Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced its 2026/27 season lineup, which includes partnerships with Theatre Royal Bath, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Signature Theatre. “Miracles, music, and magic combine in STC’s 2026/27 season,” says STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin. “Th ese are stories that explore the eternal clash between artists and power and include a gripping portrait of one of the 20th century’s most compelling artists, two of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, a seminal American classic, and a lavish musical to end the season.”  Brian Cox, appearing in ’The Score.’ Photo of Brian Cox courtesy of the artist. The season starts with the U.S. premiere of The Score, featuring Emmy and Olivier Award-winning actor Brian Cox (Succession), under the direction of Trevor Nunn (Cats, Les Misérables). The new play by Oliver Cotton explores the ideological clash between composer Johann Sebastian Bach and King Frederick of Prussia. The Score, originally produced by Theatre Royal Bath followed by a West End run, makes its U.S. debut at STC. The production also features Nicole Ansari-Cox, real-life wife to Mr. Cox, as Anna Magdalena Bach. “I am thrilled to be returning to the stage once again, to reprise my role as Bach in this thrilling historical play, and to do so at Shakespeare Theatre Company,” says Cox. “In The Score, King Frederick, a warmonger and tyrant, places the composer in a moral conundrum, and asks of us ‘How can an artist rise to the challenge of creation while living under tyranny? And how can he do so without losing his own morality?’” Next comes Frida…A Self-Portrait, created by and starring Vanessa Severo, under the direction of Joanie Schultz. This piece explores the extraordinary life of artist Frida Kahlo in a performance that has toured America to great acclaim as “utterly engaging and original” (Pittsburgh Tattler), in which Severo “brilliantly performs as Frida” (BroadwayWorld Kansas City). “To see this play, you get to see the human side of Frida Kahlo and not just the icon,” says Severo. “I think that we all have a story to tell, and art is a beautiful mechanism to help us therapeutically — whether that be a self-portrait or dance or theater or music — these are tools that help us get to the other side of difficult situations. I’m excited to bring this play to DC so humans can see themselves as I saw myself in her — and maybe leave doing their own self-portrait.” Frida…A Self-Portrait will be followed by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Simon Godwin. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play I’ve never tackled,” says Godwin. “We’re bringing together the world’s greatest storyteller, William Shakespeare, with one of America’s greatest visual storytellers, the legendary Basil Twist, who will be designing and directing the puppetry, supported by some incredible talent in the construction. Wonderful actors will be joined by astonishing puppets to create a unique rendition of Shakespeare’s rare vision.” A new staging of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the Sun, in partnership with the remarkable Oregon Shakespeare Festival, arrives in Washington, DC in the new year. Directed by OSF Artistic Director Tim Bond, this powerful revival of Hansberry’s seminal work, one of the greatest American dramas ever written, feels as urgent now as it was when it debuted in 1959. “As I began the journey with Lorraine Hansberry’s enduring American classic, I pondered the lingering questions asked by the Langston Hughes poem that inspired the title of the play, ‘What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?’” says Bond. “Perhaps the question at this moment in our nation is: how do we hold onto hope and continue to find the courage to dream when we are facing constant uncertainty, vengeance, and divisiveness. A Raisin in the Sun urgently inspires us to find the courage to pursue the radical act of dreaming and stand strong against forces that seek to divide us. I have been honored to not only bring this story to life at my home base at Oregon Shakespeare Festival but feel great joy in sharing it with STC’s audiences here in DC in a community that needs courage right now.” This production of the play includes new passages in the script that no audience has ever heard before. It was through many months of dramaturgical workshops between director Bond, STC’s Artistic Producer, Drew Lichtenberg, Joi Gresham of the Hansberry Literary Trust, and the OSF literary staff, headed by Paul Adolphsen. During visits to New York’s Schomburg Center, they reviewed Hansberry’s first pre-Broadway draft of the play from 1957, and her 1960 screenplay for the film adaptation, which was eventually censored by major Hollywood studios, and these edits were blessed by the Hansberry Estate for this new version of the script. In the spring, Romeo and Juliet will play in the Klein Theatre. The director to helm this timeless tale of forbidden love will be announced at a later date. STC’s 2026/27 season wraps up with a co-production of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies that brings together two of the region’s premier theaters in a new partnership and welcomes Signature Theatre’s audiences into Harman Hall. “At Signature, we are known for producing the musicals of Stephen Sondheim,” says