Cymbeline: A Telenovela Melodramatic Western
Original Concept and Idea by Alberto Bonilla
Music composed by Anthony De Angelis
Adaptation of Shakespeare’s text of Cymbeline by Alec Wild
Spanish adaptation of text by Alberto Bonilla
Original Spanish translation of Cymbeline by D. Eudaldo Viver (1884)
Directed by Nadia Guevara
Booking and details
Dates Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 8pm
Venue Folger Theatre
Tickets $20
Please note: Children under the age of 4 are not permitted.
Alberto Bonilla shifts the setting of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline from a mythic Roman-occupied ancient Britain to the American Southwest, circa 1893, at the height of the American cowboy myth, a powder-keg of conflict between class and race: farmers against ranchers, frontier pioneers from the East vs. the Mexican and Indigenous populations. The wounds of the American Civil War are still fresh, and the country is trying to unite with the expansion of the railroad connecting East and West.
Focusing on the core family conflicts in Shakespeare’s late romance, this bilingual adaptation features high-stakes drama, gritty fights, and intimate moments—all the twists and turns associated with both Latin American melodramas and Shakespearean tragicomedies.
After the performance, Rafael Ulloa, Deputy Publisher of Tiempo Company, will lead a conversation with members of the creative team and cast.
How to attend the festival
Individual events – $20
Reading Room Festival All-Access Pass – $125
Access to all staged readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community celebrations included in the Festival.
Students – Free admission to readings and conversations
Admitted free one-half hour before event start time, with a valid ID.
A note from the creative team
The three original songs contributed by Anthony De Angelis and Alberto Bonilla for this reading are:
¿Que Harias Por Amor?
Come to Dust
The Music Box Theme
Our goal for a future production will be to have every musical number be original. Until then, we have curated some place holders for flavor.
Incidental music by Seamus Miller.
From the playwright
“There’s country music, there’s boleros, there’s dancing, there’s gun fights. It’s a hootenanny.”
Read more in this Q&A.
Q&A with Alberto Bonilla
Playwright Alberto Bonilla shares how Shakespeare’s Cymbeline reminds him of telenovelas and spaghetti westerns. He also discusses the process of adapting a bilingual play and why setting Cymbeline in the American West works.
Cast
Natalia Fyfe
Natalia Fyfe (Philario, Caius Lucius, and others) Folger Theatre: debut; Iron Crow Theatre: RENT; NextStop Theatre Company: In the Heights; Adventure Theatre MTC: Charlotte’s Web; Faction of Fools: The Moors; Theater Alliance: Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience; This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Play), Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audience/ Theater Alliance: Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks; GALA Hispanic Theatre: La Llamada de Sylvia Méndez; Nu Sass Productions: 5th Date; MetroStage /Quintango: VOLVER. Regional: Playwrights’ Center: Almacén; Mixed Blood Theatre: The Chrysalis. Touring: Theatre for Young Audience/ Theater Alliance: Look Both Ways. Training: George Mason University, BFA in Musical Theatre. @nataliaafyfe
Ignacio Garcia-Bustelo
Ignacio Garcia-Bustelo (King, Belarius) Folger Theatre: Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs) (Reading Room Festival 2025); GALA Hispanic Theatre: In Spite of Love; Olney Theatre Center: Hamlet, The Giver, The Grapes of Wrath. Regional: Baltimore Theatre Project: The Final Draw; Jersey City Theater Center: Prologue. New York: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club: The Blue, Downtown Art: The Triumph of Crowds; Theater for the New City: Hecuba; Teatro Círculo: The Knight from Olmedo (ACE Award: Best Actor, HOLA Award: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast); Repertorio Español (Spanish Repertory Theater): In Love but Discreet, The Suspicious Truth; IATI Theater: An Invisible Piece of this World. International: Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, Don Juan Tenorio (National Theater, Spain), Agamemnon, The Broken Jug. Film: Pawn Sacrifice, Silencio (European Film Festival, Mainstream & Underground: Best Actor), Third Week, The Valdemar Legacy, The Forbidden Shadow. Television: Hospital Central, M.I.R. garciabustelo.com
Derek Garza*
Derek Garza (Iachimo, Captain) Folger Theatre: debut. Arena Stage: Mother Road. Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Between Two Knees, As You Like It, Othello, Romeo and Juliet; Theatre for a New Audience: Sovereignty; North Carolina Stage Company: The Book Club Play; Chicago Dramatist: The Mecca Tales; The Side Project: Mike and Seth, Push Button Murder; Video Cabaret: The War of 1812; TimeLine
Theatre: My Kind of Town; Mortar Theatre Company: I Am Montana, Inherit the Whole; Native Earth Performing Arts: Almighty Voice and His Wife; Film: Canal Street, Voice of the Vespers, Deep Ship; Television: Power Book II: Ghost, Jimortal, Chicago Fire, Betrayal. derekgarza.com
Alan Gutierrez-Urista
Alan Gutierrez-Urista (Guilderius, Cornelius) Folger Theatre: debut. Creative Cauldron: Peter Pan and Wendy, Aladdin; Workhouse Arts Center: Into the Woods, Evil Dead; Westfield Theatre: Rock of Ages (Cappie Award, Best Comedic Actor); Wolfbane Productions: Stranger Sings: The Unauthorized Musical Parody. Radio/commercial: The National Study of Children.
