2017-2018 U.S. National Tour

William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Jane Austen's  Sense and Sensibility

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Cast

Harriet Barrow is a London based actor who trained at the Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre. Aquila Theatre credits include: Twelfth Night and Fahrenheit 451. Other theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lodestar Theatre Company), Macbeth (Lodestar Theatre Company), Pygmalion (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Entertainer (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Phoenix and the Carpet (The Nuffield Theatre). Commercial credits include HSBC, Google, KFC. Harriet is delighted to be working in the States for the second time and overjoyed to be playing the role of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. www.harrietbarrow.com

Lewis Brown is a London born actor of dual British and Caribbean heritage. He moved to Manchester to train at the Manchester School of Theatre, UK, where he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Bursary Award, before returning to his hometown to work as an actor. Lewis has worked across the UK and Europe. Most recently he joined an international cast in an exciting piece of new writing, The Legendary Children in the House of Fierce (Stitching Art.1/Team Angelica) a story of the homeless LGBT community in New York. This will be Lewis’ first time ‘treading the boards’ across the pond in the United States and is both honoured and excited by the opportunity. Other recent credits include; Nataniel, At the Feet of Jesus (Theatre Royal Stratford) and Pericles, Pericles (Uncanny Arts/Titchfield Festival Theatre). Credits whilst training include; Jacob, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, Sister, Breznev’s Children and Lysander, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Gys de Villiers is a South African born multi-award winning actor, director, playwright and dancer now residing in New York. Shakespeare credits includes: Titus Andronicus with Sir Anthony Sher (Emperor Saturnine) National Theatre London, Julius Caesar (Julius Caesar), Merchant of Venice (Antonio), As you like it (Both Dukes), King Lear (Gregory). Other theater credits: Waiting for Godot (Vladimir), Buried Child (Dodge), Noah of Cape Town (Musical) and The Double Room (FNB Vita Award -Best Male Dancer). Best Actor Award in a short at The International Filmmaker Festival Of World Cinema 2017 Nice, for his performance in It Gets Better. Most recent international films were Mandela Long Walk to Freedom with Idris Elba and Vehicle 19 with the late Paul Walker. His body of work over the last 36 years includes extensive experience in film (30 features), short films (94), television (20 series), daily soaps (12) and theater (55 productions).

He is honored to be working with Aquila and this talented group of artists.

Lauren Drennan studied at the University of Exeter gaining her BA in Drama. She then went on to train for her MA at East 15 Acting School. Since graduating in 2015 she has been working with the Young Shakespeare Company touring both The Tempest, where she played Miranda/Ariel and Hamlet, playing Ophelia. Lauren is delighted to be joining Aquila Theatre for their Fall tour. @ljdrennan

James Lavender trained at Rose Bruford. For Aquila Theatre: The Tempest, Wuthering Heights, Philoctetes, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, & An Enemy of the People. Theatre credits include: Henry V (Antic Disposition); Cinderella, Peter Pan & Jack & The Beanstalk, (Sheringham Little Theatre); Adventures in Wonderland & Supermarket Shakespeare (Teatro Vivo); Aladdin (Hazlitt Theatre); Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors & The Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Jack and the Beanstalk (Millfield Theatre); Headlines (Battersea Arts Centre); Sleeping Beauty (Georgian Theatre Royal); Jack and the Beanstalk (Prince of Wales Theatre, Cannock); The Jungle Book (Birmingham Stage Company); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Greenwich Playhouse); Plebians Rehearse the Uprising (Arcola Theatre); Macbeth & The Taming of the Shrew (British Shakespeare Company); Hamlet & As You Like It (Groundlings Theatre Company); Scar Tissue (Man In The Moon Theatre). Television: The Golden Hour

