Gala 2026

We’re excited to announce the first guest artists of the Gala 2026 performance!

 

These and other artists yet to be announced will bring Shakespeare’s language and characters to life in Shakespeare & Company’s distinctive style.
We will announce additional performers in the coming weeks.
The years after some cast members’ names denote their status as alumni of The Center for Actor Training’s January Intensive (formerly the Month-long Intensive), Summer Shakespeare Intensive, or Conservatory programs.

Gala 2026 on Friday, June 26 unfolds between order and enchantment—where integrity meets absurdity. Inspired by Hamlet and Twelfth Night, we will explore the space between clarity and chaos, reason and emotion, truth and illusion.

The moon guides us as a symbol of change, longing, and possibility, while moments of “madness” reveal something honest and human beneath the surface. Like theater itself, the evening will balance craft and imagination, structure and surprise. We invite you to dine and dance under a celestial sky—midnight hues, constellations of light, shimmering metallics, warm candlelight, and a hint of cosmic drama.

The evening begins at 4:30 pm with cocktails under the festive Tina Packer Tents, followed by a special performance tribute in the Tina Packer Playhouse, dinner by Peter Platt of The Old Inn on the Green in the elegant Rose Meadow Tent, and dancing beneath the stars. Proceeds benefit Shakespeare & Company‘s Center for Actor Training, Education Program, and Performances. For more information, write to Director of Development Sunie Gorey at sgorey@shakespeare.org, or call 413.637.1199 ext.180. As a Gala benefactor, you and your guests will receive priority seating for both the performance and dinner. Those who respond by June 12 will be recognized in our print and digital Gala materials, including the Commemorative Gala Program.

Seating is limited, and the Gala traditionally sells out.  

Did You Know?
Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) are a wonderful, tax-smart way to support Shakespeare & Company. For our Gala, DAF grants can be directed toward the Paddle Raise or given as a fully charitable donation. Because of IRS rules, DAF grants cannot be used to purchase tickets or tables or to pay for any portion that provides a benefit (like event attendance or meals). DAF gifts must be entirely charitable and cannot provide more than an incidental benefit—directly or indirectly—to the donor or their guests. The prohibition on indirect benefits also means DAF grants generally can’t be used for the “charitable portion” of a ticket even if you pay the benefits portion separately, also known as a “bifurcated payment.” IRS Notice 2017-73, Section 3 covers this in more detail. If you’re considering using a DAF and have questions about how to structure your support, our Development team is always happy to help.

Gala Artists

Gregory Boover
Gregory Boover

Company Actor / Education Artist

S&Co: Much Ado, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Merry Wives, As You Like It, 4000 Miles, Tartuffe, The Tempest; Ed. tours of Othello/Midsummer, Twelfth Night/Macbeth, Hamlet, R&J. Seven-time director for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare. Regional: Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Waitress, The Ladyslipper (The Majestic Theater); Marcus is Walking (Mixed Company); A Christmas Carol (Hanover Theater); As You Like It (Catskill Mountain Shakespeare); The Feast (Urbanite Theatre); Mary’s Wedding (The Theater at Woodshill); The Old Man and The Old Moon (The Umbrella Stage Company); WAM Theatre, Emergent Ensemble Theater, The Theatre at Monmouth, Looking Glass Theater (NY), and more. Greg serves on the faculty at Community Access To The Arts, and produces independent film, music and artwork. His short film Notification won Best Screenplay at the 2026 Easthampton Film Festival and is now available free on Youtube. Training: S&Co 2017 Month-long Intensive; (BA) UMass Amherst. For Caroline and Owen always.

Caroline Calkins
Caroline Calkins

Company Actor / Education Artist

S&Co: A Body of Water, Much Ado About Nothing, Time Stands Still, Love’s Labor’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Emperor of the Moon, Henry V, and others. Caroline taught for many years in S&Co’s Education Program, including directing in the Fall Festival of Shakespeare (2011-2023) and performing in the Northeast Regional Tours of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Macbeth. Caroline is the Resident Theater Faculty at CATA (Community Access to the Arts) and has performed at Boston Playwright’s Theatre, the Theater at Woodshill, WAM and elsewhere. Training: BA from Brown University; MA from Emerson College; National Theater Institute.

