Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Greg Alverez Reid* (Brutus) Folger Theatre: debut; Studio Theatre: Fat Ham, Seven Guitars; Signature Theatre: Detroit ‘67; Theater Alliance: Broke-ology. Regional: Yale Repertory Theater: Eden; Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum: Blues for an Alabama Sky; Huntington Theatre Company: The Bluest Eye. Northern Stage: Sweat; McCarter Theater Center: Fences. Off-Broadway: New Federal Theater: The Fabulous Miss Marie. National Tours: Kennedy Center: Locomotion, My Lord What a Morning. Film: Between The World and Me. Television: FBI: Most Wanted, Wu-Tang: An American Saga. @gregariousreid  

Brandon Carter* (Julius X) (he/him) Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet. Regional: Virginia Repertory Theatre: Shakespeare in Love, The Christians; American Shakespeare Center: The Henriad, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Pass Over; Luna Stage: The Brothers Size; Houston Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It; Rec Room Arts: Death of A Salesman; Off-Broadway: Classical Theatre of Harlem: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Three Musketeers, Macbeth, The Tempest; National Black Theater: Blood at the Root; The Apollo Theatre: The First Noel. International Tour: Blood at the Root (Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Prize). brandoncarter.actor @Mistercart3r  

Jonathan Del Palmer* (Marc Anthony)  (he/him) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Our Verse in Time to Come (The Reading Room Festival, 2023); 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 Company: Life Jacket; Library of Congress: The Conjure Man Dies; Off-Broadway: 54 Below: How to Quit Your Day Job.

Jay Frisby* (Cassius) (he/him) Folger Theatre: debut; Ford’s Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors, Shout Sister Shout!, Grace; Olney Theatre: Kim’s Convenience, Waitress, Beautiful, Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, Matilda, The Royale, Miss You Like Hell, South Pacific, Annie, Mary Poppins; Signature Theatre: The Color Purple, The Scottsboro Boys; Imagination Stage: Cinderella, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Labor Heritage Foundation: Working; Rep Stage: Dorian’s Closet. Regional: Connecticut Repertory Theatre: Smokey Joe’s Café; Ogunquit Playhouse: South Pacific. Tours: South Pacific, Click Clack Moo, The Whiffenpoofs of Yale. International: Hong Kong Disneyland: Festival of the Lion King. @FrisbyJay  

Lilli Hokama* (Addara) (they/she) Folger Theatre: Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Amadeus; Arena Stage: The Age of Innocence (u/s), Death on the Nile (u/s). Rorschach Theatre: Night of the Living Dead (Director). Regional: Baltimore Center Stage: Antigone; Dallas Theatre Center: Little Women; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center: Water by the Spoonful, Elf: The Musical, Guadalupe in the Guestroom; Chester Theatre: I and You, Now Circa Then; Kitchen Theatre Company: Matt and Ben; Colorado Shakespeare Festival: Troilus and Cressida; Aurora Fox Arts Center: The Arabian Nights, She Kills Monsters. New York: Morningside Players Theater Co.: The Understudy; Lincoln Center Theater: The Wolves (u/s). Voiceover/Motion Capture: The Expanse: A Telltale Series. Audiobook: When Darcy Met Lizzy; A Queer Retelling of Pride and Prejudice. @_ill_lil_  

Shawn Sebastian Naar* (Octavius and Marullus, understudy Julius X) (he/him) Folger Theatre: debut;  Anacostia Playhouse: Sunset Baby (Helen Hayes Award nomination, Outstanding Lead Performer); 1st Stage: The Piano Lesson; Strand Theater Company: Blood Bound and Tongue Tied, Well; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco: The Arsonist. Off-Off-Broadway: Andrew Freedman Home Theatre in the Bronx: The Fall of the Kings. ssnaar.com @s.sebastiannaar  

