BROADWAY STAR MICHAEL URIE RETURNS TO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY FREE FOR ALL HAMLET

Washington, D.C—Free For All, one of the capital’s cherished annual traditions, will return for its 29^th annual summer to Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), offering two weeks of free performances of the Company’s 2018 acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet starring MICHAEL URIE (Ugly Betty) as a  “quick-witted and sly” Hamlet (BroadwayWorld) in an “extraordinary performance” (TheaterMania). The production will run at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St NW) from July 10-July 21, providing more than 12,000 people the chance to see the play free of charge.

 “After playing Hamlet in Michael Kahn’s thrilling new production at Shakespeare Theater Company last year I felt, as I’m sure many Hamlets before me have felt, that I merely scratched the surface,” Urie explains about resuming the role as the doomed Danish prince.

Shakespeare’s classic revenge tragedy is both kinetic and contemporary. Set in a surveillance state Denmark, the characters tap cellphones and spy on each other with cameras, in their most intimate and vulnerable moments of grief, agony and despair. The political machinations of this connected and corrupt Elsinore underscore the domestic tragedy at the heart of the play. Even with the ghost of his father haunting television monitors calling for his son to avenge his death, Hamlet cannot trust his closest friends to uncover the truth about his father’s murder. TheaterMania calls this Hamlet “EXTRAORDINARY…This is a play for NOW.”

STC Artistic Associate CRAIG BALDWIN will direct Shakespeare’s great tragedy, remounting the lauded Michael Kahn-directed production. “Michael Kahn has been a mentor to me ever since I trained under him at Juilliard many years ago,” Baldwin explains. “It is a real honor to bring this bracingly astute and vibrantly modern production back as a gift to the people of D.C. I also could not be more thrilled to work with Michael Urie again, who brings a razor-sharp wit to Hamlet, like a man who might fight off his demons with the power of wordplay alone. It’s an exhilarating interpretation of the role in an exhilarating production.”

Coming fresh off of a celebrated Broadway run of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Urie has recently received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for his positive and complex portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters in works such as Torch Song and Ugly Betty. Urie is excited to return to D.C. “Now I’m a little older, more rested, and supremely grateful for the chance to carry the skull, sport the jester costume and ‘speak the speech’ once more for STC’s fabulous FreeForAll audiences.”

The Free For All Hamlet production will see many familiar faces return to reprise their roles: Urie will be joined by an international, award-winning cast including ROBERT JOY (King Charles III) as Polonius; ALAN COX (Translations on Broadway) as Claudius; FEDERICO RODRIGUEZ as Horatio; MADELEINE POTTER (An Ideal Husband on Broadway) as Gertrude, KELSEY RAINWATER as Guildenstern, GREGORY WOODDELL as Osric, DAVID BRYAN JACKSON as Voltemand/Priest, CHRIS GENEBACH as Barnard/Lucianus, LISE BRUNEAU as Player Queen/Cornelia and STC Affiliated Artist KEITH BAXTER will pull triple duty as the Ghost, the Player King and the Gravedigger. Joining the cast is AYANA WORKMAN as Ophelia, PAUL DEO, JR as Laertes, TIM NICOLAI as Rosencrantz, KRYSTEL LUCAS as Marcellus/Fortinbras/Prologue, as well as ensemble members GRACE BROCKWAY, OMAR D. CRUZ, MICHAEL HALLER, MEGAN HUYNH,  JOE MUCCIOLO, KEANU ROSS-CABRERA and JEFF ALLEN YOUNG.

SPONSORS

Free For All is presented by CoStar Group with leadership support from Ameriprise Financial, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, The Free For All Communty Partners, Friends of Free For All, ICF, and Exclusive Media Partner The Washington Post.

ABOUT FREE FOR ALL

Performances run July 10-21.

Each summer, with the help of a group of community-minded sponsors, the Shakespeare Theatre Company presents two weeks of FREE performances of a Shakespearean classic. There are several ways to get tickets:

SUBSCRIBE: Those who subscribe to the 2019/20 season by June 30 get advance access to tickets and reserved seats. https://www.shakespearetheatre.org/tickets-and-events/subscriptions-2019-2020-season/

ONLINE LOTTERY: For each performance, a select number of seats are given away to lucky lottery winners. The online lottery will open Tuesday, July 9.

GET IN LINE INSTEAD OF ONLINE: Every day STC will make at least 200 tickets available to the public in our ticket line at Sidney Harman Hall beginning two hours prior to curtain. Limit is two tickets per person. Remember to get there early! The line usually starts forming about four hours before curtain up.

