Folger Theatre Presents the World Premiere of Lauren M. Gunderson’s A Room in the Castle

The women of Shakespeare’s Hamlet receive an expansive feminine perspective by director Kaja Dunn

Folger Theatre and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company announce the world-premiere production of A Room in the Castle, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the perspectives of the women within the troubled castle walls. Written by Lauren M. Gunderson (The Book of Will, Peter Pan and Wendy), one of America’s most produced playwrights, the production is directed by Kaja Dunn and is on stage at the historic Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill, March 4–April 6, 2025.

In this parallel retelling of Hamlet, Gunderson shifts the spotlight to Ophelia, Gertrude, and Anna, Ophelia’s steadfast handmaid, as they contend with the chaos and danger surrounding them in the male-dominated court. Through this feminist lens, A Room in the Castle trades Hamlet’s turmoil for a meditation on the power of women in community. Combining drama with humor, music, and a defiant hope for the future, A Room in the Castle invites audiences to consider whether the women’s narratives must end in Shakespearean tragedy or if they may write their own story.

“In this current moment, a story about women fighting for liberation, finding autonomy, and helping the next generation thrive feels incredibly urgent and relevant,” says director Kaja Dunn. “We have the unique opportunity to examine who the women in Shakespeare are, who’s been telling their stories, and how that shapes how we see ourselves. Collaborating with Lauren has allowed us to envision a world we aspire to create and actively bring it to life.”

“This play dances and duels with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, foregrounding the women in the play and re-imagining them with agency, vitality, and radical hearts eager for a new ending,” shares Gunderson. “A play about women defying a rotten patriarchy by ripping a hole in the fabric of their suffocating story is certainly the work I want to be doing right now. Because this play is anything but hopeless and tragic. These women of this play—the characters, the actors, and the women-led creative team—aren’t holding a mirror up to nature. We’re shattering the glass.”

A Room in the Castle features Sabrina Lynne Sawyer (Folger Theatre’s The Winter’s Tale) as Ophelia, Oneika Phillips (1776, Fela!, and Amazing Grace on Broadway) as Queen Gertrude, and Burgess Byrd (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s The Amen Corner and The Importance of Being Earnest) as Anna.

The creative team includes scenic designer Samantha Reno (Frankenstein and Much Ado About Nothing as resident artist at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company), costume designer Nicole Jescinth Smith (Trouble in Mind at San Diego’s The Old Globe), lighting designer Max Doolittle (Folger Theatre’s The Winter’s Tale and Amadeus), and sound designer Sarah O’Halloran (Folger Theatre’s Nathan the Wise; Mr. Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre). The team also includes Cincinnati Shakespeare Company resident artist Robert Carlton Stimmel (projections designer), Shana Laski (dramaturg and assistant director), Daryl Eisenberg (casting director), Hope Villanueva (production stage manager), and Jenna Lynn Keefer (assistant stage manager).

A Room in the Castle is a co-production with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, where it will be on stage from January 24 to February 9, 2025. The partnership highlights the shared commitment of Folger Theatre and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to presenting innovative and resonant interpretations of classic works. The play was commissioned by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and initially workshopped at the Folger’s first annual Reading Room Festival in January 2023.

Karen Ann Daniels, Folger Director of Programming and Performance and Artistic Director of Folger Theatre says, “Over the last five years, Lauren has exponentially expanded the idea of what it means to be a woman in the Shakespearean context, endowing Ophelia, Gertrude, and the original character of Anna with the privileges of full humanity and empowerment usually reserved only for Hamlet. In her world, women can have the option ‘to be or not to be’ that is heightened by Kaja’s nimble and heartfelt direction.”.

Ticket Information & Performance Dates:

A Room in the Castle is on stage at Folger Theatre from March 4 through April 6, 2025. Tickets are $20-$84. Discounted preview performances and special rates for patrons under 35, students, seniors, members and family of the military, educators, and groups may be purchased through the Folger Theatre Box Office at (202) 544-7077 or online at www.folger.edu/room.

Related Events and Programming:

The Pay-What-You-Will performance is on Tuesday, March 4 at 7:30pm. Tickets will be available to the public in-person starting at 5pm. One ticket per person.

