The Winter's Tale

Richard Bradford (Mamillius, Time) Folger Theatre: debut; DC Youth Orchestra Program: Cello. Television: Lumumba’s Playground Pilot Series. Richard is a fourth grader at John Lewis Elementary School. Richard also enjoys writing stories, singing, and reading the Wings of Fire book series. 

Antoinette Crowe-Legacy (Hermione) Folger Theatre: debut. Broadway: Slave Play; Off-Broadway: Playwright’s Horizons: If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka; MCC: BLKS. Television: MGM+: The Godfather of Harlem; AppleTV+: WeCrashed; Netflix: Passing. MFA, Acting, Yale University. Recipient of the Carol Finch Dye Award.  

Nicholas Gerwitz (Shepherd’s Son) Folger Theatre: debut; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Here There are Blueberries; Studio Theatre: Clyde’s; Roundhouse Theatre: The Tempest; Bob Bartlett Theatre: Lýkos Ánthrōpos; 1st Stage Theater: Secret Things. Academy of Classical Acting: The Winter’s Tale, Julius Caesar, The Cherry Orchard, MFA in Acting from The Academy of Classical Acting, and a BFA in Acting from Fredonia University. 

Drew Kopas (Polixenes) Folger Theatre: Nathan the Wise (produced by Theatre J); Theatre J: Trayf. Work at other theaters includes: Olney Theatre Center, Mosaic Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, Constellation Theater Company, 1st Stage, Keegan Theatre, Rep Stage, Faction of Fools Theatre, We Happy Few, and the Capital Fringe Festival. Regional theaters include work at: Great Lakes Theater, Dobama Theatre; Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Shakespeare Festival. MFA, Acting, Western Illinois University. DrewKopas.com

Stephen Patrick Martin (Antigonus and Shepherd) Folger Theatre: Hamlet, Henry VIII; Washington Stage Guild: Ben Butler, Major Barbara; Regional theaters include work at: Arena Stage, Chesapeake Theatre Co., Delaware Theatre Co., Everyman Theatre, ExPats Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company and Theater J. MFA in Acting from The Academy of Classical Acting, and a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.  He is also a licensed Washington, DC tour guide.

Cody Nickell (Camillo) Folger Theatre: The Tempest (produced by Round House Theatre), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Antony and Cleopatra, Mary Stuart, The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes nomination), Arcadia (Helen Hayes nomination), The School for Scandal, Macbeth; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The School for Lies, Romeo and Juliet; The Studio Theatre: Animal (World Premiere); Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Company Member): Clybourne Park (Helen Hayes nomination), In The Next Room, or the vibrator play, Stupid F***ing Bird (World Premiere), Baby Screams Miracle. Other regional credits include plays at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Playmakers Repertory Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theater, Arden Theatre Company, Capitol Repertory Theatre, and Gulfshore Playhouse where Cody was Artistic Associate for three seasons. Cody’s work also includes film, television, and voiceovers. codynickell.com

Kate Eastwood Norris (Paulina) Folger Theatre: The Tempest (produced by Round House Theatre), The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1 Henry IV, King John, Macbeth (2018, 2008), Mary Stuart, The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes nomination), Hamlet, Now I Am Alone, The School for Scandal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Hayes Award), Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, She Stoops To Conquer, The Tempest, Hamlet (1999); Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Stupid F***ing Bird (Helen Hayes nomination), Full Circle, Fever/Dream, She Stoops To Comedy (Helen Hayes Award), Big Love, Bug; Arena Stage: The Book Club Play; Source Theatre: Intimate Exchanges (Helen Hayes nomination), Private Eyes; Round House Theatre: A Body of Water; Washington Shakespeare Company: Strange Interlude (Helen Hayes nomination), The Taming of the Shrew. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival: Gnit, Eat Your Heart Out; Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Concerning Strange Devices From The Distant West; Shakespeare Santa Cruz: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Playboy of the Western World, As You Like It, King Lear; Portland Center Stage: BoNita, The North Plan; Florida Stage: Ghostwriter; Delaware Theatre Company: Lucy. 

Jonathan Del Palmer (Florizell) Folger Theatre: Our Verse in Time to Come, The Reading Room; Rep Stage: Kill Move Paradise; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Hamlet (u/s); Constellation Theatre Company: Moon Man Walk; 1st Stage: columbinus, The Member of the Wedding, The Rainmaker; Theater Alliance: Day of Absence; Avant Bard Theatre: Suddenly Last Summer, Julius Caesar; Rorschach Theatre: Sing to me Now; 4615 Theatre: Life Jacket; Library of Congress: The Conjure Man Dies; Off-Broadway: 54 Below: How to Quit Your Day Job.  

