ANNIE BAKER (Playwright). Annie’s other plays include The Antipodes (Signature Theatre, National Theatre), John (Signature Theatre, National Theatre, Obie Award), The Flick (Playwrights Horizons, Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Obie Award for Playwriting, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Obie Award for Best New American Play); Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright); and an adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep, Drama Desk nomination for Best Revival), for which she also designed the costumes. Other honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Steinberg Playwriting Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. She is Associate Professor of Practice at the MFA in Playwriting Program at the University of Texas, Austin, and wrote and directed the upcoming film Janet Planet for A24 and BBC Film.

JAMES MACDONALD (Director). New York: True West (Roundabout Theater); The Children, Top Girls (MTC/Broadway); Escaped Alone (BAM); Cloud Nine (Atlantic Theater); Love and Information (Minetta Lane/NYTW, Obie Award); Cock (2010 Olivier Award, 2013 Lucille Lortel Award); King Lear, Book of Grace, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Public Theater); Dying City (Lincoln Center); A Number (NYTW); 4.48 Psychosis (St. Ann’s Warehouse). Recent London work: What If If Only, One For Sorrow, The Children, Escaped Alone, The Wolf From the Door, Circle Mirror Transformation (Royal Court); The Welkin, John, Dido Queen of Carthage, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Exiles (National Theatre); Night of the Iguana, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Father, Glengarry Glen Ross (West End); Bakkhai, A Delicate Balance, Judgment Day (Almeida); A Doll’s House Part Two, The Way of the World, Roots (Donmar). Film: Caryl Churchill’s A Number for HBO/BBC.

MARYLOUISE BURKE (Eileen). Broadway/UK: True West, Annie Baker’s John (London’s National Theatre), Fish in the Dark, Is He Dead?, Into the Woods. Off-Broadway includes Epiphany (Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, and Drama League nominations), Everybody, Ripcord, Fuddy Meers (Drama Desk Award), Kimberly Akimbo (Drama Desk nomination), Savannah Disputation, American Sligo, The Oldest Profession, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, and Love Loss and What I Wore. Regional includes A Parallelogram (Steppenwolf, Mark Taper Forum), Good People (Geffen), and The Importance of Being Earnest (Williamstown Theatre Festival).  Film includes Sideways, A Prairie Home Companion, I Know This Much Is True, Series 7, Must Love Dogs, Meet Joe Black, and Sleepwalk with Me. TV: Recurring on “The Blacklist,” “New Amsterdam,” “Prodigal Son,” “Alpha House,” “Longmire,” and “Ozark.” 2014 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.

MIA KATIGBAK (Yvette). Selected NYC: Romeo & Juliet (NAATCO), Out of Time (NAATCO); The Headlands (LCT3); Henry VI (NAATCO, St. Clair Bayfield Award); Scenes From a Marriage (NYTW); Awake and Sing! (NAATCO, Obie Award). Virtual: What If If Only (Caryl Churchill, US Premiere), Russian Troll Farm. Other NYC: Transport Group, Public Theater, Clubbed Thumb, PlayCo, Ma-Yi, New Georges, Soho Rep, Target Margin.  Regional: Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Humana Festival, Two River Theater, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie. TV: “Josep,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” “The Sinner,” “Chicago PD.” 2021 USA Fellow; Special Drama Desk Award 2019; 2017 Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement; Actor-Manager and Co-Founder, NAATCO.

CHRISTINA KIRK (Sofi) has appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and regionally. Credits include: Clybourne Park (Broadway/ Playwrights Horizons), Well (Broadway), God’s Ear (New Georges/The Vineyard), and [sic] (Soho Rep). She is an affiliated artist of Clubbed Thumb and a founding associate artist of The Civilians. Film and television credits include: Fatal Attraction, Goliath, “Younger,” “Girls,” “The Newsroom,” Taking Woodstock, and Love Is Strange.

KRISTINE NIELSEN (Ginnie) most recently appeared in Regretfully, So The Birds Are at Playwrights Horizons where she also appeared in Hir, Crazy Mary, Miss Witherspoon and Betty’s Summer Vacation. Broadway: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Present Laughter, You Can’t Take It With You, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Jose’ Quintero’s production of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards among others. Nielsen has performed in numerous Off-Broadway productions at the Public/NY Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre and Lincoln Center and others. She has worked in many regional theaters and has worked in various TV series. Two-time Tony Award nominee. Two-time Obie Award winner and an Outer Critic’s Circle Award winner. She is currently in HBO’s “The Gilded Age” and recently finished filming Coup!, an independent film.