Signature Theatre Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner. “Over the past 36 years, we have staged over 35 productions of his work, more than any other theater in the world. I’m thrilled to add another title to that legacy, this time in an exciting co-production between Shakespeare Theatre Company and Signature. In the Spring of 2027, I will direct Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s masterpiece Follies on the Harman Hall stage. I cannot imagine a more perfect venue to bring Sondheim’s musical to life as we transform this beautiful theatre into a faded palace of memory and glamour. We’re aiming to create a production that maintains the intimacy and immediacy that audiences love about Signature while embracing the scale and grandeur of Harman Hall. Signature’s Managing Director Maggie Boland and I are grateful to Simon, Angela, and everyone at Shakespeare Theatre Company for enthusiastically coming to the table to partner with us as we bring this haunting, beautiful musical to life for Washington audiences.” Subscription renewals are underway, and new subscriptions are available as of Friday, March 27, by visiting ShakespeareTheatre.org. ABOUT THE PLAYS Brian Cox inTheatre Royal Bath‘s Production ofTHE SCOREBy Oliver CottonDirected by Trevor NunnSEP 11–OCT 18, 2026 | HARMAN HALL Powerhouse Golden Globe-winning actor Brian Cox (HBO’s Succession) is directed by the legendary Trevor Nunn (Les Misérables, Cats) in The Score, which pits creativity against the whims of power. In spring 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach (Cox) reluctantly visits the court of Frederick II, Europe’s most ambitious and dangerous leader. When the king presents Bach with a musical puzzle, the composer must confront how to rise to the challenge without forsaking his own morality. Brian Cox brings a “volcanic presence” (The Times UK) to Bach in the play’s only American engagement. FRIDA…A SELF-PORTRAIT Written and Performed by Vanessa SeveroDirected by Joanie Schultz OCT 8–NOV 8, 2026 | KLEIN THEATRE On the eve of Frida Kahlo’s death, the pain and passion of an extraordinary life are laid bare. Brazilian writer and performer Vanessa Severo cracks open a powerful portal between herself and the celebrated Mexican painter, bringing breathtaking physicality and raw honesty to this “visually lush, emotionally rich” (Chicago Sun-Times) portrait of one of the world’s most iconic artists. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM By William ShakespeareDirected by Simon Godwin DEC 4, 2026–JAN 10, 2027 | HARMAN HALL Lives are thrown topsy-turvy when four young Athenians flee into a forest ruled by mischievous fairies hell-bent on sowing confusion and merriment. Add a mysterious love potion, a befuddled group of amateur actors, and the miraculous transformation of a man into a donkey and you have Shakespeare’s most magical romantic comedy. Simon Godwin directs this joyous production, surrounding the acting company with eye-popping puppets directed by master puppeteer Basil Twist (My Neighbour Totoro, Petrushka). A RAISIN IN THE SUN By Lorraine HansberryDirected by Tim BondProduced in Association with Oregon Shakespeare Festival JAN 23–FEB 28, 2027 | KLEIN THEATRE Love, struggle, and shelved dreams bind the Younger family under their single roof on the South Side of 1950s Chicago. When a life insurance check arrives after the death of their father, it sparks a chance to break free — but each family member sees a different future, and the choices they make test everything they believe about identity, pride, and possibility. As urgent now as when it first debuted in 1959, witness this powerful revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s seminal work that The New York Times called “The play that changed American theatre forever.”  ROMEO AND JULIET By William Shakespeare APR 13–MAY 16, 2027 | KLEIN THEATRE Passions burn hot in the city of Verona. Bad blood boils over as the Montagues and Capulets draw swords against each other in the streets, while young Romeo and Juliet tend the flame of their newfound love. When they decide to join hands in marriage against the wishes of their families, will they discover a power strong enough to end the ancient feud? Not part of STC’s mainstage season in over a decade, Shakespeare’s timeless tale reemerges with a striking relevance. FOLLIES Book by James GoldmanMusic Lyrics by Stephen SondheimProduced Originally on Broadway by Harold PrinceOrchestrations by Jonathan TunickDirected by Matthew Gardiner By Special Arrangement with Cameron MackintoshA Co-Production with Signature Theatre MAY 18–JUN 20, 2027 | HARMAN HALL A chorus of former showgirls reminisce and regret as they make one last visit to the theatre where it all began — when everything was possible and nothing made sense. Surrounded by the glamorous ghosts of their past selves, reality and memory blur in ways both dazzling and devastating in Stephen Sondheim’s sumptuous masterpiece. With an epic cast of 32 and a 14-piece orchestra, Sondheim’s incomparable score, including “Broadway Baby,” “I’m Still Here,” and “Losing My Mind,” shines in spectacular style like you’ve never seen it before under the direction of Signature Theatre Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner. ABOUT THE ARTISTS NICOLE ANSARI-COXActor, The Score Nicole is happy to be reunited with Trevor Nunn and her husband