Cyrano de Bergerac

ITO AGHAYERE (Roxane) KCRep: debut. Broadway: Junk (Ayad Akhtar); Bernhardt/Hamlet (Theresa Rebeck). Off- Broadway: Mlima’s Tale (The Public); Familiar (Playwrights Horizons); The Liquid Plain (Signature Theatre); Three Days To See (Transport Group/NYTW); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classic Theatre of Harlem); The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and Macbeth (Classic Stage Company). New York: The Obeah Symphony (Billie Holiday Theater). Regional: Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike (Vermont Stage). Awards: Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her role in Familiar. TV/FILM: “Star Trek Picard,” “Carol’s Second Act,” “The Blacklist,” “Instinct,” “Master of None,” “Elementary,” Fear The Night (Neil Labute, Director), Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh, Director). Education: BA, Duke University; MFA, Columbia University. IG: @itoaghayere. AEA Member 

JAMES CHEN (Cyrano) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. New York: Off-Broadway. Regional: The Cherry Orchard (Chautauqua Theater Company; The Guthrie Theater; Take Me Out (Philadelphia Theater Company). TV: FBI, Elementary, Madam Secretary, Person of Interest (CBS); The Mandalorian (Disney+), Dear Edward (AppleTV+) Run the World (Starz); The Walking Dead (AMC); 9-1-1, Sleepy Hollow (FOX); Iron Fist (Netflix); Law & Order: SVU, The Blacklist (NBC); Broad City (Comedy Central). FILM: The Amazing Spiderman, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Labor Day, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Front Cover. Awards: Dexter Wood Luke Memorial Prize (Yale Drama). Education: BFA, University of Pennsylvania; MFA in Acting, Yale School of Drama IG @jameschennyc AEA Member

JIMMY KIEFFER (De Guiche) (he/him/his) KCRep: Twelfth Night. Off-Broadway: Alf in Peter and the Starcatcher (New World Stages); Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol (Canal Park Playhouse). Regional: Clown in The 39 Steps (Repertory Theatre St. Louis); Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Maurice in Ever After, Ben Davis in Nick’s Flamingo Grill (Alliance Theatre); Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Ed in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Repertory Theatre St. Louis and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Luther Billis in South Pacific (Guthrie Theater); Squash in Victor/Victoria (Theatre Under the Stars); Brian in Avenue Q (Arkansas Repertory Theatre); Charles Dickens/John Allan in The Completely Fictional-Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, Bob Acres in The Rivals (Baltimore Center Stage); Amadeus, Ross in Macbeth (Chautauqua Theatre); Pap Finn in Big River, Frank Lubey in All My Sons, Lane/Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest, Touchstone in As You Like It, Carl in Opus, Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, John Browdie/Sir Mulberry Hawk in Nicholas Nickleby (PlayMakers Repertory Company). Film/TV: Ocean’s Eight, Ricki and the Flash, A Place Apart, Criminal Minds, among others. Education: MFA in Acting, UNC Chapel Hill. jimmykieffer.com AEA Member  

KHALIF GILLETT (Liegnière) (he/they) KCRep: A Christmas Carol, Welcome to Freedom Summer. Bernhardt/Hamlet (Unicorn Theatre); Master Harold…and the Boys, Dracula: Song of Love and Death, King Lear (Kansas City Actors Theatre); Secret Soldiers (The Coterie); Much Ado About Nothing (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival).  @khvlif 

ADRIENNE (DRI) HERNAEZ (Ensemble) KCRep: Peter Pan & Wendy. Local: Cymbeline, Thinner Than Water, The 39 Steps, Fixing King John (UMKC). FILM: Once I Was Engaged (Little Red Wagon Films). Education: BA in elementary education, Brigham Young University-Hawaii; 3rd year MFA Acting Candidate, UMKC Conservatory; Labyrinth Theater Intensive Ensemble 2022. 

NICO HOLGUIN (Ensemble) (he/him) KCRep: debut. Local: The Tempest (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival); Where Did We Sit On The Bus?; Fixing King John; The Motherfu**er With The Hat; Thinner Than Water; Jane Eyre; Cymbeline (UMKC). Regional: The Diary of Anne Frank (Arizona Theatre Company); The Ultimate Christmas Show – Abridged (Blank Conversations Theatre Company); Disconnected (Everyman Ensemble Theatre Company). Upcoming: A Christmas Carol (KCRep). Education: BIS, New Mexico State University); Stella Adler – Art of Acting (Summer Conservatory 2016); 3rd year MFA candidate, UMKC. @nicoman_teriyaki 

CRAIG MARCUS LINDSAY (Ensemble) KCRep: The Royale. Regional: The Tempest (Virginia Stage Company); A Soldier’s Play (The Virginia Arts Festival). Local: Topdog/Underdog, Fixing King John, The Motherfu**er with the Hat (UMKC). Educational: Gem of the Ocean, Once on This Island (Norfolk State University Theatre Company). Education: BA in Drama and Theatre, Norfolk State University; 3rd year MFA candidate, UMKC. 

