Shakespeare On the Common: Encores

Join us on YouTube @commshakes for Shakespeare on the Common: Encores!

Our “Shakespeare on the Common Encores” Series features artists who have performed on the Shakespeare on the Common stage sharing monologues they have performed in the past.

#ShakespeareOnTheCommonSpirit #ShakespeareOnTheCommonEncores

We thank all our artists for their generosity as they share their talents and remind us of starry, peaceful summer nights on the common!

Here are a couple samples of some of our artists sharing a bit of their performances from the past starting with Nora Eschenheimer who will be featured in this year’s Shakespeare on the Common as Miranda in THE TEMPEST!

 

Cast

Remo Airaldi
Clarence/ Richard III
Remo Airaldi
Clarence/ Richard III

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 IguanaOliver 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.

Esme Allen
Virgilia/ Coriolanus
Esme Allen
Virgilia/ Coriolanus

Esme Allen is a Boston-based actor, educator and designer. Boston-area acting credits include Much Ado About Nothing, The Cherry Orchard, Middletown, Merry Wives of Windsor (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Muckrakers, Elephant Man and Amadeus (New Repertory Theatre), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Greater Boston Stage Co.  IRNE Nomination); Gloucester BlueNorth Shore Fish (Gloucester Stage Company); Dog Paddle (Bridge Repertory Theater  IRNE Nomination) and Coriolanus (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). Television credits include The Devil You Know” (HBO); “The Good Wife” (CBS). Scenic design credits include Bridge Repertory Theater’s production of Mud Blue SkyJulius Caesar and Gideon’s Knot. She earned her MFA in Acting from The California Institute of the Arts. She is a Founding Artistic Associate of The Bridge Repertory Theater, a Resident Acting Company Member of Actors’ Shakespeare Project and teaches acting at Salem State University.

Jenna Augen
Julia/ The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Jenna Augen
Julia/ The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Jenna Augen UK credits include: Ada Kahn in Chicken Soup With Barley at The Royal Court, Foible in The Way of the World at The Chichester Festival Theatre, and Goody in Rufus Norris’ Sleeping Beauty at The Birmingham Rep. Film and Television: Josephine in Josephine and the Roach” (short) and Iris Knight in “The Night Watch” (BBC).  Jenna is a graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).”

Andrew Burnap
Valentine/ The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Andrew Burnap
Valentine/ The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Andrew Burnap CSC: All’s Well That Ends Well, Coriolanus. He is the co-recipient of the Region I Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Irene Ryan Acting Award.  A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, his credits there include Bobby in Company, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Don Lockwood in Singin’ in the Rain, Valere in Tartuffe, Treplev in The Seagull, Jean Paul Marat in Marat/Sade, Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, and Chip Tolentino in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee among others.

Seamus Doyle
Prince Edward/ Richard III
Seamus Doyle
Prince Edward/ Richard III

Seamus Doyle (he/him) is delighted to return to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company after appearing in Richard III, and Fear and Misery in the Third Reich. He currently attends Syracuse University as a BFA Acting Major, most recently appearing in their production of Barbecue, as White James T.

Nora Eschenheimer
Imogen/ Cymbeline
Nora Eschenheimer
Imogen/ Cymbeline

Nora Eschenheimer is delighted to return to CSC after last appearing as Miranda in The Tempest, and Imogen in Cymbeline (Elliot Norton Award nomination). Her other recent credits include Rosalind in As You Like it, Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, and Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Gamm Theatre, as well as Rachel Brown in Inherit the Wind at the Ocean State Theatre Company, and the Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. She would like to thank all the scientists and healthcare workers who made a return to the live performing arts possible. www.noraeschenheimer.com | @noraeschenheimer

Tony Estrella
King Cymbeline/ Cymbeline
Tony Estrella
King Cymbeline/ Cymbeline

Tony Estrella has extensive experience in Shakespeare as both an actor and director. Favorite roles include Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry V, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing and Leontes in The Winter’s Tale.  His film/TV work includes Martin Scorsese’s The Departed”, Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by The Sea” and Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Little Women”. He is also the author of new versions of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler as well as works by Friedrich Schiller and the world premiere adaptation of Barry Unsworth’s Morality Play. Since 2002, Tony has been Artistic Director of the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre and has been on the faculty of the University of Rhode Island since 1997 where he teaches Shakespeare in the BFA acting program.

