not so fast, Chuck. You heard it here, theater is here to stay.

Our season opens with A Body of Water by Lee Blessing – a breathless thriller that keeps the audience and the characters more than a little off-kilter. We then bounce into a new turn in the Company’s repertory, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, where Shakespeare meets rock and roll. This exuberant romp is made up of musicians and actors crashing through a mash-up of the Bard’s text and delightful songs.

Two additional Shakespeare plays grace the outdoor Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheatre: The Comedy of Errors directed by Kate Kohler Amory transforms the stage into a seaside, Vaudeville-loving town July through August, then makes way for an enhanced, staged reading of The Winter’s Tale directed by our founder Tina Packer.

Both performances offer a new, pre-show amenity this season as well: food trucks on site for most performances, adding sumptuous flavor to the outdoor picnics we hope you’ll enjoy on our sprawling property. We are thrilled to bring you two World Premieres this season, The Islanders by Carey Crim and Three Tall Persian Women by Awni Abdi-Bahri. Both first appeared here as readings in our Plays in Process series, and we felt they deserved to be fully fleshed out on our stages.

A Regional Premiere, Flight of the Monarch by Jim Frangione, joins this cadre of new works and is presented in association with our friends at the Great Barrington Public Theater. All three initiatives follow our desire to explore new plays, share them with you, and to welcome playwrights from all walks of life to the Berkshires.

These last four years may have presented more questions than answers about the state of the world. Society tends to operate at a fever pitch. Reactionism seems to be the order of the day. How do we make sense of the chaos? Does Shakespeare help us to understand ourselves, the collective self, and each other? Maybe the communal act of sitting down and mutually absorbing a really good story is a balm. We know one thing, we are enormously grateful to you for being here.

Allyn Burrows Artistic Director

“I to the world am lIke a drop of water that In the ocean seeks another drop…”

Dear Friends,

– The Comedy of Errors, Act I, sc. ii

I’m thrilled to welcome you to our 47th Season of theater performance, education, and training at Shakespeare & Company!

Our productions this season are as diverse as they are thought-provoking, exploring the contrast of joy and sadness that comes with family, the strengths and struggles of the individual, and the search we all share for understanding, truth, and connection.

We’ve also added joy, revelry, and a few surprises to the mix for good measure.

Everything we present to you builds on the success of past seasons, and we thank our countless patrons, supporters, volunteers, and friends who’ve helped make this success possible. Without you, we may not have extended our season into March and into Boston, with a successful run of Golda’s Balcony starring the inimitable Annette Miller.

Without you, we could not have expanded our accessible programming, including free and low-cost performances and events held here and within the larger community. We needed you to send the faculty of the Center for Actor Training to so many cities across the country to work with the next generation of great actors, and to mark the Education Program’s 35th year of the Fall Festival of Shakespeare with students from 10 different high schools.

Your support enabled us to honor our founder Tina Packer in fine order at our last annual gala – as we do this year in reverence to our Director of Education Kevin G. Coleman.

These are challenging times for all the arts and for regional theater in particular. Our ability to share stories and support other artists to do the same is more important than ever. By now we have inspired millions of our young people, our emerging artists, our Company Artists, and you, lovers of the arts, with our mission. For four decades we have made Shakespeare accessible to audiences of all sensibilities, and we have opened our audiences to the work of new and diverse playwrights and directors.

I’d love you to be more involved: Please join us as a volunteer, a business partner, an Ambassador, or a member of our Players’ Society or esteemed Board of Trustees. Together, we can play our parts to continue offering Shakespeare, as well as contemporary, current, and socially significant works, and assume an important role in keeping American theater alive and vibrant. Our website has our contact information. There is much to celebrate tonight and this season; and there is still so much to seek. We welcome you on this journey with us, and we look forward to traveling together.

Warmly,

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Beverly Hyman, Chair

Jeffrey B. Konowitch, Vice Chair

Jenifer Salzberg, Vice Chair

Ken Werner, Treasurer

Michael A. Miller, Clerk

Allyn Burrows, Artistic Director

Henry Baker, Trustee / President Volunteeer Company

Sandra Bourgeois, Trustee

Kevin G. Coleman, Founding Trustee

Kelly Galvin, Artist Trustee

Phoebe L. Giddon, Trustee

Michael S. Helfer, Trustee

Anita Heller, Trustee

Karen Kowgios, Trustee

Greg Lipper, Trustee

Barri R. Marks, Trustee

Ricardo Morales, Trustee

Macaire Pace, Trustee

Tina Packer, Founding Trustee

Barry R. Shapiro, Trustee Irina Shifrin, Trustee

Licia Sky, Trustee

David Sorkin, Trustee

Robert B. Strassler, Trustee

John Douglas Thompson, Artist Trustee

Andrew B. Weinberger, Trustee

Gerald Friedman, Trustee Emeritus

AMBASSADORS FOR SHAKESPEARE

Kevin

Helene

Linda

Janet

Audrey

Sonya

Beverly Hyman Chair, Shakespeare & Company Board of Trustees

Dottie

Board Chair Beverly Hyman

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Lee Blessing’s A Body of Water is subtitled A Play in Three Days

It was first produced at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minn. in June 2005, seven years after Blessing wrote A Walk in the Woods. You may have seen our production of that play here at Shakespeare & Company two years ago. Two very different plays, two very different subjects. A Walk in the Woods depicted the developing relationship between two arms limitation negotiators: one Russian, one American. A Body of Water is, to my mind, a psychological thriller, full of mysterious unanswered questions, sprinkled with dark comedy that seems to heighten the sense of isolation when our carefully calibrated lives start to unravel.

At the time of writing, I’m in pre-production meetings with our technical crew and team of set, sound, and costume designers, working from a revised edition published in 2018.

I’ve been chatting to Lee Blessing on the phone recently and he was very encouraging about our use of his new script. Apparently, our upcoming production is only the second production of this revised edition to be produced by a professional theater company.

The setting in the script is a house, high on a hill, surrounded by forests and distant patches of a body of water. As we are performing the play outdoors, I suggested to our design team that we set the play on the exterior deck of this house, rather than the interior.

A highly collaborative rehearsal period started on the 28th of May, with a cast of outstanding actors who are intrigued, as am I, by Lee Blessing’s characters and the rather frightening situations in which they find themselves.

I think we’re all aware of how challenging it is to keep the current barrage of misinformation and conspiracy theories in some sort of check. Critical thinking seems harder to achieve to maintain some sort of balance in our lives. But what if those closest to us drift further and further apart, become unbalanced, maybe even turn out to be people we hardly recognize? Two people, with opposite perceptions and memories of their lives together. What is the reality? As we enter the world of Moss, Avis, and Wren, we go on a roller coaster journey of discovery where nothing is quite what it seems. Many thanks to Allyn Burrows for asking me back for my sixth season at Shakespeare & Company, to the indomitable Tina Packer, and especially this year, to the extraordinary Kevin Coleman and the Education Program, without which so many young people would never have the chance to explore themselves and the skills, craft, camaraderie and sheer magic of live theater. There’s no experience like it.

− James Warwick

by Lee Blessing

Directed by

James Warwick

with Caroline Calkins, Bella Merlin, and Kevin O’Rourke

JUNE 21 – JULY 21

Moss and Avis, a sophisticated and successful couple, wake up one morning in an isolated summer house high above a picturesque body of water. The weather’s fine; the view’s magnificent. There’s only one problem: neither of them can remember who they are. When a young woman named Wren arrives, information starts to flood in. But will it help? Her explanations seem only to make Moss and Avis’ world — as well as ours — more terrifying.

This production is generously sponsored by Natalie and Howard Shawn.

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Rock ‘n’ roll, and its subsequent spinoffs, were the soundtrack of my youth, and therefore my whole life. That may be true for many of you as well. For those of us who grew up as part of Generation Jones (born between 1955-1964), music permeated every moment of every day. If I wasn’t hearing or listening to music, I was thinking about it…saving up to buy the next album by The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Velvet Underground, David Bowie… the list goes on, and The Band played on.

Shakespeare has long been the poet of my life, and like for many of you, he’s been whispering what I’m sure are the keys to the meaning of life in my ear since I was kid. I’m not sure what mashing Shakespeare and rock ‘n’ roll together means – especially songs that are inspired by Shakespeare – but I feel that there are surprising nuggets of discovery to be found in the cross hatching.

Jacob Ming-Trent – like me, another Shakespeare devotee and unlike me, an amazing singer – and I have been batting this cabaret idea around for a while now. We’re so fortunate that these stupendous musicians: Benny Fingers Kohn, Johnny Irion, Conor Meehan, Jim Chetz Keegan, Greg Boover, Jennifer Apple, Jennie Jadow, Jaclyn Stevenson, and others have jumped on board for this journey of the intersection of text and music.

To oversimplify, all of Shakespeare’s canon is about one’s relationship to love, and all the music in the realm we’re working in for this piece follows the same thread. The music reflects on the text, and vice versa.

The world seems to contain so much hatred at the moment. Could it be a collective raw nerve coming out of COVID?

I’m not sure, but I do know that for now I’d like to focus on the loving. Have a good time. Shake it up.

− Allyn Burrows

SHAKE IT UP: A Shakespeare Cabaret

Directed by Allyn Burrows

with Jennifer Apple, Gregory Boover, Johnny Irion, Jennie M. Jadow, Jim Chetz Keegan, Ben Kohn, Raya Malcolm, Merlin McCormick, Conor Meehan, Jacob Ming-Trent, and Jaclyn Stevenson

JULY 2 – 7

A spirited celebration of Shakespeare-influenced music, text, and storytelling for folks new to or steeped in Shakespeare, this limited run takes the stage at the peak of the Berkshires’ summer season. A devised production with some of Berkshire County’s best-known musicians and Shakespeare actors, this musical event makes for a unique gambol through the foibles of love.

If music be the food of love, rock on!

This production is generously sponsored by Steve and Cathy Bader.

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Ladies, Gentlemen, and friends beyond the binary...Welcome to The Vaudeville!

This early Shakespeare play has twin themes to add to the theme of twins. At the heart of the play is a fun, funny, fast, furious farce of mistaken identities and surprising love matches which takes place in the seaside trading town of Ephesus, Ancient Greece (now Turkey). There’s not one but two sets of twins, who are indistinguishable even to themselves, and high-jinks ensue!

This delightful romp is framed by a parallel story of a family ripped apart by tragedy: a fortune made worse by the hatred and intolerance that greets this immigrant family upon their arrival in a foreign land.

Setting this turn of the 16th Century comedic gem at the turn of the 20th Century – vaudeville circa 1910 – I hope to highlight many of the play’s resonances for our own turn of the 21st Century. Vaudeville in America had its heyday for a scant 50 years, and the vibrant, irreverent, virtuosic, and playful acts that characterized vaudeville were seen by people of diverse class, ethnicity, nationality, and most other demographic characteristics (most, as racial demographics were not largely crossed and Black audiences were segregated and Black performers exploited).

The new form was family-friendly, prices were accessible, and there were so many big-time and small-time houses there seemed to be a performance for everyone. Along with many beloved characteristics, vaudeville’s darker side also belies the claim of diversity and acculturation when considering the reality of racial segregation in theaters, and the continuation of blackface minstrel character into entertainment media, including on the vaudeville stages of the day.

Vaudeville was mass entertainment, and it was big business. The vaudeville entrepreneurs were extremely successful at the same principle at work in the Ephesus of The Comedy of Errors, where people, objects, affection and money are ransomed, bought, sold and traded to great comic – and profoundly serious – effect. Coney Island vaudeville was an escape and a destination, where the turmoil of American culture at the turn of the century could be seen through frivolity, farce, and play.

It is a fitting setting for Aegeon, and us, to encounter both the farce and the tragedy of his situation.

by William Shakespeare

Directed by Kate Kohler Amory Associate Director Raphael Massie with Javier David, Emma Geer, David Gow, Rory Hammond, L. James, Madeleine Rose Maggio, Ashley McCauley Moore, Naire Poole, Evan Stevens, Dennis Trainor, Kristofer Wilson, and Sharmarke Yusuf

JULY 13 – AUGUST 18

The Comedy of Errors takes over Shakespeare & Company’s outdoor mainstage this summer! The Bard’s fast-paced and farcical story of mistaken identities begins with two sets of twins separated by a storm at sea, and culminates in a raucous series of misunderstandings and mishaps.

This colorful, fun, and zany production is set in the seaside Vaudeville of New York City, 1912 – a mystical and sometimes strange place filled with as much magic and mischief as sailors and sea captains.

This production is generously sponsored by Scott and Roxanne Bok.

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Preparing my take for The Islanders is not an easy one.

The themes of isolation and emotional repair move us in the direction of facing life’s challenges as we grow older and mature gracefully. But The Islanders is about so much more. It is also about discovery, rebirth, and most of all, change. Dutch and Anna have each come to this remote northern Island for different reasons. They are physical islanders and they have chosen this place to call home, but they are also emotional islanders. The island is their new destination, but it is also the mental place we sometimes go to when we feel cast aside, or no longer fit into what the world defines as normal...or even the new normal.

As Dutch and Anna get to know one another, they slowly share revelations that open them up. They allow themselves to be vulnerable and the results are often humorous as well as heartbreaking. They slowly break through each other’s defenses until they are finally able to start healing their traumatic pasts and move to a new place of recognition and self-identity. When the full truth finally emerges, fears must be overcome, and new life decisions made.

I hope The Islanders provides a blueprint for anyone who may now be questioning their identity and place in a very turbulent world. Is now the time to retreat to an island of contemplation, or to stand tall right where you are, in the face of uncertainty?

− Regge Life

The Islanders World Premiere

by Carey Crim

Directed by Regge Life

with Michelle Mountain and “ranney”

JULY 25 – AUGUST 25

Anna lives an insular life on an underpopulated island in the Great Lakes. She has few friends and likes it that way. Her quiet, controlled world is turned upside down by the arrival of a charming but secretive new neighbor, Dutch. For different reasons, Dutch and Anna have each retreated from mainstream society. Can their connection survive the revelations that must inevitably come with true intimacy?

This production is generously sponsored by Greg Lipper and Kate Kohler Amory.

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Deep in the land of family dysfunction, what is it that drives us to fight for cohesion, what keeps a family from crumbling under the burden of their history? Jim Frangione’s dark and often irreverent comedy, Flight of the Monarch, explores the journey of a brother and sister (well past middle age) as they grapple with the skeletons in their closet, the ravages of time, their desire to divine the future, and their innate drive to nurture the natural world and each other.

Frangione was born and raised on Cape Cod and has set all of his plays there. His affinity for the voices and rhythms of the older, rougher Cape, its colorful neighborhood lore and seafaring people inform the play in a big way. Jim says “The play… touches on themes of loyalty, love and the debunking of revisionist family history some siblings are prone to. There are moments of deep reflection, antipathy, and humor as they navigate the challenges, both physical and cognitive, of growing older and try to ascertain (and exact) the price they owe each other as their lives and their childhood memories clash with reality and each other’s recollections.”

In the JC Penney parking lot, the North Light Mental Health facility, the Sea Queen… 60 miles from shore, right in their own backyard, the siblings ride an emotional roller coaster as they attempt to decode the past, contend with the present and find their way into a future of their own making.

This production of Frangione’s play brings together two Berkshire theater companies, their artists and artistic directors, in a Regional Premiere focused on the care and feeding of this original work. It has been an incredible pleasure to work with Frangione, Great Barrington Public’s Artistic Director, alongside Allyn Burrows, Shakespeare & Company’s Artistic Director.

Allyn plays Thomas Callaghan, a fishing boat captain opposite long-time Shakespeare and Company actor Corinna May as his older sister: “Sheila Callaghan, a gardener and protector of all creatures (and family members), whose migratory return to her home is at the center of the play.” After a reading of the play at the Tina Packer Playhouse in December, we four worked together in developmental workshops this spring, diving deep into the play with Jim, working collaboratively to enable Flight of the Monarch to soar into the work you will see today. Long live new works for the theater!

Flight of the Monarch Regional Premiere

by Jim Frangione

Directed by Judy Braha

with Allyn Burrows and Corinna May AUGUST 3 – 25

Two siblings, Sheila and Thomas, were both born and raised in a small, New England fishing village where they still live. This darkly comic play explores how siblings’ lives are intertwined, what we owe to the people who know and love us best, and how family members’ needs and desires may push the boundaries of what we can be expected to do for others.

This production is generously supported by Shari and Steve Ashman and The Jacob Burns Foundation, and is presented in association with Great Barrington Public Theater.

Miraval Berkshires and Shakespeare & Company are hosting an exclusive thought leader event

AUGUST 9 - 10, 2024

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Shakespeare wrote The Winter’s Tale toward the end of his writing life when he was asking himself the question: how do we get out of the never-ending cycle of revenge?

The answer he was beginning to come up with was to follow the lead of the women, and their creative force! So, in The Winter’s Tale, we see King Leontes destroying his family and friendships through jealous rage. His unfounded suspicions sow seeds of tragedy as his son perishes, his wife endures a harrowing fate, and his daughter is left abandoned on a hillside.

Yet, through the unwavering dedication of the Queen’s steadfast friend, Paulina – who is scorned as a witch by Leontes himself – coupled with the resilience and growth of a daughter raised amidst the nurturing embrace of nature far from the stifling confines of Court life, is illuminated the redemptive and transformative power of love.

Through their relentless pursuit of healing and reconciliation, the scars of the past are finally mended, and a semblance of peace is restored.

Another aspect of the play that makes The Winter’s Tale truly extraordinary is the way in which it blends tragedy and comedy, moving seamlessly from one genre to another. The first half of the play is dark, but in the second half, the play takes a sudden turn when we are introduced to the character of Autolycus, a roguish peddler whose antics provide welcome comic relief.

Indeed, The Winter’s Tale stands as a testament to the enduring relevance and brilliance of Shakespeare’s storytelling, offering profound insights and timeless reflections on the human experience.

This is one of my favorite plays; the psychological analysis is brilliant, and the poetry sublime. Its profound observations about the human experience stand the test of time, continuing to captivate and resonate with audiences across generations.

− Tina Packer

An Enhanced Stage Reading

by

William Shakespeare

Directed by Tina Packer

Assistant Directors Kristen Moriarty and Victoria Rhoades

with Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Jonathan Epstein, Emma Geer, David Gow, L. James, Annette Miller, Susannah Millonzi, Kenneth Ransom, Kristofer Wilson, and Sharmarke Yusuf

AUGUST 21 – 25

The Winter’s Tale is an odyssey through a world where kingdoms collide, betrayal weaves its web, and love battles against all odds. Magic, mystery, and a man-eating bear feature as the story unfolds, examining the consequences of jealousy and the power of forgiveness.

PLAYS in Process

A Celebration of Developing Works

AUGUST

27 – 29

Experience a play in its early stages, when possibilities are endless! Returning for its third year, Plays in Process offers a glimpse into the inner workings of play creation as new works are readied for the stage, featuring lively talkbacks with playwrights and performers accompanying every performance.

Two of Season 2024’s titles – The Islanders by Carey Crim and Three Tall Persian Women by Awni Abdi-Bahri – began in the Plays in Process and now make their World Premieres at Shakespeare & Company.

Reserve Your Experience | 866-284-4848 or contact your Travel Professional. WORLD - CLASS WELLNESS IN THE BERKSHIRES

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

On September 16, 2022, 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Iranian government’s “morality police” for not wearing her hijab, per government standards on how exactly a woman should be covering her hair.

She died soon after, while in the police’s custody, through a stroke caused by blunt force head injuries enacted by the police holding her hostage. Earlier that year in the U.S., the Supreme Court overturned the nearly 50-year-old decision made by Roe v. Wade, turning a woman’s constitutional right to choice into, in the worst case, life imprisonment.

Three Tall Persian Women started as a 10-minute play focusing on three generations of women dealing with the challenges of new technology, assimilating into American culture, and addressing expectations placed on women that transcend borders. After the events of 2022, the questions of the play became clearer: Why must we continue to police women’s bodily autonomy despite the extreme violence it inevitably leads to, and how does this manifest on our American soil?

The women in this play are far from perfect. They’re abrasive and messy but infinitely loving, and they do whatever they need to show they care. Because they have risked so much in their lives, there is no holding back their strong opinions about how exactly to live life to its fullest. We see how societal expectations on women continue to restrain their freedom, even in the safety of their own home – and how being honest instead of staying “peaceful” can help each generation learn valuable lessons from one another.

My own mother’s family left Baghdad, Iraq, when she was 12. With barely a middle school education, my mother was able to build a life for herself here and, eventually, with my father, a beautiful life for me to thrive.

This play is a love letter to immigrant mothers who uprooted their entire lives to move to a country where they could promise safety and freedom to their daughters. How can we uphold this promise for generations to come? Here is to Women, Life, Freedom.

Three Tall Persian Women World Premiere

by Awni Abdi-Bahri

Directed by Dalia Ashurina

with Awni Abdi-Bahri, Afsheen Misaghi, and Pooya Mohseni

AUGUST 30 – OCTOBER 13

Golnar, a punkish Iranian-American millennial, returns home to her mother Nasrin for the anniversary of her father’s passing, and walks into hoards of family memorabilia that her grandmother Mamani has moved in with her. This comedic and touching play is about generational differences, grief, control, and learning to let go; but more than anything, it’s a love story to immigrant mothers.

− Dalia Ashurina

DIRECTOR’S TAKE

Four years ago, come December, there were actors scattered all over the Elayne P. Bernstein Production Center. There was one in the lobby, another in the green room, two others in two different studios, one in the hall, and one back at her home in New Jersey. Kate Hamill had generously offered Shakespeare & Company the opportunity to do a staged and costumed reading of her brand-new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma as our annual holiday reading, and with COVID devastating the world and the theater, this was the only way we could do it. The actors could see and hear one another via Zoom, and each had a costume and their own mini-set that captured some of the spirit of the time and place. But as for the magic of chemistry between actors and audience, between actors breathing the same air – no.

So, it’s been a dearly held wish of mine to revisit this lovely story, but face-to-face, not through a dark Zoom. This is our chance to do that. Like most of Austen’s work, it’s a story of delicacy, of manners, of intimacy, in a way of the stability of English country life, written in the face of an England which was undergoing all kinds of stress and upheaval at home and abroad.

It is unusual among Austen’s novels in that there’s really one protagonist – Emma herself, direct and undoubtedly a little too self-confident. She’s bright, independent, witty, and really cares about her friends’ welfare. By looking after them – and making many mistakes as she does so – she manages to grow into her own adult self.

It has inspired a lot of other stories, or parts of stories: Clueless and Bridget Jones’ Diary come to mind. Kate Hamill’s inventive, fastpaced, and affectionate retelling captures the comedy and charm of Austen’s novel.

