Macbeth: A Tribute to the Federal Theatre Project
Adapted and directed by Adjoa Andoh MBE
Booking and details
Sold OutDates Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 7pm
Venue Folger Theatre
Tickets $35–$70
A staged reading commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Federal Theatre Project’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth concludes Adjoa Andoh’s Director’s Residency at the Folger.
The incredibly successful 1936 staging was one of the first to feature an all-Black cast in the United States and was directed by a young Orson Welles. Andoh’s adaptation celebrates the skill of the Black classical actors and musicians involved in the historic production, and stars Andoh alongside a full company of actors.
The reading is being performed as a benefit event for the Folger Shakespeare Library.
About the Director’s Residency
Andoh is the inaugural resident in the new Director’s Residency at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and this staged reading is one of the public programs scheduled for her April 19-25 residency.
The Director’s Residency, established by Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper and organized through the Director’s office, aims to connect a prominent artist or thinker with the resources of the Folger in order to engage with Shakespeare and the humanities in new and innovative ways.
During her April residency, Andoh will be in Washington, DC, consulting the Folger’s collection, participating in public programs at the Folger, visiting other cultural centers, and working with students.
Generous support for public programs related to the Director’s Residency is provided by Vinton and Sigrid Cerf. Additional underwriting for the staged reading of Federal Theatre Project’s Macbeth made possible by Susan Sachs Goldman.
Cast
Adjoa Andoh MBE
An actor, writer, and director with a career spanning 4 decades, Adjoa Andoh is best known for playing Lady Danbury in Bridgerton and in its prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, for which she is a 4-time nominee at the NAACP Awards. She starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela biographical film Invictus. Her many television roles also include Nenneke in the Netflix blockbuster fantasy drama, The Witcher. On the stage, Andoh has had lead roles at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Young Vic, The Kiln, and in 2019, she conceived, co-directed and played the lead in Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe in the UK’s first all women-of-color production.
Prince Bajon Bihai IV
Prince Bajon Bihai IV (Donalbain, Fleance, Macduff Son) Folger Theatre: LEAR (The Reading Room Festival 2026); Arena Stage: We Are Gathered; Studio Theatre: The Scenarios (understudy); Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Dilemma of a Ghost (staged reading). Film: LOSER (2026). princebajon.com
@princebajon
Edwin Brown III*
Edwin Brown III (Malcolm) Folger Theatre: LEAR (The Reading Room Festival 2026), Metamorphoses; Studio Theatre: Wig Out!, Three Sisters/No Sisters (understudy); Shakespeare Theatre Company: Macbeth. Regional: Alabama Shakespeare Festival: Fly; Kansas City Repertory Theatre: Freedom Rider; Kansas Classical Repertory Theatre: The Comedy of Errors; Coterie Theatre: The Freedom Trial of Anthony Burns. Broadway Workshop: Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off-Broadway: New Victory Theatre: Romeo and Juliet; 59E59: Separate and Equal. National Tour: The Acting Company: The Three Musketeers. Television: Lincoln’s War at Washington. Instagram: @kingedwinbrown.
Renea S. Brown*
Renea S. Brown (Weird Sister) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses, Our Verse in Time to Come, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Reading Room; Round House Theatre: Sally and Tom, Sojourners, The Mountaintop, Nollywood Dreams; Ford’s Theatre: The American Five; Theatre Alliance: Furlough’s Paradise, Covenant; Arena Stage: Tempestuous Elements, Change Agent; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Tempest, Macbeth; Kennedy Center: Love Factually; Chesapeake Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth.
JaBen Early*
JaBen Early (Lennox) Folger Theatre: Our Verse in Time to Come (The Reading Room 2023); Julius Caesar; Olney Theatre Center: Piano Lesson; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Convert and Civilization; Studio Theatre: F**king A; Mosaic Theatre Company: Unexplored Interior; Round House Theatre: Father Comes Home from the Wars; Arena Stage: All the Way, Ruined and The Great Society; Guthrie Theater: We Are Proud to Present…and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner; Marin Theatre Company: The Convert; InterAct Theatre Company: We Are Proud to Present…. Training: Morehouse College and the British American Drama Academy; MA: Sarah Lawrence College.
Terrance Fleming*
Terrance Fleming (Porter, Seyton) Folger Theatre: As You Like It, Hamlet (Reading Room Festival, 2025); Shakespeare Theatre Company: Merry Wives, The Lehman Trilogy, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Incendiary; Keegan Theatre: Shakespeare in Love; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, Macbeth, Henry V, Measure for Measure, Her Majesty and Sons, Twelfth Night, Richard lll; Baltimore Shakespeare Factory: Hamlet; Baltimore Center Stage: Dream Girls; ArtsCentric: The Wiz, Aida, Memphis, Little Shop of Horrors. Film: Finding Hero, Very Rare, The Infection, For Sale By Exorcist. Tours: Cahoots Theatre: The Vanishing Elephant. Training: University of Southern Mississippi, BFA. @teeerrance
Jeremy Keith Hunter*
Jeremy Keith Hunter (Macduff) Folger Theatre: debut; Spooky Action Theatre: Tambo & Bones; Kennedy Center: The Sea Beyond the Ocean; Port Tobacco Players: Othello; Signature Theatre: Primary Trust; 1st Stage: Mlima’s Tale, The Farnsworth Invention (Helen Hayes nomination); Studio Theatre: Pass Over; Everyman Theater: Proof; WSC Avant Bard: Topdog/Underdog (Helen Hayes nomination); Mosaic Theater Company: Les Deux Noir, Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies; Theatre Alliance: Word Becomes Flesh. Regional: Lyric Repertory Company: A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park, The Great Society. www.jeremykeithhunter.com @mercury2899
KenYatta Rogers*
KenYatta Rogers (Duncan, Siward) Folger Theatre: The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors, The Robben Island Bible; Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, Theatre Alliance, Trustus Theatre, Compagnia de’ Colombari, African Continuum Theatre Company. Faculty member in the University of Maryland’s Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performing Arts.
