In This Program

• Show Program
• From the Acting Company’s Artistic Director
• Bringing Ourselves to Bear
• From Play on Shakespeare
• August Wilson as Dramatic Historian
• The Company
• A.C.T. OUT Tour Brings Shakespeare to Schools
• Print Edition
• More about A.C.T.

The Acting Company

Kent Gash
Artistic Director

Erik Schroeder
Managing Director

Devin Brain
Producing Director

Margot Harley
Founder

In partnership with Play On Shakespeare
In association with Honorary Producers Willette and Manny Klausner

The Cast

Wolf, Sterling u/s, Two Trains Running
Clown 1 (Dromio and others), The Comedy of Errors
J’Laney Allen*

Holloway, Two Trains Running
Clown 9, The Comedy of Errors
Michael J. Asberry*

Hambone, Wolf u/s, Two Trains Running
Clown 2 (Dromio and others), The Comedy of Errors
Chuckie Benson*

Risa u/s, Two Trains Running
Clown 6 (Luciana and others), The Comedy of Errors
Diana Coates*

West, Memphis u/s, Two Trains Running
Clown 8, The Comedy of Errors
Robert Cornelius*

Sterling, Two Trains Running
Clown 3 (Antipholous and others), The Comedy of Errors
James Milord*

West u/s, Holloway u/s, Hambone u/s, Two Trains Running 
Clown 4 (Antipholous and others), The Comedy of Errors
Jeffrey Rashad*

Memphis, Two Trains Running
Clown 7 (Dr. Pinch and others), The Comedy of Errors
Michael A. Shepperd*

Risa, Two Trains Running
Clown 5 (Adriana and others), The Comedy of Errors
DeAnna Supplee*

Creative Team

Scenic Design
Tanya Orellana

Costume Design, The Comedy of Errors
Sarita Fellows

Costume Design, Two Trains Running
Samantha C. Jones

Lighting Design
Jared Gooding

Original Music & Sound Design
Lindsay Jones

Props Design
Anna Dorodnykh

Voice & Speech
Duane Boutté

Movement Director, The Comedy of Errors
Orlando Pabotoy

Intimacy Director, Two Trains Running
Ann James

Wig & Hair Design
Tommy Kurzman

Dramaturg, The Comedy of Errors
Martine Kei Green-Rogers

Associate Director, Two Trains Running
Irvin Mason Jr.

Casting
Murnane Casting
Amber Snead, CSA
Chad Eric Murnane, CSA
Nathanial Riccio

Production Stage Manager
Esther Bermann

Assistant Stage Manager
Imani Ross

A.C.T. Producing Team

Associate Artistic Director
Andy Chan Donald

Director of General Management & Operations
Louisa Liska

General Manager
Amy Dalba

Director of Production
Martin Barron

Repertory Staff

Production Manager
Neal Goleta

Assistant Movement Director, The Comedy of Errors
Julian Robertson

Associate Costume Designer, The Comedy of Errors
Adrianne Williams

Associate Costume Designer, Two Trains Running
Sharné Van Ryneveld Nel

Associate Scenic Designer
Danielle DeLaFuente

Associate Sound Designer
Nat Houle

Assistant Scenic Designer
Ningning Yang

Assistant Lighting Designer
Trey Brazeal

Assistant Props Designer
Malena Logan

Intimacy/Sensitivity Specialist
Ann James

Production Assistant
Kydiana Jeanty

Assistant Dramaturg, The Comedy of Errors
Joan Starkey

Costume Shopper, The Comedy of Errors
Brittani Beresford

Costume Shopper, Two Trains Running
Alex Rockey

Key Art Illustration
Brianna Pippens

Tour Staff

Tour Company Manager
Holly Adam

Assoc. Production Manager/Tour Technical Director
Chris Grainer

Tour Lighting Supervisor
Molly Garrison

Tour Sound Supervisor
Danny H. Saturne

Tour Wardrobe Supervisor
Krista Grevas

Tour Lighting Drafter
Jessica Neill

Tour Crew
Hannah Sgambellone

The Acting Company Staff

Artistic Director
Kent Gash

Producing Director
Devin Brain

Managing Director
Erik Schroeder

Director of Development
Hillary Cohen

General Manager
Shelley Little

Associate Producer
B. Rafidi

Development Associate
Natalya Ribovich

These productions are made possible by

Season Presenters

Kathleen Donohue and David Sze; Robina Riccitiello

Company Sponsors

The Marymor Family Fund

Executive Producers

Linda Jo Fitz;
Elsa and Neil Pering

Associate Producers

Helen and Roger Bohl;
Dr. and Mrs. Richard E. Geist

Foundation Support

Official Hotel Partner

From the Acting Company’s Artistic Director

ABOVE: Robert Cornelius, Brian D. Coats, Michael A. Shepperd, James Milord, DeAnna Supplee, and Chuckie Benson in Two Trains Running. Photograph by Lore Photography Ventura.

In 2003 I had the great good fortune to direct August Wilson’s King Hedley II for the Alliance Theatre. August Wilson came to Atlanta and continued to revise the script and rehearse with our company. During the opening August signed a poster for me saying “THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES….” As always, August was prescient and indeed even now in 2024-25, the struggle continues. Our current political climate in America continues to illustrate the sense of dislocation and exclusion that many African Americans feel. In Two Trains Running August Wilson’s characters are on the precipice in America, struggling to stake their claim to a piece of the American Dream. It is a story about questioning your place in the world and amidst the turbulent 1960s these brilliant, witty, wry, and eloquent characters strive to thrive and realize the promise made by this great Country to all of its citizens. 

The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare’s most lunatic comic escapade. It is similarly about who belongs where and with whom. Identity, lineage, and the privileges associated with these are all a part of the madness of The Comedy of Errors. But its real motor is the family. Brothers, sisters, parents…family is where the sense of belonging begins for many of us. This may well be the thread that connects both of these plays. In both of these plays the characters go to physical, financial, and emotional extremes in order to achieve the happiness and freedom that they believe is the right of every human being.

