Folger Theatre Announces the Cast for Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

Directed by Helen Hayes Award-winning director Psalmayene 24 and starring Renea S. Brown, Nathan Darrow, and Lee Osorio, Measure for Measure is the first play in the upcoming all-Shakespeare season at the Folger

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Power, desire, and morality take center stage as Folger Theatre announces the cast of William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, directed by Psalmayene 24 and running September 22–November 1, 2026, at the Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill.

"It's a blessing and an honor to have the opportunity to plumb Shakespeare's profundity by directing Measure for Measure at the Folger," shared Psalmayene 24, the Helen Hayes Award winner for Outstanding Direction for directing Folger Theatre's production of Metamorphoses. "This play—a tragicomic meditation on the nature of power, hypocrisy, sexuality, and mercy—feels especially useful in our moment. Setting Measure for Measure in the racially consequential world of the 1950s American South is not only a means of exploring the malleability of this play but also provides the chance to examine anew this period in our country's history."

The Duke will be played by Nathan Darrow (Netflix's House of Cards), Isabella by three-time Helen Hayes-winning actor Renea S. Brown (Folger Theatre's Metamorphoses), and Angelo by Lee Osorio (Mosaic Theater Company's A Case for the Existence of God). Faces familiar to Folger theatregoers include JaBen Early as Claudio (Macbeth: A Tribute to the Federal Theatre Project), Sean Fri as Provost (Richard III), Ahmad Kamal as Pompey (As You Like It), Ryan Sellers as Elbow (The Second Shepherds' Play), John Sygar as Froth (As You Like It), Holly Twyford as Escalus (A Midsummer Night's Dream), and Renee Elizabeth Wilson as Mariana (Julius X). Making their Folger Theatre debuts are Jonathan Feuer as Lucio (Theater J's Eureka Day), Maryanne Henderson as Juliet (Constellation Theatre Company's OR,), and Chinai Routté as Mistress Overdone/Francisca (Round House Theatre's The Trip to Bountiful).

The creative team includes Tony Thomas (Choreographer), KOKAYI (Composer), Mekala Sridhar (Adaptor), Debra Booth (Scenic Designer), Mika Eubanks (Costume Designer), Jesse Belsky (Lighting Designer), Matthew M. Nielson (Sound Designer), Deborah Thomas (Props Designer), LaShawn Melton (Wig and Hair Designer), Nadia Guevara (Associate Director), Modupe Labode (Cultural Consultant), Sierra Young (Intimacy Coordinator), Danica Rodriguez (Casting Director), Lisa Beley (Voice and Text Support), Lauren Pekel (Production Stage Manager), and Jazzy Davis (Assistant Stage Manager).

Last performed at the Folger in 2006, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure offers a timeless parable of power and redemption. In the play, the Duke leaves his deputy Angelo to rule the city, pitting the principled novice nun Isabella against the corrupt Angelo. Shifting the locale to the American South in the 1950s, and taking cultural and historical cues from this period, the central crux of this complex comedy underlines the complicated nature of mercy, redemption, and survival under political corruption and hypocrisy.

Folger Theatre's production of Measure for Measure is on stage at the Folger Shakespeare Library from September 22–November 1, 2026. Accessible performances and related programming will be offered throughout the run of the production and are listed on the show page. Tickets start at $20 and are available online at folger.edu/MFM or by calling the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077. 

Reviewing members of the press are invited to attend the Opening Night production of Measure for Measure on Sunday, September 27 at 7:30pm or any performance after that date. Please reserve tickets through Colleen Kennedy, Senior Communications Manager, by September 18 via email at [email protected]. The press kit is available at folger.edu/mfm-presskit.

Folger Theatre wishes to thank Premier Season Sponsors Dr. Bill and Evelyn Braithwaite and Andrea "Andi" Kasarsky, Season Sponsors Scott and Liz Vance, and Contributing Sponsors Keith and Celia Arnaud, with special thanks to Share Fund and The Shubert Foundation.

About the Artists: 

Renea S. Brown* (Isabella)
Folger Theatre: Macbeth: A Tribute to the Federal Theatre Project; Metamorphoses, Our Verse in Time to Come, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Round House Theatre: Sally and Tom, The Mountaintop (Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Lead Performer), Sojourners (Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Supporting Performer), Nollywood Dreams; Theatre Alliance: Furlough's Paradise (Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Lead Performer), Covenant; Arena Stage: Tempestuous Elements, Change Agent; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Macbeth, The Tempest; Ford's Theatre: The American Five. Co-founder of Imminent Theatre Company. Film/Television: Godfather of Harlem (MGM+), Law and Order (NBC), Beauty's Keeper (Amazon). www.reneabrown.com @TheRealDarkLady

