CAST BIOS

Fabiolla Da Silva (Mary Wollstonecraft Goodwin/Elizabeth Lavenza) returns to Chesapeake Shakespeare Company after appearing in The Tale of Cymbeline (2026), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2024), and her debut in Measure for Measure (2020). Fabiolla is a DC based actor, deviser, and teaching artist. In 2023 she was the recipient of a Helen Hayes Award for Best Performer in a Supporting Role for her performance in The Revolutionists with Prologue Theatre. Other recent credits include Webster’s B*tch at Keegan Theatre; La Salpêtrière with Taffety Punk Theatre Company; The Last Match at 1^st Stage Theatre; World Builders with Prologue Theatre; Women Playing Hamlet at Workhouse Arts Center; La Llorona with We Happy Few, and Love’s Labor’s Lost at Folger Theatre. Fabiolla holds a BA in Theatre and Dance from James Madison University.

Vince Eisenson (Percy Bysshe Shelley/Victor Frankenstein/Others)  has appeared in CSC's Hamlet (2023) Richard III, Wild Oats, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet, among many other productions.  He also performed in The Rainmaker (First Stage), King Lear (Avant Bard), Fear (Longacre Lea), The Merchant of Venice (Faction of Fools), The Imaginary Invalid (Shakespeare Theater Co), and Richard II (PlayMakers Rep).  TV and Film credits include New Amsterdam, Billions, The Endgame, The Good Lord Bird, Turn: Washington's Spies, and Wonder Woman 1984.  Vince can be found on Youtube in the made-in-Maryland webseries, Turf Valley.

Jose O. Guzman (John Polidori/ Henry Clerval/Others) is a Chesapeake Shakespeare Touchstone Company Member whose CSC credits include Shakespeare Beyond’s Romeo and Juliet (2026), Julius Caesar (2025), Twelfth Night (2022), Much Ado About Nothing (2022), A Christmas Carol (2021), The Adventures of Pericles (2021), Love's Labour's Lost (2019), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2018), The Winter's Tale (2018), and others. Additional regional credits include Ana in the Tropics (GALA Hispanic Theatre) and The Taming of the Shrew (Lean & Hungry Theatre). He received the 2018 Helen Hayes Award for Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (1st Stage) and holds an M.A. in Theatre from Binghamton University.

Dawn Thomas Reidy (Claire Clairmont/Angel of Death/Others) previously appeared in CSC's The Tempest (2026), Julius Caesar (2025), It’s the Comedy of Errors, Hon! (2025), Romeo and Juliet (2024) The Oresteia (2024), Macbeth (2023), Hamlet (2023), Henry V (2022), A Raisin in the Sun (2022) and Measure for Measure (2020). She is a CSC Production Associate, Teaching Artist, and a member of CSC's Black Classical Acting Ensemble. She also directs and loves puppeteering. Regional credits include The Few, Romeo and Juliet, Danny Boy, The Lady in the Van, and Candy & Dorothy (Unexpected Stage Company); Macbeth, Our Black Death, Phaeton (Taffety Punk Theatre Company); Hazardous Materials (Perisphere Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play); Overruled (Washington Stage Guild); and How the Other Half Loves and The Boys Next Door (Brown County Playhouse). She also works as a teaching artist with Everyman Theatre and Baltimore Shakespeare Factory. Dawn holds a BFA in Acting from UMBC and an MFA in Acting from Indiana University.

Joshua Williams (Lord Byron/Creature/Others) returns to CSC after previously appearing in The Tale of Cymbeline (2026), Mary Stuart (2025), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2024), Romeo and Juliet Student Matinee (2023) and Shakespeare Beyond’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2023). Other recent credits include: Iphigenia (Achilles, We Happy Few); Rhinoceros! (Papillon, Pointless Theatre Company); Macbeth (Macbeth, Hoosier Shakespeare Festival); Merry Wives of Windsor (Dr. Caius, Hoosier Shakespeare Festival); Henry IV Part 1 (Hotspur, Brave Spirits Theatre).