Susan Dibble
Susan Dibble

Senior Workshops Director for the Center for Actor Training / Training / Movement Faculty

Susan Dibble is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and painter. She graduated from SUNY College at Purchase with a B.F.A. in Dance in 1976. In 1979, Susan was a participant in the first Shakespeare & Company January Intensive. Susan is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company where she has worked for the past 47 years as a teacher of movement and dance for actors, movement director and choreographer. In 1987, after teaching at a variety of universities including NYU Tisch MFA in Acting Program, Susan (Emerita Professor of Theater Arts) joined the faculty of the Theater Arts Department at Brandeis University in 1987 where she was a full professor and taught Movement for Actors, Modern Dance, Choreography, Clown, Mask, Period Styles, and Historical Dance, as well as serving as Theater Arts Department chair for 8 years. Susan is the director of Susan Dibble Dance Theater and has performed her work for over 40 years in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont as well as numerous times at Shakespeare & Company in the program “DibbleDance”. She has worked as a choreographer and movement director for the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Berkshire Theatre Group, Manhattan Theatre Club, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, The Nora Theater, The Underground Railroad Theatre, and The Revels. Susan has taught at The Elements Theater, Yale School of Drama, New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, the Denver Center Performing Arts Center, University of Ohio, University of Utah and Webster College. Susan received the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Festival of Creative Arts Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts at Brandeis.

David Gow
David Gow

Company Actor

Pronouns he / him

TV/Film: The Girls on the Bus (HBO), Chrissy Judy (Apple TV), The Good Fight (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS), Jon Glaser Loves Gear (truTV), The Savant (Apple TV), The Intruder (Apple TV), Candice (Austin Film Festival). NY THEATER: Banya (Theaterlab), Burning Leaves (Duke Theater), Chokehold (14th St Y), What I First Desired (Soho Playhouse), Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone (Workshop Theater), Bleach (Wilson’s Lounge), Decky Does a Bronco (Royal Family Productions). REGIONAL: The Inheritance (Round House- HELEN HAYES LEAD PERFORMER AWARD), Rust on Bone (Denver Center), Measure for Measure, Mothers & Sons, Waverly Gallery, Dear Jack Dear Louise, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare & Company), Sweat (Capital Rep), Pirira, Giant Void in My Soul (Luna Stages), The Foreigner (A.D. Players), Sense & Sensibility, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (4th Wall Theater), Why Do You Stand There In The Rain (Edinburgh Fringe), Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top Of The World (Hollywood Fringe). David holds a BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Love to Kennedy.

Michael Hammond
Michael Hammond

Company Actor / Text Faculty

Michael Hammond is an actor, director, playwright and teacher. He was a member of Boston University’s School of Theatre faculty for many years, and prior to Boston University, worked for many years at Shakespeare & Company, finally serving there as associate artistic director. He is currently a member of Shakespeare & Company’s faculty. He has appeared as an actor on Broadway, and at various regional theaters. Two of his more recent live performances: a collaboration entitled The Cattle, presented at Douglas Dunn’s studio in New York City; and a presentation of his tribute to late friend and collaborator Steve Haferbier, entitled Gone Before, Cont’d, at the Becket Arts Center in Becket, MA. Michael’s podcast, entitled Ezra Speaks, is currently available on major podcast platforms.

Rory Hammond
Rory Hammond

Company Actor / Linklater Voice teacher

Pronouns she / her

This is Rory’s 37th season with us. Her latest credits include: The Tracy Letts Festival (reading series with Animus Theatre Company) at Circle in the Square in August: Osage County as Karen Weston. Last Summer she played Lady Capulet in Romeo & Juliet, and Bianca in Taming of the Shrew. 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. Directing Credits: Macbeth at the Roberts Theatre (mainstage), and 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, Mass. 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 Varon; 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. This performance is dedicated to Alan Langdon, my beloved acting teacher, mentor, and friend.

Annette Miller
Annette Miller

Company Actor

Annette Miller has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in Boston, in Regional Theaters, and in Film and Television. She has been a leading actor at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass. for 25 seasons. Annette was seen in the well-received new play by Lawrence Goodman The Victim. In 2024, she was awarded a Special Citation at the Elliott Norton awards ceremony, for her body of work and her recent sold-out reprisal of Golda’s Balcony at Shakespeare & Company and at Boston’s Emerson Paramount Theater, February and March 2024. She was acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as the best actor of the 2020 season in regional theater for her performance as Gladys Green in The Waverly Gallery. She received the 2018 Berkshire Theater Critics Association Award for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Katherine in Mothers and Sons. Annette originated the role of Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony before it went to Broadway for which she received both Boston’s Elliot Norton Best Actor Award and the Independent Reviewers of New England Best Actor Award. In Florida, she received the Carbonell Best Actor Award nomination for her portrayal of Vi in August Osage County and the Elliot Norton Best Actor Nomination for her role as Martha Mitchell in Martha Mitchell Calling. Other favorite roles include Maria Callas in Master Class, Madam Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Vera in 4,000 Miles, Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop, Duchess of York in Richard III, and Maria in Twelfth Night. Film role credits include: Mrs. Tanken in Don’t Look Up with Leonardo DiCaprio, You Will Not Play Wagner (featuring Annette, which has been successfully seen at the New Plaza Cinema in NY and the Miami, Sarasota, Boca, Chicago, and Vancouver Jewish film Festivals and this June at the prestigious Berkshire International Film Festival.), Company Men, Autumn Heart, The Imported Bride Groom, The Next Karate Kid, The Eye Has to Travel (documentary on Diana Vreeland), and See How She Runs. On TV, Annette had recurring roles on As The World Turns and Ryan’s Hope. Other awards include the Boston Jewish Film Festival Award and the Zev Cohen Leadership Award. Annette studied with Stella Adler and holds a BA and MFA from Brandeis University. She is currently an Alumni Scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center where she wrote and continues to perform for organizations and colleges. Now is Our Time: for a Theatrical Collage on the Pleasures and Perils of our Third Chapter.

