A Midsummer Night’s Dream At China’s 27th Macao Arts Festival

Following the  Free For All 25th Anniversary performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Ethan McSweeny, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production will travel to Macao, China, to perform this striking rendition of Shakespeare’s iconic comedy at the 27th annual celebration of the Macao Arts Festival (MAF), which begins April 30 and lasts until May 29. In commemoration of the 400th anniversaries of William Shakespeare’s and famed Chinese playwright Tan Xianzu’s deaths, the MAF will present shows in tribute to these two virtuosos, including STC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. McSweeny’s production will kick off the festival with performances on April 30 and May 1, 2016 at 8:00 p.m.

“Ethan McSweeny’s Midsummer delighted D.C. audiences in our 2012–2013 season and again at our annual Free For All; we are eager to share this production—a love letter to Shakespeare, to the art form, and to the physical environment of theatre itself—with an international audience,” says STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn. “We’ve had STC shows go abroad in the past—with Love’s Labour’s Lost in 2006 at the RSC’s Complete Works Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon and The Oedipus Plays, which traveled to the prestigious 2003 Athens Festival in Greece—and we’re proud of the opportunity to continue this tradition of international exchange.”

ARTISTIC TEAM

Director
Ethan McSweeny

Choreographer
Peter Pucci

Choreography Re-created by
Nancy Anderson

Scenic Designer
Lee Savage

Costume Designer
Jennifer Moeller

Lighting Designer
Tyler Micoleau

Original Music/ Sound Designer
Fitz Patton

Wig and Makeup Designer
Leah J. Loukas

Resident Casting Director
Carter C. Wooddell

Original New York Casting
Binder Casting
Jay Binder, CSA/ Jack Bowden, CSA

Literary Manager/ Dramaturg
Drew Lichtenberg

Voice & Text Coach
Ellen O’Brien

Original Production Stage Manager
Joseph Smelser

Production Stage Manager
Cristine Anne Reynolds

Assistant Stage Manager
Maria Tejada

Production Assistant
Teresa Wood

Music Vocal Coach
Nancy Anderson

Fight Consultant
Brad Waller

Ethan McSweeny
Director
STC: Affiliated Artist; The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (also Free For All), Much Ado About Nothing (also Free For All), The Merchant of Venice, Ion, Major Barbara, The Persians; Harman Center Opening Gala; Associate Director 1993–1997. NEW YORK: Broadway: John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, Tony Award nomination); Off-Broadway: John Logan’s Never the Sinner (Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards); Playwrights Horizons: 100 Saints You Should Know (Top Ten: Entertainment Weekly and Time Out magazines); Page 73 Productions: 1001 (Top Ten, Time Out magazine); Primary Stages: Rx (world premiere), Sabina; National Actors Theatre: The Persians; Flea Theatre: Fulfillment. INTERNATIONAL: Gate Theatre, Dublin: A Month in the Country, An Ideal Husband, A Streetcar Named Desire (Irish Times Award for Best Direction); Stratford Shakespeare Festival: Pirates of Penzance, Dangerous Liaisons. REGIONAL: more than 70 productions at theatres around the nation including the Guthrie Theater: Tales from Hollywood, Arms and the Man, A View from the Bridge, A Body of Water (premiere, Star-Tribune Award), Romeo and Juliet, Six Degrees of Separation (Star-Tribune Award), Thief River, Side Man, Gross Indecency; Goodman Theatre/Dallas Theater Center: Trinity River Plays (premiere); Arena Stage: A Time to Kill (premiere); Studio Theatre: Moment (premiere); The Old Globe: Cornelia (premiere), In This Corner (premiere, San Diego Critics Circle Award), A Body of Water (San Diego Critics Circle Award); Denver Center Theatre Company: 1001 (premiere, Ovation Award); South Coast Repertory: Ordinary Days, Mr. Marmalade (premiere, OCIE award); Center Stage: Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (Baltimore City Paper Best of 2008); Prince Music Theater: Chasing Nicolette (Barrymore Award nomination); George Street Playhouse: A Walk in the Woods, Dirty Blonde, Ctrl+Alt+Delete (New Jersey Star-Ledger Best of 2002), Old Times, Master Class; Westport Country Playhouse: Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me; The Wilma Theater: Dirty Blonde; San Jose Repertory Theatre: Ctrl+Alt+Delete (world premiere); Pittsburgh Public Theater: Wit (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Award); Alley Theatre: The Beauty Queen of Leenane; Signature Theatre: Never the Sinner (Helen Hayes Award nomination); American Theatre Company: Fulfillment (premiere); Chautauqua Theater Company: A Raisin in the Sun, Fifty Ways (world premiere), Love’s Labor’s Lost, The Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, The Just, The Cherry Orchard, All My Sons, Cobb. OPERA: Washington National Opera: Better Gods. ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP: Chautauqua Theater Company, Co-Artistic Director 2004–2011, National Actors Theatre, Associate Director, 2003–2005; Resident Director, New Dramatists, 2001–2002; George Street Playhouse, Associate Artistic Director, 2000–2004. BOARD MEMBERSHIPS: Treasurer, Executive Board, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society. TRAINING: Received the first ever undergraduate degree in Theatre and Dramatic Arts from Columbia University. WEB: EthanMcSweeny.com