WILL PORTER (Ensemble) (He/Him) Recent:  Legally Blonde (Starlight).  KCRep: Peter Pan & Wendy. NYC: Bells Are Ringing (Off-Bway) National Tour: CATS, Bye Bye Birdie. Tokyo: A Chorus Line. Regional Favorites: Little Mermaid, All Shook Up (MUNY); How To Succeed (Theatre Under The Stars); HAIR (Berkshire Theatre Company); A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre); Shrek, Mary Poppins (North Shore Music Theatre); Spamalot, CATS (Pittsburgh CLO); Hello Dolly, A Christmas Story (Fulton Opera House); Little Shop of Horrors (New London Barn Playhouse); Hairspray (Florida Studio Theatre). UMKC: Fixing King John (Bishop), The 39 Steps (Hannay), Thinner Than Water (Gary), Cymbeline (Queen/Guiderius). Education: 3rd year MFA candidate, UMKC.   

CHRISTOPHER RIVAS (Christian) KCRep: debut. New York: The Real James Bond… Was Dominican (Geva Theatre Center, HERE). Regional: Seven Spots on the Sun (The Theatre @Boston Court and Rattlestick Playwright Theater, Boston Court Performing Arts Center). Pang! (world premiere, Studio 501 UCLA Little Theater), Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, Miami Light Project; OZ 2.5 (South Coast Repertory Theatre for Young Audiences, South Coast Repertory Julianne Argyros Theater); Villon (Padua Playwrights Productions, Odyssey Theatre Los Angeles, world premiere; Death of a Salesman (Stanley, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Segerstrom Stage); The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: A Comedy (Theatre Planners, Odyssey Theatre Los Angeles, world premiere); Rituals: A Bacchanalia 2013 (The Vagrancy Casa 0101, Los Angeles); Helen (Playwrights’ Arena, The Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater at the Getty Villa); Songs of Bilitis (Rogue Artists Ensemble, The Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater at the Getty Villa); Camino Real (The Theatre @ Boston Court, California Institute of the Arts, Boston Court Performing Arts Center Pasadena); The Government Inspector (American Southwest Theatre Company, Hershel Zohn Theatre, La Cruces, NM); Langston & Nicolás (Young Nicholás Guillén, Towne Street Theatre, The Stella Adler Theatre Hollywood). TV: Call Me Kat (Fox). Rivas recently released his debut book Brown Enough and podcasts with SiriusXM’s Stitcher: Brown Enough and Rubirosa. ChristopherRivas.com. AEA Member   

EILEEN RIVERA (Leila Ragueneau) (She/Her/Hers) KCRep: Twelfth Night. Regional: Tiger Style! (TheatreSquared in NW Arkansas and Olney Theatre Center in Maryland); Men on Boats, The White Snake, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Baltimore Center Stage); Vietgone (Studio Theatre, DC); The Hour of Great Mercy (Diversionary, San Diego); The Long Season (Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska); The Comfort Team (Virginia Stage Company). Off-Broadway: Beast (New York Theater Workshop); Dogeaters (The Public); A Fable (Rattlestick); King Lear (Cherry Lane Mentor Project); Sides: The Fear Is Real (Culture Project). TV: Extrapolations on Apple TV+, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent on NBC. Ms. Rivera is currently in a commercial for Head & Shoulders, co-starring KC’s own Patrick Mahomes. Awards: Eileen’s advocacy group, The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), received a 2022 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as a Special Obie Citation in 2020 for advocacy in the field of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Education: BFA in Acting, Boston University. AEA Member. EileenRivera.com    

BRADLEY J. THOMAS (LeBret, U/S Cyrano) KCRep: Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Christmas Carol, The Living Room’s Production of Carousel. Local: Secret Garden, Man of La Mancha, Company, H2$ (Music Theatre Heritage); Tomorrow Inshallah, Pontypool, Chainsaw: The Musical, Titus Andronicus, Carousel, The Death of Cupid (The Living Room); Ghosts of Lote Bravo (Unicorn Theatre); The Fishtank, Theatre for Young America, Padgett Productions, Shirley White Theatre, Thin Aire Theatrics, KC Fringe. International: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Great Britain); Ragtime (Germany). Regional: Sweeney Todd, The Exonerated (co-production, Vashon Repertory Theatre and Island Time); Man of La Mancha (Sierra Repertory Theatre); Longview Stageworks, Lakewood Center, Portland Center Stage, Sylvia’s Theatre, Embers Stages.  Education: BA, Theatre Performance and Marketing/Public Relations, Portland State University. Board: Kansas City Fringe Board President. AEA Member 

