Cast
Alison Russo*, ISABELLA
Previous Burbage Roles
Ellen Tree, Red Velvet; Hecate, Macbeth; Mortimer, Edward II; Portia, Julius Caesar; Viola, Shakespeare in Love; Cassie, Thinner Than Water; Viola, Twelfth Night
Other Theatres
A Christmas Carol ('23, '25), Cold War Choir Practice, La Tempestad, Trinity Repertory Company; The Antiquities, Speakeasy Stage Company; Amadeus, Twelfth Night, An Octoroon, A Doll’s House Part 2, Gloria, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Gamm Theatre; A Christmas Carol, The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts; Victor/Victoria, Born Yesterday, Anything Goes, The Addams Family, Ocean State Theatre Company; Once, Dance Nation, The Wilbury Theatre Group
Alison is a resident artist of Burbage Theatre Company. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Theatre Arts from Clark University in Worcester, MA.
Mauro Hantman*, ANGELO
Previous Burbage Roles
Debut
Since 1999, Mauro has been a member of the resident company at Trinity Rep, where he’s been in over 80 plays. Highlights include: Prospero, La Tempestad; Macbeth, Macbeth; Jack Burden, All the King’s Men; Cyrano, Cyrano de Bergerac; Hotspur, Henry IV; Henry Wilcox, The Inheritance; Peter Pan, Peter Pan; Oberon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; John Dodge, Middletown; Steve, Clyborne Park; Mr. Marx, Intimate Apparel; Hal, Proof; Rooster Hannigan, Annie; George Bailey, It’s a Wonderful Life; Wally, The Cider House Rules; Frank, Appropriate; and Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol.
Steven Liebhauser*, DUKE VINCENTIO
Previous Burbage Roles
Debut
Other Theatres
Van Sweiten, Amadeus; Inspector Frye, Hangmen; Jake Lotta, Night of the Iguana; Duke Frederick/Duke Senior, As You Like It; Camillo, The Winters Tale; Billy Einhorn, The House of Blue Leaves, The Gamm Theater; E K Hornbeck, Inherit The Wind, Ocean State Theatre Company
Victor Machado, CLAUDIO
Previous Burbage Roles
Jackie, The Motherf**ker With The Hat; Raúl Rivera, Junk; Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet
Other Theatres
La Tempestad, La Broa’ (Broad Street) (u/s, performed), Sueño, Trinity Rep; Wolf Play, Brown/Trinity; Lifted, Dance Nation, Wilbury Theatre Group.
Victor has been resident actor at the Burbage Theatre Company since 2019. He is first-generation Brazilian and fluent in Portuguese. Victor holds a BA in acting from Rhode Island College.
Michaela Pendola-Machado, JULIET
Previous Burbage Roles
Debut
Other Theatres
Magenta, Rocky Horror Picture Show; Bette, The Marriage of Bette and Boo; Mary-Ann, When We Were Young and Unafraid, Rhode Island College
Michaela Pendola-Machado is the full-time dance teacher at La Salle Academy in Providence, where she directs and choreographs for both the LSA Dance Company and the LSA Dance Team. Michaela holds a B.A. in Musical Theatre and Dance from Rhode Island College, and is a proud alumna of the RIC Dance Company. She also just received her MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University and served as the 2026 Cohort Liaison. During her studies she has worked with choreographers such as Angelica Vessella, Jessica Pearson, Adrienne Hawkins, Theresa Jimmerson, Stephanie Martinez, Rebecca Levi, and Trey McIntyre.
Andrew Stigler, ESCALUS
Previous Burbage Roles
Harold Ryan, Happy Birthday, Wanda June; Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar; Fennyman, Shakespeare in Love; Capulet, Romeo and Juliet; Leo Tresler, Junk.
Other Theatres
Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV part 1, Elm Shakespeare Company; August: Osage County, The Front Page, 2nd Story Theatre; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Ui, Wilbury Theatre Group
Andrew studied acting at Cornell University and Yale University.
Julia Curtin, PROVOST
Previous Burbage Roles
Debut
Other Theatres
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘞𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘜𝘯𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘮’𝘴: 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘗𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘭𝘰𝘯 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭, 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘕𝘰𝘸, 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘓𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘯𝘢𝘴𝘢, The Players at Barker Playhouse, 𝘕𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘧𝘧, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦, Contemporary Theater Company, Olivia, 𝘛𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘧𝘵𝘩 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, Dream Role Players, Beatrice, 𝘔𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘈𝘥𝘰 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, Roundabout Theater Company
Instagram: @jecurtin126
Liam Roberts, LUCIO
Previous Burbage Roles
Chris (Insepctor Carter), The One Act Play that Goes Wrong; Charles Kean, Red Velvet
Other Theatres
Oswald, Ghosts, Fortinbras, Hamlet, Gamm Theatre; Bottom, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Festival 56; Petruchio, Taming of the Shrew, CCRI Theatre; Macduff, Macbeth, URI Theatre; Scoop Rosenbaum, The Heidi Chronicles, Reverie Theatre Group.