Ixchel Hernández
Ixchel Hernández (Imogen) Folger Theatre: DC, I Love You: First Dates, DC, I Love You: Ready or Not. Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences 2025 National Tour: Look Both Ways; GALA Hispanic Theatre: Frida Libre; Theater Alliance: Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience; Rorschach Theatre: Human Museum (director); NextStop Theatre Company: In the Heights; Constellation Theatre Company: Incognito. Comedy: Grassroots Comedy, Improbable Comedy, Comedy Loft, Callback Comedy Productions. Other Performances: Busboys and Poets, the Washington Roast, Spit Dat in Residence at Woolly Mammoth, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Rhizome DC, 7DrumCity.
James Carlos Lacey*
James Carlos Lacey (Posthumous/Cloten) Folger Theatre: debut; The Kennedy Center: Shear Madness; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Merchant of Venice; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Besotted (new work development); Solas Nua: Playboy of the Western World; Rorschach Theater: Angel Number Nine. Regional: Devil’s Isle Shakespeare Co: As You Like It; Utah Shakespeare Festival: The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing. Off-Broadway): Theater2020: King Lear; The Tank: Love Interest (new work development). International: UK: Bloomsbury Festival: Orphée, The Tower Theatre: Hamlet, Theatro Technis: Antony and Cleopatra, Greece: International Festival of Messene: The Bacchae. Film/Television/Media: Butcher, The Queue, Shallot, The Peek with Samuel Pepys (dramatic podcast). Awards: The Wavvy Awards Best Actor 2023 (nomination).
Camilo Linares
Camilo Linares (Caballero) Folger Theatre: Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs): The Reading Room Festival 2025. Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Comedy of Errors; GALA Hispanic Theatre (Company Member): Las hermanas Palacios, Picasso (2019, 2023), Tia Julia y el escribidor; Spooky Action Theater: Frontières Sans Frontières; 1st Stage: Laughs in Spanish, Mojada; Studio Theatre: Fun Home; The Kennedy Center: The Day You Begin; Mosaic Theater Company: Theory; Imagination Stage: Òyeme, the Beautiful. Upcoming: Spooky Action Theater: Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show. Camilolinares.com @ezkatons @manplesa
Pepin*
Pepin (Pisanio, Arviragus, Lady) Folger Theatre: debut; Signature Theatre: In The Heights; 1st Stage: Laughs In Spanish; Olney Theatre Center: Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty & the Beast; GALA Hispanic Theatre: On Your Feet! En Español. Regional: Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet; American Players Theatre: Wolf at the Door, Much Ado About Nothing; Nashville Shakespeare Festival: Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar; Birmingham Children’s Theatre: Alice in Wonderland. National Tour: On Your Feet!. @mirandapepin
Fran Tapia
Fran Tapia (Cymbeline, First Lord, Frenchman, and others) Folger Theatre: Hamlet (Reading Room Festival, 2025), Romeo and Juliet. Spooky Action Theater: The Dragon; UNRELEASED — First Solo Concert; Professor Woland’s Magic Rock Show; Scena Theatre at Atlas Performing Arts Center: Ajax; GALA Theater: Mummy in the Closet: Evita’s Return (2025 BroadwayWorld Best Performer), La Revoltosa (Helen Hayes Award— Outstanding Ensemble), On Your Feet! En Espanol (2023 Helen Hayes & BroadwayWorld Outstanding Supporting Performer), In the Heights; 1st Stage: Laughs in Spanish. International credits include productions in her home country of Chile: Cats, Germany: Emergenz; Germany, France, Netherlands, Chile: Rite of Spring. @franciscatl
Creative team
Alberto Bonilla
Alberto Bonilla (Playwright – Cymbeline) Folger Theatre: debut. Director: New York City (selected credits): King Lear, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Richard III, Three Sisters, North of Providence, Dia De los Muertos, Look Back in Anger, Walking to America, The Servant to Two Masters, North of Providence, Dolores, Adaptive Radiation, Hearts Like Fists. Playwright: PS.357, Walking to America, Nonnie, Hunting for Ewoks. Film/Television: Director: Tabla Rosa (2026), Nerd Wars, Speed of Love, Shakespeare Hashish and Ish; Writer: Bounty, Hunger, Nerd Wars, Speed of Love. Musical Theatre faculty member at Molloy University/CAP21; teaching: Stella Adler Studios, Maggie Flanigan Studio. Associate Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. albertobonilla.com albertobonilla-director-writer.com
Anthony De Angelis
Anthony De Angelis (Composer- Cymbeline) Folger Theatre: debut. Composer: Off-Broadway / Los Angeles / National Tour: SAW the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw; The Players Theatre/The PIT/ CAP 21/ 54 Below: An Axemas Story; Nazareth University: A Christmas Carol Part II; Wichita State University Musical Theater Incubator Program: The Fox Sisters; Utah Fringe Festival/ FUSE Productions (State College, PA): The Prince’s New Pet (TYA) – presented nationally, licensed by Dramatic Publishing. Arranger/Orchestrator: Randy Rainbow’s Christmas album; The New York Pops; The Cincinnati Pops; National Symphony Orchestra; The American Pops Orchestra (multiple PBS performances); Lyrics and Lyricists series at 92nd Street Y; Broadway Backwards 7 and 8; West End productions. Member of the BMI Workshop.