ASH BOWEN (U/S Roxane) (she/they) KCRep: debut. Regional: As You Like It, Imbroglio, The African Company Presents Richard III, Twelfth Night, Romeo & Juliet, Romeo & Juliet podcast, The Tempest U/S (Great River Shakespeare Festival); The Battlefields of Clara Barton (workshop at Zach Theatre). Local: Not I, Fixing King John, The 39 Steps, Thinner than Water, Jane Eyre, Jump U/S, Cymbeline (UMKC Theatre). Upcoming: A Christmas Carol (KCRep). Playwriting: Smile, You’re on Camera (staged reading at KC Public Theatre). Education: BA in Government, BA in Theatre & Dance with an emphasis in Performer’s Process, University of Texas at Austin; 3rd year MFA student, UMKC.  @teao3 and ashbowen.com 

SOLOMON LANGLEY (U/S Le Bret) KCRep: debut. Local: The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival). Regional: Choir Boy (Zeider’s American Dream Theater); A Soldier’s Play (The Virginia Arts Festival); The Wiz, The Tempest, A Christmas Carol (Virginia Stage Company). Educational: Topdog/Underdog, Fixing King John, TMFWTH, Thinner Than Water, Cymbeline (UMKC Conservatory); Once on This Island, Ruined, Fences (Norfolk State University Theatre Company). Education: BA in Drama and Theatre, Norfolk State University; 3rdyear MFA acting candidate at UMKC. 

RACHEL M. DYER (Production Stage Manager) (She/Her) KCRep: Production Stage Manager: Flood, Twelfth Night, Brother Toad, Man In Love, Lot’s Wife. Assistant Stage Manager: Peter Pan & Wendy, The Old Man and the Old Moon, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson Apt. 2B, A Christmas Carol (2021, 2022 and 2014-2019). Mary’s Wedding, Ghost Light 2021, Fun Home, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Pride & Prejudice, Last Days of Summer, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Between the Lines, Side by Side by Sondheim, Evita, The Diary of Anne Frank, Sunday in the Park with George, Hair: Retrospective, An Iliad. Head Production Assistant: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Romeo and Juliet, The Foreigner, The Living Room Theatre’s production of Carousel, Death of a Salesman, Mystery of Irma Vep; Production Assistant: Little Shop of Horrors, Great Immensity (world premiere). Local: Romeo & Juliet (Production Stage Manager, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival); Morning’s at Seven (Production Stage Manager, Kansas City Actors Theatre); High School Musical, The Wedding Singer, The Wizard of Oz (Assistant Lighting Designer, Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park). Education: BS in Theatre Design and Technology, Northwest Missouri State University.  AEA Member   

JORDAN CANON-KRUIS  (Assistant Stage Manager) KCRep: Peter Pan & Wendy, Flood, Twelfth Night, The Royale, What Would Crazy Horse Do?, Fire in Dreamland, A Christmas Carol, Constellations, The Invisible Hand. Regional: Noir, Describe the Night, 1984, Quixote Nuevo, Quack, Skeleton Crew, Murder on the Orient Express, Satchmo at the Waldorf, A Christmas Carol (Alley Theatre, Houston); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Legally Blonde (Lees-McRay Summer Theatre); Hairspray, Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Hope Repertory Theatre). Education: BA in Theatre Arts, New Mexico State University; MFA in Theatre Design and Technology – Stage Management, UMKC. AEA Member   

NELSON T. EUSEBIO III (Director/Casting) (He/Him/His) Nelson T. Eusebio III is the Associate Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory and is thrilled to be the first Asian American to direct a production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Nelson is also a freelance director, producer, and award-winning filmmaker. He has directed and developed work at theaters throughout the country, including the Public Theater/NYSF, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, The Old Globe, and St. Louis Repertory Theatre. Nelson has been a resident artist at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Target Margin Theatre Institute, and Mabou Mines. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers (where he also served on the SDC Foundation’s Callaway Award Committee), Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and the Rhodopi International Theatre Collective. Nelson was a recipient of the 2009-11 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, and the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is a participant in the SPARK Leadership program. Nelson is the former Artistic Director of Leviathan Lab, an Asian American creative studio. He also served as Artistic Director of Creative Destruction, a cross-disciplinary theatre collective. He received his B.A. in Drama from UC Irvine and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama. He is a former United States Marine. nelsoneusebio.com  

EMILY SHACKELFORD (Associate Director) Emily is a director, choreographer, performer, and currently the Artistic Associate with Music Theater Heritage (MTH). Recent directing credits include Gypsy at MTH (Director), A Spectacular Christmas at MTH (Director and Choreographer), The Secret Garden at MTH (Assistant Director), and Kate Hamill’s Little Women at Kansas City Actors Theatre (Assistant Director). Her work as an actor has brought her to The New Victory Theater (Off-Broadway), DC Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, The Kansas City Repertory Theater, and many more. Up next, directing It’s A Wonderful Life at MTH this holiday season! IG @emilyareti emilyshackelford.com AEA Member 

