Daphne Rubin-Vega, Kara Young, Reynaldo Piniella & More to Star in HAMLET Reading at The Acting Company 

The Acting Company has revealed the cast for their reading of Hamlet. This radical bilingual reimagining of Shakespeare's story is adapted from the Shakespeare by Reynaldo Piniella (Thomas Barbour award for Playwriting) and Emily Lyon (Artistic Director of Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre, Shakespeare in the Park's The Tempest), with translation by Christin Eve Cato (Off-Broadway's Sancocho at the WP Theatre). Artistic Director Kent Gash (Off-Broadway's Miss Ever's Boys, Call the Children Home, and Samm-Art William's Home) will direct.

Hamlet is a Black and Latinx prince whose sense of identity has been fractured by the loss of his Black father. This innovative new perspective on the renowned play celebrates two diverse communities, reconsiders the way language shapes the intimacy in our relationships, and considers whose stories get told, and how. Hamlet is produced as part of The Acting Company's annual Louanna O. Carlin & John MacDonald Reading Series. The 2024 series features unique, insightful and sometimes hilarious interpretations of works by William Shakespeare.

The cast for Hamlet features John Concado (Off-Broadway's War Words at NewYorkRep, Romeo y Julieta, at The Public, Electronic Arts' Dead Space 3) as Rosencratz and others, Ty Defoe (Broadway's The Minutes and Straight White Men) as Guildenstern and others, Ezra Knight (Broadway's Mean Girls, Pretty Woman, and Cymbeline) as Claudius, Rad Pereira (Hulu's The Creator, HBO's Betty) as Horatio and others, Reynaldo Piniella (Broadway's Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind) as Hamlet, Travis Raeburn (Off-Broadway's Soft at MCC, Netflix's First Match) as Laertes and others, Daphne Rubin-Vega (Broadway's RENT and Anna in the Topics (Tony nominations), A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, LES MISERABLES, and Warner Brothers' In the Heights) as Gertrude, and Kara Young (Broadway's Purlie Victorious, Cost of Living, and Clyde's (Tony nominations), Off-Broadway's Twelfth Night at Classical Theatre of Harlem (Obie Award)) as Ophelia. Additional casting will be announced soon.

Each season, The Acting Company hosts a series of staged readings. A mixture of new texts, classics of the canon, and forgotten favorites, these readings are a showcase of The Acting Company's alumni and a chance to explore other works by playwrights and directors featured in the company's National Tours. The Acting Company gratefully recognizes the generous supporters of The Louanna O. Carlin and John MacDonald Reading Series, including Lori-Anne Wynter (Underwriter, Hamlet) and Richard J. Reilly, Jr. (Series Producing Sponsor).

The Acting Company's Louanna O. Carlin & John MacDonald 2023-2024 Reading Series includes:

Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Bilingual adaptation by Reynaldo Piniella and Emily Lyon
Translation by Christin Eve Cato
Directed by Artistic Director Kent Gash

Monday, February 12, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
416 West 42 Street, New York, NY, 10036

Hamlet is a Black, Latinx prince in this radical bilingual reimagining of Shakespeare's tragedy, with text infused by the Spanish spoken in present-day New York City. This exciting new perspective on the renowned play celebrates two diverse communities, reconsiders the way language shapes the intimacy in our relationships, and considers whose stories get told, and how.

Antony and Cleopatra
By William Shakespeare
Featuring John Douglas Thompson as Mark Antony and Audra McDonald as Cleopatra
Produced in association with Red Bull Theater

Monday, March 25, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher St, New York

In this classic Jacobean tragedy of love and duty, Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen, and the Roman general Mark Antony scandalize Egypt and Rome alike through their passionate love affair, setting off a chain of broken alliances, jealous rages and civil war that reverberate through the known world in one of Shakespeare's greatest historical love stories.

Single tickets are now available for the Louanna O. Carlin & John MacDonald Reading Series' New York performances. Reserved and General Admission seats may be at a special price for a limited time. Seating is subject to availability. Visit theactingcompany.org/reading-series or call 212-258-3111 to purchase tickets.

For more information, visit www.theactingcompany.org.