UNDERSTUDY BIOS

Ali Hass has most recently performed in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s outdoor production of Cymbeline as Belaria and the Queen; other CSC credits include A Christmas Carol (2024, 2025) as Mrs. Fezziwig and others. Additionally, she was involved with CSC’s student matinee program (2025) of Romeo and Juliet as Lady Montague. Past performances include Avant Bard's Two Gentlemen of Killarney, directed by Seamus Miller. Santa Fe Opera’s Falstaff, directed by Sir David McVicar; Complete Female Stage Beauty, Die Mommie Die, and Yellow- the New Conservatory Theater Company in San Francisco, A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Vallejo Shakespeare Company, Troilus and Cressida- Poltergeist Theater, The Speakeasy SF- Boxcar Theater,

Charlie Junkins acting credits include Romeo & Juliet (2024) (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company) Twelfth Night (Spotlighters); Courted: Love on Trial (AlphaNYC); Great Expectations (University of Southern California (USC)); The 25th Annual...Spelling Bee (USC). Directorial credits include Art (Vagabond Players) and Good For Otto (The Workroom LA). Charlie directs theater at The Park School of Baltimore.

Ethan Larsen acting credits include: Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); Julius Caesar, All's Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival); Hamlet (Baltimore Shakespeare Factory)

Ian Gallanar (Director) is in his 24^th year as Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. He founded the organization in 2002. Ian has worked as a professional actor, director, producer, and writer for roughly 200 professional productions. He has directed over 40 productions for CSC and developed its student matinee series and Shakespeare Beyond, a statewide mobile unit that gives free performances and offers free educational residencies.  Previously, Ian has served as Artistic Director for the National Theatre for Children, Minnesota Shakespeare in the Park, and the Repertory Theater of America. Ian is a proud member of the distinguished National Theatre Conference and the Dramatists Guild of America; a Helen Hayes Tribute Award, Telly Award, Howie Award (Howard County Arts Council) winner. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was the 2023 recipient of the Sidney Berger Award, a lifetime achievement award given to an Artistic Director of note from a professional Shakespeare company given by the international Shakespeare Theatre Association, an organization for professional Shakespeare companies around the globe.

Lizzi Albert (Co-Director) is a Touchstone Company Member who has worked with CSC since 2012 as an actor, director, and teaching artist. Favorite productions include The Oresteia (2024), As You Like It (2023), Twelfth Night (2022), Richard III (2017 and 2012), Anne of the Thousand Days (2016), and directing The Tempest (2017) and the inaugural Blood and Courage production, All's Well That Ends Well (2015). Regionally, Lizzi has appeared with Avant Bard Theatre Company (Julius Caesar), Constellation Theater Company (Absolutely! Perhaps), and the American Century Theater, among others. Lizzi holds an M.A. in Acting from the University of Essex and a B.F.A. in Theater from NYU/Stella Adler. www.lizzialbert.com.

Lauren Engler (Production Manager & Choreographer) 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.

Alexis E. Davis+ (Production Stage Manager) recent stage management credits with CSC include August Wilson’s Fences (2026). It’s the Comedy of Errors, Hon! (2025), August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Oresteia (2024), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)[Revised][Again] (2023), Twelfth Night (2022), A Raisin in the Sun (2022), Dracula (2019), Henry IV: Parts 1 & 2 (2019), She Stoops to Conquer (2018), Alice in Wonderland (2018), Romeo and Juliet (student matinees: 2016-2019), Red Velvet, A Christmas Carol (2017 - 2021), Julius Caesar (2017), The Fantasticks (2017), and Othello (2016).  Additional PSM credits include A Beginner’s Guide to Deicide (Single Carrot Theater) and Drunk Enough to Say I Love You (Single Carrot Theater).  Additional ASM and PA credits include A Christmas Carol 2016 (CSC); LadyDay at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Baltimore CenterStage); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; (Everyman Theater); TopDog/ Underdog (Everyman Theater); God of Carnage (Everyman Theatre). Wild! With Happy! (Baltimore Center Stage). Alexis holds a BA in Theater Production from McDaniel College. She is a member of the Stage Managers’ Association.

