Stage 2: Julius Caesar 2017

Alex Deroo is thrilled to be working with CSC for yet another epic season of Shakespeare. Alex was part of the 2015 Apprentice Company and at the end of that summer it was his goal to be accepted into CSC2 upon graduating college. He graduated from Salem State University last May with a BFA Degree in Theatre Performance. Alex has a variety of experience performing Shakespeare including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, King Henry IV, Hamlet and The Comedy of Errors.

Adam Ewer is a recent alum of The Juilliard School drama program. His previous work includes many Shakespeare plays as well as physical theater, short films, and voiceover. He lives in New York City but is proud to have grown up in little Norfolk, Mass.

Cassie Foote is excited to be back working with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Previous credits with CSC include Julius Caesar (Cassius) with the CSC2 ensemble and Romeo & Juliet (Ensemble/u/s Lady Capulet). Other Boston credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Arts After Hours). NY credits: The Changeling (West End Theater), Othello, Love’s Labour’s Lost, (Easy Leap Theatre Company) Whaddabloodclot! (Williamstown Theater Festival), Sky Pony: Raptured (The Play Company), The Fourth Grader’s Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide (Dreamstem Productions).

Tim Hackney is thrilled to be a member of CSC2 this year. National Tours: Mrs. Bumbrake/Teacher in Peter and the Starcatcher, Robert u/s in The Drowsy Chaperone; NYC: Hudson Guild: Charles Ramsdell in The Whaleship Essex. Regional: Joe Pitt in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Playhouse on Park); Jason Posner in Wit (Playhouse on Park); Film: The Upcoming Kathryn Bigelow Untitled Detroit Project. Proud graduate of The William Esper Studio in NYC.

Keith Hale National Tour: Miracle on 34th Street (Capstone Theatricals). New York credits include: Edward III & Twelfth Night (Hudson Shakespeare Company), Tofurkey (Ugly Rhino Productions), The Comedy of Errors (Bergen Shakespeare), and Writopia Lab’s World Wide Plays Festival (Writopia Lab). Keith is a Houston, Texas native with a BFA from Elon University. www.keithjhale.com

Kaci Hamilton is thrilled to make her Boston debut on the CSC2 stage. A graduate of the William Esper Studio in New York and native of Ocho Rios, Jamaica, she has appeared as Tituba in The Crucible with Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, and Katherine/Boy with Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater’s (FST) Henry V; she subsequently traveled with FST to Brisbane, Australia, re-staging Henry V at the 12th Annual World Shakespeare Congress.

Jamil Joseph a Brooklyn, NY native and recent alumnus from CSC’s Apprentice Program, is making his way back to CSC2. He has been in shows such as Spike Heels, Eurydice, Jackie & Me, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Through the Apprentice Program Jamil has had the pleasure of working with one of Boston’s finest Directors Jennie Israel on the show Measure for Measure. Since the Apprentice Program Jamil has been working on two shows in Bethlehem, PA with Allentown Public Theatre and with Mock Turtle Marionette Theatre.

Stephanie King is thrilled to be working with CSC2 in Julius Caesar and this summer’s Romeo and Juliet on the Boston Common. A recent MFA Acting graduate from Brooklyn College,favorite roles include Rosemary in William Inge’s Picnic and Thyona in Charles Mee’s Big Love.

Sarah Mass is delighted to return to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company after appearing in last year’s productions of Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, Julius Caesar (Stage2), and Romeo and Juliet (Free Shakespeare on the Common).on the Boston Common. Sarah is an alumnus of both the CSC2 company and the CSC Apprentice Program. Other local credits include Mame (Greater Boston Stage), Sense and Sensibility and The Winter’s Tale (Maiden Phoenix Theatre Co), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V (Arts After-hours), Blinders (Flat Earth Theatre), Footfalls (Exiled Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Now!). Sarah received her B.A. in Theatre from Boston College and also studied at the British American Drama Academy in London.

Andrew Prensky is a Boston-based writer and actor. His most recent credits include: Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (Umass Lowell), Elbow in Measure for Measure (Commonwealth Shakespeare Apprentice Program), and Macbeth in Macbeth (Tufts University). He has a BA in Drama and Political Science from Tufts University.

Kai Tshikosi is thrilled to be making his Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut. Other Boston Credits include: The Tempest (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Franklin (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), Cymbeline (Brown Box Theatre Project), Colossal (Company One), Julius Caesar (Classic Repertory Company, New Repertory Theater), and Cyclops: A Satyr Play (OBERON New Works Series). Kai earned his BA in Acting and Stage Combat from
Emerson College in 2015 and also works as a teaching artist and fight choreographer in the Boston area. As always, boundless love and praise for the greatest mom to ever walk this earth, and to the mentors who’ve imparted their love of the Bard and the Sword.