− Ariel Bock

A Lively, Costumed Reading

by Kate Hamill

Directed by Ariel Bock

Based on the novel by Jane Austen

DECEMBER

13 – 15

Emma Woodhouse prides herself on being a matchmaker with an impeccable track record, much to the chagrin of her dear friend Mr. Knightley. Her latest scheme revolves around the sweet Harriet Smith, whom Emma advises to reject a perfectly good marriage proposal in favor of another eligible bachelor. But her best-laid plans are turned upside down by unpredictable displays of affection, unexpected rivals, and Emma’s sudden realization that true love may have been under her nose all along.

SUMMER & FALL EDUCATION PERFORMANCES

Riotous Youth

Outdoors at the Rose Footprint Theatre

Performances of Shakespeare’s GREATEST HITS !

10 am (ages 7–9); 11 am (ages 10–12); 12 pm (ages 13–15)

Twelfth Night

Friday, July 12

Henry V

Friday, July 26

Love’s Labor’s Lost

Friday, August 9

Julius Caesar

Friday, August 16

11 am (ages 7–12)

Riotous Company

Final Performance

Outdoors at the Rose Footprint Theatre

Friday, August 16

12 pm (ages 14–17)

The 36th Fall Festival of Shakespeare at the Tina Packer Playhouse

Thursday, November 21 – Sunday, November 24

the educatIon program at shakespeare & company

One of the most extensive theater-in-education programs in the Northeast, Shakespeare & Company reaches more than 40,000 students and teachers each year with socially responsive, educationally enriching, and theatricallycompelling performances, workshops, and residencies. The Education Program has an international reputation for its work with elementary through college-aged students, teachers, and teaching artists. These programs include the Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare; our Riotous Youth theater program; Professional Development; the flagship Fall Festival of Shakespeare, and more. Visit shakespeare.org/education for more information, or scan the QR code!

Education programming is generously sponsored by

the heart of the matter: a conversatIon wIth kevIn g. coleman

by Jeremy D. Goodwin

Shakespeare & Company’s Celebratory Gala 2024 is a tribute and giant thank you to Company Founder and Director of Education Kevin G. Coleman — and everyone behind Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program.

Kevin’s life’s work has been developing a systematic approach to arts education that is as unusual as it is successful. Putting full trust in kids to inspire themselves through the power of language within a supportive, creative community, the Company’s education programs offer students the words of Shakespeare as a vehicle to look for themselves and perhaps find each other.

Popping outside his office for a few minutes one busy afternoon this spring, Kevin reflected on the breadth of the education program’s work and the power of its play.

Q: Is there something all of the Shakespeare & Company Education Program have in common?

A: There’s an operating system that remains constant. Whether it’s the tour, the Fall Festival, the middle school residencies, Riotous Youth, Shakespeare & Young Company or professional development — there’s a consistent operating system that runs in the background.

It’s articulating two things. First, the overall aesthetic, which is Elizabethan and Renaissance theater, which is different from contemporary theater. Then, it’s the overall ethic.

Q. What’s the heart of that?

A: It’s how we behave. How we communicate. How we treat people. How we work with students of different ages and different learning styles.

For instance, we immediately call the parents anytime we do a project with their students, just to say, “Your child is in this program and we love working with them.” Then if some sort of issue comes up, they already have a relationship with us and they’re confident in our care for their kids. In all my years as a parent, I’ve never had a coach call me and say, “I’m really glad your kid is on our team.”

I’ve never had a coach end a practice on time. We end rehearsal on time. We leave the space better than how we found it. We work in collaboration with the administration and we’re very candid. We don’t keep secrets and we don’t take sides. That’s our ethic.

Q: So, are the methodologies basically locked in?

A: Oh, they continue to grow all the time. Right now, we’re learning a lot about gender identity and how to work with students who are struggling with this. We’re learning how to skillfully support and invite more diversity into all our programs. We’re always spending a lot of time teaching and training ourselves and learning to be more sensitive and how to make wise decisions.

Kevin G. Coleman

Photo by Ava G. Lindemaier.

Photo by Eran Zelixon.

Q: Is it possible to say which education program you’re proudest of?

A: Oh, which one of your children is your favorite?

It’s thrilling watching the youngest kids on stage really be able to be heard and to be proud of themselves. Watching the high school kids do really sophisticated work and be vulnerable on stage. Doing professional development workshops with drama or English teachers, and watching their heads kind of explode when they learn that they don’t have to have all the answers — that we discover the answers together. That Shakespeare isn’t literature, it’s theater. That’s thrilling.

Q: Has any program evolved in a way that surprised you?

A: Not a specific program, but the overall response from the community. I had a meeting with a principal a while back and the principal said, “I’ll cancel the football program before I cut the Fall Festival of Shakespeare.” I mean, what principal would say that? But athletic programs are great for kids who are athletes. This program is great for kids in any subculture of the school — and we get them from all the subcultures of the school. And they get to work with each other.

The other day, I was going a little fast and I got stopped for speeding. It was a State Trooper. He took my license and walked back to his car. And a few minutes later he came walking back to me and said, “Kevin, just slow down.”

No ticket, no warning, no nothing. Then he turned and walked away and I heard him say, almost under his breath, “You know, that festival’s OK.”

CELEBRATING KEVIN G. COLEMAN & THE EDUCATION PROGRAM

FEASTS FOR CELEBRATIONS

the center for actor traIn Ing

The very heart of Shakespeare & Company is its professional actor training. The Company’s programs are internationally recognized as deeply effective training experiences for artists who aspire to bring their talent, intuition, and selves to a higher level. Originated by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer in collaboration with Kristin Linklater, the Center has evolved for more than 40 years, through the collaboration of specialized teachers in every discipline, and continuous expansion to meet the needs of both the contemporary and classical actor.

The Center for Actor Training offers a wide range of workshops for artists at various stages in their careers, from university students to advanced professionals.

SUMMER & FALL PROGRAMMING

The Winter’s Tale: Rebalance & Redemption

August 3 – 4

Dive deep into the speeches of The Winter’s Tale in this special workshop with Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer and Designated Linklater Voice teacher Normi Noel.

9-day Intensive

August 22 – 31

Designed for mid-career theater professionals who want to reinvigorate their skills through integrated voice, movement, and text work.

Structure of the Verse

September 21 – 22

In this workshop, Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer will guide participants to a greater understanding of the symbiotic nature of form and content embedded in Shakespeare’s language.

Fall 2024 Weekend Intensives

In Select Cities

Held across the country, our Weekend Intensives are open to anyone seeking to deepen their connection with Shakespeare in a digestible but rigorous format.

• Raleigh, N.C. – September 27 – 29

• San Jose, Calif. – October 4 – 6

• Lenox, Mass. – October 25 – 27

• Chicago, Ill. – November 15 – 17

Month-long Intensive Dates Coming Soon

To learn more, visit shakespeare.org/actor-training, or scan the QR code!

A transformational, four-week immersion for theater professionals that delves into voice, movement, text analysis, exploration of the actor/ audience relationship, sonnet and scene work, clown, stage fight, and in-depth discussions about the function of theater and the role of the actor in today’s world.

Photo by Christina Lane.

Photo by Christina Lane.

Photos by Christina Lane.

the denn Is krausn Ick fellowsh Ip fund

The Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund was established in 2018 by Company Founder and long-time Director of Training, the late Dennis Krausnick (1942 – 2018).

One of Dennis’ missions at the end of his life was to establish this fund in order to offer scholarships to artists of the global majority wishing to study with Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training.

Gifts to the Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund help bring Dennis’ mission to life. In an overwhelming outpouring of love and support, more than 1,000 individual donors have contributed to the DKF Fund in his memory, enabling Shakespeare & Company to grant more than $146,000 in scholarships to 128 artists of the global majority over the last six years.

These gifts play a vital role in increasing access to training for a greater number of theater-makers and teaching artists, helping to build a more encompassing and inclusive theater.

scholarshIp spotlIght

KRISTOFER WILSON is a 2023 Summer Shakespeare Intensive alumnus, actor, and poet-playwright with a flair for classical text, dedicated to giving voice to the Black experience and making space for Black voices in classical material. He is currently completing his BFA in Acting at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and trained at Stella Adler Studio of Acting. He is working on a new play about the experience of boyhood and intimacy called BOYS/TALK as well as an adaptation of Euripides’ Electra.

See Kristofer this summer in The Comedy of Errors and The Winter’s Tale!

“The training at Shakespeare & Company is really a training in the revelation of self. Through the intensive, I was able to bridge the gap that is often placed between actor and text which allowed me to explore Shakespeare in a deeper, more truthful way. I gained a new family, a new outlook on the craft, and a stronger foundation in what it means to be an actor. The gratitude I have for the experience is immeasurable.”

–Kristofer Wilson, Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund Recipient

Dennis Krausnick

the ph IlIp heller fund & dIstInguIshed servIce award

A longtime friend to Shakespeare & Company and an occasional spearcarrier (Much Ado About Nothing, 1995), Philip Heller was a highlyrespected real estate attorney in the Town of Lenox and represented us pro bono for 40 years until his passing in 2018.

Phil believed deeply in service to the Berkshire community, and he donated countless hours to its cultural and artistic institutions. His wise counsel and persuasive advocacy were essential to our development into the globally recognized organization that it is today. We are deeply grateful to Phil for his longtime commitment, service, and love of the Company – as well as to his wife Anita Heller, who shares Phil’s joyful spirit. Anita created the Philip Heller Fund and Philip Heller Distinguished Service Award in Phil’s memory in 2019, to be used toward various improvements to Shakespeare & Company’s campus and to recognize a member of the community for extraordinary service to the Company.

For more information or to make a gift to the Philip Heller Fund, call Ute DeFarlo at (413) 637-1199 ext. 180, or email udefarlo@shakespeare.org.

PHILIP HELLER DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD PAST RECIPIENTS

Sarah Lytle, Richmond, Mass. Bob Lohbauer, Lee, Mass.^

Scott Rubinow, Durham, N.C.^

Mary Ann Turney, Otis, Mass. Ken Werner, Lenox, Mass. ^ Deceased

support shakespeare & company

“Thy Friendship Makes us Fresh!” – Henry VI, Part I

Patrons, performers, parents, and friends: since 1978, you’ve supported Shakespeare & Company in its mission to offer world-class productions, life-changing education programs, and inspiring training opportunities. In thanks, we are pleased to offer a variety of benefits designed to bring those who contribute to our future even closer to the work of today, including invitations to special events, early-access to season tickets, complimentary behind-the-scenes tours, and more.

To make a contribution, please visit shakespeare.org/donate or mail a check to:

Shakespeare & Company

Attn. Development

70 Kemble Street

Lenox, MA 01240

For more information on making a gift, including stock or estate planning, email development@shakespeare.org, or call (413) 637-1199 ext. 180.

Philip Heller

sandy BourgeoIs tends to the past, present & future

From walkways lined with native flowers to contemplative spots to sit and think, signs of volunteer Sandra Bourgeois’ efforts to beautify Shakespeare & Company’s theaters and grounds are seen throughout.

In recognition of her years of dedication and a constant eye toward the future, Sandy was honored with the 2023 Philip Heller Award for Distinguished Service, which recognizes members of the community for extraordinary service to the Company.

The award was launched in tandem with the Philip Heller Fund, created to support various campus improvement projects. In recent years, funding has gone toward such initiatives as the creation of an oncampus composting system, renovations to Company housing, and COVID-19 testing supplies that enabled two New York State high schools to participate in the Fall Festival of Shakespeare, among others.

Sandy, a member of Shakespeare & Company’s Board of Trustees and past president of its Volunteer Company, is the sixth and latest recipient of the award established in 2019 by Anita Heller of Lenox, Mass., in memory of her late husband Philip Heller. Heller, a real estate attorney in the Town of Lenox, represented Shakespeare & Company pro bono for 40 years until his passing in 2018.

Sandy has volunteered with the Company since 2011, when she and her partner Sarah Lytle joined the gardening team. She became the first Secretary for the Volunteer Company in 2013, then Vice President, and finally President – a position she held until 2019.

As President, Sandy initiated the Company’s Oral History Archive Project (OHAP), which preserves and highlights countless documents,

images, and recordings from the Company’s 46year history in a readily usable system.

In 2015, Bourgeois helped create Shakespeare & Company’s interactive “Talking Bench,” located at the outdoor Roman Garden Theatre. She raised funds, chose the slab of Berkshire Ash used to make the bench, and organized Company actors including Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer to record readings that are accessible from the bench via a QR code.

In 2017, Sandy became a member of the Company’s Board of Trustees, representing the Volunteer Company. She continues to contribute her time and expertise to the gardening team, the Development department’s planned giving initiatives, the Property Committee, and the annual tag sale fundraiser, which raised more than $4,000 this year – a record intake.

Henry Baker, President of the Volunteer Company, praised Sandy’s diverse set of projects benefiting Shakespeare & Company.

“In the last 12 years, Sandy has shown incredible leadership among the volunteers and dedication to Shakespeare & Company” he said. “I can’t think of a more fitting recipient for the 2023 Heller Award.” 

Left to Right: Anita Heller, 2023 Philip Heller Distinguished Service Award Recipient Sandy Bourgeois and Allyn Burrows.

stay, shop, dIne & explore!

We urge visitors and residents alike to visit the fine establishments that have joined us as Business Sponsors in 2024. These charming hotels, top-rated restaurants, eclectic shops, one-of-a-kind attractions, and professional services not only support Shakespeare & Company, but also contribute to the thriving, cultural community that defines the Berkshires as one of the premiere cultural destinations in the world. With so many great perks and events to attend, your staff and special guests will enjoy a cornucopia of fun and excitement all season-long!

51 Park Restaurant & Tavern

A.W. Confections

Actors’ Shakespeare Project

Adams Community Bank

Allison Crane Interiors

Alta Restaurant & Wine Bar

Annie Selke Companies

Antimony Craft Brewery + Kitchen

Appetito Pizza & Gelato

Arcadian Shop

Asia-Teak

Bard College at Simon's Rock

Barrington Brewery & Restaurant

Barrington Stage Company

Bella Flora

Berkshire Botanical Garden

Berkshire Classic Leather & Silver

Berkshire Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery Center

Berkshire Eagle

Berkshire Food Co-op Market

Berkshire Health Systems

Berkshire International Film Festival

Berkshire Jewish Film Festival

Berkshire Money Management

Berkshire Mountain Distillers

Berkshire Museum

Berkshire Music School

Berkshire Physical Therapy & Wellness

Berkshire Pride

Berkshire Property Agents Real Estate

Berkshire South Regional Community Center

Berkshire Theatre Group

Betty's Pizza Shack

Bidwell House Museum, The Blue Q

Blue Spark Financial

The Bookstore

Bousquet Mountain

Brava Wine Bar

The Brook Farm Inn

Café Triskele European Bistro

Campo de’ Fiori

Canyon Ranch

Carrie Haddad Gallery

Casablanca

Casablanca South

Cello

Central Square Theatre

The Chatham Bookstore

Chester Common Table

Chester Theatre Company

Chesterwood

Child's + Clark Gallery

Chocolate Springs Café

Clark + Green, Inc. Architecture Design

Classical Tents & Party Rentals

Cohen + White Associates

Considine Leary & Arnold LLP, Attorneys at Law

Crissey Farm Berkshire Banquet House

Dare Bottleshop & Provisions

Decumanus Green

Design Menagerie

Devonfield Inn

Douglas James Rose Attorney & Counsellor at Law

Edward Acker Photography

Five Roots Florals & Events

Fluff Alpaca

Frankie's Ristorante Italiano

Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio

Gateways Inn & Restaurant

GB9

Gifted Child, The Glimmerglass Festival

Great Barrington

Bagel Company & Deli

Great Barrington Public Theater

Gregory Cherin Photography

Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

Guido's Fresh Marketplace

H. Terry Designs

Haddad Auto Group

Hampton Terrace Bed & Breakfast

Haven Café & Bakery

Heller & Robbins, Attorneys at Law

Hill-Engineers Architects, Planners, Inc.

Homefarm at Undermountain

Ilana Leah LLC

Inn at Stockbridge, The

J.H. Maxymillian, Inc.

Jacob's Pillow

Kent's Vacuum Center

Kimball Farms Life Care

Retirement Community

Kushi & Company, PC

The Lake House of the Berkshires

Lauren Clark Fine Art

Laurie Donovan Designs

The Lenox Chamber of Commerce

Lenox Coffee

Lenox Family Chiropractic

Lenox Fit

Loeb's Foodtown

Mac-Hayden Theatre

MacKimmie Co.

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

MASS MoCA

Meadow Farm Equipment

Miraval Berkshires

The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home

NBT Bank

Nejaime's Wine Cellars

Norman Rockwell Museum

October Mountain Financial Advisors

Ombra

One Mercantile

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)

The Pack Shack Dog Day Care

Pignatelli Electric Contractors

Pizzeria Boema

Pookstyle

Proprietor's Lodge

Proprietor's Lodge

Purple Plume

QualPrint

Red Lion Inn, The Red Mannequin

Renaissance Investment Group

Riverbrook Residence

Roam: An Xtina Parks Gallery

Rob Alberti Event Services

Roberts & Associates Realty, Inc.

Roots Holistic Wellness

Scarafoni Financial Group

Second Life Books, Inc.

Shear Design

Shooz

SoCo Creamery

Stone House Properties

SWTRZ

Toole Insurance

Villa Amonoka

WAM Theatre

Ward's Nursery & Garden Center

Warm Ewe, The

WHDD Robin Hood Radio

Williams & Sons Stockbridge Country Store

Williamstown Theatre Festival

Windy Hill Farm

Wingate LTD.

Yankee Inn, The Zinc Bistro & Bar

INTERESTED IN BECOMING A BUSINESS SPONSOR? WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?

Complimentary show tickets, Annual VIP party, special invitations and more! Promote your business in our Season Playbill and digitally on our website! Rates starting at just $425 for the entire Season. Contact Director of Sponsorships Elizabeth Aspenlieder at aspenlieder@shakespeare.org, or by phone at (413)

new BusIness sponsor spotlIght

ROAM: A Xtina Parks Gallery

ROAM is not just one of Williamstown’s newest art galleries; nor just the name of owner and photographer Xtina Parks’ new book.

Rather, “it is a powerful statement that resonates with the urgency of protecting our planet’s most vulnerable species,” Xtina says. “It serves as a constant reminder of the intricate web of life and the shared responsibility we all bear in safeguarding our natural heritage for future generations.”

Shakespeare & Company is happy to welcome ROAM: A Xtina Parks Gallery of Williamstown, Mass., as one of several new businesses who’ve joined our growing Business Sponsor family this

season. The gallery allows visitors to experience the soul-stirring magic of African wildlife through photographer Xtina’s lens, and to embark on an unforgettable journey through the untamed splendor of Africa’s wilderness.

An esteemed photographer, filmmaker, conservationist, and the visionary founder of ROAM: A Xtina Parks Gallery, Xtina’s love affair with Africa began in 2010, and over the course of 13 extraordinary years, she embarked on countless expeditions throughout the African Continent. Her exceptional skill in capturing the raw emotions and untamed beauty of nature through her lens shines brilliantly in every page of her photography collection in “ROAM.”

The Gallery and storefront, located at 16 Water Street, serves as a retail space with one-of-a-kind African artwork, jewelry, homewares, and more, sourced from Morocco to South Africa. The gallery serves as an exhibition space for Xtina’s own art, and her work is also on display at the Morning Star Gallery in Santa Fe; Hotel Barriere Fouquet’s in New York City; Hyatt House LAX in Los Angeles; Sawela Lodge in Kenya, and Motlhala Tau Lodge in Botswana. 

Learn more at roamgallery.photo!

“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks.” – Twelfth Night, Act III, sc. iii

NEWBIES! A special shout out

to our newest Business Sponsors who have joined our merry band at Shakespeare & Company this season – including

Edward Acker Photography • Antimony Brewing • Appetito • Asia-Teak

Bella Flora • Berkshire Money Management • The Chatham Bookstore

Chesterwood, Childs + Clark Gallery • DARE Bottleshop & Provisions

Five Roots Florals & Events • The Inn at Stockbridge • Ilana Mele

Miraval Berkshires • NBT Bank • OLLI • Pookstyle • Roam A Xtina Parks Gallery Roots Holistic Wellness • The Warm Ewe • Wingate Ltd.

talks & tours

Shakespeare & Company is offering a full summer of walks and talks this year with the Behind the Curtain lecture series and Merry Wanderers’ Guided Tours! Each session is listed below; visit shakespeare.org to reserve your spot.

BEHIND THE Curtain

Led by Shakespearean scholar Ann Berman, Behind the Curtain talks feature directors, cast members, and designteam members who explore the various themes of Season 2024 productions. Behind the Curtain talks are held on select Saturdays at 10:30 am through August

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

• June 22: “Shakespeare & Music” with guest Allyn Burrows, director / deviser

• July 13: The Comedy of Errors with Kate Kohler Amory, director

• July 27: “Flight of the Monarch / Penning New Plays” with guest Jim Frangione, playwright

• August 10: The Winter’s Tale with guest Tina Packer, director (and Founding Artistic Director)

• August 24: Three Tall Persian Women with a guest from the project

merry wanderers’ guIded tours

Shakespeare & Company’s General Manager Steve Ball and his canine companion, Willie, lead weekly walking tours on Thursday mornings at 10:30 am in July and August . These two-hour experiences offer a firsthand look into what it takes to make theater happen, from the page to the stage. Merry Wanderers’ Guided Tours are held July 11 through August 28. Tickets are $15 or $8 for students.

Willie the Dog

Merry Wanderers' Guided Tour. Photo by Eran Zelixon.

Behind the Curtain talk.

actor and comedIan “RANNEY” shares the gIst of the Bucket lIst

by Jaclyn C. Stevenson

Shakespeare & Company Artist “ranney” has a very specific set of goals to meet this year.

His carefully curated “Bucket List 24” includes launching a one-man show, writing a stand-up headliner set, and playing Luke in James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner among many others. The checking-off of items is well underway; “ranney” is working on two of his top bucketlist items, and has already completed three.

“I even got two in one week,” he reports.

A multi-faceted creative force, “ranney” has returned for his fourth season at Shakespeare & Company to feature in The Islanders by Carey Crim alongside Michelle Mountain. It’s his latest role in a technicolored career highlighted by near-countless appearances in August Wilson works – including as Troy in Shakespeare & Company’s award-winning production of Fences in 2023 – a headlining spot at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and a particularly intriguing stint as a judge at Disney Hollywood Studios’ American Idol Experience.

“It was just like the Idol stage, but cleaner and larger,” he remembers. “And there weren’t ’Golden Tickets,’ there were ’Dream Tickets’ that let winners try out for the big show at any audition in the country. So, those were very coveted; singers would come from all over the country for those tickets.”

It wasn’t always sunshine and Ryan Seacrest for “ranney” though; he recalls a time when he wasn’t so sure what his future held, or what direction he’d take to get there.

