Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew

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S&Co: King Lear, Time Stands Still, Creditors, 4000 Miles, The Taming, The How and the Why, and Cassandra Speaks. She has directed, developed, and assisted productions at Third Avenue Playhouse, Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Flea, Primary Stages, the Drama Book Shop, Chelsea Repertory Lab, Circle East, Bushwick Arts, Central Square Theatre, Two River Theater Company, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Shadow Lawn Stage, and the Irish Repertory Theatre. She is on the faculty of The Theatre School at DePaul. MFA, Carnegie Mellon University. S&Co Month-long Intensive, ’01.

Bobbin Ramsey is a theatre and film director based in New York. Recent work includes a workshop of BRKN by Abigail Onwunali at Ensemble Studio Theater and ENRON by Lucy Prebble at the Atlantic Acting Conservatory. Other productions include: Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks, Macbeth, and the world premiere production of Cactus Queen by Doug Robinson (Yale School of Drama); Arlington by Enda Walsh, Udo by Abigail Onwunali and Nomé SiDone, a devised piece titled The Betrayal Project (Yale Cabaret); Barron’s Dance Nation; Jennifer Haley’s The Nether; Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Washington Ensemble Theater); BrechtFest, an original mash-up of Brecht plays served over a 3-course brunch (The Horse in Motion); and a site-specific Waiting for Godot performed on a Seattle pier (Arts on the Waterfront). She is an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Directing Fellow, an alum of the SDCF Observership Class, and an SDC Associate Member. BA: Unversity of Washington, MFA: Yale School of Drama.

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Juan Luis Acevedo is thrilled to be making his Shakespeare & Company debut. His vast New York, Regional and International credits include among others: Anna in the Tropics at Asolo Rep., Henry IV at NY Classical, Destiny of Desire (2020) at Cincinnati Playhouse, Jardin Salvaje, House on the Lagoon, The Mayor of Zalamea, Fuenteovejuna (US & Spain), Tierra del Fuego, Verano Verano, Life is a Dream (US & Spain), As You Like It, Preying on Instinct, Woyzeck, Hamlet, Cuarto adentro, Camino Real, The Order of Things, “Experiencias Clásicas” Spain. Film: Kiss of The Damned, 79 Parts, Fake. TV: Billions, Blacklist, Law & Order SVU and Criminal Intent. Juan Luis is excited to return to Massachusetts where he began his professional acting career performing Shakespeare with CSC in the Boston Commons.

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Sheila Bandyopadhyay is an actor, director, devisor and movement specialist. You may have caught her last summer as a ferocious goldendoodle in GBPT’s production of Dog People (Jesse/Betty). At Shakespeare & Company: Puck/Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). NY Theatre selected: Tamora in Titus Andronicus (The Humanist Project); Miranda/Stephano in The Tempest (Stages on the Sound); Dubois/Officer in The Misanthrope (Hunger & Thirst). In NYC, Sheila has developed and directed work at the Brick, the United Solo Festival, the Tank, the Women in Theater Festival, the West End Theater, and the 78th St Theatre Lab. Faculty/Guest Artist: NYU, Brandeis, FSU Conservatory/Asolo Rep, Dell’Arte International, Middlebury, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Emerson, Westfield State. Sheila is a member of the Humanist Project, an affiliated artist with Leviathan Lab and Project Y, and proud member of AEA. Center for Actor Training alumna: January Month-long Intensive, 1999.

