ITAMAR MOSES (Book) is the author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach at Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back, Completeness and The Whistleblower; the musicals Nobody Loves You (with Gaby Alter), Fortress of Solitude (with Michael Friedman) and The Band's Visit (with David Yazbek); and the evening of short plays Love/Stories (Or But You Will Get Used To It). His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theaters across the country and in Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Venezuela, Turkey and Chile, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. Awards for his work include Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle and Obie awards in New York, as well as awards from the Portland, San Diego, Dallas, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circles. He's received new play commissions from The McCarter, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, The Wilma Theater, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, and Goodman Theatre. On television, Itamar has written for TNT's Men of a Certain Age, HBO's Boardwalk Empire, and WGN'S Outsiders. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Born in Berkeley, CA, he now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

DAVID YAZBEK (Music & Lyrics) A varied career as a recording artist, Emmy-winning TV and film writer, music producer and pianist has somehow led Yazbek to a career on Broadway. His four shows, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and The Band's Visit were all Tony nominated for Best Score. Yazbek took home the Tony for Best Score for The Band's Visit. The Fully Monty won him the Drama Desk Award for Best Music. As a recording artist, Yazbek is responsible for five albums: The Laughing Man (winner NAIRD award, Best Pop Album of the Year), Tock, Damascus, Tape Recorder and Evil Monkey Man. He also produced the original cast albums of The Band's Visit, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the first three of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. Yazbek scored the final season of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, scored and performed the music for Larry David's giant Broadway hit Fish in the Dark, and built an Ikea storage shelf. Yazbek teamed up with 13 librettist Robert Horn to collaborate on the musical Tootsie, which won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical and was nominated for a total of 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

ZI ALIKHAN (Director) is a queer, first-generation South Asian-American, culturally Muslim theater director. DIRECTING: On That Day in Amsterdam (Primary Stages, Drama Desk Nomination-Outstanding Director, Lucille Lortel Nomination-Outstanding Director), Sanctuary City (Pasadena Playhouse, LA Times-‘Best of the Year’), RENT (Paper Mill Playhouse), Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company), The Wizard of Oz and Somewhere (Geva Theatre Center), Manik Choksi’s The Ramayan (currently in development at Ars Nova), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), A Nice Indian Boy (Olney Theatre Center), Ragtime (Playmakers Repertory Company). Zi was named one of TCG’s Rising Leaders of Color. All of them are, but this one is especially for Mom and Baba.

SEBASTIANI ROMAGNOLO (Choreographer) Choreography: Shrek, Annie (Cape Fear Regional Playhouse); Hello, Dolly! (Berkshire Theatre Award best choreography); Ragtime, Cabaret, Wedding Singer, Spamalot, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Addams Family (Mac-Hayden Theatre); Les Miserables (Pace); The Good Person of Szechwan (Atlantic Acting School), The Wild Party (Yale); Spring Awakening (Sarah Lawrence); Walk the Night (Blue Barn Theatre). Directing: Funny Girl, Grease (Mac-Hayden). Assisting: The SpongeBob Musical (Assistant Choreo, First National Tour); Schmigadoon (research associate); Other World (Reading); Music Man (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (The REV). Sebastiani holds a B.F.A. in drama from NYU and has trained with Third Rail Projects and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

ANDRA VELIS SIMON (Music Supervisor) returns to Writers Theatre, where she music directed Next to Normal, directed by David Cromer. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville, A.R.T. in Cambridge, BAM, Berkeley Rep, NYU’s Skirball Center, Olney Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, People’s Light, and TheatreSquared. Chicago credits include: the U.S. premiere of London Road at Shattered Globe Theatre; Life After, Camino Real, and The Iceman Cometh at The Goodman Theatre; Songs for Nobodies with Northlight Theatre; Caroline, or Change, Always… Patsy Cline, 9 to 5, and LIZZIE with Firebrand Theatre; the world premiere of La Ruta by Isaac Gómez at Steppenwolf; Mr. Burns at Theatre Wit; and multiple actor-musician productions with The Hypocrites and Chicago Children’s Theatre, among others. Andra has also taught musical theatre performance at the college level since 2008.

JASON BURROW (Music Director and Keyboard Programmer) is an Associate Professor of Musical Theatre at the University of Arkansas and has performed as a pianist and vocalist with Grammy and Tony award winning artists such as Mariah Carey, the Broadway Inspirational Voices, and Sting. Most recently Jason was on the North American tour of Hamilton the Musical as Associate Music Director and Associate Conductor. Jason previously taught at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in the New Studio on Broadway before returning to Arkansas. Jason enjoys an ongoing relationship with TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR and has been lucky to music direct many shows for them including Next to Normal, Fun Home, Once, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Legend of Georgie McBride, Matilda, and American Mariachi. 

ASFOON PAJOUAR (Scenic Designer) is a New York-based designer of stage and environment for plays, operas, and other live performances. Recent works include Fuente Ovejuna (Theatre For A New Audience), Adoration (Beth Morrison Projects), Out Of Character (Berkeley Rep), Molière’s Dom Juan (Fisher Center at Bard SummerScape 2022), English (Studio Theatre, DC), My Six Therapists (Clubbed Thumb), Lady M (HeartBeat Opera), MƆɹNIŊ[MORNING//MOURNING] (PROTOTYPE 2022), Mad Forest (Theatre for a New Audience and Fisher Center at Bard), Word.Sound.Power (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Paper Pianos (EMPAC), Will You Come With Me (The Play Company), ICONS/IDOLS: IN THE PURPLE ROOM (New Ohio Theatre), s.i.n.s.o.f.u.s (Harvard University), and The Silence (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Internationally, her work has taken her to Alte Münze (Berlin) and Schauspiel Köln (Cologne). She is a member of USA829. 