“Something I talk about often is how I took a hiatus from the stage between 2007 and 2012,” he says, recalling an interview he watched with Sir Anthony Hopkins that stuck with him. “He said it took a while to come to a place where he only did projects he cared about. It sounds simple, but it’s not.

“I sat on that idea for a long time,” he adds, “and I came back, but with a different perspective of what this all is for me; what performing arts means to me. I learned I’m most passionate about great storytelling and great writing, and in the last 15 years or so I have felt blessed and grateful to experience that through the work that I do.”

Indeed, he said the decision to return to Shakespeare & Company was fueled largely by a desire to dive into the script, to work with Director Regge Life again (following their turn

in Lolita Chakrabarti’s Hymn in 2022), and to rejoin a team of creatives he said he’s come to admire and respect.

“It’s a very interesting season, and this particular production has me excited to reunite with Regge,” he says. “He’s hyper-brilliant, and Carey Crim’s script is excellent. There are great pop-culture references that remind me of a Nancy Myers film, like Something’s Gotta Give. Unapologetic, adult, and not overly serious.

“I love working with people who are also passionate about the craft,” he continues. “Every time I’ve come to Shakespeare & Company, the casts and crews have made me feel like I want to work here and help foster a creative environment.”

“ranney” says he’ll continue to chip away at Bucket List 24, and that further wishes await in years to come. As an actor and proud Wilsonian, he aims to finish Wilson’s Century Cycle of plays; it’s not an unattainable goal with only King Hedley II and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone left to go. And as for his comedic pursuits, he’s a self-described armchair historian of comedy with hopes of applying lessons he’s learned to future performances.

“My first comedy special would be killer,” he says, noting that the breadth of opportunities he’s chasing isn’t lost on him.

“To be an artist at this time in the world is a privilege. I tell people every once in a while: it gets hectic, but it’s what I wanted. This is what I asked for.” 

rememBerIng ralph

lee: mask-maker, parade-founder, land shark-creator

Shakespeare & Company is home to many original masks created by Ralph Lee – one of New York’s most celebrated puppeteers, mask designers, and a legend in Saturday Night Live lore.

Lee passed away at his home in Manhattan on May 12, 2023 at the age of 87, calling new attention to his vast collection of creative work.

He was widely known for the famous Land Shark costume, worn by Chevy Chase as he “devoured” Saturday Night Live cast members in the 1970s. He also originated the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, an enduring tradition that featured both his masks and giant puppets. As an actor, he appeared on Broadway and off-Broadway, and as an Artistic Director, he directed and designed dramatizations of myths, folk tales, and legends from around the world. He championed accessibility in performance by staging works in public places, often free of charge.

Costume Designer Kiki Smith remembers Lee, whose contributions to Shakespeare & Company began more than 40 years ago. He designed an array of masks that have since been featured and adapted in many subsequent productions, including the 2023 main-stage production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Northeast Regional Tour of Romeo and Juliet the same year.

“In looking at these masks close-up, I can still see typical Ralph Lee,” said Smith. “Beautiful curves. Elegant, graceful designs. Details. Little air holes around the eye sockets here… And the gilding has such dimension and care that only Ralph Lee could do.

“He just knew theatricality,” she added. “He knew what needed to happen for an actor to make the mask elemental and powerful, better than anybody else I’ll ever know. So I’m so sad to lose him, and very grateful I had the chance to work with him.” 

For a better look at masks by Ralph Lee, scan the QR code to watch a video featuring works that are part of Shakespeare & Company’s collection.

1984 production of Romeo & Juliet using Ralph Lee masks.

Ralph Lee masks. Photo by Eran Zelixon.

When Action is Eloquence

BY BELLA MERLIN AND TINA PACKER

Shakespeare & Company: When Action Is Eloquence is the first comprehensive insight into this internationally acclaimed company founded in 1978 in Lenox, Massachusetts, by actor-director Tina Packer and voice pioneer Kristin Linklater, with the transformative power of Shakespeare’s language at its heart.

Actors, directors, students, educators, scholars and theatre-lovers alike will find practical acting strategies, inspirational approaches to theatre making and lively insights into the sustaining of a unique and robust theatre company that has been thriving for over forty years.

more information visit: www.routledge.com/9780367262556

Tina Packer Bella Merlin

the sword and the stone: celeBratIng the dedIcatIon of the arthur s. waldsteIn amph Itheatre

Last season, a large, engraved stone was placed at the entrance of our 540-seat, open-air, terraced amphitheater. A private rededication ceremony was held with live music, champagne, and touching speeches to commemorate the occasion.

It was a fitting tribute to the man whose name that stone carries, as well as a sign of change. The venue once known as The New Spruce Theatre will now entertain under a new name, the Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheatre – already affectionately known as The Arthur.

Arthur Waldstein made his living first as a lawyer and later as an award-winning actor, lending his support to Shakespeare & Company in myriad ways. Perhaps his most long-lasting contribution, however, was assisting with the complex real-estate transaction – and ultimately favorable purchase – of our current home here at 70 Kemble Street.

Former Board of Trustees President Michael Miller remembers him as a true renaissance man who used his talents to help others, champion the arts, and make a positive community impact.

“Arthur was my closest and dearest friend,” Mike remembered. “He was an unequivocally brilliant real estate attorney, but what I remember most about Arthur is that he was a sweet man, a person who loved theater, and a giving and loving friend.”

After his unexpected passing in 2022, Arthur’s friends and family donated more than $450,000 to Shakespeare & Company to fund both

maintenance of and improvements to the amphitheater and its towering spruce trees, thus creating a space of honor for him in a place he helped create.

Now seen by many as the Crown Jewel of the campus, the stage was originally conceived by Artistic Director Allyn Burrows in 2016. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that a large, outdoor venue became necessary for the public to attend performances, but The Arthur – née The New Spruce – was the first space to welcome patrons back to Shakespeare & Company in 2021, with a production of King Lear featuring Christopher Lloyd in the title role. This season, it hosts Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and The Winter’s Tale “This theater was born of necessity meeting creativity in uncertain times,” Allyn said. “It has proven to be a very special space and we’re honored to be able to name it for a very special individual. We will continue to hold Arthur in our hearts and minds every time we convene in this venue.”

Arthur S. Waldstein

Left to Right: MaConnia Chesser, David Bertoldi, Christopher Lloyd, and Jasmine Cheri Rush, King Lear, 2021. Photo by Nile Scott Studios

the stratford cIrcle –a gIft of a lIfetIme

“When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” – Sonnet 18

Making a legacy gift is a meaningful way to help Shakespeare & Company continue to provide innovative, diverse, and sustainable Performance, Training, and Education programming to audiences, artists, and communities for generations to come.

We hope you will consider including Shakespeare & Company in your estate plans by becoming a member of The Stratford Circle. Your legacy gift will provide much-needed financial assistance to Shakespeare & Company, while potentially offering tax and financial benefits to you.

As we continue to grow and make a difference throughout the Berkshire community and in countless lives around the world, your very special gift will leave an indelible mark on the Company’s health, stability, and longevity.

To learn more about joining The Stratford Circle, please call the Development Department at (413) 6371199 ext. 180, or email to development@shakespeare.org.

We express our heartfelt gratitude to the following supporters who have included Shakespeare & Company in their estate plans:

• Anonymous Donor

• Carol Anderson

• Jerry Berko^

• Elayne P. Bernstein Schwartz^

• Sandy Bourgeois and Sarah Lytle

• Shera Cohen

• Carol Braun

• Claire Cox^

• Gretchen DeKalb

• Ruth Dinerman

• Hans R. Fehlmann^

• Stuart M. Fichman, Esq.

• Katharine Goodland

• Robert D. Gorden^

• Howard Kaufman^

• Jeff Konowitch

• Dennis Krausnick^

• Greg Lipper

• Lucille McCabe^

• Robert B. Neff^

• Tina Packer

• Richard Russell

• Linda Sambel^

• Marilyn Thompson^

• Nancy^ and Michael Vale^

• Dr. Raymond Vale

^ deceased

Tina Packer. Photo by Shannon DeCelle.

thank

you for your support!

Shakespeare & Company gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following individuals, foundations, businesses, and government agencies whose annual support is essential to our programs. Individual donors who contribute $1,500 and above are members of the Players’ Society, our leadership gift society. Through their generous philanthropy, leadership, and service, these donors exhibit a deep commitment to the organization.

PLAYERS’ SOCIETY

$50,000+

Honie^ and Jerry^ Berko

The Bok Family Foundation

GKV Foundation

Sarah Hancock

Hearst Foundations

Karen A. Kowgios and Robert Fried

Greg Lipper and Kate Kohler Amory

Massachusetts Cultural Council

Michael A. and Annette Miller

Keanu Reeves

Stephen Robert and Pilar C. Robert Jenifer and Mark Salzberg

Trauma Research Foundation, Inc.

$25,000-49,999

Arts Midwest

The Elayne P. Bernstein Family

The Feigenbaum Foundation

Michael and Ricki Helfer

Bev Hyman and Larry Birnbach

Jeffrey Konowitch and Wendy Laurin

Krupp Family Foundation

Macaire Pace and Charles Owen

Claudia Perles and Gerry Fultz

Suzanne Priebatsch

Deborah and Bill Ryan

Barry and Marjorie Shapiro/ Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation

Natalie and Howard Shawn

The Shubert Foundation

Toni and Robert Strassler

Rhea and Ken Werner

$10,000-24,999

Anonymous

Helene Berger

Jody Bourgeois

Diana de Vegh

Susan and Richard Grausman

Harold Grinspoon and Diane Troderman

Barbara and Amos Hostetter

The Janey Fund Charitable Trust

Lisa and Tim Kent

Peter and Candy LaPlante

Barri Marks and Woody Exley

K. Ann McDonald

Mill Town Foundaton

Emily J. Rechnitz Philanthropic Fund

Amy and David Sorkin

Theatrical Fund of the Lotta Crabtree Trust

Andrea Waldstein

Paul V. Walsh and Jennifer S. Walsh

Andrew B. Weinberger and Meredith Sue Willis

$5,000–9,999

Anonymous

Deborah and Alan Annex

Shari and Steve Ashman

Steve and Cathy Bader

Paul Clark and Carol Parrish

David and Jane Cohen

The Helen Matchett Demario Foundation, Inc.

Linda and Michael Frieze

Dr. Thomas M. Fynan and Mr. William F. Loutrel

Dr. Donald and Phoebe L. Giddon

Jane Gilbert

Rosalind Gorin and Dr. Matthew Budd

Anita F. Heller*

Donald Hicken+

David M. Kozak

Brooke Owen Thomas

Kathleen Rogers and Rick Teller

Lawrence Rosenthal

Susan and Robert Schechter

David Schwartz and Nan Thompson

Lynne Sebastian and George Klemp

Shakespeare & Volunteer Company

Stone Soup Fund

Reid and Laird White

Junior Winokur and Craig Vickers

Rose Zoltek-Jick

$2,500–4,999

Anonymous

Louis Alexander

Hillel and Liliana Bachrach

Rosalie M. Bandyopadhyay

Nancy and Mark Belsky

Vicki Bonnington and David Schecker

Judy and Tim Boomer

Sandy Bourgeois and Sarah Lytle

Patrick J. Buckley

“I can no other answer

make

but

thanks, And thanks; and ever thanks” – Twelfth Night, Act III

Jennifer Kotler Clarke

Mary and Robert Cohen

Jody Dushay and Paul Gompers

Bob and Debbie First

Stephen Graves and Caroline Marten-Ellis

Ellen and Scott Hand

The Martin and Judythe Isserlis

Charitable Fund

Leslie and Stephen Jerome

Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan

Family Foundation

The Estate of Howard^ Kaufman

Virginia and Harvey Kimmel

Dominic Kirchner II*

Lenox School Alumni Association, Inc.

Levitt Foundation

The Wesley G. McCain, Noreene Storrie & Malcolm W.S. McCain

Family Fund

Esther Messing

Ann and Donald Morrison

Pittsfield Cultural Council

Olivia Georgia and Stephen Oakes

Edith Pye and Ernest Nieratka+

Kristin Rudrud

Gerald Slavet

Kiki Smith

Steven Somkin and Naomi Spatz

Kevin Truex and Frank Burnes

Leone T. Young

Fareed Zakaria

$1,500–2,499

Anonymous

Timothy Aluise and Amy Friend

Sandra and Eric Berkowitz

Berkshire Taconic

Community Foundation

John Bousa

Jadwiga and Donald Brown

Joan and Robert Buccino

William Cavanagh and Ricki Gardner

Wolfe Coleman and Elliot LaPlante

Mary and James Nicoll Cooper

Leslie and Timothy^ Curtis

Claudia Davidoff and Joseph Kahan

Gretchen DeKalb

Paul Deutsch and Kiu Ling Tom

Joanne and Gerald Dreher

Davis Dyer and Janice McCormick

John and Janet Egelhofer

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Nancy Edman Feldman and Mike Chefetz

Dr. Gerald and Roberta^ Friedman

Sallie and Alan Gratch

William and Suzanne Harley

Rebecca M. Hedgecock

Gary Heller and Susan Spero

Jewish Federation of the Berkshires Inc.

Kickstarter, PBC

Jennie and David Jadow

Joan and Paul Kopperl

Maxene Kupperman-Guiñals

Eric Lamoureaux

Nancy Lukitsh

Robert and Jeanne Meister

Jaan and Jacqueline Metsma

Enid Michelman

Deborah Miller and Adam Strickberger

Dr. Peter B. Mudge

David and Natalie Johnsonius Neubert

Northern Berkshire Cultural Council

Mary Ellen O’Connor

Carole Robinson Palermo and Mark Palermo+

Diane and Deval Patrick

Perri Petricca and Michelle Thorpe

Myra Sallet

Mindi Morin Scherff and Max Scherff

Naomi O. Seligman

Arden Seminars

Barbara Serating and Ted Shiffman

Irina and Alexander Shifrin

Springfield Cultural Council

Elizabeth Vale

Marian M. Warden

Paul Wing

Mara and Randy Winn

Janet Wynn and Roger Kubarych

INDIVIDUAL & INSTITUTIONAL DONORS

$1,000–1,499

Anonymous

Elise Abrams

Marcia Aiuvalasit

Bella Merlin and Miles Anderson

Margaret and James Andreassi

Katherine L. Babson, Jr.

Henry Baker and Jerry Arko

Martin Baron

Deborah Benson and Frederic Marx

John Bergman and Laura Ferber Hazen

The Bigger Than A Breadbox Fund

Amy Boyington

Michael and Mary Brabeck

Maggie and Don Buchwald

Linda Cantoni

Christine and Larry Carsman

Robert and Catherine Coakley

Scott and Alison Cooper

Constance and Michael Cunningham

The Jane and William Curran Foundation, Inc.

Chip and Cindy Elitzer

Audrey and Ralph Friedner

Carol and Jim Gilligan

Marlo Hyman and Ken Goldman

Mark Goldstein and Beth Amdur

Liz and Jesse Goodman

Debbie Goodman Davis and Gerry Davis

Mela and Paul Haklisch

Bobbie Hallig

Larry Halperin

Jennifer Hansell

Torrence Harder

Susan Henshaw Jones

William P. Homans

Charles Huisking

Madeline Brandt Jacquet

Martin and Wendy Kaplan

Kerry & Grayson Memorial Fund

Linda Kopec

Charles Leftwich

Andrea and Michael Leven

Paula Stern and Paul London

Joan Lonergan and John Merrow

Barbara A. Mahony

Charles and Debra McCambridge

Martin Messinger

Marybeth and Kevin Mitts

Jerry and Linda Monchik

New Marlborough Cultural Council

Susie Norris

Judy Orlando and Jack Tamagni

Elaine and Fred Panitz

Diane Pearlman

Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli

The Claudio and Penny Pincus Foundation

Lia and Bill Poorvu

Noni Pratt

Ro Family Foundation

Linda Saul-Sena and Mark Sena

David Scudder

The Sholley Foundation

Dr. Eleanor Shore

Rita and Harvey Simon

Dr. Gerald Smetana Charitable Fund

Alison L. Smith

Lauren and Michael Smith

Jeanne and Frank Speizer

Margery and Lewis Steinberg

David H. Strassler

Alison Taunton-Rigby

Sandra Urie and Frank Herron

Jane Weingarten

Jacqueline R. Werner and Richard L. Soffer

Susan and Geoffrey Woglom

Michael Zody

$500–999

Anonymous (2)

Mary and Dan Abbruzzese

Fred Baker and Lisa Powers

Nancy D. Baker

Carol and Robert Braun

Richard Burke

Arthur and Linda Carter

Philippa Claude and Tony Stretton

Jim Cochran and Fran Pilato

Barbara L. Cohen

Linda Benedict Colvin

Paula Consolini and James Mahon

Joe Corso

Kathleen Cortner

Freda Grim and Dan Courchaine

Todd and Jessica Curtis

Ravin and Annette Davidoff

Mike de Windt

Winifred D. Dimock

Eli and Nancy Einbinder

Tom and Ellen Ennis

Tad Evans

Robert and Iris Fanger

Edward R. Feller, MD

Jan Woodward Fox

Ellen Franco Charitable Gift Fund

Bob Fuglestad and Mattie Kelley

Bill Fuller

Tanya and Mark Gailus

Ann and John Galt

Tandy Goldenberg and Leah Sutton

Samuel and Judie Gorovitz

Deborah Grausman

Barbara and Steve Grossman

Laura and Peter Haas

Ruth H. Heespelink

Peter E. Hilton

Peter and Phyllis Hofman

Joan and Jim Hunter

Mary C. Huntington

Janet and John Hutchison

Susan and Glenn Johnson

Laura and Eric Jordahl

Julie and Saskatoon

Phoebe and Herman Karpel Foundation

Heather Coulter Kemp

Irving Kempner

Norman and Alice Klein

Sharlene Konowitch

Dana Gliserman Kopans and Matthew Kopans

Gila and Bruce Kriegel

Steve and Jorie Latham

Lenox Cultural Council

Ira Levy, Lana Masor, and Juliette Freedman

Owen Lewis, MD and Susan Ennis

Hamood Maalik

Ellen and Peter Maggio

Christopher Malcomson and Virginia Bradley

Janis and Alan Menken

Joseph and Sonia Michelson

Kate and Joel Millonzi

Magda and Gus Mininberg

Leah Modigliani

Selina Morris-Grinspoon

Anne and Peter Most

Louisa and William Newlin

Meg O’Connor

Arthur Oliver

Clayton R. Peterson

Irving and Sharon Picard

Letty Pogrebin

Talia Pott

Fran and Don Putnoi

Steve and Greta Rafsky

Victoria Rhoades

Frederick Rich

Laurie and Al Richman

The Philip and Myn Rootberg Foundation

David Rosenthal and Martha Sauer

Lee and Cecilia Sandwen Fund

Jeffrey Savit and Lori Barnet

Elizabeth Schiro and Stephen Bayer

Sheffield Cultural Council

Jamie Shenkman and Chris Magadini

Gayle Merling and James Shields

Roberta Silman

Stanley and Nancy Singer

Christopher B. Sink and Jon A. MacClaren

June Thomas

Carole Smargon and Richard Tibbetts

Lisa C. Townson

Dr. Michael and Debbie Troner+

Harry and Karen J. Waizer, Waizer Walsh Family Fund

Paula Wardynski and Jed Scala

James Warwick

Dorothy Weber

Peter Webster

Harvey Weiss and Susan Horowitz

P. Wiener Family Fund

Walter Williamson

Mr. Stuart M. Wolf and Dr. Bonnie Wolf

Jessie and Bernard Wolfson

Tom Zuk

$250–499

Anonymous (7)

Mary Ackerly and Michael Sconyers

Alford-Egremont Cultural Council

George Bain

Christine W. Baldridge

Barnum Family

George Bergen

Peter Bergman

Kerry Berry Brogen

Robin and Sheldon Birnhak

Ira Brind

Judy Bergman and Dr. Richard Budson

Kate Burdsall

Frances and Peter Buttenheim+

Jerry and MaryLou Cartwright

Seth Cohen and Deborah Spey

Lewis G. Cole

Nomi and Harold Colton-Max

Kristen Corbosiero

L. Berkley and Katharine H. Davis

Allan Dean and Julie Shapiro

Essy S. Dean

Marilyn and Michael Dee

Brenda and Jerome Deener

Ute DeFarlo

Alessandro DeGregori and Sarah Hitchcock-DeGregori

Jacqueline Del Rossi

Samuel Dinnar

Beverly and Christopher Doyle+

Marjorie and Skip Durning

Jack Eiferman and Fern Fisher

Jim Fagin

Nora Fernandez

Nancy and Peter Finn

Christina Floyd

Madalyn and Steve Friedberg

Marilyn Gerhard+

Monique and N. Richard Gershon

Karen Giannelli and John Eckart

Dr. Marc and Suze Goldman

Marjorie Goldstein

David Goldston

Cynthia Good and Alan Pratt

Marilyn and Alan Gordon

Glenn Gorelick

Great Barrington Cultural Council

Mark Grebler and Kathy Grogan

Rob and Wilma Guerette

Jill Hai and Marc Rubenstein

Susan and Kyle Haver

Sonya B. Hamlin

Amy Handelsman

Liz and Ned Hazen

Miles and Penny Herter

Ann and John Higgins

Lisa and Peter Hillman

Daniel and Judith Hoffman

Robert and Clare Holzman

Jeffrey Hughes and Nancy Stauffer

Timothy and Elaine Hurley

Alice J. Isenberg

Kirk James

Gordon and Susan Josephson

Jennifer Joyce

Michelle Joyner and Robert Egan

Barbara and George Kafka

Jane and Joel Kamer Charitable Gift Fund

Alice Kaplan

Lynn Kelley and James Castellan

Ed Keon and Pat Kennelly

Joan G. Kinne

Phyllis Klein

Barbara and Kenneth Kranz

Ellen Krasik

Nathan Kravis

Selina Lamb

Claude Lamedica

Steven E. Lane

Lee Cultural Council

Monica and Robert Lender

Alan and Melanie Levitan

Peter Lieb

Benjamin Liptzin and Liz Schneider

Christopher and Krista Loose

Elissa Caterfino Mandel

Michele and Steven Marantz

The Eldridge Marcus Family

Alissa P. Margulies

Ellen and Michael Martin

Melody Mason

Brendan Mathews and Margaret Keller

Natalie McManus

Alan Miller

Jeff Mitchell and Karen Hobbes

Martin Monas

Alice and Manny Nadelman

Brian Nixon

Paul and Deborah O’Brien

Matthew and Candace Penn

Lisa and Taylor Perron

Sally and Tim Petersen

Ross Peterson

Donna M. Pignatelli

Steve Pittman and Jenifer Handy

Charles Popper

Susan Popper and Robert Greenberg

Janis Porter and Stephen Naber

Julie R. Quain

Rosanne Raneri and Jason Conner

Sanford and Shelley Reback

Michael and Susan Reuben

Richmond Cultural Council

Natasha Rizopoulos and Michael Kirk

Laura Rosenthal

KEY

* denotes contributor to the Philip Heller Fund

The Jeffrey and Karen Ross Charitable Fund

The Safran Charitable Gift Fund

Raquel and Michael Scheck Philanthropic Fund

Richard Schroeder and Dr. Jane Burns

Carol and Marvin Schwartzbard

Elizabeth Selkowitz

Jeff and Karin Sherman

Bernard Silverman

Adrienne Silverstein

Marte and Paul Singerman

M.B. Slaminsky

Meghan and Adam Small

Jeffrey Solomon

Clayton Squire and Marcy Mann

Stockbridge Cultural Council

Abbie M. Strassler

Mollyann Tabachnikov

Sheila and Randy Thunfors

Eric Tucker

Barbara Turner Hart

Dr. Norman and Deborah Turowsky

Tyringham Cultural Council

Mary C. Vassallo

Elsa Vivero and James Sall

Judy Warren and Hal Goldstein

The Wein/Sussman Family Charitable Fund

Audrey Weiner and Jeffrey Solomon

Conna Weiner

Stephen and Linda Weisberg

Muriel Wermuth

Lynda Faye Wertheim

Bob and Karin Wiseman

Wovsaniker Family Fund, Alan and Mark Wovsaniker

David and Patty Wukitsch

+ denotes contributor to the Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund

^ deceased

We are grateful to our many friends whose gifts of under $250 make a difference every year!