Nile Hawver
Sebastian/ Twelfth Night
Nile Hawver
Sebastian/ Twelfth Night

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 

Jennie Israel
Lady Macbeth/ Macbeth
Jennie Israel
Lady Macbeth/ Macbeth

Jennie Israel Local credits include Margaret and eight other roles in Richard III, Queen Isabella in Edward II, Emilia in Othello, Queen Margaret in Henry VI, Part II, Jacques in As You Like It, the title role in Medea, the title role in The Duchess of Malfi, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Constance in King John, and Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well, among others at Actors’ Shakespeare Project. Dancing at LughnasaTable Manners, and Living Together at Gloucester Stage Company; Boston MarriageTartuffe, and Dollhouse at New Repertory Theatre; Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Huntington Theatre Company; Living in ExileComedy of Errors, and The Heidi Chronicles at Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse; Molly Maguire at the Sugan Theatre; Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Phoebe in As You Like It for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; and Undine’s ValedictionSummerThe Scarlet Letter, and Macbeth with Shakespeare & Company.  Film and television credits include Rudy for TriStar Pictures, Guiding Light, and Coming to Litchfield. Directing credits include Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Measure for Measure and Romeo and Juliet at Harvard College; Dancing at Lughnasa and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at UMass Lowell; and ChicagoMacbethThe Beaux StratagemThe Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Volta for the Concord Academy Performing Arts Department.

Jeanine Kane
Queen/ Cymbeline
Jeanine Kane
Queen/ Cymbeline

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
Earl of Kent/ King Lear
Jeremiah Kissel
Earl of Kent/ King Lear

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.

John Kuntz
Sir Andrew/ Twelfth Night
John Kuntz
Sir Andrew/ Twelfth Night

John Kuntz has appeared with CSC previously in Henry V, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night.  He is the author of over 15 full-length plays including Necessary Monsters, The Hotel Nepenthe, Starfuckers and The Salt Girl.  As an actor, he has appeared with The Huntington, ART, Speakeasy and many others. He is the recipient of five Elliot Norton Awards, two IRNE Awards, a New York International Fringe Festival Award and a 2015 MCC Fellowship Award in Dramatic Writing.  He is a lecturer in Theatre, Dance and Media at Harvard University, an Associate Professor at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and is the Artistic Director of The Derrah Theatre Lab.

Will Lebow
Feste/ Twelfth Night
Will Lebow
Feste/ Twelfth Night

Will LeBow appeared at CSC Shakespeare at Fenway, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Twelfth Night. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are DeadAwake and SingMa Rainey’s Black BottomBus StopThe Corn is Green , How Shakespeare Won the West , The Cherry Orchard ,Love’s Labour’s LostThe Rivals (IRNE Award, Best Supporting Actor), and the world premiere of Sonia Flew . At American Repertory Theater Mr. LeBow appeared in more than 50 productions including Nocturne (Drama Desk Award nomination) and Full Circle (Elliot Norton Award). He made his Broadway debut in 2014 in James Lapine’s Act One at Lincoln Center Theater. Other Boston stage credits include the Boston Pops world premieres (narrator) of Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His television credits include six seasons as Stanley on the Cable Ace Award-winning animated series “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist.”

Marya Lowry
Chorus/ Henry V
Marya Lowry
Chorus/ Henry V

Marya Lowry Actors’ Shakespeare Project: founding member and resident actor (over 17 roles in 11 productions including, Lyubov Ranevskaya, The Cherry Orchard; Brutus, Julius Caesar; Prospero, The Tempest; Olivia, Twelfth Night, and the title role in Macbeth). Other TheatersGloucester Stage Co(Lettice and LovageThe New Electric Ballroom –Elliot Norton Award, Best Ensemble–, True West)Gamm Theatre (Escaped AloneHedda Gabler); American Repertory Theatre; Vineyard Playhouse, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Othello), SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (Henry V). Other: Marya has performed as a narrator with The Boston Pops, Handel & Haydn Society and Cantata Singers. She toured Bulgaria with Divi Zheni, performing traditional Bulgarian songs and played the title role in Ariadne Auf Naxos with Musicians of the Old Post Road. Original theatre work includes Luminato Festival, Toronto, Canada and the International Arts Centre, in Malerargues, France. Her Voice and Lamentation workshops span France, Italy, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, the UK and the USA. Marya is a mentor to incarcerated women in Massachusetts and has served on the Brandeis U. theatre faculty since 1989.