BECOME A FRIEND OF FREE FOR ALL: Friends of Free For All are a group of generous donors who play a critical role in ensuring the continuation of this time-honored D.C. tradition. They support the production with gifts that allow STC to present live theatre for free and in so doing, receive wonderful benefits such as guaranteed premium orchestra seating and access to the Patrons Lounge in Sidney Harman Hall with complimentary snacks and drinks. Please see for more information: http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/support/ways-to-give/special-giving-opportunities/#foffa

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Free For All is a much-loved Washington tradition, offering free performances of a Shakespearean classic to the general public each summer. Started in 1991 to bring free Shakespeare to new and diverse audiences in the Washington metropolitan area, the Free For All presented Shakespeare under the stars at the Carter Barron Amphitheater. In an effort to make Shakespeare completely accessible for all residents of the D.C. Metro area, the Free For All was brought to downtown D.C. in 2009 and now resides at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall. To date, the Free For All has reached nearly 700,000 area residents and counting.

Free For All is a highlight of Washington’s theatre season, a traditional outing that attracts the city’s most diverse audience. Championed by Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Kahn and founding chairman R. Robert Linowes, and made possible with invaluable support from the Washington Post, Philip L. Graham Fund and a committed group of community-minded sponsors, the Free For All proved an enormous success its first year, attracting more than 2,500 theatregoers each night. Succeeding summers have seen the Free For All build on its early promise, with audiences flocking to see some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays—All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Henry V and King Lear—performed by the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s actors and such guest artists as Sabrina LeBeauf, Kelly McGillis and Harry Hamlin.

Citizens for Shakespeare has helped thousands of area students and community members gain access to Shakespeare’s plays. The Shakespeare Theatre Company Free For All’s unique contribution to the community was recognized with The Washington Post Distinguished Service Award in 1992 and the 1997 Public Humanities Award presented by the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.

Former Chair of the National Endowment of the Arts Jane Alexander, a frequent attendee at Free For All productions, enthuses about the program’s importance to Washington: “I remember once when I was at the Free For All, there was a couple sitting next to me with a very, very young child, and I began to talk to them and I asked: ‘Why are you here?’ And they said, ‘Where else would we have the opportunity to introduce our child to Shakespeare and be able to afford it?’” Alexander sums up the sentiments shared by Kahn, the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the many generous individuals, foundations and corporations who make the Free For All possible each year: “The Free For All is a wonderful success for everybody involved…not just for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, but for the entire city.”

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

CRAIG BALDWIN
Artistic Associate
STC: Richard the Third; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; Camelot; Hamlet; The Lover and The Collection; The School for Lies; The Tempest (2016 Free For All); The Taming of the Shrew; Othello (mainstage and 2017 Free For All); The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; Tartuffe; The Metromaniacs; The Tempest. NEW YORK: 59E59: C.O.A.L. (Confessions of a Liar); New York International Fringe Festival: Magic Kingdom, The More Loving One (FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award: Best Overall Production/Play); Marymount Manhattan College: columbinus; August Strindberg Rep Theatre: Mr. Bengt’s Wife; Atlantic Acting School: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; HERE Arts Center: Ingmar Bergman’s Persona; Classic Stage Company: MacB**h (workshop); Outhouse Theatre Co: Mercy Thieves (U.S. Premiere), The Boys (U.S. Premiere); Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab: MacB**h (workshop). REGIONAL: 5th Avenue Theatre: The Secret Garden; Opera House Arts: Antony and Cleopatra; SUNY Purchase College: The Miser. INTERNATIONAL: The Flick by Annie Baker (Sydney Premiere); The Aliens by Annie Baker (Sydney Premiere); 4 Minutes, 12 Seconds (Australian Premiere). OTHER: Producer, Red Bull Theater, Short New Play Festival; Lincoln Center Theater Directors’ Lab (member). TRAINING: The Juilliard School. WEB: CraigBaldwin.net.

ABOUT THE CAST

KEITH BAXTER
Ghost/Player King/Gravedigger
STC: Measure for Measure (Angelo), The Merchant of Venice (Antonio), Henry IV. Director: The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The Imaginary Invalid, Lady Windemere’s Fan, The Rivals, The Country Wife. NEW YORK: Broadway: A Man for All Seasons, The Affair, Avanti, Sleuth, A Meeting by the River, Corpse. INTERNATIONAL: Stratford, Ontario: Antony and Cleopatra (with Maggie Smith); Vershinin; Hamlet. London: Tea and Sympathy; Change of Tune; Where Angels Fear to Tread; You Never Can Tell; The Rivals; Sleuth; Tennessee Williams’ The Red Devil Battery Sign (which Williams dedicated to him); Corpse; Barnaby and the Old Boys (playwright); Private Lives; Dangerous Corner. FILM: Prince Hal in Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight. TELEVISION: Hawaii Five-0 (starring role).AWARDS: Bronze Medal, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1956); Theatre World Award (1961); Drama Desk Award and Outer Circle Critics Award (Sleuth, 1971).OTHER: Playwright: Cavell, presented at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Director: Rope, Dangerous Corner, Gaslight. Author: My Sentiments Exactly (1998).

