Gents Can’t Measure
by Eloise Carter and Helen Romeu Coombes
directed by Paco Tolson
May 8, 2026
Featuring
Aryana Asefirad, Gibson Frazier, Andy Grotelueschen, Devin E. Haqq, Alanna Saunders, Jasmine Sharma, Sathya Sridharan, Emily Young
Stage Manager: Eliza Anastasio
All performers in this workshop are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
A Note from the Authors
Gents Can’t Measure, or “Gents”, as we like to call it, was borne of a little project we were hopeful to do post-grad from acting conservatory. We both loved Shakespeare, and we loved collaborating. We were riveted by these two plays, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Measure for Measure – their humor, their hypocrisies, their cruelty, and their humanity. We were curious, disturbed, and unsatisfied – particularly with the fates of the women in these plays. Think sudden marriage proposals and no more lines for the ladies. Yikes. Charged with the existentialism that hits post-graduation and the frustration of the union strikes, we were hungry for autonomy for ourselves and the women in the canon. With that, we delved headfirst into these plays.
We’d both been huge fans of Fiasco Theater’s work and knew they were, without a doubt, the perfect company to help us shape this piece into the best it could be. With some cold emails, gusto, commitment, and the magic of the universe—contact was made. We are so lucky for the immaculate collaboration we’ve enjoyed over the last year with our director Paco Tolson. He has been deeply generous with his time, expertise, and insights—all while genuinely supporting our vision as opposed to imposing his own. Mentorship like this doesn’t come along every day.
Thanks to the open-heartedness, talent, and intuition of the cast and team over the last two days, we present to you the result of our collaboration.
We hope you enjoy and thank you for being here!
Helen & Eloise
A Note from the Director
Eloise and Helen are women of incredible capacity. Their creative talents as actors, writers, and scholars I have now seen matched by their industrious ambition and the rigor they bring to producing. Gents Can’t Measure, which we will hear aloud together for the first time tonight, is not only a work of great complexity in its weaving of multiple disparate storylines, but a dream project that they’ve manifested through sheer force of will. And here we are now.
It has fulfilled me be involved in the journey of this provocative, timely, bold and necessary story. It is an unflinching, psychologically complex look at the female characters in Two Gents and Measure, notably silent in the face of shocking events, and offering them fullness and edges and deep feeling. A missing voice.
There is great fear in our society around bodily autonomy, civil rights, predation, tyranny, and structural misogyny. Shakespeare wrestles with these issues too, but Helen and Eloise take the original texts and dial us in to the present moment to devastating, immediate effect. And they do it with humor and joy. With passion and defiance.
Thank you for being here tonight to share in their endeavor.
Let’s hear something new.
— Paco
Bios
Eloise Carter (playwright) is an NYC based jazz singer, actor, and playwright. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and went on to attend The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, where she met her collaborator, Helen Romeu Coombes. Eloise has always gravitated towards Shakespeare (reading Romeo and Juliet in middle school homeroom long before it was on any syllabus), and sought out a collaboration with Helen due to their mutual interest in Shakespeare, and desire to create an opportunity for themselves. They quickly found they were a dynamic team and have been working on this project since July of 2023. Eloise has been a fan of Fiasco Theater’s work since she saw their workshop of Street Car Named Desire when she first moved to the city. She would like to thank Paco Tolson for his support with this project, Fiasco Theater for lending their expertise she so admires, and her collaborator Helen who she is so grateful for. It’s rare to meet someone you work so well with to create a truly balanced team. As a jazz singer, she released a live EP “Eloise Live From Monks” and has preformed in notable venues such as The Django, Monks Jazz, and James Turrell Skyspace at UT Austin. For more visit: eloise-carter.com and @eloisecarter___
Helen Romeu Coombes (playwright) is a Spanish-British actor, writer, and teaching artist based in New York. She is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York and earned her BA in Drama from the University of Exeter in the UK. She is also a proud alumna of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Helen is a first time collaborator, but long time admirer, of Fiasco Theater. She would like to thank Paco Tolson, Bee Evans, Elias Husiak, and the whole Gents cast and team for their energy and generosity. And of course, the biggest thanks goes to her partner in crime, Eloise Carter. Helen fell in love with Shakespeare in her high school English class and has been consorting with him ever since. She hopes you enjoy Gents Can’t Measure.
