Cast Announced For MEASURE FOR MEASURE At Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare & Company has announced the cast of Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare - to be staged at the Tina Packer Playhouse at the Shakespeare & Company campus, from August 19 through September 18.

Directed by Alice Reagan, Measure for Measure follows Lord Angelo, abruptly appointed to rule over a chaotic and debauched city to restore order with repressive laws and an iron fist over licentiousness. The object of his own twisted desire is a young nun, whom he puts in an unthinkable position. "To whom should I complain?" is all that young Isabella can utter when she finds herself the target of his abuse of power.

Shakespeare & Company's 45th Season's cast of Measure for Measure features:

Ariel Bock (Duke)

A Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, Bock's acting credits at Shakespeare & Company include 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), and Arlene (Off the Map). Her directing credits include The Wickhams, Christmas at Pemberley; Emma; Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility, and A Christmas at Pemberley. At Mixed Company, her acting credits include Ramona (Zara Spook and Other Lures) and Eileen (The Cripple of Inishmaan). With the Ensemble for the Romantic Century inNew York City, she's appeared as Nadezhda VonMeck (None But the Lonely Heart), as well as Fanny Mendelsohn, Emily Dickinson, Sonia Tolstoy, and Anna Akhmatova.

Nehassaiu deGannes (Isabella / Pompey)

deGannes' acting credits with Shakespeare & Company include Yolande Du Bois, Knock Me A Kiss; Isabella and Pompey, Measure for Measure (2021 workshop); Esther, Intimate Apparel; Nell Gwynne/Lady Davenant/Maria, Or,; Virgilia et al, Tina Packer's Bare Bard Coriolanus. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Is God Is (Soho Rep,) and SEAGULLMACHINE (LaMaMa.) In Regional theater, she has appeared in Three Musketeers; SWEAT (Cleveland Play House); My Lord, What A Night (Florida Studio Theatre,); Our Town; Romeo & Juliet (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); KINGS (Studio Theatre, DC); The Last Wife (WAM); The Convert (Central Square); King Lear, (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Doubt (Oldcastle); Marisol (Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage); Antony & Cleopatra, Harlem Shakespeare Festival, and COCo Dance Theatre National Tour, among others. Internationally, deGannes has appeared at Stratford Festival of Canada; Driftwood Theatre; Theatre Aquarius, and Theatre Passe Muraille. In film, she's appeared as Krystal Rullan in EQUAL STANDARD. Her plays include Door of No Return (solo-show); EBB & lo' (in progress), and she is the recipient of an Assembly 2020 Deceleration Lab Grant. Her poetry collection, Music for Exile (Tupelo Press) is co-winner of the 2021 Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize. She teaches at Princeton University.

Ally Farzetta (Mariana)

Farzetta is making her Shakespeare & Company debut, having appeared as Elinor Dashwood in Virginia Stage Company's production of Sense and Sensibility. She spent two seasons with the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., where her credits include Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), The Winter's Tale (Hermione), Sense and Sensibility (Elinor Dashwood), among many others. Additional regional credits include Guess Who's Coming to Dinner & Living on Love (Asolo Rep), It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Shadowland Stages), and Boeing, Boeing (Theater at Monmouth). Farzetta earned her MFA from FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training where she trained in classical acting under long-time Shakes & Co company member Jonathan Epstein.

David Gow (Angelo)

Devid Gow has appeared in Till, The Intruder on film, The Good Fight (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS), and Jon Glaser Loves Gear (truTV on television, and in New York Theater, Burning Leaves (Duke Theater); Chokehold (14th St.Y); Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone (Workshop Theater); Bleach (Wilson's Lounge), and Decky Does a Bronco (Royal Family Productions). In Regional Theater, he's appeared in Mothers and Sons and Waverly Gallery (Shakespeare & Company); Up The Hill (Eugene O'Neill Center); Peter and the Starcatcher (Smithtown Performing Arts Center); Pirira (Luna Stages); Why Do You Stand There In The Rain (Edinburgh Fringe), and Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top of the World (Hollywood Fringe). Gow holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Charls Sedgwick Hall (Lucio)

Hall is a Chicago-based artist who has spent many years working with Shakespeare & Company in Charlie in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged); Boyet in Love's Labour's Lost; The Recruiting Officer in Mother Courage and Her Children; Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet; with the Northeast Regional Tour as Brutus in Julius Caesar, and Macduff in Macbeth. Other credits include Preacher/Ol' Mister in The Color Purple; Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing; Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Trinculo in The Tempest; the triumvirate Ghost of Hamlet's Father; The Player King/Queen and The Gravedigger in Hamlet; Nicola in Arms and the Man; Biedermann in The Firebugs, and Gertie in Angels of Lemnos. Hall is a graduate of New York University's School of the Performing Arts, represented by Lori Lins, LTD, and a faculty member of Shakespeare & Company.

Rory Hammond (Escalus / Abhorson)

Hammond played The Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost in 2020, and in 2016 she was Kacie in Ugly Lies the Bone. Her New York theater credits include Pericles (SoHo Rep); Measure for Measure, Bachelorette (Circle in the Square); Where's My Money (Cherry Lane Theatre), and The Scarlet Letter. Berkshire theater credits include Romeo & Juliet; Midsummer Night's Dream; Taming of the Shrew; King John; Richard III; Merry Wives of Windsor; Off the Map; Much Ado about Nothing; Merchant of Venice, Dibble Dance; Autres Temp; Xingu, and Summer. Her actor training includes Shakespeare & Company's Spring Young Company and Summer Performing Institute (SPI). A graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in NYC, she is also a Founding Member of Animus Theatre Company in New York City.

Vaughn Pole (Claudio)

Pole is making his Shakespeare & Company debut. Off-Broadway, he's played Malaise (Cherry Lane Theatre) and Welcome to Cookie Mountain (National Black Theatre). In Regional theater, he's played Macbeth (Northampton Center for the Arts), and at Columbia University, appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Macbeth; Three Sisters; Measure for Measure, and The Death of The Last Black Man... He holds an MFA from Columbia University.

Indika Senanayake (Mistress Overdone / Juliet / Barnadine / Friar Pet)

Indika Senanayake's credits include: Be the Death of Me and Occupy Your Mind (The Civilians); A Family of Perhaps Three; Yes is for a Very Young Man; Women of Trachis; The Knights and The Birds (Target Margin Theatre); Money Thinks I'm Dead (Mabou Mines RAP); Arden/Everywhere (BPAC); A Midsummer Nights' Dream (Classic Stage Company); The House of Bernada Alba (NAATCO), and The Jackson Heights Trilogy (Theatre 167). Internationally, she's appeared in Villa (ICES, Sri Lanka). Regionally, she's appeared in Serendib (Hippodrome Theatre); Miss Witherspoon (New City Stage); Cecilia's Last Tea Party (Passage Theatre); Florida! (Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage), and Confluence (Guthrie Theatre). In film and television, she's appeared in Beast (2022 Tribeca Film Festival premiere); Lost Cat Corona (with Ralph Macchio); Big Dogs, and Love and Badminton. A TCG/Mellon Foundation Global Connections Grant recipient, she holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University, where she was a Deans' Fellow.

Tickets to Measure for Measure range from $37 to $82; preview performances are $10 less and student tickets are $22. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit shakespeare.org, or call the Box Office at (413) 637-3353.

About Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare & Company was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer. Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Company offers performance, education, and actor-training opportunities year-round, and attracts more than 40,000 patrons annually with a core of more than 150 artists.

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