Erika Rose*
Erika Rose (Weird Sister) Folger Theatre: A Room in the Castle (Reading Room Festival 2023); Everyman Theatre: Queens Girl in Africa (Helen Hayes Award), Stick Fly; Ford’s Theatre: Fences; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Resident Company Member; An Octoroon, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play; Kennedy Center: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (The Musical); Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical; Barrio Grrrl!, As You Like It, Alice; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Taming of the Shrew; Much Ado about Nothing; Theatre J: Falling Out of Time, In Darfur (Helen Hayes Award winner); Studio Theatre: The Father; African Continuum Theatre Company: Pretty Fire (Helen Hayes Award nomination); Theatre Alliance: The Bluest Eye; Round House Theatre: The Book Club Play; Pioneer Theatre Company: Clybourne Park; Hangar Theatre: Gem of the Ocean; Philadelphia Theatre Company: Ruined. erikarose.art
Jefferson A. Russell*
Jefferson A. Russell (Banquo) Folger Theatre: As You Like It, The Tempest; Everyman Theatre (Resident Company Member): The Piano Lesson, Primary Trust, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Jump, The Lion in Winter, Sense and Sensibility, The Skin of Our Teeth, Flyin’ West, Pipeline, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Aubergine, The Soul Collector, Gem of the Ocean, others; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone; Signature Theatre: Daphne’s Dive; American Players Theatre: Our Town, The Recruiting Officer, Our Country’s Good; Olney Theatre: Aubergine; Baltimore Center Stage/Cincinnati Playhouse: Shakespeare in Love; Ford’s Theatre: Fences, Ragtime; Round House Theatre: Father Comes Home From The Wars, Two Trains Running; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Clybourne Park; Arena Players: The Meeting, Flyin’ West; Rep Stage: Sunset Baby.
Sabrina Lynne Sawyer*
Sabrina Lynne Sawyer (Weird Sister) Folger Theatre: As You Like It, LEAR (Reading Room Festival, 2026), A Room in the Castle (co-production with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company), The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Room in the Castle: Reading Room Festival, 2023. Studio Theatre: Exception to the Rule; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2; Imagination Stage: Inside Out and Backwards; Front Porch Arts Collective: Chicken & Biscuits; National tour: National Players (Olney Theatre Center): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Raisin in the Sun. Only Make Believe Company Member. BA, Acting, University of Southern California. sabrinalynnesawyer.com
John Douglas Thompson*
John Douglas Thompson is an English-American actor. He is a Tony Award nominee and the recipient of two Drama Desk Awards, three Obie Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Lucille Lortel Award.
Renee Elizabeth Wilson
Renee Elizabeth Wilson (Lady Macduff) Folger Theatre: LEAR ( Reading Room Festival 2026); Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Reading Room Festival 2025), 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: Eureka Day, 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
Creative team
Adjoa Andoh MBE
An actor, writer, and director with a career spanning 4 decades, Adjoa Andoh is best known for playing Lady Danbury in Bridgerton and in its prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, for which she is a 4-time nominee at the NAACP Awards. She starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela biographical film Invictus. Her many television roles also include Nenneke in the Netflix blockbuster fantasy drama, The Witcher. On the stage, Andoh has had lead roles at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Young Vic, The Kiln, and in 2019, she conceived, co-directed and played the lead in Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe in the UK’s first all women-of-color production.
Manna-Symone Middlebrooks
Manna-Symone Middlebrooks (Associate Director and Narrator) Folger Theatre: Henry IV, Part I, Amadeus; Arena Stage: JaJa’s African Hair Braiding (Helen Hayes winner), Indecent; Shakespeare Theater Company: The Amen Corner; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: BLKS; Studio Theatre: Skeleton Crew, Translations, The Wolves, The Curve of Departure, The Remains. Regional: CTG/Chicago Shakespeare/La Jolla Playhouse/Berkeley Rep: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; Chicago Shakespeare: All’s Well That Ends Well; The Wirtz Center for Perf. Arts: The Tempest, Sandblasted, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World. Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (2 Tony Awards). mannasymone.com @manna-symone
Jazzy Davis*
Jazzy Davis (Production Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: Twelfth Night. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Nosebleed, Incendiary, My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes, A Fine Madness; Studio Theatre: The Hot Wing King; Imagination Stage: Nate the Great, New Kid Arts on the Horizon: Squeakers and Mr. Gumdrop, Fitting in (workshop); Flying V Theatre: MONSTRESS; Roundhouse Theatre: Sojourners; Kennedy Center: The Sea Beyond the Ocean (workshop), Operation Sisterhood (workshop). Regional: Baltimore Center Stage: Ain’t No Mo’; The Voxel: the dance floor, the hospital room, the kitchen table; THEARC Theater/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: 19. Off-Broadway: The Public Theater: seven methods of killing kylie jenner; The Flea/PlayCo: Amm(i)gone.
Makayla Beckles*
Makayla Beckles (Assistant Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: debut; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Great Privation; Olney Theatre Center: Long Way Down, Olney Outdoors, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year; Baltimore Center Stage: Santa Claus is Comin’: A Motown Christmas Revue, Akeelah & the Bee, Pride & Prejudice, Young Playwright’s Festival; Hartford Stage/Baltimore Center Stage: The Hot Wing King.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
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