Romeo and Juliet

Gabriel Alejandro (Paris) Folger Theatre: The Cuban Vote; Devil’s Isle Shakespeare Co.: As You Like It; Prologue Theatre: Marjorie Prime; Keegan Theater: The Wilting Point; Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy: Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Pericles, Twelfth Night; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: As You Like It, The Oresteia. International: Odin Teatret: Barter; Sine Qua Non Art: Kommos; CBA Santurce: Mujeres del Alba; CBA Humacao: Sueños de Colores. @galejandro   

Brandon Carter (Friar Lawrence) Folger Theatre: debut. Regional: Virginia Repertory Theatre: Shakespeare in Love, The Christians; American Shakespeare Center: Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, The Henriad, Pass Over; Luna Stage: The Brothers Size. Off-Broadway: Classical Theatre of Harlem: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Three Musketeers; National Black Theatre: 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 

Giovanna Alcântara Drummond (Mercutio) Folger Theatre: debut; Yale Repertory Theatre: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University includes: The Winter’s Tale, Fucking A, Marys Seacole, Bodas de Sangre. Film: Bea, Seriously. NYU: Theater and Journalism, BFA; Yale University: Acting, MFA. Recipient of the 2024 Carol Finch Dye Award in acting. @giodrumm 

John Floyd (Benvolio) Folger Theatre: Our Verse in Time to Come, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Timon of Athens, Antony & Cleopatra, Davenant’s Macbeth; Mosaic Theatre Company: One in Two; Ford’s Theatre: A Christmas Carol; Contemporary American Theatre Festival: What Will Happen to All That Beauty. Johnfloydactor.com. @john.floyd

Alina Collins Maldonado (Tybalt) Folger Theatre:King John; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Everybody, Much Ado About Nothing; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: BLKS; GALA Hispanic Theatre: Native Gardens (Helen Hayes nomination), El Paso Blue, Mariela en el desierto, Los empeños de una casa; Ford’s Theater: Something Moving; The Kennedy Center: Where Words Once Were, Digging Up Dessa; 1st Stage: Secret Things, The Good Counselor; Imagination Stage: Smartest Girl in The World, Robin Hood; Forum Theater: How We Got On, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Artistic Residencies: Eaton DC 2024, The Clarice Smith Artist in Residence 2021-2022, NextLOOK Artist 2020. Alinacollinsmaldonado.com

Tony Nam (Lord Montague) Folger Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure; Arena Stage: Exclusion, Akeelah and the Bee; Everyman Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Bookclub Play, Dial M for Murder, Sense and Sensibility, Cry it Out, Murder on the Orient Express, Everything is Wonderful, Aubergine; Ford’s Theater: Our Town; Mosaic Theater: Sooner/Later, Theory; Olney Theatre Center: Our Town, Aubergine; The Kennedy Center: Where Words Once Were, A Cricket in Time Square, Unleashed; Round House Theatre: Treasure Island; Seattle Children’s Theatre: The Red Badge of Courage; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Othello, Pericles; TheatreWorks: Pacific Overtures; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, BA; University of Washington, MFA. Everyman Theatre Resident Company Member.

Luz Nicolas (Nurse) Folger Theatre: debut. GALA Theater: The Palacios Sisters, Bathing in Moonlight, Native Gardens, The Troublemaker (Helen Hayes Award), The House of the Lagoon, Doña Rosita the Spinster, Aunt Julia and the Playwright, Cervantes, The Last Quixote (Helen Hayes nomination), Yerma (Helen Hayes nomination), Mariela in the Desert. Abyss, Miami and Madrid: Alice in Costa Rica, The Kennedy Center: “Iberian Mystics”; Single Carrot Theatre: The VIP; Theatre Project: The Final Draw; Repertorio Español: Exquisite Agony (HOLA/ACE Award); IATI Theater: An Invisible Piece of this World; Alcazar Theater, Madrid: The Merchant of Venice, The House of Bernarda Alba.

Caro Reyes Rivera (Juliet) Folger Theatre: debut. Yale: Hamlet, title role in Yale’s first ever bilingual Shakespeare production. Yale Repertory Theatre: Mojada, Ruzante. David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, BFA. Recipient of the Jerome L. Green Fellowship and the Schubert Scholarship.

