How Shakespeare Saved My Life

Jacob Ming-Trent (Playwright and Performer) Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Broadway: Hands on a Hardbody (original cast), Shrek the Musical (original cast). Off-Broadway: The Public Theater: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2, and 3 (Lucille Lortel Award), Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, The Tempest. Red Bull: The Alchemist (Lucille Lortel Award nomination). Lincoln Center Theater: On the Levee; Theatre for a New Audience: The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Acting Company: The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Film: Superfly, The Forty-Year Old Version; R#J; The Possession of Hannah Grace. Television: Watchmen; White Famous; Ray Donavan; Feed the Beast; Only Murders in the Building; New Amsterdam; God Friended Me.

• Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Karen Ann Daniels is the Director of Programming/Artistic Director of Folger Theatre. A native San Diegan, she is an accomplished actor, director, playwright, vocalist, musician, and community organizer. Prior to joining the Folger, she was director of the Mobile Unit at The Public Theater in NYC, producing tours around all five boroughs of NYC bringing the tools of theater to incarcerated community through Mobile Unit In Corrections (MUiC).

Dr. Proctor (Playwright, Director) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Tulane University, Department of Theatre. He holds a BA in English (Webster University), an MFA in Acting (West Virginia University), and a Ph. D. in Theatre Research (University of Wisconsin Madison). He has played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (The Organic Theatre), Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (Arizona Repertory Theatre), Othello (The Greenbriar), Airline Highway and Father Come Home from the Wars (Southern Rep). He Directed Into the Woods (Summer Lyric Theatre), Derek Walcott’s Pantomime (Crescent City Stage), and Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind (Tulane University). In September 2022 his essay Romeo and Juliet at an HBCU was published in the essay collection Romeo and Juliet, Adaptation, and the Arts: ‘Cut Him Out in Little Stars’ (The Arden Shakespeare). In January of 2023 his essay Reconsidering and Recasting was published in Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity (Bloomsbury Press). His primary research examines the intersection of race, casting, and the peculiarities and specifics of Identity-Conscious casting practices, particularly in Shakespeare.

Ray Leslee composed Avenue X, the award-winning acappella musical about racial tensions in Brooklyn, which began Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and toured over 50 theatres around the world; Standup Shakespeare, directed by Mike Nichols on Broadway, featured David Margulies at the Folger Shakespeare Library, F. Murray Abraham and Alfred Molina on tour, and recently Jeff Perry and Alice Ripley at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre (2018); A Steady Rain at the Guthrie; Palestine at New York Theatre Workshop; The Three Musketeers with The Acting Company; Educating Rita at Steppenwolf; A Good Man at the Vienna Chamber Opera; A Chamber Christmas Carol at the Morgan Library & Museum; Romeo & Juliet for Orchestra & Actors with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; and The Learned Ladies, a comic opera at The New School; to name a few. Staff pianist with Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Dance Theatre of Harlem and The Joffrey Ballet. Honors: The Richard Rodgers Award; the Fellowship in Music from New York Foundation for the Arts; The Helen Hayes Award (for Standup Shakespeare); The Barrymore Award (“Best Musical” for Avenue X in Philadelphia); and over 30 commissions. Currently Maya Songs, singing the poetry of Maya Angelou at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, directed by Jacob Ming-Trent (2023)

Jae Anthonee (Piano), a native to the Baltimore area, is known for his colorful baritone voice and virtuosic piano playing.

Jae has performed in many places including the Vatican in Rome, Fairbanks Alaska, and many states along the east coast. He has performed in many opera & vocal masterclasses facilitated by Kirk Meechem, Kenneth Overton and Philip Boykin. His operatic debut was Balthazar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in 2016 and acclaimed much success in his most recent role as Bob in William Grant Still’s Highway 1.

Asia Jones (Drums) is a musician, producer, visual artist, philosopher, and overall creative visionary. She began her artistic journey as a drummer and soon after ventured into other mediums of expression.

Asia has freelanced with many local bands and churches throughout the Washington DC metropolitan area. Playing drums is what she calls her “bread and butter” because of the time that she has spent playing and studying the instrument.

Music in general has been a great source of knowledge and inspiration for her, in all facets of her life. So, no matter what mediums of expression she may venture to, she knows that she will always have a home in music.

Jason Wilson (Bass) is making his debut at Folger Theatre. Musician credits: National tour: Stirring The Waters. Regional: Eldorado Casino (Reno, NV) & Lake Dillon Theatre (Silverthorne, CO): Rock Of Ages; The New York Musical Festival; The Lincoln Center Youth Debut Series. DC area: Signature: Passing Strange; Olney: Hedwig & The Angry Inch, A.D. 16 (World Premiere), Kinky Boots; Round House: We’re Gonna Die; Kennedy Center: Let Freedom Ring MLK Celebration, Kennedy Center Honors; Keegan Theater: American Idiot, Spring Awakening, Cabaret; Toby’s: Dreamgirls, In The Heights. Acting credits: Woolly Mammoth: F#@king Up Everything [Broadway World Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical – Local]; Toby’s: Ragtime, The Buddy Holly Story. TV: Comic Book Men (AMC), Criminals At Work (BET), History’s Secrets (Nat Geo). In summer of 2022, Jason released an album of original music with his solo project, Resolution Alley, entitled Fade Out, which included the single “You Are” that won a Communicator Award of Distinction for Original Music. www.JasonWilsonRoxx.com

Taylor Kiechlin (Production Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Nathan the Wise (in association with Theatre J). Credits include: Studio Theatre: Fun Home, Espejos: Clean; Signature Theatre Company: Passing Strange, Into the Woods, La Cage aux Folles; Ford’s Theatre: Born Yesterday, A Christmas Carol, 12 Angry Men, Into the Woods, Fences, Silent Sky, Guys and Dolls, Come From Away: Concert at the Lincoln Memorial; Kennedy Center: Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie; Theatre J: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story. Other regional credits include: GLCFA: Godspell; BRT: 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Quartet, Times Stands Still,  Triumph of Love, The Producers; Williamstown Theater Festival: Moscow x6.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Dat Ngo (he/him/his) has held arts education, theatre administration, and community engagement leadership positions for over 20 years. An accomplished nonprofit educator, arts administrator, coach, and social justice advocate, Ngo has dedicated his career to leading and supporting equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging efforts within a wide variety of cultural organizations. He is currently Associate Vice President at Arts Consulting Group, leading executive searches and working with client organizations to integrate DEI values into practice, policy, and behavior. Previously, Ngo served as Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Associate Director of Engagement and Inclusion and also fulfilled leadership roles at Sitar Arts Center, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and Philadelphia Theatre Company. A first-generation Vietnamese-American, Ngo has judged for Philadelphia’s Barrymore Awards, DC’s Helen Hayes Awards, and Fairfax County Virginia High School League’s One-Act Competitions. Dat has also served as a panelist for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, was a member of the 2018 National Facilitator Cohort for artEquity (whom he continues to partner with in the fight for racial justice and ensuring equity and access for all who wish to engage with the arts), and sits on the board of PlayPenn to support the development of new plays and playwrights.