Paco Tolson (director) Off-Broadway: Fiasco Theater’s productions of Twelfth Night and Pericles at Classic Stage Company, and The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Red Bull, 2024 Lortel nom.); Poor Yella Rednecks and Vietgone (2017 Lortel nom.) at Manhattan Theatre Club; SUMO (Ma-Yi Theater/The Public Theater); The Wind and The Rain (Vineyard Theater/En Garden Arts); The Unwritten Song (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Slavey (Clubbed Thumb); The Children of Vonderly (Ma-Yi Theater). Regional: to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse); Fiasco’s Measure for Measure (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Winter’s Tale and Vietgone (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Peter and the Starcatcher, Vietgone and Poor Yella Rednecks (South Coast Rep). Film & TV: Cupertino; Billions, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Prodigal Son, Search Party, The Good Fight, Madam Secretary, and 7 DAY GIG. Proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SEIU, Ensemble Studio Theater, and The Actors Center. @pacotolson
Aryana Asefirad is a first generation Iranian-American born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently based in New York City. TV Credits include The Savant on Apple TV+. Regional Theatre credits include Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Gloucester Stage Company, LES Shakespeare Co. and Rita Morgenthau Theatre. Prior to pursuing a career in the arts, Aryana received her B.A from the University of California, Irvine in Public Health Policy and International Studies. Instagram: aryana.asefirad
Gibson Frazier Off-Broadway: Regretfully So The Birds Are, Mr. Burns (Playwrights Horizons); Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb); For All the Women…, 10 Out of 12 (SoHo Rep); There Are No More Big Secrets (Rattlestick); Telephone (Cherry Lane); God’s Ear (Vineyard, New Georges); The Internationalist (Vineyard, 13p). Regionally: Mark Taper; Rough Crossing (w/ Tony Randall); Death of a Salesman (w/ Jack Klugman). Film: Unsane; Frances Ha; Illusion (w/ Kirk Douglas); Man of the Century (also co-writer/producer); Disclosure Day (directed by Steven Spielberg, upcoming); and The Great Beyond (directed by J.J. Abrams, upcoming). Television: Girls5Eva; Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; The Other Two; The Knick; Blue Bloods; The Good Wife; Hunters. Writer/Director of No Longer/Not Yet currently in post-production.
Andy Grotelueschen (he/him) is a Fiasco Theater company member. For Fiasco: Cymbeline/Cloten, Cymbeline, Prince/Stepsister/Milky White, Into the Woods (Lortel nom), the Duke, Measure for Measure, Launce/Duke, Two Gentlemen of Verona (St. Clair Bayfield Award), Argan, Imaginary Invalid, Toby Belch, Twelfth Night, Simonedes/Bolt, Pericles; Broadway: Tootsie: the Musical (Tony nomination), The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Cyrano de Bergerac; Off-Broadway: Assassins (CSC), Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb), Taming of the Shrew (TFANA), The Odyssey (Public Works/Delacorte), Monstrosity (13P); Regional: Willamstown, Berkeley Rep, McCarter, The Guthrie, Old Globe, Trinity Rep, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Folger, Shakespeare DC, American Repertory Theater. TV: The Gilded Age, Lincoln Rhyme:Hunt for the Bone Collector, Elementary, The Good Wife, The Good Cop, The Knick. Film: Disney's Snow White (voice of Sleepy), A Complete Unknown, The Legend of Juan Jose Mundo, Música, Here Today, Coin Heist, Ordinary World, Still on the Road, Tumorhead.
Devin E. Haqq (he/him) is a Brooklyn based theatre artist, arts educator, and award-winning filmmaker. He has performed both Off-Broadway and regionally and his films have screened at numerous film festivals around the world. He has directed workshops and staffed as an associate director on productions for such organizations as The Public Theatre, The Roundabout Theatre Company, The Folger, Shakespeare’s Globe, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Fiasco, and the National Black Theatre. Regional Theatre: Fiasco Theater's Bartleby at The Old Globe, Master Harold and the Boys at Schoolhouse Theatre (Winner - Broadwayworld Best Supporting Performer in a Play), Fiasco Theater's Measure for Measure at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, As You Like It at Arden Theatre Company. Off-Broadway: Fiasco's Pericles and Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Winning Side (World Premiere), Richard III and Macbeth at Epic Theatre Ensemble; Knives in Hens at 59E59 Theaters (NYT Critic's Pick); All God's Chillun' Got Wings at JACK. Broadway Directing Credits: Pirates! The Penzance Musical (assistant director). Other Directing Credits: Blues for an Alabama Sky at Seattle Rep (assistant director), Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Folger Theatre (associate director), Shakespeare: Call & Response at The Public Theatre (assistant director), Pass Over at Luna Stage Company. Film/TV Directing Credits: The Woods Maiden, Mac N Beth, The Mark (Best Narrative Short 2021 Atlanta Shortsfest), Ambition’s Debt (Best Narrative Feature at 2017 American Black Film Festival), The Assassin. Additional Credits: M.F.A. from University of Alabama. Devin is a 2026 semi-finalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Center, a 2024 Drama League Directing Project Fellow, an alumni of the Roundabout Directing Group and Mercury Store Directing Technique, a 2022 NY Emmy Award nominee, and a recipient of the Paul Robeson Award-Honorable Mention at the 2018 Newark Black Film Festival.