Devante Owens
Devante Owens

Company Actor

Pronouns they / them

Recent credits include Off B'way: Neavh, The 2 Queers a Lesbian Meets at the Home Depot (A.R.T. New York); Nurse, Romeo and Juliet, Brutus, Julius Caesar, Touchstone, As You Like It (Catskill Mountain Shakespeare); S&Co: Conrad / Friar, Much Ado About Nothing, Burgundy, King Lear (starring Christopher Lloyd), Lucentio, The Taming of the Shrew, Dumaine, Love's Labor's Lost, Theseus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ensemble, Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped the World; Brian, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (reading), Mr. Woodhouse, Emma (reading), Ronald Drayton, Autumn (reading), Roger Peterson, Kernel of Sanity (reading); S&Co Regional Tour: Angelo, The Comedy of Errors, Duncan, Macbeth. With a deep interest classical work and the voice, they have been a devoted student of the Linklater Voice Method for the past five years in the hopes of one day becoming a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher.

Michael F. Toomey
Michael F. Toomey

Company Actor / Clown Faculty

Michael F. Toomey is the Artistic Director of The Humanist Project and a founding member of Split Knuckle Theatre, which devises new works and has toured from Bangkok to Buenos Aires. He is the creator of The Onion Cycle, an ongoing trilogy of clown plays set in Danvers, MA that excavate absurdity, identity, and American myth. Toomey has been a company member at Shakespeare & Company for more than 20 years, performing roles including Serg (Art), Puck (Midsummer), Poet (An Iliad), Bassinet (Ladies Man) and Walter (Split Knuckle’s Endurance). His New York credits include Francis (Francis Goes To War) and Francis (Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle). His childhood passion for The Muppets and Looney Tunes informs his ongoing obsession with clowning and comic structure. He has studied with Philippe Gaulier and Giovanni Fusetti. Toomey is a graduate of LISPA, where he earned an MFA in Lecoq-based Theatre, and teaches workshops in Fight, Clown, and Shakespeare across the U.S. and internationally. Michael is currently touring his one person comedy No Body Cares: America’s Favorite Healthcare System.

Ryan Winkles
Ryan Winkles

Company Actor / Stage Fight Faculty

Ryan has been a company member of Shakespeare & Company since 2006 and some of the productions he has been in include: The Taming of the Shrew, 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: Madame Mozart, 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.

Kristin Wold
Kristin Wold

Company Actor / Movement Faculty

Actor, director and choreographer Kristin Wold is a Berkshire resident and artist. At Elm Shakespeare Company, Kristin played in Richard III (Elizabeth) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania). Roles at Shakespeare & Company include hang (One), Creditors (Tekla), God of Carnage (Annette), Shakespeare’s Will (Anne Hathaway), Julius Caesar (Calpurnia, Portia, Lucius), The Tempest (Ariel), King Lear (Regan, Cordelia), Sea Marks (Timothea Stiles), Othello (Emilia), and Ice Glen (Sarah Harding). Kristin teaches Text and Movement for the Actor in Shakespeare & Company’s renowned professional actor training programs and has been the Movement Director and Choreographer for many productions (The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline, Red Velvet). She recently retired from heading the Acting Programs at the University of Connecticut. Productions directed for Connecticut Repertory Theatre include Metamorphoses, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, As You Like It, Sense and Sensibility, Punk Rock, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, Thin Air: Tales from a Revolution, North Shore Fish and Judevine. Kristin created a dance theatre performance, Thetis: Immortal Fire, performed by Shakespeare & Company members and students from UConn. She studied acting at the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre, Florida State University and with Tadashi Suzuki in Japan.

Key details

Dates & Times

Friday, June 26

4:30 pm

Location

Tina Packer Playhouse & Grounds

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