GRACE BROCKWAY
Ensemble
STC: ACA Repertory: Coriolanus (Virgilia), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Snout/Moth). REGIONAL: Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: The Diary of Anne Frank (Margot); Annapolis Shakespeare Company: Pride & Prejudice (Jane). TRAINING: STC’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University: MFA in Acting. 

LISE BRUNEAU
Player Queen/Cornelia
STC: Othello (Emilia, 2005), The Winter’s Tale (Hermione, 2002), Coriolanus, Ion, An Ideal Husband. BROADWAY: The Cherry Orchard (with Diane Lane). REGIONAL: Arena Stage: Junk, Watch on the Rhine (with Marsha Mason), Mother Courage (with Kathleen Turner), Legacy of Light; Round House Theatre: This, My Name is Asher Lev, The Book Club Play; Theater J: Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Broken Glass (Sylvia), Brighton Beach Memoirs; Denver Center: Heartbreak House (Hesione); Cleveland Playhouse: Diary of Anne Frank; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: The Revolutionists (Olympe); Alabama Shakespeare Festival: Wars of the Roses (Margaret of Anjou); Baltimore Center Stage: Mary Stuart, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Blithe Spirit; Old Globe: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; American Conservatory Theater: Sweat, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Angels in America; Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Merry Wives of Windsor. AWARDS: Henry Award, BATCC 3 Outstanding Lead Awards. OTHER: Member of D.C.’s Taffety Punk Theatre Co. and director: Riot Grrrl Shakespeares (Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet), Oxygen, Bloody Poetry, The Devil in His Own Words. Director: MetroStage: Savage in Limbo; Clarence Brown Theatre: 4000 Miles; Nebraska Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet. TRAINING: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

ALAN COX
Claudius
NEW YORK: Broadway: Manhattan Theatre Club: Translations. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Festival: Opening Skinner’s Box; Culture Project: The Seagull; 59E59: City Stories, Playing With Grown Ups, Cornelius; BAM: The Caretaker. REGIONAL: Huntington Theatre Company: Betrayal; Cincinnati Playhouse: Behind the Eye; U.S. Tour: Frost/Nixon; Goodman Theatre: Passion Play. INTERNATIONAL: U.K.: Hampstead: Uncle Vanya; Chichester Festival Theatre: Forty Years On; Hampstead: Longing; Barbican: The Tempest; Chester: Much Ado About Nothing; Lyric Belfast: John Bull’s Other Island; Jermyn Street: Barefoot in the Park; Theatre Royal Haymarket: The Importance of Being Earnest; Salisbury: Duchess of Malfi; Birmingham Rep: Three Sisters; National Theatre: Wild Oats, Absolute Hell, Enemy of the People, The Seagull; Royal Shakespeare Company; Ken Campbell’s School of Night; The Wrestling School with Howard Barker. TELEVISION: The Good Wife, Lucan, John Adams, Margaret, Housewife 49. FILM: The Dictator, Contagion, August, Mrs. Dalloway, Young Sherlock Holmes.

OMAR D. CRUZ
Ensemble
STC: The Oresteia (U/S), Romeo & Juliet (2018 Free For All), A Mini-Summer Night’s Dream (STC Education). NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Gym Shorts. REGIONAL: Imagination Stage: Oyeme; Constellation Theatre: The Master and Margarita; Keegan Theatre: As You Like It. TRAINING: STC’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University: MFA in Classical Acting; University of Southern California: BA in Theatre; Maggie Flanigan Studio. WEB: OmarDCruz.com. 

PAUL DEO, JR.
Laertes
STC: Twelfth Night. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Public Theater: Troilus and Cressida. REGIONAL: Baltimore Center Stage: Les Liaisons Dangereuses. TRAINING: NYU-Tisch: MFA in Acting; Wesleyan University: BFA in Acting.

