Michael Khalid Karadsheh is thrilled to be making his St. Louis Shakespeare Festival debut playing Hamlet this summer! Off-Broadway: We Live in Cairo (New York Theater Workshop), The Ally (The Public Theater). Other New York Credits: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classical Theater of Harlem), The Most Oppressed of All (Target Margin Theater). Regional: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare on the Sound), Tomorrow Will Be Sunday (Chautauqua Theater Company), Sabra Falling (Pangea World Theater), TV/Film: Everything’s Trash (Freeform). Education: Columbia MFA Acting. Instagram: @m_karadsh.

CB Brown is an Atlanta-born and raised actor with a deep passion for the theater arts. While earning their BFA in Acting from Webster University’s Sargent Conservatory of Theater Arts, CB has gained an appreciation for the beauty and necessity of acting, as it captures and records the voices, passions, and woes of generations. Working from a place of connection, CB believes that community is the soul of theater; they want to rattle the world with stories of love and change.  Recently, they played Little John in the Repertory Theater of Saint Louis’ Sherwood: the Adventures of Robin Hood (Dir. Kate Bergstrom).Silvius in St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s As You Like It (Dir. Nancy Bell). In their free time, CB watches movies, reads fun fictional stories, and strength trains. 

New York: FillFillFillFillFillFillFill (The Flea). Regional: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Hartford Stage),The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Off the Main Road (Williamstown). Film: Take Pains, Overgrown. Education: Columbia University MFA Acting, class of 2024; productions include: Small Tragedy, Henry VI: Civil Wars, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow. sarahchalfie.com

Max Fiorello is thrilled to make his Shakespeare in the Park STL debut as the Captain in Hamlet! A proud St. Louis native, Max has appeared in numerous local productions, including Grease, The Buddy Holly Story, Beauty and the Beast, and Hairspray at The Muny, as well as Ragtime at COCA, playing J.P. Morgan. Now based in New York, he has performed off-Broadway as Dr. Madden in Next to Normal with Tisch New Theatre, appeared in independent films, and worked as a stunt fighter and actor at the New York Renaissance Faire. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Max is a dedicated voice actor, singer, and stage combat artist. He is deeply grateful to his incredible parents, sister, and brother for their unwavering support and for always cheering him on.

Glenn Fitzgerald appeared on Broadway and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Off-Broadway and regionally, he originated roles in Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero (Lucille Lortel nomination), Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses, Melissa James Gibson’s THIS, David Lindsay Abaire’s Ripcord, Sharr White’s The True, Ken Urban’s The Remains (Hayes nomination), and most recently the US premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin. He has also collaborated on innovative productions of classic plays, such as Ivo Van Hove’s Hedda Gabler, Austin Pendleton’s Ivanov, and Sam Gold’s Othello. Film and TV credits include: Flirting with Disaster, The Ice Storm, The Sixth Sense, A Price Above Rubies, Finding Forrester, Tully, Series 7, Detroit, “Dirty Sexy Money”, “Six Feet Under”, “Madam Secretary”, “Law and Order”, and “FBI: Most Wanted.”

Daisy Held, a graduate of the Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University. Recent favorite credits include The Tempest at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Natasha in Great Comet… at Webster University, The St Louis Repertory Theatre’s It’s A Wonderful Life – A Live Radio Play, and Arista/Ariel US in The Little Mermaid with Grandstreet Summer Theatre.

Mitchell Henry-Eagles is overjoyed to be joining the Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park for the first time, having previously appeared in the touring production of Merry Wives of Windsor. Originally from southern Iowa, Mitchell received his education at Washington University and has called St. Louis City home for over a decade, most recently appearing in First Date (New Jewish Theatre) and Life Is a Dream (Upstream Theatre). In addition to scripted theatre, Mitchell has performed improvisational theatre locally at The Improv Shop and in festivals across the country. Many, many thanks to everyone at Shakespeare Festival for once again presenting this public treasure in our city; to the designers, crew, and cast for making the magic happen; and to the drivers of the #10 Gravois-Lindell bus for all the lifts to rehearsal. All the love in the world to Morgan.

Jennifer is thrilled to return to St. Louis, where she made her stage debut 25 years ago playing Juliet in The Glen’s inaugural production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by the late PJ Paparelli. She’s appeared in many of Shakespeare’s plays, including As You Like It, The Tempest, Coriolanus, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Titus Andronicus. Theatre: Top Girls (Broadway); The Barbarians (LaMama); Vietgone (MTC); Revolt. She. Said…(Soho Rep); Love & Information (NYTW); The Bacchae (Public Theater/Delacorte); ACT, ART, CTG, etc. Film/TV includes: Advantageous (Sundance 2015), Killing Hasselhoff, Dash and Lily, Blue Bloods, Maniac, Blindspot, Elementary. Other: David Michalek’s “Portraits in Dramatic Time” (Lincoln Center Festival); NPR’s Selected Shorts; 100+ audiobooks (2x Audie winner), including best-sellers by Deborah Harkness and Sarah J. Maas, and Jean Wakatsuki Houston’s seminal book on Japanese-American Internment, Farewell to Manzanar. Proud Union member.

