A Midsummer Night's Dream
Cast & Crew
Hilary Adams - HIPPOLYTA/SNUG/FAIRY/MUSIC COMPOSER & DIRECTOR
Hilary is beyond excited to be back with Shakespeare BASH’d for a second season after co-composing the music and performing in their production of As You Like It. Hilary is currently a Toronto based performer, singer-songwriter but studied theatre and puppetry in Nova Scotia. She has toured internationally with Mermaid Theatre and most recently worked at Two Planks and a Passion performing In This Light, Frankenstein by Fire and In the Ruins. Other recent credits include; Puppeteer Old Man and the River (Theatre Direct) The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Stories, Goodnight Moon and the Runaway Bunny (Mermaid), As Cast (Newmarket National Play Festival), Celia As You Like It, Goneril King Lear, Percussionist Pinocchio, Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Octavia Antoni and Cleopatra, Bianca The Taming of the Shrew, the Fairy Bartender Cinderelly and Jessica The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare By The Sea), Phebe As You Like It and Company Iliad by Fire (Two Planks and a Passion). Big love to my family, thank you for all of your support, I love you to the moon and back.
Christopher Brackett - STAGE MANAGER
Christopher is a stage manager and children’s supervisor who has worked across North
America. He is thrilled to be back and joining forces with James, Julia and the entire
BASH’d team.
Select Theatre Credits: Othello, Richard III (Shakespeare BASH’d); The Hockey Sweater (National Arts Centre); The Virgin Trial, Romeo & Juliet (Stratford Festival); MATILDA the Musical (1st US National Tour, Mirvish); The Cottage, Sense & Sensibility (RMTC); A Christmas Carol (Soulpepper); JukeBox Hero (Annerin Productions); Beauty & the Beast, FROZEN (Disney Cruise Line); Rufus Does Judy, Contemporary Color, If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway (Luminato).
Other credits include work with Disney Theatrical Group, the Toronto International Film
Festival, and Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Always, much love to mom and dad. Follow online @CSDBrackett.
America. He is thrilled to be back and joining forces with James, Julia and the entire
BASH’d team.
Select Theatre Credits: Othello, Richard III (Shakespeare BASH’d); The Hockey Sweater (National Arts Centre); The Virgin Trial, Romeo & Juliet (Stratford Festival); MATILDA the Musical (1st US National Tour, Mirvish); The Cottage, Sense & Sensibility (RMTC); A Christmas Carol (Soulpepper); JukeBox Hero (Annerin Productions); Beauty & the Beast, FROZEN (Disney Cruise Line); Rufus Does Judy, Contemporary Color, If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway (Luminato).
Other credits include work with Disney Theatrical Group, the Toronto International Film
Festival, and Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Always, much love to mom and dad. Follow online @CSDBrackett.
Zara Jestadt - TITANIA
Zara was born and raised in Toronto. She is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School and holds a BA in Psychology from McGill University, where she spent most of her time singing in musicals and the university’s a cappella group.
Favourite stage credits include: Miss Mabel Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, Lucius in Julius Caesar (Stratford Festival), Celia in As You Like It (Stratford Birmingham Conservatory) and Sally in The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide (Tiny Room). Upcoming: Alicia in Small Mouth Sounds (Segal Centre). She is so excited to be making her BASH’d debut with this incredible piece and ensemble!
Favourite stage credits include: Miss Mabel Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, Lucius in Julius Caesar (Stratford Festival), Celia in As You Like It (Stratford Birmingham Conservatory) and Sally in The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide (Tiny Room). Upcoming: Alicia in Small Mouth Sounds (Segal Centre). She is so excited to be making her BASH’d debut with this incredible piece and ensemble!
Nyiri Karakas - HELENA/PEASEBLOSSOM
Nyiri Karakas is a graduate of East 15 Acting School in London, UK, where she also completed the Higher Education Residency at Shakespeare’s Globe. Nyiri's most recent credits include Orlando in As You Like It (Bard in the Park, Dir. Deivan Steele), Joyce in Top Girls (Alumnae Theatre, Dir. Alysa Golden) and Melantho in The Penelopiad (Hart House Theatre, Dir. Michelle Langille).