Clarence Michael Payne (Mamillius) Folger Theatre: debut; Camp Arena Stage: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Clarence loves being a 3rd grader at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School.  When he is not in school, Clarence enjoys swimming and playing the piano.

Reza Salazar (Autolycus) Folger Theatre: debut; Broadway: Clyde’s, Sweat; Off-Broadway: Public Theater: Richard II, Oedipus El Rey, Mobile Unit’s The Tempest, Shakespeare: Call and Response; Playwright’s Realm: My Mañana Comes; Regional theater includes work at: Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theater, Guthrie Theater, and Arena Stage; Television credits include: Inside Amy Schumer, The Accidental Wolf, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Daredevil, The Blacklist, Believe, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Louie, The Knick; Film: The Prisoner, The Imperialists Are Still Alive, See Girl Run, The Inquisition of Camilo Sanz. Reza is currently an artist in residence at Mad Gene, a multimedia company started by actor and producer Oscar Issac and writer, director Elvira Lind.  

Sabrina Lynne Sawyer (Ensemble) Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Reading Room: A Room in the Castle; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Henry IV Pt 2; National tour:  National Players (Olney Theatre Center): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Raisin in the Sun. BA, Acting, University of Southern California.  

Hadi Tabbal (Leontes) Folger Theatre: debut; Mosaic Theater: The Vagrant Trilogy; Off-Broadway: Astoria Performing Arts Center: Buggy Baby; The Public Theater: The Vagrant Trilogy; Roundabout Theatre Company/Atlantic Theater Company co-production: English (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel nomination); Regional theaters include: Berkeley Repertory Theatre: English; Humana Festival: The Hour of Feeling; Film: Rosa, Circumstance (Sundance Audience Award-winner); Select television work includes: The Brave, Law & Order SVU, Bull, FBI. MFA, Acting, The New School for Drama. Fulbright Grant recipient. 

Kayleandra White (Perdita) Folger Theatre: debut; Howard University: A Dangerous Acts: Series. BFA, musical theatre from Howard University. 

Ronald Benson-El, Jr (u/s First Man: Zeus and others, Second Man: Midas and others, Third Man: Phaeton and others) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale. Some of his most recent work had him in New York working with Netflix, Fever, and Mycoto in their immersive theatre as Fight Captain and Cast member in Money Heist: The Experience NYC and a Cast member in Stranger Things: The Experience NYC. BFA, Acting, SUNY Purchase College in New York. Brought up in the DMV, Ronald Benson-El, Jr started his training at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the Theatre Program. Ronald also has a passion for fight choreography and stunt work. He thanks his family and friends who have helped and supported him in all he loves to do.

Jordan Brown (u/s Autolycus and Florizel) Folger Theatre: debut; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing; Washington Stage Guild: My Children! My Africa!, How He Lied to Her Husband; Rorschach Theatre: Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea, She Kills Monsters; Perisphere Theatre: Time Is On Our Side; Powerhouse Theatre: As You Like It; Brave Spirits Theatre: King Henry VI Part I; InterAct Story Theatre: Bobtail Bong Bong; Theatre Prometheus: The Wolf You Feed; Unexpected Stage: Nothing to Lose; Catholic University: The Ties That Bind; Stevenson University: The Importance of Being Earnest, Eurydice, The Shape of Things, Red Death. jordanbrownactor.org @Jordan_Le_Great

Eric Hissom (u/s Camillo, Shepherd, and Antigonus) Folger Theatre: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arcadia (Helen Hayes award); Arena Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; Ford’s Theatre: Born Yesterday; Olney Theatre Center: The Diary of Anne Frank; Round House Theatre: The Tempest (in association with Folger Theatre), The Great Leap, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Studio Theatre: The Effect; Theatre J: Body of an American; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Vibrator Play. Regional credits include work at Seattle Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, and many others. He performed in the National Tour of The Thirty-Nine Steps and has appeared in a smattering of television and film, including the feature Out of Time.

Connor Padilla (u/s Shepherd’s Son and Autolycus) Folger Theatre: debut. Work at theaters includes: Utah Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Repertory Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Winter Garden Theater, Taffety Punk Theatre Company, among others. Florida Atlantic University, MFA, Weber State University, BA. 

Naima Randolph (u/s Perdita and Ensemble) Folger Theatre: debut; Young Playwrights Theater: Three Cheers to Grace.  Regional: St. Louis Shakespeare Festival: Love’s Labours Lost and Suddenly Last Summer at Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. Naima is a Howard University graduate. 