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

Shartoya R. Jn. Baptiste (Set Designer) returns after previously working on CSC’s 2026 production of The Tempest. Born and raised in the Caribbean, her culture is the foundation for her set designs. DC AREA: Furlough's Paradise (Theater Alliance), SLEEPOVA (Olney Theatre Center), Dodi & Diana (Mosaic Theatre Company), The Sea Beyond the Ocean (The Kennedy Centre), Is God Is (Constellation Theatre Company), P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical (Imagination Stage) [Helen Hayes Nominated], and The Book Club Play and By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (The University of Maryland). EDUCATION: MFA in Design from the University of Maryland '24. Instagram: @shr758_ Youtube: shr758 Website: www.shr758.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.

Adam Mendelson (Sound Designer) Returns after previously working on CSC’s 2024 production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Regional Sound Designs: The Book Club Play (Everyman Theatre), Falsettos and Songs for a New World (Rep Stage).  Regional Lighting Designs:  The Amish Project (Pepper Theatre, Munich Germany). The Sound Inside (Everyman Theatre), Shutter Sisters (1st Stage, Tyson's VA), Metamorphosis (Folger Theatre, Associate Designer) Resident Designer of over 30 shows (Classic Theatre of Maryland). I Will Eat You Alive (Interrobang Productions @ The Voxel), Halluci Nation- PBS (Kennedy Center).  Adam serves as Senior Lecturer of Lighting and Sound Design at the University of Maryland- Baltimore County where he has designed more than 45 productions over the last 12 years. 

Mika Nakano (Props Artisan) is making her CSC debut. Her past design credits for props, scenic, world building include Submersive Productions' VOYAGES: Chapter 7. SUBMERGED! In Company of Fish (2025), Katalepsis (2023), rECHOllection (2022) and See Also (2020), Strand Theater’s Crocodile Fever (2024), alight, sweet hearted (2024), R/J (2023), Single Carrot Theatre’s Every Brilliant Thing (2021), Keep Off the Grass: A Guide to (Something) (2020) and Pink Milk (2019). Previous acting credits include Frankenstein (Strand Theater 2023), Spaghetti Lo Mein (Strand Theater 2022), New York Workshop Production Tornkid (2019), Cohesion Theater’s La Llorona (2018), and Everyman Theatre’s M. Butterfly (2017).

Dawn Thomas Reidy (Production Associate) See Cast Bios

Molly Horton Booth (Dramaturg) is an author, teacher, and Shakespeare nerd based in Baltimore, MD. At CSC, they teach Critical Analysis classes and Homeschool CORPS, and they work in community engagement for Shakespeare Beyond, bringing free arts programs to thousands of people across Maryland every summer. Their published works include Young Adult novels Saving Hamlet, Nothing Happened, Twelfth Grade Night, and King Cheer. They received a BA from Marlboro College (English/Theatre) and an MA from the University of Massachusetts, Boston (English/Pedagogy). www.mollyhortonbooth.com.

David Norris (Dialect Coach) is making his CSC debut. His previous dialect coaching credits include Clue (Actors Anonymous) and John Proctor is the Villain (Towson University).

Hannah Brill (Hair, Wig & Makeup Design) is a costume and lighting designer from Baltimore. She is the Assistant Costume Shop manager for Towson University’s Department of Theatre Arts. Hannah is returning to CSC as wardrobe manager (Romeo and Juliet, The Oresteia, As You Like It, Macbeth, Hamlet, A Christmas Carol 2022 & 2023, Twelfth Night). Other recent work includes costume design for A Year with Frog and Toad (Towson University), TU Dance Company shows 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.)