Brian Cox again after the West End run of The Score at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and being in the original cast of Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, which had its world premiere at the Royal Court and then transferred to the West End and Broadway. Further Broadway and off-Broadway credits include: 7 Minutes (Waterwell at HERE Arts, NYC); Tartuffe (Molière in the Park, NY); Daybreak (Theatre Row NYC); I Am Antigone (Theatre for the New City, NYC); Shakespeare’s Sister (La Mama and French tour) and The Lower Depth (Odeon Theatre, LA – Ovation Award nominee). Regional US theatre credits include: The Approach (Shakespeare and Company and Sinners (New Rep at BU, Boston). European theater credits include: She/Her (also writer/director – at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Sinners (directed by Brian Cox – Playground Theatre, London); Romy, Me… (co-writer), Irma La Douce, Much Ado About Nothing, Cyrano de Bergerac, Phèdre (Public Theatre, Vienna); Alma (Wiener Festwochen and Palazzo Zenobio, Venice). Two years as a company member of the famed Théâtre du Soleil under Ariane Mnouchkine in Paris and on tour. Two years repertory with Theater am Neumarkt, Zurich; Shakespeare Love Songs (Shakespeare Company, Berlin – founding member); The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Kampnagel Factory, Hamburg). Film credits include: What a Feeling, Land of Dreams, Son of the South, Making the Day, Lawrence After Arabia, Remember Me, and Soderbergh’s Side Effects. Television credits include: Law Order; Succession; Deadwood; FBI; Hit and Run; The Blacklist, The Mysteries of Laura, and Bar Karma. Nicole won a Best Director British Web Award and Socially Relevant Film Festival Award for the web series Messy, an ensemble acting award from AFI for Son of the South, and also received the Vanya Exerjian Award for Empowering Women. Audio includes the BBC’s McLevy.  TIM BONDDirector, A Raisin in the SunArtistic Director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Tim Bond is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s seventh Artistic Director, marking his triumphant return to Ashland in 2023. He previously served as Associate Artistic Director under Libby Appel from 1996 to 2007. Tim’s contributions to OSF include directing 14 productions, championing equity and inclusion efforts, and establishing the FAIR Program, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to nurturing the next generation of diverse theater artists and administrators. Since assuming the role of Artistic Director, Tim has not only continued to shape the artistic vision of OSF but has also been the driving force behind major fundraising efforts, securing the Festival’s future as it moves toward its 100th anniversary in 2035. Tim has held artistic leadership roles across the country including Artistic Director at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Producing Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage, Artistic Director at Seattle Theatre Group, Artistic Director of The Paul Robeson Theatre, and Head of the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington School of Drama. Tim has guest directed at many theaters nationally and internationally, including The Market Theatre (Johannesburg), Baxter Theatre Centre (Cape Town), The Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Arena Stage, Cleveland Play House, Indiana Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, and A Contemporary Theatre (ACT). He is the recipient of two Backstage West Garland Awards, two Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards, and a Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Forum Award. Tim has served on the national boards of trustees for both Theatre Communications Group and ASSITEJ: The International Association of Theatre for Children and Young Audiences. His work as an organizational leader, teacher, and stage director has led him to South Africa, The Republic of the Congo, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Austria, France, England, and Belgium. Tim received a B.F.A. in Dramatic Arts from Howard University and an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Washington. OLIVER COTTONPlaywright, The Score Oliver Cotton trained at the Drama Centre, London. A year after graduating, he joined the National Theatre under the directorship of Laurence Olivier. His appearances at the RNT include: Love For Love, In His Own Write, As You Like It, The Royal Hunt of The Sun, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Oedipus, Summerfolk, Troilus and Cressida, Piano, The Crucible, Despatches, The World Turned Upside Down, Half-Life, The Passion, The Madras House, Julius Caesar, Tales From the Vienna Woods, No Man’s Land, Hamlet, Tamburlaine. At the Old Vic he has appeared in: Life X 3, Richard II, A Flea in Her Ear and The Philadelphia Story – and at the Royal Court Theatre: Bingo, Man Is Man, The Duchess of Malfi, The Tutor, Erogenous Zones, Captain Oates Left Sock, The Local Stigmatic, Piano Forte. At the RSC he has appeared in: Some Americans Abroad, The Plain Dealer, The Plantagenets, The Marrying of Ann Leete, Brand and As You Like It. For Shakespeare’s Globe, King Henry IV parts I and II, Twelfth Night. In the West End he has starred in: An Ideal Husband, Benefactors); Children of a Lesser God, Brand. The