CHRIS GENEBACH
Barnardo/Lucianus
STC: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet; Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2; Measure for Measure (Pompey); The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Julius Caesar (2011 Free For All); Cymbeline; King Lear (Duke of Cornwall); Titus Andronicus (Lucius).NEW YORK: Broadway: Manhattan Theatre Club: Shining City; Off-Broadway: The Duke: Rose Rage: Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3; Manhattan Theatre Club: The Other Side. REGIONAL: Signature Theatre: Billy Elliot; Olney Theatre Center: The Mary Stuart Project, Oil, The Crucible, My Fair Lady, Carousel, Awake and Sing!; Folger Theatre: Davenant’s Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, Henry V, Othello, Cyrano, Orestes: A Tragic Romp; Mosaic Theater Company: A Human Being Died that Night, Ulysses on Bottles; Everyman Theatre: Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, An Inspector Calls; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Mr. Burns, A Post Electric Play; Studio Theatre: The Big Meal, Superior Donuts, Shining City; Goodman Theatre: King Lear; Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Short Shakespeare! Macbeth, Rose Rage: Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, King John, Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet; TheaterWorks Hartford: The Seafarer.

MICHAEL HALLER
Ensemble
STC: Richard III (U/S), The Comedy of Errors (U/S); Happenings: Hamlet (Claudius); ACA: Pericles (Pericles), Julius Caesar (Calpurnia). NATIONAL TOURS:  Beauty and the Beast (Lumiére), All Shook Up (Chad). REGIONAL: La Mirada Theatre: Floyd Collins; Hope Summer Rep: Les Misérables (Enjolras), The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Joe Farkas). TRAINING: Ithaca College: BFA Musical Theatre; STC’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University: MFA. WEB: MichaelHaller.net.

MEGAN HUYNH
Ensemble
REGIONAL: Sylvia Center of the Arts: Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play. AWARDS: Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: Irene Ryan Region 7 National Finalist, Certificate of Merit for Performance. OTHER: Western Summer Theatre Company: I Began Anyway (devised with Blessed Unrest). TRAINING: Western Washington University: BA in Acting.

DAVID BRYAN JACKSON
Voltemand/Priest
STC: Hamlet, Henry IV (Gower/Ensemble), Henry V (Westmoreland), The Merchant of Venice (Solanio), Timon of Athens (Jeweler), Hamlet (Osric). REGIONAL: New Repertory Theatre: Via Dolorosa; Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre: House and Garden; Folger Theatre: Henry IV Part 1, All’s Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis; Studio Theatre: The Invention of Love, Privates on Parade, Guantanamo; Olney Theatre Center: Racing Demon, Amadeus, Peter Pan; Signature Theatre: Our Country’s Good; Washington Stage Guild: The Old Masters, Magic, The Best of Friends, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime; Scena Theatre: Julius Caesar, Someone Is Going to Come, Greek, The Chairs, The Seafarer, The Persians; Washington Shakespeare Company: Jumpers; Actors’ Theatre of Washington: My Night With Reg; Spooky Action Theater: The Two-Character Play. FILM: Dinner With the Alchemist, Her Tango. TELEVISION: The Day Lincoln Was Shot, TURN: Washington’s Spies.

ROBERT JOY
Polonius
STC: Hamlet, King Charles III. NEW YORK: Broadway: Side Show, The Nerd, Hay Fever, Shimada, Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Off-Broadway: New York Shakespeare Festival: Socrates, Girl From the North Country, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Head of Passes, As You Like It, Found a Peanut, The Taming of the Shrew; Playwrights Horizons: Life and Limb, Hyde in Hollywood, Lydie Breeze; Classic Stage Company: Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet); Drama Dept.: June Moon; Ensemble Studio Theatre: Pigeon. REGIONAL: National Arts Centre (Canada): Tartuffe; Kennedy Center: Side Show; Old Globe: Twelfth Night (Malvolio); McCarter Theatre: Baby Doll; Kirk Douglas Theatre: The Nether (world premiere); American Repertory Theater: Big River (Huck, world premiere); Long Wharf Theatre: Privates on Parade; New York Stage and Film: My Andy; Theatre by the Bay: The Tempest (Prospero); La Jolla Playhouse: Side Show, Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio, Drama-Logue Award). FILM: The Goldfinch (upcoming), Crown and Anchor, Atlantic City, Ragtime, Desperately Seeking Susan, Fallen, Resurrection, Land of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, The Shipping News, Harriet the Spy, Waterworld, Radio Days, among others. TELEVISION: The Blacklist, Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife, The Mentalist, Masters of Sex, Hand of God, Everybody Loves Raymond, and 8 seasons as Sid Hammerback the medical examiner on CSI:NY.

