Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced the full cast and creative team of Merry Wives, a lineup that brings many familiar D.C. actors together with a wealth of regional and Broadway talent. The first show of STC’s forthcoming 40th anniversary season, Merry Wives is adapted by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Taylor Reynolds (Studio Theatre’s Fat Ham). Merry Wives plays STC’s Harman Hall September 9 through October 5.
“I’m thrilled to have visionary director Taylor Reynolds make her STC debut with Jocelyn Bioh’s playful take on The Merry Wives of Windsor, a joyful way to kick-off our 40th anniversary season,” said STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin. “It promises to be a season of reimagined classics, fresh perspectives on familiar stories, and exciting new collaborations.”
In Merry Wives, William Shakespeare’s farce gets a joyful spin from playwright Bioh (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), dropping the debaucherous Falstaff into the melting pot of modern Harlem. Short on cash, Falstaff pursues the purses of two sharp-witted West African wives. As their proud husbands’ suspicions rise, the wives cook up a scheme to shame the would-be homewrecker and prove that “wives may be merry, and yet honest too” in this celebration of community and Black joy.
“Merry Wives is a vibrant play centering characters from across the African diaspora in Harlem, New York,” said director Reynolds. “Being able to direct this production with Black characters onstage living their best lives, embracing joy and freedom of expression, is a precious gift. The cast we’ve put together is out of this world and I cannot wait to build this spirited world of humor, music, and movement with them.”
Felicia Curry and Oneika Phillips will play the merry wives themselves, Madam Ford and Madam Page, respectively. Curry is an award-winning local favorite familiar to DC audiences, who previously appeared in STC’s production of Our Town, as well as the recent Broadway revival and National Tour of Into the Woods. Phillips’s Broadway credits include FELA!, Spongebob Squarepants, and the recent 2022 revival and national tour of 1776, which featured an all-female, nonbinary, and transgender cast.
Joining the pair as the lascivious and often ridiculous Falstaff will be Lance Coadie Williams. A Baltimore native, he previously appeared at STC in The Oedipus Plays opposite Avery Brooks, and Broadway roles include Lynn Nottage’s Sweat and Kiss Me, Kate. Nick Rashad Burroughs (Broadway’s Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Kinky Boots) joins the cast as Mister Ford and DC actor JaBen Early (Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Studio Theatre) as Mister Page. The Page family is completed by recent NYU graduate Peyton Rowe as Anne Page. Her central suitor Fenton, as well as the role of Simple, will be played by Latoya Edwards (Michael R. Jackson’s White Girl in Danger).
Other DC favorites include beloved STC mainstay Craig Wallace (Uncle Vanya, King Lear, Our Town) as Shallow; Kelli Blackwell (Studio’s The Colored Museum and Fat Ham) as Mama Quickly; and Bru Aju (Studio Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, as well as Netflix’s Manifest) as Slender/Pistol.
Making their STC debuts are Jordan Barbour (Off-Broadway’s Langston in Harlem), Sekou Laidlow (Broadway’s Airline Highway, Toni Stone, Boys in the Band), and Howard University alumna Rebecca Celeste. Finishing out the ensemble is Shaka Zu (STOMP), a dancer and alumnus of the MFA Dance program at University of College Park, where he also served as the adjunct professor of West African Dance.
Understudies for the production are Saron Araia, Edmée-Marie Faal, Terrance Fleming, Joshua Oluwatofunmi Olujide, and Tyrone Stanley.
The creative team for this production includes Scenic Designer Lawrence Moten III, Costume Designer Ivania Stack, Lighting Designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, Sound Designer & Composer Mikaal Sulaiman, Wig and Hair Designer Nikiya Mathis, Voice and Dialect Coach Dawn-Elin Fraser, and Choreographer Ashleigh King. Casting by STC Resident Casting Director Danica Rodriguez.
The Production Stage Manager is Laura Smith, Assistant Stage Managers Stephen Bubniak and Jazzy Davis.
