King Lear

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).

Brandon G. Green was seen in CSC’s King Lear in 2015 and recently appeared in The Scottsboro Boys at SpeakEasy Stage (Elliot Norton Award -Best Production), Mr. Burns… at Lyric Stage, and An Octoroon at Company One/Arts Emerson; (Elliot Norton – Best Actor).

Ed Hoopman is thrilled to be back with Commonwealth Shakespeare, having previously performed as Edgar in King Lear, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Nicholas in The Taming of the Shrew. He has been seen recently in Boston as King Arthur in Camelot at Lyric Stage and as Ted in Ideation at New Repertory Theater. Other regional credits include Finish Line (Boston Theater Co./Boch Center); Peter and the Starcatcher, City of Angels, Dear Elizabeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers (Lyric Stage); Mister Roberts and Indulgences (New Repertory Theater); Dog Paddle (Bridge Rep); A Civil War Christmas (Huntington Theatre Company); Assassins, After Ashley and A Clockwork Orange (Company One); and Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse). NYC: Interior: Panic (NY Fringe Festival) and World’s Fastest Hamlet both with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre; Jester’s Dead (The Outfit); Foreign Wars (Random Access Theater). TV: “See Kate Run” (ABC), “Aftershock” (History Channel). Mr. Hoopman is also an accomplished voice over actor whose work can be heard both locally and nationally. www.edhoopman.com

Jeanine Kane last appeared with CSC as Regan in King Lear. A resident actor at the Gamm Theatre, some favorite roles have been Hannah in The Night of the Iguana, Jaques in As You Like It, Elizabeth in King Elizabeth, Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Margaret in Good People, Maureen in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and Nora in A Doll’s House. Other regional theatres include Trinity Rep Company and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. She teaches acting and speech classes at Massasoit Community College and speech communications at Emerson College.

Jeremiah Kissel is a thirty-five year veteran of Boston’s professional theaters, and has appeared previously for Commonwealth Shakespeare eight times, most recently in King Lear. Other recent appearances include Fiddler on the Roof, Kol’s Last Call, The Boston Pops Holiday Concerts, and an episode of the upcoming “Castle Rock” for Hulu. Screen credits include “The Town”, “The Fighter”, “Joy”, “Stronger” and “The Wrong Car”. He has received numerous Norton and IRNE nominations, and has won several times, most recently, for Best Actor, 2014, and most notably, the very first Norton Award for a Boston actor in 1990. In 2003 he was given The Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence.

Will Lyman – Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: King Lear, Claudius, Prospero, Brutus. Off Broadway: Man in Snow, The Passion of Dracula, The Novelist, The Grinding Machine. The Huntington: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, All My Sons, Dead End. New Repertory Theatre: Long Day’s Journey into Night, Dollhouse, The Clean House, The Ice-Breaker. The Nora@Central Square Theater: Operation Epsilon, Equus. Boston Playwrights’ Theatre: Windowmen, The Oil Thief, King of the Jews. Gamm Theatre: Celebration. Film: “Little Children,” “Mystic River,” “The Siege,” “A Perfect Murder,” “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “The Arborist,” and “Mother/Android.” TV: “Commander-in-Chief,” “Threat Matrix,” “Hull High,” “Crossbow,” and long-time narrator of public affairs program “Frontline” (PBS). Awards: multiple Elliot Norton and IRNE awards, Howard Keel Award for service to the Screen Actors Guild.

Deb Martin returns to CSC after appearing as Goneril in King Lear. Recent credits include Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Croom in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at The Gamm Theatre, Barbara in Barbecue at The Lyric Stage Co. of Boston, Sam in Mud Blue Sky at Bridge Repertory Theater (IRNE Award, Best Supporting Actress), Eleanor in Casa Valentina at SpeakEasy Stage, and Corrine in Gidion’s Knot at Bridge Rep.  Other roles include Victoria Grant in the 2^nd National Tour of Victor/Victoria, Holly in Next Fall at SpeakEasy Stage, Anna in Ivanov, Irma in The Balcony, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Kristín in Miss Julie. Development workshops with Huntington Theatre Company, ArtsEmerson, New Repertory Theatre and German Stage. Film: “Spartan”with Val Kilmer and William H. Macy, written and directed by David Mamet.  Training: B.F.A., Emerson College, and trained with off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, founded by William H. Macy and David Mamet.

