Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced the cast and creative team of Frankenstein, a world-premiere adaptation by writer and director Emily Burns. Commissioned by STC and adapted from the classic novel, Frankenstein plays in STC’s Klein Theatre May 27–June 29, 2025.
Burns, adaptor of STC’s Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, reimagines Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece as a chilling exploration of the horror within humanity and what it means to create a new life. “The novel could be read as a parable for the incipient terror of parenthood: the potency of the dream, the lack of control over the reality, and the inescapability of both,” said Burns.
The play rides the edge of cinematic thriller and domestic drama, bringing the familiar story to life in a new and relevant way.
“This play dramatizes the bravery needed to independently pursue the truth, even when it would be easier, safer — potentially happier — to believe the narrative you’re being told. That feels resonant,” said Burns. “Our production both exploits and contradicts the pervasive expectation of what ‘a Frankenstein’ is and hopefully gives the audience all the gothic horror they might hope for, while also reframing the narrative in a thrilling and devastating way.”
About the Cast & Creative Team
Bringing the story to life are Rebecca S’manga Frank and Nick Westrate, who both make their STC debuts in the roles of Elizabeth and Victor Frankenstein, respectively; and Anna Takayo (STC’s Jane Anger, Our Town) in multiple roles as Justine, Esther, and Caroline. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
The creative team for Frankenstein includes Andrew Boyce (Scenic Design), Kaye Voyce (Costume Design), Neil Austin (Lighting Design), André Pluess (Sound Design), Elizabeth Barrett (Projection Designer), Sierra Young (Intimacy Consultant), Laura Smith (Stage Manager), and Leigh Robinette and Anthony O. Bullock (Assistant Stage Managers). Casting is by STC Resident Casting Director Danica Rodriguez and Jason Styres (STC’s The Lehman Trilogy).
Frankenstein, written and directed by Emily Burns, runs May 27-June 29, 2025 in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre, 450 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20004. Tickets start at $35. For more information and tickets, please visit ShakespeareTheatre.org or call the Box Office at 202.547.1122.
SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
Young Prose Night (Under 35) – Friday, June 6 | 7:30pm
Audio Description – Saturday, June 14 | 2pm
Open Captioning – Saturday, June 7 | 2pm / Thursday, June 12 | 7:30pm
CAST (in alphabetical order)
Rebecca S’manga Frank*, Elizabeth
Anna Takayo*, Justine/Esther/Caroline
Nick Westrate*, Victor
CREATIVE TEAM
Director/Playwright: Emily Burns
Scenic Designer: Andrew Boyce
Costume Designer: Kaye Voyce
Lighting Designer: Neil Austin
Sound Designer/Composer: André Pluess
Projection Designer: Elizabeth Barrett
Intimacy Consultant: Sierra Young
Dramaturg: Drew Lichtenberg
Casting: Danica Rodriguez and Jason Styres
Assistant Director: Doug Robinson
Production Stage Manager: Laura Smith*
Assistant Stage Manager: Leigh Robinette*, Anthony O. Bullock*
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
CAST (in alphabetical order)
Rebecca S’manga Frank*
Elizabeth
Rebecca S’manga Frank is an actor and writer with Black, Jewish, and Swazi heritage, known for her grounded performances exploring identity, community, and transformation. Recent stage credits include the West Coast premiere of Primary Trust (LA Times’ Best Theater Picks 2024), the world premiere of At the Wedding at Lincoln Center, and Indecent at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her screen credits include Elementary (CBS), Prodigal Son (FOX), and Lisey’s Story (Apple TV). A graduate of NYU Tisch and Mills College, Rebecca’s writing has been featured in Lilith Magazine, and she is a fellow with the New Jewish Culture Lab and LABA New York.
