Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret

TV: White Famous, Showtime (series regular), Watchmen, HBO (series regular), Ray Donovan, Showtime (Recurring), Feed the Beast, AMC (recurring). Also seen on, Only Murders in the Building, WU-TANG: An American Saga, New Amsterdam, God Friended Me, High Maintenance, and several more. Film: Superfly, Forty-year-old Version, Snakes, R#J, Possession of Hannah Grace, The Bygone, Julie Taymour’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and others. Broadway: Shrek the Musical (Original cast), Hands on a Hardbody, (Original Cast). Off Broadway: The Harder They Come, Public Theatre, Lortel nomination Alchemist, Mammon, Redbull theater, Lortel nomination Merry Wives, Falstaff, Public theater, Drama Desk nomination Father Comes Home from the Wars, Public theater, Lortel Award. Twelfth Night, Sir Toby, Public Theater. Cymbeline, Public Theater. Mother Courage, CSC. Merchant of Venice, TFANA. Midsummer Night’s Dream, TFANA. Widowers Houses, Epic Theater Ensemble. Tempest, Public Theater. On the Levee, Lincoln Center.

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S&Co: Director: The Tempest (2017), As You Like It (2018), Twelfth Night (2019), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2023). Shakespeare & Company performances: A Walk in the Woods, King Lear, God of Carnage, Or, King John, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV Part 1, among others. As Artistic Director of Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Allyn directed and acted in numerous productions. Other Boston area performances include Can You Forgive Her (Huntington Theatre), Breaking the Code (Underground Railway Theatre), Shipwrecked (The Lyric Stage), The Seafarer and The Homecoming (Merrimack Repertory Theater), Five by Tenn (Speakeasy Stage). Elliot Norton Award for The Homecoming, King Lear, Five by Tenn; IRNE Award for Breaking the Code. Off-Broadway: Bug, Killer Joe, Louis Slotin Sonata, Closetland. Regionally: Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theatre, Long Wharf, Denver Center, Walnut St. Television: “The Broad Squad,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “Against the Law.” Films include The Company Men, Julie & Julia, Manchester by the Sea, and Don’t Look Up.

Broadway Tour: The Band’s Visit (Original Cast). Regional: The Band’s Visit (Huntington Theater/SpeakEasy Stage, Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Lead Performance); Detroit ‘67, Romeo & Juliet (Chautauqua Theater Company); A Walk on the Moon, A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater); title of show (Bridge Production Group); Theory of Relativity (Goodspeed Musicals); Fiddler on the Roof (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival & CFRT). TV: Law & Order: SVU, New Amsterdam. ACT MFA: Clickshare, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Good Woman of Setzuan, Motherfucker with the Hat, Lungs. Education: MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, CA. Jennifer is the host of the Empowered Artist Collective Podcast and an Acting Coach who specializes in MFA/BFA auditions, finding monologues, and audition prep.

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S&Co: Claudio (Much Ado), Feste (Twelfth Night), Fenton/Slender (Merry Wives), Silvius/Amiens (As You Like It), Young Men (Macbeth), Iago (Othello ed. tour), Bottom/Demetrius (Midsummer ed. tour), Leo (4000 Miles), Scaramouch (The Emperor of the Moon), Macduff/ Duncan (Macbeth ed. tour), Musician/ Composer (An Iliad), Greg (SLaW), Polonius/Horatio (Hamlet ed. tour), Nurse/Friar (R&J ed. tour), Ensemble (The Tempest), Damis (Tartuffe). He has worked with many theaters across the Northeast, including The Majestic Theater, Catskill Mountain Shakespeare, Urbanite Theatre, The Theater at Woodshill, The Umbrella Stage Company, WAM Theatre, Emergent Ensemble Theater, The Theatre at Monmouth, Looking Glass Theater (NY), Hampshire Shakespeare, and more. Greg has directed/taught in the education programs at Shakespeare & Company for years, serves on the faculty at Community Access To The Arts in Great Barrington MA, and produces his own independent music and artwork. Training: S&Co Intensive; (BA) UMass Amherst; UKent Canterbury.