A Room in the Castle director Kaja Dunn and members of the creative team share their perspectives on the production at Creative Conversations: A Room in the Castle on Friday, March 7 at 6:30pm, moderated by Folger Theatre’s Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels. $25, with discounts for Folger Subscribers and Members.

Relaxed performances, designed to create a welcoming and comfortable environment for neurodiverse audiences, are Sunday, March 16 at 7:30pm and Wednesday, March 26 at 2pm.

Audience members are encouraged to stay and take part in an interactive Post-Show Discussion with cast members of A Room in the Castle following the 7:30pm performance on Thursday, March 20.

An Audio-described performance of A Room in the Castle will be performed on Saturday, March 22 at 2pm. The audio description is a narration service that describes the visual aspects of theatre, such as stage directions, making the visual into an auditory experience for audience members with visual impairments, low vision and Blind audience members.

Open-Captioned performances are Sunday, March 30 at 2pm and 7:30pm. Open-captioned performances are supported by Vinton and Sigrid Cerf.

Affinity Nights and other audience engagement events and programming are planned throughout the run of A Room in the Castle, offering unique opportunities for connection and deeper exploration of the play’s themes. Please check for updates and announcements on these special events by visiting our website at www.folger.edu/room.

The Cast:

Burgess Byrd (Anna) Folger Theatre: debut. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, A Raisin in the Sun; Human Race Theatre: Gloria: A Life; Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati: Skeleton Crew, Detroit ’67; Know Theatre of Cincinnati:  Harry and The Thief and solo shows Pretty Fire and Neat; Falcon Theatre: Silence! The Musical; Showbiz Players: Avenue Q. Guest Artist at University of Texas Austin as Shylock in a contemporary version of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

Oneika Phillips (Queen Gertrude) Folger Theatre: debut. Broadway: American Airlines Theatre: 1776; Eugene O’Neill Theatre: FELA!; Palace Theatre: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical; Nederlander Theatre: Amazing Grace; Assistant Choreographer, American Airlines Theatre: Violet. Off-Broadway: Signature Theatre: Black No More; Perelman Performing Arts Center: Watch Night. Regional: NYSAF/Powerhouse Theatre: In Your Arms. National tours: 1776, FELA!. International tours: FELA!, West Side Story. Television: The Tony Awards, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical, Good Morning America. Companies: Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. @DragonPassionFruit

Sabrina Lynne Sawyer (Ophelia) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale (2023), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2022), The Reading Room: A Room in the Castle. Studio Theatre: Exception to the Rule; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2; Imagination Stage: Inside Out and Backwards; Front Porch Arts Collective: Chicken & Biscuits; National tour: National Players (Olney Theatre Center): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Raisin in the Sun. BA, Acting, University of Southern California.

The Creative Team:

Lauren M. Gunderson (Playwright) has been one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015, topping the list thrice including 2022-23. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award, and a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is a playwright, screenwriter, musical book writer, and children’s author who lives in San Francisco. She graduated from NYU Tisch as a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. LaurenGunderson.com.

Kaja Dunn (Director) Folger Theatre: Resident Intimacy Director: Metamorphoses, The Winter’s Tale, Reading Room 2023: Our Verse in Time to Come. Arena Stage: American Prophet; Denver Center for the Arts: Choir Boy, 5^th Ave; ACT Theatre (Seattle): Choir Boy; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: Private Lives, Confederates; Two River Theatre: Wine In The Wilderness; Penumbra Theatre: Sugar In Our Wounds; Broadway: A Strange Loop (Assoc. Intimacy Director).Television: The Best Man, Final Chapters, Harlem, The Equalizer. Awards: Kennedy Center Medallion from the National Committee of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (2021) and the Playwrights Project’s Deborah Salzer Excellence in Arts Education Award (2023). Publications: Arden Contemporary Shakespeare, Intimacy Direction for Theatre, Theatre Symposium, HowlRound. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (UK). Carnegie Mellon University: Associate Professor.

