A Midsummer Night’s Dream

De’Lon Grant* – CSC: Debut. Broadway: Come From Away. National Tours: Jersey Boys. The Huntington Theatre: Invisible Man. Lyric Stage: Our Town, Big River, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Superior Donuts. Gloucester Stage: The Glass Menagerie. Actors’ Shakespeare Project: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline.  Wheelock Family Theatre: Annie, Saint Joan, Tale of Two Cities. SpeakEasy Stage Company: Pru Payne, A Case for the Existence of God, The Scottsboro Boys. Front Porch Arts Collective: Ain’t No Mo’, A Strange Loop. Film: Come From Away. De’Lon cohosts the podcast Lemme Fix It! and is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. @thedelondotcom www.delongrant.com 

Nora Eschenheimer* – CSC: Rosalind in As You Like It (Elliot Norton Award nomination), Miranda in The Tempest, Imogen in Cymbeline (Elliot Norton Award nomination), Isabella in Measure for Measure benefit staged reading. The Gamm Theatre: Maggie- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Ophelia- Hamlet, Feste- Twelfth Night, Helena- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hovstad- A Lie Agreed Upon, Rosalind- As You Like It, Gwendolen Fairfax- The Importance of Being Earnest, Perdita- The Winter’s Tale. Hartford Stage: The Woman- Death of a Salesman. Trinity Repertory Company: The Ghost of Christmas Present- A Christmas Carol. Lyric Stage Company of Boston: Sandra- The Play That Goes Wrong. Ocean State Theatre Company: Rachel Brown- Inherit the Wind. Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles: Princess of France- Love Labour’s Lost. Nora is from Newport, RI, and is a licensed boat captain and lighthouse keeper. noraeschenheimer.com | @noraeschenheimer

Nick Cearley* – is the co-creator of the critically acclaimed “Undie-Rock” duo known as The Skivvies. Nick holds the record for the most performances of the one-person play Buyer & Cellar across America. CSC: Debut. Broadway/Tour: All Shook Up, Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas (Chicago). Recently, he finished a year-long stint of playing Ogie in Waitress for which he was nominated for a Carbonell Award at Actors Playhouse (Miami), Theatre Raleigh, Florida Studio Theatre, and Cape Playhouse. Off-Broadway: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck), Pageant (Off-Broadway Original Revival Cast), Golden Rainbow (The York Theatre), Sex Tips…, Cupid & Psyche. Selected Regional: Portland Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Bay Street Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, A.C.T. San Francisco, Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Berkshire Theatre Group, American Stage Company, Two River Theatre, Pittsburgh City Theatre. Instagram: @clearlycearley & @theskivviesnyc. Boston Conservatory Alum.

Paul Melendy* – CSC: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2007), As You Like It (2008), Shakespeare at Fenway! Greater Boston Stage Company: Wait Until Dark, Featherbaby, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Play That Goes Wrong. Lyric Stage Company: The Drowsy Chaperone, A Sherlock Carol. Central Square Theater: The Mystery of Irma Vep, Vanity Fair. Gloucester Stage Company: The Garbologists, The 39 Steps. Paul has also been featured in productions with The Huntington, New Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Wheelock Family Theater, Shear Madness at the Charles Playhouse, W.H.A.T., and the Barnstormers Theatre. paulmelendy.com @pvmelendy

Karen MacDonald* – CSC: Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Universe Rushing Apart: Blue Kettle and Here We Go, Old Money (Director). Recent local performances: Concert Theatre Works: The Soldier’s Tale at Symphony Hall. Merrimack Rep Theatre: Misery, A Christmas Carol, Gaslight, At Wit’s End. Speakeasy Stage: Pru Payne, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, The Children. Lyric Stage: Rooted, The Cake. Huntington Theater: Nassim, Common Ground Revisited. Founding Company Member, American Repertory Theatre: 73 productions, including Endgame, The Sea Gull, Mother Courage and Her Children. Broadway: The Glass Menagerie (understudied and performed) Amanda Wingfield. Extensive national and international credits. Lecturer at Harvard University, taught Acting to Undergrads and Extension School for 22 Years. Awards: Robert Brustein Prize for Sustained Achievement, Eliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence.