In very different ways, both Two Trains Running and The Comedy of Errors challenge our sense of how we identify and define ourselves, as well as how others project their perceived values of us onto our day-to-day lives. Both plays wonder if the tension between these two perspectives can ever be resolved, and if so... HOW? August Wilson doesn’t give us concise answers. In Two Trains Running, characters must cultivate their own hope but Wilson believes we are ever resilient and so we endure. Shakespeare and Christina Anderson allow for hope. Mishaps and missed opportunities are somehow righted, disparate family members rediscover each other and are joyously reunited. Happiness, the blessing of belonging and the freedom to realize our authentic selves is indeed possible.

These are but a few of the reasons why August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Christina Anderson’s translation of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors adapted are more necessary, essential, and vital than ever before.

Kent Gash
Artistic Director
The Acting Company

Pam: Let’s start by talking a little bit about The Acting Company. Lili-Anne, have you ever directed for The Acting Company before, or is this your first time?

Lili-Anne: First time.

Pam: How were you approached, and what made you lean in? What made you excited about Two Trains Running?

Lili-Anne: I had not, honestly, known very much about The Acting Company, but I knew [Artistic Director] Kent Gash. I met him when he was here in Chicago, doing Choir Boy at Steppenwolf, and he used several of my favorite designers to work with. And so, they let me know that they really liked him, I should meet him, and that we would be friends, so that’s how that relationship started. At first we just communicated back and forth, now and again, about resources, just shooting the breeze. He said, “I’ve got this show,” because he was very aware that I am on an August Wilson tear. I got my first opportunity to do August Wilson a couple of years ago at the Huntington. Coming from thinking, truly believing I would never get to get anywhere near August Wilson’s work ever in my career.

Pam: Why?

Lili-Anne: I mean, how many Black women do you know who have directed August Wilson at a major institution of any sort?

Pam: What play did you direct at the Huntington?

Lili-Anne: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

Pam: That’s a nice back-to-back.

Lili-Anne: I’m just excited to do any August Wilson. If somebody tells me, “Hey, you want to go do August Wilson in this alley?” I will probably say yes.

 Pam: Awesome, awesome. And then, Devin, you’ve been involved with The Acting Company for quite some time, right?

Devin: Yes. I was hired as a staff director right out of grad school, so about 13 or 14 years ago, I worked on my first acting company production.

Pam: So, to work with a company of actors on these very disparate plays, what are the synergies? The company holds both these stories, and in this case very different stories. Can you feel that as a director of only one of these plays in the rehearsal hall?

Devin: Yeah. I think I had the advantage where I rehearsed with them first, so we started with The Comedy of Errors, knowing they were about to dive into Wilson, but before they had really jumped into the deep end, and then I worked with them again in tech after they had spent a month with Lili-Anne. There was something really beautiful about them coming back to the utterly ridiculous Comedy of Errors, after having this sort of beautiful grounding in each other. Their connection, as an ensemble, was all the stronger after they had spent four weeks with Wilson’s language, sitting in a room talking to each other, and then coming back to Comedy, and just the flat out sprint that Comedy is. Our production is 90 minutes, and those actors really don’t sit down during those 90 minutes. I think there was something about the different paces that they felt, like they had found a different element of the speed of comedy after having been able to really spit in the joyous depth of Wilson.

Pam: I can only imagine. Lili-Anne, you said you’re on a tear to direct August Wilson. Can you get more specific as to how that is feeding you right now, as an artist?

Lili-Anne: Oh my goodness. Yeah, I really have been bitten by such a bug. I always felt a little bit of distance from myself and August Wilson, meaning like many plays that are considered classics, I felt like I was supposed to love this work, but I’m not sure how much I really did love it when I saw it. I’m from Chicago, and so there are works of August that have premiered here at the Goodman. I have gone there my whole life, and so I saw productions that I loved and some that I didn’t love and didn’t connect to, and I wondered why. Then, I think sometimes I would see smaller, more intimate productions of the same work, and I would think like, “Oh, wait. I’m connecting to this a little more.”

So, I began to realize that something about how the work was being presented sometimes was distancing me, but also the way that the work was being talked about, it was something different to just sit down with the plays and read them. I bought myself this beautiful box set of all of the plays and was familiarizing myself with them as written works.

It’s just such a “man’s man” legacy, that you sort of feel like, “Are these men going to respect me when I talk to them about doing this work?” I found that I just had to approach it like I approach, literally, anything else, and I had to remind myself every day, and I had to walk in and sort of give myself, and therefore everyone else, that speech of, “We’re going to start on page one, and we’re going to do the work that’s on the page, and everything else be damned.” Whatever came before, whatever you read in a book, what we are doing is what we, these people at this time in this room, are doing, and this is going to be our work. A lot of those actors let me know later that they also felt that that relieved the pressure that they had also been feeling, because it’s the same thing.

Pam: Yeah. Those moments of the weight of the canon and the wanting it not to be a museum piece, and every time we enter a hall and tell a story, we need to bring ourselves to bear.

I feel like audiences know when they’re being fed something dusty that maybe does belong in a museum case, and to honor a text or a trope without rigorous questioning can fall flat.

Lili-Anne: You’re absolutely right. If it doesn’t keep living and being re-interpreted and done anew, then what are we doing? Then it’s dusty and I don’t think these writers wrote it to get dusty.

Pam: Right. Devin, in that same respect, this is Shakespeare, but this is also Shakespeare adapted and a 90-minute version of this play, translated by Christina Anderson. When did you feel Shakespeare, and when did you feel Christina, and when did you feel The Acting Company?

Devin: I’ve always loved Shakespeare. My mother read the entire canon to me as a child, so I got raised on its importance pretty early, but at the same time, I’ve always believed that the best way to interact with Shakespeare is to hit him with a hammer in the very first two minutes of a production, just to make sure an audience remembers that this is living and breathing art and not a museum piece. His stories are frames to let you see the individual performer. Every performer’s Hamlet is going to be a little bit different, every Macbeth is going to be a little bit different, in a way that I think is really sort of joyous. As much as we lift him up as the apex of the canon, we also have 400 years of people saying, “Let’s set this on the moon, cut three quarters of it, or do it with 2 actors, or 20, or 100.”