Homecoming, Passion Play, Daytona. Oliver’s TV appearances include: The Borgias (Cesare Borgia), Killing Eve, Lovejoy, New Tricks, Assets, Penny Dreadful, Three Musketeers, David Copperfield, The Year of The French, The Party, Redemption, Poirot, The Camomile Lawn, Westbeach, Sharpe’s Battle Rhodes, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Innocents, Judge John Deed, Waking The Dead, Margaret, Money, Ripper Street. His Film credits Include: Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush, The Day Christ Died, Baby Blue, The Dark Knight Rises, Tooting Broadway, Pope Joan, Out of the Ashes, Shanghai Knights, The Dancer Upstairs, Innocents, Beowulf, The Opium War, Eleni, The Innocent Sleep, Son of the Pink Panther, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, Hiding Out, The Sicilian, Firefox, Oliver Twist, Us Among The Stones, The Last Duel. Oliver’s writing credits include (stage): The Enoch Show (Royal Court), Man Falling Down (Shakespeare’s Globe), Wet Weather Cover, (King’s Head Tiffany Theatre, Los Angeles), Daytona, (The Park Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket), Dessert (Southwark Playhouse), The Score (Theatre Royal Bath). And for Film and TV: Singing for Stalin, Peeping Through, A Touch of Frost, Diamond Geezer, The English Game.  BRIAN COXActor, The Score Actor Brian Cox has worked on many outstanding projects. He is best known for his role of Logan Roy in the hit HBO show, Succession which gained him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television series (drama) as well as Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series both in 2020, 2022 and 2023. His other notable roles include: Hidden Agenda, Braveheart, The Boxer, Rushmore and many others including Churchill where he played the titular role. Recently, he starred as Nicholas Booker in the feature film The Independent, and is set to appear in Tom Kirkby’s The Glove. A prolific stage actor, Brian has previously won two Olivier awards for Best Actor in Titus Andronicus and Rat In The Skull, with further theatre credits including King Lear at The National Theatre, The Music Man, Art, Uncle Varick, The Score and Long Day’s Journey into Night. Vocally, he has lent his voice to depict a variety of roles including ‘Fagin’ in the Oliver Twist audiobook for the recent Christmas release for Audible, ‘Death’ in Good Omens and ‘Conrad’ in Bob The Builder. With his upcoming roles including The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and Unsinkable, Brian Cox is a big name with a big voice. MATTHEW GARDINERDirector, FolliesArtistic Director, Signature Theatre Called “one of the top young musical-theatre directors in the land” and “one of those rarefied musical theatre beasts” by The Washington Post, Matthew Gardiner is the Artistic Director of Signature Theatre. Gardiner has directed and/or choreographed more than 25 productions at Signature, including HAIR, Ragtime, She Loves Me, RENT, A Chorus Line, West Side Story, La Cage aux Folles, Jelly’s Last Jam, The Threepenny Opera, and No Place to Go, as well as several world premieres including Really Really, Soon, and Midwestern Gothic, and contemporary plays like Strategic Love Play, JOB, Dying City, and Tender Napalm. With Signature’s special commitment to producing the work of Stephen Sondheim, Matthew has directed and/or choreographed many Sondheim musicals including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Into the Woods, Passion, Sunday in the Park with George, Company, Sweeney Todd and the world premiere of Simply Sondheim. Prior to being named Signature’s Artistic Director in the summer of 2021, Matthew was Signature’s Associate Artistic Director for over a decade, helping to build several groundbreaking seasons, cultivating relationships with prominent and emerging artists, and overseeing several of Signature’s new work development initiatives. Outside of Signature, Matthew has directed and/or choreographed at the Washington, DC theaters Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Studio Theatre. Matthew has also worked abroad, choreographing Titanic and directing and choreographing Doctor Zhivago for OD Musical Company in Seoul, Korea. Matthew is the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical and has been honored with more than a dozen nominations. SIMON GODWIN Director, A Midsummer Night’s DreamArtistic Director, Shakespeare Theatre Company Selected credits: David Eldridge’s adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck (TFANA and STC); Uncle Vanya, Comedy of Errors, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth (Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma) (STC), Timon of Athens (TFANA, STC, RSC). Simon served as Associate Director of the National Theatre of London from 2015 to 2025 where he directed Antony and Cleopatra (Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo), Romeo Juliet (Sky Arts in U.K./PBS in U.S.) starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. Simon has previously served as Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, and the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton. Awards: Evening Standard/Burberry Award for an Emerging Director; 2023 Harman/Eisner Residence Artist at the Aspen Institute. JAMES GOLDMANBook Writer, Follies James Goldman was born in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago; he did