Steph Rodger, MISTRESS OVERDONE
Previous Burbage Roles
Francine, Witching Hour Social Club; Meredith, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress; Lancaster, Edward II
Other Theatres
Black Stache, Peter and the Starcatcher, Contemporary Theater Company; Elizabeth Bennet, You on The Moors Now, Barker Playhouse; Emily Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst, Granite Theatre
Steph holds a BFA in acting from the University of Rhode Island. Learn more or reach out at StephRodger.com
Ben Pereira, POMPEY
Previous Burbage Roles
Romeo, Romeo & Juliet
Other Theatres
Douglas, Seminar, Shaker Bridge Theatre; Peter Patrone, The Heidi Chronicles, Reverie Theatre; Bernardo/Others, Hamlet, Antonio, Twelfth Night, The Gamm Theatre
Jack Clarke, ELBOW
Previous Burbage Roles
Robert, The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong; Atkins, Junk; the Porter, Macbeth; Wabash, Shakespeare in Love
Other Theatres
Hangmen, Amadeus, Gamm Theatre; The Inheritance (U/S), Trinity Repertory Company
Jack has a B.A. from Rhode Island College. He is a proud company member at Marley Bridges Theatre Company. He would like to thank his friends and family for supporting him in all that he does.
Rosa Nguyen, MARIANA
Previous Burbage Roles
Debut
Other Theatres
Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing, Aufidius, Coriolanus, The CCRI Players; Hermia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mistress Page, The Merry Wives of Windsor; Quincy/Lisa Simpson, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, Denise, Lampedusa, The Contemporary Theater Company; Christmas Eve, Avenue Q, Lysette, Bernhardt/Hamlet, The Players at the Barker Playhouse; Agnes de Castro, Agnes de Castro, First Actor/Officer, Dr. Korczak and the Children, Head Trick Theatre; Daisy/Tiny Tim, A Twisted Christmas Carol, Avis the Aviatrix, Cosmo St. Charles Is Dead And Someone In This Room Killed Him, The Newport Playhouse & Cabaret Restaurant; Roxy, Poly Play, Brown Arts Institute.
Yale Universty, B.A. in English
Jordan Smith, FROTH
Previous Burbage Roles
Justin, Blood at the Root; Justin, BLKS
Other Theatres
Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Reverie Theatre Group; Romeo and Juliet, Canfield Drive, Caesar, Bristol Theatre Program
Jordan loves acting, long boarding, cross stitching, and TRYING to make music. Key word here is trying. If you’d like to see his glow up you can follow me on Instagram @villainforemost.
Andrew David Scanlan, ABHORSON
Previous Burbage Roles
Debut
Other Theatres
The Bloody Sergeant/Young Siward, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Stevie, Good People, Clarke, The Cottage, Mass Arts Center; Hector MacQueen, Murder on the Orient Express, Stadium Theatre
Andrew David Scanlan was born in the city of Wailuku on the island of Maui, Hawaii, on July 1st, 1990, though he was mostly raised in the town of North Attleboro, MA. After graduating from college at Salem State University with a Bachelor of Science in business administration, he would go on to hold several jobs throughout the years ranging from door-to-door sales around the Boston and Providence area to cleaning HVAC units for a steel galvanizing plant in Taunton, MA. He always had a desire to perform for an audience beginning back in high school, but lacked a certain self-assuredness to pursue anything concrete until he was cast as an ensemble actor for a 2023 production of Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical at The Norwood Theatre in Norwood, MA. Since then, he has performed in a variety of roles in productions at The Mass Arts Center in Mansfield, MA, Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, RI, and now most recently Burbage Theatre Co.
Jeff Church, Director
Directing at Burbage
Clyde's, An Iliad, The [One-Act] Play that Goes Wrong, Romeo & Juliet, Junk, Macbeth, Edward II, The School for Lies, Shakespeare in Love, Twelfth Night, Don't Be Evil, Titus Andronicus, Love Song, Red Light Winter (co-director), The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Orson's Shadow, The Liar, A Lesson in Refacilitation (Refacilitation, The Lesson), A Night with David Ives, Largo Desolato, Stalemate.
Other Theatres
Between Riverside and Crazy, Gamm Theatre
Jeff Church is the founding Artistic Director of Burbage Theatre Co having produced every production Burbage has staged since its inception in 2010. Jeff is also a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association of America, and has frequented stages including the Gamm Theatre, Trinity Repertory Co, AntiGravity Theatre, Bridge Repertory Co, Wilbury Theatre Group, Elemental Theatre Collective, Boston Theatre Co, among others.
Jeff is also a professor of theatre (Acting, Shakespeare, Directing...) at the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.