Christina is an old, dear friend of mine. When she first told me that she was part of the Play On translation exercise, I was shocked. She did not love these plays; she did not feel like she had a place in them, so that I was truly delighted in working on the first reading of this translation, in exploring it at such an in-depth level, seeing she had found her way into it. She found a way to infuse her version of it with both herself and with a real care for Shakespeare’s language.  In her translation I could see both her genius and his.

Play On is a controversial project, but what I saw in Christina’s work on this is the same thing I’ve done countless times as a director, looking at a script of Shakespeare, cutting some lines because they didn’t feel useful to a contemporary audience, or cutting a scene because it made it a little bit faster for an audience that isn’t used to sitting in a theater for four hours anymore. I found with Christina’s version, it is easier to make someone laugh with a joke about 90s hip hop or Quentin Tarantino than it is to make someone laugh with a 400-year-old puppetry joke that has symbolism that no one remembers anymore.

Pam: Awesome. Lili-Anne, you’ve mentioned the importance of being an artist from Chicago, having worked there a lot I hold that theater scene dear, Can you talk a little bit about that, how you think that informs you?

Lili-Anne: Wow. How does Chicago inform me. That is like asking a snowman how snow informs him, a little bit. I am not sure how else I’d be, but I know that I am proud of being raised here, as a human and also as an artist, I think community is a true imperative here and almost always comes first. And so, there is a prime directive of sorts for me about making sure that everyone is seen and heard and taken care of.

Devin: You’ve forged a company of actors that really does feel like a company. Even on the road, when you listen to audiences talk about the shows, one of the things they really point to, in addition to the genius of Wilson and the clarity of storytelling, is how much the humans on stage are in sync with each other, how they feel that sort of breathing off of both stages. That they see these humans working as a family.

Pam: This company of actors is ending this tour at A.C.T. I’m curious about the type of actor who wants to go on the road and sometimes be in a place for one night, two nights. San Francisco is a three-week residency, but I think it’s the largest residency on the tour. Who is the type of actor who wants to work in true, rare repertoire, and be itinerant for five months?

 Devin: Great question. This ensemble is really intellectually curious. They really are engaged with both the excitement of these two, very different texts, and with the fact that every day of this project is going to be a little different. In most iterations of theater, each performance is a little different. It’s a living art. One audience laughs, and the next audience doesn’t. This tour is even more intense and varied, in that one day they’re in a 300-seat house in Vermont, and the next day they’re in a 1500-seat house in Florida. So they really have to be excited about each new day being something new.

Pam: And finally—why these two shows together? Why Two Trains Running and The Comedy of Errors?

Devin: One of the reasons Kent and I picked these two plays to sit next to each other, is the care for language that all three of these playwrights poured into their work, that whether it is a moment of realism or a moment of zany absurdity, this language is living and breathing in the moment. It has a magic in and of itself that these actors bring to life with such care.

Lili-Anne: Yeah, they really love it. We really love it.

From Play On Shakespeare

ABOVE: James Milord and Diana Coates in The Comedy of Errors. Photo by Veronica Slavin.

Originally penned in 1594, The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most farcical comedies, inspired by Plautus’s Menaechmi. Like with most of his plays, Shakespeare drew upon the work of writers who came before him and reworked the stories for the contemporary audiences of his time. 

Today, the production you are seeing keeps this very Shakespearean tradition of reinvention alive. In this translation, Christina Anderson—a celebrated playwright known for her incisive storytelling and lyrical voice—brings fresh immediacy to the Bard’s work. Her work preserves the rhythmic vitality and wit of the original text while making it more accessible to contemporary audiences. Anderson’s language invites us to experience the humor and heart of the play anew, deepening its emotional resonance and sharpening its comedic edge.

Part of the mission of the Play On Shakespeare translations is to not only translate the words on the page for contemporary audiences, but to carry forward that experience that audiences had 400 years ago when they were seeing these plays for the first time in Shakespeare’s retellings, fresh and alive in the language of their day. Without the barrier of 400 years of language evolution, what will we see and hear that we might not otherwise?

If you’ve seen The Comedy of Errors before, our goal is that you’ll make connections and pick up on new elements of the story through Christina’s efforts. If this is your first time, we’d love for this contemporary mashup of Shakespeare and Christina to prove to be an exciting and clear experience that will bring you back to Shakespeare’s works in the future.  

As you enjoy this fresh look at an old tale of mistaken identities and serendipitous reunions, we hope that this new, contemporary language smooths a path to finding echoes of our shared human experiences—proving that even amidst confusion and chaos, connection and joy prevail. Thank you for joining us on this theatrical journey. Sit back, and let the comedy begin!

Your friends at Play On Shakespeare,

Taylor Bailey
Interim Executive Director

Sally Cade Holmes
Director of Partnerships

Let’s start with a few earned titles and monikers: Playwright. Historian. Preserver of culture. As New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood once called him, he is “Theatre’s Poet of Black America.” Recognized as the playwright who brought 100 years of African American history to the stage, no other playwright has achieved what August Wilson has with his ten-play cycle, also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle or the American Century Cycle. Wilson described his ten-play cycle as his attempt to craft a 400-year autobiography of the African American experience. 

Undeniably, August Wilson was captivated by the history of Black Americans. His lack of formal education about Black history fueled his curiosity. Wilson once remarked that he was “encouraged by the fact that in all [his] reading of history, seldom, if ever, was the Black experience in America given any weight; seldom were they admitted to the larger playing field of cause and effect.” Subsequently, Wilson’s American Century Cycle revisits and revises historic narratives where Black Americans take center stage. Wilson stated, “Since I was not a historian but a writer of fiction, I saw my task as inventing characters.” Even more, Black liberation was undoubtedly at the forefront of his dramatic intentions; thus, he understood he belonged to a robust genealogy of Black artists—across mediums and genres—whose work crosses into the terrain of art as activism, further challenging anti-Blackness through his interpretation of history. Actor James Earl Jones, who originated the role of Troy Maxson in Fences on Broadway, affirms this by noting, August Wilson is “so faithful to the Blackness. He’s faithful like a father—that represents fidelity to him.”

