Cast
Meet the Cast of Macbeth – Part 4
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
Riley J Burke (Bloody Sargeant, Seyton/Murderer 1)
This is Riley’s debut with the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival and Sacramento City College! Riley was most recently seen as Ismene in the Falcon’s Eye Theatre production of Antigone at Folsom Lake College. RJ has also participated in other productions in the Bay Area such as, Almost Maine (Sandrine), Angel Street (Nancy), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Suzanne) and As You Like It (Audrey) as well as multiple productions of Eve Ensler’s, The Vagina Monologues. RJ plans to study musical theatre well as continue exploring other theatre avenues such as stage management and directing. Riley would like to thank her friends and family and extend a special thanks to Christine Mani, Sam Frajio and Kevin Richmond for all their love and support!
Jake Brooks (Menteith/Second Murderer)
Macbeth marks Jake’s return to the Sacramento stage after almost a decade away. Previous credits include Robin Hood and Cabaret at CSUS, Toke at the Ooley Theater, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You at Ovation Stage, and As You Like It with the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival. He also wrote and directed the original one act Secret Origin while at CSUS. He has performed improv for many years with ComedySportz, in both Sacramento and Los Angeles, and currently at Empire Arts Collective. He works in the tasting room of The Lucas Winery in Lodi and lives in Elk Grove with his wife, Dechelle (whom he met doing theater).
Sinead Kennedy (Hecate Witch/Duncan Servant) After a long hiatus from the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, Sinead is thrilled to be back. Her last show in the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival was Mid Summer’s Night Dream (Oberon Fairy). The previous shows she was in are Sacramento City College, The Alchemist (Gossip), Beyond Persuasion (Servant 1/Servant 2/ Butler), and Snow White: A British Panto (Baloney). For her day job she works for the Office Assistant over at California Department of Veterans Affairs, and she teaches the youth the art of theatre with On Stage Theatre Arts over at Leonardo da Vinci K-8. She would like to thank her family and friends for their support and would like to give a shout-out to the directors, stage managers, fellow cast members, and crew for being awesome. enjoy the show.
Meet the Cast of Macbeth – Part 3
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
Nicholas Friederich (Witch Team 6/Drummer) Nicholas will be performing this year as one of the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and has previously performed as Gregory in Romeo and Juliet and Oliver in Another As You Like It Reunion during last year’s Sacramento Shakespeare Festival. He is also an avid performer of choral music and has recently performed in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Sacramento Choral Society. Nicholas credits his older sister as his inspiration for pursuing community theater and choir, as she has performed in several plays/musicals across the greater Sacramento area and always encourages him to audition.
Matthew Malone (Witch Team 6/Drummer/King/Fighter) Matthew has acted with the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival since 2012. He appeared in the festival last summer as Hamlet in ANOTHER AS YOU LIKE IT REUNION. He has also played Sam in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, Dr. Pinch in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, and Flute in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. He is excited to help bring the magic to MACBETH as one of the witches.
Jackie Martin (Lady Macbeth) Jackie was previously seen at the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She is a company member with Big Idea Theatre and has been seen with the company as Olivia in Twelfth Night, Bianca in Othello, Mrs. Marchmont in An Ideal Husband, Orangutan in Water by the Spoonful, and Valeria in Coriolanus.
My Journey to Macduff
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
by Kathleen Poe
Let me begin by saying that it is always a pleasure to work on Shakespeare. Whether it is the timeless nature of his stories or the delicious taste of his words dripping off my tongue, I have had a lifelong love affair with the Bard.
Specifically, this play. Macbeth.
Kathleen Poe as Macduff & Gabriela Llarena as Witch 1 We read it aloud in my 10th-grade English class. I can still remember reading the part of Banquo and falling in desperate love with the story, the characters, the themes, the verse – all of it. We delighted in the Witches and their super-rad (to coin a term from high school) prophecy, we marveled at the wild, audacious ambition of the Macbeths, and we cheered for the miracles of nature that bring the story to its unexpected conclusion.
We laughed at “I am slain”, as you do. To be honest, I’m still laughing at it. The ridiculousness of announcing one’s own death never ceases to send me into a fit of giggles.
(Side note: as I am now a veteran of dying a Shakespearean death, I far prefer, “Thou hast slain me”. It just hits differently.)