Rebecca Reaney is thrilled to be back with Aquila Theatre after playing the role of Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’ and Cecily Cardew in ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’ for their 2011-2012 US Tour. Other notable theatre credits include ‘Blood Brothers, ‘Fame’, ‘The Mousetrap’ in London’s West End and while living in Germany for 5 years, Rebecca worked extensively with The English Theatre Frankfurt performing in productions such as ‘The Full Monty’, ‘The Fox’ and working as their resident director and choreographer for ‘Saturday Night Fever’. Film credits include Mariposa in the award winning film ‘The Kids From 62-F’ which won Best Family Film at both Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival in 2016. Other selected movie credits include Margaret in ‘Flight WWII’ with Faran Tahir (Netflix), ‘Dementamania’ with Kal Penn & Vincent Regan (iTunes), the lead role in ‘Deadly Intent’ (Amazon) and provided the motion capture for the role of Jane in Constantin Films animation epic ‘Tarzan 3D’ which was released worldwide. After relocating to Los Angeles in 2014, Rebecca also began teaching performing arts to the students at Temple Israel Of Hollywood and developed her love of making the arts a crucial part of a students learning experience. www.rebeccareaney.com

Michael Rivers trained at East 15 Acting School. In 2011 he founded the acclaimed theatre company d'Animate. Aquila credits include: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Romeo and Juliet. Recent theatre credits include: Continental Fist Fight (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre), Dear Darwin (National Theatre Madrid), Samuel Beckett's Rough's (The Phoenix Theatre), Bitesize Chekhov (The Courtyard Theatre), Richard the III (Rosemary Branch Theatre) Super Tramp (One Man Show at Edinburgh Fringe), A Mid Summer Nights Dream (Shakespearence RSC), and The Green Room (The Mill Arts Centre). Television Credits include: Casualty (BBC), Doctors (BBC), Shameless (Channel Four), The Cafe (Sky One), Locked Up Abroad (National Geographic /Raw TV), and Of Gods And Mortals (Sky Pilot). Commercials include: Heineken, Oral B, HTC and UBS. Michael is also a freelance Director and Writer. 

Creative and Production Team

Desiree Sanchez, Director, directs Aquila’s 2017/2018 tour of Hamlet and Sense & Sensibility. She also directed and co-wrote Aquila’s production of Our Trojan War at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and on its American tour in the Spring of 2017. She directed and adapted: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2015); Philoctetes (2015); Wuthering Heights (2014); Past productions she has directed include: Much Ado About Nothing (2016); Romeo and Juliet (2015); The Tempest (2014); Twelfth Night and Fahrenheit 451 (2013); A Female Philoctetes (2013) at BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio; The Taming of the Shrew and Cyrano de Bergerac (2012); Herakles (2013) at BAM and the Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece and the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens in July, 2012; Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest (2011); Six Characters in Search of an Author (2010). She created movement for Aquila's A Very Naughty Greek Play (Aristophanes' Wasps),  Catch-22, Julius Caesar, The Iliad: Book One, and The Comedy of Errors. Desiree also had a twenty-year dancing career, which included working as a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

Joel Moritz Lighting Designer is excited to be back with Aquila Theatre. Recent New York/ Off Broadway: AZAK, Undeniable Sound of Right Now, A Fable, Scarcity, Yosemite, and Post No Bills with Rattlestick. Slipping and Too Much Memory with Rising Phoenix Repertory and NYTW. Blue Man Group: production and lighting design for the BMG at Universal Studios and BMG National Tour, as well as productions in Tokyo, Berlin, Oberhausen, Amsterdam, Zurich and Sydney. Joel has worked extensively in regional theatre and internationally with productions in Edinburgh, Buenos Aires, Lima, Hong Kong, Paris, Prague, and Cairo.

Andy Evan Cohen, Sound Designer, Credits include NYC off-Broadway Dear Jane, In Bed With Roy Cohn, If Only (starring Melissa Gilbert), A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Ay Carmela!; Our Trojan War (Aquila Theater US Tour, BAM), The American Soldier (Edinburgh Fringe, US Tour, Kennedy Center); The Hungry Hungry Games (US and Canada Tour); and multi-media installations at Werdenberg Castle, Switzerland. Recent work includes scores for the indie film Show & Tell Tango and a performance piece in New Zealand. Education: Oberlin and Manhattan School of Music.