Wilson’s American Century Cycle illuminates an expansive and unique history, essentially forming an African American epic. In doing so, Wilson reclaimed a past that is all too often overlooked, thereby bridging the gaps in historical records by using his artistic license to blend facts with a fictional imagination. Wilson’s engagement with history is significantly evident in the 1960s play Two Trains Running. However, he does not directly address the historical events of that decade. Instead, these events serve as a backdrop, shaping the actions and motivations of the characters. The history that looms over the play includes the legacies of leaders from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, particularly Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. It also encompasses the death of Robert Kennedy, the rise of gentrification and displacement in Black communities, and the aftermath of the Vietnam War. When asked why he kept these historical events off the stage, Wilson responded with the following:

The play does not speak to the so-called red-lettered events of the sixties, because at the time all of that was going on—the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and all the anti-war administrations—go to work every day, you still had to pay your rent, you still had to put food on the table. And those events, while they may have in some way affected the character of society as a whole, didn’t reach the average person who was concerned with just simply living. And so in Two Trains I was more concerned with those people and what they were doing and how they were dealing with it, than I was writing a “sixties” play.

As such, Wilson populates his plays with everyday folks whose lives fluctuated between what was happening nationally and regionally. Although Wilson puts fictional stories on the stage, as in Two Trains Running, these stories are evidently inspired by—and perhaps haunted by—real history.

Khalid Y. Long, PhD
Associate Dean of Research and Creative Endeavors
Associate Professor of Theatre Arts
Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Howard University 

J’Laney Allen* (Wolf, Sterling u/s, & Clown 1, Dromio and others) Extremely grateful to be joining The Acting Company! NYC Theatre: Twelfth Night (Classical Theatre of Harlem/Audelco Nominee). NYU: Pipeline, Cloud 9, The Tempest. Irene Ryan, Kingsley Colton & Mark Twain Award Recipient (KCACTF). Education: MFA: NYU Grad Acting. BS: North Carolina A&T. Social Media: @jlaneyallen.

Michael J. Asberry* (Holloway & Clown 9) was most recently onstage was in Blue Door at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley, CA. Regional credits include Merry Wives of Windsor (Elm Shakespeare Company) Fences (Sacramento Theatre Company); Sweet Water Taste (Orlando Shakes); Pericles (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival); The Good Cop (San Francisco Mime Troupe) Father Comes Home from the Wars (U/S - American Conservatory Theater; Sweat (Center REPertory Company); Seven Guitars (Artists Repertory Theatre); Fabulation (Lorraine Hansberry Theatre); Superior Donuts (TheatreWorks); and Topdog/Underdog (6th Street Playhouse). Film credits include A Christmas Mystery; San Andreas; FreeByrd; and Mr. Incredible and Pals. Television credits: Chance; Trauma; and Nash Bridges. Michael is a Proud Member of Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. All love to my family, my friends and my circle.

Chuckie Benson* (Hambone, Wolf u/s & Clown 2, Dromio and others) Lansing, MI native. Holds his BFA in Music Theatre Performance, from Western Michigan University. Chuckie comes to The Acting Company from being a proud, Jeff nominated Chicago actor. He is also an alum of Forbidden Broadway’s Spamilton, the Chicago cast as well the first National Tour. Having performed in The Three Musketeers presented by The Acting Company at OSF, it is an honor to reunite and to officially join The Acting Company family. Regional credits include: DreamGirls (McCarter, Goodspeed); RENT, Once on This Island, The Three Musketeers (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Color Purple (Drury Lane); The Wiz (Kokandy); Sophisticated Ladies (Porchlight Theatre); Heartbreak Hotel (Broadway Playhouse); Buddy in The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theatre); Hair (Mercury Theatre); Rent (Theo Ubique); Ragtime, Sister Act (Wagon Wheel), Big River, Hairspray (Timber Lake Playhouse). National Tour: Spamilton (1st National Tour). Love you Mom and Dad. IG:@chuckie.benson

Diana Coates* (Risa u/s & Clown 6, Luciana and others) is delighted to be telling these marvelous stories with The Acting Company. Originally from DC, she now resides in NYC. Most recently she was seen as Lady Macbeth at The Chenango River Theatre in New York and in productions of Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota. Other Select Regional: The Nacirema Society (Goodman Theatre); Murder on the Orient Express (Drury Lane); Henry V, The Winters Tale (First Folio); Murder on the Orient Express (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), The House that Will Not Stand (Victory Gardens), Our Town, Into the Breeches (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Measure for Measure, The Tempest, The Rover (Michigan Shakespeare Festival). TV/Film: Chicago Fire (NBC), Chicago Med (NBC), Deli Boys (Hulu), and Emperor of Ocean Park (MGM+). She is represented by DDO Artists Agency and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. Always for mom.

Robert Cornelius* (West, Memphis u/s & Clown 8) hails from Chicago and is pleased to be working with The Acting Company. Most recently Robert has performed regionally in Jitney (Arkansas Rep), as Jean Charles in Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (Signature Theatre), Dreamgirls (Goodspeed Opera House and McCarter Theatre Center), Chicken and Biscuits (Front Porch Arts Collective), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre). He has also done Blues for an Alabama Sky (Madison Rep), You Can’t Take it With You and The Rivals (Milwaukee Rep), Spunk (St. Louis Black Rep), and Great Expectations (Indiana Rep). In Chicago, he has performed in the World Premieres of Her Honor, Jane Byrne (Lookingglass Theatre), Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre), and Rightlynd (Victory Gardens Theater). Robert has also done Aida (Drury Lane Theatre), Raisin (Court Theatre), Picnic (American Theatre Company), Wit (The Hypocrites), Total Bent (Co-production with About Face and Haven Theatres (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination)), Hamlet (The Gift Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (First Folio Theatre), and Wheatley, Takunda and Spiele 36 (Victory Gardens). A proud member of SAG/AFTRA, Robert can be seen on TV in The Chi, all three seasons of South Side, Chicago PD, Shameless, and Turks. Robert also performs as a singer with the band Poi Dog Pondering and as singer songwriter of his own band, RC7. 