I spent my late teenage years obsessed with The Scottish Play. During my junior year, in my English class, we were asked to write a diary of a famous person, and I chose Macbeth. That summer, I spent my babysitting money to go see a production of Macbeth at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. It was amazing. They performed it in the round, and I was up close and personal. The Witches pounded thick ropes on the stage while giving their prophecies, and one of them ended up in my lap (the ropes, not the Witches). Mac and Lady M swapped an outrageous amount of spit. I was even more enthralled. How could I not be enthralled? I promise it wasn’t because of the spit.
In college, I took a Shakespeare class that only fueled my fire. Not only did I passionately love Macbeth, but now that adoration stretched to King Lear, Henry V, and Richard II (it took longer for me to love Hamlet, to be honest, but now I do, with all my heart).
When I first started doing Shakespeare on the stage, about eleven years ago, I couldn’t believe that I got to speak those words, and actual people would come to see and hear me do it. I also couldn’t get enough. I’ve now done 18 Shakespeare plays. Yes, 18.
Including my favorite – Macbeth.
But, strangely, up to this summer, I’ve never been able to participate in a fully staged, full-scale production of Macbeth.
My first experience was in a staged reading that we performed on Halloween. I read the role of the First Witch, and I couldn’t believe that I got to speak those words – “Double, double, toil and trouble”. That experience kept my Macbeth fire blazing.
Breanna Reilly, Georgann Wallace, Kathleen Poe & Martha Kight in the staged reading of Macbeth A few years later came two nights as Macduff and the Second Witch, as part of our all-female Wildflower Women’s Ensemble. We performed in a park in midtown, with minimal staging, surrounded by traffic noises, beer bikes, and live, amplified, tonally suspect covers of Beatles tunes blaring from the café across the street. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, it was a wonderful experience. I dearly loved playing Macduff and hoped for another chance at the role.
Christine Nicholson as Macbeth & Kathleen Poe as Macduff; 
Wildflower Women’s Ensemble cast of Macbeth 
Kathleen Poe as Witch 2, Nina Dramer as Witch 1, Danielle Laroux as Witch 3 I got another crack a few years later, during the pandemic, when we put together an online version of The Scottish Play, complete with online sword choreography. It was an optimistic idea that didn’t quite work, but we gave it a good try. Whatever the case, it kept me in contact with my most cherished of all Shakespeare plays.
And now, here we are – the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival 2023. Macbeth, Macduff, we meet again…
When we first started our tech run-through on Saturday, some of us were dancing around backstage, almost giddy with excitement, as we saw the world that we’ve been working so hard to create begin to take a more complete and vibrant visual form.
Cast of Macbeth 
Kathleen Poe as Macduff, Gabriela Llarena as Witch 1, Jackie Martin as Lady Macbeth, Brandon Lancaster as Macbeth 
Kathleen Poe, Brandon Lancaster, Christine Nicholson, Petra Tafoya Good grief – the colors are going to be spectacular (and I’m not just talking about the vivid bruises on my arms from sword battles and stage combat)!
I am floored by the talent involved in this project, both offstage and on. It is such a thrill to be a part of it, and to share the stage with such amazing, hard-working actors. How lucky I am.
In a way, this is some intense full-circle stuff for me. It is my lifetime obsession come to fruition.
And I can’t freakin’ wait for everyone to see it.
Meet the Cast of Macbeth – Part 2
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
Kathleen Poe (Macduff/Cawdor)
Kathleen is a Music professor at Sacramento City College but loves doing theater in her copious free time. She was last seen as Lady Russell/Mrs. Musgrove in BEYOND PERSUASION (City Theater). Some favorite previous roles include The Narrator in WOLVES (Big Idea Theater), Judy Boone in THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME (City Theater), Polonius in HAMLET (both at CSUS and Sacramento Shakespeare Festival), and Colleen/Edna in MR BURNS – A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY (City Theater), and Jaques in AS YOU LIKE IT (Sacramento Shakespeare Festival). She is a proud original company member of Wildflower Women’s Ensemble, an all-female Shakespeare ensemble.