Samantha Reno (Scenic Designer) Folger Theatre: debut. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company: Frankenstein, Kindred Spirits, The Play That Goes Wrong, Much Ado About Nothing, The Amen Corner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Cincinnati Opera: Fierce; Merrimack Repertory Theatre (Lowell, MA): Gaslight. B Street Theatre (Sacramento): The Newlywed Game, A Great Migration, Dance Nation, A Year with Frog and Toad, Popcorn Falls, The Forever Question. Off-Broadway: New York Classical Theatre: The Rewards of Being Frank. samanthareno.com

Nicole Jescinth Smith (Costume Designer) Folger Theatre: debut. Red Bank Theatre: Gem of the Ocean; The Old Globe: Trouble in Mind; Jerry Herman Ring Theatre: The Three Penny Opera; Clarence Brown Theatre: A Raisin in the Sun. Television: The Chair Company (pilot), Up Here, Ramy Season 3, POSE Season 2 (assistant costume designer), Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Period Costumes. nickystyles.com @nickystyles007

Max Doolittle (Lighting Designer) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, King John, Amadeus, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Design work at other Washington DC theaters includes: Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, Theatre Alliance, Theatre J, Rep Stage, Kennedy Center/The Second City, Imagination Stage, Forum Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Constellation Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting, Pointless Theatre Co., NextStop Theatre Company. Design work at New York theaters includes: Ars Nova, The Juilliard School, New Ohio Theatre, New World Stages, Design work at regional theaters includes: Geffen Playhouse, Kitchen Theatre Company, Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Fulton Theatre. Television: Anderson Cooper 360, Piers Morgan Live (Light Direction). Cruise Ships: Wine Lovers, The Musical.

Sarah O’Halloran (Sound Designer) Folger Theatre: Nathan the Wise, in association with Theater J. Ford’s Theatre: Mr. Lincoln; Everyman Theatre: Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains, Sense and Sensibility, Be Here Now, Proof, Dinner with Friends; Theater J: Prayer for the French Republic, The Hatmaker’s Wife, This Much I Know, The Chameleon, Gloria: A Life, Two Jews Walk into a War, Compulsion, Talley’s Folly; Olney Theater Center: The Brothers Paranormal, The Humans, Our Town, Labour of Love; 1st Stage: The Phlebotomist, The Brothers Size, Swimming with Whales, Trevor, When the Rain Stops Falling; Studio Theatre: Cry It Out; Rep Stage: The Glass Menagerie; E2: The 39 Steps, The Heidi Chronicles, Things That Are Round; Mosaic Theater: In His Hands, The Return; Theater Alliance: A Chorus Within Her.

Robert Carlton Stimmel (Projections Designer) Folger Theatre: debut. Regional: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night, Frankenstein, Julius Caesar, The Amen Corner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wrecking Ball, Gaslight, Trouble in Mind, As You Like It, Little Women, The Living Dead, The Comedy of Errors, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Hamlet, Every Christmas Story Ever Told; Merrimack Repertory Theatre: Frankenstein, Gaslight, Elephant and Piggie, Little Red Riding Hood; Los Angeles Fringe Festival: Earworm. International: Prague Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night.

Shana Laski (Dramaturg and Assistant Director) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest with Round House Theatre. Round House Theatre: Artistic Apprentice, Jennifer Who Is Leaving (Assistant Director), Radio Golf (Dramaturg); Spooky Action Theater: Sonnets for an Old Century; Cogent Theater Collective: Closer; Rorschach Theatre; ExPats Theatre, Theatre Prometheus, and others. shanalaski.com @shana.laski

Daryl Eisenberg (Casting Director) Folger Theatre: Numerous productions since 2013. Theater J: Hester Street; Kennedy Center: Voices Festival Productions, Spells of the Sea. Broadway: Gettin’ the Band Back Together. Off-Broadway: Bedlam, That Parenting Musical, White Rose. Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: RUTKA: A New Musical; Tennessee Performing Arts Center: Florida Georgia Line’s May We All: A New Country Musical; Broadway in Chicago: Heartbreak Hotel; Cape Cod Theatre Project. Film/television: The Cathedral (MUBI), Menorah in the Middle (Hulu), The MisEducation of Bindu (Peacock), Shadows (HBO), Angry Neighbors (Lionsgate), Hey, Viktor. Audio: Limetown, The Callisto Protocol: Helix Station, Shipworm, City of Ghosts, Falling in Love with Mr. Dellamort, Verdict, High-Risers, Chutzpah. Artios-nominated Member of Casting Society of America. ebcastingco.com @EBCastingCo