James Ricardo Milord* (Sterling & Clown 3, Antipholous and others) is a Boston native Haitian-American actor. He recently won a New England Theatre Critics award for Outstanding Lead Performance as King Hedley in King Hedley II (Actors Shakespeare). He was also nominated for a Norton in his lead performance as Herald Loomis in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre). Mr. Milord appeared in the riveting premier of K-I-S-S-I-N-G (Huntington Theater). That previous year, he was seen in Common Ground Revisited (Huntington Theatre), while completing productions of Paradise Blue (Gloucester Stage) and the premier of Young Nerds of Color (Central Square Theatre). Prior to the pandemic, Mr. Milord was seen in Pipeline (WAM, Front Porch, & Central Sq. Theatre). Other credits include A Christmas Carol (Underground Railway), The Handmaid’s Tale (Boston Lyric Opera), The Agitators, Cyrano (Gloucester Stage), Anna Christie, Barbecue (Lyric Stage), Akeelah & the Bee (Wheelock Family Theatre), The Good Negro, Splendor, and The Brothers Size Trilogy, (Company One). Film credits include Salem’s Lot (Warner Bros. Pictures), Honest Thief (Solution Entertainment Group), Proud Mary (Screen Gems), The Brotherhood (Showtime), and a multitude of indies. Mr. Milord dedicates this tour to the late great Johnny Lee Davenport. “Hold a good thought!”

Jeffrey Rashad* (West u/s, Holloway u/s, Hambone u/s & Clown 4, Antipholous and others) Off Broadway: A Christmas Carol in Harlem (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Regional: Passover (Resident Ensemble Players), The Comedy of Errors, Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew (The Old Globe), Treasure Island (MSMT). Film: First Date (JazziDreamer Ent.), Time to Leave (Before the Crown Productions), Generational Curses (Fly in Rice Media/Black Hours). Education: B.F.A. - Howard University, M.F.A. - The Old Globe/USD Shiley Graduate Acting. JeffreyRashad.com. @jeffyjeff_ on Instagram.

Michael A. Shepperd* (Memphis & Clown 7, Dr. Pinch and others) Directing: Blood at the Root (Open Fist Theatre Company)- Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle nomination for Best Director; The Boy From Oz (Ovation Award, LADCC Award, Best Director); Rotterdam (The Kirk Douglas Theatre (LADCC Award Best Production, Stage Raw: Best Production and Best Director)); West Addams (Skylight Theatre (LA Times Critics Choice)); Laughter on the 23rd Floor (The Garry Marshall Theatre); Sucker Punch (The Couerage Theatre); Too Heavy for Your Pocket (Sacred Fools (LA Times Critics Choice)). Acting: Miss Trunchbull in Matilda (La Mirada), The Producers (Roger; Ovation Award nom.), Fences (Troy; Ovation, LADCC nom.), BootyCandy (LADCC nom. Ovation, Stage Raw Win), Mister in The Color Purple (Ovation Award), Steel (Ovation Award), Master Harold and the Boys (NAACP Theatre Award nom.), Intimate Apparel (NAACP Theatre Award), Choir Boy (NAACP nom.); Athol Fugard’s Valley Song (International City Theatre). Broadway/Regional: Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan; Little Shop of Horrors; Caroline, or Change; The Whipping Man. TV: NCIS: Origins, Bosch, Why Women Kill, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hot In Cleveland, Wizards of Waverly Place, Monk, Criminal Minds. @shepdawg1122.

DeAnna Supplee (Risa & Clown 5, Adriana and others) is a Philadelphia-born, New York City-trained actress.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she has also studied at the British American Drama Academy at the University of Oxford and the Actors Studio Drama School (MFA, Acting).  NYC Theater: American Rot (La Mama, dir: Estelle Parsons), The Winter’s Tale (NYSX), On Strivers Row (Metropolitan Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (NYSX), The Trojan Women (The Flea Theater), Fires in the Mirror, Laundry & Bourbon, Platanos Y Collard Greens, and Romeo & Juliet. Regional Theater: The Garbologists (Shadowland Stages), B.R.O.K.E.N. code B.I.R.D. switching (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Niceties (Mile Square Theatre), Skeleton Crew (TheatreSquared). International Theater: Look/Alive (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). TV: Elsbeth, Law and Order: SVU. @deannasupplee

Christina Anderson (Translator, The Comedy of Errors)’s plays include: the ripple, the wave that carried me home, How to Catch Creation, and pen/man/ship. Her work has been produced across the country including theaters such as Berkeley Rep, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, and Yale Rep. A Tony nominated writer for Outstanding Book of a Broadway musical, Anderson has received the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, the Horton Foote Prize, and the United States Artists Fellowship, among many other honors. She is the author of Three Plays by Christina Anderson, a collection of her work published by Tripwire Harlot Press. Education: Brown University and Yale School of Drama. She’s taught playwriting at Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase, Wesleyan University, Brown, and YSD. Since 2019, she’s also been exploring music production under the moniker Purely Magenta, creating hip-hop instrumentals that reflect her inquisitive spirit. Current writing project: a book that explores playwriting as an accessible artistic life practice.

August Wilson (Playwright, Two Trains Running) [April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005] authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwrighting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theater located at 245 West 52nd Street - The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.

Devin Brain (The Acting Company Producing Director and Director, The Comedy of Errors) has held increasingly significant roles at The Acting Company since starting as Staff Repertory Director during our 2012-2013 season. In his own artistic practice, Devin is a freelance stage director specializing in contemporary productions of classical texts, as well as original work. Select recent productions include: Othello, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, You / Emma by Paz Pardo (an adaptation of Madame Bovary), Exposure by Laura Zlatos (an exploration of the life and work of Francesca Woodman), Bones in the Basket (on original adaptation of Russian Fairy Tales), Middletown by Will Eno, Breath of Kings (his adaptation of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V), Blacktop Sky by Christina Anderson, and The Droll {or, a play about the END of theatre} by Meg Miroshnik. Devin holds an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama where he also served as Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret.