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S&Co: An Iliad (Berkshire Theatre Award, Outstanding Solo Performance), King Lear, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Intimate Apparel, Fringe Festival producer (2017-2019). NEW YORK: Ensemble Studio Theatre, York Shakespeare. REGIONAL: Front Porch Arts Collective, SpeakEasy Stage, Lyric Stage, Franklin Stage, Elm Shakespeare, Hanover Theatre Repertory, Notre Dame Shakespeare, WAM Theatre, Ancram Opera House, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Kennedy Center, NJ Rep (company member), Theater Alliance, Tennessee Shakespeare, Advice to the Players, African Continuum Theatre, & Totem Pole Playhouse. FILM/TV: The Shape of Destiny (Official selection, 2018 Women in Comedy Festival), Ghosts of Hamilton Street (Mike Flanagan, dir.), HBO’s “The Wire.” EDUCATION: S&Co (Center for Actor Training alum, 2016 Month-long Intensive), National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Alcorn State University. For my mom Dorothy D. Scott Chesser, and my friend Dennis Krausnick.

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This is Rory’s 35th season with us. Last Summer she played Angelo in The Comedy of Errors which won the Broadwayworld.com award for Best Ensemble. She is currently teaching Voice for the Actor at the University of Hartford (UHart Conservatory). Rory just earned her MFA and Linklater Designation in London, at the Rose Bruford College of Music and Drama. During her London studies, in addition to her concentration on the Linklater Method, she was immersed in the work of Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed, as well as Trish Arnold’s Pure Movement, and the Michael Chekhov technique. Throughout these studies there was an emphasis on devising, working to create one’s own performance pieces through the art of theatrical storytelling. In addition to her studies at Rose Bruford, Rory has also been focused these past few years on directing and teaching Shakespeare to kids from ages 7–18. Directing Credits: Do you feel Anger, at the University of Hartford. Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Macbeth, all for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. New York acting credits include: Pericles, directed by Edward Berkeley, produced by Animus Theatre Company at SoHo Rep; Measure for Measure, also directed by Edward Berkeley, at Circle in the Square Theatre School; Bachelorette, directed by Lesley Headland, produced by Animus Theatre Company at Circle in the Square; John Patrick Shanley's Where's My Money, produced by Animus Theatre Company at the Cherry Lane Theatre; Shakespeare & Company credits include: Measure for Measure, Duke Vincentio, directed by Alice Reagan; Love’s Labour’s Lost, Princess of France, directed by Kelly Galvin; Christmas at Pemberley, directed by Ariel Bock; Ugly Lies the Bone and Taming of the Shrew, both directed by Daniela Varone; King John, Richard III, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, all directed by Tina Packer. The Wharton Salon at the Mount: Autres Temp, Xingu, and Summer, all directed by Catherine Taylor Williams. TV credits include: Dr. Pepper commercials circa 1998. Rory received much of her early training at Shakespeare & Company, starting with Young Company and ending as a member of the Summer Performing Institute (SPI). Rory is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City, and is a founding member of Animus Theatre Company in New York City. www.animustheatre.org. This performance is dedicated to Alan Langdon, my beloved acting teacher, mentor, and friend.

Jamal James is thrilled to have his debut at Shakespeare & Co. An actor who has performed all over the country, Jamal currently lives in sunny LA exploring Hollywood and its vibrant community. Always willing to talk about God, Star Wars, and Superheroes at any given time, he has worked in voiceovers, television, features and short films, improv and is currently working on writing his own projects. Some of his recent favorite productions include: The Royale, Hamlet, Feeding Beatrice, The Color Purple, Beauty and The Beast, Violet: The Musical, Barter Theater; TV/Film Credits: Blue Bloods, GOTHAM, City on a Hill, FBI: Most Wanted, Hit Me, Power Out, Lost Time. All love to God, his family and friends and to you and yours.