Anna Takayo*
Justine/Esther/Caroline
STC: Jane Anger, Our Town. REGIONAL: Marin Theatre: Waste, Santa Cruz Shakes: Hamlet, As You Like It, Vanya & Sonya & Masha & Spike, Spooky Action: Frontieres Sans Frontieres, Devil’s Isle Shakes: Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Olney Theatre & People’s Light: Song of the Exile, Adventure Theatre: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, Kennedy Center: Pulling the Switch, Bay Area Playwrights Festival: Nan, Avant Bard: TOFANA. INTERNATIONAL: London: Southwark Playhouse: Women in War, Tower Theatre: Hamlet, Theatro Technis: Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan Bates: Pearl City ‘Sunshine’, Inspector Sands: Wuthering Heights, Bloomsbury Festival: Orphée; TPAM (Yokohama): CherryBomb, International Drama Festival (Messini): The Bacchae. FILM: Ikigai, Grieving, The Queue. AWARDS: Helen Hayes and BroadwayWorld Award Nominations (Lucy in The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe), Georgia Shorts, WACO and First Glance Film Festival Award Nominations (Diane, Grieving). PERSONAL: She/Her. Training: Stanford University: BA, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art: MA, STC Academy: MFA.
Nick Westrate*
Victor
Broadway: Bernhardt/Hamlet, Casa Valentina, A Moon for the Misbegotten Off-Broadway: He’s won and been nominated for Drama Desk Awards for work at Barrow Street Theater, The Public Theater, Transport Group and Classic Stage Company for directors like Ivo van Hove, Daniel Fish and David Cromer. Recently starred as Prior Walter in Angels in America for Jánosz Száz at The Arena (Helen Hayes Award Best Ensemble, Nom. Best Actor). TV: Robert Townsend on Turn: Washington’s Spies (AMC), and Todd Haynes’ Mildred Pierce (HBO), Bruno Barreto’s The American Guest (HBO), and plays Edwin Booth on Manhunt (AppleTV). Film: American Insurrection and Jonathan Demme’s Ricki & the Flash opposite Meryl Streep. He’s an NYTW Usual Suspect, a graduate of Juilliard, and the co-founder, director and designer of The Streetcar Project which tours Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire to theaters and found spaces — coming to ACT in San Francisco in January 2026.
CREATIVE TEAM
Emily Burns
Playwright & Director
STC: Timon of Athens, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth (adapter). INTERNATIONAL: National Theatre (London): Dear Octopus (director), Jack Absolute Flies Again (director), Romeo and Juliet (adapter), The Comeback (director), Hansard (associate director), Antony & Cleopatra (associate director), Hex (associate director) | RSC: Love’s Labour’s Lost (director) | Noël Coward Theatre (London): The Comeback (director) | Bridge Theatre (London): The Book of Dust – La Belle Savage (co-director), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (associate director), Julius Caesar (associate director). PERSONAL: Emily is an Associate of the National Theatre and the Bridge Theatre. In 2022, she was named as one of The Stage 25. She also works with comedy duo The Pin, soprano Héloïse Werner, and the James Cousins Company.
Andrew Boyce
Scenic Designer
STC: Debut. NEW YORK: Broadway (Lyceum Theatre): Dana H. Off Broadway: New York Theater Workshop, Primary Stages, Lincoln Center, Atlantic Theater Company, Vineyard, Playwrights, Roundabout. RECENT: McCarter: Legacy of Light | Huntington: The Light in the Piazza | Steppenwolf: Leroy and Lucy | Regional credits with most major regional and LORT theaters across the U.S. OPERA: Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Cincinnati Opera, Philadelphia Symphony, Opera Omaha, Boston Lyric Opera, Curtis Opera. DANCE: Pacific Northwest Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Ballet Idaho. PERSONAL: Andrew Boyce is a Chicago-based designer working in theatre, opera, dance, film, and TV | Training: Yale School of Drama | Teaching: Northwestern University: Associate Professor of Design.
Kaye Voyce
Costume Design
STC: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, and Romeo and Juliet. NEW YORK: Broadway: Uncle Vanya, Sea Wall/A Life, True West, The Nap, The Real Thing, The Realistic Joneses, and Shining City. Off-Broadway: We Had A World, Show Boat/A River (set design), The Welkin, Staff Meal, Jonah. REGIONAL: Arena Stage: Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter | Geffen Playhouse: Waiting for Godot (set and costumes). INTERNATIONAL: West End: Harry Clarke. OPERA: Norwegian Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Lyric Opera: The Listeners (World Premiere) | LA Philharmonic: Stranger Love (World Premiere) | Wuppertal Oper: The Merry Widow | Bard Summerscape: King Arthur. OTHER: Trisha Brown Dance Company: In The Fall | Monica Bill Barnes & Company: Many Happy Returns. AWARDS: Obie award for sustained excellence in design.