Lili-Anne Brown (Director, Two Trains Running), a Chicago South Side native, works as a director, actor, and educator, and has performed in, directed and produced many award-winning shows in Chicago and nationally. Recent directing credits include: The Nacirema Society…, School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play and the world premieres of Ike Holter’s I Hate It Here and Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre); Dreamgirls (McCarter Theater and Goodspeed Musicals), FELA! (Olney Theater), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre), Ain’t No Mo’ (Woolly Mammoth and Baltimore CenterStage), Rent and The Color Purple (The Muny), Once on This Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Acoustic Rooster...(Kennedy Center and National Tour), Put Your House in Order (La Jolla Playhouse), Cullud Wattah (Victory Gardens). She is the former Artistic Director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she focused programming on Chicago-premiere musicals and new play development with resident playwrights. She has received a Helen Hayes Award, 5 Jeff Awards, 2 BTA awards and an African American Arts Alliance Award for excellence in directing. She is a 2021 recipient of the 3Arts Award for Theatre, the 2023 Zelda Fichandler Award Finalist, and an inaugural Platform Award recipient. She is a member of SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and a graduate of Northwestern University.

Tanya Orellana (Scenic Designer) designs performance spaces for theatre and opera. Originally from San Francisco’s Mission District, she is a core member of the award-winning ensemble Campo Santo. Previous collaborations with Lisa Peterson include The Kind Ones by Miranda Rose Hall (The Magic), Timon of Athens and Coriolanus (Utah Shakespeare Festival). Recent collaborations include Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2 directed by Jaime Castañeda, Fefu and Her Friends directed by Pam MacKinnon, Oedipus directed by Jenny Koons at The Getty Villa, The Industry’s Sweet Land, an immersive opera directed by Yuval Sharon and Cannupa Hanska Luger, and LEAR by Marcus Gardley, co-directed by Eric Ting and Dawn Monique Williams. Tanya received her MFA in Scenic Design from CalArts and is the 2016 recipient of the Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Award. She is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design and an organizing member of La Gente: The Latine Production Network. tanyaorellana.com. (she/her)

Sarita Fellows (Costume Designer, The Comedy of Errors), born in Freetown Sierra Leone, her more recent works include projects such as  Death of a Salesman (Broadway); The Ally, A Bright Room Called Day (The Public Theater); Safety Not Guaranteed (BAM); Native Son, Odyssey (The Acting Company); Travels (Ars Nova); Elyria (Atlantic Theatre Company); Drinking in America (Audible Minetta Lane Theater); Bite Me (WP project); She Loves Me (Longwarf); King James (The Old Globe); Theater of the Mind (Denver Center of Performing Arts); Blues for An Alabama Sky and Sweat (Guthrie Theater);  Sojourners, Joy and Pandemic, and Our Daughters Like Pillars (Huntington Theater); Seize The King (Alliance Theater); Fefu and Her Friends, Top Girls, Her Portmanteaux (American Conservatory Theater). In the dance world, Sarita has worked with choreographers such as Liz Lerman, and Edisa Weeks. MFA in design from Tisch School of Design. Awarded Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design (The National Black Theater Festival 2022). Lily Award (2020). Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design, Large Theater Elliot Norton (2024). 

Samantha C. Jones (Costume Designer, Two Trains Running) is excited to join the Acting Company in their work this season. She is a Costume Designer and educator with previous design credits at Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Goodspeed Musicals, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, Paramount Theatre (Aurora), Drury Lane Theatre, Writers Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago Children’s Theatre, TimeLine Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, The Muny, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cleveland Playhouse, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, First Stage Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Peninsula Players Theater, and others. Upcoming productions include: Fat Ham (OSF) and Little Shop of Horrors (Denver Center). Her work can be viewed at samanthacjones.com. (she/her)

Jared Gooding (Lighting Designer) is excited to be designing his first national tour and first design with The Acting Company. Based out of Chicago, his design credits include shows for theaters all over the country. Designs for STAGES Houston, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Goodman Theater, Writers Theater, Court Theater, Chicago Children’s Theater, TimeLine Theatre, Madison Children’s Theater, MPAACT, Syracuse Stage, Fulton Theater, Bristol Riverside Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Indiana Repertory Theater, First Stage Milwaukee, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Florentine Opera Company, American Blues Theater, Congo Square, and Steep Theater. He was the lighting assistant for The Wiz Live on NBC, and has associate designed at the Kennedy Center in DC. He is an Ensemble Member with American Blues and MPAACT theaters, and was named the 2023 emerging artist at the Michael Merritt Awards in Chicago. His work is featured at goodingdesigns.com.

Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Design) Broadway: Slave Play (Tony nominations for Best Score and Best Sound Design of a Play), The Nap, Bronx Bombers, and A Time to Kill. Off-Broadway: Privacy (The Public Theater), Bootycandy (Playwrights Horizons), Feeding the Dragon (Primary Stages), Top Secret (New York Theatre Workshop) and many others. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Hartford Stage, Alliance Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Old Globe Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre and many others. International: Slave Play (West End, London), Royal Shakespeare Company (England), Stratford Festival (Canada), and many others. Audio dramas: Disney’s Star Wars: Tempest Breaker, Marvel’s Wastelanders, Audible’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Audra McDonald and Carla Gugino, Next Chapter Podcasts’ Play On Shakespeare, and Committee For Children’s The Imagine Neighborhood. Lindsay has received two Tony Award nominations, seven Joseph Jefferson Awards (24 nominations), two Ovation Awards (three nominations), an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, and many others. Film/TV scoring: HBO Films’ A Note of Triumph – The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject), the newly released Dinosaur Discoveries (now playing the Houston Natural Sciences Museum) and over 30 other films. He is the co-chair of Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA) and teaches Composition For Theatre and Music History at the University Of North Carolina School Of The Arts. lindsayjones.com

Anna Dorodnykh (Props Design) is happy to join The Acting Company family again! Off-Broadway credits: The Counter (Props Supervisor), Love + Science (Props Designer), A Sherlock Carol (Deck Props), Romeo & Bernadette (Deck/Props). Regional: [Fiddler on the Roof- Props Designer (The Axelrod Performing Arts Center), Odyssey- Rehearsal Props Lead (The Acting Company National Tour).

