Aaron Strand (Fool) has starred Off-Broadway in The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller, Off-Off-Broadway in Caligula Maximus at LaMama ETC, and at the notorious NYC hot-spot The Box.  Originally from Athens, Georgia, Aaron graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He attended The Stella Adler Studio of Acting and notably played the titular role in Macbeth.  He has performed throughout Atlanta on stage as Ivan in 'ART', Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Michal in The Pillowman; and on film in Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Winner 2012 48hr film Competition), The Doll Collector (2nd Place 24 Film Race), and Little Miss Twenty Something.  A professional blues guitarist, he wrote and performed with The Manhattan Cartel.  

Alexander Barnett (Lear) www.alexanderbarnett.com 

 

Alexandra Cohler (Cordelia) just wrapped shooting the lead role in a new short film, Remember Me? She is a member of the all-female experimental Shakespeare company, The Dark Lady Players, with whom she’s played such roles as Hamlet and Iago. Other select stage credits include: Family Shakespeare (MTWorks); After Tartuffe and The Tragedy of Dandelion (Newborn Reading Series); Any Which Way Thou Wouldst Have It (Medallion Productions); Iago in Writing Othello;; Venus in Fur and Clybourne Park (East Hampton Guild Hall); More; what do you mean; Sins of Our Fathers; Hamlet Bound and Unbound (Ego Actus); Buckingham (Southampton Cultural Center); Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bitch Macbeth (DMTheatrics).

 

Andy Rivera (Guard) hails from Ponce, Puerto Rico.  Early on, he performed as an entertainer, playing guitar, singing, and as musical director.  Work took him around the world and while living in Berlin, Germany, he debuted as a background actor in the film The Innocent, starring Anthony Hopkins.  That first, small role got him a more featured role in the movie Gospel According to Harry, starring Viggo Mortensen.  A few years later, while living in Stuttgart, Germany, he decided to give theater a try and performed in five different shows over a two-year period: The Graduate, High School Musical, Night of the Living Dead, before landing his very first soloist debut in Fiddler on the Roof, performing shortly after in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  Back in the US and more recently, he has performed in the HBO TV Series VEEP, and recently featured in the National Geographic Documentary Drama American Genius.  

Brett Lawlor (1st Knight) Professional film debut.  Regional theatre: Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival - The Two Gentleman of Verona (Outlaw/Ensemble). University theatre: Favorite roles include Charlie Cowell in The Music Man, Mr. Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank,  Louie in Lost in Yonkers, and Eddie in A View from the Bridge. 

Cezar Constantine (Knight/Herald) is a New York-based Film and TV actor.  Cezar's acting career began with a number of roles in a variety of short films and has continued to grow and expand with a wide range of roles, including the lead in projects such as Tolls (Feature Film - 2015),  Brujo (Short Film - 2014) and the Boston/New England Regional Emmy Award-Winning Documentary series The Folklorist (2013), as well as supporting roles in a list of projects such as Mary Loss of Soul (Feature Film - 2014),  Fury: The Tales of Ronan Pierce (Feature Film - 2014) and Mosden (Short Film - 2014), among others.  

Craig Allen (Doctor)is best known for his stage roles as Dr. Grimpthorpe in Magic, Duncan in Macbeth, Siegfried von Konigswald in Happy Birthday Wanda June, and Mr. Glib in St. Patrick’s Day; or, The Scheming Lieutenant.  He has also been working extensively in performing live theater in online virtual environments with the troupe Avatar Repertory Theater, where among many roles he has done Marty in Marty, Chrysale in The Learned Women, Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the White Knight in Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Dan Thorp (Oswald) is a lifetime resident of the D.C. area who has many local film credits including Pivot Point, Georgian Way and The Men Who Built America.  His most recent stage credit is Edward Raynor in Black Coffee.  Dan, a member of SAG/AFTRA, is currently working with MdM Talent.

Eric Smith (Edgar) is a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign.  From the suburbs of Illinois, Smith has lived and worked all over, including Los Angeles, Maryland, New Jersey, and currently New York.   Favorite roles include:  Charles in As You Like It, Hal in Proof, John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest, Dave in Things to See and Do (film), Henry in The Coffee Shop Show (web-series), Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, The Provost in Measure for Measure, and Rick in Six Degrees of Separation.  Smith also attended the William Esper Studio and is set to graduate from there in June of 2015.  

