Shakespeare as a Starting Point: Shakespeare with Community

Karen Ann Daniels is the Director of Programming and Performance at the Folger Shakespeare Library and 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).

In her prior role as the associate director of The Old Globe’s Arts Engagement department, she managed community partnerships, and created, piloted, and implemented cornerstone programs such as Globe for All, Behind the Curtain, coLAB, Community Voices, and Reflecting Shakespeare. She is a thought-leader, facilitator, and contributing architect for creating tools to help cultural institutions integrate anti-racism, equity, accessibility, community and audience engagement, and shared leadership as a long-term mission-oriented strategy for organizational growth. She is a 2021 Fellow at the Atlantic Fellows on Racial Equity, a network of leaders from the US and South Africa working to build expansive new futures in which Black people, and all people of color, are seen, valued, and respected. She served as chair of the City of Chula Vista’s Cultural Arts Commission, as well as the New California Arts Fund Leadership and Learning Committees, and is a co-producer and facilitator for the biannual Shakespeare in Prisons Conference and Network. In recent years, her creative work focused on co-creation as a composer/lyricist/playwright for musicals like gather ‘round and The Ruby in Us, centering the lives and stories of community.

Freedome Bradley-Ballentine (Panelist) is a dedicated arts leader known for fostering innovation, collaboration, and equity in the cultural sector. As Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programs at The Public Theater in New York City, he oversaw the impactful Mobile Unit, Public Works, Under the Radar, and Joe’s Pub programs. Previously, as Associate Artistic Director and Director of Arts Engagement for The Old Globe, he transformed the organization’s approach to community engagement, spearheading the creation of the Social Justice Roadmap and establishing initiatives to deepen connections with San Diego’s economically, geographically, and culturally diverse communities.

From 2006 to 2014, Bradley-Ballentine directed the theatrical program for SummerStage and the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park. His leadership elevated the festival’s quality and reach, culminating in the launch of the SummerStage Citywide program, which brought performances to all five boroughs of New York City. Throughout his career, he has built a national reputation for integrity, strategic vision, and cultivating equitable relationships across organizations and communities.

Barry Edelstein  (Director & Adaptor), Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director at The Old Globe, is a stage director, producer, author, and educator. His directing credits at The Old Globe include The Winter’s Tale, Othello, The Twenty-Seventh Man, the world premiere of Rain, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Hamlet, the world premiere of The Wanderers, the American premiere of Life After, Romeo and Juliet, the world premiere of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, the two-part epic Henry 6, and, during the pandemic, Hamlet: On the Radio. He also directed All’s Well That Ends Well as the inaugural production of the Globe for All community tour, and he oversees the Globe’s Classical Directing Fellowship program. In addition to his recent Globe credits, he directed The Tempest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2018 and The Wanderers Off-Broadway with Roundabout Theatre Company in 2023. As Director of the Shakespeare Initiative at The Public Theater (2008–2012), Edelstein oversaw all of the company’s Shakespearean productions as well as its educational, community outreach, and artist-training programs. At the Public, he staged the world premiere of The Twenty-Seventh Man, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, and Steve Martin’s WASP and Other Plays. He was also Associate Producer of the Public’s Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino. From 1998 to 2003 he was Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company. His book Thinking Shakespeare is the standard text on American Shakespearean acting. He is also the author of Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions. His podcast Where There’s a Will: Finding Shakespeare was produced by the Globe and Pushkin Industries. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Laurie Woolery (Director) is a theater director, playwright, and citizen artist. As a first-generation Latinx immigrant, Woolery works with regional theaters and communities to create theater and build sustainable art practices. She has developed and directed new works with populations ranging from incarcerated women to residents of a small Kansas town devastated by a tornado. She creates site-specific theater in locations such as a working sawmill in Eureka, CA, parking lots, prisons, and the banks of the Los Angeles River. She has worked at The Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Cornerstone Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, and Los Angeles Philharmonic among others. She has directed world premieres of plays by Tanya Saracho, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Charise Castro Smith, Marisela Treviño Orta, Aditi Kapil, and more.