Nyiri is eternally grateful to all who have supported her on this journey, thank you. @nyirikarakas
Nyiri is eternally grateful to all who have supported her on this journey, thank you. @nyirikarakas
Eliza Martin - HERMIA/MOTH
Eliza Martin is a Toronto based actor, writer, arts educator and award-winning solo performer. Eliza’s first solo show O, was performed most recently in New York City as an official selection of the United Solo Festival (United Solo Award, Best Satire, All About Solo, Critics’ Choice) and her second solo show Harvey & The Extraordinary, in the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival (My Entertainment World - Critics’ Pick Award Nominee, Outstanding Solo Performance). Eliza developed and workshopped her third solo show BLOOM as the New Bad Ideas 2019 Creator in Residence with Bad Hats Theatre. Some of Eliza’s selected acting credits include: Isabella in The Changeling (Shakespeare BASH’d), Molly in Peter and The Starcatcher (LOT), Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, Gloria in Boeing Boeing (Hart House Theatre), Hellena in The Rover, Mary Warren in The Crucible (Theatre Erindale), u/s Louise in Gypsy (Hangar Theatre), and Patricia in Hiding Like Elephants (Hangar Wedge Series). When not on-stage, Eliza can be found teaching as an arts educator with companies such as Shakespeare in Action and Purple Carrots Drama Studio, as well as running her own initiative: Queen Bees Arts Education. www.elizamartin.ca
Kate McArthur - OBERON
Kate is thrilled to be working with the stellar group of artists Shakespeare BASH'd has assembled to muck around in a forest with! She identifies as a Mad (Bipolar Disorder 1)/queer actor/theatre artist and is a Co-Artistic Director of Skipping Stones Theatre, a Toronto based company whose mandate is to tell stories through the lens of mental health or stories that centre around it. She is constantly searching for growth as an artist and is dedicated to producing exciting work in a supportive space with professional standards.
Selected Acting Credits: Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It (a Company of Fools); Hamlet(s), Laughing Wild, Coriolanus, 4.48 Psychosis (Skipping Stones Theatre); The Tom and Gertie Letters Project (Springworks Festival); Gorboduc, The Changeling (Shakespeare BASH'd); Richard III (Wolf Manor Theatre Collective); Shakespeare in Hospitals (Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective). Kate has a BFA in Acting from U of Windsor and was nominated for a 2018 Critics' Pick Award by My Entertainment World for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play (Independent) for her work in Hamlet(s).
Selected Acting Credits: Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It (a Company of Fools); Hamlet(s), Laughing Wild, Coriolanus, 4.48 Psychosis (Skipping Stones Theatre); The Tom and Gertie Letters Project (Springworks Festival); Gorboduc, The Changeling (Shakespeare BASH'd); Richard III (Wolf Manor Theatre Collective); Shakespeare in Hospitals (Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective). Kate has a BFA in Acting from U of Windsor and was nominated for a 2018 Critics' Pick Award by My Entertainment World for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play (Independent) for her work in Hamlet(s).
Megan Miles - EGEUS/PETER QUINCE
Megan is an actor, puppeteer and co-founder of Shakey-Shake and Friends with her husband Tom McGee. I am excited beyond measure to finally be working on the play that made me first fall in love with Shakespeare and to be doing it with this incredible company. Thanks as always to Jules, James, and Catherine for bringing her on the ride and to Thomas for putting up with me.
With BASH'd: Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Richard III, Comedy of Errors, Merry Wives, King John, The Changeling.
With BASH'd: Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Richard III, Comedy of Errors, Merry Wives, King John, The Changeling.
Michelle Mohammed - PUCK
Michelle is a theatre maker, with a primary interest in developing her skills as a performer and a director. A recent graduate of Brock University’s Dramatic Arts program (where she also obtained a minor in English Language and Literature), she was able to explore all the reasons she is fascinated by theatre; some of which include; playing characters in plays, devising plays, writing plays, writing about plays, directing plays, and questioning plays. This is her Shakespeare BASH’d debut, and she would like to dedicate this experience to the beloved Katherine Oswald.
Justin Mullen - LYSANDER/COBWEB
Justin is an emerging artist who is excited to be in the profession circuit. Having recently graduated from George Brown's conservatory style program with an intense passion for classical texts, Justin has enjoyed many roles such as Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos, Constant from John Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife, and Orsino from Twelfth Night. Last seen with BASH'd as Orlando in As You Like It.
