The African Company Presents Richard III at Great River Shakespeare Festival

Adeyinka Adebola is an Actor, Director, Musician and Teaching Artist with a dual bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Performing arts. He performs with the Brooklyn based group "Something Positive" and is the founder of "Monologue Roulette!" a creative Network, workshop and showcase series that brings the best of nyc's writers directors and actors to collaborate under one roof. Adey is Currently training at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Recent credits include Austin (Black Petal Theater), sons of Johnny Johnson (MSAI Productions), A cops and robbers story(Vernon Films), Fences(Stella Adler Studio), Macbeth(Lehman Stages). @perfectionpending

This will be Benjamin’s 10th season with Great River Shakespeare Festival; notable performances include As You Like it/Orlando, Julius Caesar/Cassius, Midsummer/Oberon, and Romeo and Juliet/Romeo, other theaters include the Asolo Repertory Theatre, Curtain Theatre, St. Petersburg Shakespeare Company, and the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre where he performed Vanya, Sonya, Masha, and Spike/Spike. Benjamin is also a writer and published his first novel, “The River Road”, in 2014; the audiobook of the novel was also produced that same year, which he narrated. As an active martial artist, he is often choreographing fights for both film and theatre. Benjamin teaches acting and stage combat at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Los Angeles & New York. MFA, SAG-AFTRA/AEA @boucvalt

Ash Bowen is an MFA Acting student (class of 2024) at the University of Missouri- Kansas City. She was an acting apprentice here at Great River Shakespeare Festival last summer and understudied the role of Miranda in The Tempest. She was seen as Lord Capulet, Benvolio, Chorus, and Gregory in the GRSF apprentice production of Romeo & Juliet. At the UMKC Conservatory, Miss Bowen has recently been seen as King Cymbeline and Jupiter in Cymbeline, and as Miss Scatcherd, Eliza Reed, and Diana Rivers in Jane Eyre. ashbowen.com

Teri Brown is a Los Angeles based actor who is honored to be making her first appearance at GRSF! Inspired by the convergence of turbulent events in our world and a recent “empty nest “, she is grateful to re-enter the Theatre world after a 25-year absence. An alumna of Carnegie - Mellon University, her regional theatre credits include: Doubt (The Public Theatre, Lewiston ME), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta GA), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Atlanta Shakespeare Company), Romeo and Juliet (Arkansas Rep, Little Rock AK), Love Letters (Open Stage of Pennsylvania). She has most recently appeared with Brave New World Repertory Theatre (Brooklyn NY) in productions of Over and Above, Women over 50 Speak, and Dutch Kings.

Raffeal Sears is blessed to be making his GRSF debut! He last appeared in A Christmas Carol (The Repertory Theater of St. Louis). Regional credits includeTwelfth Night (Yale Repertory Theatre), a staged reading of Master Wilder and the Cabala (Goodman Theatre); Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea, The Grapes of Wrath, and Henry V Project (Illinois Theatre); Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Illinois Shakespeare Festival); The Play of Adam (The Met Cloisters); Amazing the Change (Atlantic Theatre Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nashville Shakespeare Festival); Lost in the Part (Amity Hall); In the Blood (The New School) and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day (The Coterie). Television and film credits include Chicago Fire (NBC), Cornered, Adventure Around the World and What We Used To Have. He is the recipient of the Shozo Sato: Excellence in Performance Award from UIUC. He is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. Raffeal received his MFA in Acting from the University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign. www.raffealsears.com @raffealsears

Doug works nationally as a director, fight choreographer, actor and certified intimacy director. In 18 seasons at GRSF, Doug played roles including Henry in Henry V, Feste in Twelfth Night and Thomas in Venus in Fur and directed productions including Macbeth, Richard III, Cymbeline and Shakespeare in Love. Doug was the first intimacy director at the Metropolitan Opera working on 6 productions including Fire Shut Up in my Bones. Other intimacy direction credits include Guthrie Theatre, San Diego Opera and Minnesota Opera. Directing credits include Minnesota Opera, Madison Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Park Square Theatre. He choreographed fights for the world premier of Silent Night at Minnesota Opera (which won a Pulitzer Prize for music) as well as productions for companies including New York City Opera, Kansas City Opera, Children’s Theater Company and the Seattle Police Department. Doug is a graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Washington. dougscholzcarlson.com

Will Sturdivant enters his fourth season with GRSF this Summer and is thrilled to be back in Winona. Taming of the Shrew will mark his 31st professional Shakespeare production. He received a BFA from the University of MN/ Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program and has performed Off Broadway and regionally for the past 15 years. His newest poetry book “Bounty! a pilgrimage in process” will be released this Summer, more info can be found on his Facebook Page.

*** Denotes membership in United Scenic Artists.

*Denotes membership in Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional stage actors and stage managers.