TICKETS & INFORMATION
MERRY WIVES
By William Shakespeare
Adapted by Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Taylor Reynolds
SEP 9-OCT 5, 2025 | Harman Hall
William Shakespeare’s farce gets a joyful spin from Jocelyn Bioh (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), dropping the debaucherous Falstaff into the melting pot of modern Harlem. Short on cash, Falstaff pursues the purses of two sharp-witted West African wives. As their proud husbands’ suspicions rise, the wives cook up a scheme to shame the would-be homewrecker and prove that “wives may be merry, and yet honest too” in this “spirited, sharp, and silly” (Variety) celebration. Taylor Reynolds (Fat Ham) makes her STC directorial debut in the play’s regional premiere.
Single tickets for the 25/26 season are now on sale. Merry Wives runs in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall September 9–October 5, and tickets start at $35. For more information, please visit ShakespeareTheatre.org or call the Box Office at 202.547.1122.
SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
Opening Night – Friday, September 12, 7:30pm
Young Prose Night (Under 35) – Friday, September 19, 7:30pm
Audio Description – Saturday, September 27, 2pm
Open Captioning – Saturday, September 20, 2pm | Thursday, October 2, 7:30pm
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
CAST BIOGRAPHIES (in alphabetical order)
Bru Aju*
Slender/Pistol
REGIONAL: Ford’s Theatre: Twelve Angry Men (Juror 5); Olney Theatre: Joy That Carries You; Studio Theatre: Skeleton Crew, I Wanna F…..g Tear You Apart; Virginia Rep: A Raisin in the Sun (Asagai). Theater J: The Call; Constellation: The Love of the Nightingale; The American Century Theater: Hello Out There, Bang The Drum Slowly; Capital Fringe: Disco Jesus & the Apostles of Funk. TRAINING: Lincoln University; National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. TV: Manifest (NETFLIX), Law & Order: OC (NBC/PEACOCK), We Own This City (HBO), Blue Bloods (CBS), FBI: Most Wanted (CBS/PEACOCK), That Damn Michael Che (HBO Max), Swagger (Apple TV+).
Saron Araia*
u/s Mama Quickly, Ensemble/Nafi, Madam Page
STC: Merry Wives, Jane Anger, Our Town, Merchant of Venice | STCA: Taming of the Shrew (Asst Dir.), The Winter’s Tale, The Two Noble Kinsmen | REGIONAL: Everyman Theatre: POTUS | Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses | Avant Bard Theatre: Coriolanus | Devil’s Isle Shakespeare Co.: As You Like It | Forum Theatre: Nat Turner in Jerusalem (Asst Dir.) | Washington Stage Guild: An Ideal Husband, Quadrille (Asst Dir.), You Never Can Tell | Kennedy Center: Romeo & Juliet, Il Trovatore | FILM: Our Father | PERSONAL: she/her/hers | Training: STC’s Academy at The George Washington University: MFA | AEA |
Jordan Barbour*
Doctor Caius
STC debut. NEW YORK: Broadway: The Inheritance (2020 Tony Winner, Best Play), Come From Away; Off-Broadway: On The Evolutionary Function of Shame (Second Stage), Julius Caesar (Theatre for a New Audience), Vertebrae (New York Theatre Workshop), Langston in Harlem (Urban Stages), The Deepest Play Ever (CollaborationTown). TOURS: International: Come From Away (Australia, North America), Peter Brooks’ The Suit (Europe, Asia, North America), The Shipment (Europe, Australia). REGIONAL: Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado About Nothing, The Book of Will, Oklahoma!, Beauty and the Beast, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Shakespeare in Love, The Wiz; Studio Theatre: Chimerica; Diversionary Theater: 86’d; Denver Center: All the Way, The 12; Alabama Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, To Kill a Mockingbird; Sacramento Music Circus, Syracuse Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Perseverance Theatre. Barbour has also written and starred in two solo shows: This African-American Life with Ezra Glass and I Definitely Need Therapy. Barbour voices Black Panther in Marvel’s Mech Strike, and Dr. Doom in Marvel’s Doom Protocol animated series.