KRYSTEL LUCAS
Marcellus/Fortinbras/Prologue
NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Barrow Group Theatre: Couriers and Contrabands. REGIONAL: Old Globe Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice; Dorset Theatre Festival: Pride and Prejudice, Good People; Triad Stage: Our Town; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Twelfth Night, The Book of Will; Denver Center: The Christians; Cincinnati Playhouse: Disgraced; Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Twelfth Night Short Shakespeare; Syracuse Stage and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play; TheaterWorks Hartford: The Sty of the Blind Pig; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Death and the King’s Horseman, Macbeth; Passage Theatre Company: The Summer House; Alley Theatre: Disgraced; The Guthrie Theater: Postcards from Earth. TELEVISION: Jessica Jones, The Blacklist. TRAINING: New York University Grad Acting Program: MFA; UNC-Asheville: BA.

JOE MUCCIOLO
Ensemble
STC: Romeo and Juliet (2018 Free For All). REGIONAL: 1st Stage: Columbinus (Prep); The Toms River Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander), The Tempest (Ferdinand); Compass Rose Theater:Venus in Fur (Thomas), Fiddler on the Roof (Perchik), Disgraced (Abe), Inherit the Wind (Mayor, Bannister, Radio Man). TRAINING: Loyola University Maryland: BA in Theatre.

TIM NICOLAI
Rosencrantz
NEW YORK: Broadway: The Glass Menagerie; Off-Broadway: The Public Theater: Othello, Plenty, The Tempest and Cymbeline. REGIONAL: The Grapes of Wrath, Romeo and Juliet; NYU: The Beaux Stratagem and Describe the Night (Rajiv Joseph world premiere). TELEVISION: TBS: Search Party, Amazon: Z: The Beginning of Everything, CBS: Madam Secretary. WORKSHOPS: Florida by Lucas Hnath and The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez. OTHER: Founding member, The Masses. TRAINING: NYU Grad Acting.

MADELEINE POTTER
Gertrude
STC: Hamlet. NEW YORK: Broadway: An Ideal Husband, The Master Builder, A Little Hotel on the Side, The Crucible, Metamorphosis, Coastal Disturbances, Slab Boys, Plenty; Getting Married. Off-Broadway: Pygmalion; Abingdon Square; Richard III; Twelfth Night; The Playboy of the Western World; Same Old Moon; Philadelphia, Here I Come; Sea Marks; Lydie Breeze; Dead, a Love Story; The Silver Fox. REGIONAL: Ford’s Theatre: The Glass Menagerie; Portland Playhouse: Hedda Gabler; Williamstown Theatre Festival: As You Like It. INTERNATIONAL: U.K.: Just completed a West End run of True West; Royal Court Theatre: The Kid Stays in the Picture, 4:48 Psychosis; Edinburgh Festival: Tejas Verdes; West End: After Mrs. Rochester, Madame Melville, An Ideal Husband; National Theatre: All My Sons, Southwark Fair; Other London: Electra, Broken Glass, The Water’s Edge, The Internationalist, Mother of Him, The Plough and the Stars. FILM: The White Countess, The Golden Bowl, Slaves of New York, The Bostonians, Chosyu Five, Red Lights, Love and Road Kill, Bloodhounds of Broadway, Two Evil Eyes, The Suicide Club, Hello Again. TELEVISION: Mr. Selfridge, Foyles War, Houdini, Holby City, Midsomer Murders, Dark Matters, Caught in the Act, The Girl in the Cafe, State of Play, The Whistleblower, Crime Story, The Equalizer, Svengali. AWARDS: Silver Peacock for Best Actress with Vanessa Redgrave (The Bostonians).TEACHING: British American Drama Academy (London, Oxford), Rose Bruford, Manchester School of Theatre, FSU London.

KELSEY RAINWATER
Guildenstern
STC: Hamlet, Macbeth. REGIONAL: The Folger Theatre: Love’s Labor’s Lost; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: The Three Musketeers, As You Like It; Rutgers Theater Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carlo at the Wedding, Balm in Gilead. INTERNATIONAL: Sam Wanamaker Festival at Shakespeare’s Globe, Shakespeare’s Globe: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. TRAINING: Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and Shakespeare’s Globe: MFA in Acting.

FEDERICO RODRIGUEZ
Horatio
NEW YORK: New York Theatre Workshop: Bonnie’s Last Flight; Public Theater: The Record; Classic Stage Company: A Four-Letter Word; The Bushwick Starr: The Hotel Colors;  The Wild Project: SELKIE.  REGIONAL: Two River Theater: The Importance of Being Earnest (Jack); Williamstown Theatre Festival: Pygmalion (Freddy, dir. Nicholas Martin); Pittsburgh City Theatre: Hope and Gravity. TELEVISION: The Path (Hulu), BULL (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS).TRAINING: Brown University: BA.