Johnny Irion's new album Sleeping Soldiers of Love is one his most exciting collaborations ever, where he was joined by the staggeringly creative, and multi-talented, skills of Jeff Bridges, Patrick Sansone of Wilco, The Chatham Rabbits, Mike Mills of REM, Griffin Goldsmith of DAWES, and many others. Stand Up That Mountain The award-winning novel inspired this work. Recorded in his studio in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the full album is scheduled for release on August 9th, 2024. The first single and the video for Sleeping Soldiers of Love will be available on May 14, 2024, VIA Blackwing Music, a great supporter of music in education. I hope you enjoy this as much as we loved creating it.

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Jennie is a Company Member of Shakespeare & Company and a proud part of their nationally recognized Education Department. An actress with extensive regional acting credits, Jennie’s work has been seen at S&Co, WAM, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theater Group, Jacob’s Pillow, and Mixed Company. Jennie is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and completed her MA in Movement Therapy and Counseling with a primary focus on the treatment of adolescents with psychiatric diagnosis. When not acting or teaching she can be found with her incredible family, to whom she is deeply grateful for all of their love and constant support.

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Jimbo is in his fiftieth year of performing music in 2024! He has played bass guitar and guitar in many, many groups based in the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley and the Greater Boston areas. He has toured the U.S. and Canada, performed extensively in Florida and on the East Coast. A native New Englander (and Berkshire boy), he studied music and business at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Benny Kohn is a Berkshire based pianist/singer/composer. Benny joins forces with many local artists spanning a variety of genres (Jazz, Blues, Funk, R&B, Popular, Rock) including Wanda Houston, Ed Moran, Andy Wrba, Gina Coleman, Glori Wilder, The O-tones, Samirah Evans, Hot Sauce, Chantell McFarland, The Rejuvinators, Rev Tor and many others. Benny can also be found leading his own combos and playing Solo.

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Raya Malcolm is an actor and musician based in the Capital Region and is thrilled to make her Shakes & Co. debut! Some regional credits include: Capital Repertory Theatre: Hermia (Midsummer Night’s Dream). Great Barrington Public Theatre: Rosie (Things I Know To Be True), Bobby (Breakwater). Stages On the Sound: Ophelia (Hamlet, a workshop), Sam (Dad the Snowman). Berkshire Playwright’s Lab: Lena (Lena Levitates). Central Square Theater: March Girl/Swallow (Matchless & The Happy Prince). Saratoga Shakespeare Company: Juliet (Romeo & Juliet), Poins (Henry IV: Parts I & II). Boston Playwright’s Theatre: Daisy (Rhinoceros). Raya is also an Associate Artistic Director of Troy Foundry Theatre and makes up 1/3rd of local, indie-folk trio, Hold On Honeys, who recently won an Eddy Award for Best Folk Artist of the Year. Raya happily lives in Troy, NY with her yoga mat and many houseplants.

Merlin is a performer and screenwriter originally from Raleigh, North Carolina and is excited to be in the Berkshires this summer. Merlin made his Shakespeare & Company debut in the Northeast Regional Tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His other favorite credits include: Viola (National Black Theatre Festival), Millie in Trouble in Mind (Clarence Brown Theatre), and Hero and Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing (Starling Shakespeare) Training: MFA from University of Tennessee Knoxville.

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Conor Meehan is a versatile drummer currently based in western Massachusetts. As an in demand sideman, Conor has appeared on over 50 recordings and has toured extensively throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and Brazil. Since 2005, he has held the position "Artist Associate of Jazz Drums" at Williams College and has also served as a clinician at numerous summer institutes including Jazz in July at UMass and Interplay Jazz Workshop. Conor’s comfort playing a wide range of styles, from straight ahead jazz, to rock, r’n’b, samba and everything in between, has led to opportunities to work with artists across many genres, including Dr. John, Charles Neville, The Boston Pops, Brian MacNight, Honeyhoney, Ted Rosenthal Trio, John Medeski, David Spinozza, The Midtown Men, Reggie Workman, Albert Cummings, Jeremy Pelt, Heiruspecs, Sonya Kithcell, Samirah Evans, Whiskey Treaty Roadshow, Andy Suzuki & The Method, Norma Miller, Berkshire Symphony among many others.