Kelli Blackwell*
Mama Quickly, u/s Madam Page
STC: Debut. TOURS: U.S.: Amazing Grace, Chicago; REGIONAL: Studio Theatre: Downstate, The Colored Museum, Fat Ham; Ford’s Theatre: Shout Sister Sister; Olney Theatre Center: Beauty & the Beast, A.D. 16; Creative Cauldron: Crowns, Thunder Knocking on the Door; ArtsCentric: The Wiz, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Next to Normal, Everyman Theatre: A Streetcar Named Desire, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; TriArts Sharon Playhouse: Hairspray; Cortland Repertory Theatre: Once on this Island. PERSONAL: she/her/hers. Kelli is on the Senior Leadership team and the Director of Arts Education for Baltimore-based theatre company, ArtsCentric. She is also a self-published children’s book author. Teaching: ArtsCentric Academy (ASI). Training: UMBC.
Nick Rashad Burroughs*
Mister Ford
Broadway: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Ike Turner, OBC), Kinky Boots, King Kong. New York: “Goddess” at The Public Theatre (Ahmed). First National Tour: Moulin Rouge (Toulouse Lautrec), Something Rotten (Minstrel, Shakespeare u/s ), Dreamgirls MUNY (James Thunder Early), Pop Smash Radio Music Award Winner for his album Groove Machine. Broadway World Award Winner for Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas).
Rebecca Celeste
Ensemble/Nafi, u/s Madam Ford
Rebecca Celeste is thrilled to make her professional debut with Shakespeare Theatre Company. She holds a BFA in Acting from Howard University and a film degree from Full Sail University. A U.S. Navy veteran, she brings a rich, diverse background to her work as a dynamic artist and storyteller.
Felicia Curry*
Madam Ford
STC: Will on the Hill, Our Town. New York: Broadway: Into the Woods. Off-Broadway: Bowl EP, Fabulation, Queens Girl in the World, We Three Lizas, DMLRR: The Brontes, Petite Rouge. TOURS: Into the Woods, KC: Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka, Mattel/Live Nation: Barbie Live!, Capitol Steps. REGIONAL: TheatreWorks Hartford, Berkshire Theatre Group, VA Repertory Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, Factory 449, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Round House Theatre, Studio Theatre, Rep Stage, MetroStage. AWARDS: CT Critics Circle Award (Sandra), Berkshire Theatre Award (Nina Simone: Four Women), RTCC Award (The Color Purple), Helen Hayes Award (Lela & Co.), Anderson Hopkins Award, 2 AUDELCO Award Nominations (Fabulation and Queens Girl in the World). OTHER: Company Member: Factory 449, Everyman Theatre; Ford’s Theatre Artistic Associate; Host of WETA Arts (Emmy Award Nomination). PERSONAL: she/her/hers. Training: UMD – College Park.
JaBen Early*
Mister Page
Lincoln Center Theatre: All the Way, GUTHRIE theatre: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, We Are Proud to Present… Arena Stage: Toni Stone, Junk, The Great Society, All the Way, Ruined; Liberty Free Theatre: The Death of Bessie Smith. TRAININGM.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College; B.F.A., Morehouse College; BADA program at Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
Latoya Edwards*
Fenton/Simple
STC Debut. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: White Girl in Danger (2nd Stage/Vineyard Theatre); The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center); School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play (MCC & Center Theatre Group); Miss You Like Hell (The Public Theatre). REGIONAL: Berkshire Theatre Group: Hair; Adirondack Theatre Festival: Nikola Tesla Drops a Beat. TV/Film: Law & Order: SVU; The Get Down; Many Saints of Newark; Beauty; They Saw the Sun First; Enjoy Your Visit; Don’t Stay Safe. OTHER: Religion (Canada) AWARDS: BAFTA Award (They Saw The Sun First); 2 AUDELCO Award Nominations (White Girl in Danger and The Rolling Stone) PERSONAL: she/her/hers. Training: Pace University: BFA in Musical Theatre.
Edmée-Marie Faal
u/s Anne Page, Fenton/Simple
REGIONAL: Studio Theatre: The Scenarios, Exception to the Rule; Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses; Prologue Theatre: Muffed; Constellation Theatre Company: Orlando; Imagination Stage; Balloonacy, Aquarium, P.Nokio, Corduroy. FILM: Bye For Now. PERSONAL: she/her/hers. Edmée is an artist, theatre maker, and activist. TRAINING: American University: BA in Acting.
