From nine-time Emmy winner Matthew Weiner, creator, director, and showrunner of Mad Men and writer and executive producer on The Sopranos.

John Wilkes Booth – Maryland born, second rate actor, round-the-clock drunk, handsome womanizer, Southern sympathizer, white supremacist, and presidential assassin – is a man every American has heard of but few really know.  Now Matthew Weiner, known for creating “big fun…classy entertainment with a brain” (Detroit Free Press) makes his playwriting debut with JOHN WILKES BOOTH: ONE NIGHT ONLY!, an audacious look at the notorious man buried in an unmarked grave less than a mile from Baltimore Center Stage.

What is a Preview?

Previews are an essential part of the theater-making process that allow directors and playwrights to see their plays with audiences for the first time and identify areas for adjustment. These special performances allow you to get a first look at the play and be a part of each shows’ creative journey before it opens officially. 

Ben Ahlers – John wilkes Booth 

Ben Ahlers currently stars in the acclaimed HBO series The Gilded Age alongside Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon. In 2024, he was nominated alongside his cast for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. On television, he has also starred in the Quibi miniseries When the Street Lights Go On opposite Queen Latifah, guest starred on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) and Instinct (CBS), and had a season-long arc on The Village (NBC). In theatre, Ben starred in the highly-acclaimed run of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s play Good Boys at the Pasadena Playhouse opposite Betsy Brandt as well as The Closet opposite Matthew Broderick and The Member of the Wedding at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Stevie Walker-Webb – Director 

Stevie Walker-Webb is a Tony Award-nominated, Obie Award-winning director, playwright, and cultural worker who believes in the transformational power of art.  He is the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage and his work has been produced on and off-Broadway, including AIN’T NO MO’ (The Public Theatre/ Broadway), GUN AND POWDER (PaperMill Playhouse), ONE IN TWO (The New Group), BLACK ODYSSEY (Classic Stage), FAIRVIEW (Woolly Mammoth), and OUR TOWN (Baltimore Center Stage). 

He is founder of HUNDREDSofTHOUSANDS, an arts and advocacy organization that makes visual the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally ill people. He has received the Princess Grace Award for Theatre, The Lily Award from the Dramatists Guild of America, and is a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. He’s a contributing writer for BET’s Emmy Nominated hit comedy THE MS. PAT SHOW  and a visiting artist and lecturer at Harvard University and is the Founding Artistic Director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas. Stevie has created art and theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, and across America. steviewalkerwebb.com

MAtthew Weiner – Playwright 

Matthew Weiner is a nine-time Emmy Award winner and five-time WGA Award winning storyteller in television, film and literature.   Among his range of credits are two of television’s most successful and critically lauded shows:  creator, executive producer, writer and director on Mad Men, which was distinguished with the Peabody Award, and executive producer for The Sopranos.  Weiner also was creator, executive producer, writer and director on the original contemporary anthology series, The Romanoffs, set in seven countries around the globe.  Weiner’s debut novel, Heather, The Totality, was published by Little, Brown and Company.