Neil Austin
Lighting Designer
STC: Debut. NEW YORK: Broadway: Tammy Faye, Leopoldstadt, Company, Ink, Travesties, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hughie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Evita, Red, Hamlet, The Seafarer, Frost/Nixon. Off-Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company: The Night Alive. Other: St. Ann’s Warehouse: The Hunt, Julius Caesar | Park Avenue Armory: Macbeth. REGIONAL: Ahmanson Theatre: The Sunshine Boys | Mark Taper Forum: Parade, Red. AWARDS: He has been awarded 3 Tonys, 2 Oliviers and 2 Drama Desks.
Andre Pluess
Sound Designer/ Composition
STC: The Matchbox Magic Flute, Pericles, Cymbeline. NEW YORK: Broadway: Belasco Theatre: Good Night, Oscar | Cort/Studio 54: The Minutes | Eugene O’Neill Theatre: 33 Variations | Lyceum Theatre: I Am My Own Wife | Circle in the Square: Metamorphoses. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center: The Clean House | Playwrights Horizons: Milk Like Sugar, BFE. REGIONAL: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Yale Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Court Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, The Huntington, South Coast Repertory. OTHER: He is an ensemble member of Lookingglass Theatre Company.
Elizabeth Barrett
Projection Design
STC: Debut. REGIONAL: Geffen Playhouse: Furlough’s Paradise | Children’s Theatre Center: Drawing Lessons | Village Theatre: How to Break | Quinnipiac University: Bulgaria! Revolts! PERSONAL: Elizabeth Barrett is a New York-based projection designer passionate about story-focused design. They are a rigorous and enthusiastic collaborator with a background in scenic and graphic design. Much of their recent work has been on new plays and musicals, which is where they thrive | Training: University of San Diego: MFA: Scenic and Projection Design.
Sierra Young
Intimacy Consultant
STC: Kunene and the King, King Lear, Red Velvet. REGIONAL: Arena Stage: The Age of Innocence, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, POTUS! | Folger: Twelfth Night | Ford’s Theatre: Sister Act, Little Shop of Horrors, Shout Sister Shout! | Studio Theatre: Paradise Blue, The Scenarios, Downstate, Exception to the Rule, The Colored Museum | Theater J: Prayer for the French Republic | Washington National Opera: Porgy & Bess. UPCOMING: Mosaic Theater Co.: Andy Warhol in Iran | Keegan: Apropos of Nothing | Ford’s: The American Five. PERSONAL: Sierra is a Helen Hayes-nominated violence and intimacy director working in the DC/Baltimore area. She is the resident fight and intimacy director for Mosaic Theater Company in DC, and an active member of the Society of American Fight Directors, Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Drew Lichtenberg
Dramaturg
STC: Senior member of artistic staff, dramaturg in residence since 2011-12, working on over 60 productions. Selected dramaturgy credits: NEW YORK: Broadway: Roundabout Theatre Company; Off-Broadway: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Public Theater, La Mama. REGIONAL: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, ACT, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Royal National Theatre. OTHER: Writing: guest essays in The New York Times, Lincoln Center Review, and many theatre journals. He is the author of The Piscatorbühne Century (Routledge, 2021) and Shakespeare in the Theatre: Shakespeare Theatre Company (Arden/Bloomsbury, 2024, with Deborah C. Payne). PERSONAL: Proud husband of Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg, father of Dylan and Noah. Teaching: Catholic University of America, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, Eugene Lang College of the Liberal Arts at the New School. Training: Doctor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale School of Drama.
