Ora Jones, Issy van Randwyck and More to Star in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR at CST

Chicago Shakespeare Theater has revealed the cast and creative team for The Merry Wives of Windsor, an endlessly entertaining new take of Shakespeare’s most raucous comedy. The secret lives of Windsor wives reveal there is much more to this charming, middle-class English hamlet than meets the eye. Besties Mistress Page and Mistress Ford find themselves the romantic targets of the lewd-but-lovable rogue John Falstaff. In a welcome escape from the drudgery of their day-to-day, they band together to have the last laugh—and get the entire town in on the revelry.

Staged by acclaimed director Phillip Breen, the production stars Chicago favorites Ora Jones and Issy van Randwyck as Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, Chiké Johnson and Timothy Edward Kane as Master Page and Master Ford, and in his Chicago Shakespeare debut, Jason Simon as Sir John Falstaff. The Merry Wives of Windsor also features an exceptionally talented ensemble cast of 22 actors including Sam Bell-Gurwitz, Zach Bloomfield, Nate Burger, Rohan Degala, Dylan J. Fleming, Teddy Gales, Colin Huerta, Carmelo Kelly, James McCracken, Olivia Pryor, Nick Sandys, Justice Tatum, Paul Oakley Stovall, Olemich Tugas, Bret Tuomi, Nancy Voigts, and Alex Weisman, and runs April 2–May 3, 2026, in the Jentes Family Courtyard Theater, considered one of the world’s finest spaces to experience Shakespeare’s stories live in performance.

In the role of Mistress Page, Ora Jones returns to CST with numerous credits, including Henry VIII, The Madness of George III, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That Ends Well, and most recently The Comedy of Errors. She appeared on Broadway in Matilda the Musical and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and recent Chicago credits include Amadeus and Noises Off (Steppenwolf Theatre) and The Nacirema Society (Goodman Theatre). As Mistress Ford, Issy van Randwyck returns to CST after appearing as Bottom in Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the subsequent Shakes in the City tour of the same production. She is an Olivier Award nominee with stage credits at The National Theatre, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, in the West End, and more, and film and television credits including The Danish Girl, Blithe Spirit, and Belgravia. In the role of Master Page, Chiké Johnson returns to CST after his Jeff Award-nominated performance in last season’s Hymn. Johnson is a company member of Remy Bumppo Theatre and has worked on many stages in Chicago and around the country, including Broadway credits Time to Kill and Wit, and Ashland Avenue and Toni Stone at Goodman Theatre. As Master Ford, Timothy Edward Kane returns to CST after appearing in Hamlet, Nell Gwynn, Tug of War, and many more. His recent Chicago credits include Antigone, Gospel at Colonus, and Othello at Court Theatre, and Birthday Candles at Northlight Theatre. In the role of Sir John Falstaff, Jason Simon makes his Chicago Shakespeare debut. Simon has appeared in the national tours of Sister Act, The Wizard of Oz, The Producers, Cats!, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Funny Girl, with additional credits at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, and the New York Philharmonic.

The company also includes Sam Bell-Gurwitz as Fenton (CST debut, Good Night, Oscar on Broadway), Zach Bloomfield as Nym (CST debut, credits with Shattered Globe Theatre, The Factory Theater, and Oil Lamp Theater), Nate Burger as Dr. Caius (Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labor’s Lost, and more at CST), Dylan J. Fleming as John Rugby (Twelfth Night at CST), Teddy Gales as Bardolph (CST debut, credits at Paramount Theatre, Marriott Theatre, and more), Colin Huerta as Pistol/Ford Servant 2 (Much Ado About Nothing at CST), Olivia Pryor as Anne Page (Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream at CST), Nick Sandys as Sir Hugh Evans (Othello and Romeo and Juliet at CST), Paul Oakley Stovall as Shallow (Twelfth Night, at CST), Olemich Tugas as Simple/Ford Servant 1 (CST debut, credits at Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival and the House Theatre of Chicago), Bret Tuomi as Host of the Garter Inn (Nell Gwynn, Macbeth, Othello, and more at CST), Nancy Voigts as Mistress Quickly (As you Like It, Follies, The Comedy of Errors, and more at CST), and Alex Weisman as Slender (Tug of War, Julius Caesar, The Madness of George III, more at CST). Young performers in the company include Rohan Degala as Robin Page, Carmelo Kelly as William Page, and James McCracken and Justice Tatum as a Windsor boys.

Director Phillip Breen’s work has played at: the Citizens, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Birmingham Rep, and Theatre Cocoon Tokyo. He has directed off-Broadway, as well as in the West End, and his work has played all over the UK, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, New York, Los Angeles, the Sydney International Theatre Festival, Adelaide, Canberra, Dubai, and through the streets of Assisi. His eclectic range of work encompasses opera, theatre, comedy, musicals, jazz cabaret, large-scale community theatre projects, new work and classics. He also regularly collaborated with Vivienne Westwood, for whom he directed and co-devised Homo Loquax, her London Fashion Week show in 2019. In 2016 he directed the York Mysteries in York Minster with a community cast of hundreds. In 2025 he directed Peter Mullan as Bill Shankly in his own adaptation of David Peace’s Red or Dead in Liverpool, and Natalie Dormer in the UK premiere of his adaptation of Anna Karenina at Chichester. He made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut in 2012 with The Merry Wives of Windsor. This was followed up with a production of Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday in the Swan, followed by an award-winning production of Richard Bean’s new play The Hypocrite and Vanbrugh’s The Provok’d Wife and The Comedy of Errors. He has contributed extended essays on Shakespeare to two books on Shakespeare, and completed his own monograph on The Merry Wives of Windsor, “Walking in A Windsor Wonderland: Some Ramshackle Reflections on Directing Shakespeare’s Greatest Comedy.”

The creative team for The Merry Wives of Windsor also includes Max Jones (Scenic & Costume Designer), Marcus Doshi (Lighting Designer), Lindsay Jones (Sound Designer), Laura Rook (Assistant Director), and Chelsea Strebe (Assistant Lighting Designer), Matthew Silar (Production Stage Manager), Danny Fender (Assistant Stage Manager), and Tuesday Thacker (Young Performer Supervisor).