Sean Thomas Olivares (Ross) Sean Thomas is making his return to the stage for Sacramento Shakespeare after a 6-year sabbatical. He is a graduate of Sacramento City College. His previous credits include Florindo in Servant of Two Masters, Don Armado in Love’s Labours Lost, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, A British Panto, Solyony in Three Sisters, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Rochefort in The Three Musketeers, and Leandro in Scapino! all for Sacramento Shakespeare or City Theatre. As a director, his most recent work was as co-director of The Three Musketeers by Ken Ludwig last summer for ACME Theatre Company in Davis.
Deandre Fritz (Donalbain/Fleance/King) Deandre is super honored to perform in Macbeth and would love to thank his parents and peers for supporting him along the way. Deandre recently performed as Pseudolous in the musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Phil in the play The Fisherman And His Wife with other selected credits including: Much To Do About Nothing, Little Shop Of Horrors, Pajama Game, Almost Maine, and You Can’t Take It With You. He hopes to someday act in more film and theater productions!
Meet the Crew of Macbeth – Stage Management
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
Erika McCall 
Hannah Flaherty Meet the cast of Macbeth – Part 1
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
Thomas Dean (Banquo/Fight Captain) Thomas Dean is excited to be in his second production of Macbeth and second production at Sacramento Shakespeare! Thomas has most recently been seen on the B Street School Tour and at Big Idea Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night! He also co-wrote and directed SuperMa’am at Big Idea earlier this year. Some of Thomas’ favorite roles that he has played include Clarence in Jasper, Saul in As Is, and Reverand Hale in The Crucible.
Gabriela Llarena (Witch 1) Gabriela is excited to be making her Sacramento Shakespeare Festival Debut. Llarena received a B.F.A from NYU where she trained at Stella Adler Studio. Recent stage credits include Twelfth Night (Viola) at Big Idea Theatre and Rocky Horror Picture Show (Janet) with Amber Sweets. When not performing theater, Llarena can be found on stage sharing her original poetry or running errands with her Abuela or Lola.
Caylin Bach (Gentlewoman/Cawdor Fighter)
Caylin is very excited to be returning to the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival! When she is not working or acting in shows she enjoys singing, digital art, hanging out with friends and an unhealthy amount of bad television and movies. She was recently seen in Romeo and Juliet, Life’s A Dream, and Beyond Persuasion. Caylin is so thankful to have the opportunity to work with a wonderful cast/crew. She would also like to thank her family, friends, and every audience member for supporting the show.Meet the Directors – Macbeth
Macbeth opens July 7 and runs through July 23. Tickets available.
Christine Nicholson – Director Christine has been teaching Theatre at the University/College level for over twenty years, directing professionally over twenty years, and has been a working actor since the 1980s. She is Associate Producer/Director for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, founding member of Splinter Group Theatre (a theatre dedicated to Panto), and member of Wildflower Women’s Ensemble. She’s directed 12TH NIGHT (twice), ROMEO AND JULIET, 3 MUSKETEERS, COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO for Sac Shakes, HAMLET and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM for Sac State, and MIDSUMMER at both UC Berkeley and STC. She’s also adapted and directed 10 productions for SCC’s Shakespeare Lite. She played Feste/12TH NIGHT at Big Idea Theatre; Rosalind /AS YOU LIKE IT at Tahoe Shakespeare; Antipholus/COMEDY OF ERRORS, Emilia/OTHELLO, and Lady Macbeth at Sacramento Shakespeare; and title roles in /KING LEAR and MACBETH, Angelo/MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Dogberry/MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Friar Lawrence/ROMEO AND JULIET for Wildflower Women’s Ensemble. Other favorite roles include Martha/…VIRGINIA WOOLF, Anna/CLOSER, and Greta/CARTHAGINIANS. Christine holds an MFA in Theatre from UC Davis (Irish Drama focus).
Lori Ann DeLappe-Grondin – Director A member of the faculty at Sacramento City College since 2005, Lori Ann has been working in the local theatre community since 1994. As an artistic fellow of both the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival and City Theatre, she takes on both administrative and artistic positions with those organizations including directing, management, and education. She is the program director of the High School Intern Program for SSF which she created in 2004. She founded an all-female Shakespeare ensemble, Wildflower Women’s Ensemble, to provide free Shakespeare in the park to her community and opportunities for women to explore traditionally male roles.