Libby McKnight returns to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company after appearing as Cordelia in King Lear and as a member of the Apprentice Company in 2011. She just graduated from Juilliard Drama’s MFA program, and she is so thankful to be reunited with CSC in her favorite city. Most recent credits include Andromache in Trojan Women, Everybody in Everybody (Juilliard), and Judith Bliss in Hay Fever (Panther Creek Arts). For Bryan Max Bernfeld.

Maurice Emmanuel Parent is an award-winning actor, director, educator and mentor with 20 years of professional experience. He has over 40 credits at theatres across the nation and abroad, having performed and directed for some of Boston’s oldest and most respected companies such as the Huntington Theatre Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, and Central Square Theater among others. His work as an actor has earned him two Elliot Norton Awards from The Boston Theater Critics Association, three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) awards, and an ArtsImpulse Award. Parent’s history as an educator extends back nearly a decade. He’s taught for Northeastern University, MIT, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Boston University and spent nearly 6 years as a Performing Arts Specialist in the Boston Public School System. Currently Parent is a full time Professor of the Practice in the Tufts Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Parent is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Front Porch Arts Collective, “a black theatre company committed to advancing racial equity in Boston through theater.” In its fifth season, “The Porch” has quickly become a well respected voice in the Boston theatrical landscape. www.MauriceParent.com

Mickey Solis played Edmund in CSC’s production of King Lear on the Boston Common in 2015 and was most recently seen at Gloucester Stage in the New England Premiere of The Effect with Lindsay Crouse, directed by Sam Weisman. He is a graduate of the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard, and played leading roles in the A.R.T. productions of The Seagull, Cardenio, Romeo and Juliet, and Desire under the Elms. His New York and Off-Broadway credits include Illusions (Baryshnikov Arts Center), An Oresteia (Classic Stage Company), God of Carnage (Engeman Theater), White People (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Night Over Taos (INTAR), The Master and Margarita (Fisher Center at Bard College), Beckett at 100 (92nd St. Y with Alvin Epstein and Bill Camp), and Error of Their Ways (HERE Arts Center). He has also performed at several regional theaters. His film and TV credits include michigan (writer), Lament for the Artist (co-writer), Fall North, Man with Van, “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Person of Interest,” “Blacklist,” “Mysteries of Laura,” and “Girls.”

Mark W. Soucy performed in CSC’s The Boys From Syracuse (Aegean), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Sir Nathaniel), Romeo and Juliet (Montague), and King Lear (The Duke of Albany). Other favorite roles include The Royale (Max – IRNE Award Best Supporting Actor) at Merrimack Repertory Theatre and Lobby Hero (Bill) at Capital Repertory Theatre. Mark is a fundraising consultant and has served as Theater Manager for Arlekin Players Theatre and Development Manager at New Repertory Theatre.

Brandon Whitehead CSC credits include Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, Boyet in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the Hatch Shell, and Fool in King Lear. Other recent credits include Amiens in As You Like It and Oscar Wilde et al in The Importance of Being Earnest at the GAMM Theater. Also Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind and Mike Francisco in Breaking Legs at Ocean State Theater Company as well as Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors with Tantrum Theatre (Ohio). Before moving to Massachusetts, Whitehead spent nearly twenty years working professionally in Seattle performing with ACT (A Christmas Carol, Joe Egg, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Seattle Repertory Theater (Twelfth Night, The Imaginary Invalid), Intiman (Paradise Lost), Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory Theater, Village Theater, and many others. Some of his film and television credits include “Castle Rock” (Hulu), “A Bit of Bad Luck”, “21 and Over”, and “Leverage”.

