Hamlet

He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. His works, including some collaborations, consist of about 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

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S&Co: Acting: Duke (Measure for Measure), Rose (The Children), Mom (Ugly Lies the Bone); Mistress Quickly (Henry IV Pts. 1 & 2); Goneril (King Lear); Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing); Elizabeth (Richard III); Audrey (As You Like It); Hippolyta (Midsummer Night’s Dream); The Nurse (Romeo and Juliet); Mistress Quickly (Merry Wives of Windsor); Paulina (The Winter’s Tale), Ruth (Private Eyes), The Woman (Laughing Wild); Arlene (Off the Map) Directing: Paula Vogel’s MOTHER PLAY: a play in five evictions, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley; The Wickhams, Christmas at Pemberley; Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility. At Mixed Company: Ramona (Zara Spook and Other Lures) and Eileen (The Cripple of Inishmaan). With the Ensemble for the Romantic Century in NYC: Nadezhda VonMeck (None But the Lonely Heart), as well as Fanny Mendelsohn, Emily Dickinson, Sonia Tolstoy, and Anna Akhmatova (in multiple shows). Ariel is a Designated Linklater Teacher.

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A.J. Baldwin is overjoyed to join this company of Hamlet and make her Shakespeare & Company premiere! A.J. is an Actor, Playwright, and Director originally from Montgomery, AL. This is her third production of Hamlet. and A.J. is ready to dive into this text with new eyes, and new players. Recently, she has been as Harriet Smith in Emma at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company; and Carina in Eureka Day at Everyman Repertory Theatre. Other Shakespeare Credits include: Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing; Olivia in Twelfth Night; Rosencrantz in Hamlet; Mistress Page in Merry Wives of Windsor, and more! A.J. is an alumni of the Shakespeare & Company January Month-long Intensive, 2025-26. A.J. sends love to all who may be reading.

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S&Co: Jonny has directed or acted in more than 70 S&Co productions since 1987 including Walk in the Woods, Creditors, Henry V, Merchant of Venice, Tempest, Cymbeline, Midsummer, Merry Wives, Private Eyes, Brief Lives, Heroes, An Iliad and the title roles in King Lear, Henry IV, Richard III and Macbeth. In 1990, he created the role of The Men in Tina Packer’s original Women of Will. He has performed on and off-Broadway and at scores of regional theatres around the country including Berkshire Theatre Festival (Amadeus, Cuckoo’s Nest, Via Dolorosa, Educating Rita...) and ART (Merchant of Venice, Phaedra, Paradise Lost, Picasso at the Lapin Agile). He is a two-time recipient of the Elliot Norton Award and is Teaching Professor of Classical Performance at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training where he was recently honored with the university’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. He was a graduate of the 1988 Month Long Intensive and thereafter taught at more than 30 month-long workshops. His former S&Co and FSU/Asolo students are regularly featured on S&Co stages.

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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.

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West End: The Bomb-itty of Errors (Ambassadors Theatre). Regional: The Piano Lesson, The Islanders, Fences, Hymn, Art (Shakespeare & Company); The Piano Lesson (Actors Shakespeare Project); The Counter (Umbrella Stage Company ); How I Learned What I Learned, Sweat (Ensemble Theatre Company); A Soldier’s Play, The Amen Corner, Hamlet, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, All the Way, Fences (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company); Jitney, Radio Golf, Two Trains Running, The Piano Lesson, Gem of the Ocean, Crowns, The Bomb-itty of Errors (American Stage Theatre Company); Scarlet, The Piano Lesson (Portland Playhouse Theatre); Water By the Spoonful, Seven Guitars (Nevada Conservatory Theatre); Zora Neale Hurston, The Piano Lesson (Center Theatre Company), Topdog/Underdog, Race, The Boys Next Door (Jobsite Theater Company) Solo: Cufflinks and Jolly Ranchers for Dummies (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); And the Horse You Rode In On (Projects Arts Center, Dublin); Glossolalia: “ranney” is Speaking in Tongues, Whatever (Peoples Improv Theatre); Incendiary, The Break of Dawn: Tracing the Origins of Speech, Pardon Me: I Promise to Do My Best; “ranney” in Surround Zound (Straz Center for the Performing Arts); The Chicken or the Egg (American Stage Theatre Company). www.itsranney.com

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Eddie Shields is thrilled to be back at Shakespeare & Company this summer having recently appeared in Mother Play. Recent Credits: Breaking the Code, Bedlam’s Angels in America (BEDLAM/CST) The Inheritance, A Man of No Importance, Shakespeare in Love, Casa Valentina, and Significant Other (Speakeasy Stage), Edward II, The Comedy of Errors (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Central Square Theater); Hair (New Rep); Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Company One); The Seagull (A.R.T/BTC). Off Broadway/NY: A Class Act (Playwrights Horizons); Billy Redden (Theater Row); Europa Escapes Europe (Austria Stage); Miss Julie (Workshop Theater); Twelfth Night, Henry VI.3, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Drilling Company). Film/TV: Kill that Man, Moonrise Kingdom, Unsure/Positive, Road to Joy, The Entertainment. Plays: Julie (Midtown Theater Fest. Best in Show); The Good Girls High (Manhattan Rep. Official Selection). Eddie has been nominated for the Elliot Norton award three times and holds an IRNE award and 4 IRNE nominations. MFA – Brandeis University. AEA/SAG-AFTRA. @eddiestagram Eddie-Shields.com.