RIW RAKKULCHON (Scenic Design) KCRep: debut. Regional (selected): The XIXTH (The Old Globe); The Mousetrap (Hartford Stage); Clyde’s (George Street Playhouse); Eureka Day (Asolo Rep); Twelfth Night (Yale Repertory Theatre); “Master Harold” …and the Boys (Syracuse Stage); Slashes of Light (The Kitchen Theatre with Civic Ensemble Ithaca). Associate Set Design (selected): Parade (Broadway, New York City Center); &Juliet and Pass Over (Broadway); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Off-Broadway, Audible Theatre); Trevor: The Musical (Off-Broadway, Disney+). Upcoming: Cinderella (Drury Lane Theatre); Christmas Carol (Maltz Jupiter); Mexedous (Baltimore Center Stage); Angel Island (Brooklyn Academy of Music). Riw is a scenic designer from Bangkok, Thailand. Education: BFA in Theatrical Production Arts, Ithaca College; MFA, Yale School of Drama. Affiliations: United Scenic Artists USA-829. IG @riwrdesign riwrdesign.com 

PAUL KIM (Costume Design) (He/Him) KCRep: Flood, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B. Selected Credits: Mad Forest (OU University Theatre); EthiopianAmerica (Definition Theatre); Fast Food Chain (Adventure Stage); FLIES! THE MUSICAL! (Pride Films and Plays); The Explorers Club, Sex with Strangers, Scrooge and the Ghostly Spirits, and Light Up the Sky (Citadel Theatre); Assassins, Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea, The Grapes of Wrath, and 1984 (Illinois Theatre); Shakin’ The Mess Outta Misery (Pegasus Theatre). Associate Designer: for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (Court Theatre). Education: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. pbawuk.com   

MARIE YOKOYAMA (Lighting Design) KCRep: debut.  marieyokoyama.com 

JON ROBERTSON (Sound Design) KCRep: debut.  jonrobertsonsound.com  

MICHAEL ROSSMY (Fight Coordinator/Consultant) KCRep: debut. 

EDMOND ROSTAND (Playwright) Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand’s other works include: The Red Glove (1888); Les Musardises (1890); The Two Pierrots, or The White Supper (1891); Les Romanesques (1894), which was the basis for the 1960 off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks; La Princesse Lointaine or The Princess Far-Away (1895); La Samaritaine or The Woman of Samaria (1897); L’Aiglon: A Play in Six Acts (1900); Chantecler: A Play in Four Acts (1910); The Last Night of Don Juan (1921); Le Cantique de L’Aile (1922) and Le Vol de la Marseillaise. 

MARTIN CRIMP (Adapter) Martin Crimp was born in 1956 and began writing for theatre in the 1980s. His plays include: When we have sufficiently tortured each other (2019), Men Asleep (2018), The Rest Will be Familiar To You From Cinema (2013, voted by Germany’s Theater heute best foreign play of the year), In the Republic of Happiness (2012), Play House (2012), The City (2008), Fewer Emergencies (2005, receiving Italy’s Premio Ubu), Cruel and Tender (2004, written for director Luc Bondy), Face to the Wall (2002), The Country (2000), Attempts on her Life (1997), The Treatment (1993, winner of the John Whiting Award), Getting Attention (1992), No One Sees the Video (1991), Play with Repeats (1989), Dealing with Clair (1988) and Definitely the Bahamas (1987). His translations of plays include Botho Strauss’s Gross und Klein (2012), Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (2007), Marivaux’s The False Servant (2004) and The Triumph of Love (1999), Genet’s The Maids (1999), Ionesco’s The Chairs (1997), Koltès’s Roberto Zucco (1997), a new version of Chekhov’s The Seagull (2006), and adaptations of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac (2019) and Molière’s The Misanthrope (1996). His work has been produced in the UK by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Almeida, Young Vic, Barbican, Théâtre de Complicité, the Orange Tree and the Royal Court, and has been translated into many languages and widely produced abroad at venues including the Piccolo Teatro, Milan, the Sala Beckett, Barcelona, the Vienna Festival, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Théâtre de la Ville, Berlin’s Schaubühne, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, and at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, which presented four of his works in their 2006 season, including his first text for opera, Into the Little Hill, written for George Benjamin. His second collaboration with Benjamin, Written on Skin, had its world premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2012, and the third, Lessons in Love and Violence, opened at London’s Royal Opera House in 2018. In 2020 he was awarded the Nyssen-Bansemer Theatre Prize.