Frank Mancino (Tenant) http://mancino.org 

Garrett Matthews (Knight/French Soldier) recently graduated from The Hartt School where he earned his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance.  He has performed in operas at the Hartt Opera Theatre, Connecticut Concert Opera, and Kennedy Center, starting in middle school.  Matthews’ TV credits include House of Cards and  America's Most Wanted and the independent film Dead Doggz.  Matthews received the Folger Theatre’s “Peggy O'Brain Award” for portraying Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Most recently he played Danny Zuko in Grease at the Rockville Musical Theatre. 

Jim Zidar (Gloucester) has been a professional actor based in Washington, DC for the last 30 years.  He has performed at The Shakespeare Theatre, Ford's Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Washington Shakespeare Company, Studio and Signature Theatres, Scena Theatre (including a tour in Thessaloniki, Greece), New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, and other venues.  His two favorite roles to date were at precisely opposite ends of the intellectual spectrum: Galileo in Life of Galileo and Lennie in Of Mice and Men.  In 2008 he directed, at the playwright's request, a revival/staged reading of Barbara Garson's 1967 play Macbird! at the Brecht Forum in New York.  In 2010 he read the role of Sir John Harington in Robert Brustein's Mortal Terror, again at the playwright's request, at The Players Club.  Mr. Zidar has taught theatre for over two decades, including 12 years of International Baccalaureate Theatre Arts, during which time he directed 15 plays in English, five in French, and one in Russian.  For five years he played a featured character on a national weekly radio show produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Jared Doreck (Edmund) Jared is an actor/model/dancer.  He just returned to Prague after filming KILD in Texas this summer.  He is an award winning improviser and narrator.  Leading actor in Una Mujer en una Caja & The Caretaker (2011 winners Gulf Coast Film Festival "Best Foreign" & "Best Drama", respectively).  Jared has worked in musicals under Jerry Bock and Stuart Ostrow.  In Europe, he recently filmed for the TV shows Borgia and Crossing Lines, and two projects with Česká Televize: Colette and České století.  Jared is a proud member of the Prague Shakespeare Company.

Jared Jason Murray (Burgundy/British Soldier) is an actor based in the DC area. D.C. Area: Kennedy Center: Shear Madness (Tony) Olney Theatre Center: Red Riding Hood A New Fable (Wolf); Imagination Stage: Rapunzel (Brian/Simon U/S); Theater Alliance: The Night Before Christmas (Elf); The American Century Theater: Marathon‘3 (Red); Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Richard III (1st Murderer); Source Festival: Spacebar: A Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman (Kyle); Impossible Theatre Company: Macbeth (Donalbain); REGIONAL: Tecumseh! Outdoor Drama (Captain Blake); The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama (Ensemble).

Leah Filley (Goneril) www.leahfilley.com 

Michael Crowley (Knight/Servant): Principal Credits - Macduff (understudy Macbeth)/ Macbeth for the Annapolis Shakespeare Company; Earl of Surrey(Ensemble)/Henry IV Parts 1/2 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company;  Christopher (understudy)/Tribes at the Studio Theatre; Protest by Vaclav Havel at the Ambassador Theatre; and The Politician; Interrogation in the Capital Fringe Festival.

Omar A Said (Beggar/Soldier) studied theater with a concentration in acting at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  For the last five years, Said has written one full length play and several one act plays, two feature length screenplays and one graphic novel.  He also writes poetry in the vein of hip-hop.  He self-produced his one man play The Pear Tree, which had a year-long run in Maryland.  Said has coached actors for short and feature length screenplays, as well as taught in the Anne Arundel County Public School system and the Boys and Girls clubs.  He has also coached lawyers and litigators.   In 2012 Said appeared in a short science fiction film called True Skin and is set to work on the feature length version that has been optioned by Warner Bros. studio.  His primary interest is in surrealist theater, absurdism and magical realism.  His work is heavily influenced by Samuel Beckett, David Mamet, Edward Albee, Naomi Wallace and August Strindberg.  He notes: "I'd like to switch genres amongst the mediums, produce a play that is a science fiction; write a film/graphic novel or video game that is primarily character study.  I think this will end the dearth of young people attending live theater."