Shakespeare & Company is also thankful for the donors who have generously contributed clothing, accessories, shoes, and fabric to our Costume Shop; props and paint to our Prop Shop; furniture for Company housing; and cars to our motor fleet. We also recognize those who have donated food, beverages, or specialized skills.

List reflects donations received April 1, 2023 - March 31, 2024.

If we inadvertently omitted your name or listed it incorrectly, please accept our sincere apologies and contact the Development Office at (413) 637-1199 ext. 180 or development@shakespeare.org

Shakespeare & Company also expresses its sincere gratitude for the invaluable pro bono assistance of the following firms:

Boston Trust & Investment Management Company

Goulston & Storrs, Boston

Heller & Robbins PC Lori A. Robbins, Esq.

Robins, Kaplan, Miller, & Ciresi LLP, Minneapolis and New York

In memory: sean w. coakley

SEAN W. COAKLEY of Lenox, Mass., passed away on March 13, 2023. At an early age, he gravitated to the stage, from telling jokes at Sports School Day Camp to performing in Shakespeare & Company's Riotous Youth program. His love of the Bard continued into high school and the Fall Festival of Shakespeare, with memorable roles in Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Macbeth. 

lauren davIs chosen as the Inaugural women of wIll dIrectIng fellow

Shakespeare & Company is delighted to announce actor, educator, and emerging director Lauren Davis as the inaugural Tina Packer Women of Will Directing Fellow.

Based in Baltimore, Md., Lauren received her Bachelor of Science degree in Drama from Frostburg State University and her MFA in Acting from Catholic University. She is a long-time member of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theater, where she has played such roles as Juliet, Rosalind, the Princess of France, and Bianca, and is also a member of their Black Classical Actors Ensemble for whom she recently directed Macbeth.

The Tina Packer Women of Will Directing Fellowship was established by actor John Douglas Thompson in 2023, to honor Packer and her groundbreaking career as a Shakespearean, theater artist, and theater leader. It is awarded to a female-identifying emerging theater director with a passion for Shakespeare.

An open, nationally-promoted selection process drew candidates from 25 states and four countries. Applications were evaluated by a committee of seven women who have directed Shakespeare on our stages and many others, all of whom have been trained and influenced by Tina: Ariel Bock, Kate Cherry, Kelly Galvin, Rebecca Holderness, Normi Noel, Nicole Ricciardi, and Daniela Varon. Four finalists were selected, and interviewed by Bock, Varon, director Kate Kohler Amory, who directs our summer mainstage production of The Comedy

of Errors, and nationally acclaimed director Dawn Monique Williams, a 2011 Drama League Directing Fellow at Shakespeare & Company.

Lauren will be in residence in Lenox for eight weeks this season. She will serve as Assistant Director to Amory on The Comedy of Errors, and will observe as Packer directs an enhanced reading of The Winter’s Tale. Following her residency, Davis will continue to have access to members of the Fellowship advisory council, including all the directors named here and a few others, for support and networking, and will join them in supporting future Fellows, thus continuing and extending Packer’s legacy of Women of Will.

Lauren Davis

Fall Festival of Shakespeare, Lenox High School presents Macbeth, 2017.

Sean Coakley

dream weddIngs onstage at shakespeare & company

by Eran Zelixon

Erika Johnson and Marcus Kearns always knew they would get married at Shakespeare & Company. They met here in 2013, working backstage, and he first asked her to dinner at the Tina Packer Playhouse. It would be the same stage that, six years later, hosted their wedding ceremony.

“We didn’t consider anywhere else, it was a nobrainer,” Erika, the company’s Production Manager, said. “This place has such love-in-the-air magic to it.”

While hundreds of performances each year speak to the magic of the company’s 33-acre campus, Erika said too few couples get married in theaters. Compared to a more traditional venue like a church or a barn, a theater sets itself apart by its limitless potential.

“If you have a strong vision for what you want your dream wedding to be, getting married in a theater is ideal. It’s a blank slate; you add scenery, props, good lighting, and sound, and completely transform it for the occasion. Whatever you can imagine, you can put it in a theater. That’s the whole point!”

Erika’s own wedding transformed the Tina Packer Playhouse, its lobby, and an outdoor tent into what she called “an immersive fairy garden, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but in the fall.” Flowers festooned every corner, along with handmade lanterns, leaves, and other pieces drawn from the Company’s extensive props storage. In the dressing rooms with their glamorous, golden-lit mirrors, the suits and dresses were hung on costume racks. Erika said her aunt still raves about that theatrical flair. Being theater people themselves, Erika and Marcus – a

To learn more about the wide range of event and studio spaces available for weddings, workshops, meetings, retreats, and other special events, visit shakespeare.org/rentals, or contact General Manager Steve Ball at steve@shakespeare.org.

Company and Education Artist with Shakespeare & Company, among other roles – had excellent help. They had friends volunteer to run lights and sound. Another friend acted as a stage manager, getting everyone in place when it was time to walk down the aisle. Marcus built the wedding arbor in the Company’s scene shop, and Erika spent the days leading up to the wedding decorating. They rented an apartment on campus for the entire week.

Today, Erika is a core part of the team helping other couples plan their weddings at Shakespeare & Company, including one set for Fall 2024. She helps coordinate the indoor and outdoor theatrical spaces, catering, tables, chairs, tents, fire pits, and professional stage lighting and sound. Those who wish to take a more DIY approach, building or hanging things up themselves, are welcome to –the Company can also supply creative professionals as needed. Having achieved her own dream wedding, Erika is confident in the many different directions that the next ones will take.

“I don’t feel this inclination to help them mimic my vision or what I did. It keeps surprising and delighting me how spaces like the playhouse and the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, which I’ve been working in for a decade and care so much about, can adapt to a completely different event and be just as beautiful.” The memories need not stop at the altar. As Erika put it, “Watching a show at the Tina Packer Playhouse is never going to be the same because, whatever is playing now, I’ll always remember, ‘Hey, that’s where I married my husband.’”

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golda’s Balcony dIscovers new relevance through the power of educatIon

Twenty-two years after its premiere at Shakespeare & Company, Golda’s Balcony by William Gibson seemed newly relevant during its sold-out run in the Berkshires last summer, when discussions about Israel typically centered around Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform.

Following Hamas’ October 7 attack and the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, Golda’s Balcony made another timely resurgence this winter at Boston’s Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre at the Emerson Paramount Center. Annette Miller returned to portray Golda Meir — a role she originated in 2002, earning the Elliot Norton Award and an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for Outstanding Actor in a Solo Performance. The production’s original director, Daniel Gidron, also returned.

The play begins on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, with Meir confronting her choices and reflecting on the formation of the state. In a new director’s note, Gidron wrote that since October 7, Meir’s lines in the play “became so much more ominous… And Golda’s last word, ’Shalom,’ is what is most needed now.”

To address the possibilities and challenges of ‘Shalom,’ this latest production staged several matinees exclusively for school groups in the Boston area. These allowed more than 300 students to see the performance, engage with Miller and Gidron during post-show discussions, and to collectively discuss key questions from a study guide devised to contextualize the events of the play.

The production also featured a guest speaker series, bringing influential academics, rabbis, business leaders, and other luminaries from Boston’s Jewish community into conversation. In one talkback, Dr. Marla Brettschneider, professor of Political Theory with a joint appointment in Politics and Feminist Studies at the University of New Hampshire, joined Miller and Gidron to discuss the power of theater as a tool for bringing history to life. In another, Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, brought his expertise in American Jewish history to bear on the current divisions within American Jewry, with regard to the Israeli response in Gaza. In the final talkback on Saturday, March 9, Miller and Gidron were joined by Rabbi Marc Baker, president and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP), to discuss the struggles that come with having power. Although Golda’s Balcony already has its place in theater history as the longest-running one-woman show ever on Broadway, its latest production cemented its place not only in history, but in ongoing conversation.

Left to Right: Allyn Burrows; Annette Miller, Daniel Gidron, and Consul General of Israel to New England Meron Reuben

rememBerIng davId smIth’s commItment to culture & commun Ity

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” – Julius Caesar Act II, sc. ii

Over the last three decades, David Smith personified an ardent commitment and passion that allowed Shakespeare & Company to stay the course, and to survive the trials and tribulations of running a theater in both pre and post-pandemic worlds. As a dear friend, staunch supporter of the Company, and a dedicated member of our Board of Trustees for more than 20 years, David championed all of our programs, all the while keeping his eye on our growth and financial health. With his beloved wife Ranny Cooper, he attended countless performances and events, offering support and a warm smile to the actors and staff.

“David was an integral part of our Board, and a man who walked the walk and talked the talk,” said Trustee Michael A. Miller. “A member of our board’s finance committee, David always brought valuable insights and expertise on the growth, security and development of the property. He was always proud to be a Shakespeare & Company board member, and, together with Ranny, sponsored several productions over the years. We are very saddened by his loss and will miss his feisty spirit.”

Born in Boston, David grew up in Amherst, N.H. He attended Tufts University and earned a Master's from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. David led a distinguished career in the fields of public policy, macroeconomics, and governance, serving as the Chief Economist of the House Financial Services Committee for the 111th and 112th United States Congresses during which he helped shepherd the passage of the first Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act in 2010.

“One of the first — and best — things I did on becoming Chair of the House Financial Services Committee was to ask my old friend and colleague, David Smith, to become the Committee's Chief Economist,” recalled Barney Frank, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. “David was invaluable in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. Fourteen years after its passage, the DoddFrank Act is widely recognized as having made our financial system safer and stronger without diminishing its ability to perform its economic function. Much of the credit for this belongs to

David Smith. His tremendous contribution to the House Financial Services Committee was invaluable and we resonate today.

“We have lost a steadfast friend and champion of Shakespeare & Company,” added Artistic Director Allyn Burrows.“Always smiling with pleasure and pride, he would occasionally say with a twinkle in his eye that while he enjoyed watching immensely, he didn’t entirely understand what he had watched and could it be explained. He is deeply missed by us all.”

“For the last 30 years, Shakespeare & Company was a central focus of Dad’s time in the Berkshires — year-round for Board matters and long-term planning — but in the summers he gloried in every opportunity to be on campus,” said daughter Jessica Smith Lane. “Performances, of course, but also the pre- and post-show gatherings with the actors, staff and Board, as well as the staged readings, the Galas, the Wild & Whirling Words with the younger

Education Artists — Dad attended them all with the pleasure of an ardent patron.

“Shakespeare & Company provided the latent penchant for the theatrical arts that was Dad’s by right of birth. Our grandfather was very active in community theater, our Aunt Joyce, Dad’s sister, was a stage manager for Equity productions in the 1970s and 1980s, and we both participated in school dramatics at every chance. However, Dad did not succumb to the lure of the footlights and the Green Room until Tina Packer and Mike Miller corralled him to join the Board, which is when his casual attendance at performances started to become a full-time passion. By nature, by nurture, as a senior aide to mayors, senators and congressmen, as a father, Dad’s persona was always very controlled, very certain, and not particularly demonstrative. We want to thank the Company for providing Dad a venue wherein he allowed himself to openly express his passions."

“David Smith was a unique voice in our midst,” said Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer. “If there was something uncomfortable that needed to be said David would say it — and no matter how cross we were with him in the moment, he never walked

away, he would always work to find a solution. For more than two decades he helped us build Shakespeare & Company, a steady presence in our midst. We are deeply grateful for the part David played in our lives and support of Shakespeare & Company and the arts. We miss him, but he will always have a place in our hearts.” 

by Jay Sefton and Mark Basquill

all that glItters: celeBratIng an award-wInn Ing season

Last season – our 46th – boasted sold-out productions, performances by well-known actors including Karen Allen, Christopher Lloyd, and Finn Wittrock, and a World Premiere in Donald Margulies’ Lunar Eclipse. While the completion of a successful season is reward enough, Shakespeare & Company earned additional accolades from BroadwayWorld and the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association, including two of the awards’ most coveted trophies.

The BroadwayWorld Berkshires Awards, which recognize theater companies in the Berkshires, New York State, and West Springfield, named our outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Allyn Burrows Best Play earlier this year. Company Artist Sara Linares, who played the role of Helena in the same production, earned the Best Supporting Performer in a Play Award.

Similarly, the Berkshire Theater Critics Association Awards – also known as The Berkies – recognized plays produced from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023 staged in theaters across Berkshire County, the Pioneer Valley, Southern Vermont, Northern Connecticut, and Eastern New York State, including the Capital District and the Catskills. At a ceremony held in Pittsfield, Mass., Ariel Bock earned the Outstanding Director of a Play award for her direction of Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, while Brian D. Coats took home the Berkie Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Gabriel in August Wilson’s Fences.

Fences, directed by Christopher V. Edwards and featuring Ella Joyce, “ranney”, Brian D. Coats, L. James, JāQuan Malik Jones, Ashley McCauley Moore, and Kenneth Ransom, went on to take the top spot of the evening: the Outstanding Production of a Play Award. 

Left to Right: David Gow and Zoya Martin, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, 2023. Photo by Oskar Ahlstrom.

Left to Right: Reed Birney and Karen Allen, Lunar Eclipse, 2023. Photo by Maggie Hall.

Sara Linares, A Midsummer Night’s Dream , 2023.

Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Left to Right: Kenneth Ransom, Brian D. Coats, Ella Joyce, L. James, "ranney", Ashley McCauley Moore, and JāQuan Malik Jones, August Wilson’s Fences, 2023. Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Dr. Mae C. Jemison, American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut

Dr. Ellen Ochoa, American Astronaut

the costume shop adds a new wrInkle to Its recyclIng program

In December of last year, Costume Shop Manager Michelle Hathaway watched gleefully as a big, green bin was installed at Shakespeare & Company. Holding a bag of old clothes, she couldn’t wait to use it.

The delivery arrived from New Hampshire-based Apparel Impact, a textile recovery service designed to help communities more easily recycle clothing, footwear, bedding, curtains, and other fabrics year-round. Apparel Impact provides, empties, and services the bins at no cost to organizations across the Northeast, and has received particular attention of late in Massachusetts – where the disposal of textiles was banned in 2022.

It’s also the latest addition to the Costume Shop’s existing recycling efforts, building on its existing policy to accept clothing donations year-round.

“In the theater industry, if it’s made of fabric or it will fit on somebody, we can probably find a way to use it,” she said.

The Costume Shop must create vivid pieces that reflect and cohere to any time and place, real or fantastical, and these creations often include bits and pieces that once lived another life. Pick apart any costume on stage, and you may see the remnant of someone’s bedsheet, a time-worn sweater, or a wedding dress.

“We make use of as many items as we can in our costumes,” Michelle said, “but we can’t use everything.”

Until recently, pieces unusable by the Costume Shop were sent to a spot on campus where anyone

once putting an entire rack of jackets into the free bin, and having them disappear in a week. Whatever was left unclaimed in the free bin would eventually be thrown out. Now, through Apparel Impact, these items can be moved to the bin and redistributed to underserved areas across New England; reused through collaborations with clothing graders; upcycled through clothing recyclers who create new items, or downcycled into industrial wiping rags, insulation, carpet, and more. Community members are welcome to recycle their textiles via the Apparel Impact bin, however Michelle urged patrons and friends alike to continue donating directly to the Costume Shop. “If you want to donate, which we love, bring it to the Costume Shop first. We’ll go through it and pull out what we can use, and then redistribute the rest through Apparel Impact.”

The Apparel Impact bin is located outdoors at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on the Shakespeare & Company campus. For more information on making donations to the Costume Shop, contact Michelle Hathaway at (413) 637-1199 ext. 376, or costumes@shakespeare.org. 

To hear more from Michelle Hathaway, scan the QR code to view a video interview!

Costume Shop Manager Michelle Hathaway with her dog Bear. Photo by Eran Zelixon.

Costume Shop Manager Michelle Hathaway Photo by Eran Zelixon.

Left to Right: Sara Linares, David Gow and Naire Poole, 2024.

Photo by Gregory Cherin.

volunteer wIth us!

Shakespeare & Company Volunteers are truly the stars of the show – as well as of the gardens, the Gift Shop, guest services, and beyond.

The Volunteer Company supports Shakespeare & Company year-round, and touches thousands of lives from audiences to youth groups to actors-in-training. Plus, Volunteer Company members enjoy several benefits in thanks for their service, including free ticket vouchers to performances and special programs. Recently, we asked several volunteers to tell us what has made their time at Shakespeare & Company special. Here’s what they had to say:

“I need to be busy because I was a teacher for 33 years! I love the arts, so I first signed up to do ushering. Then I decided I wanted to work in the Gift Shop, and I’ve done some backstage tours as well. There is nothing here that you don’t want to do because everyone is really, really friendly, and very, very helpful, and it’s a casual atmosphere.” – MaryAnn

“One of our favorite things to do is the Fall Festival of Shakespeare with the kids from high schools. It’s the best and everybody should know about it. We usher for it, and get to meet some of the kids, and it’s really a fun time, the whole thing.” – Ruth

“I have loved being a gardener because you see the results of your efforts and you get to garden with lots of wonderful people.” – Clay

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Ushering

Administrative Support

Company Event Support

Community Event Support

Company Hospitality

Flower Arranging

Gardening

Gift Shop Sales & Support

Patron Greeting

Oral History & Archive Project Support

Tour Support

To get involved, email Volunteer President Hank Baker at volunteers@shakespeare.org. To hear from more from our Volunteers, scan the QR code!

“I bake, usher, work in the gardens, and I also curate Behind the Curtain talks. What I love about Shakespeare & Company is how welcoming it feels. The possibility of doing anything that you’re interested in is made pretty easy. If you’re a baker you should join the baking gang, if you love gardening, there’s plenty of things to do in the gardens. Ushering is always a treat, and you get to see the show for free. They’re always interesting and fabulous to watch. I hope you’ll join us!” –Ann

food trucks add soul to shakespeare & company’s summer season

Shakespeare & Company staff first caught wind of Erica Shrader and Thomas Moody, owners and operators of the Pittsfield-based food truck Upstreet Smoke, at a Juneteenth celebration in Pittsfield, Mass.

The tantalizing smells of smoked meats and Southern-style sides wafted over to the Shake & Co. table; a conversation started, and not long after Upstreet Smoke was invited to its first catering gig here at 70 Kemble Street.

The new partnership was a hit. After serving cast and crew at the opening night party for August Wilson’s Fences, Upstreet Smoke began appearing regularly near the Tina Packer Playhouse before performances. Patrons, cast members, crew, and staff all bonded over what Erica calls “the cookout experience.”

“People who didn’t order food still came up to us to have conversations,” she said. “Our style of food invites that. But Shakespeare & Company itself has such a vibrant atmosphere! That fellowship and community fed our souls.”

That’s why, she added, Upstreet Smoke has oriented their summer 2024 schedule to prioritize serving food at Shakespeare & Company. Likewise, Patron Services Manager Haley Barbieri was eager to bring more local food vendors on board for the new season.

“Based on our great success with Upstreet Smoke last summer, we are excited to open our grounds to even more small businesses, and support our community,” Haley said. “We’ve increased the number of shows at which food trucks will visit to include almost all performances at our outdoor mainstage. We encourage ticket buyers to arrive early, and we hope to see many new faces.”

Patrons will have the opportunity to order food from local purveyors BB’s Hot Spot of Pittsfield (barbeque and Caribbean); Charlie’s Bistro Bus of Lee (international fusion); La Chalupa Y La Enchilada of Pittsfield (Mexican), and Upstreet Smoke this season.

Food trucks will visit the property on select evenings through July and August, during the outdoor productions of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and The Winter’s Tale. Food trucks and vendors will be parked outside of the Tina Packer Playhouse between 5 pm and 6:30 pm, or until sold out. Tented seating areas and picnic tables will be available to everyone. 

2024 FOOD TRUCK SCHEDULE

Upstreet Smoke: BBQ menu

Saturday, Sunday, July 20 – 21

Saturday, Sunday, July 27 – 28

Saturday, Sunday, August 3 – 4

Saturday, Sunday, August 17 – 18

Charlie’s Bistro Bus: Bistro Fusion menu

Tuesday, Wednesday, July 23 – 24

Tuesday, Wednesday, July 30 – 31

Friday, August 2

Tuesday, Wednesday, August 6 – 7

Sunday, August 11

Tuesday, Wednesday, August 13 – 14

Wednesday, August 21 through Sunday, August 25 (consecutive days)

BB’s Hot Spot: Caribbean menu

Friday, July 26

Friday, Saturday, August 9 – 10

Friday, August 16

Company members enjoy Upstreet Smooke’s BBQ on opening night of August Wilson’s Fences

Charlie’s Bistro Bus

Joy and learn Ing In commun Ity: past company Interns take a look Back

While the summer season in the Berkshires is characterized by a massive influx of creatives and audiences from around the world, few arrivals are more passionate or integral to Shakespeare & Company than its interns. Nearly every department, including Costumes, Training, and Development, take on one or more interns between May and August each year.

The Internship Program is designed to train the next generation of theater professionals to become successful and well-rounded members of the theater community. Interns receive one-on-one mentoring from their department leads, in addition to working with professional artists.

“It’s amazing to work at Shakespeare & Company because a lot of the people who are in administration are also theater makers,” said 2023 Development Intern Maeve Carroll. “I felt really kindred with my supervisor in the way we could talk about theater and acting, as well as learning all of these professional skills in Development.”

