Folger Gala

Jesca Prudencio is a director and choreographer dedicated to creating highly physical interdisciplinary work that uplifts humanity. Her training in performance styles around the world shapes her unique approach in creating innovative and dynamic experiences in theater and entertainment. It’s A Ship Show!, We Fancy, and Club Caliente are currently running on Virgin Voyages internationally and Dot Dot Dot: A New Musicaladapted from New York Times-bestselling author Peter H. Reynolds tours nationally with TheatreWorksUSA. World premiere productions include: The Old Globe and San Francisco Playhouse: Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play by Keiko Green, Man of God by Ana Ouyang Moench; East West Players: Interstate: a New Musical by Melissa Li and Kit Yan, Kairos by Lisa Sanaye Dring; Steppenwolf Theatre: Bald Sisters by Vichet Chum. Immersive work: La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival: Mobile Happiness Bazaar, PDA, Can We Now?, Little Amal Walks Balboa Park. Other dance and theater credits: Steppenwolf Theatre: Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap; San Diego Repertory Theatre: Vietgone, Actually; La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club: Calling: A Dance with Faith; Pineapple Lab, Philippines: A&Q ; B-Floor, Thailand: FAN. She is Head of Directing at San Diego State University’s School of Theatre, Television, and Film; inaugural Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: UC San Diego. Jescaprudencio.com

Roz White is celebrating 40 years as an arts professional and educator, with a BFA in Theatre from Howard University and an MEd in Curriculum from Northcentral University. Roz made a box office record-setting turn as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where she also served for over a decade as a faculty member, creating a multidisciplinary course “Music Theatre” during her tenure. Roz has performed as a featured vocalist with Yolanda Adams, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and more. She spent two years as Zelma Bullock in the Broadway tour of TINA – The Tina Turner Musical. Other theatre credits include Dreamgirls, Once On This Island, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Seven Guitars, Violet, Bessie’s Blues, Anne and Emmett, The Amen Corner, and her self-penned cabaret Pearl Bailey by Request. She most recently starred as The Lady from the Road in Arizona Theatre Company’s Blues In The Night. In 2024, Roz made her feature film debut as a lead—embodying Sybrina Fulton in the award-winning film Veils – Requiem for Trayvon.

Tonya Beckman Folger Theatre: Love’s Labors Lost, The Second Shepherd’s Play, Twelfth Night, The Gaming Table, As You Like It, The Game of Love and Chance. Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, Kennedy Center, Theater J, Ford’s Theatre, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater Company, Solas Nua, 1st Stage, Taffety Punk (company member) and Constellation Theatre (Helen Hayes nomination – Outstanding Performance). Regional: Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse, Fulton Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Totem Pole Playhouse, Public Theatre of Maine, Purple Rose Theatre, and Human Race Theatre. www.tonyabeckman.com

Renea S. Brown (Third Woman: Myrrha and others) Folger Theatre: The Reading Room, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Arena Stage: Change Agent; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Tempest, Macbeth; Kennedy Center: Love Factually; Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre Company: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth; Theatre Prometheus: Macbeth, Cymbeline. Regional credits include The Wolves at McCarter Theatre; Othello, Sense and Sensibility, and Twelfth Night (first Black woman to perform) at Island Shakespeare Festival. Wedding Bandand, The Little Princess at Quintessence Theatre; Much Ado About Nothing, A King and No King, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside at American Shakespeare Center. MFA: Academy of Classical Acting. Instagram: @TheDarkLady

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. 

Séamus Miller 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

Folger Theatre: The Reading Room 2023: A Room in the Castle. Everyman Theatre: Queens Girl in Africa (Helen Hayes Award winner), Stick Fly; Ford’s Theatre: Fences; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Resident Company Member; An Octoroon, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play; The 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

Sabrina Lynne Sawyer Folger Theatre: A Room in the Castle, The Winter’s Tale (2023), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2022), The Reading Room: A Room in the Castle. 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. BA, Acting, University of Southern California.

Nandi Talton Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Dilemma of a Ghost; The Tank: I Make Men feel Better.
Current BFA Acting Student at Howard University, and alumni of LaGuardia Highschool @nanditalton

Madalyn Oliver (Production Assistant) Folger Theatre: A Room in the Castle, The Reading Room Festival (2025), Romeo and Juliet, Metamorphoses; Education: Messiah University, BA. Instagram: @Maddy.Olivr