Dangerous Dreams | April 7 – June 11, 2016
In this profoundly moving, breathtaking, and deeply human play, Shakespeare shows us a world on fire; a world turned upside down; a world where some of history’s most famous men commit horrific crimes in the name of patriotism and honor. Julius Caesar is a dazzling thrill ride of betrayal, violence, and perhaps most surprisingly – love.
The cast of JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
Josh Innerst and Tim Sailer in JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
Josh Innerst in JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
The cast of JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
Josh Innerst and Susie Parr in JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
Zoe Speas in JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
Patrick Poole and Ross Neal in JULIUS CAESAR. Photo by TOMMY THOMPSON. 2016.
Cast
Ross Neal
Murellus
PREVIOSLY WITH THE ASC: Henry V in Henry V; Octavius, Murellus, Metellus, Cicero, Caesar’s Servant in Julius Caesar; Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest; Major Plechanoff in Arms and …
Jessica Lefkow
Flavius
Previously with ASC: Nell Quickly, Alice, Montjoy, Le Fer in Henry V; Decius, Flavius, Lucilius in Julius Caesar; Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest; Catherine Petkoff in Arms …
Zoe Speas
A Carpenter
THIS SEASON:
Aleca Piper
A Cobbler
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Gloucester, Rambures, Jamy in Henry V; Cobbler, Lucius, Popilius, Cinna the Poet, Cato in Julius Caesar; Musician in The Importance of Being Earnest; Musician in Arms …
Chris Bellinger *
Julius Caesar
THIS SEASON: Dick Wilkins and Peter in A Christmas Carol
Zoe Speas
Calphurnia
THIS SEASON:
Josh Innerst
Marcus Brutus
Hamlet in Hamlet; Mowbray, Percy, Groom in Richard II; Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Petulant in The Way of the World; Castillo, Senator in Antonio’s Revenge.
Tim Sailer
Caius Cassius
Polonius, Fortinbras in Hamlet; Northumberland in Richard II; Polonius, Fortinbras in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Mirabell in The Way of the World; Alberto, Page in Antonio’s Revenge.
Andrew Goldwasser
Casca
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Fluellen, Bedford, Constable of France in Henry V; Casca, Titinius, Strato, Plebian in Julius Caesar; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; Captain Bluntschli in …
Jessica Lefkow
Decius Brutus
Previously with ASC: Nell Quickly, Alice, Montjoy, Le Fer in Henry V; Decius, Flavius, Lucilius in Julius Caesar; Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest; Catherine Petkoff in Arms …
Zoe Speas
Cinna
THIS SEASON:
Ross Neal
Metellus Cimber
PREVIOSLY WITH THE ASC: Henry V in Henry V; Octavius, Murellus, Metellus, Cicero, Caesar’s Servant in Julius Caesar; Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest; Major Plechanoff in Arms and …
Cordell Cole
Trebonius
THIS SEASON: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
Patrick Poole
Caius Ligarius
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Laertes, Player Queen in Hamlet; Don Jon, Verges in Much Ado About Nothing; Robin, Gluttony, Alexander, Old Man in Doctor Faustus, Voice of Laertes and Musician …
Susie Parr
Portia
PREVIOUSLY AT THE ASC: Ophelia in Hamlet; Hero in Much Ado About Nothing; Good Angel, Lechery, Hostess, Friar, Paramour in Doctor Faustus; Tiny Tim, Belle, Want, Rent Woman in A …
Aleca Piper
Lucius
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Gloucester, Rambures, Jamy in Henry V; Cobbler, Lucius, Popilius, Cinna the Poet, Cato in Julius Caesar; Musician in The Importance of Being Earnest; Musician in Arms …
Patrick Poole
Mark Antony
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Laertes, Player Queen in Hamlet; Don Jon, Verges in Much Ado About Nothing; Robin, Gluttony, Alexander, Old Man in Doctor Faustus, Voice of Laertes and Musician …
Ross Neal
Octavius Caesar
PREVIOSLY WITH THE ASC: Henry V in Henry V; Octavius, Murellus, Metellus, Cicero, Caesar’s Servant in Julius Caesar; Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest; Major Plechanoff in Arms and …
Cordell Cole
Aemilius Lepidus
THIS SEASON: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
Jessica Lefkow
Lucilius
