Remo Airaldi has appeared with CSC in Cymbeline, Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentleman of Verona, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew. He has appeared in over sixty productions at the American Repertory Theater, including Night of the Iguana, Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), and Island of Slaves (IRNE Award—Outstanding Actor). Other credits: Shakespeare in Love (Speakeasy Stage), Murder on the Orient Express, Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Foxes, My Fair Lady, and Sweeney Todd (Lyric Stage), Exposed (Boston Playwrights’ Theater), Mistero Buffo (The Poets’ Theatre), Frankenstein and The Hound of the Baskervilles (Central Square Theater),The King of Second Avenue (New Repertory Theatre) and productions at Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Cirque du Soleil, American Conservatory Theater, Walnut Street Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. He teaches acting, improvisation and public speaking at Harvard University.

Marianna Bassham returns to CSC after appearing as Desdemona in Othello.  Other credits include Becoming Cuba (Huntington Theatre) and The Cherry Orchard with Actors’ Shakespeare Project where she is a resident acting company member.  She is an IRNE and Elliot Norton award winner and has worked with SpeakEasy Stage, New Repertory Theatre, Elm Shakespeare, The Lyric Stage, and many others.  Film: “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Olive Kitteridge”.

Conner Christiansen returns to CSC after appearing as Larry in the American Voices reading of Burn This.  Boston area credits: The Blue Flower (A.R.T.), Speech & Debate (Lyric Stage and the Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theater), Holiday Memories (Huntington Theater/Olney Theater), White Rabbit (World Premiere with Valley Arts Project). Other regional credits: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (New Stage Collective), Angels in America (NKU Theater), The Factory and Four Food Groups (Pones Inc. ), Education: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and Boston University, BFA in Acting.

Sheree Galpert is a veteran of regional theaters across the country.  Some of her favorite performances include Much Ado About Nothing, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Diary of Anne Frank, and The Miser.  Sheree has taught theater at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.  She is the founder and principal of Dramatic Results, a Boston-based consulting firm that works with corporations on organizational issues and using scenes and improvisation.  Sheree received her Masters in Organization Development from American University/NTL, and her BFA in Theater from University of Washington.

Woody Gaul studied acting at the University of Maine, Orono, and numerous studios in New York City.  Boston area credits include The Clearing (Wellesley Summer Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Arts After Hours), Luther (Apollinaire Theatre), and Hamlet (Vokes Theater).

Jerry Goodwin CSC: Twelfth Night (Captian/Priest), The Boys from Syracuse (Duke) and Kiss Me Kate (Harrison Howell) with the Landmarks Orchestra.  Other credits include The Brother/Sister Plays (The Man from State), Hamlet (Polonius), The View From the Bridge (Eddie Carbone), and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Mr, Utterson).

Nile Hawver is a Boston-based actor, musician, photographer, and fight director. Previous work with CSC includes fight consultation for Birdy, Death and the Maiden, fight direction for Our American Hamlet, fight direction for CSC2’s Romeo and Juliet and playing Sebastian (Twelfth Night) on the Common in 2014. As an actor: Once at Speakeasy Stage. Breath and Imagination; (Lyric Stage) ,Man of La Mancha; (New Repertory Theatre), Edward II; (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Finish Line, (Boston Theater Company); Violet and Mothers and Sons, (Speakeasy Stage); Etherdome, (Huntington Theatre Company), Central Square Theatre, Greater Boston Stage Company, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Ocean State Theatre Company, and more. MFA: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When he’s offstage, Nile is usually behind a camera, taking photos for actors and theatre companies, including CSC, throughout Boston. Huge thanks to Steve for all of the creative collaborations! www.nilehawver.com | www.nilescottstudios.com 

Robert Najarian is an actor, instructor, and fight director.  As a performer, he has been seen in more than 40 productions with such companies as the A.R.T., Washington National Opera, and Punchdrunk where he was an original US cast member of the critically acclaimed show Sleep No More.  He has toaught in the U.S., Canada the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.

Kerry O’Malley For CSC: Kate in Kiss Me Kate. Broadway: Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (also the Wang Center in Boston), Into the Woods (2002, Outer Critics and Drama Desk Award Nominations), On a Clear Day, Billy Elliot, Annie Get Your Gun, Translations, Cyrano. Television: “Those Who Kill” (series regular), “Shameless” (recurring), “Boardwalk Empire” (recurring), “Brotherhood” (recurring), “Hart of Dixie” (recurring), “Survivor’s Remorse”. “Masters of Sex”, “Rizzoli & Isles”, “The Mentalist”, “Bones”, “Law & Order, L&O, SVU, L&O, LA”, “Monk”.  Film: “Terminator Genesis”, “Case 39”, “The Happening”, “Rounders”, “Side Effects”, “Certainty”, “Annabelle”, “Earth to Echo”. www.kerryomalley.net

Robert Pemberton Previous prosecutions include Art, Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune, and Speed the Plow (IRNE Award). Other credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Ponies, Dinner With Friends, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Elliot Norton Award), and Much Ado About Nothing (Elliot Norton Award). Film: “By the Sea” (nominated for Latin Oscar), “Treading Water”, Boondock Saints”, “The Exchange”, “Gentleman from Boston”, “The Still Point”, “The New England Connection”, “Temps”, and “Anathema”, among others. Television: “The Brotherhood” (Showtime), “Another World”, “Guiding Light”, and “Unsolved Mysteries”.

