Doghouse Ensemble Theatre is proud to announce the cast for the workshop production of As You Like It by William Shakespeare as directed by Catherine Andre.

The cast for this reimagined production will feature Kendall Cafaro, Nadia Diamond, Leah deGruchy, Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn, Moira McAuliffe, Will Thomae, and Jamie Wygle.

The production is directed by Catherine Andre and will feature design elements contributed by Wesley Cornwell (Scenic Design), Megan Culley (Sound Design), Becky Heisler McCarthy (Lighting Design), and Somie Pak (Costume Design). Joanna Pisano serves as Production Stage Manager. The production is produced by The Brick Theater, Inc. and Doghouse Ensemble Theatre, and associate produced by Michael Liebhauser.

Click here to support As You Like It!

Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy like you have never seen it before, responding to our world where reality is comprised of cherrypicked “facts” that are truly nothing more than opinions. Developed as part of Doghouse Ensemble Theatre’s Incubator, this dark and experimentally reimagined As You Like It examines our society’s tenuous relationship to truth and reality building. Framed around the Forest of Arden as Rosalind’s fantastical response to trauma, this re-envisioning will harness the storytelling power of a predominantly female cast to interrogate this “post-truth” era and consider how we all frame the world “as we like it.”

As You Like It will play The Brick (579 Metropolitan Ave at Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn) as part of The Festival of Lies on June 23 at 1pm, June 25 at 7pm, and July 1 at 1pm. Tickets ($20) may be purchased online at www.bricktheater.com or by calling 866-811-4111.

Kendall Cafaro is an actor/singer/theatre maker currently living in NYC. She is a recent graduate from Fordham University’s theatre program and received a BA in theatre performance. Kendall has also studied acting at the Moscow Art Theatre and theatre devising through Bard College Berlin. New York Credits Include: The Recruiting Officer (Sylvia), The Winter’s Tale (Hermione), The Owl Answers/Sun (Clara). She is also in the process of writing her solo show All This Ethnicity. She’d like to thank Cat for this opportunity and her parents, roommates, and Jamie for all their support. kendallcafaro.com.

Leah deGruchy: Fordham Mainstage: Magnolia (Ariel), White People (Mara Lynn), The Orphan of Zhao (Ti Miming/Zhao Shou/Yuenü), The Skin of Our Teeth (Sabina). Other: Pride & Prejudice (Charlotte/Mary), Branwell (and the Other Brontës) (Emily), The Divine Sister (Agnes). Leah thanks this lovely cast and crew for their creativity and hard work, her family for their support, and God for everything. Cheers!

Nadia Diamond, originally from San Francisco, CA, is a very recent NYC transplant, having moved directly after a year as the 2017-2018 Education Apprentice at Cleveland Play House. She holds a degree in History and minors in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Theater from Princeton University, and enjoys performing in and/or devising thoughtful theatrical work that is socially conscious and interdisciplinary in approach. Favorite performance experiences include playing Masha in The Seagull, Dawn Wilson in Lobby Hero, Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Miss Rasch in an immersive production of Request Programme.

Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn is a performer, theater maker and teacher from Hong Kong. She’s performed her play based on interviews with clowns, I.M. LOST! – a show about clowns and how to be happy, in productions at Princeton University (dir. Ogemdi Ude), Dixon Place (dir. Kat Yen) and Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival (dir. Benita de Wit). She performed in SCUM, her show about radical feminist Valerie Solanas and beauty queen Carolyn Sapp, at Dixon Place this winter. She’s also acted in productions at The Duplex, The Tank, and The Center at West Park. She holds a B.A. in English, Theater and Gender & Sexuality Studies from Princeton University. elliseinhorn.com.