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Nancy Anderson
First Fairy
STC: The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. NEW YORK: Broadway: Wonderful Town, A Class Act; Off-Broadway: York Theatre: Fanny Hill (Drama Desk nomination), Jolson & Co. (Drama Desk nomination), Ionescopade, Yank! NATIONAL TOURS: Kiss Me, Kate (Helen Hayes nomination), Doctor Dolittle. INTERNATIONAL: London: Kiss Me, Kate (Olivier Award nomination). REGIONAL: Goodspeed Musicals: Adelaide in Guys and Dolls; Signature Theatre: Side By Side By Sondheim (Helen Hayes nomination); Ogunquit Playhouse: Witches of Eastwick; Paper Mill Playhouse/Seattle Fifth Avenue: Damn Yankees; Goodspeed Opera House: City of Angels; Paper Mill Playhouse: Peter Pan, She Loves Me; Playwrights Horizons: Far From Heaven. TELEVISION: Great Performances: Kiss Me, Kate (West End production), South Pacific (starring Reba McEntire). AWARDS: Winner of 2011 Noël Coward Competition. CD: Ten Cents a Dance.

Laura Artesi
Ensemble
REGIONAL: Capital T Theatre: Gruesome Playground Injuries; Threshold Repertory Theatre: The Lieutenant of Inishmore; City Theatre: Othello, A Streetcar Named Desire. TRAINING: The Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University: MFA.

Freddie Bennett
Ensemble
STC: Dunsinane, The Tempest. REGIONAL: Anacostia Playhouse: Occupied Territories; Florida Studio Theatre: Ruined, Shotgun; Hartford Stage: Antony and Cleopatra; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Julius Caesar.  FILM: Delusions of Guinevere. TRAINING: University of North Carolina School of the Arts; Circle in the Square. WEB: Pride.

Ross Destiche
Ensemble
STC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tartuffe, The Metromaniacs, The Tempest. REGIONAL: Constellation Theatre Company: Equus; Walking Shadow Theatre Company: Gabriel, The Three Musketeers; Back Room Shakespeare Project: Julius Caesar; CTC: Fashion 47. INTERNATIONAL: Egg Theatre (Bath): How I Became a Pirate. FILM: Dear White People, The Control Group, Keepsake. TRAINING: University of Minnesota / Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program. WEB: rossdestiche.com.

Adam Green
Philostrate/Puck
STC: Affiliated Artist; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Hayes nomination), All’s Well That Ends Well (mainstage and Free For All), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Liar (Helen Hayes nomination, Emery Battis Award). NEW YORK: Pearl Theatre; Red Bull Theatre; Second Stage Theatre; Cherry Lane Theatre; Lion Theatre; Theater at St. Clement’s; New York City Opera; 59e59; Theatre for the New City; Walkerspace. REGIONAL: McCarter Theatre: Figaro in The Figaro Plays (dir. Stephen Wadsworth), The Mousetrap, The Understudy; Hartford Stage (CT Critics Circle nomination); Barrington Stage; Alley Theatre; La Jolla Playhouse: Peter in Peter and the Starcatchers (dir. Roger Rees/Alex Timbers); Geva Theatre; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Arena Stage: Awake and Sing! (dir. Zelda Fichandler, Rose Robinson Cowen Fellowship); Alliance Theatre: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (dir. Doug Hughes); Shakespeare on the Sound. TV: The Good Wife. TRAINING: NYU: MFA; Harvard: BA in English.