ABOUT The Acting Company

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kent Gash, Managing Director Erik Schroeder, and Producing Director Devin Brain, The Acting Company brings professional productions and education programs, in-school residencies, and teacher training workshops to thousands of audience members and students in underserved communities and schools each year. Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley, the company seeks to develop emerging actors and build enthusiastic, knowledgeable audiences for the theater in towns across the United States. The Acting Company launched the careers of nearly 500 actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Mary Lou Rosato, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, Lorraine Toussaint, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Lisa Banes, Jeffrey Wright, Hamish Linklater, Jesse L. Martin, Roslyn Ruff, Jimonn Cole, and Kelley Curran.

Over 5,000 students in New York City and across the country benefit from The Acting Company's in-school residencies and educator workshops every year. Annually, over 30,000 audience members see an Acting Company production across the country who otherwise lack access to professional classical theatre.

Among many accolades, The Acting Company received the 2003 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theater, and recently won the 2019 Audelco Award for Best Play for its production of Nambi E. Kelley's Native Son directed by Seret Scott.

Since 1972, The Acting Company has performed for over four million people in 48 states, 10 foreign countries, on and Off-Broadway, and at leading resident theaters including The Guthrie and The Kennedy Center. New works commissioned by the company include plays by William Finn, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, John Guare, Beth Henley, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Meg Miroshnik, Ntozake Shange, Maria Irene Fornés, Spalding Gray, Marsha Norman, Charles Smith, Samm-Art Williams, and Wendy Wasserstein.

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CREATIVE BIOGRAPHIES

Reynaldo Piniella (Co-Adapter, Hamlet) is an actor, writer, activist and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. In 2021, he was in The Acting Company of two Broadway shows at the same time - Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. His Off-Broadway acting credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, the Public, the Working Theater, TFANA and Rattlestick, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf, the O'Neill, Cleveland Playhouse, NY Stage & Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and Actors Theatre of Louisville and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco. TV credits include "Reservation Dogs," "Sneaky Pete," "Law & Order: SVU," "The Carrie Diaries," "Flesh & Bone," "Blue Bloods," "Greenleaf," "Louie," "NYC 22," "Us & Them" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". Film: "Madeline's Madeline" (Sundance Film Fest, Showtime), "Shadows" (HBO Max) and "Broken City" (20th Century Fox.) As a playwright, his work has been commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage and has been produced by Ars Nova, San Diego Rep, Single Carrot Theater, the Lee Strasberg Institute at NYU Tisch, the Center at West Park, Harlem9, the 24 Hour Plays and Pioneer Theatre Guild. His plays have been developed by the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Folger Theatre, National Black Theater, the Lark, the Billie Holiday Theatre, Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective, HB Studio and The Public Theater's Shakespeare Initiative. He received the Thomas Barbour award for Playwriting for his play Black Doves. He is a current faculty member at NYU Tisch and AMDA and has taught theater at Rikers Island Correctional Facility and with members of the NYPD. He has received fellowships from TCG, NALAC, Weeksville Heritage Center and the All Stars Project. He is an alum of All for One Theater's Solo Collective, The Civilians' R&D Group, New Victory Theater's LabWorks and was an artist-in-residence at Abingdon Theatre Company and Culture Lab LIC. @ReynaldoRey

Emily Lyon (Co-Adaptor) is a director, dramaturg, and artistic director that carves out the humor and authenticity in new and classic texts. She leads and curates Expand the Canon - a celebration and call to action to include historic women writers in the canon of classics - as Artistic Director of Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre. Over the past three years, she also created a Social Impact Writers Lab, founded Future Facing Films, helped develop the 2021 Hollywood Climate Summit, joined the first US cohort of the Creative Climate Leadership, and created an environmental justice card game with The Civilians R&D Group. With Hedgepig, she has directed 9 productions, including Hannah Cowley's A Bold Stroke for a Husband from the 2020 Expand the Canon list. As a freelance director, Lyon has directed 8 world premiere plays, and worked with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theatre, The Old Globe, LaMaMa, Yale Rep, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Folger, University of Michigan, and others. As a freelance dramaturg, she's worked with writers on shaping 25+ new plays, as well as editing classical texts, including the Expand the Canon plays, and The Tempest for Shakespeare in the Park. Find out more at expandthecanon.com and EmilyALyon.com.