Previously with ASC: Nell Quickly, Alice, Montjoy, Le Fer in Henry V; Decius, Flavius, Lucilius in Julius Caesar; Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest; Catherine Petkoff in Arms …
Andrew Goldwasser
Titinius
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Fluellen, Bedford, Constable of France in Henry V; Casca, Titinius, Strato, Plebian in Julius Caesar; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; Captain Bluntschli in …
Cordell Cole
Pindarus
THIS SEASON: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
Susie Parr
Messala
PREVIOUSLY AT THE ASC: Ophelia in Hamlet; Hero in Much Ado About Nothing; Good Angel, Lechery, Hostess, Friar, Paramour in Doctor Faustus; Tiny Tim, Belle, Want, Rent Woman in A …
Aleca Piper
Young Cato
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Gloucester, Rambures, Jamy in Henry V; Cobbler, Lucius, Popilius, Cinna the Poet, Cato in Julius Caesar; Musician in The Importance of Being Earnest; Musician in Arms …
Andrew Goldwasser
Strato
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Fluellen, Bedford, Constable of France in Henry V; Casca, Titinius, Strato, Plebian in Julius Caesar; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; Captain Bluntschli in …
Cordell Cole
Volumnius
THIS SEASON: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
Cordell Cole
A Soothsayer
THIS SEASON: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
Zoe Speas
Artemidorus
THIS SEASON:
Ross Neal
Cicero
PREVIOSLY WITH THE ASC: Henry V in Henry V; Octavius, Murellus, Metellus, Cicero, Caesar’s Servant in Julius Caesar; Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest; Major Plechanoff in Arms and …
Aleca Piper
Popilius Lena
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Gloucester, Rambures, Jamy in Henry V; Cobbler, Lucius, Popilius, Cinna the Poet, Cato in Julius Caesar; Musician in The Importance of Being Earnest; Musician in Arms …
Andrew Goldwasser
Plebian
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Fluellen, Bedford, Constable of France in Henry V; Casca, Titinius, Strato, Plebian in Julius Caesar; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; Captain Bluntschli in …
Zoe Speas
Plebian
THIS SEASON:
Susie Parr
Plebian
PREVIOUSLY AT THE ASC: Ophelia in Hamlet; Hero in Much Ado About Nothing; Good Angel, Lechery, Hostess, Friar, Paramour in Doctor Faustus; Tiny Tim, Belle, Want, Rent Woman in A …
Jessica Lefkow
Plebian
Previously with ASC: Nell Quickly, Alice, Montjoy, Le Fer in Henry V; Decius, Flavius, Lucilius in Julius Caesar; Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest; Catherine Petkoff in Arms …
Aleca Piper
Cinna
PREVIOUSLY WITH THE ASC: Gloucester, Rambures, Jamy in Henry V; Cobbler, Lucius, Popilius, Cinna the Poet, Cato in Julius Caesar; Musician in The Importance of Being Earnest; Musician in Arms …
Zoe Speas
Poet
THIS SEASON:
Artistic Team
Benjamin Curns
Director
Benjamin has been an Artistic Associate with the American Shakespeare Center since 2001. He has toured the country twice as an actor (Bright Heaven of Invention and Excellent Motion tours) and once as the Company Manager for the Beguile the Rich tour.
Thomas J. Coppola *
Stage Manager/Assistant Director
Thomas J. Coppola was part of the American Shakespeare Center from 2015 to 2025.
Jenny McNee
Costume Designer
Jenny McNee joined the ASC in 2002 after studying in Richmond, Charlottesville, and Edinburgh, Scotland. She has designed and built nearly 100 shows (60 resident and touring shows, 35 holiday …
Christopher Moneymaker
Properties Master
Chris has been designing and building props for the ASC since 2012. In that time, he’s provided props for over 60 productions, including (from Shakespeare): The Merchant of Venice; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Cymbeline; King John; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Twelfth Night; Julius Caesar; Henry VIII; The Two Noble Kinsmen; Romeo and Juliet; All’s Well That Ends Well; Troilus and Cressida; Othello; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Henry IV, Part 1; As You Like It; Timon of Athens; Macbeth; The Comedy of Errors; Pericles; Hamlet; Much Ado about Nothing; The Taming of the Shrew; Antony and Cleopatra; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Winter’s Tale; Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3; Henry V; The Tempest; Measure for Measure; and King Lear.
