Meet the Cast of THE BALUSTERS, Now Playing on Broadway!

Marylouise Burke - Penny Bewell

Marylouise Burke returns to MTC, reuniting with frequent collaborator David Lindsay-Abaire, a partnership that began in 1999 with her Drama Desk Award-winning performance in Fuddy Meers. Marylouise was most recently seen on Broadway in True West with Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano. Previous Broadway credits include Into the Woods, Is He Dead?, Fish in the Dark. She appeared recently at London’s National Theatre in Annie Baker’s John and Infinite Life. Off-Broadway credits include Infinite Life (Atlantic), Epiphany, Everybody (OCC, Drama League nomination), Ripcord, Fuddy Meers (Drama Desk Award Featured Actress), Kimberly Akimbo (OCC, Drama Desk Nomination, Leading Actress), Savannah Disputation, American Sligo, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, Love Loss and What I Wore. On television, she recently appeared in “Only Murders in the Building,” and recurred on “The Blacklist,” “New Amsterdam,” “Prodigal Son,” and “Ozark.” Films include I Know This Much Is True, Sideways, A Prairie Home Companion, Series 7, Must Love Dogs, Meet Joe Black, and Sleepwalk with Me. She was awarded the 2014 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.

Carl Clemons-Hopkins - Brooks Duncan

Carl Clemons-Hopkins is excited to make their Broadway debut at MTC! Off-Broadway credits include the world premiers of Lessons In Survival: 1971 (Vineyard Theater), and For The Last Time (Theatre Row). Other theater credits include Dare: Scenes and Monologues for TNB2S+ Artists (Breaking the Binary Theater), Hamilton (Chicago, 1st National), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre), Time is On Our Side (Simpatico Theater), Richard III (People’s Light & Theater Co.), Macbeth (Arden Theatre). Film: Candyman (2019), The Mattachine Family (2023). Television: "Chicago Med" (NBC), "Star Trek: Lower Decks" (CBS), "Hacks" (HBO), 2021 Emmy Award nomination: Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.

Margaret Colin - Ruth Ackerman

Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (Theatre World Award), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Old Acquaintance (Drama League Award nomination), Arcadia, The Columnist, Carousel (Equity’s Richard Seff Award). Off-Broadway/Regional: Aristocrats (Drama Desk Award nomination), Psychopathia Sexualis, Defiance (Drama Desk Award nomination), Hamlet (Delacorte Theater), Salome, Betrayal (The Actors Studio), City of Conversation (Arena Stage; Helen Hayes Award nomination), The Pentagon Papers (China tour), Sweet Bird of Youth (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Second Mrs. Wilson (Long Wharf), A Second of Pleasure (59E59), AdA (La Mama). Television: “Veep” (Screen Actors Guild Award), “Shades of Blue,” “Gossip Girl,” Margo on “As the World Turns,” “Now and Again,” “Leg Work,” “Sibs,” “The Wright Verdicts,” Hallmark’s “Three Wise Men” Series, “Time to Say Goodbye?”, “Hit and Run,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Hope,” and “Blue Bloods.” Select Film: Independence Day, First Daughter, The Missing Person, Something Wild, and Unfaithful.

Richard Thomas - Elliott Emerson

Richard Thomas starred as John-Boy Walton in the television drama “The Waltons,” for which he won an Emmy Award and received multiple Golden Globe Award nominations. He is best known to television audiences for his roles in the hit series “Ozark,” “The Americans,” “Billions,” and the original adaptation of Stephen King's “IT.” His feature film performances include The Unforgiveable, Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys, and Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock. Thomas received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the revival of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes. He has been seen in acclaimed performances on stage including Our Town, You Can't Take It With You, The Great Society, Race, Democracy, Incident at Vichy (Drama Desk Award nomination), The Stendhal Syndrome (Lucille Lortel Award Nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination), A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, An Enemy of the People, Tiny Alice, The Front Page, Fifth Of July, innumerable Shakespeare productions, and his professional debut at eight years old in Sunrise At Campobello. He has starred in the national tours of The Humans (Elliot Norton Award), Twelve Angry Men, and for three years as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

Kayli Carter - Willow Gibbons

Kayli Carter is a New York-based actor and writer whose previous notable credits include Emmy-nominated shows “Mrs. America” (FX), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “Godless” (Netflix), and the Focus Features film Let Him Go. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the Best Supporting Female category for her work in Tamara Jenkins’s Netflix feature Private Life. Her previous stage work includes Tom Hanks and James Glossman’s This World of Tomorrow, directed by Kenny Leon, Tracy Letts’s Mary Page Marlowe, directed by Lila Neugebauer, and On The Evolutionary Function of Shame. She originated the role of Flo in Mark Rylance’s Olivier Award-nominated comedy Nice Fish. She will be seen in the upcoming series “Vladimir” (20th Television, Netflix) opposite Rachel Weisz.