Chasten Harmon
Hermia
NEW YORK: Broadway: HAIR (Tony Award® for Best Musical Revival); Off-Broadway: Signature Theatre Company: Iphigenia 2.0 (Tina Landau). NATIONAL TOURS: Les Miserables 25^th Anniversary. REGIONAL: Yale Repertory Theatre: Familiar, The House that will not Stand; Chautauqua Theater Company: A Raisin in the Sun, The Tempest; Berkshire Theatre Festival: Oklahoma; Papermill Playhouse; Les Miserables 25^th Anniversary; Marriott Lincolnshire: Once on this Island, All Shook Up. FILM: Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, coming 2016). TRAINING: New York University: BFA Acting; Yale School of Drama: MFA Acting.

Ralph Adriel Johnson
Demetrius

REGIONAL: Trinity Repertory Company: Christmas Carol; Bread Loaf School of English: George in Our Town, Jem Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Richard Henry in Blues for Mister Charlie, Hector in Troilus and Cressida; Brown/Trinity MFA: Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night, Galactic Jack/Doc in The Tooth of Crime, Reverend D/Baby in In the Blood, Lysimachus in Pericles, Eilert Lövborg in Hedda Gabler; Oberlin College: Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog, John in Oleanna, Banquo in Macbeth, George Armstrong in Intimate Apparel. TRAINING: Brown/Trinity Rep: MFA in Acting; Oberlin College: BA in Theatre.

Dion Johnstone
Theseus/Oberon
INTERNATIONAL: Arts Club Theatre (Vancouver, BC): Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Satori Hall’s The Mountaintop; Nine seasons with the Stratford Festival: Othello in Othello, White King in Alice Through the Looking Glass, Aaron in Titus Andronicus, Caliban in The Tempest, Macduff in Macbeth, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Edmund in King Lear, Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird; Mirvish Productions: originated the role of Boromir in the musical of Lord of the Rings (world premiere); Canstage: Davey Battle in Take Me Out (Canadian premiere) . FILM: Underground Railroad: The William Still Story (PBS); X-Files: I Want to Believe; The Core. TELEVISION: UPTV’s original series Ties That Bind (Det. Devin Stewart); Stargate SG-1 (Showtime); The Listener, Flashpoint (CTV); Defiance (Syfy). TRAINING: University of Alberta: BFA in acting; Graduate of Stratford’s Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training.

John Lescault
Egeus
STC: Montjoy in Henry V, Salisbury in Richard II, Governor of Babylon in Tamburlaine, Bishop in Edward II, Ramon in Don Carlos. NEW YORK: Opera Lafayette, Lincoln Center: Le Deserteur. REGIONAL: Cincinnati Playhouse: Frank in Native Gardens; Folger Theatre: Theseus/Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, MacDuff in Macbeth, Bacon in Elizabeth the Queen; Ford’s Theatre: Willard in Our Town, Cratchit in A Christmas Carol; Arena Stage: Booth in Our War, Mayor Shinn in The Music Man; Signature Theatre: Brother Russia in Brother Russia, Serge in 16 ‘Art,’ Donny in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, A in Crave. FILM/TELEVISION: Beautiful Something, Lincoln, The Duel, The Day Lincoln Was Shot. TRAINING: BFA/CUA.

Hugh Nees
Snug
STC: The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Free For All), Measure for Measure, The Government Inspector, The Merry Wives of Windsor, King Lear, The Beaux’ Stratagem and others. REGIONAL: Guthrie Theatre: The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; Denver Center Theatre: A Touch of the Poet; Arena Stage: Oklahoma!, Christmas Carol 1941 and others. TELEVISION: Netforce, Homicide. OTHER: Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA. TRAINING: Santa Clara University.