Frances Rippy, 2023 Directing and Arts Administration Intern, reflected on the mentorship they received as an Assistant Director to Tina Packer on The Contention: Henry VI, Part 2

“I learned so much from Tina,” said Frances. “I thought I knew how to read Shakespeare, but she really just blew it open. No word was too small to consider. She treats verse more like music than text, and she has an amazing ability to make everyone feel in on it. She had a real interest in getting to know me and my work.”

Throughout the summer, a lecture series designed exclusively for interns illustrates the inner workings of a large arts organization. Interns are encouraged to learn not just from their supervisors, but from each other and across departments, which Frances called “an investment in our generation of theater makers.” Living and often working in the same spaces, interns grow and explore the Berkshires together, with the opportunity to see performances for free at many local arts organizations. Friendships form quickly.

“I remember we celebrated someone’s birthday in the middle of the summer with a big taco night,” said 2018 Development Intern Kara Powell. “Everyone cooked. We were always doing something together.”

Participants leave the Internship Program more equipped for their professions, crediting the Company with the skills that allowed them to pursue full-time positions elsewhere.

“I’d never worked in a full costume shop with stitchers, drapers, first hands, and designers all in one place before,” said 2023 Costumes Intern Jez Laurin. “I’d only worked in shops with a skeleton crew, so I was excited to learn about all the different roles here. Those skills have been really useful because I’m now doing costumes full-time as my job.” 

To hear more from our interns in video format, scan this QR code!

For more information regarding the Internship Program at Shakespeare & Company, email internships@shakespeare.org

hon Ie Berko leaves a legacy of laughter & love

“Thy life's a miracle.” – King Lear Act IV, sc. vi

Henrietta ‘Honie’ Berko, a cherished mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 19, 2024.

A longtime supporter of Shakespeare & Company along with her husband, former Trustee Jerry Berko (1932 – 2023), Honie inspired us to live our lives fully and beautifully, and was a woman of great wit, talent, and generosity. She will be deeply missed by all of us at Shakespeare & Company, and all who knew her.

Artistic Director Allyn Burrows expressed his sorrow following Honie’s passing, as well as his gratitude for her and Jerry’s decades-long support of the Company.

“Honie was the kindest and quietly supportive person of our endeavors here over the years,” he said. “Jerry could always be counted on to be outspoken about any subject that was in discussion, and usually with a laugh.

“Honie could say so much with just a wry smile. She was always by Jerry's side, either nodding along with what he said, or poking him in the ribs for being bold, which was always to everyone's delight. May flights of angels take them to their rest together.”

With similar sentiments, Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer remembered Honie’s humor, wisdom, and long-time friendship.

"Honie first visited us nearly 40 years ago,” Tina recalled. “We became terrific friends; Jerry – a strong, faithful board member – would make a statement and Honie would look at me with a twinkle in her eye, and I always knew she’d tell me what she thought on the side.

“Honie would make me laugh with her mischievous take on life,” she added. “I shall miss her."

Married in 1953, Honie and Jerry’s seven-decade love story was one for the ages.

In remembrance, their two daughters Karen and Amy shared advice gleaned from their mother’s life:

“Find a cause you're passionate about to support, learn a game to play with friends – like bridge. Read a great book, see an exhibit, and be your own artist. Travel to a new place, live your best life.”

King John, Act V, Scene 1

“Shakespeare wrote plays that demand an active participation of all people involved…without the truth of others, the plays do not exist. Shakespeare’s words are the piercing shafts to drill deep, penetrating the conscious and unconscious minds of the players, the characters, and the audience.” –Tina Packer

Coming July 11, 2024

9781350205710 | $100.00

Drawing on new interviews with original casts and creative teams as well as with Tina Packer herself, this book examines the work of the acclaimed director and founder of Shakespeare & Company. Sign up to our newsletter for an alert on publication!

www.bloomsbury.com/newsletter

www.bloomsbury.com/drama

paper dreams among the seams: chrIstIna Beam’s sculptural storyBook characters come to lIfe

by Jaclyn C. Stevenson

Last fall, as a chill entered the air and the leaves turned to gold, nearly a dozen fairytale characters took up residence at Shakespeare & Company. During the day, these princes, princesses, witches, and wicked stepsisters patiently waited for visitors to view them, gallery-style, in all their finery. At night, they mingled with patrons before and after shows, posing for photos and allowing for close inspection of every seam and the stories they had to tell.

These literary interlopers are the creations of costume designer and model builder Christina Beam, and part of In the Woods: her collection of full-scale, storybook-adjacent paper costumes both inspired by and made from the pages of classic stories and fairy tales.

“I have always thought it would be a fun and interesting challenge to construct the storybook page costumes, either making them from paper, or making them look like they were made of paper,” said Christina, noting that since 2020, she’s constructed 11 characters ranging from Snow White to Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella to The Swan Maiden and beyond, working primarily with cardstock, copy paper, and Tyvek.

The project was initially inspired by the characters of the musical Into the Woods by James Lapine, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Christina said as the collection evolved and took new creative directions, however, each character began to show signs of new life.

“I teamed up with film-maker and photographer Ben Tobin, and we decided to do a series of photoshoots featuring the fairy tale characters in their storybook page costumes,” she explained. “The shoots became less about the characters as depicted specifically in Into the Woods, and more about our own interpretations of the characters across their different iterations. We even ended up adding characters who do not appear in the musical.”

To create “lace sleeves” a 3-hole punch was used.

A Wicked Stepsister dress

Christina Beam

Christina, who holds an MFA in costume design from UMass Amherst and completed an assistantship that included rigorous work in costume construction, drew upon dozens of her skills as a designer and model builder throughout the process, but also learned some new, “paper-centric” tricks — painstakingly choosing fonts for the text, devising large-format PDF files to print patterned reams, and creating simulated lace sleeves with the help of a hole-punch, to name a few.

“After a while, the paper punch literally fell apart in my hand.” she recalled. The costumes have been featured as part of the Emerging Artist Exhibit at the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT) Conference, and at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Christina’s exhibit at Shakespeare & Company was launched as part of 2023’s ArtWeek Berkshires a week-long celebration of arts and culture – and stayed in place into the holidays.

She and her fictional friends are currently seeking their next gallery space, and Christina has returned to Shakespeare & Company this season, serving as Costume Designer for Flight of the Monarch by Jim Frangione, and Costume Design Assistant for The Comedy of Errors. 

For further examples of her work, visit christinabeam.com.

SERIOUS HOT OR ICED CHOCOLATE GOURMET GELATO AND TREATS HAND CRAFTED IN THE BERKSHIRES OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Ben Tobin.

Ryan Winkles, The Stones, 2023

Dan Lauria, Jodi Long, Just Another Day, 2023

Corrina May, John Wojda, Raya Malcolm, Liz Hayes, Things I Know to Be True, 2022

David Smilow, Public Speaking 101, 2022

Left to Right: David Gow and Zoya Martin, Ken Ludwig's Dear Jack, Dear Louise, 2023. Photo by Oskar Ahlstrom.

In photo: Barlow Adamson, Eddie Shields and Zach Fike Hodges in Angels in America

Photo by: Nile Scott Studios

leadersh Ip & staff

Allyn Burrows, Artistic Director

ADMINISTRATIVE

Stephen Ball, General Manager

Ariel Bock, Producing Associate

Catherine E. Wheeler, Executive Assistant to the Artistic Director

Interns: Carolyn Abraham & Matthew Guerber

CENTER FOR ACTOR TRAINING

Sheila Bandyopadhyay, Director of Training

Kristen Moriarty, Programs Manager

Faculty: Sarah Kate Anderson, Sheila Bandyopadhyay, Ariel Bock, Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, Kevin G. Coleman, Susan Dibble, Marie Ramirez Downing, Tom Giordano, Charls Hall, Michael Hammond, Ted Hewlett, Raphael Massie, Kristen Moriarty, Normi Noel, Tina Packer, Lisa Ann Porter, Jen Rabbitt Ring, Gwendolyn Schwinke, Michael F. Toomey, Sarah Weatherwax, Ryan Winkles

Intern: Kleo Mitrokostas

COSTUMES

Michelle Hathaway, Costume Shop Manager

Michelle Benoit & Cal Murphy, Drapers

Design Assistants / First Hands / Stitchers / Wardrobe: Christina Beam, Mary Boyce, Lezlie Lee, Phebe Mason, Rin Menge, Peggy Walsh, Rasa Walter

Wardrobe: Jez Laurin, Annalise Taylor, Crow Traphagen, Melissa Ziccardi

Interns: Liam Delaney, Aimee Green, Frankie Minich

DEVELOPMENT

Ute DeFarlo, Director of Individual Giving

Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Director of Sponsorships, Groups and Special Events

Liam Castellan, Database & Operations Manager

Alexander Zaretsky, Development Strategist

Interns: Maeve Hogan & Katelyn Rundell

EDUCATION

Kevin G. Coleman, Director of Education

Megan Marchione, Education Programs Administrator

Caitlin Kraft, Residency & Riotous Youth Programs Manager

Kirstin Leigh Daniel, Tour & Professional Development Manager

Education Artists: Ellie Bartz, Gregory Boover, Caroline Calkins, Lori Evans, Leslie Field, Rory Hammond, Luke Haskell, Kaitlin Henderson, Tom Jaeger, Darius Journigan, Charlie Lavaroni, Lezlie Lee, Sara Linares, Caroline Lyons, Madeleine Maggio, Amberlin McCormick, JoJo McDonald, Erin O’Connor, Chloe Otterson, Naire Poole, Kailey Potter, Tom Reynolds, Tori Rhoades, Anna Rock, Lauren Russo, Abigail St. John, Ryan Winkles, Malle Winters, Kristin Yates

FACILITIES & HOUSEKEEPING

Graham Moriarty, Facilities Manager

Bonnie Wilson, Housekeeping Manager

Facilities and Housekeeping Associates: Al Hiser, Robert Pelliciotti, Will Popadic, Gina Squires, Carolina Tenorio

FINANCE & IT

Richard Martelle, Director of Finance

Kevin Andle, IT & Business Systems Manager

Staff Accountant: Stan Bolton

MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS, & PATRON SERVICES

Jaclyn Stevenson, Director of Marketing & Communications

Katie McKellick, Graphic Designer / Marketing Associate

Haley Barbieri, Patron Services Manager

Eran Zelixon, Marketing Associate

MJ Livesay, Box Office Manager

Lydia Duff, Assistant Box Office Manager

Andrew Stout, Season Concessions Manager

Scott “Renzo” Renzoni, Bar Manager

Patron Services Associates: Anthony Feola, Marita Gattone, Lily Linz, Olivia Thiemann, Madelyn Traynor, Gabriella Walko, Madeline Weltchek

Interns: Laura Kloser (Patron Services)

PRODUCTION & STAGE MANAGEMENT

Erika Johnson, Production Manager

Grace Goosman, Assistant Production Manager

Sean Sweeney, Technical Director

Carpentry: Grace Mondy, Lia Smit, Monica Tran

Luke Willson, Electrics Supervisor

Patrick Brennan, Properties Supervisor

Devon Drohan, Paint Charge

Props and Paints Artisans: Eden Clementine, J.C. Hartloff

Cyril Putzer, Sound Supervisor

Equity Stage Managers and Assistants: Anthony Feola, Rachel Harrison, Diane Healy, Amelia Heastings, Hope Rose Kelly, Kathleen Soltan

Stage Managers and Assistants: Lyra Abbott, Dennis Ebert, Becka Kastner, Gabriella Walko, Christine Zak

Shakespeare & Company, 2023. Photo by Katie McKellick.

Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director

by Christina

Photo

Lane

The cast of Next to Normal, Round House Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman

GROUP TOURS 2024

Save 20% or more!

“The heavenly-harness’d team Begins his golden progress in the east.” – Henry IV, Part I, Act III

Whether you’re a travel and tourism industry professional, an event planner, or a group or student tour director, Shakespeare & Company is a premiere destination for a memorable professional theater experience in The Berkshires.

Bring your group of 10 or more to a Shakespeare & Company performance and enjoy exclusive group benefits, including complimentary tickets, discounted ticket pricing, free talks and tours, and more!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT

Elizabeth Aspenlieder

Director of Sponsorships, Groups & Special Events groups@shakespeare.org (413) 637-1199 ext. 110

rent our spaces

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” – Sonnet 18 Shakespeare & Company has some of the most creative and technically advanced spaces on the East Coast, as well as a full range of props, costumes, and other production resources.

We also have a wide range of event and studio spaces available for weddings, workshops, meetings, retreats, and other special events.

Rental opportunities include props and furniture designed, built, and curated by our talented scenic and props artisans; weapons from an armory assembled over the course of 30 years; more than 50,000 costumes including contemporary and period pieces, hats, shoes, masks, and accessories; indoor and outdoor theater spaces, dressing rooms, on-site accommodations, and more.

To learn more about rentals of our theaters, studio spaces, and production resources, visit shakespeare.org/rentals, or contact Shakespeare & Company General Manager Steve Ball at steve@shakespeare.org.

WHO’S WHO

LYRA ABBOTT they / them (Assistant Stage Manager, A Body of Water, Three Tall Persian Women) Lyra Abbott is thrilled to be making their debut at Shakespeare & Company! They studied theater with a focus in Stage Management at Washington College and worked on productions of Antigone (2020) and She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms (2021), as well as directing a production of God of Carnage (2022). They also spent a summer working as a production assistant for Berkshire Busk in Great Barrington. Around their theater involvement, they enjoy writing, both plays and prose, and spending time with their cats.

AWNI ABDI-BAHRI* (Playwright / Golnar, Three Tall Persian Women) Awni Abdi-Bahri is thrilled to be collaborating with Shakespeare & Company on her first full-length play. She is a writer and actor based in Los Angeles and New York, N.Y. Her writing credits include Three

Tall Persian Women (the one act) at San Francisco Playhouse and Fareeda’s Phantasias (½ comedy pilot), a semifinalist at Sundance Episodic Lab. Acting credits include Broadway: POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, (Shubert Theatre); Off-Broadway: Persian Pod (Ars Nova), Bismillah (Wild Project), and The Welcoming Committee (The Lark); TV and Film: Girls on the Bus (HBO Max), Evil (Paramount+), Ahamed’s Ramadan Diary (Comedy Central), and Eradication (Tubi).

Abdi-Bahri is also a co-creator with Dalia Ashurina on an exciting ½ hour comedy pilot, Understudies

OMID AKBARI he / him (Set Designer, Three Tall Persian Women)

Omid Akbari was recently named the 2024 Burry Fredrik Design Fellow, is a freelance scenic designer and costume concept artist based in New York. He started his career in Iran, where he received his bachelor’s degree in set design from the Tehran University of Art. He also holds an M.F.A in Theater Design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, where his recent credits include the Dwight/Edgewood Project, Furlough’s Paradise, and Macbeth. At Yale Rep, he was the scenic designer for Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi in 2023.

KATE KOHLER AMORY she / her (Director, The Comedy of Errors) Kate is an award-winning director and multi-hyphenate theater maker. Some favorite directing/devising credits include: Shakespeare & Company: Henry VI, Pt. II (Associate to Tina Packer), This Is It: Plays in Process; Midsummer Nights - Dream Love Escape, The Birds, Romeo and Juliet: A Space Oddity (The Ridiculous Project Boston); D.arc Water, Dog Act, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, The Mermaid Hour: Remixed, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Boston Conservatory Berklee); Macbeth, Big Love, Ghosts of Troy, The Wolves, Comedy of Errors (Salem State University) and Hamlet (Brandeis University, co-directed). Founding Artistic Director of The Ridiculous Project, Professor of Movement and Acting for Boston Conservatory Berklee. MFA Naropa University, MA RADA/ Kings College, BFA Goldsmiths College London. Teacher of Acrobat of the Heart psychophysical actor training, Trish Arnold Pure Movement, DE-SMTT: Somatic Movement Educator and CYT.

JENNIFER APPLE* she / her (Actor/Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) Broadway Tour: The Band’s Visit (Original Cast). Regional: The Band’s Visit (Huntington Theater/SpeakEasy Stage, Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Lead Performance); Detroit ’67, Romeo & Juliet (Chautauqua Theater Company); A Walk on the Moon, A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater); title of show (Bridge Production Group); Theory of Relativity (Goodspeed Musicals); Fiddler on the Roof (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival & CFRT). TV: Law & Order: SVU, New Amsterdam. ACT MFA: Clickshare, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Good Woman of Setzuan, Motherfucker with the Hat, Lungs. Education: MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, CA. Jennifer is the host of the Empowered Artist Collective Podcast and an Acting Coach who specializes in MFA/BFA auditions, finding monologues, and audition prep.

DALIA ASHURINA† she / her (Director, Three Tall Persian Women) Dalia is an Assyrian-American director and writer whose work centers on theatricality and changing the prevalent narrative on Middle Eastern women. She recently finished her time as Associate Director of Sweeney Todd on Broadway, and previous to

that, was the Resident Director at Phantom of the Opera. Last year in Spain, she directed the concert Omar Bashir’s Back to My Assyrian Roots Her new play development work has been seen at Sound Bites, Wayward Artists Ensemble, San Francisco Playhouse, Dixon Place, Access Theatre, and heard on the Parsnip Ship Radio Theatre Podcast. She is an alumnus of the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship in Directing at Arena Stage and UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Up next, she continues to write and develop Edessa of Baghdad with composer Avi Amon and will be directing Iraq, But Funny! Written by Atra Asdou at Lookingglass Theater Company in May 2025.

ELIZABETH ASPENLIEDER* (Paulina / Mopsa, The Winter’s Tale; Director of Sponsorships, Groups & Special Events) S&Co: Over 40 productions: A Midsummer Night’s Dream ( Titania), The Approach, The Waverly Gallery, HIR, God of Carnage; Mother of the Maid (pre–Broadway, originated Lady of the Court); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; The Beauty Queen of Leenane; Parasite Drag; Merry Wives of Windsor; The Winter’s Tale; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Bad Dates (Elliot Norton Award Best Solo Performance); Rough Crossing; King Lear; Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia,

final performance at The Mount).

Regional: Silverthorne Theatre: The Cake; Great Barrington Public Theatre: Queen of the Sea, Wet Ink reading series; Simon’s Rock: The House of Bernarda Alba; Oldcastle: The Consul, The Tramp & America’s Sweetheart, The Lion in Winter; Barrington Stage: 10X10 Play Fest; Merrimack Rep: Bad Dates; Boston Theatre Works: Angels in America, Othello. Berkshire Playwrights Lab: Radius series, Gala’s etc.; Directing: Merchant of Venice (Assistant Dir, Tina Packer Dir.). Indy Films: Trigger Finger; Seriously Twisted. Voice Over actor/ producer: TV, cartoons, radio, and audiobooks (Choosing Joy: Alzheimer’s – a Book of Hope; and Peregrine Island.) Producer Feature films: Cold Wallet (w/ Joshua Brener, Tony Cavalero, SXSW festival & BIFF 2024), Onyx The Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (2023 Sundance, BIFF, etc.); The Secret Art of Human Flight (in theatres this summer! 2023 Tribeca FF, w/ Lucy DeVito, Paul Raci); Skelly (w/ Brian Cox, Torrey DeVitto, John Palladino); I’m Not Him (Amazon Prime w/ John Palladino); Stroke of Luck (Netflix w/ John Popper). Theatre Producer: Rhinoceros (w/ Chris Noth at The Cutting Room NYC), Living the Dream (by Mark Roberts, 52nd Street Project). Lizzy’s performance is dedicated to her mother Faye whose spirit and light walks with her every day.

STEPHEN D. BALL he / him (Merry Wanderer’s Tour Guide; General Manager) Steve has a Bachelor’s in Technical Theatre and a Master’s in Business from the University of Miami plus a Master of Fine Arts, set design, from New York University’s Tisch School, and has participated in Executive Education in non-profit management at Harvard’s Kennedy School. After an internship at the Greater Miami Opera, Steve has been freelance set & lighting designer for theatre and dance, box office manager, charge artist, carpenter, and company manager, with set and/or lighting designs in Boston, Falmouth, Foxboro, and Lenox, MA; Sharon, CT; New York, NY; New Hope, PA; Marietta, GA; and Miami, FL. Steve has consulted on home, theatre, and museum design projects. At Shakespeare & Company, Steve has been Production Manager, Company Manager, Set Designer, Lighting Designer, Theatre Designer, HR Officer, General Manager and Interim Managing Director, all the time helping to coordinate the company’s multifaceted, multi-departmental activities.

CHRISTINA BEAM she / her (Costume Designer, Flight of the Monarch; Costume Design Assistant, The Comedy of Errors) Christina Beam is a New England based costume designer whose work spans theater, opera, dance and film.

Christina holds an MFA in costume design from UMass Amherst, having completed an assistantship that included rigorous work in costume construction. Her designs for The Lily’s Revenge at UMass Amherst were included in the 2019 USITT/USA Prague Quadrennial Emerging Artist Exhibit and the 2022 World Stage Design Emerging Artist Exhibit, and her costumes for the “In the Woods” photography series were recently featured as part of the 2023 USITT/ USA Prague Quadrennial Emerging Artist Exhibit. Christina is also currently working as the Costume Shop Supervisor at Western Connecticut State University.

ANN BERMAN (Moderator, Behind the Curtain Talks) Berman holds a Master of Arts in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College, London, through a program that partners with Shakespeare’s Globe. She also holds degrees from Boston University and SUNY Binghamton. Prior to moving to Berkshire County, she served as a longtime volunteer with Actors’ Shakespeare Project in Boston, as well as The Life-long Learning at Regis College program. Now a resident of Lee, Mass., Berman is an active member of The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College (OLLI) and can be found most Monday mornings volunteering in the Shakespeare & Company gardens.

JAMES W. BILNOSKI he / him (Lighting Designer, Flight of the Monarch) James W. Bilnoski is currently the Technical Director at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA and is a freelance Lighting, Projection and Scenic designer. He holds a Master of Fine Art in Theatrical Design from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA where he concentrated in Lighting, Projection, and Scenic Design. James also holds a Bachelor of Science in Technical Theatre from West Texas A&M, Canyon, TX. Since college his main concentration has been in lighting design, while pursuing other creative endeavors. He has been fascinated with the potential of projections and how it can be incorporated into any kind of performance since his first introduction to it. Shakespeare & Company shows include hang (2021), The Waverly Gallery (2019), Mothers and Sons (2018), God of Carnage (2017). Stay Curious!

LEE BLESSING (Playwright, A Body of Water) Lee Blessing is the author of A Walk in the Woods, Two Rooms, Eleemosynary, Going to St. Ives and other plays which have been performed throughout the U.S. and worldwide. His work has earned numerous awards— Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association, L.A. Critics Association to name a few—and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards. Blessing is married to playwright and TV writerproducer Melanie Marnich and lives in Los Angeles.