Will Lyman
King Lear/ King Lear
Will Lyman
King Lear/ King Lear

Will Lyman-Boston Stages: King Lear, Ulysses on Bottles, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Windowmen, Operation Epsilon, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, All My Sons, Exits and Entrances, The Oil Thief, Nicholas Nickleby, King of the Jews, Prospero, Brutus, Claudius. Off-Broadway: The Novelist, Passion of Dracula, Grinding Machine, The Dwarfs. Television: “Commander-in-Chief”, “Threat Matrix”, “Hull High”, “Crossbow”, “American Meltdown”, “Our Fathers”, soaps. Film: “Little Children”, “A Perfect Murder”, “The Siege”, “Mystic River”, “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, “What Doesn’t Kill You”Narrator: “Frontline”, “NOVA”, “American Experience” etc. Awards: Norton Outstanding Achievement (4 plays), Norton Sustained Excellence 2013, IRNE, NETC Award for Contribution to American Theatre, Howard Keel, Best of Boston, Imaginaire.

Karen MacDonald
Volumnia/ Coriolanus
Karen MacDonald
Volumnia/ Coriolanus

Karen MacDonald previously appeared as Mrs. Plant/Mrs.Vane in Universe Rushing Apart, Maria in Twelfth Night, Volumnia in Coriolanus, The Countess in All’s Well That Ends Well and Gertrude in Hamlet and directed Old Money for CSC. On Broadway, she understudied and performed the role of Amanda Wingfield in John Tiffany’s production of The Glass Menagerie. New England area credits include The Huntington Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, Hartford Stage,  Trinity Rep, Speakeasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage, Greater Boston Stage Company, Gloucester Stage, GAMM Theatre, Israeli Stage, Sleeping Weasel, ARTS Emerson, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Bridge Rep, Boston Theatre Company, New Repertory Theatre,. The Vineyard Playhouse, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare and Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival.  She has appeared with the Boston Pops and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, both at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood. She was a Founding Company Member of the American Repertory Theatre, performing in 73 productions.. She has worked nationally from The Wilma Theatre to Berkeley Rep. Karen has been awarded several IRNE and Eliot Norton Awards for her work. She received the Robert Brustein Prize for Sustained Achievement in the Theatre and the Eliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. She is a graduate of Boston University and teaches at Harvard University.

Gracyn Mix
Juliet/ Romeo & Juliet
Gracyn Mix
Juliet/ Romeo & Juliet

Gracyn Mix is making her CSC debut. Her credits include The Crucible at Arkansas Repertory Theater, Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis/Cincinnati Playhouse, Pride and Prejudice at Cincinnati Playhouse; A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare; As You Like It and The Rivals at Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Titus Andronicus at Great River Shakespeare Festival.

Richard Noble
King Edward IV/ Richard III
Richard Noble
King Edward IV/ Richard III

Richard Noble has appeared previously with CSC as Edward IV et al. in Richard III (2018),  Philario et al. in Cymbeline (2019), and Alonso in the script-in-hand online performance of The Tempest (2020). In Rhode Island he has also appeared in numerous productions of the Perishable, Epic, Burbage, Gamm, and other theatres. In (much) earlier days he appeared in a couple of dozen productions at Wesleyan University, was a member of the Dartmouth Summer Rep, and frequently appeared with the Parish Players in Thetford, Vermont. Until his recent retirement he also performed daily as “Rare Materials Cataloger” in the Brown University Library.

Brendan O’Brien
Prince Richard/ Richard III
Brendan O’Brien
Prince Richard/ Richard III

Brendan O’Brien is thrilled to to be making his debut with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Previous Boston credits include Merrily We Roll Along (IRNE Nomination, Huntington Theatre), appropriate (SpeakEasy Stage Company), Show Boat (Fiddlehead Theatre Company) and State of Siege (Theatre de la Ville/ArtsEmerson). Brendan has also performed in number of shows and Junior Show Choir with Boston Children’s Theatre. Brendan is 11 years old, lives in Boston and this fall will be in the sixth grade at the Condon School.