Christin Eve Cato (Translation) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, poet, educator, lyricist, songwriter, and performing artist, comes from the vibrant streets of the Bronx, bringing with her an artistic narrative steeped in the rich tapestry of her Puerto Rican and Jamaican roots. Armed with a master's degree in playwriting from Indiana University and a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy from Fordham University, Cato's creates universal stories grounded in advocacy for human rights and social justice. Cato's artistic voice harmonizes with the rhythms of Caribbean culture and the Afro-Latinx diaspora. She holds positions such as ensemble member and former resident dramaturge at Pregones/PRTT, a founding UNIT 52 ensemble member at INTAR Theatre, and a playwright in the WP Theater 2022-2024 Pipeline Lab. She is a former core apprentice and current educator at the Playwrights Center. She is a member and affiliated playwright of The Latinx Playwrights Circle, an associated artist with The Sol Project, and a seasonal roundtable dramaturg at the Musical Theatre Factory. Recent productions include her award winning play Sancocho at the WP Theatre.

Kent Gash (Director) brings to The Acting Company professional collaborations with stellar living dramatists Tarell Alvin McCraney, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Robert O'Hara, Dominique Morisseau, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Regina Taylor, among many others. He has also directed dynamic modern reconsiderations of Alexander Dumas, Langston Hughes, Noël Coward, Duke Ellington, Frank Loesser, Stephen Sondheim, William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and August Wilson. As a director, Kent's productions have been seen at leading U.S. theaters including The Public Theater, Steppenwolf, the Guthrie, Fords Theatre and The Acting Company's commission The Three Musketeers, centering Dumas and the Black origins of the classic swashbuckler at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Recent projects include the world premiere musical Billy Strayhorn: Something To Live For at Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Kent was Associate Artistic Director of Alliance Theatre and Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He is the founding director of NYU-Tisch's New Studio on Broadway, he serves on the SDC Foundations' Lloyd Richards New Futures Residency for Black Directors selection committee and the Princess Grace Foundation Arts Advisory Council. Carnegie-Mellon (BFA, Acting) and UCLA (MFA, Directing).

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

John Concado (Rosencratz and others) aka Juanjo, is a native New Yorker & bilingual Argentinian-American with a soft spot for everything Lionel Messi. John is grateful to be part of such important and exciting work with his longtime friend and collaborator, Reynaldo. He's also grateful to you, the audience, you beauties! Recent Theatre: War Words (NY Rep Off-Bway); Romeo y Julieta, starring Lupita Nyong'o (The Public Theater); Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre); Anna in the Tropics (Barrington Stage); The Enclave (Rattlestick Theater); The Forest (O'Neill Theater Center); Locusts Have No King (INTAR). Recent Film: "Paris is in Harlem"; "Orgami"; "The Rainbow Experiment"; "42 Seconds of Happiness"; "Argentinian Intervention". Recent TV: CBS's "FBI: Most Wanted"; HBO's "The Deuce". So many voiceovers, commercials and video games like "Red Dead Redemption 2" and "Dead Space 3." @concado and JohnConcado.com for reels and more!

Ty Defoe (Giizhig) (Guildenstern and others) an Indigiqueer citizen of Oneida and Anishinaabe Nations. Grammy award-winning composer, a librettist, interdisciplinary artist, actor, Broadway choreographer, eagle dancer, and hoop dancer. Ty interweaves artistic projects with social justice, indigeneity, trans rights, Indigi-Queering, and environmentalism. Select awards, residencies, and fellowships: 2022 The Kennedy Center's Next 50, 2021 Helen Merrill Award-winner, TransLab Fellow, Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence, Jonathan Larson Award. Select venues Ty's theatrical work has been seen in: The Guthrie Theater, The Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Institute of Musical Theater, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, and Syracuse Stage. He has been at the helm as a director for TUTS' production of RENT and at the Pereleman for Number our Days. Selected works: For the People (co-written by Larissa FastHorse) TransWorld, Ajijaak on Turtle Island. Ty is a core member of All My Relations Collective and on the TONY nominating committee.