Nathan Darrow* (The Duke)
Folger Theatre: debut; Arena Stage: Long Day's Journey into Night. Off-Broadway: Soho Playhouse: (un)conditional (Drama Desk Nomination); Classic Stage Company/ Transport Group Theatre Company: Summer and Smoke. International: Richard III (Old Vic Theatre/World Tour/Brooklyn Academy of Music). Regional: Hartford Stage: Jekyll & Hyde, The Winter's Tale (Connecticut Critics Circle Award); Music Theater Heritage: Guys and Dolls; Old Globe: Dial M for Murder; Kansas City Repertory Theatre: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; People's Light: A Number; Heart of America Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet, Henry V; McCarter Theatre Center: Five Mile Lake; American Repertory Theater: Ajax; Weston Playhouse: Death of a Salesman. Film/Television: Chrystal Lake, House of Cards; Billions; Gotham; The Wizard of Lies; Preacher; Rectify; Godless.

JaBen Early* (Claudio)
Folger Theatre: Macbeth, LEAR (Reading Room Festival 2026), Our Verse in Time to Come (Reading Room Festival 2023); Julius Caesar; Olney Theatre Center: The Piano Lesson; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Convert and Civilization; Studio Theatre: F**king A; Mosaic Theatre Company: Unexplored Interior; Round House Theatre: Father Comes Home from the Wars; Arena Stage: All the Way, Ruined and The Great Society; Guthrie Theater: We Are Proud to Present…and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Marin Theatre Company: The Convert; InterAct Theatre Company: We Are Proud to Present….

Jonathan Feuer* (Lucio)
Folger Theatre: debut; Round House Theatre: Rules for Living; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Richard III, As You Like It; Signature Theatre: John; Theater J: Eureka Day, The Call; Mosaic Theater Company: Monumental Travesties, Charm; Kennedy Center TYA: How to Catch a Star, Flowers Stink; Imagination Stage: Charlotte's Web, The Freshest Snow Whyte; Rep Stage: Antigone Project; Arena Stage, Studio Theatre, Prologue Theatre, Solas Nua, Spooky Action Theater, Keegan Theatre, Adventure Theatre, and more. Certified Personal Trainer: www.trainerjon.com

Sean Fri* (Provost)
Folger Theatre: Richard III, Timon of Athens; Signature Theatre: The Threepenny Opera, Billy Elliot. Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Tempest. Aquila Theatre Company: Cyrano de Bergerac/ Much Ado About Nothing (tour). Totem Pole Playhouse: Honus and Me, Travels with My Aunt, Murder in Green Meadows, more. Off-Broadway: Kirk Theater: Heat Lightning.

Maryanne Henderson* (Juliet)
Folger Theatre: debut. Avant Bard: Two Gentlemen of Killarney; Constellation Theatre Company: OR,; Imagination Stage: Tomás and the Library Lady; ExPats Theatre: Cold Country; Songs of the Goat: Antigone; Prince George's Shakespeare in the Parks Tour: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy: Arden of Faversham, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Taming of the Shrew, Or, Petruchio is Kated.

Ahmad Kamal* (Pompey)
Folger Theatre: As You Like It; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Guys and Dolls, Babbitt, Everybody, Richard III; Arena Stage: Holiday; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Gloria (Helen Hayes nomination – Best Supporting Actor), Kiss; Mosaic Theater Company: The Return, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in The New World; Signature Theatre: 4,380 Nights; Studio Theatre, Olney Theatre Center. Regional: Northlight Theatre: Selling Kabul; OKC Rep: LIFE SUCKS; Amphibian Stage: Baba, The Handless King. Off-Broadway: The Public: Sumo (Lucille Lortel and Dorian Award nominations – Best Featured Actor). @king_o_egypt 

Lee Osorio* (Angelo)
Folger Theatre: debut; Mosaic Theater: A Case for the Existence of God. Regional: Alliance Theatre: A Tale of Two Cities, The Temple Bombing. Off-Broadway: New World Stages: A Bullet for Adolf. Film/Television: Found (NBC), Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount), Your Honor (Showtime). LeeOsorio.com

Chinai Routté (Mistress Overdone/Francisca)
Folger Theatre: debut; Round House Theatre: The Trip to Bountiful; Everyman Theatre: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Piano Lesson, POTUS. Regional: Alliance Theatre: In the Red and Brown Water, The Nacirema Society; Cleveland Playhouse: The Trip to Bountiful; Alabama Shakespeare Festival: The Nacirema

Society. New York: Rattlestick Theater: Room Enough (For Us Al); The Fire This Time Festival: Dream Awake. Film/Television: Air Junie, The Day Before Christmas (Paramount+), I Never Said Goodbye (Amazon Prime). @Chinawithani

Ryan Sellers (Elbow and others)
Folger Theatre: The Second Shepherds' Play; Round House Theatre: The Tempest (Helen Hayes Award - Best Supporting Performer); Signature Theatre: Pippin, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Pacific Overtures, West Side Story, The Threepenny Opera, Miss Saigon; Ford's Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors; Studio Theater: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Adventure Theatre: Not Your Mothers Goose (Helen Hayes nomination - Outstanding Supporting Performer); Imagination Stage: The Snowman and the Snowdog, Ballad of Mu Lan, The Night Fairy, Anime Momotaro; Constellation Theatre Company: Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, School for Lies, White Snake; Keegan Theatre: Noises Off (Helen Hayes nomination - Outstanding Supporting Performer), Apropos of Nothing, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, Shakespeare in Love. National Tour: Five Little Monkeys.