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This is Jaclyn’s first season as a performer with Shakespeare & Company, and her third as its Director of Marketing & Communications. Recent credits as a performer or speaker include A Conversation with Best-selling Author Terry Hayes (The Mahaiwe); Poet 47, The Very Large Poem (WordxWord at The Mount); feature violin at Bousquet Mountain Jam and The Iron Horse with Shakedown, and feature violin, PVPA Dance Company. Additional credits include television: Songwriter, singer, and violinist, Undressed, Mtv. Albums: feature violin, Piano Planet, Derrick Cummings; singer and violinist, Pass the Sombrero, Singer Bad Dancer; feature violin, Matinee, Rob Cushing, and singer/violinist, the Cape Cod Musicians’ Social album.

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Brendan F Doyle is a designer for live performance and fixed media: working with sound, video, and reactive systems. Theatrical sound design credits include projects with the Huntington Theatre Company, ArtsEmerson, Shakespeare & Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Arlekin Players Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Revolutionary Spaces, Wheelock Family Theatre and others. Additional works have been heard in bars and basements, chapels and concert halls, improvised venues of all sorts, and across the internet. Training consists of an MSc in Sound Design from the University of Edinburgh, a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology from Emerson College, and more than two decades working with musicians. Brendan is a proud member of IATSE Local USA 829 Previous Shakespeare & Company credits include Midsummer, The Contention, Hymn, The Approach, hang, Art, Topdog/underdog, The Waverly Gallery, and MacBeth.

Anthony Feola is thrilled to be returning to Shakespeare & Company for his third summer! Shakespeare & Company credits include: A Walk in the Woods (Asst. Stage Manager), Hymn (Tech & Performance Assistant Stage Manager) and 2023 SSI (Workshop Manager). Other Selected credits: Twelfth Night (Production Stage Manager), The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe (Production Stage Manager Sub) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Asst. Stage Manager) with Northern Stage. Anthony recently spent the past year on an international tour with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo as their Production Associate. Anthony graduated with a BFA in Stage and Production Management from Emerson College and would like to thank his family and friends for their support!

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First time appearing at Shakespeare & Company. Founding Company Member with Actors’ Shakespeare Project where she has stage managed over 25 productions. Other Boston credits include Huntington Theatre Company, Lyric Stage Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Speakeasy Stage, Israeli Stage, and more. She teaches stage management at Boston College and is the Marketing & Community Engagement Manager at J.P. Licks.

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Gabriella Walko is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She recently completed a BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh. Recent theatre credits include: Spring Awakening: Wendla Bergmann (Pitt Stages), A...My Name is Still Alice: Stage Manager (Front Porch Theatricals), Stage Management Production Assistant (Pittsburgh CLO); John Proctor is the Villain: Student, u/s Beth, Bailey (Pitt Stages); Falsettos: Apprentice Stage Manager (Front Porch Theatricals); Abduction: A Musical Comedy: Gleep Glorp, Ensemble (Pitt Stages); Seven Guitars: Asst. Lighting Designer (Pitt Stages); Harriet Tubman...Railroad: Asst. Stage Manager (Primestage Theatre Co.).

Peggy has spent most of her career designing for Musical Theatre. Favorite design projects are Children of Eden, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Angels in America, and Pirates of Penzance. Since moving to the Berkshires in 2011, she continues her work as a Costume Designer for Shakespeare & Company’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare. She also designs for Barrington Stage, Pittsfield’s Shakespeare in the Park, Berkshire Community College and various other theatres in the tri-state area.

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Luke Willson is a New-York based emerging lighting designer and theatrical electrician. Next year Luke will graduate from Fordham University having designed, managed, and/or programmed over 40 shows. He recently completed a Lighting and Projection Design Observership with Manhattan Theatre Club for their production of Poor Yella Rednecks, an experience that he will treasure forever. He is so excited to join all of the wonderful people at Shakespeare & Company this summer. Thank you so much for coming to support live theater!

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Christine studied at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, where she graduated with a degree in theatre, with a stage management concentration, and a dance minor. Some of her previous credits include The Threepenny Opera (PSM), Mary Poppins Jr. (co-technical director + lighting designer), Adult Child/Dead Child (director), The Saint Plays (DSM + choreographer), The Sound of Music (show caller), Spring Awakening (choreographer), and Into the Woods (ASM). Christine has previously worked with Shakespeare & Company on their production of Golda’s Balcony as a rehearsal ASM, and she is thrilled to be back with the company!