Avery Nelson is a Brooklyn based Equity actor, musician and composer born and raised in Boston. With CSC, Avery acted in Romeo & Juliet and King Lear, and also served as a teaching artist, apprentice instructor, and company manager. In Boston he was last seen as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing (ASP) and as an improviser and music director at ImprovBoston. Soon you can hear him voice the German Chancellor in the radio play Newts! (opposite Mo Rocca) distributed by PRX. His debut piano EP, Hammers & Felt, comes out this summer. See www.averynelson.net for updates, videos, photos, and links to Spotify and SoundCloud, and follow him on IG (@averynelsonbargar) and Twitter (@averynelsonb).

Sophia Blum last appeared with CSC as Lady Capulet in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet,  Titania and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Calpurnia in Julius Caesar with The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey’s Touring Company.  She also recently played Queen Margaret in Henry VI Parts I, II & III in an Off-Off Broadway production.  www.sophiablum,com

Matt Giampietro was recently seen as Tybalt/Apothecary in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet and in West Side Story at The Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH.  Film: “Best Night Ever” and “Leverage” (TNT).  Matt earned his MFA in 2012 from the University of Washington PATP.

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. 

Kelsey Lidsky last appeared with CSC in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet as the Nurse. Other credits include G Train Exodus (Estrogenius Theater Festival), Dear Mom (Theater for New City), and Nettles (Manhattan Repertory Theater). New School Credits: Eurydice, King John, Fen, and Execution of Justice. After attending Boston University, she received an MFA in Acting from The New School for Drama.  www.kelseylidsky.com

Brennan Lowery was last seen at CSC as Lord Capulet in Romeo & Juliet as part of the CSC2 Company. Other credits include Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch (dir. Rand Foerster), The Skriker (dir. Pitr Strait), Get Me A Guy (dir. John Clancy), Le Pond: a New Musical (dir. Kristin Hoffman), New School Credits: As You Like It, Blue Window, and The Ladder. He appeared in the viral YouTube commercial First Moon Party as well as on National Geographic’s “Brain Games”. www.brennanlowery.com

Christopher Olmstead is delighted to be at CSC after appearing as Peter in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet. After receiving his BA from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Chris trained as an apprentice director in London.  He spent the last few years directing, performing, and teaching in Germany before returning to the states.  Boston credits include Retreat (Roxbury Repertory Theatre).

Marc Pierre Previous CSC credits include Romeo and Juliet and King Lear. Recent credits include An Octoroon (Gamm Theatre), Gone Nowhere (Boston Playwrights Theatre), Leftovers (Company One Theatre), Brawler (Kitchen Theatre Company), Airness (Actors Theatre of Louisville), When January Feels Like Summer (Central Square Theatre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Lyric Stage), Milk Like Sugar (Huntington Theatre Company), The Flick (Gloucester Stage) TV/Film Credits: Castle Rock and Twelve (Joel Schumacher, Dir.) Other: Marc has a B.F.A. from Emerson College. He is a recipient of the Isabel Sanford Scholarship and Emerson College’s Acting Area Award.

Arisael Rivera returns to CSC after appearing as Puck in CSC2’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Friar Laurence in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet, and in the Ensemble of King Lear on Boston Common.  Other credits include Narrator/Arsonist in LA Lights Fire, and Butch in Educational, Career Relevant.  Follow him on Twitter: @ari_sael_riv.

Jacob Rosenbaum returns to CSC after appearing as Paris in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet.  Jacob graduated from Connecticut College where he earned a BA in Theatre.  He has also studied acting at the British American Drama Academy in London, with the National Theatre Institute, and the Labyrinth Theater Company.

Addison Williams returns to CSC after appearing as Mercutio in CSC2’s Romeo & Juliet.  Other credits include Hamlet (Georgetown University), and Richard III (Actors’ Shakespeare Project). He received his BA from Georgetown University.

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.