Nikkole Salter* (Calpurnia) (she/her) Folger Theatre: By the Queen (The Reading Room Festival, 2025). Arena Stage: We Are Gathered. Regional: Arena Stage, Mosaic Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Round House Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Berkley Repertory Theatre, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Luna Stage, etc. Broadway: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: The Great Society. Off-Broadway: Primary Stages/Perry Street Theatre: In the Continuum; Playwrights Horizons: Inked Baby; DR2 Theatre: Gloria: A Life. Television: The Unit, New Amsterdam, Godfather of Harlem. Film: The Architect, Pride and Glory, Love and Communication, Last Night. Voiceover: Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Rockstar Games). Awards: Helen Hayes, Outer Critics Circle, OBIE, AUDELCO, IRNE, Acclaim. Education: New York University: MFA, Howard University, BFA. nikkolesalter.com 

Gaelyn D. Smith* (Cinna and Black Soothsayer) (she/her) Folger Theatre: debut; Studio Theatre: Fat Ham (Helen Hayes Ensemble Award nomination), Clyde’s. Discovery Theater: How Old is a Hero? Film: Loops & Breaks. gaelyndsmith.com @gsmittyyyy  

Dwayne Alistair Thomas* (Casca and Flavius, understudy Brutus) Folger Theatre: debut; Baltimore Center Stage: Akeelah and the Bee. Regional: Theatre in the X: Othello, Running Numbers; InterAct Theatre: Assassin, You for Me for You; Bristol Riverside Theatre: Man of La Mancha; Richard Perry Theatre: Ragtime; The Center at West Park: The Tempest, Twelfth Night. Off-Broadway: The Collective Unconscious, Titus X. National Tours: Charlotte’s Web, The Rosa Parks Story. Film: Samaritan, Take from Me, The Bad Guardian. Television: We Own This City, Bad Monkey, The Americans, Hightown, NCIS: New Orleans, Blue Bloods, The Knick, Tales, Step Up. youtube.com/dwaynethomasvideos @dwaynealistair

Renee Elizabeth Wilson* (Portia) (she/her) Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet, Metamorphoses (Helen Hayes Award nomination); Theater Alliance: American Fast; Mosaic Theater Company: Monumental Travesties (world premiere), Native Son, Milk Like Sugar; Theater J: Intimate Apparel; Round House Theatre: Radio Golf, Nollywood Dreams; Constellation Theatre Company: Moon Man Walk; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Ain’t No Mo’; Imagination Stage: The Hula-Hoopin’ Queen (world premiere); Studio Theatre: Skeleton Crew, Doubt, White Noise; Arena Stage: Tempestuous Elements, Seven Guitars. International: Red Shoes (world premiere) Film: Smoke Out, VeraCity. @actpoetic88 

Al Letson (Playwright) Folger Theatre: Julius X (The Reading Room Festival, 2023). Regional: New Jersey Repertoire Company: Summer in Sanctuary; The Marsh: Summer in Sanctuary. Off-Broadway: Abingdon Theater Company: Summer in Sanctuary. National tours: Griot: He Who Speaks The Free Word. Television: Monarch, seasons 1 and 2, Horror Noire, Moonhaven. Awards: three Peabody Awards, four Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Emmy Awards. Alletson.com @al_letson 

Nicole Brewer (Director)*** (she/her) Folger Theatre: By The Queen (The Reading Room Festival, 2025), Julius X (The Reading Room Festival, 2023). Howard University: The House That Will Not Stand, Jonkonnu; Catholic University: Ties That Bind; DC Fringe Festival: The Hair Chronicles; Montgomery College: My aMeriCa. Regional: No Dream Deferred: Defiance of Dandelions; Baltimore Center Stage/Long Wharf Theatre: Fires in the Mirror; The Black Rep (St. Louis): Milk Like Sugar. Directed Readings: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Gem of The Ocean; WAM Theatre: Letters to Kamala; Marymount University: Madres de la Revolución. Member: Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC). nicolembrewer.com 

