Megan Behm (Director) is thrilled to be making her CSC debut with Persuasion. Selected directing credits include: Ada and the Engine and A Misanthrope (Avant Bard Theatre); 45 Plays for 45 Presidents, Pride and Prejudice, and 46 Plays for America's First Ladies (NextStop Theatre); Kill the Ripper (We Happy Few); Cymbeline (Virginia Shakespeare Festival); to tell my story and Switch (The Welders); The Head that Wears the Crown (Ally Theater Company); and Safe as Houses (Pinky Swear Productions). www.megan-behm.com
Sarah Rose Kearns (Playwright) is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021; while her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in five US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and is currently being adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, she has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is also the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished, connected, and more able to be brave. www.sarahrosekearns.com
Jane Austen (1775–1817) was an English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility(1811), Pride and Prejudice(1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published together posthumously, 1817), she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also became timeless classics that remained critical and popular successes for over two centuries after her death. These works reflect her enduring legacy.
Lauren Engler (Production Manager) 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.
Ellie Skoda (Production Stage Manager) is making their production stage management debut at CSC! Previously, Ellie has worked as a box office manager, assistant stage manager, backstage swing, and teaching artist at CSC since 2021. They have also stage-managed local theatre productions at Rapid Lemons Productions and Truepenny Productions. She had previously taught theatre classes at Arlington Elementary School for the past 2 years. Ellie holds a BA in Theatre Arts from McDaniel College.
Sam Linc (Rehearsal Stage Manager) Pervious Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theatre credits: Macbeth (Stage Manager); Other local credits include Constellation Theatre Company; Constellations (Light Board Operator), Desperate Measures (Light Board Operator), Once On This Island (Light Board Operator); Maryland Youth Ballet Mini Nut (Stage Manager); Synetic Theatre Teen Hamlet (Stage Manager)
Kathryn Kawecki (Set Designer) Previous CSC credits include Romeo and Juliet (2024), As You Like It (2023), Anne of the Thousand Days (2016) and Much Ado About Nothing (2015). DMV design credits include: How the Light Gets In, The Phlebotomist, Proof, and others (1st Stage), Othello/Desdemona (InSeries), The Late Wedding (The Hub), Enron (4615), The Oregon Trail (Flying V). Other designs include: Broken Fences, Taste of It (Ballybeg Theatre, NYC); Elijah, Faith! (LOCAL, Boulder); Avenue Q (Lyric Stage, Boston); Dollhouse, RENT (New Rep, Boston); Romeo & Juliet, My Fair Lady (Greater Boston Stage). She is an Associate Professor at Bowie State University. Education: MFA, Set Design, UNCSA; BA, Visual Arts, Columbia University. www.kawecki-art.com
Katie McCreary (Lighting Designer) is a CSC company member, and has designed for 20 of CSC’s productions, including Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Romeo & Juliet (2020, 2023), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (2020, 2023), The Diary of Anne Frank; and Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2. Other recent and favorite designs include work with Peabody Opera Theater and Dance, Catholic University of America, Rorschach Theatre (company member), Keegan Theater, and Next Stop Theater. Katie is also Director of Development and Curriculum Development and also a proud Teaching Artist for Educational Theatre Company.
Kristina Lambdin (Costume Designer) won the Broadway World Best Costume Design award for her designs for A Christmas Carol (2016). Some of her costuming credits with CSC include Dracula (2013 and 2019); The Diary of Anne Frank; She Stoops to Conquer; Alice in Wonderland; Red Velvet; Anne of the Thousand Days; The Fantasticks; Macbeth (2016); A Christmas Carol (2014-2018); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005, 2011 and 2014); The Importance of Being Earnest; The Taming of the Shrew (2006 and 2013); Romeo and Juliet (2003, 2012, and student matinees 2015-2019); A Doll’s House; As You Like It (Broadway World Best of Baltimore Award); and The Country Wife. Broadway World named her as a top artist of the 2007 Baltimore Theatre, and she won the Greater Baltimore Theater Award for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005). For more than a decade, she served as the Costume Supervisor for the Baltimore Opera Company and then Lyric Opera Baltimore.
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
Isabel deCarvalho (Props Designer) Isabel Simoes deCarvalho is a scenic, prop and projection designer based in Washington DC. This is Isabel’s first show at CSC. In the DC area Isabel has had the opportunity to work with Studio Theater, Theater Alliance, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Compass Rose, and more. Check out more of Isabel’s work on her website: https://www.isabelsimoes.design/
Dan O’Brien (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.
Dawn Thomas Reidy (Production Associate) See cast bios.
Matthew Datcher (Sound Designer) is returning to CSC, where he created sound designs for Macbeth at the PFI and A Raisin in the Sun. His other work includes Closer at Cogent Theater Collective, Disgraced and Radio Golf at Peace Mountain Theatre Company, Veronica’s Room at Rockville Little Theatre, Sweeney Todd at Rockville Musical Theatre, and Native Gardens and Back of the Throat at Silver Spring Stage.