Stuff that happens before the play
- Hundreds of years before the play begins, Brutus’s ancestor, Lucius Junius Brutus leads the revolt against the tyrannical king Tarquin the Proud and, in place of a monarchy, establishes the Roman Republic, a new system of government where checks and balances prevent power from resting with just one man.
- Fearing the political and military power amassed by Julius Caesar while in Gaul, the Roman Senate orders him to return to Rome without his army. When Caesar defies this command and marches on Rome, civil war breaks out.
- Caesar and Antony defeat the faction led by Pompey Magnus and Brutus.
- Pompey flees to Egypt, where he is murdered.
- Caesar forgives Brutus and welcomes him warmly back to public service.
- Caesar also goes to Egypt, fathers a son with Cleopatra, and then finally decides to return home.
Stuff that happens during the play
- Caesar arrives in Rome to great fanfare. A soothsayer warns him to “Beware the ides of March.”
- Brutus fears the people will make Caesar a king, overturning the Republic.
- Caesar’s popularity spurs a conspiracy among other Romans worried about his overreaching power.
- Cassius and the other conspirators convince Brutus to join their cause.
- Brutus’s wife, Portia, asks him to tell her what is troubling him.
- Caesar’s wife, Calphurnia, has an ominous dream and pleads with him to stay at home. One of the conspiritors convinces Caesar to go to the Capitol as planned.
- At the Capitol, the conspirators assassinate Caesar.
- Mark Antony (who is loyal to Caesar) submits to the conspirators and obtains Brutus’s permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral.
- Brutus defends his action to the crowd.
- Antony incites the crowd against the conspirators.
- The conspirators flee Rome.
- Antony joins Octavius (Caesar’s nephew) and Lepidus to battle the conspirators.
- Brutus and Cassius argue but make amends. Cassius allows Brutus to persuade him to meet the enemy at Philippi.
- Ghostly visitations and the dogs of war ensue.
A Play about Us
“…. when did it become okay for one person to the boss of everybody??? Huh?!?! Because that’s NOT what Rome is about! WE SHOULD TOTALLY JUST STAB CAESAR!”
– Gretchen Weiners in Mean Girls
Though thought to be just a clueless Plastic, Ms. Weiners manages to do what so many of us have a hard time doing with Julius Caesar: she relates the themes, emotions, and struggles of the characters to her own life. In Mean Girls, the object of her resentment is Regina George, a girl whose first name literally means “Queen.” In Julius Caesar, the Senators’ fear of Caesar as “King,” leads to their bloody coup. It’s pretty smart stuff for a high school comedy but it’s downright daring for an Elizabethan tragedy. Shakespeare knew this stuff was about him and his country: the brand new super power of England.
Shakespeare knew how his England would be reflected in the scenes of Julius Caesar. Like the Rome he creates in the play, his country is powerful and wealthy. It is ruled by a single person. That person is without an heir. That person is in constant danger of assassination and revolt. A sick country that longs to be made well. But how?
Shakespeare was smart enough to be very careful about cloaking his allegiances in ambiguity. He suggests that tyranny is bad, but is perhaps better than chaos. He doesn’t offend Elizabeth I and the groundlings love it too! Whose side is he on? By refusing to answer this question, he creates a play that is both radical and conservative. Passionate and reasoned. Noble and seedy. Political and personal. It is a play that is many things, but make no mistake: it is about us. The play reflects not only our love of country and democracy, but the love between husbands and wives, the love of brothers-in-arms, the love of fathers and sons, and perhaps most importantly, our purported love of fairness and equality.
The United States of America is very clearly the new Rome and as we have inherited the mantle of Super Power from our Roman ancestors, we likewise have taken on their problems, their shames, and their fears.
The Plebeians in the oration scene are constantly yelling “Let us hear…” and I hope that is what you will do during the show tonight. Hear. Whether it is political discourse between senator and consul or domestic quarreling between husband and wife, I hope you will hear yourself in those arguments. This play is about us. How closely we resemble this Rome depends entirely on how carefully we listen.
BENJAMIN CURNS
Guest Director