Moira McAuliffe is a New York-based actor and singer. A recent graduate of Fordham University – Lincoln Center with a BA in Theatre Performance, she has since been keeping busy performing and working as a freelance carpenter. Her favorite credits include Agamemnon (Kassandra), The Maids (Solange), Twelve Angry Women (Juror 8), Macbeth (Witch & Others), Strange Animals and Plastic Figures (Coat Rack), Whistle in Mississippi: The Lynching of Emmett Till (Carolyn Bryant), and creating roles in several new plays. She is so excited to be a part of this great cast and creative team!

Will Thomae is thrilled to be joining the cast of As You Like It! A recent NYU Tisch Alumni, previous stage credits include Master Harold and the Boys (Hally), Tartuffe (Valere), An Enemy of the People (Hovstad) with the Atlantic Theater Company, Mr. Burns, A Post Electric Play (Gibson/Mr. Burns), Lord of Florida (Margrave), She Kills Monsters (Orcus) with PrismHouse Theatre Company, and The Reunion (Steven) with the Manhattan Repertory Theater. He’d like to dedicate this show to his mother without whom he would not be here. 

Jamie Wygle is a recent Fordham University graduate. Recent credits include; La Metamorfosis (Gregor), Bent (Greta), Action (Shooter), The Winter’s Tale (Leontes), Shadows (Emma Lee), and In the Heart of America (Craver). He is so excited to be a part of this project with this wonderful group of people. Much love to the cast, the crew, and all of you for coming.

Catherine Andre (Director) is an NYC-based director committed to shaping heightened texts into visceral, immediate performances. Her work emboldens female characters and interrogates our shared human condition. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Princeton University, her recent directing credits include The Recruiting Officer (Farquhar), Mud (Fornés), Dream Play (Strindberg) and Macbeth (Shakespeare). Assisting credits include Peter Pan (Bedlam) and GURLS (McCarter Theatre Lab). She received a 2018 First Stage Residency to reimagine Max Schiller’s Dead, an absurdist new play, with an all-female cast. Upcoming projects include Trash Mermaids at Princeton University as a Visiting Artist and As You Like It at the Brick Theatre’s Festival of Lies.

Michael Liebhauser (Associate Producer) is a recent graduate of The University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and has appeared on stages across the country. Favorites include The Nina Variations (Doghouse Ensemble Theatre); Incognito (Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theater); King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Interlochen Shakespeare Festival); Macbeth, The Lost Prince (Texas Shakespeare Festival); Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia (Mixed Precipitation). As a Fight Choreographer, his work has included classes and choreography for Interlochen Center for the Arts, and The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theater. He is an Interlochen alumnus and is a proud member of the Doghouse Ensemble Theatre Board.

Wesley Cornwell (Scenic Design) is a New York-based theater designer. Recent credits include Dead Poets Society (CSC; Assistant Director Intern for John Doyle), The White Dress (Araca Project, set), Lost and Guided (UNDER St. Marks; set, costumes, lights), Man of La Mancha (Princeton Festival; set), Gruesome Playground Injuries (Theaterlab; set, lights, sound), Cyrano(FringeNYC; lights), Once (Princeton U; set, costume). He received his BA with honors from Princeton University where he was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize. wfcornwell.com.

Megan Culley (Sound Design)

Becky Heisler McCarthy (Lighting Design) is a New York City-based Lighting Designer for opera, theatre, and dance, who enjoys the challenges and discoveries new works provide. She has premiered works in New York, across the country, and internationally. Recent credits include Inanimate at the Flea Theatre in NYC, “InComposition” with the Dance Department at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and multiple premier pieces with MorDance. As an Associate and Assistant she works Off-Broadway and around the country. She holds a BFA in Technical Theater with an Emphasis in Lighting Design from Penn State. To see her work, please visit beckyheisler.com.

Somie Pak (Costume Design), a graduate from the University of Michigan, has designed many shows for theatre including an internship with the incomparable Ann Roth for the multiple-Tony nominated show Shuffle Along. She also has her own styling business and occasionally dabbles in wardrobe for New York Fashion Week and at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. Check out her portfolio at somiepak.com!