Juan C. Rodriguez CSC: All’s Well That Ends Well (Ensemble), Apprentice Program Alum (2011), Teaching Artist.  Boston Area Credits: The Lover (Bridge Rep of Boston), Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nina Variations (Brown Box Theatre Project), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Apollinaire Theatre Company). Since graduation CSC’s Apprentice Program, Juan has visited local schools and Boys & Girls Clubs as a company teaching artist.

Nick Chris Past credits include Arcadia (Valentine) with Bad Habit Productions, Some Explicit Polaroids (Victor) and  Twelfth Night (Feste) with Brown Box Theatre Project.  BFA in Acting from Emerson College. MFA at the New School for Drama.

Fleece’s past performances include Luckiest Kid (White Pines Productions, PA), Awake and Sing! (South Camden Theatre Company, NJ), I Do Wonder (Gene Frankel Theatre, NYC), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare & Company, MA), Chez PIerre (Theatre de la Jeune Lune, MN), and The Compound (UglyRhino Productions, NYC). Graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London.

Amanda Cate Fuller Two seasons with The Drilling Company in New York, two seasons with Shakespeare on the Cape, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Payomet Performing Arts Center.  The New School for Drama. BFA from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Actor’s Training Program.

Jesse Gabbard returns to CSC after appearing in Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet. The Taming of the Shrew, and A Comedy of Errors with the Yale Repertory Theatre, Trojan Women with Powerhouse Theatre, The Happy Prince, Still Life with Iris, and Tiger, Tiger, Tiger with Long Wharf Theatre.

Charlotte Kinder returns to CSC after appearing in Romeo & Juliet (Juliet) with CSC2 and in Twelfth Night in 2014.  Other credits include Greenland (Apollinaire Theatre Co.), Bully Dance (Argos Productions), and The How and the Why (One Bird Productions).  Charlotte earned her BA in Theatre Studies from Wheaton College. www.charlottekinder.com

Timothy Kopacz last appeared with CSC as Curio in Twelfth Night.  Other credits include Julius Caesar, The Love of the Nightingale, and Seven Sicknesses. 

Steven Maler is the Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC). At CSC he has been directing Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common productions since 1996, including Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello, The Comedy Of Errors, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Romeo & Juliet. Other CSC works include his critically acclaimed production of Naomi Wallace’s adaptation of William Wharton’s novel Birdy, Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, the world premiere of Jake Broder’s Our American Hamlet, and the world premiere of Robert Brustein’s The Last Will.  In collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra, he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring the Overture and Incidental Music of Felix Mendelssohn, as well as concert stagings of The Boys from Syracuse and Kiss Me Kate at Boston’s iconic Hatch Shell.  For CSC he has also directed one-night-only readings of iconic plays featuring Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Blair Brown, Tony Shalhoub, Brooke Adams, Leslie Uggams, David Morse, and Jeffrey Donovan among others.  He conceived and directed Shakespeare at Fenway, an evening of Shakespeare scenes performed at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park, featuring Mike O’Malley, Neal McDonough, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, Kerry O’Malley, Seth Gilliam, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Max Von Essen, Christian Coulson, Jason Butler Harner, and many others.

In collaboration with Google, he adapted and directed a first of its kind sixty minute virtual reality film of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, entitled Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, starring Jack Cutmore-Scott, Jay O. Sanders, Brooke Adams, and Faran Tahir.  It is currently available for viewing on Boston public media producer GBH’s YouTube channel; for more information, visit www.wgbh.org/hamlet360.

Outside of CSC, he directed Maria, Regina D’Inghilterra for Odyssey Opera, Péter Eötvös’ operatic treatment of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (U.S. Premiere) and Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face for Opera Boston, The Turn of the Screw at New Repertory Theatre, Santaland Diaries and Chay Yew’s Porcelain at SpeakEasy Stage Company, Top Girls and Weldon Rising at Coyote Theatre, and The L.A. Plays by Han Ong at A.R.T. His New York City credits include the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Without You, written by and starring Anthony Rapp. The production has been seen in Boston, Edinburgh, Toronto, London, and Seoul.

He received the prestigious Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, as well as for Best Production for Twelfth Night and All’s Well That Ends Well; Outstanding Director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Best Production, SubUrbia; Best Solo Performance, John Kuntz’s Starf***ers (which also won Best Solo Performance Award at New York International Fringe Festival). His feature film “The Autumn Heart,” starring Tyne Daly and Ally Sheedy was in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April, which is also believed to be the date on which he died in 1616. Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes referred to as the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not the only things he wrote. Shakespeare’s poetry has also remained popular to this day.