If he's not acting, his other passions include writing, playing music, as well as crafting a tasty cocktail or two as an up and coming mixologist.
If he's not acting, his other passions include writing, playing music, as well as crafting a tasty cocktail or two as an up and coming mixologist.
Nicholas Nahwegahbow - THESEUS/SNOUT
Nicholas Nahwegahbow is a proud Anishnaabe/Kanienkehaka artist born and raised in the Ottawa area and who is currently based out of Toronto. He holds a BA in theatre studies from Guelph University and is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada as well as the Birmingham Conservatory program under the artistic direction of Stephen Ouimette, with a focus on classical theatre. He most recently performed in Strike! The Musical with Rainbow Stage out in Winnipeg Manitoba, portraying the metis WWI vet, Gabriel Chartrand. He also had the wonderful opportunity of performing in a variety of plays such as The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Coriolanus, and many more within the Stratford Festival’s past two seasons (17/18.) A Notable film credit also includes portraying the Nakoda warrior Chatka in CBC’s Canada: The Story of us. He is both honored and excited to be making his Toronto theatrical debut with such a talented company.
Julia Nish-Lapidus - BOTTOM
Julia is an actor, director, and producer, as well as a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Shakespeare BASH'd, where she has produced all of the company's productions. She just completed her first season at the Stratford Festival as part of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing, acting as the Assistant Director on Private Lives.
For Shakespeare BASH'd, Julia has directed Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and the staged reading of The Duchess of Malfi. She has also performed in many BASH'd productions, including The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Volpone (staged reading).
Selected Additional Credits: The Tom & Gertie Letters Project (Co-Director), Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen and This Property is Condemned (Director, The Playwright Project), Modern Love (Co-Creator, Next Stage), As You Like It (Text Coach, Theatre By the Bay), Titus Andronicus (Text Coach. Hart House), and as an actor OVER, See Bob Run (Theatre Caravel), reasons to the pretty (The Labute Cycle), The Forest (Red One Theatre Collective), Dublin Carol (Fly on the Wall). Julia is a member of the Advisory Board for the Canadian Stage GYM program and a graduate of the joint acting program at UofT and Sheridan College.
For Shakespeare BASH'd, Julia has directed Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and the staged reading of The Duchess of Malfi. She has also performed in many BASH'd productions, including The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Volpone (staged reading).
Selected Additional Credits: The Tom & Gertie Letters Project (Co-Director), Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen and This Property is Condemned (Director, The Playwright Project), Modern Love (Co-Creator, Next Stage), As You Like It (Text Coach, Theatre By the Bay), Titus Andronicus (Text Coach. Hart House), and as an actor OVER, See Bob Run (Theatre Caravel), reasons to the pretty (The Labute Cycle), The Forest (Red One Theatre Collective), Dublin Carol (Fly on the Wall). Julia is a member of the Advisory Board for the Canadian Stage GYM program and a graduate of the joint acting program at UofT and Sheridan College.
Catherine Rainville - CO-DIRECTOR
Catherine is Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare BASH'd.
Design credits: Twelfth Night, King John with Shakespeare BASH'd, reasons to be pretty with Theatre Caravel and assisting on The Public Servant with Common Boots Theatre at the undercurrents festival at the Great Canadian Theatre Company.
With BASH’d as a director: Measure for Measure, Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor (co-director), and The Taming of the Shrew (associate director).
With BASH’d as an actor: Queen Elizabeth and Catesby in Richard III, Cardinal Pandaulph in King John, The Widow in The Taming of the Shrew, and Katherine in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
Other acting credits include: Rosalind in As You Like It, Cordelia in King Lear, and Jenny in the company written musical production of Pinocchio with Shakespeare by the Sea.
Design credits: Twelfth Night, King John with Shakespeare BASH'd, reasons to be pretty with Theatre Caravel and assisting on The Public Servant with Common Boots Theatre at the undercurrents festival at the Great Canadian Theatre Company.
With BASH’d as a director: Measure for Measure, Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor (co-director), and The Taming of the Shrew (associate director).