Mel Gabel (Fight and Intimacy Choreographer) returns to Chesapeake Shakespeare Company after previously working on Shakespeare Beyond’s Romeo and Juliet (2026) and Persuasion (2025). Intimacy direction 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 direction credits include The Play That Goes Wrong (Key School), Monst3r and Ragtime (Maryland Theatre Collective), West Side Story (Children's Theatre of Annapolis), and productions with Towson University and the Baltimore Play Festival.

Chris Reuther (Puppet Designer) returns to CSC after designing puppets for 2026’s production of The Tempest and designing the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come for CSC’s production of A Christmas Carol (2024-present). Chris graduated from Towson University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Art and Design and has spent the past ten years designing and building puppets, creatures, and scenes for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, Submersive Productions, Cohesion Theater Company and various smaller performances. He was also the Show Creator and Puppets Designer for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s Fall 2022 production, Love & ROAR!

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.

Andi Pfluger (Board Operator) returns after board op-ing CSC’s Christmas Carol 2024 and 2025, The Tempest (2026), Persuasion (2025), and Shakespeare in Harlem (2026), the latter of which they were also the lighting programmer for. Other recent credits include Mean Girls (Co-Lighting Designer, Toby’s Dinner Theatre), Doll Parts (Associate Lighting Designer, The Voxel), American Vamp (Front of House Designer, Baltimore Rock Opera Society), and Dawn (Lighting Programmer, Everyman Theatre).

Bernard Johnson (Assistant Stage Manager) is a director and designer from Baltimore, returning to CSC. His previous work as a director includes: Twelfth Night (CSC, Assistant Director); The Gospel at Colonus (Arena Players Inc.); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dundalk Community Theater); Unmarked:Battles (Single Carrot Theatre); In the Heights / The Colored Museum, (Harlem Repertory Theatre); Intimate Apparel (Aaron Davis Hall). He is a theatre graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and The City College of New York

Faith Singletary (Scenic Assistant) is making her CSC debut. Previous credits include Sweet Inspirations and After Death Group Therapy (Towson University). Faith recently got a degree in Theatre Design and Production at Towson University.

Brandon W. Vernon (Graphic/Theatre Experience Designer) is an Animator, Illustrator and Graphic Designer who has worked for a number of publications and theaters including the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. He holds an MFA in Visual Communication from Jacksonville State University in Alabama, and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has designed graphics and marketing material for CSC since 2019. He has also worked in film and television and has been a featured artist on MTV.com.

LEADERSHIP

Ian Gallanar (Frankenstein Director, Founding Artistic Director) In addition to founding the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in 2002, Ian has worked as a professional actor, director, and writer for more than 150 professional productions. He has directed 40 productions for CSC. Previously, Ian has served as Artistic Director for the National Theatre for Children, Minnesota Shakespeare in the Park, and the Repertory Theater of America. Ian is a proud member of the distinguished National Theatre Conference and the Dramatists Guild of America; a Helen Hayes Tribute Award, Telly Award, and Howie Award (Howard County Arts Council) winner. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he is a Member of the College of Fine Arts Advancement Council. He is Immediate Past President of the international Shakespeare Theatre Association, an organization for professional Shakespeare companies around the globe.

Lesley Malin (Producing Executive Director) is a founder of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, and served as its Executive Director since 2003. She managed CSC’s building renovation of an 1885 bank into our modern Shakespeare playhouse as well as the associated $6.7 million capital campaign. She has performed in 28 CSC productions and previously in New York. She was, for 20 years, Vice President of the Board of Trustees of The Lark, the landmark new play development center in New York City, where she earlier was Managing Director. She served for five years on the Executive Committee of the international Shakespeare Theatre Association and organized its annual conference that CSC hosted in Baltimore in 2017. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, NYU’s Arts Management program, Leadership Howard County, and LEADERship Baltimore (2018).