THE APPROACH

Nicole Ansari started in European Theatre and Film. She performed with the Théâtre du Soleil under Ariane Mnouchkine in Paris and starred in numerous plays at the Public Theatre in Vienna, in Zuerich, London and NY (Irma la douce; Much Ado About Nothing; Alma; Hamlet; Daybreak; I am Antigone, etc). Nicole originated her role in Tom Stoppard’s Rock N’ Roll, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Royal Court in London and went on to perform in the West end and on Broadway. She just finished performing in Stephano Massini’s new play “7minutes” at here Arts in NYC and starred in Sinners at the Playground Theatre, London, directed by her husband Brian Cox. Directing credits: The Web series Messy (multiple awards including two best director). She/Her at PS21 in Chatham, NY (which she is bringing to this Year’s Edinburgh fringe). Most recent Film Shirin Neshat’s Land of Dreams. Current Films on Vod: Son of the South(best ensemble by AFI); Remember me; Last moment of clarity; Soderbergh’s Side effects. TV: FBI; Hit and run; The Blacklist ; Mysteries of Laura; Deadwood. Full bio on IMDB or nicoleansari.com or actorsrising.com

S&Co: Over 40 productions – favorites: The Waverly Gallery, HIR, God of Carnage; Mother of the Maid (pre–Broadway run, originated role of The Lady of the Court); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; The Beauty Queen of Leenane; Parasite Drag; Merry Wives of Windsor; Winter’s Tale; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Ice Glen; Bad Dates (Elliot Norton Award BestSolo Performance); Rough Crossing; King Lear; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Richard III. Other: Berkshire Playwrights Lab: Radius series, Gala’s etc.; Simon’s Rock: The House of Bernarda Alba; Oldcastle: The Consul, The Tramp & America’s Sweetheart, The Lion in Winter; Barrington Stage: 10X10 Play Fest; Merrimack Rep: Bad Dates; Boston Theatre Works: Angels in America, Othello. Directing: Merchant of Venice (Assistant Dir, Tina Packer Dir.). Indy Films: Trigger Finger; Seriously Twisted. Voice–overs (TV, cartoons, radio, audiobooks.) Producing: Living the Dream, A Simple Gift, Peregrine Island, and 5 back to back feature films shot over the last two years here in our beautiful Berkshires!

Michelle Joyner is an actor, writer, and director and thrilled to be back with Shakespeare and Co! Recent shows include The Waverly Gallery (Assoc. Dir. with Tina Packer), The Winter Studio Festivals of Plays, The Valentine’s Surprise Show (Co-dir. with Allyn Burrows). Locally she has acted and directed for The Radius Festival (Berkshire Playwrights Lab), and performed an original short play Asking for a Friend (Theater Fest) with Elizabeth Aspenlieder, She/Her, directed by Nicole Ansari at PS21 last season (and this coming summer at The Edinburgh Festival, Scotland) and Annapurna at The Chester Theater. She is directing The Shot at Great Barrington Public Theatre this summer with Sharon Lawrence. Notable stage roles include the premiere of Life Sentences by Richard Nelson at The Second Stage, NY (opposite Edward Herrmann) and Romeo and Juliet (opposite Michael Cerveris and Viggo Mortensen) at IRT. She has a prolific acting career in television and film and has written ten studio screenplays, and is a repeat performer at THE MOTH. michellejoyner.com

Mark O'Rowe is a playwright and film writer whose second play, Howie the Rookie, won him the George Devine Award when it premiered at the Bush Theatre in 1999. In 2003, Mark wrote his first feature film, “Intermission,” starring Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy. In 2008 he adapted Jonathan Trigell's novel “Boy A” for Cuba Pictures and Channel 4. Originally written for television, the film was picked up for theatrical release by the Weinstein Company after it won numerous awards, including the 2009 Broadcast Award for Best Single Drama, the 2008 Broadcasting Guild Award for Best Single Drama, and four jury awards at Dinard British Film Festival, including the Golden Hitchcock, Dinard's top jury prize, which was awarded by a unanimous vote by the festival judges. O’Rowe’s plays include Terminus, Crestfall, Made in China, Howie the Rookie, and From Both Hips. Film credits include “Broken,” “Perrier’s Bounty,” “Star of the Sea,” “Boy A,” and “Intermission.”

S&Co: Creditors, Ugly Lies the Bone, DibbleDance: Shoes On, Shoes Off, Private Lives, Julius Caesar. Merrimack Repertory Theatre: Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge, Wild Horses, Until the Flood, Nina Simone: Four Women, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, Tiny Beautiful Things, Cry It Out, The Heath, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Native Gardens, The Royale. Greater Boston theatres: The Legend of Georgia McBride, Guards at the Taj, The Effect, A Measure of Normalcy. Maegan received her BFA in Stage Management from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. She and her husband live with their dog in Lowell, MA. Maegan is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Diana Evans is a writer, stage manager, and theatre education artist. She holds a BA in Communication, Journalism, Creative Writing, & English from New England College, Henniker N.H. Recent credits include: Advice To The Players (Sandwich N.H.): Stage Manager (As You Like It, 2020), Director (Noir Hamlet, 2020). Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, Mass.): Stage Manager (Becoming Othello, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, 2021) Asst. Stage Manager (ART, Measure for Measure, 2021), Production Assistant (Breath of Life, 2021), Director (Fall Festival of Shakespeare, 2019 & 2021). Diana and her pup Huckleberry Finn hail from central New Hampshire, where her family has lived since King James I granted her ancestors land there in the 17th century.

Born in England, Tina was trained at RADA, performed in regional theatre, was an Associate Artist at the RSC, played in television series for the BBC and ITV, arrived in the U.S. in 1974. She had a Ford Foundation Travel and Study to research the visceral roots of Shakespeare’s plays, travelled to India, Israel, Italy and the U.S. She co-founded S&Co. in 1978 and has worked for the Company ever since! She has directed all of Shakespeare’s plays (some of them several times), acted in eight of them (never when directing) and taught the whole canon at over thirty colleges, including Harvard, M.I.T. and NYU. At Columbia University, she taught in the M.B.A. program for four years, resulting in the publication of Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Professor John Whitney for Simon and Schuster. For Scholastic, she wrote Tales from Shakespeare, a children’s book and recipient of the Parent’s Gold Medal Award. Most recently Tina’s book Women of Will was published by Knopf and she has been performing Women of Will with Nigel Gore, in New York, Mexico, England, The Hague, China, and across the US. Her directing work is currently being written about in a work entitled Shakespeare in the Theatre: Tina Packer by Katharine Goodland, and will be published by Bloomsbury-Arden for their Shakespeare in the Theatre Series. For S&CO acting credits include: Shirley Valentine, Molly Ivins, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Mother of the Maid; Volumnia, Gertrude, Cleopatra, and Edith Wharton several times. She’s the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.