ANJA AVSHARIAN

REGAN

Born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC, Anja Avsharian is thrilled to

make her debut with the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival. New

Orleans stage credits include Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible

(The Fat Squirrel), Blanche (Panic) in The Six Blanches (Tennessee

Williams Theater Company), and Rose Stopnik in Caroline, or Change

(JPAS). Their film work includes the feature Faces of Death and shorts

Sybconscious, Echo’s Chamber, The Maids, Mugshot, Cannibal Hotel,

and Subsequent. In New York City, Anja has appeared Off Broadway at

The Players Theater as Beauty in Beauty and the Beast and A Christmas

Carol, as well as Malka Silber in The Argentinian Prostitute (Theater

Row). She graduated from NYC’s Professional Performing Arts School,

earned a BA in Theater Studies from Loyola University New Orleans,

and completed additional training at The Lee Strasberg Theater and

Film Institute in NYC. She is represented by The Krewe Collective.

 

 

JAMES BARTELLE

EDGAR / KING OF FRANCE

James Bartelle was most recently seen in The Shakespeare Festival

at Tulane’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck).

Previous Festival credits include Julius Caesar (Mark Antony), Romeo

& Juliet (The Prince), Hamlet (Horatio), The Tempest (Gonzalo), Two

Gentlemen of Verona (Speed), The Importance of Being

Earnest (Jack), Merry Wives of Windsor (Sir Hugh Evans), and As You

Like It-2008 (Orlando). James has appeared in several productions

with The NOLA Project including Frankenstein (Multiple Roles), A

Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom), Robin Hood (Robin Hood), and

Marie Antoinette (A Sheep). A multiple-award winning actor and

writer, James is the co-creator of the two-person play Flying Dreams

[The Ambitious Ascent of Icarus & Daedalus] which will travel the

Fringe Festival circuit in the very near future.

 

 

JAKE BARTUSH

CORNWALL / CAPTAIN

Jake is excited to be back at the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival.

Last seen in 6 Frenchman, a site-specific, immersive theatrical

experience produced by Jason Derek North and Vaughn Trudeau,

some other favorite credits include TWTC’s View Carré (The Writer),

NOLA Project’s Spider Queen (Ranger Clark), Twelfth Night (Feste),

and Robin Hood (Sherriff of Nottingham); Goat in the Road’s Numb

remount (Horace Wells); Second Stars’ Chesapeake (Kerr-Big Easy

Award). Jake has a BA in Theater from Marymount Manhattan College.

 

SILAS COOPER*

KENT / MESSENGER / OLD MAN

For New Orleans Shakespeare - Julius Caesar, King Henry IV PT 1, Much

Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Tempest, The Illusion,

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cymbeline, Romeo & Juliet, and Julius Caesar.

Other local stage work includes Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Our Town, and

Dividing The Estate at Le Petit, Orphans at the Allways, SPILL at Swine

Palace, 33 Variations at Southern Rep, and The Diary of Anne Frank, To

Kill A Mockingbird, and True West for NOCCA Stage Company. Silas

has toured nationally in Noises Off, appeared in Moscow, London and

New York, and regionally at Baltimore Center Stage, Delaware Theatre

Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and in Los Angeles at The

Falcon, 24th Street and Colony. Directing credits include Einstein and

the Polar Bear in Los Angeles, The Trip to Bountiful at NOCCA Stage,

and Driving Miss Daisy at JPAS. TV/Film: the lead in Snakeskin Jacket,

The Big Short, The Green Lantern, Columbiana, Chameleon, Multiplicity,

Schizopolis, Justice For Natalie, Dr. Vegas.

 

 

MICHAEL C. FOREST

BURGUNDY / DOCTOR / ATTENDANT

A well seasoned actor, Michael C. Forest returns to the stage at Tulane

University for his second run in the Shakespeare Festival previously

appearing in The Comedy of Errors. A native of New Orleans, he has

continued to dazzle audiences since his award winning debut as

Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin in the Sun. He’s fresh from a KACTF

nominated performance as Baron Samedi in Dillard University’s Fever.

Michael C. Forest never disappoints.

 

 

RYAN HAYES

ALBANY / SERVANT

Ryan Hayes is thrilled to return to the New Orleans Shakespeare

Festival where he will soon portray Banquo in Macbeth, having recently performed

in The Imaginary Invalid, and Julius Caesar. Other local credits include The Lehman

Trilogy (Emanuel), Beautiful- The Carol King Musical (Don Kirshner),

Let the Right One In, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the

Night-Time, all at Le Petit Theatre. He’s newish to New Orleans after

23 years in San Francisco and over 50 plays, musicals, films and

commercials. He played James Tyrone in A Moon for the Misbegotten

and Long Day’s Journey into Night in Ireland and California with the

Eugene O’Neill Foundation. He created a one man show he adapted

from the poetry of Walt Whitman entitled Boys Together Clinging.

