Playing September 25 – October 6

Founder and Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary directs the Roman tragedy, which he last directed with an all-female cast for TSC in 2010. The production is generously sponsored by the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly.

“Shakespeare wrote to be seen, heard, spoken and experienced,” McCleary said. “Julius Caesar is one of the perfectly formed plays in theater, and this intimate production will quite literally bring the story to life and awaken 44 B.C.E. to our current senses. Shakespeare’s rhetoric removes Roman history out from under glass for us. By doing so, he gives his audiences distance and perspective by which we can reflect on our own social and political lives, and he insists we do that now.”

Audience members will be transported to a modern history museum on the TSC stage, populated by Roman statues, busts, weapons, pottery, linens and soundtracks – all of which take on new life when Shakespeare’s story comes to bloody life on stage.

“Julius Caesar tells the story of a people increasingly divided by wealth and poverty – and political radicalism – in a Republic that recently welcomed home its military and civil war conqueror, Caesar. When the Senate and members of the patrician class become alarmed at Caesar being named Dictator for Life and the citizens’ deference to him, Cassius convinces the noble Brutus, much loved of Caesar, and other conspirators to assassinate Caesar for the good of the Republic. Brutus’ debate of the heart lies at the center of the story’s dramatic conflict, but Caesar’s protégé Marc Antony makes the conflict physical as he sways the citizens with several of Shakespeare’s greatest public speeches.

The professional seven-actor cast includes the return of Paul Bernardo* (Cassius) from New York, last seen in TSC’s production of “Othello” as Iago.  Milwaukee native Neil Brookshire* is introduced as Brutus, and TSC founding members Phil Darius Wallace* (Marc Antony/Casca) and Michael Khanalarian (Julius Caesar/Metellus) return with Marquis Archuleta (Soothsayer/Decius), Claire Hayner (Portia/Cinna), and Merit Koch (Calphurnia/Trebonius/Lucius).

The design team includes Jeremy Fisher (lighting), Brian Ruggaber (scenic), Bruce Bui (costumes), Eric Sefton (sound) and Lindsay Taylor (props). The Westerlies, a brass quartet from New York, provides the original music.  The AEA stage manager is Leanna Keyes, assisted by Bethany Fichthorn.

Tiered seating tickets range from $15-39 and are available by visiting www.tnshakespeare.org or calling the TSC box office at 901-759-0604. TSC will host Free Will Kids’ Night every Thursday for parents with up to four children ages 17 years and younger to attend for free when accompanied by at least one paying, attending guardian. Free Will tickets are limited based on availability and must be purchased in person at the TSC Box Office.

Performance schedule for Julius Caesar

All performances will take place at TSC’s Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage, 7950 Trinity Road.

• Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. (preview)
• Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m. (preview)
• Friday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. (opening night with post-show reception with company)
• Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Sept. 29 at 3 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 4at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.

Cast and Director Bios

Marquis Dijon Archuleta (Soothsayer/Decius/plebian) TSC: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julius Caesar, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, The Romeo and Juliet Project, Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits. Other credits: Of Mice and Men, Cyrano de Bergerac, Pentecost, Pippin, Romeo and Juliet, Jesus Christ Superstar. Education: University of Montana (B.F.A. in Theatre with a minor in Psychology).

Paul Bernardo* (Cassius/plebian) TSC: Othello (Iago). PICT Classical Theater: Othello, Jane Eyre. Orlando Shakespeare Theater: Julius Caesar. St. Michael’s Playhouse & Theatre at Monmouth: Blithe Spirit. Cape May Stage: Art, Talley’s Folly. Society Hill Playhouse: Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Education: Shakespeare Theater’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. Paul is a founding member of the Upstart Creatures theater company in New York City.

