Booking and details
Dates Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 6:30pm
Venue Founders' Room
Tickets $20 with discounts for Folger Members and Subscribers
Please note: Children under the age of 4 are not permitted.
Julius X playwright Al Letson and production director Nicole Brewer share their perspectives on the production alongside other members of the creative team in an insightful pre-performance discussion moderated by Folger Theatre Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels.
With detailed, period-inspired costumes by Danielle Preston and a deep dive into the historical moment of Malcolm X’s life by John “Ray” Proctor, the members of the creative team have brought to life “not the story you know, but somewhere in-between,” a dramatic world bridging Shakespeare’s Roman tragedy and the history of Malcolm X’s last days.
About Julius X
Award-winning writer, journalist, and podcast host Al Letson harmonizes with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in his retelling of the story, Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
Just as Shakespeare chronicled history to create a means of understanding the events of his day, Letson highlights and reflects on contemporary challenges by blending Shakespeare with the story of Civil Rights leader Malcolm X.
Director Nicole Brewer explains, “Letson’s poetry pulses with the rhythm of revolution, weaving Shakespearean drama into the raw urgency of the Civil Rights era.” Julius X champions Shakespeare’s original text and timeless tragedy, amplified with Letson’s verse, to highlight the cyclical nature of societal strife and shared human experiences of ambition, betrayal, and brotherhood.
Participants
Nicole Brewer
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
Al Letson
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
Danielle Preston
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.
John "Ray" Proctor
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.
Karen Ann Daniels
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.