BRENDA PRESSLEY (Elaine). Broadway: The Lyons, The American Plan; Cats; Dreamgirls (original company). Off-Broadway: Proof of Love, Surely Goodness and Mercy,  Almost Home, The First Breeze of Summer; Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?, Seven Guitars, Fran’s Bed, Goodwill; Marvin’s Room; And The World Goes ‘Round-The Songs of Kander and Ebb (Outer Critics Circle Award); Blues In The Night. Regional: we are continuous… (Williamstown), Flyin’ West (Westport), Skeleton Crew (Dorset), Intimate Apparel (McCarter), Having Our Say (Long Wharf/Hartford), Trouble In Mind (Two River Theater Company), Black Odyssey (Denver Center Theater Company), In This House (Two River Theater Company, Sundance Theatre Lab 2002), The Old Settler (Freedom Theater, 2000 Barrymore Award, Best Actress also McCarter Theater-world premiere- and The Long Wharf Theater); Blues For An Alabama Sky (Cincinnati Playhouse, The Old Globe); Jar The Floor (Syracuse Stage); A Raisin In The Sun (Ford Theater); To Be Young Gifted and Black (The Kennedy Center). Film: Third Street Blackout, Detachment, 16 Blocks, Cradle Will Rock, It Could Happen To You. Television: “The Path,” “Body of Proof,” “Law and Order,” “Deadline,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “New York Undercover,” “Daddy’s Girl,” “Harambee,” “Educating Matt Waters,” HBO’s “Lifestories,” “Brewster Place” (with Oprah Winfrey).

PETE SIMPSON (Nelson). Broadway: Is This a Room (as Justin Garrick, a role he originated in prior productions Off-Broadway, including the Vineyard Theatre). A member of Elevator Repair Service, Pete appeared as Tom Buchanan in the multiple-award winning Gatz in NYC and internationally. Additional NYC theatre: The Seagull (ERS), Angelo in Measure for Measure (Public Theater/ ERS); Drew in Straight White Men (Public Theater); Mike Campbell in The Select/The Sun Also Rises (New York Theater Workshop); North Atlantic (Wooster Group, opposite Willem Dafoe); Lunch in Tincat Shoes and Dad in California (Clubbed Thumb); Edmund in Lear (Soho Rep). Pete is a vet of over 5,000 performances with Blue Man Group (Off Broadway and international tours, including writing/training/directing contributions). Regional: Denver Center, Williamstown, Westport Country Playhouse, NY Stage and Film. Screen: Marriage Story; Morning Glory; Lincoln in the Bardo; “Gotham,” “Law & Order.” 2017 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. @peterksimpsonjr

dots (Scenic Designer) is a multi-disciplinary design collective creating environments for theater, film, commercials, and immersive experiences. Hailing from Colombia, South Africa, and Japan, we are Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, Andrew Moerdyk, and Kimie Nishikawa. As collaborators, we believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Recent credits: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Broadway: James Earl Jones Theater, BAM), Dark Disabled Stories (The Public Theater), Public Obscenities (Soho Rep, NAATCO, Drama Desk nomination), Kate Berlant is KATE (Connelly Theater), You Will Get Sick (Roundabout Theater, Lucille Lortel nomination).

ÁSTA BENNIE HOSTETTER (Costume Designer) is from Washington Heights. She designed John (Signature Theater) by Annie Baker for which she and the team won an Obie for Collaboration. Recent work includes: The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center), The Bandaged Place (Roundabout Underground), Taming of the Shrew (Old Globe) with Shana Cooper, and Dom Juan (Bard Summerscape) adapted by Ashley Tata. Favorite world premieres include: Usual Girls (Roundabout Underground), Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizon), The Wolves (Lincoln Center). She is a member of The Mad Ones: Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (Ars Nova) and Miles for Mary (Bushwick Starr, Playwrights Horizon). She is also a member of Target Margin Theater: Reread Another. She is a founding member of minor theater and has designed Grimly Handsome, Nomads, The Terrifying, Pathetic. In September 2023 she directed Marie It’s Time, minor theater’s punk take on Woyzeck, at Here Arts Center.

ALFREDA “FRE” HOWARD (Makeup, Hair & Special Effects) she/her. Fre owns “Faces By Fre, LLC” and designs Makeup and Hair for Film/Television: “Free Meek” (Netflix), Chasing Happiness (PrimeVideo), “Bel-Air” Season 1 (Peacock), “Raising Kanan” Season 4 (Starz); Opera: Albert Herring (Curtis Opera), Otello and Rigoletto (Opera Philadelphia), Impressions de Pelleas (Temple University Opera); and Theater: Don Juan, Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie. Fre enjoys being an educator, mentor, as well as dabbling in making her own Bourbon.