Ezra Knight (Claudius) Seen most recently: 'This Land was Made' Vineyard Theatre (original cast) & 'Found' season 1; NBD Broadway: Mean Girls, Pretty Woman (original Broadway cast) Cymbeline. Off-Broadway: Coal Country; The Public Theatre/Audible Theatre (original cast), Toni Stone; Roundabout Theatre (original cast), Merchant of Venice; TFANA, Oroonoko; TFANA, Julius Ceesar; The Public Theatre, Othello (Title Role); The Acting Company. Regional: Ivo van Hove's A View From The Bridge; Goodman Theatre, Playing the Assassin; Penguin Rep/Theatreworks Hartford/DTC, Othello; The Acting Company. TV: East New York, The Equalizer. Found, Ordinary Joe, Power book 3 - Raising kanan, Billions, Daredevil (season3), The Blacklist, Law & Order. Film: The Tender Bar, Lost Cat Corona, The Abandoned, Blood Sand & Gold, Symposium (short film).

Rad Pereira (Horatio and others) Rad Pereira is a queer (im)migrant artist and cultural worker building consciousness between healing justice, system change, reindigenization and queer futures from Pindorama (Brasil) living between Lenapehoking (Brooklyn) and Haudenosaunee territory (upstate NY). Their work in performance, education and social practice has been experienced on stages, screens, stoops, swamps and sidewalks all over Turtle Island through the support of many communities, institutions, and groups. Their book Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965-2020, By Those Who Lived It is available through New Village Press. Rad has contributed to stories at many amazing places including 20th Century Studios, HBO, CBS, NBC, MTV, Shudder, AMC, National Black Theatre, MITU350, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Poetic Theater, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Sesame Street, Theatre 167 and various online media platforms.

Travis Raeburn (Laertes and others) was recently in The Acting Company's National Tour Of Romeo & Juliet / The Three Musketeers. Some credits include MCC Theater's Soft, Hulu's "Wu-Tang: An American Saga", Netflix's "First Match," commercials for MasterCard USA, Xfinity, and Pop Tarts and In The Southern Breeze at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Raeburn thanks his mother, grandmother and family for their support. Along with acting he is also a teaching artist, serving predominantly students of color. His music is streaming on all platforms under TravRae. Black lives always will matter. Training: SUNY Purchase BFA Acting and LaGuardia Arts High School (Drama) Instagram @travierae.

Daphne Rubin-Vega (Gertrude) earned Tony nominations for her performance in the original cast of RENT and for Anna in the Tropics. She can currently be seen leading Night of the Iguana at the Signature Theatre. Broadway: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and LES MISERABLES. Off-Broadway: Empanadaq Loca, Miss You Like Hell, Two Sisters and a Piano, F*cking A, Romeo & Juliet, and Jack Goes Boeating. Upcoming: the animated series Hazbin Hotel (A24/Amazon). Film: Ezra, Bucky F*cking Dent, Allswell, In The Heights, Same Storm. TV: "The Changeling" (Apple TV+), "The Horror of Dolores Roach" (Amazon), "Accused" (FOX), "Social Distance" (Netflix), "Katy Keene" (CW) and "Tales of the City" (Netflix).

Kara Young (Ophelia) can currently be seen starring on Broadway in Purlie Victorious. She made her Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage's Clyde's for which she received a Tony nomination. She was also nominated for a 2023 Tony award for her work in Cost of Living and won an Obie award for her performance in the Classical Theatre of Harlem's production of Twelfth Night. Kara can currently be seen in Boots Riley's "I'm a Virgo" for Prime Video, which earned her an Indie Spirit Nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance. She also appeared in HBO Max's "The Staircase" as well as Netflix's "The Punisher". She also starred in the winning Sundance Short, Hair Wolf. Kara starred in the MCC Theater's All the Natalie Portmans, for which she received a Lucille Lortel Award Nomination. Her other stage credits include Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, New Englanders, Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, Synching Ink, and Pretty Hunger.

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