ARIEL BOCK she / her (Director, Emma; Voice / Text Coach, The Comedy of Errors; Producing Associate) S&Co: Acting: Duke (Measure for Measure), Rose (The Children), Mom (Ugly Lies the Bone); Mistress Quickly (Henry IV Pts. 1 & 2); Goneril (King Lear); Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing); Elizabeth (Richard III ); Audrey ( As You Like It); Hippolyta (Midsummer Night’s Dream); The Nurse (Romeo and Juliet); Mistress Quickly (Merry Wives of Windsor); Paulina (The Winter’s Tale), Ruth (Private Eyes), The Woman (Laughing Wild ); Arlene (Off the Map) Directing: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley; The Wickhams, Christmas at Pemberley; Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility

At Mixed Company: Ramona (Zara Spook and Other Lures) and Eileen (The Cripple of Inishmaan). With the Ensemble for the Romantic Century in NYC: Nadezhda VonMeck (None But the Lonely Heart), as well as Fanny Mendelsohn, Emily Dickinson, Sonia Tolstoy, and Anna Akhmatova (in multiple shows). Ariel is a Designated Linklater Teacher.

GREGORY BOOVER* he / him (Actor / Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret) S&Co: Claudio (Much Ado), Feste (Twelfth Night), Fenton/Slender (Merry Wives), Silvius/Amiens ( As You Like It), Young Men (Macbeth), Iago (Othello ed. tour), Bottom/Demetrius (Midsummer ed. tour), Leo (4000 Miles), Scaramouch (The Emperor of the Moon), Macduff/ Duncan (Macbeth ed. tour), Musician/ Composer ( An Iliad ), Greg (SLaW ), Polonius/Horatio (Hamlet ed. tour), Nurse/Friar (R&J ed. tour), Ensemble (The Tempest), Damis (Tartuffe). He has worked with many theaters across the Northeast, including The Majestic Theater, Catskill Mountain Shakespeare, Urbanite Theatre, The Theater at Woodshill, The Umbrella Stage Company, WAM Theatre, Emergent Ensemble Theater, The Theatre at Monmouth, Looking Glass Theater (NY), Hampshire Shakespeare, and more. Greg has directed/taught in the education programs at Shakespeare & Company

for years, serves on the faculty at Community Access To The Arts in Great Barrington MA, and produces his own independent music and artwork. Training: S&Co Intensive; (BA) UMass Amherst; UKent Canterbury.

JUDY BRAHA† (Director, Flight of the Monarch) Judy Braha has been a director, actor, teacher and arts activist for over four decades. Longtime head of the M.F.A. Directing Program at Boston University’s School of Theater, credits include theaters and universities throughout New England. Recent work: Things I Know To Be True (Great Barrington Public Theater), Shakespeare in Love, The Exonerated (BU), Mr. Fullerton, Between the Sheets (GBPT + Gloucester Stage), Representation and How to Get It, a new solo work about Julia Ward Howe, touring to a historic venue near you. Upcoming: The world premiere of Dog People (GBPT) and Flight of the Monarch (Shakespeare & Company). Judy proudly collaborates with Andre de Quadros in BU’s Race, Prison, Justice, Arts, teaching inside and outside Mass. prisons and jails. Judy is the Associate Artistic Director of Great Barrington Public Theater in the beautiful Berkshires.

PATRICK BRENNAN he / him (Props Supervisor; Set Designer, A Body of Water, Flight of the Monarch) S&Co Set Design: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Golda’s Balcony, Much Ado About Nothing, Morning After Grace, Mothers and Sons, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Roman Fever / Fullness of Life, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, The How and the Why, Henry V, Mother of the Maid, Shakespeare’s Will, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Private Eyes, Master Class, Heroes, Beauty Queen of Leenane, Accomplice, Cassandra Speaks, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Parasite Drag, 39 Steps, Santaland Diaries, Private Lives, The Learned Ladies, Women of Will, The Memory of Water, The Hollow Crown, Red Hot Patriot: The Kick–Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, War of the Worlds (Bernstein Theatre); Mother Courage, Richard III, The Winter’s Tale, The Liar (Tina Packer Playhouse). Designer & Performer: Dibble Dance (Tina Packer Playhouse & Colonial Theatre). Patrick holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design from Academy of Art College, San Francisco. Other work includes Laura Ashley, Pierre-Deux, Anthropologie. CHRISTOPHER BROPHY (Moss {understudy}, A Body of Water )

ALLYN BURROWS* he / him (Thomas Callaghan, Flight of the Monarch; Director / Director, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret; Artistic Director) S&Co: Director: The Tempest (2017), As You Like It (2018), Twelfth Night (2019) A Midsummer Night’s Dream(2023). Shakespeare & Company performances: A Walk in the Woods, King Lear, God of Carnage, Or, King John, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV Part 1, among others. As Artistic Director of Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Allyn directed and acted in numerous productions. Other Boston area performances include Can You Forgive Her (Huntington Theatre), Breaking the Code (Underground Railway Theatre), Shipwrecked (The Lyric Stage), The Seafarer and The Homecoming (Merrimack Repertory Theater), Five

by Tenn (Speakeasy Stage). Elliot Norton Award for The Homecoming, King Lear, Five by Tenn; IRNE Award for Breaking the Code. Off-Broadway: Bug, Killer Joe, Louis Slotin Sonata, Closetland. Regionally: Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theatre, Long Wharf, Denver Center, Walnut St. Television: “The Broad Squad,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “Against the Law.” Films include The Company Men, Julie & Julia, Manchester by the Sea, and Don’t Look Up

CAROLINE CALKINS* she / her (Wren, A Body of Water ) S&Co: Much Ado About Nothing, Time Stands Still, Love’s Labor’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Emperor of the Moon, Henry V, and others. Caroline has taught for many years in S&Co’s Education Program, including directing in the Fall Festival of Shakespeare

(2011-2023) and performing in the Northeast Regional Tours of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Macbeth. Caroline has performed with Boston Playwright’s Theatre, the Theater at Woodshill, WAM, and elsewhere. She has collaborated with CATA (Community Access to the Arts) and the rig, a local arts collective. BA: Brown University; MA: Emerson College. Other training: National Theatre Institute.

CAREY CRIM she / her (Playwright, The Islanders) Carey Crim is an awardwinning playwright, screenwriter and graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Speech. Her play Never Not Once was the winner of the Jane Chambers award, a finalist for the O’Neill and recently opened at The Park Theatre (London). Her drama 23 ½ Hours will open at The Park 200 in September. Morning After Grace has been produced

at Asolo Repertory Theater, The Royal Manitoba Theater Centre, Shakespeare & Company, The Barter Theatre, The Purple Rose Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Florida Repertory Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Riverside Theatre and more. It was published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. TRW also published her play Distance Learning written for Laurie Metcalf and recently added Paint Night to their roster. Her new comedy What Springs Forth will premiere at The Purple Rose in June 2024. Carey is represented by Mark Orsini at Bret Adams and Brandy Rivers at Amplified where she is currently developing the one-hour television drama Blessed. – For George

JAVIER DAVID* (Dromio of Syracuse, The Comedy of Errors) Javier David is a California-born-and-raised actor based in New York City. Credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare & Company) Clyde’s (The Huntington Theatre), Do You Feel Anger? (Kitchen Theater Company), Witch (The Huntington Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Classical Theatre of Harlem), A Dollzes House (Signature Theatre), Cold Read Festival (Syracuse Stage), The Rocky Horror Show (Artist Repertory Theatre), Almost, Maine (L.A. Theatre Center), Commedia (Atelier Teatro Fisico), In The Red And Brown Water (Columbia University), A Street Car Named Desire (Columbia University), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Columbia University).

Film: The Changeling (Apple TV). Javier received his M.F.A in Acting from Columbia University (2019) and his B.A. in Performance from San Diego State University (2016). He dedicates his performance to his Nana.

LAUREN DAVIS (Inaugural Tina Packer Women of Will Directing Fellow) Davis is an actor, educator, and emerging director based in Baltimore, Md. She received her BS in Drama from Frostburg State University and her MFA in Acting from Catholic University. She is a long-time member of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theater, where she has played such roles as Juliet, Rosalind, the Princess of France, and Bianca, and is also a member of their Black Classical Actors Ensemble, for whom she recently directed Macbeth

Shakespeare Cabaret) Brendan F Doyle is a designer for live performance and fixed media: working with sound, video, and reactive systems. Theatrical sound design credits include projects with the Huntington Theatre Company, ArtsEmerson, Shakespeare & Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Arlekin Players Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Revolutionary Spaces, Wheelock Family Theatre and others. Additional works have been heard in bars and basements, chapels and concert halls, improvised venues of all sorts, and across the internet. Training consists of an MSc in Sound Design from the University of Edinburgh, a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology from Emerson College, and more than two decades working with musicians. Brendan is a proud member of IATSE Local USA 829 Previous Shakespeare & Company credits include Midsummer, The Contention, Hymn, The Approach, hang, Art, Topdog/Underdog, The Waverly Gallery, and Macbeth

LYDIA ISABEL DUFF she / they (Wren {understudy}, A Body of Water; Luciana {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors) Lydia is a theatre artist living in Western Massachusetts. She has a BA in Theatre and Mandarin Chinese from Bennington College, and is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company’s MonthLong Intensive. She has also studied at

the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

DENNIS EBERT JR. he / him (Stage Manager, Plays in Process; Assistant Stage Manager, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale) Dennis Ebert Jr. is one of two goodly ASMs — one so like the other as could not be distinguished but by names. Dennis is a New Yorkbased Stage Manager and graduate of Pace University, having received a BA in Stage Management. He is stoked to be returning to Shakespeare & Company for another season! Previous S&Co credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Contention, Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues, hang, Coriolanus, The Waverly Gallery and more. Special thanks to Diane and Kathleen!

ENG she / her (Sound Designer, A Body of Water ) Recent: Coriolanus (Portland Center Stage), Hurricane Diane (People’s Light), Merry Me (New York Theatre

CAROLINE

BRENDAN F DOYLE^ he / him (Sound Designer, The Islanders; Sound & Projection Designer, Shake It Up: A

Workshop, co-design Kate Marvin), Belfast Girls (Irish Repertory Theatre), Fences (Shakespeare & Company), The Overview Effect (Contemporary American Theater Festival), Little Women (Theatreworks, UCCS), What the Constitution Means to Me (WAM Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group).

JAYSEN ENGEL he / him (Costume Designer, A Body of Water) Jaysen is a costume designer based out of New Haven, CT. He graduated from SUNY Purchase in 2020 with a BFA in Costume Design. He is delighted to be designing his first show at Shakespeare & Company. He has worked at various theatres in the northeast, including Shakespeare & Company, Goodspeed Musicals, Barrington Stage Company, The Colonial Theatre of Westerly, and Ancram Center for the Arts. Previous design credits include The Tempest (Colonial Theatre of Westerly), The Plein Air Plays (Ancram Center for the Arts), and Waiting for Godot (Colonial Theatre of Westerly). Upcoming design credits include The 39 Steps (Colonial Theatre of Westerly) and Constellations (Ancram Center for the Arts).

Tale) S&Co: Jonny has directed or acted in more than 70 S&Co productions since 1987, including last year’s Contention and previously Walk in the Woods, Creditors, Henry V, Merchant of Venice, Tempest, Cymbeline, Midsummer, Merry Wives, Private Eyes, Brief Lives, Heroes, An Iliad and the title roles in King Lear, Henry IV, Richard III and Macbeth. In 1990, he created the role of The Men in Tina Packer’s original Women of Will. He has performed on and off-Broadway and at scores of regional theatres around the country including Berkshire Theatre Festival ( Amadeus, Cuckoo’s Nest, Via Dolorosa, Educating Rita...) and ART (Merchant of Venice, Phaedra, Paradise Lost, Picasso at the Lapin Agile). He is a two-time recipient of the Elliot Norton Award and is Teaching Professor of Classical Performance at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training where this Spring he adapted and directed their production of Romeo & Juliet. His former Asolo students are now regularly featured on S&Co stages. Jonny and his wife Ariel Bock met onstage during The Aspern Papers (1991). Tina Packer and Jonny first worked together on her production of Rat in the Skull in 1987 and their other collaborations (27 in all) have included As You Like It, King Lear, Richard III, Much Ado, Merry Wives, Merchant of Venice and Julius Caesar

ANTHONY FEOLA* he / him (Stage Manager, A Body of Water; Set Design, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret) Anthony Feola is thrilled to be returning to Shakespeare & Company for his third summer! Shakespeare &

Company credits include: A Walk in the Woods (Asst. Stage Manager), Hymn (Tech & Performance Assistant Stage Manager) and 2023 SSI (Workshop Manager). Other Selected credits: Twelfth Night (Production Stage Manager), The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe (Production Stage Manager Sub) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Asst. Stage Manager) with Northern Stage. Anthony recently spent the past year on an international tour with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo as their Production Associate. Anthony graduated with a BFA in Stage and Production Management from Emerson College and would like to thank his family and friends for their support!

JIM FRANGIONE (Playwright, Flight of the Monarch) Jim Frangione’s play Breakwater, set on Cape Cod, premiered at Great Barrington Public Theater in 2019 (Berkshire Theater Critics Association nomination for Best New Play). Flight of the Monarch premiered at Gloucester Stage Company. Jim directed Romance at WHAT; Seriously Funny: An Evening of Short Plays by Mamet, Silverstein and Pinter at Harvard/ART; and Private Life at HERE. For GB Public Theater: Public Speaking 101 and Dad, by Mark St. Germain; the east coast premiere of David Mamet’s The Christopher Boy’s Communion and Will LeBow’s The Bard The Beat The Blues. Jim’s acted with NYC’s Atlantic Theater, in National Tours, on Broadway; at the Alley Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theatre, the Humana Festival, in American Buffalo at Berkshire Theatre

Festival and in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Shakespeare & Company. Jim is Artistic Director of Great Barrington Public Theater and would like to thank his friend Allyn Burrows and everyone at Shakespeare & Company for bringing Flight of the Monarch to life.

EMMA GEER she / her (Luciana, The Comedy of Errors; Perdita, The Winter’s Tale) Emma is delighted to be back at S&C! Broadway: Prayer for the French Republic (MTC). Off Broadway: World premiere of Prayer for the French Republic (MTC); NYC premiere of Mary Page Marlowe (Second Stage); Arden of Faversham (Redbull); World premiere of How To Transcend a Happy Marriage (Lincoln Center Theater); Hindle Wakes and The Price of Thomas Scott (Mint Theater Company). Regional: Dracula (Berkshire Theater Group); Hamlet and Macbeth (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Florida Rep); 4,000 Miles (Shakespeare & Company). Film & TV: In The Treetops (LA Film Festival); “Elementary”; “The Good Fight”; “Inside Amy Schumer”. UNCSA.

DAVID GOW* he / him (Solinus / Pinch Assistant, The Comedy of Errors;

JONATHAN EPSTEIN* he / they (Antigonus / Old Clown, The Winter’s

Polixenes, The Winter’s Tale) TV/Film: The Girls on the Bus (HBO), Chrissy Judy (Apple TV), The Good Fight (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS), Jon Glaser Loves Gear (truTV), The Savant (Apple TV), Candice (Austin Film Festival). NY THEATER: Burning Leaves (Duke Theater), Chokehold (14th St Y), What I First Desired (Soho Playhouse), Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone (Workshop Theater), Bleach (Wilson’s Lounge), Decky Does a Bronco (Royal Family Productions). REGIONAL: Measure for Measure, Mothers & Sons, Waverly Gallery, Dear Jack Dear Louise, Hamlet (Shakespeare & Company), Sweat (Capital Rep), Pirira, Giant Void in My Soul (Luna Stages), Sense & Sensibility (4th Wall Theater), Why Do you Stand There In The Rain (Edinburgh Fringe), Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top Of The World (Hollywood Fringe). David holds a BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Love to Kennedy.

KATE HAMILL (Playwright, Emma) Kate Hamill is an actor & playwright. Kate has been one of the most-produced playwrights nationwide for the last seven years, from 2017-current season. Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year, 2017; Einhorn Award, 2023. Plays include Pride & Prejudice - Primary Stages / HVSF (originated role of Lizzy; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Sense & Sensibility at Bedlam (originated role of Marianne; winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; nominee, Drama League Award); Vanity Fair at the Pearl (originated Becky; nominee, OffBroadway Alliance Award), Mansfield

Park at Northlight, Little Women at Primary Stages & the Jungle, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. #2B at KCRep, The Little Fellow at Cygnet Theatre, Emma at the Guthrie. Other plays include Scrooge for Senate; The Piper (O’Neill Finalist, PlayPenn Fellowship), In the Mines (Sundance Finalist); and The Odyssey. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, at A.R.T., the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, The Alley, Folger, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, A.C.T., Actors Theater of Louisville, Denver Center, & many others. World Premieres in 2024: The Scarlet Letter at Two River, The Light & The Dark at Chautauqua Theater Company and more TBA.

RORY HAMMOND* (Angela, The Comedy of Errors; Vocal Coach) Rory just earned her MFA and Linklater Designation in London, at the Rose Bruford College of Music and Drama. During her London studies, in addition to her concentration on the Linklater Method, she was immersed in the work of Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed, as well as Trish Arnold’s Pure Movement, and the Michael Chekhov technique. Throughout these studies there was an emphasis on devising, working to create one’s own performance pieces through the art of theatrical storytelling. In addition to her studies at Rose Bruford, Rory has also been focused these past few years on directing and teaching

Shakespeare to kids from ages 7-18. Directing Credits: Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Macbeth, all for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. New York acting credits include: Pericles, directed by Edward Berkeley, produced by Animus Theatre Company at SoHo Rep; Measure for Measure, also directed by Edward Berkeley, at Circle in the Square Theatre School; Bachelorette, directed by Lesley Headland, produced by Animus Theatre Company at Circle in the Square; John Patrick Shanley’s Where’s My Money, produced by Animus Theatre Company at the Cherry Lane Theatre; Shakespeare & Company credits include: Measure for Measure, Duke Vincentio, directed by Alice Reagan; Love’s Labour’s Lost, Princess of France, directed by Kelly Galvin; Christmas at Pemberley, directed by Ariel Bock; Ugly Lies the Bone and Taming of the Shrew, both directed by Daniela Varone; King John, Richard III,The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, all directed by Tina Packer. The Wharton Salon at the Mount: Autres Temp, Xingu, and Summer, all directed by Catherine Taylor Williams. TV credits include: Dr. Pepper commercials circa 1998. Rory received much of her early training at Shakespeare & Company, starting with Young Company and ending as a member of the Summer Performing Institute (SPI). Rory is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City, and is a founding member of Animus Theatre Company in New York City.

RACHEL HARRISON* she / her (Stage Manager, Flight of the Monarch, Three Tall Persian Women; Sound Designer, Flight of the Monarch, The Winter's Tale) Rachel Harrison is a St. Petersburg, FL based Stage Manager and Sound Designer. Fresh off a contract with Virgin Voyages as the Production Stage Manager aboard the Valiant Lady, she is pleased to be back at Shakespeare & Company for a third season. Rachel’s recent body of work includes an impressive 55 productions with Tampa Bay area theaters, American Stage, Tampa Repertory Theatre, StageWorks Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, and Broadway on the Bay. She also serves as “chief problem solver” for Your Real Stories Inc., a not-for-profit storytelling company committed to talking across differences through theatrical journalism. Rachel is a Regional Representative of the Stage Managers’ Association and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

LUKE HASKELL he / him (Solinus / Egeon / Pinch {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors) Luke’s credits at Shakespeare & Company: George Wickham, (The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley ) Costard, (Love’s Labor’s Lost ), Lysander/Flute, ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Paris/Prince/ Gregory, (Romeo & Juliet ), Hamlet/ Decius Brutus (I Have Had a Most Rare Vision), Roles elsewhere: The Conspirators (Chicago, Ill.): Opposition Leader, (The InEptidemic.) Rooted Voyageurs: Benvolio/Friar Lawrence, (Romeo & Juliet ). Advice to the Players

(NH): Duke Vincentio, (Measure for Measure), Lucentio (The Taming of the Shrew ). Aglet Theater Company: Tom (These Shining Lives). UMass Theater Department: Dwight (Dead Man’s Cell Phone), Roland (Constellations), Van (Dog Sees God ), Stephano/ Ensemble/Musician (The Merchant of Venice). In 2019, he was nominated for Best Actor in a Play by the New Hampshire Theater Alliance, for his portrayal of the Duke in Measure for Measure. He has composed music for several productions, and is currently workshopping his play A Midsummer Night’s Nightmare, a spooky adaptation of the Shakespeare classic. He has worked for the Education department at Shakespeare & Company since 2016.

MICHELLE HATHAWAY she / her (Costume Design Assistant, A Body of Water, The Islanders, Flight of

the Monarch, Three Tall Persian Women; Costume Shop Manager) Costume Design credits include: A Cry of Players, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, Carrie the Musical, The Coronation of Poppea, Peter Pan, The Producers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hairspray the Musical, and 42nd Street. In addition to her design work she has been involved with the management, construction and mounting of over 100 other productions.

DIANE HEALY* she / her (Stage Manager, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale) S&Co: (just a few) King Lear, Merry Wives, As You Like It, The Tempest, Red Velvet, Women of Will, Satchmo at the Waldorf, Hound of the Baskervilles, All’s Well That Ends Well Most recently in NY: The Night of the Iguana, directed by Emily Mann. Diane is a NY based SM who has worked

(extensively) with BEDLAM: Fall River Fishing, The Winter’s Tale, Hedda Gabler, Persuasion, The Crucible, Sense & Sensibility, Saint Joan, Hamlet, Pygmalion, Peter Pan, Cry Havoc!, Twelfth Night/What You Will. Also in NY with: TFANA, NAATCO, Clubbed Thumb, Radical Evolution/WP Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Mabou Mines; Primary Stages; Playwrights Realm; Barrow Street Theatre; Atlantic Theatre Co., LCT3, LaMama, The Civilians. Regionally: Everyman Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Folger Theatre, Oldcastle Theatre Company, Princeton University, Bard College and East Tennessee State.

AMELIA HEASTINGS* (Stage Manager, Three Tall Persian Women) Amelia Heastings is excited to be returning to the Shakespeare & Company this Summer season!

Favorite stage management credits include: Shakespeare & Company: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Hamlet: A Staged Reading, Golda’s Balcony (Berkshires 2023, Boston 2024); Pittsburgh Public Theater: Ken Ludwig’s Murder on the Orient Express, The Tempest; Greenbrier Valley Theatre: Frankenstein, Mountain Home Christmas; PICT Classic Theatre: After Independence, As You Like It; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado About Nothing.