postgraduate work at Columbia University. He has written numerous plays, including Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole (1961; co-written with his brother, William Goldman), They Might Be Giants (1961) and The Lion In Winter (1966). In addition to Follies (1971), he has been the book writer of A Family Affair (1962; co-author with William Goldman, music by John Kander), the television musical Evening Primrose (1967, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) and Follies (1987, London – a re-conception of the original piece). His screenplays include The Lion in Winter (1968 – Academy Award; British Screenwriters Award), They Might Be Giants (1970), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Robin and Marian (1976) and White Nights (1985, co-writer). Goldman’s work for television has included an adaptation of Oliver Twist (1982), Anna Karenina (1985), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna Anderson (1986). He is also the author of a novel, Waldorf. LORRAINE HANSBERRY Playwright, A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry was a Black activist, artist, public intellectual and writer. When her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, appeared on Broadway in 1959, she became the youngest American playwright, the fifth woman, and the only African American to date to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. The play was a landmark and made it impossible for the American stage to ignore African American creativity and subject matter thereafter. On January 12, 1965, during the run of her second Broadway play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer. She was 34. To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, an autobiographical portrait in her own words adapted by her former husband and literary executor Robert Nemiroff, was posthumously produced in 1969. In 1970, Les Blancs, her play about the inevitability of struggle between colonizers and colonized in Africa and the impending crisis that would surely grow out of it, ran on Broadway to critical acclaim. As if prescient, in the six years Hansberry had between the triumph of her first play and her death, she was extraordinarily prolific. She wrote numerous articles and essays on literary criticism, racism, sexism, homophobia, world peace, and other social and political issues. At her death, she left behind her public and private correspondence, speeches and journals, and various manuscripts in several genres including plays for stage and screen, essays, poetry, and an almost complete novel. Her published writings also include The Drinking Gourd, What Use Are Flowers?, and The Movement. The Lorraine Hansberry Papers are located at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, a division of the NYPL. TREVOR NUNNDirector, The Score Trevor has now directed all thirty-seven of Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays. For eighteen years, he was the Artistic Director of the RSC, directing much of the Shakespeare canon (including Macbeth with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench) and new works including the epic, multi-award-winning Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables (now the longest running musical in the world). He was later Director of the National Theatre, where his many award-winning productions included The Merchant Of Venice, Summerfolk, Oklahoma! and A Streetcar Named Desire. Trevor has directed the world premieres of Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia Trilogy and Rock ‘n’ Roll; and of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Cats, Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard and The Woman in White. At the Menier Chocolate Factory he has directed A Little Night Music (later in the West End and on Broadway), Love In Idleness, Fiddler On The Roof (also in the West End), Lettice and Lovage, The Bridges of Madison County and The Third Man. At the Old Vic, his productions include Hamlet, Richard II, Inherit The Wind and Kiss Me, Kate; and at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Flare Path, The Tempest and The Lion in Winter. His work at Glyndebourne included Porgy and Bess, Cosi Fan Tutte and Peter Grimes. Work for television includes: Antony and Cleopatra (BAFTA Award); The Comedy of Errors; Macbeth; Three Sisters; Othello; King Lear; The Merchant of Venice; Porgy and Bess and the Emmy Award winning Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman. Most recently Trevor has directed Pale Sister and Prisoner C33 for television, and in the theater, the new musical Identical. He also directed the films Hedda (with Glenda Jackson, Oscar nominated for Best Actress), Lady Jane, Twelfth Night and Red Joan with Judi Dench.   JOANIE SCHULTZDirector, Frida…A Self-Portrait STC: debut. REGIONAL: Studio Theatre: Hand to God, Cry it Out, 2.5 Minute Ride; Everyman Theatre: A Doll’s House; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: Mrs. Christie, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Birthday Candles, Vietgone, Origin Story, Frida…A Self Portrait; Frida…A Self Portrait: Writer’s Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, GEVA Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre; The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Quantum Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Frida…A Self Portrait, Rio de Janeiro, World Theatre Day 2025. AWARDS: 2025 Zelda Fichandler Award; TCG Leadership U; 3Arts Make A Wave Award; Drama League Fellow; Helen Hayes and Joseph Jefferson Award nominated. TRAINING: Northwestern University, MFA; Columbia College Chicago, BA.  