Meet the Cast of The America Plays!

With the first week of rehearsals for The America Plays almost over, it’s time to meet the cast!

Amanda Collins* (Harriet Hosmer, Asniv) Amanda has worked with many Boston-area theaters including the Huntington, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co., Boston Playwrights’, Gloucester Stage, Wheelock Family Theater, Central Square Theatre, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT), Cape Rep, Publick Theatre, and Orfeo Group. Regional: The Outfit in NY and Philadelphia, American Stage in Florida, founding member of Harbor Stage Company. Upcoming shows: The Thanksgiving Play (Lyric Stage), Bright Half Life (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), The Lowell Offering (Merrimack Rep). She recently won an Elliot Norton Award for her performance in Merrimack Rep’s Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Television: Olive Kitteridge (HBO), Castle Rock (Hulu) and Boston’s Finest (ABC Pilot) Film: Sea of Trees. Amanda is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

Ken Baltin* (Jacob Bigelow, Kaloosd) recently played Andrew Oliver in Patrick Gabridge’s Blood on the Snow at Boston’s Old State House. He appeared last season in Heartland at New Repertory Theatre, and in My Station in Life at Gloucester Stage Company for which he received an Eliot Norton Award as Outstanding Actor. Other acclaimed productions on area stages include Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Lost in Yonkers, Laughter on the 23^rd Floor (Lyric Stage); Kite Runner, Eurydice, Waiting for Godot, American Buffalo (New Repertory Company); Deported-a dream play, King of the Jews, Permanent Whole Life (Boston Playwrights Theatre); Operation Epsilon (Nora Theatre); Copenhagen, A Screenwriter’s Daughter, and Not Constantinople (Vineyard Playhouse); Oleanna (Merrimack Repertory); Beckett in Brief (Commonwealth Shakespeare) and many others.

Cheryl D. Singleton* (Edmonia Lewis) is very pleased to be working with Plays in Place. Boston area credits include: Intimate Apparel and The Little Foxes (Lyric Stage Co.) Passing Strange, Dollhouse, Rent and 1776 (New Repertory Theatre), Billy Elliot and James and the Giant Peach (Wheelock Family Theater), To Kill A Mockingbird (Gloucester Stage), Absence (Boston Playwright’s Theater), The Comedy of Errors (Commonwealth Shakespeare), The Seagull (American Repertory Theatre), The Superheroine Monologues (Phoenix Theatre Artists and Company One), Stuff Happens and The Kentucky Cycle (Zeitgeist Stage), as well as productions with Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans, Queer Soup and ImprovBoston. A proud member of Actors’ Equity and StageSource, Cheryl serves on three arts boards in the Boston community.

Matt Ryan (Martin Milmore, Tzolag) is very excited to be working with this talented group. Currently earning his MA in Theatre Education at Emerson College, he can also be seen acting around Boston, having recently been in the Mad Dash Play Fest for Fresh Ink Theatre. Thank you all for coming.

Karen MacDonald* (Harriot Kezia Hunt, Regina) Recent credits include Escaped Alone (Gamm Theatre), Universe Rushing Apart (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Calendar Girls (Greater Boston Stage Company). Regionally, she has also appeared at the Huntington Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, Speakeasy Stage, New Rep, Greater Boston Stage Company, Gloucester Stage, Lyric Stage, Israeli Stage, Merrimack Rep Theatre, Portland Stage, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Boston Theatre Company, Sleeping Weazel, The Vineyard Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare and Co. and Berkshire Playwrights Lab. A Founding Company Member of the American Repertory Theatre, she appeared in 74 productions, including The Sea Gull, Mother Courage and her Children, No Exit. On Broadway, she understudied and performed the role of Amanda Wingfield in John Tiffany’s revival of The Glass Menagerie. Nationally, she has performed at Hartford Stage, The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, The Alley Theatre and Berkeley Rep, among others. She is the recipient of several IRNE Awards and Elliot Norton Awards for her performances. She received The Robert Brustein Award for Sustained Achievement in The Theater and the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. She teaches at the Harvard Extension School and is a faculty member at Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard.

Robert Najarian* (Jospeh Story, Garabed) is an actor, fight choreographer, instructor, and author. As a performer – New York: Sleep No More (Punchdrunk/Emursive,) Daybreak (Pan Asian Repertory Theater,) Macbeth (Shelter Theater.) Regional: Sleep No More (American Repertory Theater,) Talley’s Folly (Purple Rose Theater Company,) The Kite Runner (New Repertory Theatre,) Copenhagen,Einstein’s Dreams (Central Square Theatre,) Hamlet, Intimate Apparel (Theater at Monmouth), Trajectories (Evet Arts Chicago,) Take Me Out(Speakeasy Stage Company,) Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera,) Shear Madness (Charles Street Playhouse.) Fight choreography for numerous theaters including American Repertory Theater, SITI Company / Emerson Stage, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, and Trinity Repertory Company. Former faculty at University of Michigan, Boston University, College of the Holy Cross, and Harvard University. MFA: The Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University. BA: Bowdoin College. Union Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SDC. His book The Art of Unarmed Stage Combat is available through Routledge.

Sarah Newhouse* (Mary Bigelow, Charlotte Cushman, Takoohy) is a Boston-based actor/director/producer/educator who has long admired the beauty of Mt Auburn Cemetery, and is delighted to have the opportunity to spend even more time within its gates. Some favorite Boston area credits include The King Stag, Macbeth, Picasso at the Lapin-Agile (American Repertory Theater); Desdemona-a play about a handkerchief (BCA); The River Was Whiskey (Boston Playwrights); The Apple Family Plays (Greater Boston Stage Co.); Legacy of Light, Lost in Yonkers, and The Miracle Worker (Lyric Stage Company); The Norman Conquests (Gloucester Stage Company); DollHouse (New Repertory Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It (Publick Theatre); and Shear Madness(Charles Playhouse). Ms. Newhouse is also a founding company member of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, with whom she has performed more than 20 roles in 14 years. This winter, she will appear in The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), directed by Chris Edwards. Sarah is a graduate of Hampshire College and the ART Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, and lives in Watertown with her spouse and newly minted college freshman.