The Islanders

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Carey Crim is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Speech. Her play Never Not Once was the winner of the Jane Chambers award, a finalist for the O’Neill and recently opened at The Park Theatre (London). Her drama 23 ½ Hours will open at The Park 200 in September. Morning After Grace has been produced at Asolo Repertory Theater, The Royal Manitoba Theater Centre, Shakespeare & Company, The Barter Theatre, The Purple Rose Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Florida Repertory Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Riverside Theatre and more. It was published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. TRW also published her play Distance Learning written for Laurie Metcalf and recently added Paint Night to their roster. Her new comedy What Springs Forth will premiere at The Purple Rose in June 2024. Carey is represented by Mark Orsini at Bret Adams and Brandy Rivers at Amplified where she is currently developing the one- hour television drama Blessed. -- For George

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Regge Life directed the 2022 production of Hymn, the 2019 multiple Berkie Award winning production of Topdog/Underdog, the wildly acclaimed Morning After Grace in 2018, God of Carnage in 2017 and Kaufman’s Barbershop by the late Rob Sugarman in 2013. His most recent productions are the World Premiere of “Phillis” at Revolutionary Spaces in Boston and Cross That River returning to the 59E59th Street theater and now on national tour. He directed I Just Stopped by to See Man for Milwaukee Rep, Yellowman and Gem of the Ocean for Pittsburgh Public Theater, Ghosts for the Pearl Theater, Piano Lesson for Virginia Stage Company, A Walk in the Woods at Capital Rep, Rebel Armies into Deep Chad, Laurence Fishburne’s Riff Raff and Arthur Miller’s The American Clock for the Juilliard School. Living in the Wind and Do Lord Remember Me at the former American Place Theatre. He is the Senior Distinguished Director in Residence at Emerson College in Boston.

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Michelle is delighted to be here, doing this beautiful play in this wonderful theatre. She first met playwright Carey Crim in 1998 at the Purple Rose Theatre Company where they were part of the original cast of Lanford Wilson's Book of Days; they've remained good friends and colleagues ever since. Favorite roles include Allison in Never Not Once, Abigail in Morning After Grace, Molly in Wake, Katherine Brandt in 33 Variations, Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Thank you Carey, Regge, “ranney”, and Vince.

"ranney" has five decades in the performing arts as a multi-disciplinarian. Acting credits include August Wilson, Brucie (How I Learned What I Learned; Sweat, Ensemble Theatre Company); Doaker (The Piano Lesson, A Public Fit Theatre Company); Troy, Benny, Mark (Fences; Hymn; Art, Shakespeare & Company); Luke, Polonius/Gravedigger, Toledo, Troy Maxson (Amen Corner; Hamlet; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Fences, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company); Hambone, Sterling (Two Trains Running; Radio Golf, American Stage Company.); King Hedley, Chutes & Ladders (Seven Guitars; Water By the Spoonful, Nevada Conservatory Theatre); Boy Willie (The Piano Lesson, Center Theatre Co.); Adriana/Antipholis/others (The Bomb-itty of Errors, American Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Helix in Dublin, Ireland, and Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End). As a comedian, he has headlined internationally and shared billing with Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, and Paul Mooney. Nine one man shows include And the Horse You Rode In On (Projects Arts Centre, Dublin), Whatever (People’s Improv Theater, NY), Incendiary (The Straz Center, Tampa), and Cufflinks and Jolly Ranchers for Dummies (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland).

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Lyra Abbott is thrilled to be making their debut at Shakespeare & Company! They studied theater with a focus in Stage Management at Washington College and worked on productions of Antigone (2020) and She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms (2021), as well as directing a production of God of Carnage (2022). They also spent a summer working as a production assistant for Berkshire Busk in Great Barrington. Around their theater involvement, they enjoy writing, both plays and prose, and spending time with their cats.

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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.

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Costume Design credits include: A Cry of Players, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, Carrie the Musical, The Coronation of Poppea, Peter Pan, The Producers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hairspray the Musical, and 42nd Street. In addition to her design work she has been involved with the management, construction and mounting of over 100 other productions.