Peter Holdway (Kent) In a career that spans some thirty years, Peter has acted in British theatre, television and film.  For the theatre, he has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing not only on the main stages but also delivering sonnets as part of the RSC’s broader work. His physical skills led to him working as a rope and trapeze artist for an innovative production of Goethe’s Faust (Parts I & II) and having a role created for him in The Painter of Dishonour by Tirso de Molina.  Peter has played in many plays of Shakespeare, including Romeo and Juliet (Prince Escalus, Apothecary), directed by Rupert Goold, Hamlet (Player King) and Othello (Cassio); he has been a member of the Globe Theatre’s Read Not Dead company reviving texts written by contemporaries of Shakespeare but rarely, if ever, performed since their heyday.  Other highlights of Peter’s extensive career on the stage are his roles as the villain in traditional Christmas Pantomimes (including an Ugly Sister) and a short season on London’s West End in The Witches by Roald Dahl.  On television, Peter has appeared in many programs, from daytime magazine shows (as a mime artist) to soap opera (The Bill).  In film, he has appeared in The Hogfather, adaptyed from Terry Pratchett’s book and played Death in an interactive guide to Pratchett’s Discworld, which won a BAFTA award.  He was also Abraham Lincoln for an advertising campaign for Lincoln Financial Group.  Peter has performed internationally, most notably in Beirut, Lebanon and Tbilisi, Georgia, and he is a fluent French speaker, which he has used for many projects in which he has been involved.

Philip Fletcher (Beggar) is a Synetic Theater Founding Company Member who has appeared in over 45 Synetic productions over the past 12 years.   Favorite Synetic productions include:  Twelfth Night (Orsino), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Portrait), Tempest (Prospero), King Lear (Edmund) [Helen Hayes Outstanding Ensemble and Supporting Actor nominated], Othello (Iago) [HH Outstanding Ensemble and Lead Actor nominated], A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon) [HH Outstanding Ensemble], Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio) [HH Outstanding Ensemble], Carmen (Lucas) [HH Outstanding Ensemble Nominated], Macbeth (Witch) [HH Outstanding Supporting Actor], The Dybbuk (Groom) [Theater J co-production], Hamlet…the rest is silence (King Hamlet’s Ghost/Player King) [HH Outstanding Ensemble], and Host and Guest (Mullah). 

Reed Imhoff (Knight/British Soldier) numbers among his stage credits Charles Lomax in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara and Tom in Reckless, Lewis in King John, and Biron n Love’s Labour’s Lost.   He returns to Stage Coach Theatre’s production of Saddle Up for Death  later this season.

Samantha Dena (Regan) A graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC, she has performed in various regional and Off-Broadway productions. Favorite roles include Helena in All's Well That Ends Well (with Capital Classics in West Hartford, CT), Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (performed in Stratford upon Avon, England), and Olivia in Twelfth Night (performed in Original Pronunciation).  She can also be seen on the new web series “Coffee Shop Show” as Claire. Visit samanthadena.com for more.

Steve Lebens (Albany) Film: Field of Lost Shoes, Browncoats Redemption. Television: House of Cards, VEEP, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Pigeon the Series, C-47 (pilot), El Amor es mas Fuerte, Te Amo Pecas.  Steve has worked extensively in theater, including the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the American Century Theater, Signature Theatre. Studio Theatre, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, No Rules Theatre, the American Ensemble Theater, Scena Theatre and the In Series in Washington, D.C. TV: Green Screen.

Todd Mazzie (Knight/British Soldier) is thrilled to be working with Alexander Barnett on King Lear.  His last Shakespearean role was Lysimachus in Pittsburgh Repertory Theater's Pericles.  Todd has been performing on stage and film for more than eighteen years.  He recently appeared as Churchill's Aide on The History Channel's The World Wars and has done various featured background roles with Turn on AMC and Veep on HBO.  In 2014 Todd was seen as Clive in Frederick Town Player's See How They Run and Cléante in The Rockville Little Theater's The Miser.  Before King Lear starts filming, Todd will be finishing up 2014 as Vince Fontaine in Rockville Musical Theater's Grease and Richard in an original debut of A Revolutionary Christmas by Reiner Prochaska with the Maryland Ensemble Theater.  

Taylor Rascher (Beggar/French Soldier) Previous credits include: Washington National Opera's Moby Dick, Arizona Theatre Company's Clybourne Park (Kennith), and Arizona Repertory Theatre's Cymbeline (Caius Lucius). T aylor has directed and produced his original works in the Tucson (2013) and DC Fringe Festival (2014).

Vince Eisenson (Messenger) TV: Forbidden, The World Wars, American Super/Natural, Evil Kin, Deadly Affairs, Killing Lincoln, Francis Scott Key in Smithsonian Channel's A Star-Spangled Story.  Film:  Anthem of Liberty (IMAX).  Theatre: Three seasons as a Resident Acting Company member of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, where roles have included Richard III, Orlando, Proteus, Puck, and many others.  Vince has also performed at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Synetic Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library, and in a radio adaptation of Julius Caesar for NPR's WAMU 88.5. 

William LeDent (Cornwall) www.williamledent.com