Shakespeare’s work includes 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, a collection of 154 sonnets, and other poems as well. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays are known to exist today, and about half of Shakespeare’s plays are only available to us because a group of actors in his company collected them for publication after his death. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio (‘Folio’ refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, and none of his poetry. Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures, and his plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film.

His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by different entities, which usually include all of his plays, his sonnets, and his other poems. From Stratford to London and beyond, William Shakespeare was and is one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

Cristina Todesco is pleased to work with CSC again, having previously designed Corialanus, and Twelfth Night on Boston Common. Theater companies include Actor’s Shakespeare Project, ART Institute, Company One, the Culture Project, Gloucester Stage, Huntington Theatre, Boston Playwrights, Merrimack Repertory Theater, New England Conservatory, New Repertory Theater, Olney Theater Center, Orfeo Group, Poet’s Theater, Shakespeare and Company, 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 Symphony Hall in Boston and at Tanglewood and is a designer for Sally Taylor’s Consenses: Come to Your Senses exhibit currently showing at Mass MOCA.  For Outstanding Design, she is the recipient of four Eliot Norton Awards and an IRNE. 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.

Nancy Leary is a Costume Designer who’s visionary work for Opera and Theater has graced stages across the United States. Experienced in producing both highly conceptual and more traditional models of Opera and Theater costuming, Nancy has successfully applied her expertise to a wide array of theatrical styles and artistic endeavors.  From 2000 to the present Nancy has worked on well-established productions, recently developed pieces, and the premier of new works for such places as; Opéra Royal Château de Versailles, Glimmerglass Festival, The Pittsburg Symphony, Virginia Opera, Utah Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Saratoga, Mannes Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Mobile Opera, Juilliard Opera, Opera Boston, as well as Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.mpany, Westin Playhouse, The Julie Harris Theatre, The Barrow Group Theatre, and New York Live Arts to name a few.

David Remedios CSC: Romeo and Juliet (2017); Our American Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Twelfth Night (2014, IRNE nom.), The Last Will, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello. Recent: Knyum, The Royale, Women in Jeopardy!, The Making of a Great Moment, Merrimack Rep; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Scottsboro Boys (IRNE Award), SpeakEasy Stage; Wild Horses, The Niceties, Contemporary American Theater Festival; The Effect, Gloucester Stage; Faithful Cheaters, Trinity Rep; Finish Line, Boston Theater Company at Shubert Theatre. Other regional and local credits include Geva Theatre, 59E59, Huntington Theatre, Studio Theatre, Portland Stage, Theatre for a New Audience, American Repertory Theatre, Centerstage Baltimore, LaJolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, among many others. International: prominent arts festivals in Bogotá, Paris, Hong Kong and Edinburgh. David is Assistant Professor and Program Head of Sound Design at Boston University. remediosssound.com.

Yo-El Cassell’s CSC credits include Comedy of Errors, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello, Coriolanus, Two Gentleman of Verona, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kiss Me Kate and Symphonic Shakespeare with Boston Landmarks Orchestra. Off Broadway: Moonlight Interior. Many productions with American Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, New England Conservatory, Boston Opera Collaborative, and Nantucket Dreamland Theatre.  He has taught at Boston Ballet, Skidmore College, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, The New England Conservatory, and Harvard University Dance Department.

Margaret Kayes is excited to be returning to the Common this summer for one of her favorite plays. CSC: Coriolanus, Othello.  Stoheham Theatre: The Secret Garden, The Unbleached American, Something’s Afoot, Miracle on 34th Street, The Marvelous Wonderettes, These Shining Lives, Thoroughly Modern Millie, It’sA Wonderful Life, The Full Monty, Romeo and Juliet.  New England Conservatory: L’incoronazione di Poppea, The Turn of the Screw. Lyric Stage Company: One Man, Two Guvnors.  North Shore Music Theatre: Footloose.  Opera Boston: La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein, Tancredi, The Bartered Bride, The Nose, Der Freischütz.

Jo Williams is the Production Manager for Tufts University Department of Drama and Dance.  She has a background in stage management and special events and continues to do freelance work in the New England area.

Joey Frangieh is a projection designer and director, his designs have been seen in Texas, New York, Utah, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Previous work with Underground Railway Theater, Cape Cod Symphony, Columbia University, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, People Movers, and Atlantic Steps. He was the 2013 lecturer for the Shakespeare Society at Wellesley College.  Previously he was the studio assistant for Justin Townsend Studios.  Assisted directed Shakespeare in Fenway Park and directed Much Ado About Nothing with Boston Theater Company.  www.joeyfrangieh.com

Rachel Policare was recently at Stoneham Theatre as the Production Stage Manager on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and as the Assistant Stage Manager on The Secret Garden, Something’s Afoot, and Miracle on 34th Street. Other credits: New England Conservatory: Die Fledermaus, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Gazzetta and The Turn of the Screw. Williamstown Theatre Festival: Main Stage Supervisor 2012.