Todd Scofield (Lord Capulet) Folger Theatre: The Tempest, Hamlet, Cyrano, Othello, Henry VIII, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and others; Arena Stage: Holiday, City of Conversation, Sovereignty; Shakespeare Theatre Company: King Lear, Our Town, Richard III, and others; Round House Theatre: Ink, Oslo, The Book of Will, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and others; Signature Theatre: Ragtime; The Kennedy Center: Mister Roberts. Additional work includes productions at Theater J, Studio Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Adventure Theatre, Imagination Stage, and Everyman Theatre. Regional: Arden Theatre Company: Freud’s Last Session; PlayMakers Repertory Company; Charlotte Repertory Theatre; and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. Television: recurring role in seasons 3 and 5 of The Wire.

Deidra LaWan Starnes (Chorus/Prince) Folger Theatre: Amadeus, Julius Caesar, King Lear; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Amen Corner, Much Ado About Nothing (Free for All); 1st Stage: Postcards from Ihatov, Shutter Sisters, Mlima’s Tale, The Mamalogues, The Member of the Wedding; Studio Theatre: Radio Golf, Passing Strange, In the Red and Brown Water, The Old Setter, Seven Guitars; Olney Theatre Center: Stuff Happens, Doubt (Helen Hayes nomination), A Raisin in the Sun; African Continuum Theatre: Intimate Apparel (Helen Hayes Award), Gingham Dog, Spunk (Helen Hayes nomination). Regional: Huntington Theatre Company: The Invisible Man. Off-Broadway: for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. Film: Nocturnal Agony, Ladder 49.  

Fran Tapia (Lady Capulet) Folger Theatre: debut. GALA Theater: On Your Feet! (Helen Hayes and BWW Awards), Revoltosa (Helen Hayes Award), Mummy in the Closet, Evita’s Return, In the Heights. Broadway National Tour: On Your Feet! International credits include productions in her home country of Chile: Cats, Tirana; Germany: Emergenz; Germany, France, Netherlands, Chile: Rite of Spring. @franciscatl   

Cole Taylor (Romeo) Folger Theatre: debut. National Black Theatre: The First Deep Breath. Syracuse Stage: I & You; Indiana Repertory Theatre: Pipeline; Echo Theater Company: Handjob; Film and television: Amazon Prime: Strive; Peacock: Saved by the Bell. New York University, MFA.  

Renee Elizabeth Wilson (Lady Montague/Others) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses, Nell Gwynn, Julius X; 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 (World Premiere), Seven Guitars. Regional: Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse: Miss Maybelline’s Nocturnal Flights of Fancy (World Premiere); International: Red Shoes (World Premiere). Film: Smoke Out, Veracity.  @actpoetic88.

Jon Beal (understudy, Friar Lawrence, Lord Capulet, Lord Montague) Folger Theatre: debut; Shakespeare Theatre Company: As You Like It. Regional: Chicago Shakespeare Theater: As You Like It, SS! Macbeth; Northlight Theatre: Georgina and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley, The Hypocrites, All Our Tragic, Dracula | Victory Gardens, An Issue of Blood; Lyric Opera of Chicago: Macbeth, Faust, Bel Canto, Otello, Siegfried, Die Walkure, Das Rheingold, The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, A Streetcar Named Desire, Hansel and Gretel; Haymarket Opera Company: Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, Tamerlano; TimeLine Theater Company (Joseph Jefferson Award, Fight Choreography). TV: Chicago PD. Education: Columbia College Chicago, BA; Academy at Shakespeare Theatre Company, MFA. Jonbeal.com www.jonbeal.com

Aliyah Emorai (understudy, Juliet) Folger Theatre: debut; Olney Theater Center: New Voices, Reflections. Aliyahemorai.wixsite.com. @aemorai

Lauren Erica Jackson (understudy, Lady Montague and Prince/Chorus) Folger Theatre: debut. Shakespeare Theatre Company: Romeo & Juliet; Everyman Theatre: The Niceties; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: A Christmas Carol (2022 and 2023), BCAE Macbeth, Macbeth (matinee), Romeo & Juliet. Film: December 1964. Rehearsal: Squeegee Boy, Leave It At My Door. Best of Baltimore 2016 Best Actor Award.