VANESSA SEVERO Writer Performer, Frida…A Self-Portrait STC: debut. REGIONAL: Frida…A Self Portrait: Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Writer’s Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, GEVA Theatre Center, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Portland Center Stage, Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Shane (Movement Director): Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Guthrie Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Dracula (writer/director) Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Rubik (writer/movement director): Spinning Tree Theatre. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (Movement Director) Portland Center Stage Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Once (choreographer) Kansas City Repertory Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Frida…A Self Portrait, Rio de Janeiro, World Theatre Day 2025. AFFILIATIONS/AWARDS: Recipient of the 11th Round of the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships 2017; 2025 Joseph Jefferson Nomination for Best Solo Play; 2024 NEA New Work Grant Recipient for Rubik; 2020 Kilroys List for Frida…A Self Portrait; 2021 Artist in Residence for City of Carlsbad, California; 2025 Artist in Residence city of Peoria, Arizona,. Certified in Suzuki Method and Viewpoints under the instruction of Ellen Lauren of the SITI company. AEA Member. SDC member. STEPHEN SONDHEIMMusic Lyrics, Follies Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021) wrote the music and lyrics for Road Show (2008, originally titled Bounce), Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies(1971, revised in London 1987 and in New York 2001), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962); as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy(1959), Do I Hear a Waltz (1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973).  Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), and Putting it Together (1992, 2000) are anthologies of his work.  For film he composed the scores for Stravinsky (1974) and Reds (1981) and songs for Dick Tracy (Academy Award, 1990).  He wrote the songs for television’s Evening Primrose (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away with Murder (1966), and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March (1961), and Twigs (1971).  He won Tony Awards for Best Score of a Musical for Passion, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, (1971), and Company.  All of these shows won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1985).  Mr. Sondheim was on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981, and in 1983 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1990, he was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University, and in 1993 was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. BASIL TWIST Puppetry Direction Design, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Basil Twist (Creator Director/Puppeteer), hailing from San Francisco, carries on a legacy as a third-generation puppeteer. He is notably the only American graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (ESNAM) located in Charleville-Mézières, France. His diverse body of work encompasses productions such as Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, Rite of Spring, Hansel Gretel, Arias with a Twist, La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Sisters Follies, and A Streetcar Named Desire (where he also served as co-director for La Comédie Française). Additionally, he collaborated with Les Arts Florissants on TITON et l’AURORE at the Opera Comique and Theatre Royal de Versailles, as well as The Book of Mountains and Seas composed by Huang Ruo, where he was designer and director for Beth Morrison Productions in Copenhagen, New York City, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong. Twist is currently represented on The West End as the puppetry designer and director for My Neighbour Totoro. Also, in London on the creative teams for Winter’s Tale at the Royal Ballet, Aida at the ENO, Kate Bush’s Before The Dawn and the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as well as several premieres with the London International Mime Festival and The Barbican. He premiered a new Monkey King for the San Francisco Opera in 2025. His honors include an Obie, a Henry Hewes Award, recognition as a Doris Duke Performing Artist, the Creative Capital Award, support from the Asian Arts Council, numerous UNIMA and Bessie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Rome Prize. Since 1999, he has led Dream Music Puppetry at HERE in New York City.  SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY For 40 years, the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company has been recognized as the nation’s premier classical theater. Classical plays are realized best not by originalism but by walking the path Shakespeare himself followed, creating works that spoke to his own contemporary audience. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Simon Godwin and Executive Director Angela Lee Gieras, STC tells vital stories in audacious forms, stories that are Shakespearean in the deepest sense, even if (and especially when) they are not written by Shakespeare. By focusing on works with profound themes and complex characters, STC’s artistic mission is unique among regional theaters: to bring to vibrant life groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible theater. OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theaters in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre. SIGNATURE THEATRE Signature Theatre is a Tony Award-winning regional theater that broadens and brightens the region’s cultural landscape with its bold productions of challenging new and established works and engaging education and outreach programs. Founded in 1989 by Eric Schaeffer and Donna Migliaccio, and currently under the leadership of Managing Director Maggie Boland and Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner, musical theater is Signature’s “signature,” and the Theatre is renowned for its definitive Sondheim productions, inventive adaptations of overlooked or forgotten works, and investment in fresh new projects. Signature combines Broadway-caliber productions with intimate playing spaces and aims to be a leading force in U.S. musical theater.   Since its inception, the Theatre has produced 61 world premiere works—including 20 new musical commissions. Signature opens its doors to more than 115,000 people annually from the Washington, DC region and beyond and reaches more than 10,000 students every year through its innovative education programs, including the award-winning initiative Signature in the Schools. Signature has won 148 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington, DC region’s professional theater and has been honored with 555 nominations. THEATRE ROYAL BATH  Theatre Royal Bath consists of an historic Main House, the Ustinov Studio and the Egg Theatre. Theatre Royal Bath Productions is the Theatre Royal Bath’s production arm. West End credits include: Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, (Piccadilly Theatre); Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane (Arts Theatre); Ron Hutchinson’s The Beau (Theatre Royal Haymarket); David Williamson’s Up for Grabs (Wyndham’s Theatre); Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party (New Ambassadors/Whitehall Theatre); Shakespeare’s R J (Arts Theatre); Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (Duchess Theatre); Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days (Arts Theatre); Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser (Duke of York’s Theatre); Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell (Garrick Theatre); David Hare’s Amy’s View (Garrick Theatre); Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville Theatre); John Mortimer’s Legal Fictions (Savoy Theatre); Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea (Vaudeville Theatre); Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (Old Vic); Alan Bennett’s Enjoy (Gielgud Theatre); Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker (Trafalgar Studios); Noël Coward’s Private Lives (Vaudeville Theatre); Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession (Comedy Theatre); Sheridan’s The Rivals (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit (Apollo Theatre); Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III (Apollo Theatre); Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party (Wyndham’s); David Hare’s The Judas Kiss (Duke of York’s); Simon Gray’s Quartermaine’s Terms (Wyndham’s Theatre); Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking (Wyndham’s Theatre); August Wilson’s Fences (Duchess Theatre); Julian Mitchell’s Another Country (Trafalgar Studios); Noël Coward’s Relative Values (Harold Pinter Theatre); David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow (Playhouse Theatre); Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews (Arts Theatre/Theatre Royal Haymarket); Noël Coward’s Hay Fever (Duke of York’s Theatre); Florian Zeller’s The Father (Wyndham’s Theatre/Duke of York’s Theatre); Mrs Henderson Presents (Noël Coward Theatre); Stephen Jeffreys’s The Libertine (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice (Vaudeville Theatre); Richard Harris’s Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre); Daniel Kehlmaan’s The Mentor (Vaudeville Theatre); Joanna Murray Smith’s Switzerland (Ambassadors Theatre); Arthur Miller’s The Price (Wyndham’s Theatre); David Mamet’s Oleanna (Arts Theatre); Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit (Harold Pinter Theatre); Ralph Fiennes in T S Eliot’s Four Quartets (Harold Pinter Theatre); Michael Frayn’s Noises Off (Phoenix Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket); Noël Coward’s Private Lives (Ambassadors Theatre); Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal (Old Vic); Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge (Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Score by Oliver Cotton (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea (Theatre Royal Haymarket) and A Man For All Season’s by Robert Bolt (Harold Pinter Theatre). David Hare’s new play Grace Pervades starring Ralph Fiennes which premiered as part of the Theatre Royal Bath/Ralph Fiennes Season in 2025 will transfer to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in April 2026. ...read more read less