With BASH’d as an actor: Queen Elizabeth and Catesby in Richard III, Cardinal Pandaulph in King John, The Widow in The Taming of the Shrew, and Katherine in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
Other acting credits include: Rosalind in As You Like It, Cordelia in King Lear, and Jenny in the company written musical production of Pinocchio with Shakespeare by the Sea.
Mussié Solomon - DEMETRIUS/MUSTARDSEED
Mussié was born in Asmara, Eritrea, he lived there for the majority of his life before moving to Canada at the age of twelve. He always wanted to be an animator when he was in Eritrea however, it is in Canada where he found theatre & film as an outlet of his truest expression.
He is a graduate of the theatre and drama studies program at Sheridan college and University of Toronto Mississauga (2019). His most recent roles include Romeo, D. Orsino & Ferdinand in Suddenly Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Action), Baron Tuzenbach in Three Sisters (Theatre Erindale), Zeus in Metamorphoses (Theatre Erindale), Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night (Theatre Erindale), co-creator/various in Then Came The Rain (Theatre Erindale), Abel Tesfu in In All Fairness (Beck Festival).
He is a graduate of the theatre and drama studies program at Sheridan college and University of Toronto Mississauga (2019). His most recent roles include Romeo, D. Orsino & Ferdinand in Suddenly Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Action), Baron Tuzenbach in Three Sisters (Theatre Erindale), Zeus in Metamorphoses (Theatre Erindale), Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night (Theatre Erindale), co-creator/various in Then Came The Rain (Theatre Erindale), Abel Tesfu in In All Fairness (Beck Festival).
James Wallis - CO-DIRECTOR
James has been a Shakespeare fan all his life, having performed with Resurgence Theatre Company as a teenager and again as a professional later in his career.
In 2010, James co-founded Shakespeare BASH’d with his wife, Julia. For the company, James has directed staged readings of Romeo and Juliet (2010), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011), Edward II (2015), Volpone (2017), as well as the full productions of Romeo & Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Twelfth Night. He played Petruchio in the company's Best of Fringe winning production of The Taming of the Shrew in 2012 and the remount in 2015, and played Benedick in their sold-out production of Much Ado About Nothing in the 2013 Toronto Fringe. In addition, here are some of James’ selected theatre credits: A Midsummer Nights’ Dream, Shakespeare’s Magic and The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre by the Bay), Danny, King of the Basement (Roseneath Theatre, US Tour), Sleeping Beauty (Sudbury Theatre Centre), Paradise by the River (Shadowpath Theatre).
James participated in the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing at the Stratford Festival, assistant directing Macbeth, Bunny, and Romeo and Juliet, as well as Julius Caesar in 2018.
In 2010, James co-founded Shakespeare BASH’d with his wife, Julia. For the company, James has directed staged readings of Romeo and Juliet (2010), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011), Edward II (2015), Volpone (2017), as well as the full productions of Romeo & Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Twelfth Night. He played Petruchio in the company's Best of Fringe winning production of The Taming of the Shrew in 2012 and the remount in 2015, and played Benedick in their sold-out production of Much Ado About Nothing in the 2013 Toronto Fringe. In addition, here are some of James’ selected theatre credits: A Midsummer Nights’ Dream, Shakespeare’s Magic and The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre by the Bay), Danny, King of the Basement (Roseneath Theatre, US Tour), Sleeping Beauty (Sudbury Theatre Centre), Paradise by the River (Shadowpath Theatre).
James participated in the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing at the Stratford Festival, assistant directing Macbeth, Bunny, and Romeo and Juliet, as well as Julius Caesar in 2018.
John Wamsley - PHILOSTRATE/FLUTE
John Wamsley is an Indigenous actor, dancer, and arts administrator born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario. He is also a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies program at Sheridan College and the University of Toronto.
Selected credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Tottering Biped Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Erindale), Spain (OPIA Theatre Collective), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Hart House Theatre), Everyone Wants a T-Shirt! (Prairie Fire, Please), and Timothy Findley's The Wars (The Grand Theatre). He also works in a restaurant...typical. AD♡
Selected credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Tottering Biped Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Erindale), Spain (OPIA Theatre Collective), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Hart House Theatre), Everyone Wants a T-Shirt! (Prairie Fire, Please), and Timothy Findley's The Wars (The Grand Theatre). He also works in a restaurant...typical. AD♡