Michael Frayn (Playwright) was born in London in 1933. He began his career as a reporter for the Guardian and later the Observer. After leaving the Observer he continued to write as a columnist as well as publishing novels and plays for television and stage. His plays for stage include: Copenhagen, After Life, The Two of Us, Alphabetical Order, Donkeys’ Years, Clouds, Balmoral (Liberty Hall), Make and Break, Noises Off, Benefactors, Alarms and Excursions, Look Look, Here and Make and Break. Other translations include: four full-length Chekhov plays – The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya and four one-act plays – The Evils of Tobacco, Swan Song, The Bear and The Proposal. Mr. Frayn is married to the biographer and critic Claire Tomalin.

Anna D. Shapiro (Director) is a Tony Award-winning director and served as Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company from 2015 to 2021, where she remains an ensemble member. She joined the Steppenwolf ensemble in 2005 and was awarded the 2008 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for August: Osage County (Steppenwolf, Broadway, London). She was nominated in 2011 in the same category for The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Public Theater, Labyrinth Theater). Other Steppenwolf directing credits include the world premiere production of The Minutes (also on Broadway); The Unmentionables (also at Yale Repertory Theatre), The Pain and the Itch (also in New York), Purple Heart (also in Galway, Ireland) and This Is Our Youth (which transferred to Broadway). Additional Broadway credits include Of Mice and Men and Fish in the Dark, and Off Broadway Domesticated (Lincoln Center Theater). She directed the premiere of the Broadway musical The Devil Wears Prada with music by Sir Elton John, lyrics by Shaina Taub and book by Kate Wetherhead. Shapiro is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Columbia. She is a professor in Northwestern University’s Department of Theatre.

Todd Rosenthal (Scenic Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Purpose, Downstate, The Doppelgänger (an international farce), Mary Page Marlowe and many others. Select Broadway: August: Osage County (Tony), The Motherfucker with the Hat (Tony Nom), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Of Mice and Men, This is Our Youth, Straight White Men, Linda Vista. International: August: Osage County (London, Australia); Nice Fish, Downstate (London); Madama Butterfly, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Ireland). Exhibitions: Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition; International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes, Victoria: T-Rex. Rosenthal also designs in Chicago and at many regional theaters. Awards: USITT Distinguished Achievement, Olivier, Helen Hayes, Ovation, Joseph Jefferson, Michael Merritt. Professor, Northwestern. Graduate, Yale Drama.

Izumi Inaba (Costume Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Constellations, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Animal Farm, The Crucible, We Are Proud…, Miz Martha, Bald Sisters, Last Night and the Night Before, and Sanctuary City. Recent Chicago: The Full Monty (Paramount Theatre); The Singularity Play (Jackalope Theatre); Brooklyn Laundry (Northlight Theatre). Recent Regional: The Constellations (American Players); Little Shop of Horrors (Penobscot Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Indiana Repartory). Off-Broadway: How To Defend Yourself (New York Theatre Workshop). Izumi is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 and represented by Skyler Gray.

Josh Epstein (Lighting Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Premiere. Chicago: The Crowd You’re In With (Goodman Theatre). Regional: Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Alliance Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Trinity Repertory Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Actor’s Theater of Louisville. Awards: Knight of Illumination, LA Ovation, Helen Hayes Nomination. Upcoming: Leonora (Chicago Opera Theater); Rutka (Cincinnati Playhouse); Cabaret (Guthrie Theater). Education: BA, University of Chicago; MFA, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Josh is on the faculty at Chapman University and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three daughters. joshepsteindesign.com

Cricket S Myers (Sound Designer) Steppenwolf Theater Company debut. On Broadway, Cricket earned a Tony Nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her design of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Regional designs include La Jolla Playhouse, The Ahmanson, The Mark Taper Forum, The Kirk Douglas Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Denver Center and the Geffen Theater. She has earned 24 Ovation Nominations, as well as winning The Ruth Morley Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Cricket is a proud member of Local USA 829. www.cricketsmyers.com

Kate DeVore (Dialect & Voice Coach) returns to Steppenwolf Theatre Company where she coached The Thanksgiving Play, Purpose, a home what howls (or the house what was ravine), POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, Sanctuary City, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, and fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life. Kate also happily taught Voice at The School at Steppenwolf for 11 years. She has served as voice and/or dialect coach at Goodman Theatre (most recently Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago, A Red Orchid Theatre, Drury Lane, Second City, Piven Theatre Workshop, Writers Theatre, Theo Ubique, and Chicago Dramatists. Film/TV credits include The Outfit and Ripley. More about her books and coaching services at TotalVoice.net.

R&D Choreography (Violence Design) is Victor Bayona (he/him) and Rick Gilbert (he/him) who are falling all over themselves to be back at Steppenwolf Theatre Company after The Thanksgiving Play. Chicago: Women Beware Women (Blue the Right Way), Peter Malmo (Collectivo el Pozo/Akvavit), In the Sick Bay of the Santa Maria, Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre), Middle Passage, Neverwhere (Lifeline Theatre), Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon, Her Honor Jane Byrne (Lookingglass Theatre Company), Ragtime, Sister Act, Little Shop of Horrors, Baskerville (Metropolis). And over three hundred other productions at Chicago theaters since 1996.

Kristina Fluty (Intimacy Consultant) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Another Marriage, Describe the Night, The Children. Chicago: Black Sunday, Cardboard Piano (TimeLine); Spring Awakening (Porchlight); The Sound of Music (Marriott); The Last Match (Writer’s), Frankenstein, Top Girls (Remy Bumppo); Mies Julie, Indecent (Victory Gardens). Regional: Linda Vista (Center Theatre Group – Los Angeles). Kristina's main creative home since 2003 is Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, a modern dance company based in Chicago. MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling, Laban Movement Analyst, Movement Pattern Analyst. Associate Professor of Movement - The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Laura D. Glenn (Production Stage Manager) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: 85+ productions over the past 36 years, most recently Little Bear Ridge Road. Chicago: 22 productions between 2002-2016 (Northlight Theatre). Galway International Arts Festival: True West, Orange Flower Water, Purple Heart (Steppenwolf), Better Late (Northlight Theatre).  BITE Festival Barbican Center London: The Man Who Came to Dinner (Steppenwolf). Broadway: Buried Child (Steppenwolf). Laura has proudly worked with all 55 Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble members and has been a member of Actors Equity Association for 34 years.        

Kathleen Barrett (Assistant Stage Manager) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: The Thanksgiving Play, a home what howls, POTUS, Another Marriage, Describe the Night, Miz Martha, Seagull, BUG, Dance Nation, The Great Leap, MS. BLAKK FOR PRESIDENT, The Crucible, Pass Over, Constellations, East of Eden, The Herd, Airline Highway. Chicago: The Steadfast Tin Soldier 2018 & 2022, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Groundhog Day, The Secret of My Success (Paramount Theatre); additional work for The Hypocrites, Victory Gardens Theater, Porchlight Music Theatre, Broadway in Chicago. Regional: world premieres of Cambodian Rock Band, A Doll’s House Part 2, Office Hour (South Coast Repertory) and productions with Geva Theatre Center, Florida Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Mason Street Warehouse. Kat is a graduate of Kalamazoo College in Michigan.