Neil Brookshire* (Brutus) A Wyoming native, Neil has worked with Great Lakes Theater, Boise Contemporary Theater, Idaho Dance Theatre, Opera Idaho, Seattle Novyi Theatre, People’s Light, Cadence Theatre Co., Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Door Shakespeare, Renaissance Theaterworks, Peninsula Players and 10 seasons with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Neil is a visual artist and founder of Dirt Hills Productions, which produces short films and audio. Education: Boise State University (B.A.); Northern Illinois University (M.F.A. in Acting).

Claire Hayner (Portia/Cinna the conspirator/Caesar’s servant/plebian) TSC: As You Like It, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors. Other credits: A Little Night Music, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Les Misérables, Present Laughter, Singing in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, Collected Stories, A Funny Thing…Forum, Into The Woods, Cyrano de Bergerac.  Education: University of Memphis (B.F.A. in Theatre Performance). Claire hails from New York City.

Michael Khanlarian (Caesar/Metellus/plebian) Michael is a founding member of TSC and a senior artist-manager. TSC: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill a Mockingbird, Henry V, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet.  Education: University of Memphis.

Merit Koch (Calphurnia/Lucius/Trebonius/plebian) TSC: As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Winter’s Tale, Eudora Welty: Mississippi Myth, Flannery O’Connor: Georgia Gothic, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Education: University of Memphis (B.A. in Professional Writing); Vassar & New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater (Acting/Directing Apprentice); Shakespeare & Company.

Dan McCleary⁺ (Director), a native of Memphis, is the Founder and Nancy R. Copp Producing Artistic Director of Tennessee Shakespeare Company. Dan has created, directed, and acted in 24 of TSC’s 50 productions, including the inaugural production of As You Like It, also Waiting for Godot, The Glass Menagerie, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, To Kill a Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing, Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia Gothic, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the all-female Julius Caesar, Othello, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), and Themes from a Midsummer Night with Iris Orchestra. As Associate Artistic Director/Communications Director at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires (1993-2005), Dan acted in and directed over 30 productions, including his acclaimed production of The Servant of Two Masters, his own adaptation of Anaïs Nin’s Henry and June, as well as Vita & Virginia (Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf), My Own Stranger (Anne Sexton), and The Fiery Rain (Edith Wharton/Henry James/Morton Fullerton). Other regional directing credits of Shakespeare and new work: Seattle Shakespeare, Orlando Shakespeare, and Georgia Shakespeare. He has played over 120 roles on stage, including Coriolanus, Richard III, Macbeth, Falstaff, Marc Antony, Caliban, Brutus, Petruchio, Bottom, Master Ford, Stephano, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, Cassio, Bertram, Demetrius, Silvius, Herman Melville, Porfiry, Charles Dickens, The Gentleman Caller, Tom Wingfield, and Bertha Bumiller in the Greater Tuna series. Dan is a published poet, and the creator/director/actor of plays Speak What We Feel: Shakespeare’s Radical Response to a Radical Time, Unto the Breach, and Quintessence: Shakespeare in Performance.

Phil Darius Wallace* (Marc Antony/Casca) is a native of Flint, Michigan. He began his acting career with Michigan Shakespeare Festival as Caliban in The Tempest. He has traveled around the country performing as a solo performer as Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and Langston Hughes. He has worked extensively with Tennessee Shakespeare Company and is privileged to be a founding company member. He is also a company member of the improv group Playback Memphis. Darius performed his one-man show Self-Made Man: The Frederick Douglass Story, Off-Broadway to critical acclaim. His TV credits include ABC’s Nashville, and he just filmed a role in Wedding at Graceland.  He recently wrapped production on the movie The World We Make (to be released by Universal and then to Netflix).

* member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
+ member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union.

Sponsors and partners

TSC’s generous sponsors and partners of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, First Tennessee Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., Plough Foundation, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, Nancy R. Copp, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, C. Cato Ealy, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Germantown and Collierville Municipal School Districts, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, Memphis VA Hospital, the Benjamin Hooks Library and the Germantown Library. TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.