CJay Philip | Dance & Bmore (Dance/Movement Choreographer) returns after choreographing CSC’s 2024 production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and 2024’s Romeo and Juliet. Dance and Bmore is a dynamic Baltimore-based ensemble founded by Broadway veteran CJay Philip. Through their Bmore Broadway Live performance season and community programs, art becomes a powerful tool for connection, expression, and joy, transcending generations and making a lasting impact on the vibrant cultural tapestry of Baltimore.
Mel Gabel (Intimacy Coordinator) is making their CSC debut. Intimacy choreography credits include Honey Bee Baby, Variations on Courage, and Variations on Night (Rapid Lemon); 11:52, The Prom, and She Kills Monsters (Towson University); and She Kills Monsters (Stevenson University). Fight choreography credits include The Play That Goes Wrong (Key School); Monst3r and Ragtime (Maryland Theatre Collective); West Side Story (Children’s Theatre of Annapolis); and others with Towson University and the Baltimore Play Festival.
Laura Rocklyn (Production Advisor) is a proud Company Member and Teaching Artist at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company where she is grateful to have appeared on stage in numerous roles, from the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol (2014,’15,’16) to Ellen Tree in Red Velvet. Laura’s one-woman play Charlotte Brontë: To Do More & Better Things was presented as part of the North American Friends of Chawton House 2021 Speaker Subscription Series; Clover, a fulllength play Laura co-wrote with Ty Hallmark, was produced by Ally Theatre Company in 2017; and Laura’s original short play Emma is presented in Washington City was performed as the curtain raiser for the Jane Austen Society of North America 2016 Annual General Meeting. Laura was the winner of the “LitMag” 2021 Virginia Woolf Award for short fiction, and her stories have appeared in literary journals “Stork” and “New Square,” and in the anthology The Twelve Adventurers and Other Stories: A New Edition. She has published articles in “Brontë Studies” and “The Revere Express”. Laura holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, and an MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. www.LauraRocklyn.com
Dr. Juliette Wells (Jane Austen Advisor) Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College, is the author of three histories of Austen’s readers and fans, most recently A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World’s Greatest Novelist. Her reader-friendly edition of Austen's Mansfield Park will be released by Penguin Classics on September 9, 2025, joining her earlier editions of Emma and Persuasion. She co-curated the blockbuster exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
Kalatri Singleton (Assistant Stage Manager) is pleased to be joining Chesapeake Shakespeare Company as the assistant stage manager. Kalatri received his Bachelor’s of Science in Urban Arts with a concentration in Theatre from the illustrious Coppin State University. He began as a stage manager, leading the production of Zooman and the Sign, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Suspects in America. Most recently, he stage managed the Coppin Repertory Theatre as they mounted a production of Marty and the Hands That Could during the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 2.
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.
Cirron Lanier Greenidge (Assistant Choreographer) is a multidisciplinary artist and director. He choreographed Facehook?! for Palestine’s Al-Harah Theater and danced with Shania Twain and Paula Abdul. A founding member of Cjay Philip’s Tony Award–recognized company Dance & BMore, he has called Baltimore home for 15 years. A 2025 Candela Summer Playwrights Fellowship Finalist, Cirron portrayed Benvolio in R/J (Strand Theater), writes and voice directs the YouTube series Those McPhuqurs, and stars as Ray in Command the Series.
Regan McKay (Costume Assistant) is making her Chesapeake Shakespeare debut show. She is a costume maker, designer, and assistant who has recently worked in the area at: Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, and Ford’s Theatre.
Hannah Brill (Wardrobe Supervisor) 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 Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress (Maryland Ensemble Theatre), It's the Comedy of Errors, Hon! (Shakespeare Beyond), 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 Julius Caesar, 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/
Artie Vajda (Board Operator) returns after understudying for CSC’s 2025 summer production of Julius Caesar. Previous stage roles include Twelfth Night (Feste), Fires in the Mirror (Rivkah Siegel and others), Grand Concourse (Emma), and The Misanthrope (Clitandre). Screen roles include Superimposium (Alice) and forthcoming feature A Tragedy of Hamlet (Hamlet). She serves on the board of the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory and has a master’s degree in Shakespeare Studies from Shakespeare’s Globe. www.arthurserenyi.com.
Andrew Pfluger (Board Operator) is returns after operating the board for CSC's 2024 production of A Christmas Carol. They have stage managed Small Mouth Sounds and Hotel Cassiopeia at the Community College of Baltimore County, where they graduated with an A.A. in Theatre Design/Production in 2023. They have also stage managed with Stevenson University (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark) and lighting programmed with Bethesda Conservatory of Dance. They have held a variety of positions at Drama Learning Center—including production manager, technician, and carpenter—across over 20 productions.