Terrance Fleming*
u/s Falstaff
STC: The Lehman Trilogy, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing. REGIONAL: Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Incendiary | Keegan Theatre: Shakespeare in Love | Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, Macbeth, Henry V, Measure for Measure | Her Majesty and Sons: Twelfth Night, Richard III | BSF: Hamlet | Baltimore Center Stage: Dream Girls | Artscentic: The Wiz, Aida, Memphis, Little Shop of Horrors. TOURS: Cahoots Theatre: The Vanishing Elephant. FILM: Very Rare, The Infection, Rehearsal. PERSONAL: he/him | Teaching: Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Teaching Artist, Young Artists of America | Training: University of Southern Mississippi, BFA |
Sekou Laidlow*
Pastor Evans, u/s Mister Ford
Broadway: Airline Highway (Manhattan Theater Club); Boys in the Band (Booth Theatre); Toni Stone (Alliance Theatre/Milwaukee Repertory Theater Co-Pro), Regional: Jesus Hopped The A Train (Actors Express), Hamlet (Playmakers Repertory Company); Succession (North Carolina Black Repertory Company); Skeleton Crew, Civil War Christmas (Baltimore Center Stage); A Doll’s House (The Huntington Theater); Father Comes Home from the Wars (American Repertory Theater); The Mountaintop (Philadelphia Theater Company); Seven Guitars (Mclelland Drama Theater); Of Mice and Men (Pioneer Theater Company); Stonewall Country (Lime Kiln Theater); Runaway Home (Studio Theater). Film: Black Adam; Better Off Single; The Mend; Alieu The Dreamer; Half Pint; Divided We Stand; Pop Foul. TV: Will Trent; All The Queens Men; The Resident; Kingdom Business; Ordinary Joe; Women of the Movement; The Breaks; High Maintenance; The Good Wife; The Carrie Diaries; Person of Interest; Smash; Law & Order; The Wire; Homicide: Life on the Street.
Joshua Oluwatofunmi Olujide
u/s Slender/Pistol, Doctor Caius, Ensemble
Joshua Oluwatofunmi Olujide is beyond excited to make his Shakespeare Theatre Company debut in Merry Wives! An alumni from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU class of 2022 (Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and New Studio on Broadway), his previous performances include: Company Member #4 (Muffed), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander), 21 Chump Street (Justin), The Tempest (Ariel), Crybaby: The Musical (Dupree), A Chorus Line (Richie), 12 Angry Animals (Juror #5/Pangolin), Promenade (Injured Man, Soldier #2, and others) and Chasing Andy Warhol (Andy’s Love Interest). To God be the glory. Protect black women.
Oneika Phillips*
Madam Page
STC: Debut. NEW YORK: Broadway: 1776; FELA! The Musical (Best Musical Tony Nominated); Spongebob Squarepants The Musical (Best Musical Tony Nominated); Amazing Grace; Violet (Asst. to Choreographer/Best Revival Tony Nominated). Off-Broadway: Signature Theatre: Black No More; Perelman Arts Center NYC: Watch Night. Shakespeare: Folger Shakespeare Theatre/Cincinnati Shakespeare Company: Lauren Gunderson’s A Room in the Castle. Regional: NYSAF/Powerhouse Theatre: In Your Arms. National Tours: 1776, FELA!. International Tours: FELA!, West Side Story. Awards: Astaire Awards, Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show. Television: The Tony Awards, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Spongebob Squarepants The Musical, Good Morning America. Companies: Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. PERSONAL: First Grenadian Woman on Broadway.
Peyton Rowe*
Anne Page
STC: This is my STC debut. NYU GRAD ACTING: Oresteia, Flex, You Got Older, The House That Will Not Stand, Fabulation, Thanks For Listening (solo show). NYC: 54 Below (Turning Up The Heat), The Tank (Nawfside). ATLANTA: Othello, Romeo and Juliet (Tiny Theatre Company); Cabergay, BlackOUT Block Party (The BlackOUT company). Webseries: “Hey!” The Cartoon. PERSONAL: she/her/hers. Peyton Rowe is an actress, writer, comedian, and political organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. Training: NYU Grad Acting 25′: MFA in Acting; Georgia Southern University. Bachelors in Political Science.