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Previously at Shakespeare & Company: The Comedy of Errors. Recent acting credits include How I Learned To Drive, Let The Right One In, and The Merchant of Venice (Actors' Shakespeare Project) and The Inheritance (Speakeasy Stage). Additionally, has appeared at New Rep, Gloucester Stage, Company One, Lyric Stage, Soho Rep, The Flea, The Kraine, and others. As a playwright, his plays include Manifest Destiny's Child (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Plug, and I Coulda Been a Kennedy (Rude Mechanicals). Directing credits include Antigone or And Still She Must Rise Up (Boston Conservatory), The Trojan Women: A Love Story (Stonehill College), Plug, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Rude Mechanicals). He produced and directed the documentaries American Autumn and Legalize Democracy. Dennis was the founding co-artistic director of the NYC-based Rude Mechanicals Theater Company. Currently, he serves as an Associate Professor of Theater at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

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Austyn Williamson is thrilled to be returning for this season at Shakespeare & Company. Shakespeare & Co.: The Contention: Henry VI, Part II, Regional Theatre: The Inheritance Parts I & II (Trinity Repertory Company), The Tempest (Oak Park Festival Theatre), How To Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens Theatre), Brown/Trinity Rep. MFA: Ironbound, Cold War Choir Practice, Hamlet, and several more. Austyn is a recent graduate of the Brown University/Trinity Rep. MFA Acting Program. He would like to thank his family, the B/T ’25 Cohort, as well as his fellow cast and crew for all their love and support!

Ryan has been a company member of Shakespeare & Company since 2006 and some of the productions he has been in include: As You Like It, Henry V, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Creditors, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Learned Ladies, Mother Courage, The Mystery of Irma Vep, and It's a Wonderful Life. Regional Credits include: Great Barrington Public Theater: The Stones, Breakwater; WAM Theatre: ROE, The Old Mezzo; Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: The Winter's Tale, Universe Rushing Apart; Gloucester Stage: Mr. Fulllerton: Between the Sheets; The Huntington Theatre Company: Joy and Pandemic. Film: The Boston Strangler (Hulu). TV: Time Traveling Bong (Comedy Central). Ryan has a BA from FSU, an MFA from UW-Madison, and he is a proud member of Actors' Equity and SAG.

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James W. Bilnoski is currently the Technical Director at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA and is a freelance Lighting, Projection and Scenic designer. He holds a Master of Fine Art in Theatrical Design from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA where he concentrated in Lighting, Projection, and Scenic Design. James also holds a Bachelor of Science in Technical Theatre from West Texas A&M, Canyon, TX. Since college his main concentration has been in lighting design, while pursuing other creative endeavors. He has been fascinated with the potential of projections and how it can be incorporated into any kind of performance since his first introduction to it. Shakespeare & Company shows include Flight of the Monarch (2024), hang, The Chairs (2021), The Children, Time Stands Still, The Waverly Gallery (2019), Morning After Grace, Creditors, Mothers and Sons (2018), 4000 miles, Intimate Apparel, God of Carnage (2017). Ugly lies the Bone, The Taming (2016), The How and the Why, Henry V, Mother of the Maid (premier) An Illiad (2015) Master Class, Heros, Private Lives, The Liar (2013) Stay Curious!

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Brendan F Doyle is a designer for live performance and fixed media: working with sound, projections, and reactive systems of all sorts. Works have been heard in bars and basements, chapels and concert halls, and in intentional and improvised venues alike, as well as 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 The Islanders, Midsummer, The Contention, Hymn, The Approach, hang, Art, Topdog/Underdog, The Waverly Gallery, and Macbeth.

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Dennis Ebert Jr. is one of two ASMs, both alike in dignity. Dennis is a New York-based Stage Manager and graduate of Pace University, having received a BA in Stage Management. He is stoked to be returning to Shakespeare & Company for another season! While away from S&Co, he is a resident stage manager at AMDA & subs on the props track for Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theater. Previous S&Co credits include Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Contention, Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues, hang, Coriolanus, The Waverly Gallery and more.

S&Co: The Islanders, 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 Gentlemen 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: TheatreSquared, Central Square Theatre, 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, Stage Managers’ Association where she serves as the International Cohort Chair, and OISTAT.