Shawn Short (Choreographer) (he/him) Folger Theatre: debut; Atlas Performing Arts Center: X Marks The Spot, Head or Tails, On The Fifth, Watch Me Bounce, Drum, Cinema (PBS), Hybrid; Dance Place: Habbi; Washington Performing Arts Society: UNDRSTAND Ostrich Dance; Prince George’s Publick Playhouse: Fall Forward; Kennedy Center: Genotype Called Love; Adventure Theatre-MTC: Music Man, Head of Dance. New York: Jazz at Lincoln Center: Habibi: A Musical Journey Through the Arab World. MFA Dance, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; BFA Musical Theatre, Howard University. shortshawn.com. @ngoma_ddtdc 

Jonathan Dahm Robertson** (Scenic Designer) (he/him) Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet; Kennedy Center: Look Both Ways; Signature Theatre: Passing Strange; Round House Theatre: Nollywood Dreams; Theater J: Two Jews Walk into a War, The Christians; Mosaic Theater: The Agitators, Oh God!; 1st Stage: The Mamalogues, Member of the Wedding, The Nance; Theater Alliance: Day of Absence, Blood at the Root; American Stage: Indecent; The Barnstormers: Into the Woods; Cape Fear Regional Theater: Wait Until Dark. Opera: The Princeton Festival: Nixon in China, Fidelio, Peter Grimes; Opera in the Heights: Candide, Un Ballo En Maschera, Cosi Fan Tutte. Jdahmrobertson.com. @jdahmrobertson  

Danielle Preston** (Costume Designer) Folger Theatre: debut. DC/Regional: Round House Theatre, TheaterWorks Hartford, Olney Theatre Center, Barrington Stage Company, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Berkshire Theater Group, and Theater J. NYC: 59E59, Lincoln Center/ Kennedy Center Awards: SETC Distinguished Keynote: Costume Design, Helen Hayes nomination 2024, OPERA America Tobin Director-Designer Prize 2022, Kenan Costume Fellow for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts 2015, A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute Fellowship in Costume Design 2013. MFA in Costume Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. 

Porsche McGovern** (Lighting Designer) (she/her) Folger Theatre: debut. Round House Theatre: Sojourners. Regional: Baltimore Center Stage /Long Wharf Theatre: Fires in the Mirror. Virginia Theatre Festival: The Heart Sellers. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: The West End. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: The Two Gentlemen of Verona. PlayMakers Repertory Company: We Are Proud to Present… , The Skeleton Crew. Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: The Thanksgiving Play. New York: The Playwrights Realm: Mothers. Author, Howlround series, “Who Designs & Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun.” MFA, California Institute of the Arts; BA, St. Lawrence University. 

Thom J. Woodward (Sound Designer) Folger Theatre: debut; 1st Stage: The Piano Lesson; Washington Stage Guild: Sofonisba; Rorschach Theatre: Sleeping Giant; The Essential Theatre: Zora; Iron Crow Theatre: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Howard University Department of Theatre: The House That Will Not Stand, Sonnets and Soul. Teaching Artist: Howard University, Cathay Hughes School of Communications; Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Director of Audio. thesounddesignguy.com. @thom_thesounddesignguy 

Andrés Poch (Projection Designer) (he/him) Folger Theatre: debut; Projection Design, Adventure Theatre: Winterfest; Interrobang Productions: I Will Eat You Alive; The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland: Lost Patterns. Caption Design, Gallaudet University: Autocorrect Thinks I’m Dead, Meat Expectations; VOCA Arts: A Strange Loop, A Not So Quiet Nocturne. Scenic Design, 4615 Theatre Company: A Delicate Ship; Virginia Theological Seminary: Dust. Regional: Scenic Design, Winnipesaukee Playhouse: POTUS, In the Heights; Andy’s Summer Playhouse: Giant Slalom (New Hampshire Theatre Award for Set Design 2023). andrespoch.com  