Kerry O’Malley
Olivia/ Twelfth Night
Kerry O’Malley
Olivia/ Twelfth Night

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

Paula Plum
Portia/ Julius Caesar
Paula Plum
Portia/ Julius Caesar

Paula Plum Over the past three decades, her most notable performance have been as CleopatraLady MacbethBeatriceTouchstone and Phedre at the Actors’ Shakespeare Project; in Miss WitherspoonThe Heiress and Death of a Salesman at the Lyric Stage ; Body AwarenessHistory Boys and New Century at SpeakEasy Stage; LysistrataIvanovMother Courage, and The Marriage of Bette and Boo at the American Repertory Theatre. Ms. Plum starred in two world premieres by John Kuntz: Sing Me To Sleep (Boston Center for the Arts) and Miss Price, which she coproduced (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre). Movie credits include “Irrational Man”, “Next Stop Wonderland”, “Mermaids”, “Malice”, and “The March Sisters at Christmas”. Television credits include voicing characters on “Squigglevision” (ABC), “The Dick and Paula Celebrity Special” (FX), “Hey Money” (Oxygen) and “Dr. KatzProfessional Therapist” (Comedy Central). Her original plays include: MemorialWigged OUT!, and What Lips My Lips Have Kissed. Her solo show, Plum Pudding, garnered her critical praise and the 2003 IRNE award for Best Solo Performance. Her article “Handling the Hot Moments, How Actors Negotiate Intimacy On Stage” was published in American Theatre Magazine. Paula was honored by the Boston Theatre Critics Association with the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence (past recipients include Sir Ian McKellen and Julie Harris) and for Best Actress twice (Lost in Yonkers and Miss Witherspoon). Ms. Plum was trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic arts and is a Cum Laude graduate of Boston University’s School for the Arts, where she was also honored as Distinguished Alumna in 2003.

Jay O. Sanders
Macbeth/ Macbeth
Jay O. Sanders
Macbeth/ Macbeth

Jay O. Sanders performed the title role of Macbeth for CSC’s production of Macbeth on The Boston Common in 2003. He recently returned from a critically acclaimed run as the title character in The Old Globe production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. In 2017 he participated in a world tour of Richard Nelson’s trilogy The Gabriel Plays: Election Year in the Life of One Family out of The Public Theater, where he has been a regular presence for over 40 years with credits including Mr. Nelson’s The Apple Family Plays, David Hare’s Stuff Happens, the title role in Titus Andronicus, and a long list of appearances in Shakespeare in the Park. He has also performed across the country with Bryan Doerries’s The Theater of War. His films include JFK, The Day After Tomorrow, Tumbleweeds, Edge of Darkness, and Angels in the Outfield and on television he was seen in “Sneaky Pete,” “True Detective,” “Blindspot,” “Law & Order; Criminal Intent,” and “Roseanne.” Mr. Sanders’s voice can regularly be heard narrating PBS documentaries for “Nova,” “Nature,” “Wide Angle,” and “Secrets of the Dead.” His own play, Unexplored Interior, which explores the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was the inaugural production of Washington, DC’s new Mosaic Theater Company.

Sarah Sinclair
Duchess of York/ Richard III
Sarah Sinclair
Duchess of York/ Richard III

Sarah Sinclair is a Rhode Island actress, Richard III is her first production with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Most recently, she has appeared in Romeo and Juliet, Barbecue, Blithe Spirit, A Streetcar Named Desire and Gabriel with RI theatres. She studied and performed in New York City, and toured 40 cities as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sarah took a long hiatus from the theatre to raise her family. She has been extremely active in the Gamm Studio in recent years, working on classical roles.

Mark Soucy
Sir Nathaniel/ Love's Labour's Lost
Mark Soucy
Sir Nathaniel/ Love's Labour's Lost

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.

Bobbie Steinbach
Queen Margaret/ Richard III
Bobbie Steinbach
Queen Margaret/ Richard III

Bobbie Steinbach  is delighted to be back on the Common with CSC and Steve Maler, who gave her her first stab at the Bard as the Nurse in Romeo & Juliet, and where she was also seen as Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and Maria in Twelfth NightBobbie is a Founding Member/Resident Actor with Actors’ Shakespeare Project with whom she has played many roles including Paulina, Duchess of York, Mistress Quickly, Volumnia, and Cassius. (Elliot Norton Nomination, Outstanding Actress). She has also worked at many other local theaters: Huntington Theatre Company, New Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and Speakeasy Stage Company. Bobbie is the recipient of The Elliot Norton Outstanding Actress award and several IRNE Best Actress awards. In 2015 The Theatre Communications Guild honored Bobbie with a two-year Resident Actor Fox Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, for which she partnered with Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and developed a company project, I Am Lear, and a solo show, In Bed with the Bard. She is also the 2016 Huntington Theatre Company’s Lunt-Fontanne Fellow. Bobbie is an acting coach working mainly with high school students, preparing them for their college theatre auditions. www.bobbiesteinbach.com 

Fred Sullivan, Jr.
Bottom/ Midsummer & Gloucester/ King Lear
Fred Sullivan, Jr.
Bottom/ Midsummer & Gloucester/ King Lear