Michael Broadhurst* – CSC: Debut! Actor’s Shakespeare Project: The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gem of the Ocean. Gloucester Stage: Gloria!  Off Broadway: Wheelhouse Theatre Co.: Life Sucks. Animus Theatre: Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. Michael has also been seen at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, The Living Room Theatre, and on “Succession” (HBO), “Julia” (HBO),“The Holdovers” (Dir. Alexander Payne), and “Minyan” (Dir. Eric Steele), as well as many commercials. Love to R! (He/Him)

Brooks Reeves – CSC: As You LIke It.  Central Square: Arabian Nights, A Christmas Carol. Greater Boston Stage: Neville’s Island, Boston Playwright’s Theatre: Book Club Play. Company One: Shockheaded Peter, An Octoroon, Greater Good. Plays in Place: Moonlight Abolitionists, Revolution’s Edge. Hub Theatre: The Bald Soprano & The Lesson, Tartuffe, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged. Zeitgeist Stage: Love! Valour! Compassion!, Boys in the Band, Bent, Life of Riley. And last but certainly not least, Apollinaire Theatre: Is this a Room, Suppliant Women, The Importance of Being Earnest, and many others.

Meghan Carey* – CSC: Debut. Regional: The Huntington Theatre: The Hills of California. Commonwealth Lyric Theatre: Pinocchio. Prague Shakespeare Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Film: “Graduation Day” (Five Hundred West Film). University: Something Rotten (Boston Conservatory at Berklee). Education: BFA Musical Theatre (Boston Conservatory ’24). Represented by DGRW. meghancarey.com @meghancarey

Annika Burley*  — CSC: Macbeth (Third Witch), Macbeth (CSC2, Lady Macbeth), Romeo & Juliet (CSC2, Tybalt). Nashville Rep: Come From Away (Janice), She Reached for Heaven (Ruby). Cincinnati Shakespeare: The Play That Goes Wrong (Swing), Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet. Scranton Shakes: Next to Normal (Natalie), Gypsy, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Sweet Charity. Berkshire Theatre Group: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Sally). Boston Playwrights’: Kill the Magistrate (Constance). Nashville Shakespeare: As You Like It (Rosalind). Little Foxes Theatre (London): As You Like It (Phebe). She is the voice of Jane on “Dead Sea Squirrels” (Prime) and the Management Director of The Table Read Co, a non-profit in NYC for emerging new works. Thank you to Bryn, Steve, her family, and MHE. annikaburley.com

Jaime José Hernández* – CSC: Much Ado About Nothing. Off Broadway: The Public Theater: The Other Americans w/John Leguizamo. The Huntington: Oedipus El Rey, John Proctor is The Villain. Gloucester Stage/Teatro Chelsea: The Hombres. Gamm Theatre: Sweat. Dorset Theatre Festival: Native Gardens. B Street Theatre: Nosotros La Gente. TV: “Power Book II: Ghost” (STARZ), “S.W.A.T” (CBS). Jaime is a founding member of Teatro Chelsea. Repped by Entertainment Lab. jaimejosehernandez.com @jaimejose.hernandez

Jack Greenberg – CSC: Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth. REGIONAL: The Hills of California, We Had a World, John Proctor is the Villain (The Huntington); The Hills of California (Berkeley Repertory); Dear Evan Hansen (The Fulton Theatre), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Reagle Music Theatre); The Soldier’s Tale (Brandeis Theatre). Education: BFA (Boston University ‘25), BADA Oxford Program. jackgreenbergactor.com

Patrick Vincent Curran — CSC: As You Like It, Macbeth (Stage 2). Regional: The Cripple of Inishmaan (The Gamm Theatre), Little Women (Actors Shakespeare Project), Tartuffe, Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged (Hub Theatre Company of Boston), Bouncers (Stickball Productions), A Streetcar Named Desire (Wax Wings Productions), Touring: An Iliad (Homer in the Wild), As You Like It, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Brown Box Theatre Project). Film and Television: “Castle Rock” (Hulu), Dexter: “New Blood” (Showtime), “Louie” (FX), “Free Guy” (20th Century Fox), “Gotham” (Fox), “Kevin Can F*** Himself” (AMC). Education: BA from Emerson College. Patrick is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. @CatPurran33