Danica Rodriguez
Resident Casting Director
STC: Kunene and the King, Leopoldstadt, Babbitt, Comedy of Errors, The Matchbox Magic Flute, Macbeth, The Lehman Trilogy, As You Like It, Macbeth In Stride, Evita, Here There Are Blueberries, King Lear, Jane Anger, Much Ado About Nothing, Red Velvet, Our Town, The Merchant of Venice. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: The Public Theater: cullud wattah*, Romeo y Julieta, Soft Power, for colored girls…, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park), Mojada, Ain’t No Mo’*. REGIONAL: Folger Theatre: Our Verse in Time to Come | Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes*, Incendiary | The Kennedy Center: The Day You Begin | JAG Productions: Next to Normal | The Civilians: El Condor Magico, and others. AWARDS: Theatre Communications Group 2021 Rising Leader of Color. PERSONAL: she/her | Founding Trainer with Broadway for Racial Justice Casting Directive | Training: Dartmouth College: BA in Film & Media Studies | *World Premiere
Jason Styres
Casting
Doug Robinson
Assistant Director
Doug Robinson (he/him) earned his MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. A MacDowell Fellow, his play Capture the Flag was a recipient of the inaugural Reimagine Theatre for Young Audiences grant and a finalist for the 2024 O’Neil New Play Conference. Other writing credits include The Sea Beyond the Ocean (upcoming 2026 Kennedy Center Production) The Figs (American Stage Theatre Company); Pride of Doves (Yale Cabaret); Love Like Tuesday (Faction of Fools Theatre Company); Soft Apples (Yale Cabaret); Distance Frequencies (Rorschach Theatre Company); Welcome to Sis’s (Ally Theatre Company).
Laura Smith*
Production Stage Manager
STC: Kunene and the King, Leopoldstadt, Comedy of Errors, The Matchbox Magic Flute, The Lehman Trilogy, Salome. NEW YORK: Broadway: The Thanksgiving Play | Off Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company: Infinite Life, Shhhh, The Great Leap, Tell Hector I Miss Him | Manhattan Theatre Club: Morning Sun, Bella Bella | Signature Theatre: Hot Wing King, The Antipodes | Playwrights Horizons: Downstate, Noura | Second Stage Theater: Dying City | The Public Theater: The Low Road | Theatre for a New Audience: Remember This | Play Company: Intractable Woman | Julliard: Appropriate. REGIONAL: Eugene O’Neill Theater Center: National Playwrights Conference | Baltimore Center Stage: Detroit ’67, As You Like It, 4000 Miles, After the Revolution, Wild with Happy, Twelfth Night, Fabulation, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Woolly Mammoth Theatre: House of Gold, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Unmentionables.
Leigh Robinette*
Assistant Stage Manager
STC: Uncle Vanya. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen. REGIONAL: Arena Stage: Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, Change Agent (World Premiere), Holiday, Dear Evan Hansen (World Premiere), The Originalist (World Premiere), Mother Courage and Her Children | Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Kennedy Center: The Second City’s Love, Factually | Studio Theatre: The Scenarios (World Premiere); Love, Love, Love; English | Theater J: Love Sick, The Jewish Queen Lear | Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Incendiary (World Premiere), There’s Always the Hudson (World Premiere), Describe the Night, Gloria, Botticelli in the Fire, Familiar, The Arsonists, An Octoroon | Huntington Theatre Company | Hangar Theatre. OTHER: Architex, Capital Concerts, Live Nation. PERSONAL: she/her/hers. Training: Boston University, BFA.
Anthony O. Bullock*
Assistant Stage Manager
STC: Leopoldstadt, Red Velvet, Our Town. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: Classic Stage Company: The School for Lies; Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals: A Nation Grooves (workshop) and The Night Falls (workshop). REGIONAL: Signature Theatre: Billy Elliot; Arena Stage: The Pajama Game; Baltimore Center Stage: SOUL: The Stax Musical (world premiere), Twisted Melodies; McCarter Theatre Center: A Christmas Carol, The Understudy, The White Snake (dir. Mary Zimmerman) ; Barrington Stage Company: Waiting for Godot, Company, Ragtime; Studio Theatre: The Children, The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, Jumpers for Goalpost, Laugh (world premiere); Theater J: 5 Seasons as Resident Stage Manager, highlights include Prayer for the French Republic, Hester Street (world premiere), Moses (world premiere), One Jewish Boy, Sheltered, among others. INTERNATIONAL: Wuzhen Theatre Festival/ The Goodman Theatre: The White Snake (dir. Mary Zimmerman). PERSONAL: he/him/any. Training: Oklahoma City University: BFA in Stage Management.
SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY
For nearly 40 years, the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company has been recognized as the nation’s premier classical theater. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Simon Godwin and Executive Director Angela Lee Gieras, STC tells vital stories in audacious forms, stories that are Shakespearean in the deepest sense, even if they are not written by Shakespeare. They stage epic stories in exhilarating style.
