DC, I Love You: First Dates

Katherine Harroff is a playwright, producer, director, and actor and Artist-in-Residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library where she also serves as the Director of Engagement. She is the former Associate Director of Arts Engagement at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Ms. Harroff has pioneered documentarian and community-based performance, developing stories, teaching everyday artists, and sharing the tools of storytelling and professional theater with myriad communities. In addition to documentary theater, her work has included installation experiences, site-specific performances, as well as intimate and large-scale community focused events celebrating the stories, lives, traditions, and interests of the community she is engaged in.

Savina Barini (A) Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet. Theater Alliance: Look Both Ways, A Protest in 8 (Featured Playwright); The Kennedy Center: Look Both Ways; ArtsCentric: for colored girls…; Rorschach Theatre: ¡nails!: A Happy Gay Latinx Play; Monumental Theatre Company: Head Over Heels; Adventure Theatre: ¡Luchadora!, Everyone Poops. Regional: Moxie Arts New York: one drop cool; Sun Valley Shakespeare in the Park: Rapture, Blister, Burn; The Spot (Sun Valley): Cabaret, Pippin, The Revolutionists, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pass Over (Co-Director). Savinabarini.com. @savinabarini

Jordan Brown (Mitch) (SAG-AFTRA) has played everything from Louis Armstrong to Petruchio, often within shouting distance of a lighting cue. His theater journey has taken him from Harlem to D.C. to Oslo—yes, Norway—where he’s performed in Richard III, Othello, The Colored Museum, Dreamgirls, Jekyll & Hyde, The Meeting, and 1001 Black Inventions. He’s been everything from Ben Banneker to Rod Serling to a singing DJ in The Rock Show (ask him about that one after the show).

Jordan’s New York credits include Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Horn (NYC Playsmiths), and Unusual Relations (CESI Writes), where he played a toy man, a doctor, and someone named Chauncey—all at once. Trained by acting icons like Melvin Van Peebles and a former member of The Temptations, Jordan brings serious chops to every role, plus a tenor-baritone-bass voice that refuses to pick just one lane.

On screen, he’s worked with Spike Lee, John Waters, and Barry Levinson, but his first love is theater—live, raw, and unpredictable (much like his coffee order). He does voiceovers, commercials, film, TV… but give him a stage and a script, and he’s home. Unless it’s mime. Still no mime.

My name is Aldo Antonio Cabrieles, and I am from Mission, Texas, though I was raised my entire life in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. I have loved acting since I was 16 years old, when I took classes at UVM (Universidad del Valle de México). I later performed in As You Like It, directed by Aaron Posner, at American University. I have always loved art and expression, and my passion for theatre and acting stems from my love of film. I hope to contribute meaningfully to this production, and I am excited to participate and give my all to the performing arts. I am currently a junior at American University, with a minor in Business and Entertainment.

Alicia Grace (Cindy) Folger: debut. Keegan Theatre: Webster’s Bitch (u/s); Kennedy Center: Because, A Wind in the Door, She A Gem, The Watsons Go To Birmingham: 1963. University of Maryland College Park. 

Dominique Gray (Bobby/ Man 3) Folger: debut. Keegan Theatre: Hand to God, Apropos of Nothing (forthcoming); Imagination Stage: 10 Seconds, The Last Martyr (regional tour). Regional: Unstrung Harpist Productions: Richard II. Training: The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, where he performed in numerous productions, including WitchBeth, Thank You, The In-Between, Fishtown, Jack and Melissa, Twelfth Night, and more

Ixchel (B/ Tour Guide/Narrator 1) Folger: debut. Ixchel is a local actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comic, and storyteller born and raised in the DC area.  Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences 2025 National Tour: Look Both Ways; GALA Hispanic Theatre: Frida Libre; Theater Alliance: Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience; Rorschach Theatre: Human Museum (director); NextStop Theatre Company: In the Heights; Constellation Theatre Company: Incognito. She has been featured for her comedy, music, and storytelling for Grassroots Comedy, Improbable Comedy, Comedy Loft, Callback Comedy Productions, Busboys and Poets, The Washington Roast, Spit Dat in Residence at Woolly Mammoth, The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Rhizome DC, and 7DrumCity. 