Production Team
Kelli Noonan, Stage Manager/Assistant Director
Sonny Wong, Assistant Stage Manager
Trevor Elliott, Set Design
Grey Rung, Scenic Charge/Projection Design
Brittany Costello, ATD/Props Mistress
EJ Caraveo, Costume Design
Riley Nedder, Assistant Costume Design
Jeff Church, Lighting/Sound Design/Producer
Andrew Iacovelli, Technical Director
Burbage Staff
Jeff Church, Artistic Director, President
Allison Crews, Executive Director
Andrew Iocavelli, Technical Director
Trevor Elliott, Production Design
Brittany Costello, ATD/House Manager/ Props Master
Devra Levy, Box Office Manager/ Resident Stage Manager
Gabrielle McCauley, Social Media Marketing
Director's Note
Friends!
First of all, thank you to everyone who joined us for Clyde's!
Thanks to your spreading the Burbage word, our RI premiere production of Lynn Nottage's incomparable play was one of the most well-attended in Burbage's history!
Thank you so much for your support – and we couldn't be more thrilled that you are joining us for the final production of our 14th Season: William Shakespeare's darkest comedy, Measure for Measure.
Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare’s most exciting, underperformed and underappreciated plays—often labeled a ‘problem play,’ and too quickly set aside. But it contains some of the most compelling drama and bawdy comedy in the canon, scenes of astonishing wit and tension that reveal Shakespeare working at the height of his powers.
It bridges the gap between tragedy and comedy in a way few of his plays attempt. It at times feels closer in spirit to Romeo and Juliet or the political intrigue of Julius Caesar than to the frothier delights of Much Ado About Nothing or Twelfth Night — serious, urgent, and deeply human, yet still replete with raucous laughter.
It is a play about justice, power, mercy, and the dangerous distance between public virtue and private desire, and it could not feel more relevant to the world we are living in now.
Remarkably, ours marks the first professional production of Measure for Measure in Rhode Island in more than three decades. It is long past time for this play to return to our stages.
– Jeff Church, Director, Measure for Measure
Dramaturgical Essay
by Mary Chandler
Measure for Measure is often referred to as a “problem play” when compared to Shakespeare’s more frequently produced works. It feels like a comedy based on Shakespeare’s typical tropes: several marriages, mistaken identity, endless innuendos, etc. But when you dig into the subject matter, it strikes a tragic and historic chord far too close to home. Within this so-called comedy, there are huge subject matters that deeply resonate today. Power. Justice. Mercy. Corruption. Morality. Law. CORRUPTION. And yet it’s still considered a comedy! Though we may be tired of the phrase “history repeats itself,” it is certainly hard to ignore when watching this story unfold.
Evidence shows that this particular work of Shakespeare was written for the benefit of (and as instruction for) King James I. King James was often thought of as a ruler who “hated large crowds” and may have lost touch with his people. Duke Vincentio seems to be a fitting reflection of this, as he retreats from his post and disguises himself amongst the holy order. He assigns Angelo to rule in his stead; someone who, in theory, is precisely who one would want to be in charge. He is, on paper, virtuous and moral and promises to uphold the law to the letter. Angelo seems to be the epitome of equity as laid out in Old Testament, like in Leviticus 24.19-21 “And if a man causes a blemish in his neighbor as he hath done so it shall be done to him; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth…and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.” The Duke is a witness to the ramifications of this black-and-white ruling, just as Shakespeare intended King James to recognize. As the Duke himself predicted, “Hence shall we see, If power change purpose, what our seemers be.” Anyone in a current audience could tell you: power more often than not will “change purpose” and corrupt those in possession of it. Angelo is put into this position to make broad strokes decisions about morality amongst the seemingly immoral population of Vienna, while the Duke retreats to hide amongst its people. Shakespeare seems to relate the Duke to King James I, asking him to spend time thinking of the individual lives of the population. It’s easy to make the black and white decisions to strictly enforce laws when you are not the one subject to the consequences of those decisions.
In her essay Dark Deeds Darkly Answered, Cynthia Lewis says, “The duke describes the people as a licentious lot as a whole, but when examined individually, we see the morality in each of them. There is not one citizen without fault, nor is there one without a reason for redemption.” Imagine that, someone who has not been amongst the general public for most, if not all, of his life, suddenly given the authority over those people and thinks he is above the very law he is sworn to uphold. As Director Jeff Church puts it “I don’t think there’s any question that the issue of ‘power corrupting’ is foreign to anybody right now…especially in our country… When power is used either irresponsibly or for personal means…it does a disservice to everyone who is subject to that power. I think we’re all feeling that right now.”
The title of this particular work seems to be a nod to the fact that different interpretations of the law determine the form of justice that a society will be ruled by. There’s the equitable, though severe, interpretation as laid out in the Leviticus verse mentioned earlier. There is also an allusion to a New Testament verse: “Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7.1-2). Equity vs. justice. Ruthlessness vs. mercy. As the play unfolds, the humanity of each character is on display. Each person makes mistakes, brings moments of clarity and humor to terrible situations. From being thought of as a group whose morals have been lost, to seeing each individual as a product of circumstances and free will, this is how Shakespeare wants a governing body to represent its people. Isabella’s character shows us that the pursuit of justice is still worth the fight. The ending may be messy and not entirely what you wanted, but making yourself heard in the pursuit of what is right will always be worth the fight.