Tyrone Stanley*
u/s Mister Page, Shallow, Pastor Evans
NEW YORK: Apollo Theatre/National Tour: If This Could Hat Could Talk (dir. George Faison); New York City Opera, Margaret Garner (dir. Tazewell Thompson). OFF-BROADWAY: Soul On Fire (June Havoc Theatre); An Evening of Comedy with Jackie “Moms” Mabley and her Ladies (National Black Theatre). REGIONAL: Murphy Fine Arts Center: The Wiz (dir. Shirley Dunlap); Greensboro Coliseum: Once On This Island (dir. Mabel Robinson); Pollard Theatre: Passing Strange; NJPAC: Your Arms Too Short To Box With God; TOURS: Ain’t Misbehavin’; If This Hat Could Talk. INTERNATIONAL: The Glory of Gospel (Holland & Belgium); Porgy & Bess (Australia & New Zealand). FILM: Amazing Fish. TV: Sex & the City, As the World Turns; One Life to Live; All My Children; Whoopi; Dave Chapelle Show. OTHER: Lab/Readings: Dorian’s Closet (Rep Stage); Director/Choreographer: Aida, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, The Color Purple, Steel Magnolias, Annie. PERSONAL: he/him/his. Tyrone Stanley is a dynamic multi-hyphenate creative whose work spans composing and writing for the stage and screen, including musicals, plays, film, and television. Teaching: Morgan State University, Montgomery College, Oklahoma City Community College, Baltimore City Community College. Training: Morgan State University: Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing; University of Central Oklahoma: M.A. in English/Creative Writing; NC A&T State University: B.A. in English; UCLA: Certificate in Writing for Television.
Craig Wallace*
Shallow
STC: Numerous productions including Our Town, Uncle Vanya, and King Lear (directed by Simon Godwin). REGIONAL: Round House Theatre: Radio Golf, Ink, “Master Harold”…and the Boys | Folger Theatre: Othello (Othello), Twelfth Night | Ford’s Theatre: Fences (Troy), Death of a Salesman (Willy Loman), The Laramie Project, A Christmas Carol (Ebenezer Scrooge) | Arena Stage: We Are Gathered, All the Way, The Great Society, K2 | Signature Theatre: Primary Trust, Angels in America | Berkeley Rep: Uncle Vanya | Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Santa Cruz. PERSONAL: Training: Howard University: BFA; Pennsylvania State University: MFA; Royal National Theatre, London.
Lance Coadie Williams*
Falstaff
Broadway credits include the Pulitzer Prize Play Sweat and Kiss Me Kate. His Off-Broadway credits include CHIAROSCURO (The National Black Theatre); The Refuge Plays (Roundabout Theatre) Black Odyssey (CSC); War, Shows for Days (Lincoln Center Theatre); Sweat (Public Theater); BootyCandy (Playwright’s Horizon) (Obie Award Winner). His Regional Theatre credits include Our Town (Center Stage); The Convert (Wilma Theatre); Sucker Punch, Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet (Studio Theatre); The Oedipus Plays (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Blues for an Alabama Sky, Fences, My Children! My Africa!, The Children’s Hour (Everyman Theatre); BootyCandy (Woolly Mammoth); Fences (Round House Theatre); Love’s Fire, Shoot the Piano Player (Berkshire Theatre Festival), and title role Hamlet (Baltimore Shakespeare Festival). Film/television: CBS’s The Good Fight and Elementary, HBO’s High Maintenance and The Wire. Education: BFA from SUNY Purchase. The Baltimore School for the Arts alumni.
Shaka Zu
Ensemble
STC Debut. NEW YORK: BAM: Red Hot + Riot, DanceAfrica, Next Wave Festival; Symphony Space: GHANA: Where the King Sleeps, STOMP! TOURS: International Tour, Rehearsal Director, National A Cast. REGIONAL: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Page-to-Stage; The Voxel: Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; The Motor House: RACHEL; Richmond, Dorchester & DC Public Schools (residencies). INTERNATIONAL: National Dance Company Ghana: Asipim; Residency/Master Classes (2014–17); Bercy Arena.TV: Lady in the Lake (Apple TV+), Top of the Pops (BBC).AWARDS: Broadway World Nominee (Best Actor, 2021); Ruby’s Artist Grant; Chuck Davis Fellowship; Katherine Dunham Award. OTHER: Creator of Engage Creativity and Triumph of Disruption; dance advisor for National Core Arts Standards. PERSONAL: He/him/his. Shaka is a dynamic performer blending movement, rhythm, commentary, and presence into immersive experiences. Teaching includes DCPS, DJS, Identity, Kennedy Center CETA, Richmond/Dorchester Public Schools. MFA, University of Maryland; BFA, Towson University.
CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
Jocelyn Bioh
Adaptor
NEW YORK: Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (5 TONY Award nominations including Best Play); Off-Broadway: Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park: Merry Wives; MCC Theater: Nollywood Dreams, School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play. INTERNATIONAL: Lyric Hammersmith (London): School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play. TV: Russian Doll, She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu), The Acolyte (Disney+). AWARDS: Horton Foote Prize (2024), The Steinberg Playwright Award (2020), The Dramatist Guild Hull-Warriner Award (2018 and 2024), Lortel Award (2018), Drama Desk Award (2022), and was a 2017 Tow Playwriting Fellow. Jocelyn is also writing the live screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once on This Island for Disney.
Taylor Reynolds
Director
Taylor Reynolds is an OBIE-award winning director based in New York, originally from Chicago. Her work centers around joyful collaboration and new play development. Selected directing credits: Primary Trust (Signature Theatre), The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes (Woolly Mammoth), Fat Ham (Studio Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination for Best Director), This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre), Clyde’s (Berkeley Rep/Huntington Theatre), La Race (Page 73/Working Theater), Tambo & Bones (Playwrights Horizons/CTG), Man Cave (Page 73), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, New York Times Critic’s Pick), Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (Baltimore Center Stage/Playwrights Realm),and Plano (Clubbed Thumb, Drama Desk nomination for Best Director). Taylor has also worked as a director and collaborator with companies including The Movement Theatre Company, Keen Company, Ojai Playwrights Conference, MCC, EST, New Georges, and The 24 Hour Plays. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2021 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award recipient, 2017-2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab alum. BFA, Carnegie Mellon University. Member of SDC.
Ashleigh King
Choreographer
DC born and based director and choreographer thrilled to be making her STC Debut! NATIONAL TOUR: Jenn Weber and MEP’s The Hip Hop Nutcracker. DC AREA: Signature: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ragtime (Helen Hayes nomination), Which Way to the Stage (Helen Hayes nomination); The Kennedy Center: Fovea; Ford’s Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors, Grace; Woolly Mammoth: Sensational Sea Minkettes (Helen Hayes nomination), Teenage Dick, Fairview; Olney Theatre: Beautiful; Keegan Theatre: Seussical (Helen Hayes Award), Legally Blonde(Helen Hayes Award), The Full Monty; Studio Theatre: Fun Home; Solas Nua: Maz and Bricks;Imagination Stage: A Year with Frog and Toad (Helen Hayes nomination), Nate the Great; Adventure Theater MTC: She Persisted (Helen Hayes Award), Junie B. Jones, Charlie Brown, Make Way for Ducklings, Big River REGIONAL: GEVA: A Christmas Carol; Northern Stage: Waitress, ‘Bov Water, Spring Awakening, Spamalot; Virgina Rep: Mamma Mia (RTCC Award); Red Mountain: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
Lawrence E. Moten III
Scenic Design
STC: Kunene and the King. Broadway: Chicken & Biscuits (Circle In The Square); NYC: Guide for the Homesick (LDK Productions), Reconstructing (BAM), Ghost of John McCain (SoHo Playhouse), The White Chip (MCC), Covenant (Roundabout), Patience (2ST Uptown), Stargazers, STEW (Page 73); Regional: Senior Class (Olney), Two Trains Running (Hartford Stage), Paradise Blue (Studio), All’s Well…, Henry 6: One & Two, King James, Twelfth Night, Trouble In Mind (Old Globe), ¡VOS!, Gem of The Ocean (Two River), Black Cypress Bayou (Geffen), Bulrusher (McCarter & Berkeley Rep), Silent Night, Cosí Fan Tutte and Faust (Wolf Trap Opera), Proof, The Brothers Size, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (American Players), Blues For An Alabama Sky (McCarter & Guthrie), Appropriate (South Coast Rep), Christmas in Connecticut (Goodspeed), it’s not a trip, it’s a journey and We Declare You A Terrorist… (Round House), How I Learned What I Learned and Native Son (Playmakers Rep). Member: USA 829.