Tamilla Woodard (Director) Folger Theatre: debut. Yale Rep: the ripple, the wave that carried me home by Christine Anderson; Women’s Project Theater: Weightless (Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Musical); Alliance Theatre: Working: A Musical; Guthrie Theater: Sweat; Women’s Project Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, and Steppenwolf NOW: Where We Stand (Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Show); American Conservatory Theater: Top Girls.

Raul Abrego, Jr. (Scenic Designer) Folger Theatre: debut. Design work at Opera Center, The Manhattan School of Music, The Spoleto Opera Festival in Italy, Rattlestick Theater, Cherry Lane Theater and Intar.  Recent projects include: Princeton University: Adamandi; Barrington Stage and GeVa Theater Center: Ain‘t Misbehavin‘; The Bushwick Starr: The Brobot Johnson Experience; Two River Theater: Living and Breathing; Boundless Theater Company and New Perspectives: How to Melt Ice.  Television: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Seasons 3 and 4; Ghost and John Wick, (Assistant Art Director); Falling Water (Art Director), The Outcasts (Art Director); Cruzando (Production Director).

Sarah Cubbage (Costume Designer) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, King John; Round House Theater: The Tempest (in association with Folger Theatre), Spring Awakening, The Heal (co-produced with The Getty Villa); Signature Theatre: A Chorus Line; Studio Theatre: Kings, The Wolves, The Hard Problem; Olney Theatre Center: The Crucible and Labour of Love; Theatre J: Compulsion, Actually; Rep Stage: Sweeney Todd, Dorian’s Closet; Center Stage: That Face. New York: David Geffen Hall: Crazy for You; The Juilliard School: Triumph of Love, Hippolyte et Aricie. Regional: American Repertory Theatre: The Lily’s Revenge, at American Repertory Theatre; Syracuse Stage: Disgraced, In the Next Room; Disney Creative Entertainment: Beauty & The Beast. She is a member of USA 829. SarahCubbage.com. @SarahCubbageDesign

Chelsea Dean (Properties Designer) Folger Theatre: Our Verse in Time to Come, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. GALA Hispanic Theatre: Jardin Salvaje. Round House Theatre: Nollywood Dreams, The Great Leap. The Kennedy Center: Beastgirl, Show Way. John Hopkins Peabody Institute: Les Mamelles de Tiresias. Two seasons at Muhlenberg College’s Summer Musical Theatre. Olney Theatre Center: Props Apprentice. Costume Design: Salisbury University: Mamma Mia!, Mud. Salisbury University: Costume Shop Manager, occasional Prop Master and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the resident theatre ensemble, Fultontown Theatre Company. Fultontown Theatre Company: Director and performer. @chelsea.maker.of.theatre  @fultontowntheatre 

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/Second City, Imagination Stage, Forum Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Constellation Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Academy for Classical Acting, Pointless Theatre Company, NextStop Theatre. Design work at New York theaters includes: Ars Nova, 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.

Matthew M. Nielson (Sound Designer and Composer) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet; Arena Stage: Nina Simone: Four Women; Ford’s Theatre: The Carpetbagger’s Children; Round House Theatre: Oslo, Book of Will; Theater Alliance: Mnemonic (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Sound Design); Olney Theatre Center: Mary Stuart, The Magic Play; Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: Last Wide Open, Treasure Island, Misery; Portland Center Stage: Astoria, Parts 1 & 2, The Color Purple; Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Anna Karenina; Actor’s Theatre of Louisville: Dracula; Milwaukee Repertory Theater: Two Trains Running, Peter and the Starcatcher; Baltimore Center Stage: Shakespeare In Love; Off-Broadway: 59E59 Theatres: Occupied Territories; Lincoln Center Theater: Where Words Once Were; Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival:  Shakespeare’s Villains; Film: From Hell To Here, Elbow Grease, Blue, The Long Road, Little Lamb; TV: The Hero Effect, EPIX Drive-In,  Facebook,  Delivery.com,  NFL,  UFC on FOX. Nielson has won five Helen Hayes Awards and has been nominated for several others, including the League of CincinnatiTheatres, Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and BroadwayWorld nominations.  CuriousMusic.com

Kaja Dunn (Resident Intimacy Director) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses, The Winter’s Tale, Our Verse In Time To Come (The Reading Room Festival); Arena Stage: American Prophet; Denver Center for the Arts: Choir Boy, 5thAve; ACT Theatre (Seattle): Choir Boy; St. Louis Rep.: 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 American Theatre Award, Playwrights Project Excellence in Arts Education; Publications: Arden Contemporary Shakespeare, Intimacy Direction For Theatre, Theatre Symposium, HowlRound. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (UK). Carnegie Mellon University: Associate Professor.

