Are you on the guest list for the hottest club in town? Director Jivesh Parasram’s darkly absurd take on Measure for Measure opens on the Howard Family Stage in just over a month, and we can’t wait to see you there. In today’s Bard Blog post, meet the talented actors who will be keeping the party going all Season long!

Raugi Yu returns to the Bard stage as the notorious party animal, Duke Vincenzio, who is best known for keeping Vienna’s dance floors rocking all night long. However, when the Duke receives a decree stating that Vienna’s long-forgotten morality laws must now be enforced, he flees the city to lay low disguised as a friar.

Craig Erickson will spend his 10th season under the tents as the notoriously stuffy Angelo, who has been charged with cleaning up the city in the Duke’s absence. The law? No dancing before marriage. Angelo makes an example out of a young man named Claudio (Jeremy Lewis), sentencing him to death for dancing in public with his fiancée, Julietta (Tess Degenstein).

Karthik Kadam returns as Claudio’s friend Lucio, who sets out to tell Claudio’s sister, Isabella (Meaghan Chenosky), that Claudio has been arrested. Isabella is preparing to join the convent and become a nun, thereby abstaining from dancing altogether, but she agrees to try and convince Angelo to change his mind. When she confronts him, Angelo says he will spare Claudio’s life—but only if Isabella breaks her vow and dances with him.

Rounding out the cast of Measure for Measure are Scott Bellis as Aux Cable (DJ)/Abhorson/Old Man Escalus and Leslie Dos Remedios as Mariana/Escalus/Francisca, with Emma Houghton, Tal Shulman, Jacob Woike, and Synthia Yusuf as our understudies.

Will Isabella succeed in her plan to save Claudio’s life, or will tyranny and hypocrisy triumph? Find out in this footloose adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most infamous “problem plays.”

Measure for Measure runs July 4 to September 20 on the Howard Family Stage. Buy your tickets now by visiting our Season Schedule!

To view the full Company of Measure for Measure, including the Creative and Production Team, click here.

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