Brady Lewis is a trumpet player from East Saint Louis, Illinois where he follows the lineage of great trumpet players before him. Lewis, previously a student in the Jazz U program, has had performances as a band leader and sideman all around the country. He currently can be seen most often leading his own group ,the BLS-tet, doing music based on his own short stories. You may also see him working with his friends in other projects like the bands Root Mod, Kullus, Moon Valley, or collaborating with any number of great vocalists in the midwest.

Charlie Mathis, a 2025 high school graduate born and raised in St. Louis, is thrilled to make his debut as Fortinbras after years of lying on a blanket under the stars at Forest Park enjoying Shakespeare every Spring. Charlie has appeared at the St. Louis Repertory Theatre in A Christmas Story (Ralphie) and To Kill a Mockingbird (Dill), and at various regional and local theatres. Some of his favorite roles include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander), The Summoning of Everyman (Everyman), The Glass Menagerie (Tom), and The Music Man (Harold Hill) as well as Hello, Dolly! (Vandergelder), for which he received Lead Actor nominations at SLHSMTA. Charlie is grateful for the opportunity to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this regional treasure. Much love to mom, dad, and my brothers and sisters.

Mark Nelson has appeared on Broadway in ten plays, from Amadeus in 1981 to Angels in America in 2018. Off-Broadway credits include Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile (as Einstein; Obie Award), Timon of Athens with Richard Thomas (Public Theatre), and The Cherry Orchard with Mikhail Baryshnikov. He played Herr Schultz on the national tour of Cabaret, and toured six countries in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, both directed by Sam Mendes. Regional credits include The Lehman Trilogy at the Guthrie and the Shakespeare Theater Company (2025 Helen Hayes Award nomination), Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and all 35 roles in I Am My Own Wife. Mark has directed at Manhattan Theater Club, McCarter Theater, Berkshire Theater Festival, and The Juilliard School. He teaches at Circle in the Square Theater School in New York.

Larry Paulsen is pleased to be returning to St. Louis, having last performed here in the Repertory Theatre of St Louis’s production of ALABAMA STORY, as well as HAMLET and THE MOUSETRAP. Larry has long been a familiar face at many regional theatres nationwide, including multiple appearances at Kansas City Rep, The Denver Center Theatre Company, Seattle Rep, Intiman Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, the Huntington (Boston), and the South Coast Rep.  In addition, he has performed with Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte, Classic Stage Company, The McCarter, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage (Oregon), Arizona Theatre Company, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Alaska Rep, among others, as well as spending eight seasons as a company member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Reginald Pierre is thrilled to be working again with St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. He previously appeared in the 2024 TourCo production of The Tempest. Other recent credits include Life is a Dream at Upstream Theater and The Light at Bluff City Theatre. He’s a St. Louis native whose hobbies include watching TV, talking about TV, and pestering Ben Ritchie on Facebook. He hopes to someday recover from the 49ers losing the Super Bowl twice in the past 5 years. Much love to Them Frogs. He thanks his family for their unwavering support.

Vaughn Pole is excited to be making his St. Louis Shakespeare Festival debut for its 25th anniversary. Off-Broadway: Return to Cookie Mountain (National Black Theater), Malaise (Cherry Lane Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Regional: Macbeth (Northampton Center for the Arts), Measure for Measure (Shakespeare & Company), A Soviet Film on Negro Life (Berkshire Theatre Group). London: Blood in De Roots (The Royal Court Theatre). MFA: Columbia University. Thank you all for spending your time with us. 1 Corinthians 10:31 @vaughnpole

Ryan Omar Stack is incredibly excited to be making his STL Shakespeare Debut. Regional credits include: The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience (Shondaland, Netflix, Fever); Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, All’s Well That Ends Well, Coriolanus, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Arden of Faversham (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear (Miner’s Alley Performing Arts Center); You Enjoy Myself (Local Theater Company); TV/Film/New Media: Life Is Strange Remastered. Special Awards/Training: 2024 OnStage Colorado Actor in a Comedy. Lewis Myers Scholar, DCPA Education. www.ryanomarstack.com