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Becka Kastner is originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana but currently resides in Orlando, Florida, and received a degree in Production Stage Management with a minor in Hospitality and Food Management from Ball State University in 2022. She is ecstatic to be making her Shakespeare & Company debut! Previous credits include (at the Orlando Shakes) Christmas Carol, Million Dollar Quartet, Kinky Boots, and Noises Off as a PA. In addition, they were the Assistant Stage Manager for Venus in Fur, Comedy of Errors, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill and Charlotte’s Web. They also stage managed The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and a variety of the cabarets in the Orlando Shakes season. She’d like to thank her family and her husband for always pushing her to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional stage manager!

S&Co: The Contention, Golda’s Balcony, Lunar Eclipse, An Iliad, Measure for Measure, The Chairs, King Lear, Topdog/Underdog, Macbeth, Heisenberg, Cymbeline, God of Carnage, Or, Two Gentleman of Verona, Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Comedy of Errors, Richard II, Rough Crossing, Blue/Orange, The Ladies Man, Othello, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Taster, As You Like It, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The War of the Worlds, Santaland Diaries. Regional: WAM Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Majestic Theatre, American Stage Company, Hartford Stage Company, Montana Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, The Wilma, Wallis Center, The Public Theatre, McCarter Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Hangar Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Stonington Opera House Arts, CLOC. Based in Pittsfield, MA, Hope Rose is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Stage Managers’ Association where she serves as the International Cohort Chair.

Deb is a Boston-based lighting designer with off-broadway, regional, local and educational credits. Previous work with Shakespeare & Co: Cymbeline, Twelfth Night and HIR. This season's work included Romeo and Juliet with Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Mermaid Hour with MoonBox Productions and Trouble in Mind with Lyric Stage Boston. Memorable designs on stages with Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Brandeis University, Dorset Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, New Rep, The Public Theater/NYSF, Trinity Repertory Company, and The Curley K-8 Boston Public School. Member IATSE United Scenic Artists Local 829.

Ms. Todesco returns to Shakespeare & Company where she previously designed Topdog/Underdog, Twelfth Night and Macbeth. Theater companies include Actors Shakespeare Project, Capital Rep, ART Institute, Company One, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, the Culture Project, Huntington Theatre, Boston Playwrights, Merrimack Repertory Theater, New Repertory Theater, New England Conservatory, Olney Theater Center, Orfeo Group, Poet's Theater, Speakeasy Stage Company, Harbor Stage, Summer Play Festival, Trinity Rep, Wheelock Family Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival among many more. She has designed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra at both Symphony Hall in Boston and at Tanglewood in Lenox. For Outstanding Design, she is the recipient of four Elliot Norton Awards and an IRNE Award. She earned a BFA in painting from Boston University’s School of Visual Arts, and an MFA in scenic design from BU’s School of Theatre Arts, where she currently teaches. Ms Todesco is a board member and founding artist tenant of Humphreys Street Studios Artist Collective, one of the first majority artist owned and operated affordable artist communities in perpetuity in the City of Boston. She’s also a founding member of #artstayhere, an organization dedicated to helping prevent artist displacement.

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Esther Van Eek, a proud member of CITT/ICTS, USITT, and the Associated Designers of Canada, designs primarily costumes in Canada and the USA. She holds a BFA in Visual Art from Calvin University and an MFA in Production Design from the George Washington University. An award-winning designer and educator, Esther teaches production and design at the University of Windsor and mentors up-and-coming designers. She collaborated with several colleagues to write The Art and Practice of Costume Design and appears as a guest artist in Rafael Jaen’s Digital Costume Design and Collaboration: Applications in Academia, Theatre, and Film. Esther serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology and is the Vice-Commissioner of Design for USITT’s Costume Commission. When not designing or teaching, Esther continues her artistic practice as a printmaker and painter. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” - Mark Twain