Axandre Oge (understudy, Benvolio and Paris) Folger Theatre: debut; Nova Nightsky Theater: Constellations; Silver Spring Stage: Junk; Bethesda Little Theater: Trees, Trivia Tonight; Keegan Theatre: Fire; Convergence Theater: Snapshots; Brave Spirit’s Theatre: Edward III; The Wheel Theatre: The Winter’s Tale; Ally Theatre: Welcome To Sis’; Capital Fringe: Body; National Black Theatre Festival: Tendencies; Silver Spring One Acts: Gone Fishin’; Spotify: Silt Verses, RogueMaker, Secret of St. Kilda, SuperSuits.

Raymond O. Caldwell (Director). Folger Theatre: Rap Monologues. Work at regional theaters includes Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater, The Kennedy Center, National Players/Olney Theatre Center, Solas Nua, CulturalDC, African Continuum, and the Hegira. Theater Alliance: former Producing Artistic Director. Howard University: former faculty and resident director. Arena Stage: former Community Engagement Director. Raymond has partnered and worked with artists, activists, nonprofits, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout the world. In partnership with the US Department of State and Contact Base (a cultural NGO based in West Bengal) he developed A GLOBAL I.D.E.A. with 23 artists and activists from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and the US that explored what Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility mean on the global stage. He has done similar work throughout the US, India, Ukraine, and Croatia. University of Florida, Acting, BFA; The Ohio State University: Acting/New Play Development, MFA.

Tiffany Quinn (Choreographer) Folger Theatre: debut; Signature Theatre: Passing Strange (Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography in a Musical); Creative Cauldron: Diagnosed; The Kennedy Center: Look Both Ways, Show Way: The Musical, Beastgirl, Earthrise; Theater Alliance: A Chorus Within Her, The Blackest Battle, Blood at the Root (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Choreography in a Play); Imagination Stage: Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Winter’s Tale (Assistant to the Choreographer); National Players Tour: The Diary of Anne Frank; Mosaic Theater: Les Deux Noirs; Solas Nua: The Frederick Douglass Project; The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Dancing Spirit (Assistant to the Choreographer); PHILADANCO! For Truth (Assistant to the Choreographer); Howard University: The Trojan Women, The Children’s Hour, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Montgomery Community College: In the Heights; University of Maryland, Baltimore County: The Mail Order Bride. Performance credits: Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company, B.Moore Dance, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Francine E. Ott/The Walk. Howard University: Dance Arts, BFA.

Jonathan Dahm Robertson (Scenic Designer) Folger Theatre: debut. The 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

Jeannette Christensen (Costume Designer) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses (Associate Costume Designer), Our Verse in Time to Come, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Associate Costume Designer), Amadeus (Associate Costume Designer). GALA Hispanic Theatre: On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan (World Premiere in Spanish; Helen Hayes Award Outstanding Costume Design); The Kennedy Center/ Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Show Way. Work at other theaters includes Olney Theatre Center; Round House Theatre; Wolf Trap Opera; Studio Theatre. Work at regional theaters includes American Players Theatre; Oklahoma City Repertory Theater; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival; American Stage; The Muny. National tour: Show Way, On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan. Arizona State University, Design & Production, BA; University of Maryland, Design, MFA; Maryland Institute College of Art, Business of Art & Design, MPS (Graduating Sept. 2024). Jchristensendesign.com

Alberto Segarra (Lighting Designer). Folger Theatre: debut. Theatre J: The Hatmaker’s Wife, Two Jews Walk into a War; 1st Stage: The Nance; Solas Nua: The Honey Trap (Helen Hayes Award); Olney Theatre Center: Lend Me a Soprano, The Joy That Carries You (Helen Hayes nomination); Signature Theatre: Passing Strange; Theater Alliance: Blood at the Root (Helen Hayes Award); The Kennedy Center: Look Both Ways (Helen Hayes nomination); Keegan: Sweat; Imagination Stage: A Year of Frog and Toad. Recent regional credits: Village Theatre: Camelot: The Musical; Alley Theatre: Jane Eyre; Cleveland Play House: Three Musketeers; Hangar Theatre Company/Portland Stage: The Great Leap; Alliance Theatre: Business Ideas; Cleveland Play House: What the Constitution Means to Me; Constellation Theatre Company: Constellation. University of Maryland, MFA. albertosegarra.com. 