Duane Boutté (Voice & Speech) is a New York based actor, director, and theater educator. He trained at UCLA and the National Theatre Conservatory and has taught at Illinois State University, Ramapo College, The New School, and National Theatre Institute. Boutté was text coach for Woodward Shakespeare Festival’s Twelfth Night and Hamlet and was a faculty advisor for voice and text on MFA directed productions at ISU. In his private studio, he has helped prepare actors for roles on Broadway and nationwide. Boutté is an Acting Company alum whose first NY job was touring in the company’s ‘91-’92 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other acting credits include Stonewall (1996 film), Brother to Brother (film), the original Broadway company of Parade and the 1994 TONY winning revival of Carousel.  Among his favorite roles performed are “Mercutio” (OSF), “Bayard Rustin” (Public Theater, Berkeley Rep), “Jeremy” in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Denver Center), and “Orestes” in an Oresteia inaugurating Berkeley Rep’s RODA Theatre.  His directing credits include Neil LaBute’s Appomattox (world premiere), Home (Rep Stage), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Worcester Shakespeare), The Winter’s Tale, Othello, Fences, Stalag 17, Everybody, Cabaret and more.  Composer credits include Caravaggio Chiaroscuro (LaMama), Lyin’ Up a Breeze (Second Space), and Thanks To the Lighthouse (NY Parks).

Ann James (Intimacy Director/Sensitivity Specialist) made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator on Broadway for Pass Over. Broadway credits include: Sunset Boulevard, A Wonderful World, Eureka Day, Sh*t. Meet. Fan, John Proctor is the Villain, The Outsiders (Tony Award Best Musical 2024), Lempicka, Illinoise, Hamilton, Parade (Tony Award 2023 for Best Revival), Sweeney Todd, Heart of Rock and Roll, Jelly’s Last Jam. Off-Broadway: Antiquities, The Great Privation, Velour! A Drag Spectacular!, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, The Hippest Trip, Sunset Baby, Orlando, Jonah, White Girl in Danger, How to Defend Yourself, The Comeuppance, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, My Broken Language, The Half-God of Rainfall, Here There Are Blueberries, Life and Trust, The Lonely Few. Tour: Hamilton UK. James’ company, Intimacy Coordinators of Color awarded a 2024 Special Citation from the OBIE Awards and The American Theatre Wing.

Tommy Kurzman (Wig & Hair Design) Broadway: Uncle Vanya, I Need That, Gutenberg: The Musical!, The Cottage, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Pictures From Home, The Collaboration, Macbeth, Mrs. Doubtfire, All My Sons, True West, St. Joan, My Fair Lady, Little Foxes, Long Day’s Journey, Bright Star, The King and I and Fiddler on the Roof. Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors (Westside Theatre), Titanique, Roundabout, MCC, Atlantic, The New Group, The Public, Manhattan Theatre Club, New World Stages. Regional: The MUNY, Goodspeed, Drury Lane, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Huntington, Geva Theatre, Arena Stage, MSM. Instagram: @TommyKurzmanWigs

Martine Kei Green-Rogers (Dramaturg) is the Dean of the Theatre School at DePaul University. Her dramaturgical credits include its not a trip, its a journey, He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box and The Ohio State Murders (Round House Theatre); Wind in the Door and Long Way Down (The Kennedy Center); The Catastrophist (Marin Theatre Company); Toni Stone and Sweat (The Goodman); Lion in Winter, King Hedley II, Radio Golf, Five Guys Named Moe, Blues for An Alabama Sky, Gem of the Ocean, Waiting for Godot, Iphigenia at Aulis, Seven Guitars, The Mountaintop, and Home (Court Theatre); It’s Christmas, Carol!, Hairspray, The Book of Will, Shakespeare in Love, UniSon, Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, Comedy of Errors, To Kill A Mockingbird, The African Company Presents Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Fences (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Broadway credits include Jagged Little Pill. (she/her)

Irvin Mason Jr. (Associate Director, Two Trains Running) is a director, actor, poet, and teaching artist born and raised in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. His work intersects expressive movement, live music, emerging technology, and Afro-Caribbean traditions to breathe new life to physical storytelling. Irvin seeks to direct work that leaves a residue—unapologetic work that dismantles the traditional foundations of theater and creates space for new voices to tell their own stories. Irvin is the proud, current recipient of the 2024-2026 Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship. He has recently assisted on the new work development of plays and musicals at the Playwrights Center and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. His recent directing credits include: Ain’t Misbehavin (Gallery-Players), Stuck (Chain Theatre), and Pipeline (Gallery-Players). Assistant Directing: Gospel According to Heather (AMAS, dir. Rachel Klein). In 2023, Irvin served as a directing observer to Schele Williams on the Broadway revival of The Wiz. He was the SDCF directing shadow on Little Shop of Horrors (dir. Maggie Burrows) and Rent (dir. Lili-Anne Brown) at the MUNY. He was also the directing observer on Pup! A Chew Story (NAMT). @iirvinmason irvinmasonjr.com

Murnane Casting (Casting) is a first-class office in New York City. With a passion for developing new works, our team specializes in casting for theatre, film, and television projects nationwide. Our mission is to offer a collaborative, relaxed, and highly creative casting experience for our clients. Learn more at MurnaneCasting.com

Esther Bermann (Stage Manager) is excited to join The Acting Company again after company managing their national tour of Odyssey in 2023. As a freelance stage manager based in NYC, her credits include New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, New York City Center, Soho Rep, NYMF, NYU, and Bushwick Starr. She also tours with Dianne McIntyre Group on the new dance work In the Same Tongue, produced by Octopus Theatricals. Additionally, she has over 20 years of dance and theater performance experience and has worked in the administrative offices of Dance/NYC and Pentacle. She holds a BA in dance and drama from University of California, Irvine.

Imani Ross (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to be joining The Acting Company for their 2024-2025 tour. A Purdue Northwest Graduate, she has accumulated years of experience within the different facets of production, education, corporate event planning, and stage management. Based in Chicago, she has worked with many local and national companies including: Drury Lane Theatre, Woman Evolve, Writers Theatre, The Fearless Fund, Lifeline Theatre, ONE Church LA, SJR Engagements and The All Nations Collective. Select theatre credits: A Chorus Line, Mary Poppins, Elf the Musical (Drury Lane Theatre), Twisted Melodies (Congo Square Theatre), Noises Off (Steppenwolf Theatre), Hot Wing King (Writers Theatre).