Joya Powell (Choreographer) Folger Theatre: debut. Classical Theatre of Harlem: Fit for a Queen; The Flea Theater: JOB; JACK: Ducklings; The New Ohio Theatre: Songs About Trains; Luna Stage: The Brothers Size; American Shakespeare Center: Une Tempête. Choreography work at organizations includes: BAM, Lincoln Center, SummerStage, La Mama, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Dance Complex, Mudlark Theater, Movement Research @Judson Church, The School of Contemporary Dance & Thought, and BAAD! among others. 

Heidi Griffiths, CSA  (New York Casting Director): Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale. Heidi is a casting director for the Public Theater in New York where they have cast Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. Broadway: For Colored Girls…, The Crucible, A View From The Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin In The Sun. 

LaShawn Melton (Hair and Wig Design) Folger Theatre: debut; Arena Stage: Disgraced, Smart People, Nina Simone: Four Women, The Pajama Game, Snow Child; GALA Hispanic Theatre: On Your Feet; The Kennedy Center: The Watson’s Go to Birmingham 1963; Olney Theatre Center: Comedy of Tenors;  Round House Theatre: School Girls; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Botticelli in the Fire, Describe the Night, Fairview. Regional: Utah Shakespeare Festival: A Raisin in the Sun, Emma: the Musical, The Play that Goes Wrong. Montgomery College: Little Women. Film: Loiness, White House Plumbers, Rustin. Education: Fashion Merchandising, Graphic Design at UDC, Stage Makeup at Montgomery College.

Kate Murray, CSA (New York Casting Director): Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale. Kate is a casting director for the Public Theater in New York where she casts Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. Broadway: Hell’s Kitchen, Suffs, Fat Ham, Ain’t No Mo’, for colored girls…, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the Sun.

Lisa Nathans (Vocal Coach) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale. DC work includes Arena Stage, Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre, Ford’s Theatre. Regional work includes Guthrie (Minneapolis), 5th Avenue (Seattle), Theatricum Botanicum (LA). Central School of Speech and Drama (MFA), Boston University (BFA). Associate Professor of Voice and Acting at University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Lisa is a designated Linklater Voice teacher and a certified Colaianni Speech practitioner.

Michele Osherow (Dramaturg) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale (2023, 2018, 2009), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Amadeus, 1 Henry IV (2019, 2008), Love’s Labor’s Lost, Nell Gwynn, King John, Macbeth (2018, 2008),  The Way of the World, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, As You Like It, Sense and Sensibility, District Merchants, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016, 2006, 2022),  texts&beheadings/ ElizabethR, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar; Fiasco Theater Company’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (dramaturg and actor), Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew, The Gaming Table, Othello (2011, 2001), Cyrano, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Much Ado About Nothing, Arcadia, The Tempest, Measure for Measure (dramaturg and actor). University of Maryland, Baltimore County: Associate Professor of English.

Leigh Robinette (Production Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Woolly Mammoth: Incendiary, There’s Always the Hudson, Describe the Night, Gloria, Botticelli in the Fire, Familiar, The Arsonists, Hir, Baby Screams Miracle, An Octoroon, Guards at the Taj; Arena Stage: Angels in America, Holiday, Change Agent, Dear Evan Hansen, The Originalist, Mother Courage and her Children; Studio Theatre: English; Theater J: Love Sick, The Jewish Queen Lear; Kennedy Center: The Second City’s Love, Factually. Off-Broadway: Second Stage: Dear Evan Hansen.

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

Kacie Pimentel (Assistant Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: debut; Studio Theatre: Hot Wing King, John Proctor is the Villain, White Noise; Regional: Alliance Theatre: Water for Elephants, The Boy Who Kissed the Sky, Hot Wing King, A Christmas Carol, Everybody; Chautauqua Theater Company: On the Exhale, The Christians, How the Light Gets In; Casa Mañana: Sweeney Todd, Once Upon a Mattress. 

Shana Laski (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: Sonnets for an Old Century; Cogent Theatre Company: Closer; Rorschach Theatre; Expats Theatre, Theatre Prometheus, and others.    @shana.laski  shanalaski.com.  

Tara-Whitney Rison (Assistant to the Director) Folger Theatre: debut. Founder and owner of Tara Whitney Brand an artistic-wholistic wellness company that specializes in whole-person health and wellness. She is a consultant/speaker and actress with a certification in functional nutrition coaching. Stage and film work includes the upcoming documentary: Steam. NCCU, BA and UNC-Greensboro, MFA. @twhitneyrise  tarawhitneybrand.com