Marcus Kyd (Director) is a director and actor based in Washington, DC. He is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Taffety Punk Theatre Company where he has directed original works including Enter Ophelia, distracted (co-created with Kimberly Gilbert), Fragments of Sappho, suicide.chat.room, and adaptations of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and The Phoenix and Turtle, and new plays Phaeton, and Our Black Death. Other directing credits include Adirondack Theatre Festival: Dial M for Murder, and The Last Wide Open; Contradiction Dance Company’s Fashion Victim, in collaboration with choreographer Kelly King; Devised Macbeth at the Shakespeare Theatre Academy, co-directed with Emma Jaster; and Part 3 of Nicholas Nickleby (a reading) at the Theatre Lab. For three years he directed the Folger Shakespeare Library’s touring educational troupe “Bill’s Buddies” who brought Shakespeare to life for hundreds of students every year with a live performance and interactive workshops. As an actor Marcus has performed for Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, The Kennedy Center, The Lincoln Center, The Folger Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Round House Theatre, Devil’s Isle Shakespeare Company, Center Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, Anti-Social Music/WPAS, Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, and many more. He played guitar and sang for The Most Secret Method.
Shayna Freedman (Assistant Director) is a story-maker and acting coach, specializing in somatics and embodying text and language. As an acting coach, Shayna has collaborated with Netflix, Amazon, and Claro Video, and has led workshops at New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount Manhattan College, Synetic Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and more. She has performed with Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Classic Theatre of Maryland, Avant Bard Theatre, Devil's Isle Shakespeare Company, and others. Shayna is founding faculty at Casa Spanda (Mexico City) and senior instructor at Lucid Body House (NYC), "home for the physical actor," where she also serves as Director of the Lucid Body Teacher Training program. Shayna received her MFA from Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy. (she/her) shaynafreedman.com
Lauren Engler (Production Associate) has stage managed for CSC for numerous productions over the past decade. Both on stage and off, she has scenic painted, choreographed, and performed with CSC over the years. Lauren has also stage managed for Renaissance Rumble and the Maryland Renaissance Festival. In 2019, she coordinated a city wide “Spring of Remembrance” for CSC in honor of Anne Frank across theaters and museums. Lauren graduated with honors from High Point University with a degree in Performance Theater and Studio Art.
Maria Wraback (Stage Manager) is an actor, playwright, and stage manager. She has stage managed at PG County Shakespeare in the Parks (SM), IN Series Opera (ASM), and CSC (Intern). Recently, she starred in John Proctor is the Villain (Beth) and Romeo and Juliet (Nurse, Juliet u/s) at Catholic University, where she is an upcoming senior in their BFA for Theatre, Film, and Television program. Her play, Strokes of Death to the Fountain Pen, received a staged reading at the Orpheus Theatre Company’s Edgar Allan Poe festival, Tales by the Fire IV.
Dan O'Brien (Set and Lighting Design/Technical Director) is a founding member of CSC. Dan has performed, designed scenery, lights, and served as Technical Director for many productions (among other jobs too numerous to name). He oversaw the construction of CSC’s theatre in Baltimore and designed the sets and lighting for Macbeth (2016); for the inaugural season plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard II; Romeo and Juliet (2015-2019); A Christmas Carol (2014-2019), and many others.
Elizabeth Morton (Costume Design) is making her CSC debut. Costume design: Shakespeare in Love (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Merrily We Roll Along, and Apropos of Nothing at Keegan Theatre; Othello, Our Black Death (associate), This Inherent Echo, and Macbeth at Taffety Punk Theatre Company; Sofonisba (Washington Stage Guild), An English Country Christmas (Washington Revels), Romeo & Juliet (assistant, Folger Theatre), and American Psycho (Monumental Theatre). Stitching and wardrobe credits include Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Olney Theatre Center, and GALA Hispanic Theatre.