Hope Villanueva (Production Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: Hamlet, The Reading Room Festival, 2023. Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Baltimore Center Stage: Mexodus; Soho Rep: The Fires; Signature Theatre: King of the Yees; Olney Theatre Center: A Nice Indian Boy, Our Town; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: BLKS; Kennedy Center: The Dragon King’s Daughter, The Day You Begin; The Second City/Kennedy Center: Twist Your Dickens; Mosaic Theatre: Private, Marie and Rosetta, The Vagrant Trilogy, Paper Dolls, Queens Girl in Africa; Studio Theatre: Hand to God, Choir Boy.  New York: Romy & Michele: The Musical; American Repertory Theatre: WILD: A Musical Becoming; The Bourbon Room: Rock of Ages Hollywood; Barrington Stage Company: Blues for an Alabama Sky; Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Resident PSM. Off-Broadway: Who’s Your Baghdaddy? National Tour: Rock of Ages, Young Frankenstein, My Fair Lady, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Bellobration.

Jenna Lynn Keefer (Assistant Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses, The Reading Room Festival: The Cuban Vote. Compagnia de’ Colombari: REVELATION; Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics: Little Amal at the Capitol; Constellation Theatre Company: Desperate Measures, Incognito; Taffety Punk Theatre Company: La Salpêtrière; Spooky Action Theatre: The Realistic Joneses. Regional: Baltimore Center Stage: The Medicine Show, Our Town; Peabody Institute: Cendrillon, Other Side of the Story; Olney Theatre Center: A Christmas Carrol; Hope Repertory Theatre: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, It’s a Wonderful Life, Every Brilliant Thing, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Year with Frog and Toad. Television: CNN Biden Town Hall.

Production Sponsors:

Folger Theatre’s A Room in the Castle is supported by the Share Fund, and made possible in part by the generous support of:

Premier Season Sponsors — Dr. Bill and Evelyn Braithwaite

Season Sponsors — Helen and David Kenney and Family and Andrea “Andi” Kasarsky

Production Sponsors — Nancy and Steve Howard

Contributing Sponsors —Celia and Keith Arnaud, Gail Kern Paster, and Scott & Liz Vance

Associate Sponsors —Col. Wesley P. Hallman and Dr. Silvana Rubino-Hallman, Timothy J. Carlton, Peter and Mary Pennington, and Rick Kasten

Artist Sponsors – Karl K. and Carrol Benner Kindel

Open-Captioned Performance Sponsors — Vinton and Sigrid Cerf 

About Cincinnati Shakespeare Company:      

The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company was founded in 1993 by a group of passionate and visionary young artists, and over the past three decades has evolved into a permanent fixture in Cincinnati’s arts community. The first season consisted of five productions in multiple venues; today, CSC presents more than 250 performances of nine productions annually in its downtown theatre and through touring productions across the region. In 2017, CSC opened the brand new $17.5MM Otto M. Budig Theater in Cincinnati’s historic Over-The-Rhine, helping to distinguish the company as the only professional classical theater between Chicago and New Jersey.

About Folger Shakespeare Library and Folger Theatre:
       

The Folger Shakespeare Library makes Shakespeare’s stories and the world in which he lived accessible. Anchored by the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is a cultural center where curiosity and creativity are embraced, and conversation is always encouraged. Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating performances, and from path-breaking research to transformative educational programming. The Folger welcomes everyone to connect in their own way—from communities throughout Washington, DC, to communities across the globe.

The award-winning Folger Theatre in our nation’s capital bridges the arts and humanities through transformational performances and programming that speak inclusively to the human experience. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels, Folger Theatre continues its legacy through exciting interpretations and adaptations of Shakespeare and expands the classical canon through cultivating today’s artists and commissioning new work that is in dialogue with the concerns and issues of our time. Folger Theatre thrives both on its historical stage and in the community, engaging audiences wherever they happen to be. For more on Folger Theatre, please visit www.folger.edu/theatre.

Learn more at www.folger.edu.

Press Performance:
 
Reviewing members of the press are invited to attend the production of A Room in the Castle on Sunday, March 9 at 7:30pm. Please reserve tickets through Colleen Kennedy, Senior Communications Manager, or Peter Eramo, Jr., Folger’s Publicity Manager, by March 4 via email at press@folger.edu.  

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