The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Ellen Adair last appeared in Ryan Landry’s “M”  at the Huntington.  Other Boston credits include Lyric Stage Company, SpeakEasy Stage, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, New Repertory Theatre, Publick Theatre, and Centastage.  Off-Broadway Theater for a New Audience and Barrow St., Pearl Theater, Mint Theater, GayFestNYC, and Punchdrink’s Sleep No More. Other regional theater: Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Pioneer Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Portland Stage, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Kitchen Theatre, and American Shakespeare Center. Film/TV: “As The World Turns”, “Brotherhood” and films about Louisa May Alcott, John Audobon, Louis Brandeis, and the “God in America” series for PBS.  She is the author of a collection of poems, Curtain Speech. www.ellenadair.com

Kortney Adams is a native of St. Louis, MO, but has been working as an actor, director, and teaching artist in Boston since 2002.  Recent projects include Harriet Jacobs and the World Premiere of From Orchids to Octopi (Underground Railway Theater), Pippi Longstocking and Aladdin (Wheelock Family Theater), Voyeurs de Venus (Company One), Doubt (Gloucester Stage Co.), The Merchant of Venice (Publick Theatre), After Mrs. Rochester (IRNE for Best Supporting Actress, Wellesley Summer Theatre) and the role of Barbara Demarco in the long-running hit Shear Madness.  Recent films include “The Makeover.” “R.I.P.D.”, and “The Proposal.” www.kortneyadams.com

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.

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).”

Mimi Bilinski returns to CSC after appearing as Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Off Broadway she played Julie in Miss Julie and the Cherry Lane and Varya in The Cherry Orchard (Pearl Theatre).  Other roles include Olivia in Twelfth Night (Hanger), Diana in Filumnena (Belmont Playhouse & Long Island Summerstage), and Princess Turandot in Turandot (Belmont Playhouse).  She recorded the audio book The Iron Bridge by Anton Piatigorsky and her voice can also be heard on The Gettysburg Story, a battlefield audio tour and numerous MTV promo spots.

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.

Peter Cambor Theater: As You Like It (Shakespeare Center LA), The Cherry Orchard (Mark Taper Forum), Feiffer’s People (New York), A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre), Amerika, Desire Under the Elms, The Provok’d Wife, The Miser (A.R.T.), Summer Shorts (Provincetown Repertory Theatre). TV/Film: “NCIS: Los Angeles”, “NCIS”, “The Wedding Band”, “Notes from the Underbelly”, Numb3rs”, “Pushing Daisies”, “Trust Me”,

Larry Coen‘s CSC credits include The Boys from Syracuse (with Landmarks Orchestra), Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Two Gentleman of Verona, All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Taming of the Shrew.  Many productions with Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans, Beau Jest, Lyric Stage Company, Speakeasy Stage, and Huntington Theatre. Performed three World Premieres of Tennessee Williams’ plays,  Larry is the recipient of four Elliot Norton Awards from Boston Theater Critics Association.  Coen is Artistic Director of City Stage Co. of Boston.

Terrence O’Malley Theater: Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage, Worcester Foothills.

Rick Park is making his CSC debut. Boston credits include Bengal Tiget at the Baghdad Zoo (Company One, IRNE nomination, Best Actor), The Third Story (Titanic Theatre), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Stickball Productions), Hiding Behind Comets and Valhalla (Zeitgeist Stage, IRNE Nomination, Best Supporting Actor), and over 900 performances of Shear Madness. 

Evan Sanderson Credits include Amadeus (Van Swieten) at New Repertory Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing With a Twist and Neither Have I Wings to Fly (Zeitgeist Stage Company), East of Berlin (Apollinaire Theater, IRNE nomination); The Europeans (Whistler in the Dark); and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Now!). Film credits include “Dark Feed”.

Alan R. White returns to CSC after appearing in The Taming of the Shrew.  Other credits include Ragtime (Fiddlehead Theatre), Twelfth Night (Arts After Hours), Oliver! (Wheelock Family Theater), and You Can’t Take it With You (Wellesley Theatre).

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.

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.

 J Hagenbuckle is a freelance sound designer, composer and musician. He has designed and composed for shows On and Off Broadway, for regional theaters including twelve years at Hartford TheaterWorks, thirteen seasons with The Berkshire Theatre Festival, eleven seasons with CSC and for numerous Boston theater companies. He is the first sound designer to receive an Elliot Norton Award, the first to receive an NEA/TCG Designer Grant and the first to receive an MFA in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University. J lives on Cape Cod, plays in two bands and is Artist in Residence at Cape Cod Theatre Company.

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.

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

Kevin G. Dwyer CSC; Coriolanus, Huntington Theater Company: Betrayal, Private Lives, Captors. BA in Stage/Production Management from Emerson College.  Emerson credits include NewFest 2013: Catatonia (Stage Manager), The Grapes of Wrath (Company Manager), Tartuffe (Production Supervisor), Cloud Nine (Assistant Stage Manager).

Leslie Chiu has been a stage, production and general manager in the theater industry for over twenty years. Before joining BabsonARTS she worked in Brandeis University’s Department of Theater Arts as the Director of Production.  She has served as Production Manager for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s productions of Othello (2010),  All’s Well That Ends Well (2011), and Love’s Labour’s Lost (2016); Associate Production Manager for CSC’s Coriolanus (2012) and Two Gentleman of Verona (2013); Production Stage Manager for the Off-Broadway show Blue Man Group (Boston) and Assistant Producer for Boston Early Music Festival’s Niobe: Regina de Tebe (2011). Leslie received her MFA in Stage Management from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and her BFA In Theatrical Design/Technology from Florida State University.