KEANU ROSS-CABRERA
Ensemble

MICHAEL URIE
Hamlet
NEW YORK: Broadway / Second Stage Theater: Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song (Lucille Lortel Award and Drama League Award nominations); Off-Broadway / London / National Tour: Jonathan Tolins’ Buyer and Cellar (Drama Desk Award, Clarence Derwent Award, Lucille Lortel Award, LA Drama Critics Award, nominations for the Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Awards); Broadway: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Off-Broadway: Encores!: High Button Shoes; Red Bull Theater: The Government Inspector, The Revenger’s Tragedy; Lincoln Center Theater: Shows For Days; Labyrinth Theater Company: Homos, or Everyone in America(Obie Award); Classic Stage Company: The Cherry Orchard; Signature Theatre: Angels in America; The Temperamentals (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk and Theatre World Awards, Drama League nomination); HB Playwrights: Another Vermeer.  REGIONAL: Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio, 2005); The Kennedy Center; Two River Theater; Old Globe; Vineyard Playhouse; South Coast Repertory; Seattle Repertory; Folger Shakespeare; Barrington Stage; Hyde Park (Austin); The Blank (L.A.). FILM: Lavender, He’s Way More Famous Than You (also directed), Thank You for Judging (co-director/exec. producer), Beverly Hills Chihuahua, WTC View, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, The Decoy Bride, Petunia, Such Good People, The Hyperglot (director), Grantham and Rose (exec. producer). TELEVISION: Redmond on Younger, The Good Fight, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Hot in Cleveland, Workaholics, Partners and Marc St. James on Ugly Betty. He hosted four seasons of Logo’s Cocktails And Classics. OTHER: Audiobook narrator. TRAINING: The Juilliard School.

GREGORY WOODDELL
Osric
STC: Affiliated Artist; The Comedy of Errors (2018), Othello (2017), The School for Lies (Helen Hayes nomination: Outstanding Lead Actor), Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, The Merchant of Venice, Cyrano, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Othello (2005), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Country Wife, Don Carlos, Richard II, The Comedy of Errors (2006). NEW YORK: Broadway: The Lyons, Cymbeline; Off-Broadway: Vineyard Theatre: Nicky Silver’s The Lyons (World Premiere); Encores! at City Center: Girl Crazy; Red Bull Theater: Volpone; Clurman Theatre: Splitting Infinity. REGIONAL: Arena Stage / McCarter Theatre Center: Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Sherlock Holmes; World Premiere); Philadelphia Theatre Company: Terrence McNally’s Some Men (World Premiere); Huntington Theatre Company: David Grimm’s Miracle at Naples (World Premiere); Signature Theatre: Cabaret; Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Henry VIII (Henry VIII); Mark Taper Forum: School of Night; Round House Theatre: Stage Kiss, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Oslo; Bay Street Theater: Dissonance; Alley Theatre: Gross Indecency; Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis: Much Ado About Nothing (Kevin Kline nomination: Outstanding Lead Actor), Richard III; Shakespeare on the Sound: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. TELEVISION: Person of Interest, 30 Rock, The Good Wife, Third Watch, Guiding Light, One Life to Live, Days of Our Lives. TRAINING: The Juilliard School.

AYANA WORKMAN
Ophelia
STC: Romeo and Juliet. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Redbull Theater Company: Macbeth; The Mint Theater Company: The Price of Thomas Scott; The Public Theater: Romeo and Juliet; Off-Off Broadway: Masterfool Theatre Company: Macbeth. REGIONAL: Cincinnati Playhouse In the Park: Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley. INTERNATIONAL: Globe Theatre (London): Julius Caesar; SNG Maribor (Maribor, Slovenia): Guernica Continuum; Bunker Stara Elektrarna (Ljubljana, Slovenia): Virtual Truth. FILM: Ophelia. TELEVISION: Jessica Jones, Person of Interest. TRAINING: Rutgers University: BFA in Acting. WEB: AyanaWorkman.com.

JEFF ALLEN YOUNG
Ensemble
STC: Hamlet (Rosencrantz U/S, Ensemble); Twelfth Night* (Ensemble). REGIONAL: Okoboji Summer Theatre: There Goes the Bride, The Diary of Anne Frank; South Dakota Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew. FILM: Sacco; Emergency Services Consulting International; U.S.A.I.D. Educational; Spirit of the Age; Sorry, Larry. AWARDS: *Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble Twelfth Night; College of Fellows Jane Alexander Award for Acting; DC 48hr Film Festival Best Actor 2018; Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Recipient. OTHER: I Am: The Play (staged reader) Hudson Theatre; The Jewish King Lear (staged reader) STC and Theatre J; STC’s Family Week: Mini Summer Nights Dream; Tiny Tempest. TEACHING: Western Illinois University; STC Teaching Artist: Camp Shakespeare, Artist in the Classroom. TRAINING: Western Illinois University: MFA in Acting; Acting for the Camera (Brenna McDonough).