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Now retired as Costume Director, Govane is in her 44th year with Shakespeare & Company and enjoying costume design as her primary commitment. Selected credits at S&Co: Comedy of Errors, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Golda’s Balcony, An Iliad, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Martha Mitchell Calling play and film, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Tempest, Ugly Lies the Bone, Or..., It’s a Wonderful Life, Henry V, Mother of the Maid, Shakespeare’s Will, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Private Lives, Loves Labor’s Lost, Kaufman’s Barbershop, The Learned Ladies, Women of Will, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Taster, Mengelberg and Mahler, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Shirley Valentine, The Ladies Man, Enchanted April, Ice Glen, Lettice and Lovage, House of Mirth, Glimpses of the Moon and many years of the Holiday productions and costumed, staged readings and the Education Department’s Fall Festival and Tour productions. Selected Regional credits: Grant & Twain, Emilie..., The Long Run, In Darfur, Arabian Nights, Red Noses, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Metamorphosis, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Alice in Wonderland, Our Country’s Good.

Born in England, Tina was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, performed in regional theater, was an Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company, played in television series for the BBC and ITV, and arrived in the U.S. in 1974. She had a Ford Foundation Travel and Study Grant to research the visceral roots of Shakespeare’s plays, and travelled to India, Israel, Italy and the U.S. She co-founded Shakespeare & Company in 1978, and has worked for the Company ever since! She has directed all of Shakespeare’s plays (some of them several times), acted in eight of them (never when directing) and taught the whole canon at more than 30 colleges, including Harvard, M.I.T., and NYU. At Columbia University, she taught in the MBA program for four years, resulting in the publication of Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Center for Quality Management at Columbia Business School Professor John O. Whitney for Simon and Schuster. For Scholastic, she wrote Tales from Shakespeare, a children’s book and recipient of the Parent’s Gold Medal Award. Tina was the subject of WGBH documentary Sex, Violence and Poetry: A Portrait of Tina Packer. Tina’s book Women of Will was published by Knopf, and she has performed Women of Will with Nigel Gore in New York, Mexico, England, The Hague, China, and across the U.S. Charlie Rose interviewed Tina about her book Women of Will and she spoke at a TEDx talk about Women’s Voices. Her directing work is currently being written about in a work entitled Shakespeare in the Theatre: Tina Packer by Katharine Goodland, and will be published by Bloomsbury-Arden for their Shakespeare in the Theatre Series. S&Co acting credits include: Shirley Valentine, Molly Ivins, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Mother of the Maid; Volumnia, Gertrude, Cleopatra, and Edith Wharton several times. She’s the recipient of numerous awards and six honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.

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Will Sexton is an Air Force Veteran, MFA recipient in Scenic Design from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and holds his B.A. in Theatre Arts and B.S. in Business Management from Bridgewater State University. Selected scene design credits of his include Carrie Goes to Horror High, The Bald Soprano (Bridgewater State University), Fall Festival of Shakespeare, Emma (Shakespeare & Company), I WISH: An Immersive Escape Experience, RENT, The Revolutionists (Illinois Theatre), Pass Over (Armory Free Theatre), Descendants: The Musical and Moana (Ogunquit Playhouse). He has presented at USITT on his topic: “Integrating Military Experience into an Undergraduate Theatre Education”. Further, Will has scenic carpentry experience expanding across Upstate Scenic, Barrington Stage Company, Ogunquit Playhouse, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Brown Box Theatre Project.

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Kathleen H. Soltan is one of two ASMs, both alike in dignity. Kathleen is a Philadelphia based Stage Manager and Creator. Selected Theatre Credits: King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, Macbeth with Shakespeare & Company, I Do! I Do! with Purple Crayon Productions, Cadillac Crew, Kamloopa with WAM Theater Company, Noises Off!, Othello, The Birds, The Handmaid’s Tale with CurioTheatre Company. Selected Training: BA Theater Temple University. Creative Inspiration: Kathleen is dedicated to providing and promoting safe spaces for all Performers, Designers, and Artistic Creators. Special thanks to Hope, Dennis, the cast and crew, the cows at High Lawn, and to SPF 50!