MAE HEDGES (Avis {understudy}, A Body of Water )

ANNIE SELKE SHOP

ANDREA HERRERA she / her (Costume Designer, Three Tall Persian Women) Andrea is a Costume Designer born and raised in Colombia. She recently got a M.F.A in Theatre from the University of Florida where she designed multiple productions such as Antigone and Cabaret. Other credits include Three Sisters, Clyde’s, Miss Julie and Romeo & Juliet at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, and the world premiere of Ruby at West Coast Black Theatre Troupe. The last two years she’s also been part of the NHSI Northwestern University summer camp where she has designed adaptations of An Iliad, Dracula, Box of Stories and more. She is beyond grateful for having the opportunity of working at Shakespeare & Company on their production of Three Tall Persian Women with such and amazing team.

JOHNNY IRION (Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) Johnny Irion’s new album Sleeping Soldiers of Love is one his most exciting collaborations ever, where he was joined by the staggeringly creative, and multi-talented, skills of Jeff Bridges, Patrick Sansone of Wilco, The Chatham Rabbits, Mike Mills of REM, Griffin Goldsmith of DAWES, and many others. Stand Up That Mountain The award-winning novel inspired this work.

Recorded in his studio in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the full album is scheduled for release on August 9th, 2024. The first single and the video for Sleeping Soldiers of Love will be available on May 14, 2024, VIA Blackwing Music, a great supporter of music in education. I hope you enjoy this as much as we loved creating it.

JENNIE M. JADOW* she / her (Actor / Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) Jennie is a Company Member of Shakespeare & Company and a proud part of their nationally recognized Education Department. An actress with extensive regional acting credits, Jennie’s work has been seen at S&Co, WAM, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theater Group, Jacob’s Pillow, and Mixed Company. Jennie is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch

School of the Arts, and completed her MA in Movement Therapy and Counseling with a primary focus on the treatment of adolescents with psychiatric diagnosis. When not acting or teaching she can be found with her incredible family, to whom she is deeply grateful for all of their love and constant support.

L. JAMES* he / him (Antipholus of Syracuse, The Comedy of Errors; Leontes, The Winter’s Tale) S&Co Art TV/Film Credits include: Law & Order, Zombie Wedding, FBI, The Mooch Theater Credits: Fences, Backwards Forwards KCAB, The Agitators, Sender, Intimate Apparel, Hamlet, Sweat, The MotherF@cker with the Hat, ThreePenny Opera, and Angels in America

(Light

Production Manager) Erika is excited to return to S&Co for a fourth summer season. Before relocating to the Berkshires, Erika was based in New York City lighting for television, theater, and dance. She had the pleasure of designing shows for everything from Red Bull Music to Animal Planet; and spent full seasons with some truly fabulous institutions such as San Francisco Opera, New York City Ballet, Broadway, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Erika spent her summers before S&Co as the production manager/ head electrician for Adirondack Theatre Festival, putting on Broadway-bound productions like Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat, Loch Ness, Calling All Kates, and Beau. Erika has spent the last seven years traveling the world as the lighting supervisor for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a company of folks very close to her heart. She is happy to finally put down roots and call Shakespeare & Company her artistic home.

BECKA KASTNER she / they (Assistant Stage Manager, The Islanders) Becka Kastner is originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana but currently resides in Orlando, Florida, and received a degree in Production Stage Management with a minor in Hospitality and Food Management

ERIKA JOHNSON she / her

Designer, Three Tall Persian Women;

from Ball State University in 2022. She is ecstatic to be making her Shakespeare & Company debut! Previous credits include (at the Orlando Shakes) Christmas Carol, Million Dollar Quartet, Kinky Boots, and Noises Off as a PA. In addition, they were the Assistant Stage Manager for Venus in Fur, Comedy of Errors, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill and Charlotte’s Web. They also stage managed The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and a variety of the cabarets in the Orlando Shakes season. She’d like to thank her family and her husband for always pushing her to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional stage manager!

JIM “CHETZ” KEEGAN he / him (Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret) Jimbo is in his fiftieth year of performing music in 2024! He has played bass guitar and guitar in many, many groups based in the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley and the Greater Boston areas. He has toured the U.S. and Canada, performed extensively in Florida and on the East Coast. A native New Englander (and Berkshire boy), he studied music and business at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

HOPE ROSE KELLY* (Stage Manager, The Islanders) S&Co: The Contention, Golda’s Balcony, Lunar Eclipse, An Iliad, Measure for Measure, The Chairs, King Lear, Topdog/Underdog, Macbeth, Heisenberg, Cymbeline, God of Carnage, Or, Two Gentleman of Verona, Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Comedy of Errors, Richard II, Rough Crossing, Blue/Orange, The Ladies Man, Othello, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Taster, As You Like It, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The War of the Worlds, Santaland Diaries Regional: WAM Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Majestic Theatre, American Stage Company, Hartford Stage Company, Montana Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, The Wilma, Wallis Center, The Public Theatre, McCarter Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Hangar Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Stonington Opera House Arts, CLOC. Based in Pittsfield, MA, Hope Rose is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Stage Managers’ Association where she serves as the International Cohort Chair.

GRACE KELLY (Abbess {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors)

BENNY KOHN (Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) Benny Kohn is a Berkshire based pianist/ singer/composer. Benny joins forces with many local artists spanning a variety of genres (Jazz, Blues, Funk, R&B, Popular, Rock) including Wanda Houston, Ed Moran, Andy Wrba, Gina Coleman, Glori Wilder, The O-tones, Samirah Evans, Hot Sauce, Chantell McFarland, The Rejuvinators, Rev Tor and many others. Benny can also be found leading his own combos and playing Solo.

THERESA LANG she / her (Dramaturg, The Comedy of Errors) Theresa Lang, Ph.D. is a theatre historian who specializes in American popular entertainment and 19 th century performance. She is a dramaturg who is committed to the power of story, the creation of new work, and the amplification of under-represented voices. She is a

theatre maker who is dedicated to the creation of ensemble and sustainable and equitable practice. She is a teacher who believes in the power of transformative art.

REGGE LIFE † he / him (Director, The Islanders) Regge Life directed the 2022 production of Hymn, the 2019 multiple Berkie Award winning production of Topdog/Underdog, the wildly acclaimed Morning After Grace in 2018, God of Carnage in 2017 and Kaufman’s Barbershop by the late Rob Sugarman in 2013. His most recent productions are the World Premiere of “Phillis” at Revolutionary Spaces in Boston and Cross That River returning to the 59E59th Street theater and now on national tour. He directed I Just Stopped by to See Man for Milwaukee Rep, Yellowman and Gem of the Ocean for Pittsburgh Public Theater, Ghosts for the Pearl Theater, Piano Lesson for Virginia Stage Company, A Walk in the Woods at Capital Rep, Rebel Armies into Deep Chad , Laurence Fishburne’s Riff Raff and Arthur Miller’s The American Clock for the Juilliard School. Living in the Wind and Do Lord Remember Me at the former American Place Theatre. He is the Senior Distinguished Director in Residence at Emerson College in Boston.

GOVANE LOHBAUER she / her (Costume Designer, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale) Selected credits at S&Co: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, The Approach, An Iliad, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Martha Mitchell Calling play and film, Twelfth Night, As You Like It; The Tempest, Ugly Lies the Bone, Or..., It’s a Wonderful Life, Henry V, Mother of the Maid, Shakespeare’s Will, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Private Lives, Loves Labor’s Lost, Kaufman’s Barbershop, The Learned Ladies, Women of Will, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Taster, Mengelberg and Mahler, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Shirley Valentine, Golda’s Balcony, The Ladies Man, Rough Crossing, Enchanted April, Ice Glen, Lettice and Lovage, House of Mirth, Glimpses of the Moon and many years of the Education Department’s Fall Festival and Tour productions including Shakespeare & the Language That Shaped a World film for Shakespeare’s 2021 Birthday. Selected Regional: Grant & Twain, Emilie..., The Long Run, In Darfur, Arabian Nights, Red Noses, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Metamorphosis, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Alice in Wonderland, Our Country’s Good

Dance Captain, Fight Captain) S&Co: Hippolyta/Snout, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Don John, Much Ado About Nothing; Robert Shallow/ Bardolph: Merry Wives; Longaville/ Jaquenetta, Love’s Labor’s Lost;Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ensemble: Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World; Elizabeth Bennet, Pride & Prejudice; Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility; Cassie, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley; Elizabeth Darcy, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley; S&Co Regional Tour: Lady Capulet/ Benvolio, Romeo & Juliet; The Majestic: Lana, The Ladyslipper; The Humanist Project: “Bubbles”, Mad Mad Mad! (A Devised Clown Play); Lavinia, Titus Andronicus. Madeleine attended the two-year professional course at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, studied at The Second City in Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

RAYA MALCOLM she/her (Actor, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) is an actor and musician based in the Capital Region and is thrilled to make her Shakes & Co. debut! Some regional credits include: Capital Repertory Theatre: Hermia (Midsummer Night’s Dream). Great Barrington Public Theatre: Rosie (Things I Know To Be True), Bobby

(Breakwater ). Stages On the Sound: Ophelia (Hamlet, a workshop), Sam (Dad the Snowman). Berkshire Playwright’s Lab: Lena ( Lena Levitates). Central Square Theater: March Girl/Swallow (Matchless & The Happy Prince). Saratoga Shakespeare Company: Juliet (Romeo & Juliet ), Poins (Henry IV: Parts I & II ). Boston Playwright’s Theatre: Daisy (Rhinoceros). Raya is also an Associate Artistic Director of Troy Foundry Theatre and makes up 1/3rd of local, indie-folk trio, Hold On Honeys, who recently won an Eddy Award for Best Folk Artist of the Year. Raya happily lives in Troy, NY with her yoga mat and many houseplants.

RAPHAEL MASSIE he / him (Associate Director, The Comedy of Errors) Raphael Massie is an awardwinning director, actor, and educator focused on how social and cultural factors can impact and enhance performance of western classical theatre. He is a Drama League of NY Classical Directing Fellow, OSF Killian Fellowship finalist, and has also worked abroad. Directing Credits include: Shakespeare & Company (Associate, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, AD Mother Courage), Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Emilia [reading], Associate & Dramaturg, The Cymbeline Project ), Elm Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet ), Connecticut

Repertory Theatre (Pericles), Advice to the Players (Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing), Starling Shakespeare ( As You Like It), Southern CT State U (Julius Caesar, Polaroid Stories, Stop Kiss, Lysistrata), UC Riverside (Dr. Faustus), Trinity College (Measure for Measure). Acting credits include Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Elm Shakespeare, and more. Raphael holds an MFA with Distinction in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter (UK), as well as a BA in Theatre and a BS Education from Southern CT State U.

CORINNA MAY* (Sheila Callaghan, Flight of the Monarch) S&CO.30+ productions including Morning After Grace, The Memory of Water, A Winter’s Tale, Enchanted April, Jack and Jill, Betrayal, Fortune and Misfortune, House of Mirth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet. BTF/ BTG: Copenhagen, Seascape, Shirley Valentine (“Berkie” Award), The Importance of Being Earnest Benefactors, Same Time Next Year, Homestead Crossing, Two-headed. Great Barrington Public Theatre: Things I Know To Be True (“Berkie” award) Wharton Salon: The Long Run, Autre Temps. National Tour: The Graduate with Linda Gray/ Lorraine Bracco/Morgan Fairchild. Regional (selected): Portland Stage

Every Step of The Way

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MADELEINE ROSE MAGGIO she / her (Adriana, The Comedy of Errors;

Co., Merrimack Rep., Syracuse Stage, Rep. Theater of St. Louis, Capitol Rep. Film: Split Ends (starring); Speck’s Last. TV: “House of Cards”, “Unforgettable”, “Law & Order”, “PBS: Evening at the Pops”. Playwright: Dancing with the Czar Designated Linklater Voice teacher. Feldenkrais practitioner. Proud to be a union member: SAG-AFTRA, AEA, Dramatists Guild.

MERLIN MCCORMICK (Actor, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) Merlin is a performer and screenwriter originally from Raleigh, North Carolina and is excited to be in the Berkshires this summer. Merlin made his Shakespeare & Company debut in the Northeast Regional Tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His other favorite credits include: Viola (National Black Theatre Festival), Millie in Trouble in Mind (Clarence Brown Theatre), and Hero and Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing (Starling Shakespeare) Training: MFA from University of Tennessee Knoxville.

OLIVIA MCKENNA THIEMANN (Courtesan, The Comedy of Errors)

CONOR MEEHAN he / him (Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret )

Conor Meehan is a versatile drummer currently based in western Massachusetts. As an in demand sideman, Conor has appeared on over 50 recordings and has toured extensively throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and Brazil. Since 2005, he has held the position “Artist Associate of Jazz Drums” at Williams College and has also served as a clinician at numerous summer institutes including Jazz in July at UMass and Interplay Jazz Workshop. Conor’s comfort playing a wide range of styles, from straight ahead jazz, to rock, r’n’b, samba and everything in between, has led to opportunities to work with artists across many genres, including Dr. John, Charles Neville, The Boston Pops, Brian MacNight, Honeyhoney, Ted Rosenthal Trio, John Medeski, David Spinozza, The Midtown Men, Reggie Workman, Albert Cummings, Jeremy Pelt, Heiruspecs, Sonya Kithcell, Samirah Evans, Whiskey Treaty Roadshow, Andy Suzuki & The Method, Norma Miller, Berkshire Symphony among many others.

BELLA MERLIN* she / her (Avis, A Body of Water ) S&Co: Eleanor/ Richard/et al (The Contention); Ursula/ George Seacoal (Much Ado About Nothing), Tilly (Tilly No-Body ), Maria (Twelfth Night ), Sir Hugh Evans (Merry Wives of Windsor ), Queen/Arviragus (Cymbeline), Trinculo (The Tempest ), Nerissa (The Merchant of Venice), Margaret (Worse Than Wolves), Outlaw (Two Gentlemen of Verona). Regional: Colorado Shakespeare Festival: Margaret (Richard III ), LA Phil: Nights and Dreams Shubert and Beckett. UK: Royal National Theatre: A Laughing Matter; The Permanent Way; She Stoops to Conquer. UK Regional includes: The Wild Tenant; The Seagull; As You Like It; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!; Anna Karenina Film includes: Mente Revolver (Best Feature at Granada Cines del Sur, 2018). Daejeon International Play Festival, South Korea (2024): Tilly No-Body. Numerous BBC TV and Radio. Publications include: Acting: The Basics (2023); Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence with Tina Packer (2020); With the Rogue’s Company: Henry IV at the National Theatre (2005), The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit (2014). Training: Russian University of Cinematography, Moscow; PhD from University of Birmingham, UK.

Distinguished Professor of Acting & Directing, University of California, Riverside. 2016 S&Co. Winter Intensive. Lives in Los Angeles with actor-husband Miles Anderson and Dempsey Dog.

The Winter’s Tale) Annette Miller has performed on Broadway, OffBroadway, in Boston, in Regional Theaters, and in Film and Television. She has been a leading actor at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass. for 25 seasons. Annette was awarded a Special Citation at the 2024 Elliott Norton awards ceremony, for her body of work and her recent sold-out reprisal of Golda’s Balcony at Shakespeare & Company and at Boston’s Emerson Paramount Theater, February and March 2024. She was acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as the best actor of the 2020 season in regional theater for her performance as Gladys Green in The Waverly Gallery She received the 2018 Berkshire Theater Critics Association Award for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Katherine in Mothers and Sons. Annette originated the role of Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony before it went to Broadway for which she received both Boston’s Elliot Norton Best Actor Award and the Independent Reviewers of New

ANNETTE MILLER* (Autolycus,

England Best Actor Award. In Florida, she received the Carbonell Best Actor Award nomination for her portrayal of Vi in August Osage County and the Elliot Norton Best Actor Nomination for her role as Martha Mitchell in Martha Mitchell Calling. Other favorite roles include Maria Callas in Master Class, Madam Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Vera in 4,000 Miles, Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop, Duchess of York in Richard III, and Maria in Twelfth Night. Film role credits include: Mrs. Tanken in Don’t Look Up with Leonardo DiCaprio, You Will Not Play Wagner (featuring Annette, which has been successfully seen at the New Plaza Cinema in NY and the Miami, Sarasota, Boca, Chicago, and Vancouver Jewish film Festivals and this June at the prestigious Berkshire International Film Festival.), Company Men , Autumn Heart , The Imported Bride Groom , The Next Karate Kid , The Eye Has to Travel (documentary on Diana Vreeland), and See How She Runs . On TV, Annette had recurring roles on As The World Turns and Ryan’s Hope. Other awards include the Boston Jewish Film Festival Award and the Zev Cohen Leadership Award. Annette studied with Stella Adler and holds a BA and MFA from Brandeis University. She is currently an Affiliate Scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center where she wrote and continues to perform for organizations and colleges. Now is Our Time: for a Theatrical Collage on the Pleasures and Perils of our Third Chapter

SUSANNAH MILLONZI* she / her (Dorcas / Hermione, The Winter’s Tale) Susannah Millonzi is an actor, dancer, choreographer based in NYC. Bedlam: Fall River Fishing, Hedda Gabler, The Crucible (Drama League nom. for Distinguished Performance 2020), Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet, New York Animals (Wall Street Journal Performance of the Year 2015), Dead Dog Park, Twelfth Night(s); Classic Stage Company: Prometheus Bound (feat. David Oyelowo); David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group: tough, the tough, 21st Annual Bessie Awards; Clubbed Thumb: Pageant; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Shakespeare & Company; Seattle Shakespeare Company (Footlight Award: Best Actor, Electra); Georgia Shakespeare Festival; Orlando Shakespeare Company; Elm Shakespeare; Boston Theatre Works. Choreographer for Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Company, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Esperance. B.A. Barnard College.

JACOB MING-TRENT* (Cocreator / Musician / Actor, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) TV: White Famous, Showtime (series regular), Watchmen, HBO (series regular), Ray Donovan, Showtime (Recurring), Feed the Beast, AMC (recurring). Also seen on, Only Murders in the Building, WUTANG: An American Saga, New Amsterdam, God Friended Me, High Maintenance, and several more. Film: Superfly, Forty-year-old Version, Snakes, R#J, Possession of Hannah Grace, The Bygone, Julie Taymour’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and others. Broadway: Shrek the Musical (Original cast), Hands on a Hardbody, (Original Cast). Off Broadway: The Harder They Come, Public Theatre, Lortel nomination Alchemist, Mammon, Redbull theater, Lortel nomination Merry Wives, Falstaff, Public theater, Drama Desk nomination Father Comes Home from the Wars, Public theater, Lortel Award. Twelfth Night, Sir Toby, Public Theater. Cymbeline, Public Theater. Mother Courage, CSC. Merchant of Venice, TFANA. Midsummer Night’s Dream, TFANA. Widowers Houses, Epic Theater Ensemble. Tempest, Public Theater. On the Levee, Lincoln Center.

AFSHEEN MISAGHI* (Arash, Three Tall Persian Women) Afsheen Misaghi is a performer and two time Tony Award ® nominated producer ( New York, New York, The Piano Lesson) based in New York. He has performed at numerous regional theaters including Mosaic Theater Company, Barrington Stage Company, Stageworks Theatre, American Stage Theatre Company, the Weathervane, and Gulfshore Playhouse. TV credits include Succession, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Power Book II: Ghost, FBI: Most Wanted, and Normal for Now. He received his BA in Theatre from West Virginia University, MFA in Theatre from the University of Florida, was a part of the 2022 ViacomCBS Showcase, and is a Fulbright alumnus.

DINNER FRIDAYS 3:30-8:00PM

POOYA MOHSENI* she / her (Mamani, Three Tall Persian Women)

Pooya Mohseni is a multi awardwinning Iranian American actor, writer, filmmaker and transgender activist. Her stage credits include an Obie win in the Pulitzer and Obie winning play English (Atlantic Theater Company and The Old Globe Theater), the world premiere of The Sex Party (Menier Chocolate Factory) in London, Hamlet (Play On Shakespeare Festival), One Woman (United Solo), She,He,Me (National Queer Theater), Our Town (Pride Plays), Galatea (The WP Project), The Good Muslim (EST), White Snake (Baltimore Center Stage), and the Audible production of Chonburi Hotel & The Butterfly Club (Williamstown Theater Festival). Her film and television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Big Dogs, Falling Water, Madam Secretary, Terrifier and See You Then. She’s represented by Headline Talent Agency and TGTalent.

ASHLEY MCCAULEY MOORE she / her (Balthasar / Courtesan, The Comedy of Errors) Ashley McCauley Moore is an actor originally from North Carolina, by way of Los Angeles CA. She is currently a third year graduate student at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, obtaining her MFA. Ashley has performed in a variety of stage plays and television shows. She has recently appeared in Romeo & Juliet as Juliet, Lynn Nottage Clyde’s as Letitia, and Chekov’s Three Sister’s as Masha. Ashley is no stranger to the Shake & Co. family. This is her second season with the theatre, returning from her debut of last year’s production of August Wilson’s Fences. She has worked for television networks such as Disney, ABC, and Netflix. Ashley is committed to the craft of acting and truthful storytelling. Her mission with every role is to have a human experience that gives the viewer a chance to live a different life.

KRISTEN MORIARTY she / her (Assistant Director, The Winter’s Tale; Anna {understudy}, The Islanders) S&Co: Jane (Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley ), Marsha (Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues), Jean Hatch (White Savior ), Mrs. Reynolds (The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley ), Provost / Mariana (Measure for Measure), Miss Bates (Emma), Olive (The Norwegians), Center for Actor Training Teaching Faculty, Training Programs Manager, Development (2019-2023); Chicago: Vitalist Theatre (contributing artist), Lifeline Theatre, Greasy Joan & Co., Emerald City Theatre, Attic Playhouse; Regionally: Elsewhere Shakespeare, Montana Repertory Theatre, Montana Actors Theatre, Classic Theatre Co., Tacoma Little Theatre, Toy Boat Theatre, Philipsburg Theatre. MFA in Acting and instructor of record, University of Montana; BFA Acting/ Dance, Adelphi University. In addition to earning her BFA and MFA in acting, Kristen is currently training to become a Designated Linklater Teacher, and is a proud alumna of Shakespeare & Company’s Month-long Intensive, which changed her teaching trajectory, her acting career, and her life. Kristen lives with her husband Graham and their two daughters in Lenox where she plays out the best roles ever of wife and mom. This is for them, for Dennis, and for you—the audience; thank you for being here and keeping live theater alive.

MICHELLE MOUNTAIN* she / her (Anna, The Islanders) Michelle is delighted to be here, doing this beautiful play in this wonderful theatre. She first met playwright Carey Crim in 1998 at the Purple Rose Theatre Company where they were part of the original cast of Lanford Wilson’s Book of Days; they’ve remained good friends and colleagues ever since.