Grace Srinivasan (Music Director) has programmed and arranged the music for CSC productions since 2016 as Resident Music Director. A soprano who performs a wide-ranging repertoire throughout the region, she appeared as a soloist in a program of works inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, If Music Be the Food of Love, with CSC artists, the Peabody Baroque Band, and the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble. Grace holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory and sings professionally at St. Stephen Martyr Church and the National Cathedral
Caitlin Bouxsein (Props Artisan) is a designer, director, choreographer, and performer who has worked with several other Baltimore/Washington DC area companies including Woolly Mammoth, the Strand, Fluid Movement, and Submersive Productions, with whom she is a Collective member. At CSC, she previously designed props for A Christmas Carol (2022, 2023), Hamlet (2023), and Romeo & Juliet (2024). She also produces original works with her spouse, Alexander Scally, under the name BOUXSCAL Productions, which have been featured at the Charm City Fringe Festival and other local venues. Education: B.A. Theatre Arts, Drew University
Loraine Ressegger-Slone (Fight/Movement/Intimacy Director) is making her CSC debut. Other credits include: The Garden, How to Catch Creation (Baltimore Center Stage); Spring Awakening (Round House Theatre); Describe the Night, BLKS, Botticelli in the Fire, Oedipus el Rey, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (Woolly Mammoth); Fidelio, Grounded (Washington National Opera); Much Ado About Nothing, Our Town (Shakespeare Theater Company). La Salpêtrière, Our Black Death, Pramkicker (Taffety Punk); Hang, Laughs in Spanish, The Nance, The Rainmaker, The Phlebotomist, Secret Things, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1st Stage); The Figs, Sleeping Giant (Rorschach Theater). Website: lorraineresseggerslone.com
Emily Erickson (Voice and Text Coach) is an NYC and DC-based actor, educator, composer, music director, and multi-instrumentalist. Recent work includes Chesapeake Shakespeare:
Romeo and Juliet,
The Oresteia,
Much Ado About Nothing, Keegan Theatre:
Noises Off, 1st Stage:
hang, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina:
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Solas Nua:
The Honey Trap, Studio Theatre:
People, Places & Things, Taffety Punk:
Our Black Death, Prologue Theatre:
Muffed, Spooky Action: Man Covets Bird. Emily's musical adaptation of
The Tempest (co-created with Séamus Miller) had its world premiere in Bermuda with Devil's Isle Shakespeare Co and will be performed there for a second year this fall. Proud MFA graduate of The Academy at STC/GWU. BFA: NYU.
emilynerickson.com / @emierickson
Rebecca Sherber (Production Assistant)is making her CSC debut. She is a rising sophomore at Vassar College, where she designs lighting for the Dance Theater and stage manages for a theater ensembles. In 2024, she graduated from the Stage Design and Production program at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Her most recent work there included stage managing Noises Off, designing lighting for The Theory of Relativity, and designing costumes for Carrie, the Musical in England.
Colin Maher (Assistant Stage Manager) is glad to be working on a production with CSC again. Last summer he was the Assistant Stage Manager for The Merry Wives of Windsor, and previously has performed as Abram in Romeo and Juliet, and Tybalt in the student matinee production in 2024. When not actively working on a production, you can find him bartending with CSC or working his day job as a fifth grade teacher.
Chester Stacy (Assistant Technical Director) has designed, built, and painted many CSC productions, including Alice in Wonderland, The Fantasticks, Red Velvet, and Titus Andronicus; and for Baltimore Center Stage’s Thoughts of a Colored Man and Shakespeare in Love. Chester Creates LLC, has provided film production design for The Night Watchmen, set decoration for House of Cards and The Wire; and environmental graphics for Crunch Fitness, Royal Caribbean, Bmore Greek Grill, and Healthy Highlandtown.
Cameron Luther (Technical Manager) is a stage manager, theatrical technician, and teaching artist based in the DMV. They are returning to CSC after working on their 2024 summer production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Past credits include Big Fish (Young Artists of America), Sweet Charity (Bmore Broadway), Grounded (In Character Productions), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Fells Point Corner Theatre), and Stories Told Small (UMBC). They are a production assistant for the music and theatre departments at The Catholic University of America.
Hannah Brill (Costume Design Assistant) is a costume and lighting designer from Baltimore. She is the Assistant Costume Shop manager for Towson University’s Department of Theatre Arts. Recent work includes costume design for Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh (Perisphere Theater), Scrooge.0 (Towson University), A Year with Frog and Toad (Towson University), TU Dance Company shows Episodes, Four Seasons: Reimagined, Multiplicity, Echoing Visions, Legacy, and Surging (Towson University), Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes (Single Carrot Theatre), The First Thing That Happens (Acme Corporation), and lighting design for Rachel (Rapid Lemon Productions.) Hannah has also worked as wardrobe manager for Mary Stuart, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet, The Oresteia, A Christmas Carol 2022, 2023, & 2024 (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.) https://www.hannahbrill.com/