Julia Ogilvie
Helena
NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: La MaMa: That Beautiful Laugh (starring Alan Tudyk, dir. Orlando Pabotoy); Steinberg Studio: Author/Performer of solo play Freckle and Burn (dir. Vivienne Benesch); Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre: In House Sketch Comedy Team Moriarty. REGIONAL: Dorset Theatre Festival: The Mousetrap (dir. Paul Mullins); Chautauqua Theater Company: You Can’t Take it With You, Macbeth, Anna Ziegler’s An Incident; LA’s Comedy Store, Flappers, & Improv Olympics West: Comedy Duo Manifesto of Hiatus. FILM: American Bistro. TELEVISION: Shakespeare, Hashish & Ish. AWARDS: Presidential Scholar in the Arts. TRAINING: Maggie Flanigan Studio, The Juilliard School. WEB: www.juliaogilvie.com

Alex Podulke
Francis Flute
STC: Saturninus in Titus Andronicus. NEW YORK: Off Broadway: 59E59: H2O, Uncanny Valley; New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theater: Romeo and Juliet; Epic Theatre: Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play; Lincoln Center Festival: Last of the Castrati; Summer Play Festival: Flesh and the Desert; New York Fringe: Corleone. REGIONAL: Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival: The Tempest (upcoming); Contemporary American Theater Festival: Uncanny Valley, H2O; Actors Theatre of Louisville: Tom Jones, Sense and Sensibility; Cincinnati Playhouse: Behind the Eye; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: Sense and Sensibility; Pioneer Theatre: Touched, Enchanted April, The Heiress; Portland Center Stage: Pride and Prejudice; Seattle Rep: Betrayal; Olney Theatre: Misalliance; Jungle Theater: Hapgood; Guthrie Theater: Julius Caesar, the Plow and the Stars, Pride and Prejudice, Six Degrees of Separation, Thief River, Romeo and Juliet. OPERA: Metropolitan Opera: Cyrano Debergerac (with Placido Domingo). FILM: Welcome to Cosmos. TELEVISION: Guiding Light. OTHER: Alex’s one man show, DNA and the Dancing Fool, has been produced in festivals regionally and in Canada. TRAINING: The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Tom Alan Robbins
Nick Bottom
NEW YORK: Broadway: Original cast of: The Lion King (Pumbaa), Is He Dead? (Dutchy), Sunset Boulevard, Jerome Robbins Broadway, Threepenny Opera, Once Upon a Mattress; Newsies; Off-Broadway: Brooklynite, On The Verge (New York Premiere), Isn’t It Romantic (World Premiere), The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket (World Premiere), The Cradle Will Rock; Public Theatre: Henry V, King Lear (Cornwall). NATIONAL TOURS: Les Miserables (Thenardier). REGIONAL: Denver Center: The Whale (Charlie, World Premiere), Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye), Man of La Mancha (Sancho), The Producers (Franz); Encores: Music in the Air, Pardon My English, Tenderloin; Cleveland Play House: My Name is Asher Lev. TRAINING: The Juilliard School; The Acting Company.

Taylor Robinson
Ensemble
REGIONAL: HalfMad Theatre: Death and the Mermaid; reLease Physical Theatre: straight on till mourning; Source Theatre: Painted; Synetic Theater: As You Like It, The Island of Dr. Moreau (understudy). TRAINING: The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts; NCDA’s Actors Repertory Theatre program.

Herschel Sparber
Tom Snout
STC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. NEW YORK: Broadway: City of Angels (dir. Michael Blakemore), Guys and Dolls (Jerry Zaks). REGIONAL: Kings County Shakespeare: Measure For Measure; Mark Taper Forum: The Street of The Sun (world premiere); Cleveland Play House: On the Waterfront (world premiere); Intiman Theatre: Paradise Lost; Hollywood Bowl: Guys and Dolls; Tennessee Rep (founding member): Of Mice and Men; Reprise Theatre Company: Kiss Me, Kate. FILM: The Birdcage, Serenity, Osmosis Jones, Brother, The Search For El Dorado, Lucky Stiff (summer 2013 release). TELEVISON: Two Broke Girls (CBS), Star Trek Deep Space 9, NYPD Blue, Newsradio, My Name Is Earl, Boy Meets World, Scarred City (HBO).