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

MICHAEL KAHN
Original Direction
Since the start of his tenure as Artistic Director in 1986, Kahn has directed over 68 productions at STC, received 28 awards for his artistry and leadership and steered the Company to the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award. He retires from Shakespeare Theatre Company in July 2019. In 1991 he inaugurated the Free For All, which brings an STC production to audiences completely free of charge each year and has reached 690,000 patrons. He also created the Academy for Classical Acting, an MFA program in partnership with The George Washington University. Since the 1960s, Kahn’s work has appeared on Broadway,Off-Broadway and in theatres around the United States, in addition to Athens, Cairo, Stratford-upon-Avon and Adelaide. He has directed productions for the Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington National and New York City Center Opera companies. Previously Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre Center, the American Shakespeare Festival, the Acting Company and Chautauqua Theatre and Conservatory, he was a founding faculty member of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School and served as the Richard Rodgers Director of Drama for 15 years. He has also been on the faculties of New York University and the Circle in the Square Theatre School. Honored by numerous awards, including a Tony Award Nomination for Show Boat, Kahn was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and was recognized as an Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 2013.

JOHN COYNE
Scenic Designer
STC: Macbeth. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Public Theater: Hamlet; Julliard School. REGIONAL: Alliance Theatre: By the Way Meet Vera Stark; Dallas Theater Center: Romeo and Juliet, Colossal, Les Misérables, Henry IV, Of Mice and Men, Tartuffe; Guthrie Theater: Charly’s Aunt; Old Globe: Rough Crossing; Goodspeed Musicals; Yale Repertory Theatre; Asolo Repertory Theatre; Olney Theatre Center; Triad Stage; Ford’s Theatre; California Shakespeare Theater; Center Stage; Geva Theatre Center; Portland Center Stage; Chautauqua Theater Company. OPERA: San Francisco Opera: Die Meistersingers von Nurnburg, The Ballad of Baby Doe, L’Elisir D’Amore; San Diego Opera: Simon Boccenegra, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci; Washington National Opera: Die Fledermaus; New York City Opera; Fletcher Opera Theater; Opera Festival of New Jersey; Merola Opera Program; San Francisco Opera Center. OTHER: Director of Scenic Design: University of North Carolina School of the Arts. TRAINING: Yale University: MFA in Scenic Design.

JESS GOLDSTEIN
Costume Designer
STC: Othello (2007), The Persians. NEW YORK: Jersey Boys; Disney’s Newsies; On the Town; The Rivals (2005 Tony Award); The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino (Tony nomination); Plenty with Rachel Weisz; Henry IV with Kevin Kline (Tony nomination); Proof; Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington; Love! Valor! Compassion!; Take Me Out; Tintypes; The Most Happy Fella; Buried Child; How I Learned to Drive; Stuff Happens; Dinner With Friends; The Uneasy Chair (Lortel Award); The Mineola Twins (Lortel and Hewes Awards). OPERA: Metropolitan Opera: Il Trittico; New York City Opera: Dead Man Walking; San Francisco Opera: Two Women, Heart of a Soldier (world premieres); Washington National Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata. FILM: A Walk on the Moon (dir. Tony Goldwyn), The Substance of Fire (with Sarah Jessica Parker). TELEVISION: PBS Great Performances: Talking With, Far East. AWARDS: Recipient of the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award. TEACHING: Professor in the design department of Yale School of Drama since 1990. TRAINING: Yale School of Drama. WEB: Jess-Goldstein.com.

YI ZHAO
Lighting Designer
NEW YORK: Lincoln Center Theater: Pipeline (to be featured on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS); Manhattan Theatre Club: Actually; Signature Theatre: The Death of the Last Black Man…, In The Blood; New York Theatre Workshop: Red Speedo; Soho Rep: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.; Ars Nova: FUTURITY; Cherry Lane Theatre; Ma-Yi Theater Company; New Georges; Hoi Polloi; JACK; and more. REGIONAL: Guthrie Theater; Mark Taper Forum; Yale Repertory Theatre; Dallas Theater Center; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Wilma Theater; Huntington Theatre Company; Fisher Center at Bard College; Philadelphia FringeArts Festival; and more. OPERA: Prototype Festival: Angel’s Bone (2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music); ArtsEmerson: Ouroboros Trilogy; Curtis Institute of Music: La Cenerentola; Roulette: Anthony Braxton’s Trillium J. OTHER: Music: Krannert Center: Labyrinth Installation Concertos featuring Maya Beiser & Cornelius Dufallo. Dance: CCN—Ballet de Lorraine (France): cela nous concerne tous, choreography Miguel Gutierrez; Nichole Canuso Dance Company: The Garden. AWARDS: 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre; 2017 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (When the Rain Stops Falling, Wilma Theater). WEB: Yi-Zhao.com.