Ricardo Chavira - Isaac Rosario

Ricardo Chavira is a South Texas native whose acting career spans theater, film, and television. His stage highlights include The Motherf**ker with the Hat at the National Theatre London and the Off-Broadway production of Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train. U.S. regional theater credits include A Doll’s House, Shane, An Enemy of the People and A Streetcar Named Desire at the Guthrie Theater; also, regionally, Living Out, Tracers, The Three Sisters, Dogeaters, ¡Bandido! and Macbeth. Television credits include “Ballard” on Amazon Prime, “Selena The Series” and “Glamorous” for Netflix, and Apple TV+’s “Truth Be Told” opposite Octavia Spencer. Past TV credits include “Scandal”; “Jane the Virgin”; “Santa Clarita Diet”; “Hawaii 5-0”; “Castle”; “Burn Notice”; “Welcome to the Family”; “Desperate Housewives,” garnering two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance, Ensemble Comedy Series; “George Lopez”; “24”; “JAG”; “NYPD Blue”; and “Six Feet Under”. Film credits include Being Charlie, Powder and Gold, Don’t Let Me Drown, The Alamo, Piranha 3-D and Saving God. Chavira holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of California, San Diego. For T and B, always.

Michael Esper - Alan Kirby

Michael Esper has originated roles on Broadway and off in Appropriate (Hayes Theater); The Last Ship (Ahmanson); American Idiot (St. James Theatre); The Lyons (Vineyard Theatre); The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide... (The Public Theater); Lazarus (NY/West End); A Bright Room Called Day (Public); Big Bill (LCT); The Four of Us (MTC); The Agony and the Agony, Assistance, and Crazy Mary (all at Playwrights Horizons). Other plays include A Man for All Seasons (Roundabout), Suburbia (Second Stage), The Glass Menagerie (West End), Tales from Red Vienna (MTC), and Long Day's Journey into Night (Dublin Theatre Festival). In television, series regular roles include “Trust” (FX) and “Do No Harm” (NBC). Recurring roles include the Amazon series “Fallout,” and the recently released Peacock limited series “Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy” and Showtime's “Nurse Jackie.” Other select television credits include “The Outsider,” “Ray Donovan,” “Florida Man,” “The Family” and “Shades of Blue.” Film credits include Pavements (dir. Alex Ross Perry), Griffin In Summer (dir. Nicholas Colia), Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster), The Creator (dir. Gareth Edwards), Resurrection (dir. Andrew Semans), Ben is Back (dir. Peter Hedges), Runner Runner (dir. Brad Furman), Frances Ha (dir. Noah Baumbach), All Good Things (dir. Andrew Jarecki) and A Beautiful Mind (dir. Ron Howard).

Maria-Christina Oliveras - Luz Baccay

Broadway: Between Riverside and Crazy, Amélie, Machinal, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Persephone in the national tour of Hadestown. Off-Broadway: Cymbeline (Drama Desk Award nomination); world premieres of Here Lies Love (The Public Theater), A Woman Among Women, Pretty Filthy, Parable of the Sower (Public), Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Music (St. Ann’s Warehouse/HBO Max). Regional: world premieres of Kiss My Aztec! (Berkeley Rep, La Jolla, Hartford Stage), Soft Power (Center Theater Group/Curran); Amélie (Center Theater Group/Berkeley Rep); El Huracán (Yale Rep), January Joiner (Long Wharf). Other credits include Romeo and Juliet (Public), Macbeth/As You Like It (HVSF), Zorba! (City Center Encores!), Williamstown, Baltimore Center Stage, Huntington, Denver Center. Dedicated to new work, Maria-Christina has developed countless plays and musicals with Lincoln Center, MTC, NYTW, Signature, O’Neill, Atlantic, New Dramatists (Charles Bowden Award), among others. Selected Film/Television: St. Vincent, Manhattan Nocturne, “Blue Bloods,” “NCIS: NOLA,” “The Blacklist,” “Law & Order: SVU.”

Jeena Yi - Melissa Han

Jeena Yi is an actor and playwright born in Los Angeles but who now calls New York City home. Broadway: Network. Off-Broadway: The Beastiary (Ars Nova), Good Enemy (Audible), Daphne (LCT3), Judgement Day (Park Ave Armory), Cymbeline (NAATCO), Somebody’s Daughter (Second Stage). Regional: Heart Sellers (Studio DC), Today is My Birthday, Girls (Yale Rep), Vietgone (OSF/Seattle Rep). Television/Film: “Nyad” (Netflix), “Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu), “The Resident” (Fox), “Succession” (HBO). Jeena will make her playwriting debut Off-Broadway with Ma-Yi at The Public Theater in Spring 2026.

Anika Noni Rose - Kyra Marshall