Ivania Stack
Costume Designer
REGIONAL: Seattle Repertory Theatre, Village Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Gulf Shore Playhouse, The Wilma Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, TFANA, The Karski Project, Everyman Theatre. DC AREA: Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Company Member), Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Theater J, GALA Hispanic Theatre. PERSONAL: she/ her/ hers. Based in DC, Ivania has been a costume designer for over 25 years. TEACHING: University of Maryland, Georgetown University, George Mason University, McDaniel College. EDUCATION: MFA in Design, University of Maryland, College Park.
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew
Lighting Design
STC: King Lear; Macbeth in Stride. NEW YORK: Broadway: Kimberly Akimbo; The Thanksgiving Play. Off-Broadway (selected): The Connector (Drama Desk Award nomination); shadow/land; cullud wattah (Drama Desk Award nomination); Wine in the Wilderness; Nutcracker Rouge (Drama Desk Award nominations); Gloria: A Life (World Premiere); The Nosebleed; american (tele)visions (World Premiere); Golden Shield; Snow in Midsummer; KPOP! (Henry Hewes Design Award, Drama Desk Award nomination, Lucille Lortel Award nomination); Oratorio for Living Things (Lucille Lortel Award nomination). REGIONAL (selected): Arena Stage: A Wrinkle in Time; The Reservoir with Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Alliance Theatre and Geffen Playhouse; Ford’s Theatre: Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard; A Children’s Theatre Company: An American Tail; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: BLKS; Two River Theater: Pinkolandia. OTHER: David Byrne’s Theater of the Mind. AWARDS: Obie’s Sustained Achievement in Design, Henry Hewes Lighting Design Award, NEA/TCG Career Development Program recipient.
Mikaal Sulaiman
Sound Design & Composition
STC Debut. Broadway: Pirates! The Penzance Musical, The Roommate, Enemy of the People, Doubt, Thanksgiving Play, Fat Ham, Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living, Macbeth, Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off-Broadway: Angry Alan, (Studio Seaview), Sexual Misconduct of the Middleclasses (Together/Audible), Creditors (Together/Audible), Someone Spectacular (Signature Theatre), Sabbath’s Theatre (New Group), pray (Ars Nova), The Half-God of Rainfall (NYTW), Primary Trust (Roundabout), On Sugarland (NYTW), Sanctuary City (NYTW), Fairview (Soho Rep), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova) among others. Awards: Tony Award Nom, Drama Desk nom, Obie Award(s), Elliot Norton nom, Creative Capital Award, Henry Hewes Award(s), Theatre Bay Area Award, Audelco Award, and CTG Sherwood Award.
Nikiya Mathis
Wig & Hair Designer
Nikiya Mathis is a hair and wig designer, actress, and educator who made Broadway history as the first-ever hair/wig designer to receive a Special Tony Award, for her work on Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. She holds an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and currently recurs as N’Kiyah Franklin on STARZ’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Her Broadway design credits include Purpose, HOME, The Heart of Rock & Roll, Once Upon A One More Time, Death of a Salesman, Topdog/Underdog, and Chicken & Biscuits. Off-Broadway: Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Primary Trust, Nollywood Dreams, Goddess, Lights Out: Nat King Cole, Pray, and more. She leads “HAIRversations,” a workshop series for actors of color navigating hair in performance spaces, and teaches masterclasses at NYU Tisch, Yale, Princeton, and universities nationwide. Her awards include the Drama Desk, Obie, Henry Hewes, Broadway Black, and Behind the Curtain Award.