Matthew M. Nielson (Sound Designer and Composer) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet; Arena Stage: Nina Simone: Four Women; Ford’s Theatre: The Carpetbagger’s Children; Round House Theatre: Oslo, Book of Will; Theater Alliance: Mnemonic (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Sound Design); Olney Theatre Center: Mary Stuart, The Magic Play; Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: Last Wide Open, Treasure Island, Misery; Portland Center Stage: Astoria, Parts 1 & 2, The Color Purple; Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Anna Karenina; Actor’s Theatre of Louisville: Dracula; Milwaukee Repertory Theater: Two Trains Running, Peter and the Starcatcher; Baltimore Center Stage: Shakespeare In Love; Off-Broadway: 59E59 Theatres: Occupied Territories; Lincoln Center Theater: Where Words Once Were; Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival:  Shakespeare’s Villains; Film: From Hell To Here, Elbow Grease, Blue, The Long Road, Little Lamb; TV: The Hero Effect, EPIX Drive-In,  Facebook,  Delivery.com,  NFL,  UFC on FOX. Nielson has won five Helen Hayes Awards and has been nominated for several others, including the League of CincinnatiTheatres, Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and BroadwayWorld nominations.  CuriousMusic.com

Kelly Colburn (Projection and Multimedia Designer) Folger Theatre: debut; 1st Stage: Postcards from Ihatov; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: My Mama and The Full Scale Invasion; Signature Theatre: Passing Strange; Kennedy Center: Look Both Ways; Roundhouse and Olney Theatre Center: Fela!. New York Theatre Workshop: american (tele)visions. 2020 and 2023 Helen Hayes Recipient, 2022 – 23 Helen Hayes Award Nominee, ‘23 Lucille Lortel Awards and Henry Hewes Nominee, 2018 Jim Henson Puppetry Grant, ‘17 NextLOOK Resident. Flying V: Executive Director. New York University, BFA; University of Maryland, MFA. Kellycolburn.com

Amy Kellett (Props Designer) Folger Theatre: debut; Studio Theatre: Love, Love, Love, The Colored Museum, Fun Home, The Hot Wing King; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Incendiary; Rep Stage: Falsettos, Things That Are Round; Theater Alliance: The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company, This Girl Laughs.., Do You Feel Anger?, The Blackest Battle, Day of Absence; Theater Alliance and the Kennedy Center TYA co-production: Look Both Ways; American Stage: The Figs; 1st Stage: Postcards from Ihatov, The Mamalogues; Constellation Theatre Company: Desperate Measures, Moon Man Walk, Orlando, Once On This Island; Faction of Fools: The Moors; NextStop Theatre Company: An Act of God; ArtsCentric: Dreamgirls, Rent; Pointless Theatre Company; Visions of Love, Rite of Spring, Don Cristobal, King Ubu; Gala Hispanic Theatre: Príncipe y Príncipe, Que Las Hay, Las Hay; The Hub Theatre: American Spies…,The Burn, The Late Wedding, Peekaboo!; Howard Community College: Percy Jackson, Heathers, She Kills Monsters; Synetic Theater: The Three Musketeers, A Tale of Two Cities; Baltimore Center Stage: Young Playwrights Festival 2022 (set and props).

Caleen Sinnette Jennings (Adaptor) Folger Theatre: Rap Monologues. Playwright: Queens Girl Trilogy: Queens Girl in the World, Queens Girl in Africa, Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains; Round House Theatre: Homebound. Arena Stage: May 22, 2020; The 51st State. The Kennedy Center: commission, Darius & Twig. Dramatic Publishing Service has published eight of her plays, and her work has appeared in seven play anthologies. She has received playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center and Actors Theatre of Louisville.  She is currently writing the book for a new musical on the life of famous black contralto Marian Anderson. American University: Professor Emerita, Theatre. The Welders: Founder.