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Shakespeare & Company: Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet, Henry VI Part II: The Contention. Select Regional: Twelfth Night (People’s Light Theatre Company); The Inheritance Parts I & II (Trinity Repertory Theatre Company); The Tempest (Oak Park Festival Theatre); How To Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens Theatre); Cold War Choir Practice, Is Cry You Cry’n?, Ironbound, One Flea Spare, [The Taming of] Hamlet, Fugitive Songs (Brown/Trinity Rep). Education: MFA in Acting, Brown/Trinity Rep.; BA in Sociology & Drama, Tufts University. www.austynwilliamson.com @mr.austyntatious

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.

www.kristinwold.com

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Yaala Muller is thrilled to make her Shakespeare & Company debut! Originally from Israel, she began her career as a political organizer and voting rights advocate working on national campaigns, before returning to acting and earning her MFA at the Asolo Conservatory this past Spring. Past stage work includes: The Mirror Crack’d and the American premiere of The Unfriend (u/s) at Asolo Repertory Theater; Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare45 (Asolo Rep on Tour); John Proctor Is the Villain and The Winter’s Tale at the Asolo Conservatory. She holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and the Clinton School of Public Service and is based in New York City.

Omid Akbari is an Iranian-born scenic designer and costume concept artist based in NYC. He was named THE 2024 BURRY FREDRIK DESIGN FELLOW. He holds an M.F.A in Theater Design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Recent credits: DCPA: English, Long Wharf Theatre: Gem of the Ocean, Unbecoming Tragedy; Berlind Theater: A Moment of Silence; Shakespeare & Company: Mother Play, Three Tall Persian Women; Lookingglass Theatre: Iraq, But Funny; Boise Contemporary Theater: The Life You Gave Me; Juilliard: The Seven; Yale Repertory Theatre: Wish You Were Here. He was the associate creative director of MIGUEL-CAOS World Tour.

www.omidakbari.com

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; in intentional and improvised venues alike, as well as across the internet. Training includes 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 the Technical Director for Performing Arts at SUNY Geneseo and a proud member of IATSE Local USA 829 - Previous Shakespeare & Company credits include Shake it Up, Taming of the Shrew, The Islanders, Midsummer, The Contention, Hymn, The Approach, hang, Art, Topdog/Underdog, The Waverly Gallery, and Macbeth. Work can be found at DoyleEndeavors.com

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Erika is excited to return to S&Co for a fourth summer season. Before relocating to the Berkshires, Erika was based in New York City lighting for television, theater, and dance. She had the pleasure of designing shows for everything from Red Bull Music to Animal Planet; and spent full seasons with some truly fabulous institutions such as San Francisco Opera, New York City Ballet, Broadway, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Erika spent her summers before S&Co as the production manager/ head electrician for Adirondack Theatre Festival, putting on Broadway-bound productions like Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat, Loch Ness, Calling All Kates, and Beau. Erika has spent the last seven years traveling the world as the lighting supervisor for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a company of folks very close to her heart. She is happy to finally put down roots and call Shakespeare & Company her artistic home.

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Josh is overjoyed to be returning to Shakespeare & Company for another Season after last season’s The Victim and 2022’s Much Ado About Nothing! A Proud AEA Member and Massachusetts Native, they have worked around the country settling for now in Philadelphia. Some other favorite credits include (Pirates of Penzance) Quintessence Theatre Group (School of Rock, Escape to Margaritaville) Little Theatre On the Square, (The Play That Goes Wrong) Lyric Stage Company of Boston, (Murder for Two) Greenbrier Valley Theatre, (The Underpants) Lake Dillon Theatre Company.

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Costume design: Circus Fire (Theaterworks Hartford), Gutenberg! The Musical! (Playhouse on Park), Elephant & piggy (Playhouse on Park), Mother Play (Shakespeare & Co.), Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Board Members (Yale Rep), Cactus Queen and Uncle Vanya (Geffen School). Set Design: Public Record (The Public Theater), Hole in the Wall (LaChat Farms), Gutenberg! The Musical! (Playhouse on Park). Associate Set Design: Twelfth Night (The Public Theater ’25), Romeo & Juliet (The Public Theater ’26), A Winter’s Tale (The Public Theater ’26). MFA in Costume & Scenic Design (Yale School of Drama). 2025 Burry Fredrik Design Fellow. ARTHURWILSONDESIGN.COM