 

 

HELEN JAKSCH

OSWALD

Helen Jaksch is a dramaturg, director, and performer who considers

El Paso, TX and New Orleans home. Helen was a Super Swing for

Midsummer with Tiltyard Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and

most recently directed the world premiere of Emma Schillage’s Critters

at Loyola University New Orleans. Credits include: (un)prompted

Shakespeare: Macbeth (NOLA Shakespeare Festival), The Wolves

and Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Southern Rep Theatre),

PLAY/WRITE (Goat in the Road), and Margery & Houdini (The Snake’s

Paw). Dramaturgy credits include: Julius Caesar (NOLA Shakespeare

Festival), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams Theatre Company),

and The Family Line (Goat in the Road). She is helping create a

Playwriting Program for children in hospitals with Prescription Joy.

Helen is a proud Ensemble Member of Goat in the Road. MA: NYU,

MFA/DFA: Yale School of Drama.

 

 

JOHN NEISLER*

KING LEAR

John Neisler is delighted to be back at NOSF where he’s appeared

in Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Twelfth Night. Other local credits

include Tribes, Christmas Carol (Le Petit); Spider Queen, Three

Musketeers (NOLA Project) and August: Osage County, Song Of A

Man Coming Through, Stage Kiss, Freedom, Afterlife: A Ghost Story and

Opus (Southern Rep). Film/TV credits include The Big Short, Ella

McKay, Trumbo, True Detective, American Horror Story, Mayfair Witches

and others. John is a proud graduate of the University of New Orleans.

 

 

NIA RAGINI*

GONERIL

Nia Ragini most recently appeared in Bard at the Batture (Crescent

City Stages) and as Sita Shah in Theatre Royale’s inaugural workshop

of The Lucky One. Selected acting credits include Marianne

in Constellations (The Living Room Theatre), Snow White in Bite the

Apple at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Off-Broadway), and the

title role in Andromache with The Tinkers Collective. Other Off-

Broadway credits include Three Kisses (14th Street Lab) and The

Road to Happiness (LaMAMA). Regional theater includes Troilus

and Cressida, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Romeo and Juliet at

Santa Cruz Shakespeare. Television includes Westworld (HBO)

and Deadbeat (Hulu). Film credits include Blackout, The Rambler

(Sundance World Premiere), and The Widowers.

 

 

ZARAH HŌKŪLE’A SPALDING

CORDELIA / FOOL

Though born and raised in O’ahu, Hawai’i, Zarah has trained

classically in both New York (SUNY Purchase Theatre Arts

Conservatory (BFA)) and London (RADA; The Globe Theatre). Zarah

was also the national champion for the ESU Shakespeare Competition

at Lincoln Center (2015). She is beyond honored to be returning

to NOSF for her fourth season! Recent theatre credits include,

NOSF’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania), Flying Dreams (Icarus),

NOSF’s Julius Caesar (Octavius), and NOLA Project’s The

Tempest (Ferdinand).

 

 

JEFFREY SUGARMAN*

GLOUCESTER

Jeff is thrilled to make his debut at the NOLA Shakespeare Festival.

Theatre: Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lincoln Center/

TFANA), Peck in How I Learned to Drive (Hartford), Oliver in As You

Like It (La Jolla Playhouse), and John Ruskin in The Countess (South

Coast Rep), Antony & Cleopatra, Twelfth Night (Utah Shakespeare

Festival), The Heidi Chronicles (National Tour), Shout up a Morning

(The Kennedy Center). He received an LA Drama Critics Award

for his portrayal of Olivier in Orson’s Shadow (Tiffany Theatre), TV:

doctors, lawyers, and powerful bastards on shows like CSI, House,

Entourage, Shark, The Practice. Film: A Marine Story, Clown Nose

Theory and others. Jeff lives in LA with his wife Kathe and dog, Arno.

Gratitude to Jana for her trust, Bernie White for connecting us, Kathe

for everything, and my spectacular son Jake, who’s, coincidentally,

finishing his freshman year at Tulane!

 

 

PHILIP RODERIC YIANNOPOULOS

EDMUND

Philip is happy to return to the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival for

such a sad play. Favorite previous credits include Kabe in One Flea

Spare (Reed College), Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew and Angelo

in The Comedy of Errors (New Orleans Shakespeare Festival), Bridge

Operator in Bermuda Can Company (Intramural Theatre), and Lee

in True West (JPAS). He was a proud member of Cripple Creek Theatre

Co. for over a decade. And if you squint during the wee hours of a

Bywater morning, you may see him cleaning outside the Saturn Bar.