Favorite roles include Allison in Never Not Once, Abigail in Morning After Grace , Molly in Wake, Katherine Brandt in 33 Variations , Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Thank you Carey, Regge, “ranney”, and Vince.

KEVIN O’ROURKE* (Moss, A Body of Water ) Kevin O’Rourke has performed on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Spoils of War, and Alone Together, as well as The City of Conversation at Lincoln Center, Outside Mullingar at The White Heron, The Night Alive at John Drew, and productions at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, Roundabout, Long Wharf, Primary Stages and Baltimore’s Centerstage. Locally, Kevin has both directed and performed with Williamstown Theatre Festival and has appeared at Barrington Stage, Berkshire Playwrights Lab and Great Barrington Public. Television roles include Madam Secretary, Law and Order, The Sopranos, and VEEP. He won a SAG Award for his role as Edward Bader on Boardwalk Empire and was nominated for his role on AMC’s Remember Wenn. Films include The Irishman, The Aviator, American Pickle, Vice Versa, and Freeheld. In 2005 he founded the Williams College Summer Theatre Lab and for 10 years served as its Artistic Director. Kevin and his wife live in Williamstown.

TINA PACKER (Director, The Winter’s Tale; Founding Artistic Director) Born in England, Tina was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, performed in regional theater, was an Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company, played in television series for the BBC and ITV, and arrived in the U.S. in 1974. She had a Ford Foundation Travel and Study Grant to research the visceral roots of Shakespeare’s plays, and travelled to India, Israel, Italy and the U.S. She co-founded Shakespeare &Company in 1978, and has worked for the Company ever since! She has directed all of Shakespeare’s

plays (some of them several times), acted in eight of them (never when directing) and taught the whole canon at more than 30 colleges, including Harvard, M.I.T., and NYU. At Columbia University, she taught in the MBA program for four years, resulting in the publication of Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Center for Quality Management at Columbia Business School Professor John O. Whitney for Simon and Schuster. For Scholastic, she wrote Tales from Shakespeare, a children’s book and recipient of the Parent’s Gold Medal Award. Tina was the subject of WGBH documentary Sex, Violence and Poetry: A Portrait of Tina Packer. Tina’s book Women of Will was published by Knopf, and she has performed Women of Will with Nigel Gore in New York, Mexico, England, The Hague, China, and across the U.S. Charlie Rose interviewed Tina about her book Women of Will and she spoke at a TEDx talk about Women’s Voices. Her directing work is currently being written about in a work entitled Shakespeare in the Theatre: Tina Packer by Katharine Goodland, and will be published by BloomsburyArden for their Shakespeare in the Theatre Series.

S&Co acting credits include: Shirley Valentine, Molly Ivins , The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Mother of the Maid ; Volumnia, Gertrude, Cleopatra, and Edith Wharton several times. She’s the recipient of numerous awards and six honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.

NAIRE POOLE* she / they (Abbess / Merchant / Officer, The Comedy of Errors) Naire Poole is fresh off of her performance in Barrington Stage Company’s 10x10 Festival! Her selected credits include: Theater: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Wickams: Christmas at Pemberly, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare & Company); 10x10 Ten Minute Play Festival (Barrington Stage Company); Way Beyond Water (St. Pete Opera); hang, The Crucible, The Cake (Asolo Rep); Glengarry Glenross, Clybourne Park, Mud, A Chip on Her Shoulder, Oh the Humanity (Virginia Tech Theater); Hamlet #inpieces,

Tuk in the Arctic, The Outsider, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (ODU REP). Film and television: Wet Things, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, George. MFA 2021 (FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training).

When she isn’t tackling work that explores challenging societal structures, she is directing and teaching, ablaze to adjust theaters into inclusive, healing, and transcendent spaces. She’s grounded by family and lifted by friends. salu. blm.

“ranney”* (Dutch, The Islanders) “ranney” has five decades in the performing arts as a multidisciplinarian. Acting credits include August Wilson, Brucie ( How I Learned What I Learned; Sweat, Ensemble Theatre Company); Doaker (The Piano Lesson, A Public Fit Theatre Company); Troy, Benny, Mark (Fences; Hymn; Art, Shakespeare & Company); Luke, Polonius/Gravedigger, Toledo, Troy Maxson ( Amen Corner; Hamlet; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Fences, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company); Hambone, Sterling (Two Trains Running; Radio Golf, American Stage Company); King Hedley, Chutes & Ladders (Seven Guitars; Water By the Spoonful, Nevada Conservatory Theatre); Boy Willie (The Piano Lesson, Center Theatre Co.); Adriana/ Antipholis/others (The Bomb-itty of Errors, American Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Helix in Dublin, Ireland, and Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End). As a comedian, he has headlined internationally and shared billing with Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, and Paul Mooney. Nine one man shows include And the Horse You Rode In On (Projects Arts Centre, Dublin), Whatever (People’s Improv Theater, NY), Incendiary (The Straz Center, Tampa), and Cufflinks and Jolly Ranchers for Dummies (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland).

KENNETH RANSOM* he / him (Camillo, The Winter’s Tale) Kenneth Ransom is an international actor and teacher with over 30 years of experience in theatre, film and television. He reunited with Shakespeare & Company last summer, appearing in The Contention (Somerset, et al) and Fences (Bono) after a twenty-year hiatus. He returned to the Boston area to teach at Emerson College.

Other recent acting credits include The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power ; The Wilds ; and Gods of Egypt (as the Sphinx).

On Stage, Kenneth collaborated with Mary Zimmerman on her Australian production of Metamorphoses and Dr. Wang Xiaoying of the National Theatre of China on his Australian production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Kenneth has worked for The Mark Taper Forum, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare (Sydney) and every major Australian Theater Festival. Actors Equity, SAG/AFTRA and Australian Equity

VICTORIA RHOADES she / her (Assistant Director, The Winter’s Tale) Tori is a director, choreographer, performer, educator, and specialist in Shakespeare, gender, culture, and human psychological development. For 26 years, she has worked in Shakespeare & Company’s Education and Actor-Training programs as a Teacher/Director, Senior Faculty in Movement and Text, and independent researcher of S&Co’s methods. Education: PhD and MA, NYU; BS in Acting, Northwestern. Training: classical dance, Laban/Bartenieff and Trish Arnold movement techniques, Shakespeare & Co, TO, Ed Theatre,

Drama and Movement Therapies, trauma studies, trauma-informed yoga, Somatic Embodiment/ Regulation, Intimacy Coordination, Relational Psychology, and study in experiences of women, girls, non-binary and trans people. She has taught and directed for NYU, Pitt Stages, Point Park U, Emerson College, S&Co’s Fall Festival, high/ middle schools throughout the country, Lavender Door Theatre, S&Co, Ion Sound, PICT, Quantum Theatre, and worked in feature film production for ten years. Member: SAG/AFTRA, AEA, USW, AATE and the YTJ Editorial Board. Director of The SAGE Center.

ANNA ROCK she / her (Adrianna {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors ) Anna Rock is delighted to join Shakespeare & Co. after loving the Fall Festival at age 15! ~Recent credits~ Texas Shakespeare Festival: Taming of the Shrew (Katherina), Nell Gwynn (Nancy), The Music Man (Mrs. Shinn), Hamlet (Polonius/Gravedigger), Much Ado About Nothing (Dogberry/ Ursula), Lost Nation Theater: As You Like It (Rosalind), Kate Hamill’s Pride & Prejudice (Mr. Bingley/ Mary), Winnipesaukee Playhouse: On Golden Pond (Chelsea), Peterborough Players: Wind in the Willows (Rat), Monsterpiece Theater: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck), and 31 Trump supporters in the Off-Broadway solo show Trump Rally. Training: Sarah Lawrence College, Moscow Art Theater School, National Theatre Institute, Accademia dell’Arte, UCB. See Anna perform improv in NYC with Story Pirates, and listen to her on podcasts like Wondery’s The Cat in the Hat Cast, The Story Pirates Podcast, and Little Miss Kate - Ward of the State. Love to everybody I’ve ever met! Even Lucy, Mom, Dad, and Sean!

OLIVIA SBLENDORIO (Dromio of Syracuse / Luce {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors)

JENNIFER SCAPETIS she / her (Dialect Coach, Flight of the Monarch ) Jennifer’s selected theatre Voice/Text /Dialect Coaching credits include Hartford Stage ( Pride and Prejudice ), Berkshire Theatre Group ( Photograph 51, Dracula, Once, The Importance of Being Earnest, Shirley Valentine, Holiday Memories, What the Jews Believe, Outside Mullingar, Church & State, A Christmas Carol ), Goodspeed Musicals (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Billy Elliot, Cabaret, Private Jones ), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park ( A Christmas Carol ), 59E59 NYC, Bay Street Theater, Playhouse on Park West Hartford, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, The Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Saratoga Shakespeare Company, 45 Downstairs (Melbourne, Australia), The Rose Theatre Bankside (London), and the Oval Theatre (London). Jennifer teaches on the MFA and BFA Acting programs at University of Connecticut and coaches for the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. Jennifer has performed in theatre, film, TV and audiobook narration and has directed voice over including Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s fully produced radio play It’s a Wonderful Life.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(Playwright, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale) He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. His works, including some collaborations, consist of about 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

KATHLEEN H. SOLTAN* she / her (Stage Manager, Plays in Process; Assistant Stage Manager, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale) Kathleen H. Soltan is one of two goodly ASMs —one so like the other as could not be distinguished but by names. Kathleen is a Philadelphia based Stage Manager and Creator. Selected Theatre Credits: King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, Macbeth with Shakespeare & Company, I Do! I Do! with Purple Crayon Productions, Cadillac Crew, Kamloopa with WAM Theater Company, Noises Off!, Othello, The Birds, The Handmaid’s Tale with CurioTheatre Company. Selected Training: BA Theater Temple University. Creative Inspiration: Kathleen is dedicated to providing and promoting safe spaces for all Performers, Designers, and Artistic Creators. Special thanks to Diane, Dennis, the cast and crew, and to SPF 50!

LIZ STANTON she / her (Sound Designer, The Comedy of Errors) Liz is a multifaceted theatre artist. She is an actor, singer, sound designer, composer, and teacher. She creates award-winning devised theatre pieces, composes music for theatrical sound scores, and an opera based on The Bacchae. Recent sound designs include: This Is It (Shakespeare & Company), Medusa Volution (Fringe Arts Philly), The Man in the Newspaper Hat (Pandemic Films), Off the Wall: The Zany Plays (52nd St Project), The Yellow Wallpaper (Cleveland Public Theatre), Antigonick (Whitman College Theatre), Distant Shores (A Dance Film), Murrow (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble), Refracting Miss Julie (OneArmRed), Fracked or Friction (Naropa University). Liz received her MFA in Theatre: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University. She teaches psycho physical acting and physically embodied and extended voice for graduate and undergraduate students. She has taught at NYU/ETW, Naropa University (BFA and MFA), Denison University, Salem State University, CUNY Staten Island. She is an Associate Professor at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

EVAN STEVENS* he / him (Dromio of Ephesus, The Comedy of Errors ) Evan is thrilled to be making his Shakespeare & Company debut performance! Hailing from Boise, he began his professional training as an Idaho Shakespeare Festival (ISF) apprentice and subsequently performed in three back-to-back (ISF) touring productions: As You Like It (Orlando), Julius Caesar (Casca), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck). A graduate of Boise State University (BA Acting/Dance Minor), Evan continued performing, choreographing, and teaching with professional dance companies to include LED Boise, Idaho Dance Theatre, and Project Flux. Following selection to the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, he completed his MFA and SDFD Stage Combat Certification. His most recent credits Include Christopher in The Sound Inside at the Urbanite Theatre Sarasota and D’Artagnan in Asolo Rep’s production of Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers Evan would like to thank Shakespeare & Company for this amazing opportunity, his Father for his continued unconditional support, and our audience for supporting Live theater!

JACLYN STEVENSON she / her (Musician, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret; Director of Marketing & Communications) This is Jaclyn’s first season as a performer with Shakespeare & Company, and her third as its Director of Marketing & Communications. Recent credit as a performer or speaker include: A Conversation with Best-selling Author Terry Hayes (The Mahaiwe); Poet 47, The Very Large Poem (WordxWord at The Mount); feature violin at Bousquet Mountain Jam and The Iron Horse with Shakedown, and feature violin,

PVPA Dance Company. Additional credits include television: Songwriter, singer, and violinist, Undressed, Mtv. Albums: feature violin, Piano Planet, Derrick Cummings; singer and violinist, Pass the Sombrero, Singer Bad Dancer; feature violin, Matinee, Rob Cushing, and singer/violinist, the Cape Cod Musicians’ Social album. ANDREW STOUT (Dromio of Ephesus {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors)

DEB SULLIVAN^ (Light Designer, The Islanders) Deb is a Bostonbased lighting designer with off-broadway, regional, local and educational credits. Previous work with Shakespeare & Co: Cymbeline, Twelfth Night and HIR This season's work included Romeo and Juliet with Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Mermaid Hour with MoonBox Productions and Trouble in Mind with Lyric Stage Boston. Memorable designs on stages with Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Brandeis University, Dorset Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, New Rep, The Public Theater/NYSF, Trinity Repertory Company, and The Curley K-8 Boston Public School. Member IATSE United Scenic Artists Local 829.

CRISTINA TODESCO^ (Set Designer, The Islanders) Ms. Todesco returns to Shakespeare & Company where she previously designed Topdog/Underdog, Twelfth Night and Macbeth. Theater companies include Actors Shakespeare Project, Capital Rep, ART Institute, Company One, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, the Culture Project, Huntington Theatre, Boston Playwrights, Merrimack Repertory Theater, New Repertory Theater, New England Conservatory, Olney Theater Center, Orfeo Group, Poet’s Theater, Speakeasy Stage Company, Harbor Stage, Summer Play Festival, Trinity Rep, Wheelock Family Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival among many more. She has designed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra at both Symphony Hall in Boston and at Tanglewood in Lenox. For Outstanding Design, she is the recipient of four Elliot Norton Awards and an

IRNE Award. She earned a BFA in painting from Boston University’s School of Visual Arts, and an MFA in scenic design from BU’s School of Theatre Arts, where she currently teaches. Ms Todesco is a board member and founding artist tenant of Humphreys Street Studios Artist Collective, one of the first majority artist owned and operated affordable artist communities in perpetuity in the City of Boston. She’s also a founding member of #artstayhere, an organization dedicated to helping prevent artist displacement.

TRAINOR JR.* he / him (Egeon / Pinch, The Comedy of Errors) Dennis is an actor, writer, director, and teacher making his Shakespeare & Company debut. Recent acting credits include How I Learned To Drive, Let The Right One In, and The Merchant of Venice (Actors’ Shakespeare Project) and The Inheritance (Speakeasy Stage). Additionally, has appeared at New Rep, Gloucester Stage, Company One, Lyric Stage, Soho Rep, The Flea, The Kraine, and others. As a playwright, his plays include Manifest Destiny’s Child (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Plug, and I Coulda Been a Kennedy (Rude Mechanicals). Directing credits include Antigone or And Still She Must Rise Up (Boston Conservatory), The Trojan Women: A Love Story (Stonehill College), Plug, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rude Mechanicals). He Produced and Directed the documentaries American Autumn and Legalize Democracy. Dennis was the founding co-artistic director of the NYC-based Rude Mechanicals Theater Company. Currently, he serves an Associate Professor of Theater at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

DENNIS

ESTHER VAN EEK she / her (Costume Designer, The Islanders) Esther Van Eek, a proud member of CITT/ICTS, USITT, and the Associated Designers of Canada, designs primarily costumes in Canada and the USA. She holds a BFA in Visual Art from Calvin University and an MFA in Production Design from the George Washington University.

An award-winning designer and educator, Esther teaches production and design at the University of Windsor and mentors up-and-coming designers. She collaborated with several colleagues to write The Art and Practice of Costume Design and appears as a guest artist in Rafael Jaen’s Digital Costume Design and Collaboration: Applications in Academia, Theatre, and Film. Esther serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology and is the ViceCommissioner of Design for USITT’s Costume Commission.

When not designing or teaching, Esther continues her artistic practice as a printmaker and painter.

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

- Mark Twain

GABRIELLA WALKO she / her (Stage Manager, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret; Assistant Stage Manager, Flight of the Monarch) Gabriella Walko is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She recently completed a BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh. Recent theatre credits include: Spring Awakening: Wendla Bergmann (Pitt Stages), A...My Name is Still Alice: Stage Manager (Front Porch Theatricals), Stage Management Production Assistant (Pittsburgh CLO); John Proctor is the

Villain: Student, u/s Beth, Bailey (Pitt Stages); Falsettos: Apprentice Stage Manager (Front Porch Theatricals); Abduction: A Musical Comedy: Gleep Glorp, Ensemble (Pitt Stages); Seven Guitars: Asst. Lighting Designer (Pitt Stages); Harriet Tubman...Railroad: Asst. Stage Manager (Primestage Theatre Co.).

PEGGY WALSH (Costume Designer, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ) Peggy has spent most of her career designing for Musical Theatre.

Favorite design projects are Children of Eden, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Angels in America, and Pirates of Penzance. Since moving to the Berkshires in 2011, she continues her work as a Costume Designer for Shakespeare & Company’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare. She also designs for Barrington Stage, Pittsfield’s Shakespeare in the Park, Berkshire Community College and various other theatres in the tristate area.

JAMES WARWICK† he / him (Director, A Body of Water ) James Warwick has been a resident US theatre director since 2000. He trained as an actor in his native England at the Royal Central School in London and played leading roles in repertory theatres and in London’s West End. James first came to the US to play King Arthur in Camelot on a national tour, and Sir Robert Chiltern in An Ideal Husband on Broadway. He has featured in many UK TV series including Lillie, Dr. Who, The Bell and Tommy Beresford in Partners in Crime for BBC/PBS Masterpiece Theatre. In the US, James voiced Qui Jon Jinn in Star Wars video games and narrates audiobooks, including Death in Venice, to be released this summer. As an actor and director, James has worked in many regional theatres and

in 2018, directed Mothers and Sons at S&C, followed by The Children by Lucy Kirkwood, Ionesco’s The Chairs, Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods, and Lunar Eclipse by Donald Margulies. In August, he returns to Chester to direct Big Big Sky by Tom Wells. James has received awards from Spotlight, BAFTA, Ovation, Helen Hayes, Showcase, Audiofile Magazine, The Berkshire Eagle and The Berkshire Theatre Critics Assn.

MADELINE WELTCHEK (Angela {understudy}, The Comedy of Errors)

LUKE WILLSON he / him (Light Designer, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret ; Electrics Supervisor) Luke Willson is a New-York based emerging lighting designer and theatrical electrician. Next year Luke will graduate from Fordham University having designed, managed, and/or programmed over 40 shows. He recently completed a Lighting and Projection Design Observership with Manhattan Theatre Club for their production of Poor Yella Rednecks, an experience that he will treasure forever. He is so excited to join all of the wonderful people at Shakespeare & Company this summer. Thank you so much for coming to support live theater!

KRISTOFER WILSON he / him (Luce / 2nd Merchant / Messenger, The Comedy of Errors; Antipholus of Syracuse {understudy} The Comedy of Errors; Young Clown, The Winter's Tale) Kristofer Wilson is stoked to be making his professional debut at Shakespeare & Company! Kristofer is an actor and poet with a flair for classical text, dedicated to giving voice to the black experience and making space for black voices in classical material. He is currently pursuing his BFA in Acting from NYU Tisch through Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Previous credits include: Lenny in In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, Prospero in The Tempest, George

in Intimate Apparel (NYU/Stella Adler); Moorey in Vegetarian (Original Work; Citizen Arts). Thanks to God, my family and all my teachers as well as Shakespeare & Company’s Summer Shakespeare Intensive faculty.

THERON WINEINGER^ he / him (Set Designer, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale) Theron Wineinger is an NYC-based scenic and production designer. Scenic Design: Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues (Shakespeare & Company), My First Nutcracker and The Giant Hoax (Theatre Row, NYC), The Great Hunger (The Tank, NYC), Playdate (Dixon Place, NYC), The 39 Steps (Summer Rep Theatre, CA), A Man’s World (Williamstown Theatre Festival, MA). Television: The Kelly Clarkson Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Kids Tonight Show (NBC, Asst. Art Director), 2 Joysticks & A Couch (Twitch, Production Designer). Event Design: Netflix Upfront Presentation 2024, LEGOLAND New York Brick-orTreat 2022, Lost Canyon Christmas at Big Cedar Lodge 2023, 60+ Trade Shows for Proctor & Gamble. Associate Design: Aerosmith Peace Out Tour 2023, Ringling Circus Tour 2023, The Rose Tattoo (Broadway), Anastasia 2nd U.S. National Tour. BFA in Scenic Design from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Winner, USITT’s Oren Parker Undergraduate Scene Design Award. Proud Member, USA 829.

SHARMARKE YUSUF* he / him (Antipholus of Ephesus, The Comedy of Errors; Florizel, The Winter’s Tale) Sharmarke Yusuf is a Brooklynbased actor, poet, playwright, and photographer. He was born & raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a BFA in Contemporary Theater and a minor in

Creative Writing. Regional: K-I-S-SI-N-G (The Huntington, Elliot Norton Award Nomination for Outstanding Leading Performance), Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (Lyric Stage Company), BLKS (SpeakEasy Stage Company, Elliot Norton Award Winner for Oustanding Performance by an Actor), People, Places & Things (SpeakEasy Stage Company). TV: Castle Rock (Hulu).

CHRISTINE ZAK she / her (Assistant Stage Manager, A Body of Water, Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, The Comedy of Errors ) Christine studied at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, where she graduated with a degree in theatre, with a stage management concentration, and a dance minor. Some of her previous credits include The Threepenny Opera (PSM), Mary

Poppins Jr. (co-technical director + lighting designer), Adult Child/ Dead Child (director), The Saint Plays (DSM + choreographer), The Sound of Music (show caller), Spring Awakening (choreographer), and Into the Woods (ASM). Christine has previously worked with Shakespeare & Company on their production of Golda’s Balcony as a rehearsal ASM, and she is thrilled to be back with the company!

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (“Equity”), founded May 26, 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. Equity is governed by its own members through an elected Council, representing principal actors, chorus actors and stage managers living in three regions: Eastern, Central and Western. Members at large participate in Equity’s governance through a system of regional Boards and Committees. Equity has 28 designated area liaison cities with over 100 members each. #EquityWorks

* Appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

† This director is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

^ This designer is represented by United Scenic Artists – Local USA 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Shakespeare & Company operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Shakespeare & Company is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theater.

Shakespeare & Company is a constituent of The Shakespeare Theatre Association, a forum for theatres involved in the production of works of William Shakespeare.

Left to Right: Christopher Lloyd, Caroline Calkins, L. James, David Gow, Nigel Gore and Dana Harrison Hamlet: A Staged Reading, 2023. Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

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