Emma — A Lively costumed reading
Date/Time
Location
Shakespeare & Company (70 Kemble St., Lenox, MA 01240, Lenox MA)
Shakespeare & Company presents a holiday dramtic reading of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel of interference, independence and love.
Emma Woodhouse prides herself on being a matchmaker with an impeccable track record, much to the chagrin of her dear friend Mr. Knightley. Her latest scheme revolves around the sweet Harriet Smith, who Emma advises to reject a perfectly good marriage proposal in favor of another eligible bachelor.
But her best-laid plans are turned upside down by unpredictable displays of affection, unexpected rivals and Emma’s sudden realization that true love might have been under her nose all along.
Cast & Crew
Kate Hamill
Playwright
Kate Hamill is an actor & playwright. Kate has been one of the most-produced playwrights nationwide for the last seven years, from 2017-current season. Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year, 2017; Einhorn Award, 2023. Plays include Pride & Prejudice – Primary Stages / HVSF (originated role of Lizzy; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Sense & Sensibility at Bedlam (originated role of Marianne; winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; nominee, Drama League Award); Vanity Fair at the Pearl (originated Becky; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Mansfield Park at Northlight, Little Women at Primary Stages & the Jungle, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. #2B at KCRep, The Little Fellow at Cygnet Theatre, Emma at the Guthrie. Other plays include Scrooge for Senate; The Piper (O’Neill Finalist, PlayPenn Fellowship), In the Mines (Sundance Finalist); and The Odyssey. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, at A.R.T., the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, The Alley, Folger, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, A.C.T., Actors Theater of Louisville, Denver Center, & many others. World Premieres in 2024: The Scarlet Letter at Two River, The Light & The Dark at Chautauqua Theater Company and more TBA.
Ariel Bock
Director
Pronouns she / her
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: 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.
Lydia Isabel Duff
Miss Bates
Pronouns she / they
Lydia is a theatre artist living in Western Massachusetts. She has a BA in Theatre and Mandarin Chinese from Bennington College, and is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company’s Month-Long Intensive. She has also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
Maliyah Gramata-Jones
Jane Fairfax
Pronouns she / her
Maliyah is thrilled to return to Shakespeare & Company! This summer, she had the pleasure of participating in a reading of Oak by Terry Guest, and in 2023, she attended Shakespeare & Company’s month-long intensive. Her credits include Stew (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), the world premiere of Who All Over There, The Wolves (Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati), Puffs, Red Bike (Know Theatre), and Titus Andronicus (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company). Maliyah currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her four-legged teenager, Hachi.
Luke Haskell
Mr. Elton
Pronouns he / him
Luke’s credits at Shakespeare & Company: George Wickham, (The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley); Costard, (Love’s Labor’s Lost); Lysander/Flute, (A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Paris/Prince/Gregory; (Romeo & Juliet); Hamlet/Decius Brutus (I Have Had a Most Rare Vision). Roles elsewhere: The Conspirators (Chicago, Ill.); Opposition Leader, (The InEptidemic.); Rooted Voyageurs: Benvolio/Friar Lawrence, (Romeo & Juliet). Advice to the Players (NH): Duke Vincentio, (Measure for Measure); Lucentio (The Taming of the Shrew). Aglet Theater Company: Tom (These Shining Lives). UMass Theater Department: Dwight (Dead Man’s Cell Phone); Roland (Constellations); Van (Dog Sees God); Stephano/Ensemble/Musician (The Merchant of Venice). In 2019, he was nominated for Best Actor in a Play by the New Hampshire Theater Alliance, for his portrayal of the Duke in Measure for Measure. He has composed music for several productions, and is currently workshopping his play A Midsummer Night’s Nightmare, a spooky adaptation of the Shakespeare classic. He has worked for the Education department at Shakespeare & Company since 2016.
Marcus Kearns
Mr. George Knightly / Sound Designer
For the last decade, Marcus has been in and out of NYC where he was staying busy as a props carpenter for Broadway, production manager for everything from Redbull to Rhianna, & performing whenever he had the chance. He moved back to the Berkshires in 2021 and worked as Director of Production & Operations for Barrington Stage Company until 2024 when he left to be a full time Dad. Marcus is elated to be on stage again at Shakespeare & Company. He’d like to thank his wife Erika for her love (and the lights) and his son Porter for being such an awesome little dude.
Madeleine Rose Maggio
Mrs. Weston
Pronouns she / her
S&Co: Adriana, The Comedy of Errors; Hippolyta/Snout, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Don John, Much Ado About Nothing; Robert Shallow/Bardolph: Merry Wives; Longaville/Jaquenetta, Love’s Labor’s Lost; Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ensemble: Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World; Elizabeth Bennet, Pride & Prejudice; Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility; Cassie, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley; Elizabeth Darcy, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley; S&Co Regional Tour: Lady Capulet/ Benvolio, Romeo & Juliet; The Majestic: Lana, The Ladyslipper; The Humanist Project: “Bubbles”, Mad Mad Mad! (A Devised Clown Play); Lavinia, Titus Andronicus. Madeleine attended the two-year professional course at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, studied at The Second City in Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Nick Nudler
Mr. Weston / Mr. Woodhouse
Nick Nudler has appeared at Shakespeare & Company as Petruchio, The Taming of the Shrew, and Ensemble, I HAVE HAD A MOST RARE VISION. As part of the Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare, he’s played Macbeth, Macbeth; Antipholus of Ephesus, The Comedy of Errors, and Claudius, Hamlet. He is a theatre creator with his partner, Kirsten Peacock. They build highly physical interpretations of classic and folk stories together. His training includes earning a BFA from the University of Connecticut.