Beowulf Boritt designed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Two Gentleman of Verona for CSC.  Boston area credits include The Last Two People on Earth at American Repertory Theater, Captors at the Huntington Theatre, Heroes at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Abyssinia at North Shore Music Theatre, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Wilbur Theatre, and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Trinity Repertory Theatre.  Broadway: Act One (Tony Award), The Scottsboro Boys (Tony Nomination), Hand to God, On the Town, Sondheim on Sondheim, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, LoveMusik, Rock of Ages, Chaplin, Bronx Bombers, Grace, The Two and Only. Off-Broadway:  99 shows including The Toxic Avenger, The Last Five Years, and Miss Julie.  Other designs: The Seven Deadly Sins (New York City Ballet), and The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.  He received a 2007 Obie Award for sustained excellence.

Katherine O’Neill’s credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (California Shakespeare Theatre and PlayMakers Rep), The House That Will Not Stand (Berkeley Rep and Yale Rep), and The Unfortunates, a new musical that premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and re-staged at ACT. Boston credits: Ramses Contra los Monstruos (Brown University Writing is Live Festival), Derek Walcott’s Ti Jean and his Brothers (Central Square Theater), and The Island of Slaves (Orfeo Group) for which she was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for Best Design.  Katherine received an MFA from Yale School of Design.

Peter West has had work seen at The Public Theater, Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre, Barbican, UK, Spoleto, CalShakes, Rattlestick, Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, among others.  Selected credits: Tis a Pity She’s A Whore (Red Bull Theater), Don Juan (Pearl Theater), Melancholy Play (Trinity Rep), Shesh Yak (Rattlestick), The Mystery of Irma Vep (Red Bull Theater), Belleville (Studio Theater), Torch Song Trilogy (Studio Theater), The Importance of Being Earnest (Shakespeare Theatre), and Zero Cost House (Pig Iron Theater).

Colin Thurmond has established himself as one of the leading creative forces of his generation.  Equally sought after as music director, performer, composer and pedagogue, Dr. Thurmond has performed for the premier of a Nicholas Cage film and classical music with members of the Berlin Philharmonic.  From the world’s most renowned concert halls to the grittiest nightclubs, Thurmond’s musicianship breaks boundaries of what it means to be a 21st century artist, causing the Boulder Examiner  to write, “Mr Thurmond has got to be Superman!”. He received his doctorate from New England Conservatory.  www.colinthurmond.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.

Jeremy Browne is a Boston based actor and director with a specific focus on Shakespeare and Violence Design.  Previous works with CSC include Violence Supervision for Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Othello.  Featured stunt work in Film and television include “The Dark Knight Rises”(Warner Brothers Films), and “Vegas” (CBS).  He studies with local choreographers such as Robert Walsh and Ted Hewlitt, as well as Los Angeles based Bob Yerkes and Buster Reeves.

Gabriel Prokofiev creates music that both embraces and challenges western classical traditions.  A London-based composer, producer, DJ and founder of NONCLASSICAL record label and club night, he has emerged at the forefront of a new approach to classical music in the UK, recognized by Financial Times as being “in the vanguard of redefining classical music conventions.”  Projects include new music for a ballet production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Concerto for Bass Drum & Orchestra premiered by Princeton Symphony, and Concerto for Turntable No. 2.

Seághan McKay returns to CSC having served as Production Manager for The Two Gentleman of Verona, Coriolanus, and Associate Production Manager for All’s Well That Ends Well. He is a Lecturer in Lighting Production at Boston University School of Theater and is an independent designer having created projections and video for The Boston Pops, Boston Ballet’s Swan Lake, Boston Lyric Opera’s The Flying Dutchman, Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s On the Town and Big River, Huntington Theatre’s Educating Rita, SpeakEasy Stage Company’s Big Fish, Carrie: The Musical, Kurt Vonnegut’s Make Up Your Mind, Next To Normal, Nine, Striking 12, {title of show}, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Emerson Stage’s Twilight :Los Angeles 1992, Light Up the Sky, Boston Conservatory’s Merrily We Roll Along, Rent, and many others. www.seaghanmckay.com