KELLY A. RUDOLPH
Lighting Adapter
STC: Hamlet (Assistant Designer). REGIONAL: Noor Theatre: 48 Hour Forum; NYU Tisch Dance: Mycelium, I’m still here, Masters Performance Workshop, Tisch Dance Works; Columbia University: The Clooney Loss, The Tramps;Synetic Theatre: Lord of the Flies, Hansel & Gretel; Iron Crow Theatre: The Rocky Horror Show; James Madison University: Equus (guest); Signature Theatre: Silver Belles, 2016-17 Cabaret Series; Arena Stage: Voices of Now 2016. Assistant Designer: Arena Stage: The Great Society, Disgraced, All the Way, Sweat, Oliver, Erma Bombeck, Destiny of Desire; The Kennedy Center: Bright Star; Signature Theatre: Crazy for You; Synetic Theatre: Peter Pan; Alabama Shakespeare Festival: Beauty and the Beast; NYU Tisch: Hamlet, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. OTHER: Atmosphere Lighting. TRAINING: New York University Tisch School of the Arts: MFA in Lighting Design (2021). WEB: KARudolph.com.

BROKEN CHORD
Sound Design and Original Music
STC: Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet. NEW YORK: Broadway: Eclipsed, The Parisian Woman. Off-Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company: Scarcity, The Jammer, The Lying Lesson; Incubator Arts Project: OZET; Labyrinth Theater: The Insurgents; LCT3: Bull in a China Shop; Manhattan Theatre Club: Spirit Control, When We Were Young and Unafraid; Primary Stages: A Lifetime Burning, Harrison TX, Informed Consent; Public Theater: The Good Negro, Eclipsed, Party People; Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: Stay, Massacre, Charles Ives Take Me Home; Second Stage Theater: 10 Things to Do Before I Die, The Other Thing; Signature Theatre: The Dance and the Railroad, Appropriate; Women’s Project: Lascivious Something, Row After Row. REGIONAL: Actors Theatre of Louisville: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Berkeley Repertory: Ruined, Party People; Center Stage: American Buffalo, Pride and Prejudice; Cleveland Play House: Fairfield, How I Learned to Drive; Dallas Theater Center: Hair, The Tempest, The Odd Couple, Deferred Action; Hartford Stage: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Whipping Man, Gem of the Ocean, Snow Falling on Cedars; Huntington Theatre: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, A Raisin in the Sun ; La Jolla Playhouse: Ruined; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Ruined, UniSon; People’s Light: A Wrinkle in Time; Trinity Repertory: The Glass Menagerie; Yale Repertory: These Paper Bullets!. FILM: Fall to Rise. WEB: BrokenChord.us.

PATRICK W. LORD
Projection/Video Designer
STC: Twelfth Night. REGIONAL: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Where Words Once Were; Forum Theatre: Love and Information, Building the Wall, Blackberry Winter; Theater Alliance: Mnemonic; Keegan Theatre: Big Fish, Outside Mullingar, American Idiot, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, How to Catch a Leprechaun, An Irish Carol, The Magic Tree; Adventure Theatre: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, Jumanji; Mosaic Theater Company: A Human Being Died That Night; The Hub Theatre: The Happiest Place On Earth, Redder Blood, Leto Legend; The University of Texas at Austin: Fame, Esperanza Rising, Dead Man’s Cell Phone; Shrewd Productions: Still Now; Croswell Opera: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Beauty and the Beast; Ohana Arts: Peace on Your Wings (original production and national tour). OTHER: Event projection designer/art director for NBA teams including the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers with Quince Imaging. TRAINING: The University of Texas at Austin: MFA in Integrated Media Design for Live Performance; Emerson College: BFA in Theatrical Design/Technology. WEB: PatrickWLord.com.

Rounding out the creative team and production teams are: DAVID LEONG (Fight Choreographer), JACK DOULIN and TAYLOR “SHARKY” WILLIAMS (Original Casting), CARTER C. WOODDELL (Casting Director & Original Casting), LISA BELEY (Voice and Text Coach), DREW LICHTENBERG (Production Dramaturg), CHARLIE MARIE MCGRATH (Assistant Director), JOSEPH SMELSER (Production Stage Manager), and CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL BORG and REBECCA SHIPMAN  (Assistant Stage Managers).