ISABELLA BYRD (Lighting Designer). Recent New York work includes Primary Trust (Eboni Booth at Roundabout), Epiphany (Brian Watkins at Lincoln Center), Sanctuary City (Martyna Majok at NYTW), and multiple plays by Will Arbery: Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Corsicana (Playwrights Horizons), PLANO (Clubbed Thumb), and Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Group). Also, FOOD by Geoff Sobelle, As You Like It (PublicWorks at Delacorte), The Good John Proctor (Talene Monahon at Bedlam), and plays by Abe Koogler and ruth tang (Clubbed Thumb). International work: Cabaret (West End), “Daddy”: A Melodrama (Jeremy O. Harris at Almeida, Vineyard, and New Group), Endgame (Beckett at The Gate, Dublin). Honors include three consecutive Lucille Lortel Awards, Obie Award and special citation, Henry Hewes Awards, Drama Desk and Olivier nominations. Upcoming: Cabaret on Broadway. Isabella is a proud USA829 union member, supporting pay equity and sustainability. www.isabellabyrd.design

BRAY POOR (Sound Designer). Broadway: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Take Me Out, True West, The Glass Menagerie, The Real Thing, in the next room, American Plan. Off-Broadway: During the pandemic, the audio-only, bilingual Romeo y Julieta at the Public. Multiple shows at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theater Workshop, Second Stage, BAM, Signature Theatre, The Public, and others. Regionally, he has created music and sound for The Old Globe, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, The Long Wharf, Actors Theater of Louisville, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, among others, as well as productions in England and the Netherlands. He’s currently working on Nicole Betancourt’s film, The Unfixing. He has been nominated several times for Lortel and Drama Desk Awards and won an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Sound as well as for design of Annie Baker’s John.

NOAH MEASE (Props) is a theater-maker, writer, and cartoonist. With Annie Baker: John (Signature – Obie Award). ATC: Women or Nothing. This season: (pray) (Ars Nova & National Black Theatre). Other props work: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (“Kazino,” A.R.T, Broadway), Oklahoma! (St. Ann’s, Broadway), Hadestown (NYTW), An Octoroon (Soho Rep., TFANA), and three plays by The Debate Society. His writing for theater has been developed and produced with Ars Nova, Hoi Polloi, New Light Theater Project, Fresh Ground Pepper, and through the efforts of many dear friends. Comics & plays at www.noahmease.com.

CAITLIN RYAN O’CONNELL (Associate Director). Recent directing work includes King Philip’s Head… (Clubbed Thumb), Twin Size Beds (Joe’s Pub, Under the Radar), and War of the Worlds (Montana Repertory Theatre). Recent associate directing includes Wakey, Wakey (Signature Theatre), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova), and Alison Leiby’s Oh God, A Show About Abortion (Cherry Lane). Caitlin has taught at Wellesley College, NYU, The New School, National Theater Institute, and Powerhouse. She co-created The Bushwick Starr’s Senior Center Storytelling Program where she teaches theater to senior citizens in Brooklyn. She recently worked as a casting associate on Annie Baker’s upcoming film Janet Planet. BA Wellesley College, MFA Brown University.

SASHA MILAVIC DAVIES (Movement) works as a director, choreographer, and dramaturg. She is Associate Dramaturg at the Royal National Theatre, co-founder of the Yard Theatre in London, and Associate at Complicite. As choreographer/movement director, Local Hero (Chichester Festival Theatre), Force Majeure (Donmar), Mordfall (Hannover Staatsoper), Shoelady (Royal Court), The Antipodes (Royal National Theatre), Touching the Void (Bristol Old Vic/ Duke of York) Egyptians and The Suppliant Women (Gulbenkian Theatre/Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh/Young Vic). As director, Manualen (Copenhagen Royal Opera), Everything That Rises Must Dance (Dance Umbrella/Complicité), Pet Života Pretužnog Milutina / Moja Ti  / Constellations (Atelje 212, Serbia). As associate director or dramaturg, Wozzeck (Festival Aix-en-Provence), Overflow (Sadler’s Wells), Weimar Nightfall (LA Philharmonia), La Bianca Notte (Hamburg Opera), Von Heute Auf Morgen, Sancta Susana (Opera de Lyon).

LAURA SMITH (Production Stage Manager). New York: Shhhh, The Great Leap, Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic Theater); Morning Sun, Bella Bella (Manhattan Theater Club); Hot Wing King, The Antipodes (Signature Theatre); Downstate, Noura (Playwrights Horizons); Dying City (2nd Stage); The Low Road (The Public); Remember This (TFANA); Intractable Woman (Play Company); Appropriate (Juilliard). Regional: National Playwrights Conference (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center); Detroit ’67, As You Like It, 4000 Miles, After the Revolution, Wild With Happy, Twelfth Night, Fabulation, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Baltimore Center Stage); Salome (STC); House of Gold, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Unmentionables (Woolly Mammoth).

RYAN PATRICK KANE (Assistant Stage Manager). Broadway: Fat Ham, MJ: The Musical. Off-Broadway: Fat Ham (The Public), Sandblasted (Vineyard/WP), Selling Kabul, The Thin Place, Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), This Beautiful Future (Cherry Lane), Montag (SoHo Rep). Regional: Huntington Theater Company, American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Contemporary American Theater Festival. Dance: Romeo & Juliet, Pas/Parts, In Creases (Boston Ballet). TV: “76th Annual Tony Awards,” “WeCrashed,” “Harlem,” “City on a Hill,” “Hello, Tomorrow.” BFA Stage & Production Management: Emerson College. Endless gratitude to Laura, Lilian, the entire team, and my family.