Fred Sullivan is celebrating 16 seasons with CSC. On the Common, Fred has played Bottom, Jaques (Norton Award winner), Ageon, Brabantio, Parolles, Menenius, First Gangster (Kiss Me Kate at the Hatch Shell) Malvolio (Norton Award nominee), Gloucester, Holoferness, Capulet, Buckingham, Stephano  and he directed 2019’s Cymbeline and adapted our one-man A Christmas Carol. Most recently, Fred appeared at the Lyric Stage Company as Ben Jonson in The Book of Will and as Tim in The Cake. He spent 35 seasons as a resident actor at Trinity Repertory Company in RI where he appeared in 130 plays and received Norton and IRNE awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in Blithe Spirit and His Girl Friday. His Trinity roles included Falstaff, Harold Hill, Captain Hook, Oscar Madison, James Tyrone, Jr, Daddy Warbucks, Creon, Peer Gynt,  Joe Pitt, Alfie Doolittle, Scrooge, Nick Bottom and 118 others. At Trinity, Fred directed Shooting Star, A Christmas Carol and Boeing Boeing. Fred is a  Resident Director for the Gamm Theatre (25 seasons) where he directed 35 productions including Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet (each twice) The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest , King Lear, and Awake at Sing (Norton Award for Outstanding Production). As an actor at Gamm, he played Donny in American Buffalo, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Potter/Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life, Aslasken in A Lie Agreed Upon and Mark Rothko in Red. Fred has also performed at NJ Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Berkeley Rep, and Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. He is featured in the films: Vault, Saving Christmas (w/ Ed Asner), Mister Birthday, Agent Toby Barks and Almost Mercy. He teaches acting at Gamm and RISD.

 

Mark Torres
Lord Hastings/ Richard III
Mark Torres
Lord Hastings/ Richard III

Mark Torres appeared in the CSC productions of Death and the Maiden and in Richard III. He has worked on Broadway, and at such regional theatres as Trinity Repertory Company, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Repertory Theater,  Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Plaza Theatre in Dallas, Center Stage in Baltimore, Melody Top Theatre in Milwaukee, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Music Theatre of Connecticut, Ocean State Theatre, The Theatre at Monmouth and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre.  He has also appeared on television and in several films, most recently the thriller Shorecliff. 

Michael Underhill
Richmond/ Richard III
Michael Underhill
Richmond/ Richard III

Michael Underhill previously appeared at CSC in Cymbeline, Othello, Two Gentleman of Verona (u/s), Macbeth (CSC2), Richard III, and Romeo & Juliet (CSC2). He is a graduate from Northeastern University and a Boston born and bred actor. Additional roles include the title role in King John (Praxis Stage), Actor #1 in Hotel Nepenthe (Brown Box Theatre) and Joseph Surface in School for Scandal (Actors’ Shakespeare Project). Other regional credits include the Huntington Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Central Square Theatre and imaginary beasts. Find out more at www.michaeljunderhill.com 

Robert Walsh
Cominius/ Coriolanus
Robert Walsh
Cominius/ Coriolanus

Robert Walsh (Fight Director) is delighted to be a part of the production team for Macbeth.
One of the earliest members of the Society of American Fight Directors, he has previously acted
in and staged fights for past CSC productions of: Coriolanus (Cominius), Macbeth (Macduff),
Henry V (Exeter) and Julius Caesar. Other fight direction credits include: the American
Repertory Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Hartford Stage Company, Long Wharf
Theatre, Portland Stage Company and most of the theater companies in and around Boston. A
founding member of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Robert has enjoyed acting in, directing or
staging the fights for many of the Bard’s plays over the last eighteen years. From 2014 – 21, he
served as the Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company and prior to that, was the Producing
Artistic Director of the American Stage Festival in Milford, N.H. Recent films include: “Fourth of
July”, “Black Mass” and “Dead Reckoning” (as a stunt performer). Most recently, he appeared in The
Gaaga, produced by Arlekin Players, written and directed by Sasha Denisova. He is a member of
the theater faculty at Brandeis University, as well as AEA, SDC, SAG-AFTRA, & the SAFD.

Brandon Whitehead
Fool/ King Lear
Brandon Whitehead
Fool/ King Lear

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”.

John Zdrojeski
Romeo/ Romeo & Juliet
John Zdrojeski
Romeo/ Romeo & Juliet

John Zdrojeski appeared in The Kite Runner at New Repertory Theatre and How I Learned To Drive at the Boston Center for American Performance. His other credits include 10 x 10 at Barrington Stage, Monster at Potomac Theater Project/Atlantic Stage 2, The Choking Game at IRT Theater, and Peninsula at The Players Theatre. John is in his third-year at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, and an alumnus of Boston University’s School of Theatre.

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