Alec Wild
Alec Wild (Adaptor – Cymbeline) Folger Theatre: debut. Director: Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy: East of the Sun, West of the Moon; The Odyssey; Cymbeline; Romeo and Juliet; Tales from Ovid; Hamlet (Radio); Pericles; The Maid’s Tragedy; Great River Shakespeare Festival (Founding Artistic Director): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Winter’s Tale; Milwaukee Shakespeare: Richard II, Titus Andronicus; Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis: Good in Everything, Old Hearts Fresh; New Jewish Theatre: Value of Names; Folio Theatre Company (Founding Artistic Director): Hamlet, Henry IV, Part One, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Illinois Shakespeare Festival: Henry V. Film: Whisper (Writer/Director, Best Film, 48Hour Film Festival), Arcadea (Writer/Director, Best Film, I48 Film Festival). MFA, Yale School of Drama.
Nadia Guevara**
Nadia Guevara (Director – Cymbeline) Folger Theatre: DC, I Love You. 1st Stage: Young Americans; Keegan Theatre: N; Imagination Stage: Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale; American University: Fefu and Her Friends, Spring Awakening. Off-Broadway: Keen Company: Cell; Atlantic Theater Company: Caribbean MixFest; Latinx Playwrights Theatre / The New Group: The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me in a Bad Place; The Public Theatre: Apple Bottom; National Queer Theatre: The Survival, Criminal Queerness Festival; Red Bull Theatre: The Beast of Hungary, Short New Play Fest. Regional: University of Rochester: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Texas Tech University: Water by the Spoonful; Dallas Theater Center; McCarter Theatre; New York Stage & Film. Awards: 2018 San Diego Critics Circle Actor of the Year; Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship. SDC Member. nadiaguevara.com
Séamus Miller
Séamus Miller (Musical Director) Folger Theatre: Love’s Labor’s Lost, The Winter’s Tale. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Measure for Measure, Red Velvet, Romeo & Juliet, Wild Oats, Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, A Christmas Carol, Henry V, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Hamlet; Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy of Classical Acting: Coriolanus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pericles; 1st Stage: The Pitmen Painters; Arts on the Horizon: Space-Bop; Devil’s Isle Shakespeare Company (Bermuda): The Tempest (Co-Creator); Avant Bard: The Margriad, Holiday Memories, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus (multiple Helen Hayes nominations). BA: Cornell University; MFA: STC Academy. seamusactor.com @almostseamus
Fior Tat*
Fior Tat (Production Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: debut; Olney Theatre Center: Assistant Stage Manager, Hello Dolly!; Arena Stage: Production Assistant, We Are Gathered; Theater J: Assistant Stage Manager, The Hatmaker’s Wife, Moses, One Jewish Boy; Spooky Action Theater: Production Stage Manager, Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres; Signature Theatre: Assistant Stage Manager, King of the Yees; TheatreSquared: Production Stage Manager, Twelfth Night, FLEX; Assistant Stage Manager, Kim’s Convenience, A Christmas Carol, Detroit ‘67, It Came From Outer Space; Great Lakes Center for the Arts: Assistant Stage Manager: Mamma Mia!; Tantrum Theater: Assistant Stage Manager, 9 to 5 the Musical. Off-Broadway: Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre: Assistant Stage Manager, MEXODUS.
Rafael Ulloa
Rafael is a founding team member of Tiempo Company, publisher of El Tiempo Latino (ETL), a national Spanish-language outlet based in Washington, DC, and El Planeta (EP) in Massachusetts. As Deputy Publisher, he oversees content, product, and partnership strategies for Tiempo Company. He is currently leading the new strategy of El Tiempo Latino, as a digital-first brand that provides resources and information to Latinos and Hispanics in the DMV area, along with their multicultural allies.
Rafael Ulloa (Moderator) Rafael has held several executive roles within the company, including VP of Content and Communications and Editor. Prior to his work in the US, he was involved in media, marketing, and advertising in his native Ecuador. He worked as a copywriter for J. Walter Thompson Ecuador and also hosted and produced radio shows, as well as contributed to various magazines.
Rafael holds a Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Emerson College in Boston. Since moving to Washington, DC, in 2019, he has been a resident of Downtown/Shaw. He enjoys attending networking and social events, as well as plays and concerts around the city.
Alexus Wells
Alexus Wells (Production Assistant) Folger Theatre: Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
**Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society