Joey Tyler is very excited to be returning to work with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Last summer he completed CSC’s Apprentice Program where he played The Queen in a genderbent showcase production of Cymbeline and understudied Dull in Love’s Labour’s Lost on the Boston Common. He has most recently been touring with Boston Theatre Company in their productions of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to give students exposure to Shakespeare in schools around Massachusetts.

Adam Sanders is the Associate Artistic Director at CSC. He serves as director of the Apprentice Program, and is the director and originator of CSC2, a cohort of early-career actors. Directing credits for CSC include: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar (CSC2 Company), Symphonic Shakespeare, (in collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra at the Boston Hatch Shell); co-director: Kiss Me Kate, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Boys From Syracuse (also BLO/Hatch Shell collaborations), co-director/dramaturg: Shakespeare and Leadership (2013 – 2017), and CSCs unprecedented Shakespeare at Fenway performance in 2014; director: Shakespeare and the Law (2017).

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.

Daniel Prosky has designed and constructed over a dozen sets including Little Murders, The Pillowman, and Antigonick (The Loeb Drama Center) and Carousel (Oberon), Lighting design credits include Mother Courage and Her Children (Farkas Hall), Trailblazers, Grassroots (Laurie Beechman Theatre), and 1969: The Second Man (Ars Nova).

Jeff Adelberg returns to CSC after designing Death and the Maiden and Macbeth last season. Other recent work: Trouble in Tahiti and Arias and Barcarolles (Boston Lyric Opera); Gloria, The Night of the Iguana, As You Like It (The Gamm Theatre, RI); Beckett Women: Ceremonies of Departure (Poets’ Theatre at the MAC Belfast, Northern Ireland); Being Earnest, The Legend of Georgia McBride (Greater Boston Stage Co.); Frankenstein, Constellations (Underground Railway Theatre); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Hand to God (SpeakEasy Stage Company); Man of La Mancha (New Repertory Theatre); Rhinoceros (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); Edward II, God’s Ear (Actors’ Shakespeare Project);Finish Line (Boston Theatre Co.); and Boston’s Christmas Revels since 2010. A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Jeff teaches at Boston College and Brandeis University. Member of United Scenic Artists 829. www.jeffadelberg.com

Miranda Kau Giurleo has previously designed Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Midsummer Night’s Dream for CSC’s Second Stage.  Regional credits include: Native Gardens, The Heath, The Royale, A Christmas Carol, Chill  (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Allegiance, The Scottsboro Boys (SpeakEasy Stage Company), Dry Land, Shockheaded Peter, She Kills Monsters, Neighbors (Company One), Richard III, Measure for Measure, As You Like It (Actor’s Shakespeare Project), The Convert, Matchless & The Happy Prince, Roots of Liberty (Underground Railway Theatre), True West, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Effect, The New Electric Ballroom, Totalitarians (Gloucester Stage Company).  Miranda is also on the faculty at Bridgewater State University where designs include Gypsy, Assassins, and Young Frankenstein.

Nathan Leigh has designed sound and composed original music for over 300 plays at theatres including New York Theatre Workshop (Nat Turner In Jerusalem), Red Bull Theatre (The Duchess of Malfi),Huntington Theatre (Skeleton Crew), American Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group, The Debate Society (Gothamist: Best Sound Design 2007 for The Eaten Heart), Stoneham Theatre (IRNE Best Sound Design 2009 for Strangers On A Train), and Central Square Theatre (IRNE Best Sound Design 2010 for The Hound of the Baskervilles). With Kyle Jarrow, Nathan co-created the musicals Big Money (WTF Boris Segall Fellowship 2008) and The Consequences (World Premiere 2012 at WHAT). With the Liars and Believers ensemble, Nathan Leigh composed scores for adaptations of Song of Songs and Icarus. With Megan Sass, he is the composer and lyricist for The Mad Scientist’s Guide (NYC Fringe 2015). Nathan’s latest solo album is “Ordinary Eternal Machinery”.

Margaret Clark returns to CSC after appearing as Hermia in CSC2’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Other credits include Carol in Oleanna (Umbrella Arts), Miss Plum in Trumpet of the Swan (Wheelock Family Theatre), Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew (Brown Box Theatre), Annie in Spinning (Solas Nua), and The Silver Lining, Translations (Bad Habit). She received her BFA in Acting from Emerson College and additional training at Shakespeare & Company and The American Shakespeare Center.

Geena M. Forristall Credits include Dinner Detective Boston (Dinner Detective), Kultar’s Mime Mehr Kaur (Sikh Research Center), Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Now!), The Winter’s Tale (Bay Colony Productions), and Sleep No More (Punchdrunk NYC/Emursive).

Bryant Cyr Credits include A Charlie Brown Christmas: Live on Stage! (Head of Electrics-Gershwin Entertainment), Our Town (Technical Director-A>R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Scenic Designer/Master Carpenter-Palace Theatre), and The Body Politick (Technical Director/Assistant Scenic Designer-Juventas New Music Ensemble).