Lianne Arnold, Projections Designer. Lianne is a video & scenic designer whose work extends through theater, opera, music, dance, film & art installation. Her performance work has been seen in New York City at The Kitchen, BAM, HERE, La Mama, TheaterLab, 3LD and Judson Church. She was a production designer on the short film Toru which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. She has made visuals alongside composers John King, Robin Cox, and Earl Maneein and collaborated with visual artists Leslie Kerby, Natalia Margolis, Fariba Alam, and Urban Matter Design Firm. She was named a "Young Designer to Watch" by Live Design Magazine and a "Person You Should Know" by Visible Soul. She proudly earned her MFA from CalArts. www.liannearnold@gmail.com

Lara de Bruijn, Costume Designer, Work in theatre, opera, dance, and film has been seen locally, nationally and internationally.  Favorite projects include The Two Character Play (New World Stages), Christopher, (Project 44), Blasted (Calderwood Pavilion), Don Giovanni (Castleton Opera Festival), Ndebele Funeral (59E59), Half ‘n Half ‘n Half (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Measure for Measure (Peterborough Players), The Good Catholic (Pigasus Pictures). MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.  See more at: laradawndesign.com

Rick Sordelet, Fight Director, Rick and his son, Christian Kelly-Sordelet, are the creators of Sordelet, Inc., an exciting new Stage Combat company bringing over 30 years of action movement experience to the entertainment community. Rick has worked on 72 Broadway productions, including Disney’s The Lion King and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as well as the national tours of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Les Misérables. His credits include 52 first-class productions worldwide. Opera credits include Cyrano (starring Placido Domingo) at the Metropolitan Opera, Don Carlo (directed by Nicholas Hytner) and Heart of the Soldier at San Francisco Opera, and Cold Mountain, Don Giovanni, Roméo et Juliette and La Funciulla del West at Santa Fe Opera. He has worked on films such as The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, Brave New Jersey, and The Sounding. On television, he and his son worked as Stunt Coordinators for the hit CBS comedy series Kevin Can Wait and spent 12 years as a Stunt Coordinators for Guiding Light. He is an instructor at the Yale School of Drama and a Board member for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Rick received the Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence at the Lucille Lortel Awards from The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers, and a Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction for Romeo and Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He is the author of the play Buried Treasure and the co-writer of the upcoming feature film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, directed by Bryan Singer. To learn more, visit www.sordeletink.com.

Robert Rogers, Technical Director/Production Manager, has been involved in Technical Theatre for over ten years and served as Technical Director for Aquila’s 2016 Spring and 2014-15 Tour Seasons. His most recent endeavors include Production Manager/ Technical Director for Penobscot Theatre and Technical Director for Gretna Theatre. He has also been everything from Assistant Tent Boss for the Zerbini Circus to a Chief Pilot of Maintenance at a $2.5 million dollar helium balloon in Tennessee. Additionally, Bob spent time in Qinhuangdao, China, where he was the Technical Director for an international cooperation project for the theme park show: Snow White’s Birthday Adventure! Rogers has been working with Aquila for five years!

Dana Gal, Company Stage Manager, is thrilled to work with Aquila again on her second tour. Dana hails from the Midwest, got her B.A. in Theatre from Arizona State University and her fellowship at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She has worked in Phoenix, the Bay Area and at various summer stocks on the east coast. For the past four years Dana has worked with Third Rail Projects on their immersive productions Roadside Attraction, The Grand Paradise, and most recently as Stage Manager for their Bessie Award winning production Then She Fell. 

Perry Street Theatricals, General Management, David Elliott, Martin Platt, and Lorna Isaac. Perry Street Theatricals is a multi-award-winning Producing and General Management Company in New York City. General Management includes: Aquila Theatre Company's 2017 tour of Our Trojan War, Little Rock: An American Play with Music (NYC Off Broadway, upcoming), Me the People (NYC Off Broadway), Dear Jane, Georgie, My Adventures With George Rose (Davenport and 2017 Tour), Sense & Sensibility (Gym At Judson), Hamlet and Saint Joan (Lynn Redgrave), New York Animals (New Ohio), That Golden Girls Show! (DR2), Missed Connections (New Ohio), My Life is a Musical (Bay Street), Rock ‘n Roll Refugee (Royal Family), In Bed With Roy Cohn (The Lion), Ethel Sings (Beckett), WikiMusical (NYMF), Mapmaker’s Opera (NYMF), White People (Atlantic).

Rehearsal Stage Manager: Kristina Vnook
Rehearsal Production Assistant: Alannah O'Hagan
Fight Captain: Rebecca Reaney

*HAMLET  is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.