Stephen Stocking
Lysander
NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Les Freres Corbusier: Dance Dance Revolution; Clutch Productions: Every Good Girl Deserves Fun. NATIONAL TOUR: Henry and Mudge. REGIONAL: Portland Center Stage: Great Expectations; Williamstown Theatre Festival: Romeo and Juliet, Anything Goes. TELEVISION: Amazon Studios: Z: The Beginning of Everything. TRAINING: New York University: MFA; Grad Acting: Describe the Night, Desire, Three Sisters, Plenty, Landscape of the Body, The Beaux’ Strategem, Pale Fires.

Jessica Thorne
Ensemble 
STC: The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. REGIONAL: Signature Theatre: Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera; Studio Theatre 2^nd Stage: The Rocky Horror Show; The Kennedy Center: Elephant and Piggie: We Are In A Play, My Fair Lady in Concert; Synetic Theater: Home of the Soldier, The Rough-Faced Girl; Imagination Stage: Double Trouble Workshop. WEB: www.jessicathornemusic.com.

Sara Topham
Hippolyta/Titania
STC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. BROADWAY: Roundabout Theatre Company: Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. OFF BROADWAY: Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling (Red Bull). REGIONAL: The Old Globe: Olivia in Twelfth Night; McCarter Theatre: Cecily in Travesties; Hartford Stage: Miranda in The Tempest, Thea in Hedda Gabler. INTERNATIONAL:  London: Mrs. Van Buren in the UK Premiere of Intimate Apparel, Dorothy in the world premiere of Love Me Do; Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Canada): Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Ruth in Blithe Spirit, Célimène in The Misanthrope, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Madame de Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Wendy in Peter Pan, Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest, Laurencia in Fuente Ovejuna, Mabel in An Ideal Husband, Cordelia in King Lear, Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Grace in London Assurance, Rosalind in As You Like It, Brooke Ashton in Noises Off, Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII, Cassandra in Agamemnon, Diana in All’s Well That Ends Well; Belfry Theatre: The Governess in The Turn of the Screw; Neptune Theatre: Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Theatre Aquarius: Constanze in Amadeus. FILM/TELEVISION: Eloise at Christmastime, The Importance of Being Earnest, Twelfth Night.

Andrew Weems
Robin Starveling
NEW YORK: Broadway: Born Yesterday, Inherit the Wind, The Green Bird, London Assurance; Off-Broadway: LCT: Blood and Gifts; NYTW: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Bach at Leipzig; TFANA: The Broken Heart, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, Pericles, Green Bird; CSC: A Man’s a Man; Public Theater: Manahatta; Clubbed Thumb: Somewhere Someplace Else, Telethon; Acting Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Mere Mortals, Marathon Dancing. REGIONAL: Guthrie Theater: Uncle Vanya; Center Stage: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; Alley: A Behanding in Spokane; Old Globe: Don Juan; NJ Shakespeare: Rhinoceros, King John, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern…, Noises Off, The Time of Your Life, Accidental Death…; Intiman: Three Sisters, Arms and the Man; Long Wharf: Rocket to the Moon, Much Ado About Nothing; Chautauqua: As You Like It, Clybourne Park; Westport: Journey’s End, School for Husbands; Aspen Fringe: An Iliad. OTHER: Fox/TCG fellow; Author/performer of Namaste Man (Intiman, Boise Contemporary Theater, Two River) and Damascus (Fourth St Theater, BCT, Chautauqua).

Harry A. Winter
Peter Quince
STC: Kiss Me, Kate; The Government Inspector, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Tempest (u/s Alonso/Gonzalo). NATIONAL TOURS: Gigi, Jolson the Musical. REGIONAL: Signature Theatre: Allegro, 110 in the Shade, Pacific Overtures, Xanadu; Kennedy Center: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Mame; Olney Theatre Center: Racing Demon, Laramie Project, Bringing Up Amy; Washington Jewish Theatre: Pins and Needles, Forum. TELEVISION: Homicide, The Wire. TRAINING: Midwestern University; Edinboro University; Berklee College of Music; Johns Hopkins University: BA in music education.

All actors and stage managers in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.