Devante Owens
Frank Churchill / Robert Martin
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); 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, I HAVE HAD A MOST RARE VISION, 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 in classical work and the voice, they are also a teacher and Education Artist with S&Co and 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.
Kirsten Peacock
Emma
Kirsten Peacock has appeared in several Shakespeare & Company productions, including as Kate, The Taming of the Shrew; Titania, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ensemble, I HAVE HAD A MOST RARE VISION. As part of Shakespeare & Company’s Northeast Regional Tour, she played Lady Macbeth, Macbeth; Antipholus of Syracuse, The Comedy of Errors; Ophelia, Hamlet, and Desdemona, Othello.
Kirsten is an actor/theater-maker of British/American parentage, but grew up in Norway. She studied at the University of Kent and UC Berkeley. Outside of Shakespeare, some of her favorite acting credits include Halina in Indecent (Playhouse on Park), Brooke in Noises Off (Cape Rep Theatre) and Adelle Ratignolle in The Awakening (Breadbox Theatre). She and her partner Nick Nudler create and perform new works of ancient stories. Their plays From the Heart of the Wreck and Jason & Medea premiered at Cape Rep Theatre on Cape Cod.
Kristin Yates
Harriet
Pronouns she / her
Kristin is so excited to return to the Shakespeare & Company Stage for Emma. She has worked with the Education department before, directing in The Fall Festival of Shakespeare, working on the spring residencies team and played Hermia, Peaseblossom, and Snout on the Shake&Co North East Regional tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Kristin has her B.F.A from Ohio University in Theatre Performance. Some of her favorite roles include: Urinetown and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The Studio Theatre TDS), Little Shop of Horrors and Caroline Or Change (Tantrum Theater). She would like to thank God for his continued blessings, her family for their support and her mom especially for being her number one fan!
Erika Johnson
Light Designer
Pronouns she / her
Erika is excited to return to S&Co for a fourth 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.
Govane Lohbauer
Costume Designer
Now retired as Costume Director, Govane is in her 42nd year with Shakespeare & Company and enjoying costume design as her primary commitment now. Selected credits at S&Co: Comedy of Errors, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, The Approach, An Iliad, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Martha Mitchell Calling play and film, Twelfth Night, As You Like It; The Tempest, Ugly Lies the Bone, Or…, It’s a Wonderful Life, Henry V, Mother of the Maid, Shakespeare’s Will, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Private Lives, Loves Labor’s Lost, Kaufman’s Barbershop, The Learned Ladies, Women of Will, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Taster, Mengelberg and Mahler, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Shirley Valentine, Golda’s Balcony, The Ladies Man, Enchanted April, Ice Glen, Lettice and Lovage, House of Mirth, Glimpses of the Moon and many years of the Education Department’s Fall Festival and Tour productions including Shakespeare & the Language That Shaped a World film for Shakespeare’s 2021 Birthday. Selected Regional credits: Grant & Twain, Emilie…, The Long Run, In Darfur, Arabian Nights, Red Noses, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Metamorphosis, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Alice in Wonderland, Our Country’s Good.
Will Sexton
Scenic Designer
Pronouns he / him
S&Co: Fall Festival 2024 (Production Designer) Will is an Air Force Veteran, a recent MFA graduate in Scenic Design from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts and B.S. in Business Management from Bridgewater State University. Previous scene design work includes I WISH: An Immersive Escape Experience, RENT, The Revolutionists (Illinois Theatre), Pass Over (Armory Free Theatre), Descendants: The Musical, Moana, James and the Giant Peach (Ogunquit Playhouse), Constellations, The Totalitarians, and The Bald Soprano (Bridgewater State University). He has presented at the United States Institute for Theatre Technology on his topic: “Integrating Military Experience into an Undergraduate Theatre Education”. Further, Will has scenic carpentry experience expanding across Upstate Scenic, Barrington Stage Company, Ogunquit Playhouse, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Brown Box Theatre Project.
Kathleen H. Soltan
Stage Manager
Pronouns she / her
Kathleen H. Soltan is a Philadelphia based Stage Manager and Creator. Selected Theatre Credits: King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, Macbeth with Shakespeare & Company, I Do! I Do! with Purple Crayon Productions, Cadillac Crew, Kamloopa with WAM Theater Company, Noises Off!, Othello, The Birds, The Handmaid’s Tale with CurioTheatre Company. Selected Training: BA Theater Temple University. Creative Inspiration: Kathleen is dedicated to providing and promoting safe spaces for all Performers, Designers, and Artistic Creators.