Carla Della Gatta (Dramaturg) Folger Theatre: debut. Academic appointment: Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland. Publications: Latinx Shakespeares: Staging US Intracultural Theater; co-editor of Shakespeare and Latinidad; online theatre archive, LatinxShakespeares.Org. Service: Steering Committee for the Latinx Theatre Commons, board member for Shakespeare Survey and the Arden series, Shakespeare and Social Justice. Two-time Folger fellowship recipient. Carladellagatta.com.

Rosa Garay López (Translator and Interpreter) Folger Theatre: debut. Published translations: La lucha por la existencia en la sociedad humana, Thomas Henry Huxley; El Mercado de los duendes de Cristina Rosetti y la pintura prerrafaelita: Correspondencias formales y revisión de la feminidad. Madeleine A. Vala; La ciudad realizable de Platón: El uso racional de las creencias y de la imaginación en la política. HYPNOS, São Paolo, No. 28.1 (2012). Certified Medical Interpreter. University of Puerto Rico, MA. Thesis project for MA in translation, Sala de espera, The Waiting Room by Lisa Loomer.

Robb Hunter (Fight Choreographer) Folger Theatre: debut. Shakespeare Theatre Company: King Lear (Helen Hayes Nomination), Richard III (Helen Hayes Nomination), Othello, The Oresteia, Salomé; Arena Stage: Catch Me If You Can, Ruined, Noises Off; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Teenage Dick, Gloria, HIR (Helen Hayes Award), An Octoroon (Helen Hayes Nomination); Studio Theatre: Vietgone, Red Speedo (Helen Hayes Nomination), Walworth Farce (Helen Hayes Nomination); Olney Theatre Center: Lend Me a Soprano, Beauty and the Beast, Singin’ in the Rain; Signature Theatre: Masterpieces, 4380 Nights, Passion; Ford’s Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors, 110 in the Shade; Regional: The Cape Playhouse: Camelot, Baskerville; Huntington Theatre: Teenage Dick, Invisible Man; Television: Spin City (stunt double, Michael J. Fox). AEA and SDC member. RobbHunter.org. @DCFightDirector

Kaja Dunn (Resident Intimacy Director) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses, The Winter’s Tale, Our Verse In Time To Come (The Reading Room Festival); Arena Stage: American Prophet; Denver Center for the Arts: Choir Boy, 5thAve; ACT Theatre (Seattle): Choir Boy; St. Louis Rep.: Private Lives, Confederates; Two River Theatre: Wine In The Wilderness; Penumbra Theatre: Sugar In Our Wounds; Broadway: A Strange Loop (Assoc. Intimacy Director); Television: The Best Man, Final Chapters, Harlem, The Equalizer; Awards: Kennedy Center American Theatre Award, Playwrights Project Excellence in Arts Education; Publications: Arden Contemporary Shakespeare, Intimacy Direction For Theatre, Theatre Symposium, HowlRound. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (UK). Carnegie Mellon University: Associate Professor.

Kate Murray, CSA (New York Casting Director): Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale. Kate is a casting director for the Public Theater in New York where she casts Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. Broadway: Hell’s Kitchen, Suffs, Fat Ham, Ain’t No Mo’, for colored girls…, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the Sun.

Tori Schuchmann (Production Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: Rap Monologues (The Reading Room Festival 2024); Constellation Theatre Company: Orlando, The School for Lies, Once on This Island; Imagination Stage: Inside Out and Backwards; Theater J: Tiny Lights; IN Series Opera: The Return of Ulysses; University of Maryland: Dance²; Arts on the Horizon: The Laundromat Show. Production Manager of Andy’s Summer Playhouse in New Hampshire and the Senior Project Manager for ViDCo (Virtual Design Collective).

Ebony Gennes (Assistant Stage Manager) Folger Theatre: debut; Theater J: The Chameleon; Olney Theatre Center: Lend Me a Soprano; Cumberland Theatre: The Outsiders, Company, Rock of Ages, True West, Clue. Academic: It’s a Wonderful Life, Ricochet Dance Concert. Education: Frostburg State University, BS. Instagram: @EbonyGennes