Dawn-Elin Fraser
Voice & Dialect Coach
North American Dialect Coach: Hamilton. Broadway: Othello; Lempicka, SUFFS; 1776; JaJa’s African Hair Braiding; Here Lies Love; Parade; & Juliet; Macbeth; Tina; What the Constitution Means to Me; Once on this Island; Waitress;. Off-Broadway: FLEX (Lincoln Center); Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theater); Richard III; Merry Wives (The Delacorte); Goddess; Fat Ham; SUFFS; Barbeque; (The Public Theater). Nollywood Dreams (MCC); How to Defend Yourself; Half God… (NYTW); Twilight: Los Angeles; Fires in the Mirror; (Signature Theater); Regional: Guys and Dolls (Guthrie Theater); Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Certified Teacher, Knight-Thompson Speechwork. Director, Coaches of Color Initiative. Arts Professor, NYU/TISCH. MFA, American Conservatory Theater.
Drew Lichtenberg
STC Artistic Producer/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 theater 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: Frankenstein, Kunene and the King, Uncle Vanya, 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 I Training: Dartmouth College: BA in Film & Media Studies | *World Premiere
Nadia Guevara
Associate Director
OFF-BROADWAY: Keen Company: Cell, The Public: Apple Bottom, Red Bull Theatre: The Beast of Hungary, Short New Play Fest, Atlantic Theatre Company: Caribbean MixFest, Latinx Playwrights Theatre/The New Group: The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me in a Bad Place, National Queer Theatre: The Survival, LaMaMa ETC, The People’s Theatre REGIONAL: Associate credits at La Jolla Playhouse: Put Your House in Order, Signature Theatre (VA): Daphne’s Dive, Dallas Theatre Center: The Odyssey (Public Works), McCarter Theatre: The Wolves, A Christmas Carol, New York Stage & Film: A Wrinkle in Time, Folger Shakespeare Library, Fulton Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Imagination Stage. Other directing credits: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Water by the Spoonful, Fefu and Her Friends, Hedda Gabler, Spring Awakening. AWARDS: 2018 Actor of the Year, San Diego Critics Circle. Proud recipient of the inaugural Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship. SDC Member.
Laura Smith*
Production Stage Manager
STC: Frankenstein, 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.
Stephen Bubniak*
Assistant Stage Manager
STC: Babbitt, Comedy of Errors. REGIONAL: Kennedy Center: RENT in Concert, Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, 36th annual Hispanic Heritage Awards (PBS), Songs for Hope, Through The Sunken Lands, A Wind In The Door, The Ice Cream Truck is Broken, Because, REACH Opening Parade, multiple seasons NSO POPS, Jacqueline Woodson’s Block Party, We Are All Connected; Studio Theatre: John Proctor is the Villain (World Premiere!), The Colored Museum, People, Places & Things, Queen of Basel, Kings, The Effect; Arena Stage: American Prophet, Step Afrika! Holiday Step Show, Change Agent, Celia and Fidel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Newsies, Jitney; Signature Theatre: In The Heights, Pacific Overtures. OPERA: Washington National Opera: Porgy and Bess, Romeo and Juliet. PERSONAL: he/him. Assistant Production Manager at Kennedy Center. Corporate show-caller at Architex Inc. UPCOMING: STC: Guys and Dolls; Signature Theatre: Safety Not Guaranteed, WNO: West Side Story.
Jazzy Davis*
Assistant Stage Manager
Off-Broadway: The Public Theater: seven methods of killing kylie jenner; The Flea/PlayCo: Amm(i)gone. Tour: seven methods of killing kylie jenner (The Public Theater, Woolly Mammoth); Ain’t No Mo’ (WMTC, Baltimore Center Stage); Amm(i)gone (WMTC, Long Wharf Theatre, The Flea/PlayCo, The Jungle/Theater Mu). DC Regional: Woolly Mammoth: The Nosebleed, Incendiary, My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes, A Fine Madness; Studio Theatre: Hot Wing King; Imagination Stage: Nate the Great, New Kid; Arts on the Horizon: Squeakers and Mr. Gumdrop, Fitting in (workshop); Flying V Theatre: MONSTRESS; Round House Theatre: Sojourners; John F. Kennedy Center: The Sea Beyond the Ocean (workshop), Operation Sisterhood (workshop); Folger Theatre: Twelfth Night. Other Regional: The Voxel/Future Ghost: the dancefloor, the hospital room, the kitchen table; THEARC/Woolly Mammoth: 19. Pronouns: they/them.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
ABOUT 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.