Michael Sexton is a director, dramaturg, and teacher from New York. He was the Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Society from 2005-2017 followed by the Director of the Public Shakespeare Initiative at The Public Theater. Recent credits include, as Dramaturg: Macbeth w/ Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga (Longacre), King Lear (Cort), Hamlet (Public), Othello (NYTW); and as Director: Coriolanus, with Patrick Page and Lisa Harrow, at Red Bull Theater; The Winter’s Tale, with Peter Francis James, at The Pearl Theatre Company; As You Like It and Henry V with Geoffrey Owens, Jacob Fishel, and Miriam Hyman, at Two River Theater Company; Kelly Masterson’s Edith, with Jayne Atkinson and Jack Gilpin, at the Berkshire Theater Festival; and Titus Andronicus with Jay O. Sanders at the Public Theater. He has directed New York and world premieres of plays by Rinne Groff, Will Eno, Marsha Norman, Caryl Churchill, Ain Gordon, Rogelio Martinez, Victor Lodato, Phil Porter, Chloe Moss, Marin Gazzaniga, Eric Gamalinda, and Rosemary Moore. He has directed at Red Bull Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Manhattan Class Company, Classic Stage Company, Soho Rep, PS122, The Old Globe, Portland Center Stage, Playmakers Rep, Rising Phoenix Rep, SPF and the Cherry Lane Alternative. He was born in Brooklyn.

Scott C. Neale is thrilled to return to St. Louis Shakespeare Festival after designing the 2023 Shakespeare in the Streets production of The Game’s Afoot. As You Like It is Scott’s seventh SFSTL mainstage design, after his first production of Taming of the Shrew in 2011 and most recently The Winter’s Tale in 2017. Scott is an award-winning freelance scenic & experiential designer and Chair of the Scenic Design program at The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has served as Resident Scenic Designer for Albany Park Theater Project in Chicago since 2006, which recently opened a 12,000 Sq. Ft. immersive production co-created with Third Rail Projects titled Port of Entry, an experience which invites audience members to step inside the real-life stories of immigrants and refugees from all parts of the world living side by side in a single apartment building in one of the country’s most diverse immigrant communities: Chicago’s Albany Park. Port of Entry was recently featured in the Fall 2023 edition of American Theatre Magazine. In addition, he continues to design theatrical sets, exhibits and events, and interactive immersive environments around the world.

Scott is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, Themed Entertainment Association, and USITT. He is also a credited contributor to the collegiate textbook Scene Design and Stage Lighting, 9th and 10th Editions (Parker, Wolf & Block: 9th and 10th Editions © Wadsworth 2009, 2013). www. ScottCNealedesign.com

Oana Botez is a Romanian American costume designer for theater, opera, film and dance. She is an Obie Award, Henry Hewes Award, Princess Grace Award, NEA/TCG Career Development Program,  and Barrymore Award recipient, Henry Hewes Design Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominee. New York: BAM Next Wave, Bard SummerScape/Richard B.Fisher Center, Public Theater, Signature Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center, Classic Stage Company, Soho Rep, PS122, The Kitchen. Regional: Ain’t Misbehavin (Barrington Stage Company); Macbeth (Old Globe); Angels in America (Wilma); Man in a Case (Hartford).  Opera: The Comet /Poppea (The Industry LA, Curtis Institute, Philadelphia); Song of Ambassadors (Alice Tully Hall/ Lincoln Center); Carmen (Minneapolis Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Portland Opera); In a Grove (Pittsburgh Opera & Prototype NY); Persona ( National Sawdust, REDCAT); A House in Bali (BAM), Don Giovanni (Wolf Trap Opera), Cosi (Opera Saratoga Summer Festival), Guy &Dolls (Opera Saratoga Summer Festival), Émigré (NY Philharmonic), Dido and Aeneas (Château de Versailles) Internationally: Bucharest National Theater (Romania), Théâtre National de Chaillot, Les Subsistances, The Old Vic, Budapest National Theater, Cluj Hungarian National Theater (Romania), Le Quartz (Brest, France), La Filature (Mulhousse, France), Exit Festival /Maison des Arts Creteil, Tanz im August Festival Hebbel am Ufer – HAU1(Berlin, Germany), Edinburgh International Festival, Singapore Arts Festival. She is teaching at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale in the Design Department.

Brandon Wolcott is a Brooklyn based sound designer, composer and DJ. His work has been felt and heard at dozens of venues in the U.S. and around the world, including: BAM, The Pubic Theater, Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, The Shed, Mass Moca, Museum of Contepmorary Art Chicago, Le Pompidou, La Mama ETC, Invisible Dog, 3LD, PS122, Playwrights Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Walker Museum of Art, Fusebox, A.R.T., Mark Taper Forum, CTG, La Jolla Playhouse, Salzburg Festival, Noordezon, Edinburgh Festival and many more…  As a sound designer and composer, Brandon has collaborated on a diverse array of projects, including work in dance, theater, installation and film. Collaborations include 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Taylor Mac, Faye Driscoll, Geoff Sobelle, Kevin Newbury, Lee Sunday Evans, Lila Neugebauer, Lear DeBessonet, Taibi Magar, Tyne Rafeli, and many others.  As a DJ and producer, he has released music with Nicolas Jaar’s Other People, Wolf+Lamb, Archipel and Kingdoms. His Smirk project performed live sets at festivals around the world, including highlights: Mutek Montreal, Unsound Krakow, Dispatch Belgrade and Save Moscow.