Alex Leondedis – CSC: Debut. Greater Boston Stage Company: An Irish Carol, The Play That Goes Wrong. Apollinaire Theatre Company: The Antelope Party, Lunch Bunch. Wheelock Family Theatre: A Wrinkle In Time. Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado, and Midsummer. Boston Theatre Company: Midsummer. Moonbox: Creature Feature. Fresh Ink: Kayfabe. Alex has a BFA in Contemporary Theatre from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Select Directing Credits include MIT Shakespeare Ensemble, Lyric First Page Festival, TC Squared, BTM, and From The Basement Theatre Collective. Alex also works as a Teaching Artist with Wheelock Family Theatre, Company One, The Boch Center, Central Square, The Huntington, Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, KC Rep, and Harvard’s TDM Division. leondedis.com. @leondedis

Bella Grace Harris – Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Macbeth (Gentlewoman), Romeo & Juliet (Stage 2), Much Ado About Nothing (u/s), Romeo & Juliet (Apprentice Repertory Company 2022). Wheelock Family Theater: A Wrinkle in Time (u/s Mrs. Whatsit). Training: BFA (Honors) from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. bellagraceharris.com

Dani Grace Nissen – CSC: Romeo and Juliet (ARC). Cincinnati Shakespeare Company: Love’s Labours’ Lost, Mrs. Dalloway: A New Musical, The Tempest, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors. Nashville Shakespeare Company: As You Like It. Hoosier Shakespeare Festival: The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure. Acting BFA from Wright State University. Lover of words and ice cream. danigracenissen.com @dani.niss

Nicolas Bolton – CSC: Debut. Nicolas Bolton is a Senior at Boston University’s School of Theatre where he will be receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting this spring. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, he has had experience on sets and stage since he was a child, where his love for performance was born. He is excited to begin his work with CSC and can’t wait for people and students to attend the show!

Evan Danilyw – CSC: Debut. Boston Conservatory At Berklee: Earth is Flat, The Aliens. Landmark Theater: West Side Story. Conard High School: Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, Les Misérables, Frozen. Evan currently attends The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and is a sophomore Musical Theater major.

Alexandra White – CSC: Debut. Over the years, Alex has been blessed to work across the North Shore in both Performance and Production roles. Some of Alex’s favorite past roles include Lady Macbeth/Lady Macduff (Macbeth/RGC Theatre), Sunday on The Rocks (Elly/ Venturing Studios) and Clue (GBSC/Production Assistant). Alexandra is a graduate of Salem State University, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance with two minors in Dance & Music. Thank you for supporting live theatre. Enjoy the show!

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.

Victoria Townsend is a Boston-based director, teaching-artist and occasional performer who has been working with CSC since 2011. Directing Credits: For CSC: Stage2: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2024), ARC: Richard II (2024), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2023), As You Like It (2022) and several Boston Theater Marathon pieces; Emerging Playwright’s Festival (Wheelock Family Theater), Cosi Fan Tutte (New England Conservatory’s UGOS Program), The Memorandum (Flat Earth Theater). Assistant Directing Credits: Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, Kiss me Kate, Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare and Leadership (CSC) and L’Egisto (NEC/UGOS). She has also served as a teaching-artist for Watertown Children’s Theater and Live Arts Education. Victoria is a graduate of Saint Michael’s College in Vermont with degrees in Theatre and English Literature and holds a certificate in Social Impact Management and Leadership from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice & Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University.

John Lam (Choreographer) began dancing at the age of four at the Marin Ballet in San Rafael, CA. He attended Canada’s prestigious National Ballet School before being invited to join the Boston Ballet in 2003 where he created an illustrious 20 year career as a Principal Dancer. Lam has choreographed and produced independent dance films. Lam appeared in the Disney film, “The Game Plan”, and performed the role of Ariel in the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Production of The Tempest. Most recently, Lam served as a Principal Core Dancer in the Amazon Prime Series, “Étoile”, season one. Lam serves as Associate Professor of Dance with the Boston Conservatory at Berklee for fall 2024 and has founded his own company LamDanceWorks opening fall 2025.