Holly Adam (Tour Company Manager) Excited to be on the road with The Acting Company! Previously—Broadway: Stereophonic. Off-Broadway: Stereophonic, Teeth, In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons), Show/Boat: A River (Target Margin Theater). Regional: La bohème, Vanessa, Ruinous Gods (Spoleto Festival USA). University of Michigan. Love to Mom. @holly.adam

Molly Garrison (Tour Lighting Supervisor) is a Chicago based freelance lighting designer and stage manager. Select design credits include Urinetown, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Into the Woods. She would like to thank The Acting Company for this opportunity. She also would like to thank her wife for her endless support.

Chris Grainer (Associate Production Manager/Tour Technical Director) is so excited and proud to be the Associate Production Manager and Tour Technical Director for August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors! Prior to joining The Acting Company, Chris spent his winter touring the country with Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet. He is looking forward to returning to the Aspen Music Festival this summer as the Meadows Campus Production Manager. Chris is an alumnus of SUNY Purchase College and Collegiate School of Richmond, VA. He would like to thank his friends, family, and peers for their enthusiastic support and kindness. Bravo, everyone!

Krista Grevas (Tour Wardrobe Supervisor) is a theatre creative based in NYC. Her most recent wardrobe and costume credits include wardrobe supervisor for New Light Theater Project’s Room 1214 at 59E59 Theaters. She is a Company Member with New Light having served as wardrobe for several productions as well as costume designer of Tracks this past August and September. Recently, she has worked with RWS Global at their New York offices as a stitcher and shop assistant with their wardrobe department. Her other credits include costume associate for Grease and The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Bucks County Playhouse as well as wardrobe supervisor on Canned Goods with American Theatre Group. Other production company credits include New York Rep, Trustus Theater, and Pendragon Theater. She holds her BA in Theatre Performance with a minor in Dance from the College of Charleston and her MFA in Actor Performer Training from Rose Bruford College in London, England.

Jessica Neill (Tour Lighting Drafter) is a Chicago-based designer, assistant, and artist. She is excited to be providing support for The Acting Company. Chicago area design credits include Mean Girls Jr, What the Constitution Means to Me, Sweat (Paramount Theatre), The Tragedy of King Christophe (House Theatre), Seven Days at Sea (Light and Sound Productions), Lighthouses in the Desert (Glass Apple Theatre), Bunny’s Book Club (Lifeline Theatre), Hans Christian Anderson (Northwestern University), Admissions (Theatre Wit), and Master Class (TimeLine Theatre). Associate and assistant credits include Waitress, Frozen, The Full Monty, Million Dollar Quartet, Beautiful,  Billy Elliot, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, School of Rock, Groundhog Day, Kinky Boots (Paramount), Lucy & Charlie’s Honeymoon, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Frankenstein (Lookingglass Theatre), Ghost in Gadsden’s Garden (Actor’s Gymnasium), graveyard shift (Goodman Theatre), and The Children (Steppenwolf Theatre). JessicaNeill.com

Danny H. Saturne II (Tour Sound Supervisor) has always had a passion for sound. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts Design and Technology from SUNY New Paltz in 2020 and his Associate’s in Theatre Arts Design and Technology in 2018 from SUNY Suffolk. Credits include mixing musicals from 2021-2022 for The John W. Engeman theater and touring with A Charlie Brown Christmas during the 2023 Winter Season. As a professional A1, he has worked with various musical groups, including the Choirs of America at the Kupferberg Center of the Arts in Queens.

THE ACTING COMPANY develops actors by touring professional theater coast-to-coast. Founded in 1972 by John Houseman and Margot Harley with the first graduating class of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, the Company has launched the careers of some 400 actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, Lorraine Toussaint, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Hamish Linklater, Jesse L. Martin, and Kelley Curran, while bringing sophisticated theater to hundreds of communities across the country. The Acting Company has performed for over 4 million people in 48 States, 10 foreign countries, on and Off-Broadway, and at leading resident theaters including the Guthrie, the Kennedy Center and New York City Center. New works commissioned by The Acting Company include plays by William Finn, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, John Guare, Beth Henley, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Meg Miroshnik, Ntozake Shange, Maria Irene Fornés, Marsha Norman, Samm-Art Williams, and Wendy Wasserstein among other notable playwrights. The Company’s education programs bring our award-winning workshop curriculum and in-school residencies to thousands of rural, suburban, and metropolitan schools each year. Among many accolades, The Acting Company received the 2003 Tony honor for Excellence in the Theater, and recently won the 2019 Audelco Award for Best Play for its production of Nambi E. Kelley’s Native Son directed by Seret Scott.

A.C.T. has a long history of producing Shakespeare, including traditional stagings, modern adaptations, and most recently, translations by contemporary playwrights.

In 2023, former A.C.T. Director of Community Connections Shannon R. Davis and then President of Play On Shakespeare Lue Douthit hatched a new idea…touring schools with a translated Shakespeare production performed by professional actors.

In March 2024, we launched the A.C.T. OUT Tour with Measure for Measure. Much more than a school tour, this initiative brings world-class actors into informal performance settings and allows audiences to get up close and personal with a no-frills, bare-bones, honest, and modern performance of a classic story.

This past March, the A.C.T. OUT Tour rode again, presenting Julius Caesar for six public performances (double the number of 2024 public performances) , two student matinee performances at A.C.T., and 11 performances in different schools throughout the Bay Area. We got some great responses from teachers and students!

“The show was really fun and I honestly loved the diversity amongst the actors. It was really awesome to see those that identify similarly to me doing cool stuff such as this!”
—10th grade student 

“The actors are sooo good at talking with the crowd.” —Student

“I enjoyed the fact that only a few actors were there, and the fact that their own personalities shone through each character. It felt more personal.” —Student

“The performance was amazing! I loved the round about format and the audience involvement and so did my students. The whole experience was wonderful. Thanks again!”
—Educator

Stay tuned for more information about plans for the A.C.T. OUT Tour in 2026—and learn more about the Tour on our website at act-sf.org/actout.

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