Alanna Saunders most recently got to play alongside her 3 siblings in Fiasco’s Comedy of Errors at Actors Theater of Louisville! Some other credits : Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Original Broadway Cast); Hair (Sacramento Music Circus), Joseph… - Narrator (Ivoryton Playhouse); Safety Not Guaranteed (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Scotland, PA (Roundabout); Bonnie&Clyde - Bonnie (Pioneer Theatre); One Jewish Boy - Alex (Theatre J); White Christmas - Judy (Berkshire Theatre Group); TV/film: CBS’s Bull, 18 1/2, Peter Pan Live! (Tiger Lily); When not on stage? You'll most likely find her reading, having solo dance parties, or running the business she co-founded with her family (www.spectra.theater) all other shenanigans: @alannasaun
Jasmine Sharma NYC: Twelfth Night (The Public/Delacorte), Love You More (The Tank), you don’t have to do anything (HERE Arts). Regional: Calvin Berger: A Musical (Colony Theatre), The Wolves (McCarter Theatre), Wives (Aurora Theatre). Film: Reimagined (dir. Mateo Messina). Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist, Colt Coeur Resident, Kilroys Core Member, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer 2024-2027. @jasminesharma and jasminesharma.org for everything else!
Sathya Sridharan Broadway: Life of Pi. Off-Broadway: Glass. Kill. What If If Only. (Public), Wives (Playwrights Horizons), An Ordinary Muslim (New York Theater Workshop), India Pale Ale(Manhattan Theater Club),Winter’s Tale (Mobile Unit), Richard II (WNYC), Two Brown Porters (The Pool Plays), Two Mile Hollow (WP Theater), Ultimate Beauty Bible (Page 73), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr). Regional: Life of Pi (A.R.T.), Our Town (Portland Center Stage), Hapgood (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Philadelphia Story (Chautauqua Theatre Company). TV: “Little America”, “Succession”, “Kaleidoscope”, “Blindspot”, “Elementary”, “Prodigal Son”, “Two Sentence Horror Stories”; Film: The Whale, Minor Premise, Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts (SXSW), “Curfew” (Venice).Awards: Princess Grace Award (Grace Le Vine). MFA: NYU.
Emily Young (she/her) is an actor, musician, writer, director and educator. She is one of Fiasco Theater’s original company members. For Fiasco: Queen/Belaria, Cymbeline, Little Red Riding Hood/Rapunzel, Into the Woods, Isabella/Mistress Overdone, Measure for Measure, Sylvia/Lucetta, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Toinette, Imaginary Invalid, Viola, Twelfth Night, Gussie, Merrily We Roll Along; Broadway: How I Learned to Drive u/s, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Off-Broadway: The Servant of Two Masters, Romeo and Juliet, Colorado Regional: Trinity Repertory Company, Folger Theater, McCarter Theater, Old Globe, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival. As a director: Spring Awakening at Ohio Northern University, Fiasco readings, The Lucky Chance, Sight Unseen. TV/Film: Living With Yourself, The Knick, God of Love.
Eliza Anastasio (stage manager) is delighted to be a part of Gents Can’t Measure. Her favorite credits include Oklahoma! (Circle in the Square), Hercules, Coriolanus, Much Ado About Nothing (The Public Theater), Sweeney Todd (The Hangar Theater), Other People’s Dead Dads (Dixon Place Theater), Wolf Play (Soho Rep), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), and The Wolves (Lincoln Center). She graduated with a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2017. She would like to thank her wonderful parents for always supporting her!
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) Founded in 1913, AEA represents 45,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers across the United States and seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theater as an essential component of our society. AEA negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org.
About Fiasco
FIASCO THEATER is an ensemble theater company based in NYC that offers dynamic, joyful, actor-driven productions, and the highest quality, accessible, and affordable training for emerging artists. Partner theaters in NYC have included Classic Stage Co, TFANA, New Victory and Roundabout Theatre, where Fiasco currently serves as the first-ever Company in Residence. Fiasco’s training programs offer emerging artists the chance to train in Fiasco’s joy-based, actor-centered approach to theater-making. To date the company’s award-winning work has been seen by over 200,000 audience members in NYC and across the country, including over 13,000 school children, and The New York Times has called Fiasco “a force to reckon with in the American theater.”
Fiasco Theater would like to acknowledge the generous contributions of our supporters, including the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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