Brooke Stanton (she/her) is a costumer who has worked in theatre, film, and television. During her five years with George Lucas’ ILM, she built creatures for the Star Wars Special Edition Trilogy and The Phantom Menace. She has toured internationally and nationally designing for Peter Sellars. Other clients include Disney, Columbia Pictures, CBS, American Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Aspen Music Festival, Boston Symphony Youth Orchestra, Commonwealth Shakespeare, New England Conservatory, and Odyssey Opera. She studied Costume Design at NYU and Textiles at California College of the Arts. www.brookestanton.com

Maximo Grano De Oro is a Chicago-based lighting designer for theater, opera, and dance. Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest. Northlight Theatre: Selling Kabul. Northwestern Wirtz Center: Everybody, Sweat, As You Like It, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, In His Hands. Northwestern Opera: The Magic Flute, The Medium. MFA Northwestern University. maximolightingdesign.com @max.gdo_ld

David Reiffel (Sound Designer) is a Boston-based composer, songwriter, playwright and sound designer. Recent national credits include Shakespeare in Love (U.S. national premiere), Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Cymbeline (Shakespeare & Co.).  Recent Boston area credits include: Man of La Mancha (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Direction), Master Class, and Chesapeake (IRNE Nominee )(New Repertory Theatre); The Curious Incident . . ., The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, The Christians, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and many others (Apollinaire Theater Company); Shakespeare in Love (Norton Award, musical direction), Dogfight, Big Fish, Carrie, and The Color Purple (SpeakEasy Stage); A Disappearing Number (Underground Railway Theatre, IRNE Nominee); King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, and Middletown (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Gabriel, Doubt and I Capture the Castle (Greater Boston Stage Company); My Station in Life, The Rainmaker, Man in Snow, and Gloucester Blue (Gloucester Stage, LaMama); The Rag Doll (Blue Spruce, IRNE Nominee, Best New Play); Mary Stuart and Everyman (Northeastern); 10 out of 12 (Emerson Stage); The Cradle Will Rock and Coolsville (Boston Conservatory at Berklee). He teaches Songwriting at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Listen at soundcloud.com/davidreiffel.

Bryn Boice is an award-winning director, educator, actor, and producer, as well as CSC’s Associate Artistic Director and Director of Education & Training. Also for CSC, Bryn helmed Universe Rushing Apart: Blue Kettle & Here We Go – two Caryl Churchill one-acts – which garnered her the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director, Large Theatre. Other recent Boston-area credits include: The Sound Inside and The Children (both Elliot Norton nominated for Outstanding Production, Speakeasy Stage); The Book of Will, Into the Breeches! (Elliot Norton nom. for Direction and Production, Hub Theatre Company); Tall Tales from Blackburn Tavern, Gloria (Gloucester Stage); The Half-Life of Marie Curie (The Nora Company); Admissions (The Gamm Theatre); Last Night at Bowl-Mor Lanes (Greater Boston Stage Company); an all-female production of Julius Caesar for Actors’ Shakespeare Project; and a number of Apprentice Repertory Company and Stage2 productions for CSC. New York, regional and other Boston credits as an actor and/or director include work with Asolo Repertory Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Anthem Theatre Company, Okoboji Theatre, InProximity Theatre, Theatre Row, Martha’s Vineyard PAC, Monomoy Theatre, Caroline’s on Broadway, and Manhattan Theatre Club. Before turning full-time to CSC, she taught at Salem State University, where her wide-ranging experience allowed her to teach Voice for Performance, Applied Stage Movement, Public Speaking, Directing, Acting III (Early Realism), Dramatic Theory & Criticism, and Dialects, among others. MFA in Directing, Boston University. MFA in Acting, Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training (FSU). Member AEA. For more information visit www.brynboice.com