John Sygar* (Froth and others)
Folger Theatre: As You Like It; Arena Stage: Swept Away; Studio Theatre: Purlie Victorious; Kennedy Center: Look Both Ways; Capital Repertory Albany: Once; Olney Theatre Center: Beauty and the Beast, A.D.16, Once; Signature Theatre: Light Years; Round House Theatre: Spring Awakening; Monumental Theatre Co.: Head Over Heels. New York: Broadway: Swept Away. Other credits: Only Make Believe (Company Member), songwriter for baseball hat (band). Instagram: @jsyg

Holly Twyford* (Escalus)
Folger Theatre: Dark Lady: A Musical Theater Work (Reading Room Festival 2026), An English Garden (Folger Consort), The Love Birds: Chaucer's A Parlement of Foules (Folger Consort), King John, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mary Stuart, The Taming of the Shrew, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Arcadia, The Second Shepherds' Play, Melissa Arctic, All's Well That Ends Well, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Helen Hayes Award), Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes Award), The Merchant of Venice. Over eighty productions at DC Area theater including: Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Round House Theatre, and others. Awards & Affiliations: 4 Helen Hayes Awards, Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence, Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, Studio Theatre Cabinet Member, Ford's Associate Artist.

Renee Elizabeth Wilson (Mariana)
Folger Theatre: Macbeth: A Tribute to the Federal Theatre Project , LEAR (Reading Room Festival 2026); Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Reading Room Festival 2025), Romeo and Juliet, Metamorphoses (Helen Hayes Award nomination) Metamorphoses (Helen Hayes Nomination), Nell Gwynn; Theater Alliance: American Fast (Helen Hayes Nomination); Mosaic Theater Company: Monumental Travesties (World Premiere), Native Son, Milk Like Sugar; Theater J: Eureka Day, Intimate Apparel;. Round House Theatre: Radio Golf, Nollywood Dreams; Constellation Theatre Company: Moon Man Walk; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Ain't No Mo'; Imagination Stage: The Hula Hoopin Queen (World Premiere); Studio Theatre: Skeleton Crew, Doubt, White Noise; Arena Stage: Tempestuous Elements, Seven Guitars. International: Red Shoes (World Premiere) Film: Smoke Out, Veracity. @actpoetic88

Psalmayene 24** (Director)
Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction). Directing: Arena Stage: Tempestuous Elements; Studio Theatre: Purlie Victorious, The Colored Museum, Good Bones, Flow, Pass Over; Ford's Theatre: Necessary Sacrifices: A Radio Play; Mosaic Theater Company: Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest (Librettist/Lyricist), Monumental Travesties (Playwright), Dear Mapel (Playwright/Actor), Les Deux Noirs (Playwright), Native Son (Director); Joe's Movement Emporium: Out of the Vineyard (Playwright); Theater Alliance: Word Becomes Flesh (Director); Imagination Stage: Cinderella: The Remix (Playwright/Director); African Continuum Theatre Company: Free Jujube Brown! (Playwright/Actor). Television/Film: HBO's The Wire (Actor). Helen Hayes Award and Victor Shargai Leadership Award recipient. @psalmayene24

*Member of Actors Equity Association
**Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors' Equity Association

All other creative team bios and headshots are available at: folger.edu/MFM.

About the Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library showcases the utility of Shakespeare and the humanities in cultivating healthy civic life. Anchored by the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is also home to a world-renowned collection of books, manuscripts, and prints from the 1500s to the early 1700s. Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating performances, and from pathbreaking research to transformative educational programming. The Folger fosters curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking, and welcomes visitors from Washington, DC and from across the globe. Learn more at folger.edu.

The award-winning Folger Theatre in our nation's capital bridges the arts and humanities through transformational performances and programming that speak inclusively to the human experience. Folger Theatre is committed to providing a dynamic space in which Shakespeare's works come to life for audiences in the same innovative and communal way that they did during the time in which he lived, as well as expanding the classical canon through cultivating today's artists and commissioning new work that is in dialogue with the concerns and issues of our time. Folger Theatre is led by Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels. For more, please visit www.folger.edu/theatre.

SOURCE Folger Shakespeare Library