Miss Kitty (Lex) Folger Theatre: Metamorphoses. Spooky Action Theater: Agreste; Avant Bard Theatre: Suddenly Last Summer, Illyria or What You Will, She Speaks!; Prince George’s Shakespeare in the Parks: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing; Capital Fringe Festival: Brunch with the Boys; Imagination Stage: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Film: A Brighter Tomorrow: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (WILL Interactive), S.P.I.E.S. and S.P.I.E.S. 2 (Imagination Stage/Leapfrog Productions), Shine (ISA Group/Redmon Group Inc.), and the PSA Open to All – Three Words (76 Words/Movement Advancement Project).  

Raghad Makhlouf (Janet). Folger Theatre: Hamlet (Reading Room Festival). Theater Alliance: American Fast; Mosaic Theater: The Art of Care;  Spooky Action Theater: Agreste, Sonnets for an Old Century; Signature Theatre: Selling Kabul (u/s); Shakespeare Theatre Company: Timon of Athens (u/s); The Welders: In This Hope. Regional: Shakespeare in the Woods (VT): Hamlet/The Tempest Rep. International: Syria: The Damascus Opera House: Wretched Dreams, AB Negative, Russian Cultural Center: The Poster,  Al-Hamra Theatre: Tactic; Denmark: Masnedo Fortress: Venus Labyrinth. Raghad appeared in over 400 hours of films and drama TV shows in Syria and Lebanon. She is a two times Helen Hayes nominee for outstanding ensemble. Education: MFA: Academy for Classical Acting; BFA: The Higher Institute of Drama, Syria. @raghadmakh

Sedona Salb (Tanya/Assistant Director) Folger: debut. She is a recent graduate of American University’s Theatre Program and was most recently seen in AU’s productions of Dance Nation and As You Like It: The Musical. Aside from acting, she is passionate about directing and playwriting. She is so grateful to be able to work with Nadia Guevara again after working with her on AU’s productions of Fefu and Her Friends and Spring Awakening. @sedonasalb

Vish Shukla (Dwayne) (he/him) recently graduated from American University as a Theatre Performance major and Business and Entertainment minor. He’s so excited about his Folger debut! If you’re hungry to see more of Vish, you can see him as Gatsby in Naut Human’s The Great Gatsby Experience. Past credits include: Fountains of Youth (Reading), Hothouse New Play Block Party (Theater Alliance), Julius Caesar, A Game of Love and Chance, Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea, Henri IV, Part 1 (American University). He’s so grateful to Nadia Guevara and Sedona Salb for this opportunity. Make sure to show some love to all the amazing people who made this production possible! @vishhhshukla | vishshukla.squarespace.com

O’Malley Steuerman (Janet) Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (u/s). 1st Stage: Quilters (Helen Hayes nomination, Outstanding Ensemble); Baltimore Center Stage: Our Town, Tiny Beautiful Things, Life Is A Dream. omalleysteuerman.com @omalleysteuerman

Nadia Guevara (she/her) is a director based in DC and NYC. She has worked across the country at The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Dallas Theatre Center, New York Stage and Film, Red Bull Theatre, The Old Globe, and Keegan Theatre, among others. She has been a guest director for American University, Texas Tech University, and Johns Hopkins University. Upcoming projects: Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale (Imagination Stage), Spring Awakening (American University), Cell (Keen Theatre/Drama League DirectorFest), The Survival (National Queer Theatre/PACNYC) She is the 2022-2024 recipient of The Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship. In 2018, Nadia was named Actor of the Year, San Diego Critics Circle, and has since retired from acting. www.nadiaguevara.com

Sedona Salb (Tanya/Assistant Director) Folger: debut. She is a recent graduate of American University’s Theatre Program and was most recently seen in AU’s productions of Dance Nation and As You Like It: The Musical. Aside from acting, she is passionate about directing and playwriting. She is so grateful to be able to work with Nadia Guevara again after working with her on AU’s productions of Fefu and Her Friends and Spring Awakening. @sedonasalb