John “Ray” Proctor (Dramaturg, and Voice and Text Coach) (he/him) Folger Theatre: Six Othellos (The Reading Room Festival, 2024). Associate Professor of Theatre, Tulane University. Acting: Organic Theater Company: Romeo and Juliet; Arizona Repertory Theatre: The Merchant of Venice; Greenbrier Valley Theatre: Othello; Southern Rep Theatre: Airline Highway, Father Come Home from the Wars. Director: Summer Lyric Theatre at Tulane University: Into the Woods; Crescent City Stage: Pantomime; Tulane University: Trouble in Mind. Publications: “Romeo and Juliet at an Historically Black College/University” in Romeo and Juliet, Adaptation, and the Arts: ‘Cut Him Out in Little Stars’ (The Arden Shakespeare); “Reconsidering and Recasting” in Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity (Bloomsbury Press). PhD in Theatre Research, University of Wisconsin Madison; MFA in Acting, West Virginia University; BA in English, Webster University.  

Isabel Simoes deCarvalho (Props Designer) (she/her) Folger Theatre: debut. Props Design: Solas Nua: Lie Low; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Persuasion; Theater Alliance: American Fast, The Garbologists. Associate Scenic Design: Studio Theatre: Paradise Blue. Projection Design, Duke Ellington School: Props Design: The Laramie Project. Scenic Design: Compass Rose Theater: Little Shop of Horrors, Proof. Props Supervisor: Central City Opera, Festivals 2024-2025: Barber of Seville, The Knock, Once Upon a Mattress, Pirates of Penzance, La fanciulla del West, Street Scene; Props Artisan and Warehouse Supervisor: The Old Globe. isabelsimoes.design/ @isabelsimoes.design 

Lenox Kamara (Assistant Director) Folger Theatre: debut. Playwright/Performer: District Fringe: The Pit (Confetti Collective). Director: Adventure Theatre MTC Academy: Pre-Professional SR Company 2024/25; Assistant Director: Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre: In The Heights; Discovery Theatre: Seasons of Light; Second Assistant Director: Washington Revels: Christmas Revels 2024; Associate Producer/Ensemble: Capital Fringe: TBD: A Devised Celebration; Towson University: Blood at the Root. lenoxcreates.my.canva.site/ @_lnx14_  

Regan A. McKay (Assistant Costume Designer) (she/her) Costume Design Assistant: Ford’s Theatre: Sister Act; Round House Theatre: The Inheritance, King James, What the Constitution Means to Me, A Hanukkah Carol! Regional: Costume Design Assistant, The Old Globe Theatre: The Age of Innocence, Cabaret, Crime and Punishment, Destiny of Desire, The XIXth, Scrooge, Come Fall in Love, Dancin’; Costume Design: Cygnet Theatre: Tick, Tick … Boom!, Mud Row; MOXIE Theatre: Notes on Killing…, The Pleasure Trials; North Coast Rep: Blues in the Night; San Diego State: Steel Pier, Cloud 9, Dog Sees God; Shakespeare & Company: Design Assistant: The Children, Heisenberg, Love’s Labor’s Lost; Designer: Shakespeare & Company Summer Conservatory. King John, Marina; Northern Michigan University: Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Sweeney Todd, Scrooge!, Antigone. reganamckay.com @reganamckay 

Kelsey Nicole Jenkins * (Production Stage Manager) (she/her) Folger Theatre: Hamlet (Reading Room Festival,  2025); Olney Theatre: Sleepova!; Kennedy Center TYA: Ways to Make Sunshine Workshop, Look Both Ways; Signature Theatre: The Bridges of Madison County, The Color Purple, Awa Sal Secka Sings Ladies of Jazz; Arena Stage: Step Afrika’s The Migration, Exclusion, The High Ground; Theater Alliance: Covenant; Rorschach Theatre: Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Distance Frequencies; 1st Stage: The Mamalogues. @kjenkalenk  

Bryan Boyd* (Assistant Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: debut. Stage management: Creative Cauldron: Beauty and the Beast; Adventure Theatre: Les Misérables; Montgomery College: Into the Woods, West Side Story. Assistant stage management: Theater J: Sheltered; Mosaic Theater: Theory; Constellation: Skin of Our Teeth; ArtsCentric: Sister Act.