RAQUEL ADORNO (Costume Designer) Selected Chicago credits: PERSONALITY: The Lloyd Price Musical, Gospel at Colonus, The Island, and Othello (Court Theatre); Describe the Night (Steppenwolf Theatre); Measure for Measure and I, Banquo (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Georgiana and Kitty and Intimate Apparel (Northlight Theatre); Wife of a Salesman (Writers Theatre); Unelectable You (The Second City). Selected regional credits: The Tempest and Intimate Apparel (Utah Shakespeare Festival); A Raisin in the Sun, The Taming of the Shrew, Cymbeline, A Doll’s House, and A Doll’s House, Part 2 (American Players Theatre). Awards: The Michael Maggio Award 2022, The Michael Merritt Academic Achievement Prize for Collaborative Design 2019.

SOLOMON WEISBAND (Lighting Designer) has created original works in drama, opera, dance, installation, and music across the U.S., Canada, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, and Slovenia. Previously with Zi Alikhan: Sanctuary City (Pasadena Playhouse). Other highlights include Otello (Festspielhaus Baden Baden, Germany); Il Trovatore (Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Regio di Parma, Italy); Oedipus (Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Greece; Ancient Theatre of Pompeii, Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, and Teatro Mercadante di Napoli, Italy) all with Robert Wilson; Macbeth (directed by John Doyle at Classic Stage Company, NYC); The Shape of Things (created by Carrie Mae Weems at the Park Avenue Armory, NYC); Duat (Soho Rep, NYC); and Men on Boats (World Premiere: Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb, NYC). Regionally: Arden Theatre Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Magic, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public, Portland Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Portland Stage, Quintessence, TheatreSquared, Tri-Cities Opera, Westport Country Playhouse, and Yale Rep. Solomon is Assistant Professor of Scenic/Lighting Design at Portland State University and earned his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

WILLOW JAMES (Sound Designer) is a Chicago-based artist, producer, educator, and DJ who centers his work around exploring Black identity, new works, and theatre as activism. He is a Court Theatre teaching artist, Definition Theatre ensemble member, Resident Sound Designer at Artemisia Theatre, and is represented by Dream Team Talent Agency. Writers Theatre debut. Chicago: Antigone (Court Theatre); Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Chlorine Sky (Steppenwolf Theatre); Alaiyo (Definition Theatre); The Nacirema Society (Goodman Theatre). Regional: The Royale (American Players Theatres); Black Book (NAATC); The Magnolia Ballet (Alleyway Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Indianapolis). He is a member of USITT, TSDCA, and IATSE Local 2. willow-james.org | @worksbywillow

GREG GEFFRARD (Intimacy Director) Previous credits include: CHICAGO: Steppenwolf Theatre: Sanctuary City and Chlorine Sky (Intimacy), Choir Boy (Intimacy & Violence),The Lyric Opera: The Factotum (Intimacy & Violence); Remy Bumppo: Galileo's Daughter and Routes; Court Theatre: Fen (Intimacy & Violence); Chicago Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors; REGIONAL: Opera Theatre of St. Louis: Treemonisha, Tosca, Cosi Fan Tutte, and Susannah; Denver Center of Performing Arts: The Color Purple; Huntington Theatre (Boston): K-I-S-S-I-N-G and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. UP NEXT: Theatre Cedar Rapids: Fairview; Speakeasy Stage: Strange Loop; Writers Theatre: Hot Wing King. OTHER: Associate Faculty with Theatrical Intimacy Education, and Director of BFA Acting & Associate Artistic Director at Brenau University.

SMOOCH MEDINA (Projections Designer) is a Chicago-area designer whose other show credits include projection design for Rent (Porchlight Music Theatre); Sheep Dog (Shattered Globe); The Watsons Go to Birmingham (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Alice in Wonderland (Governors State University); A Swell in the Ground, Pilgrims, and A Life Extra Ordinary (The Gift Theatre); Women in Jeopardy and Silent Sky (First Folio); Saturn Returns (Neo- Futurists); Estrella Cruz: The Junkyard Queen (Halcyon Theatre); The White Road (Jeff Award-nominated, Irish Theatre of Chicago); Tightwire (Chicago Tap Theatre); and lighting design for A Little World of Our Own (Irish Theatre of Chicago); The Nutcracker (Legere Ballet Company); and The Feast (Red Theatre Company). Smooch holds a BFA in Lighting Design from Columbia College Chicago.

MIRANDA ANDERSON (Stage Manager) is happy to be back with The Band’s Visit after stepping in as the Stage Manager Sub for the show at TheatreSquared. Previously at Writer’s Theatre she stage managed Once and Athena. She has frequently worked with TimeLine Theatre where selected credits include: What the Constitution Means to Me, Trouble in Mind, Campaigns Inc., and Relentless. She has also worked at Rivendell Theatre, The House Theatre, First Folio Theatre, and The Hypocrites, among others. From 2012 to 2018, she toured with The Hypocrites’ Gilbert and Sullivan productions to regional theaters including Olney Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse, Skirball Center at NYU, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and American Repertory Theatre in Boston. Miranda is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

SAMMI GRANT (Dialect Coach) returns to Writers Theatre where she previously coached Once. Other Chicagoland Theatres she has worked with include: Goodman Theatre, Timeline Theatre, Lyric Opera, Drury Lane, Marriot Theatre, Remy Bumpppo Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre, Rivendell Theatre, and many more. Her film/TV credits include: Rescued by Ruby (Netflix), Patriot (Amazon Prime), The Exorcist (Fox). She is an Adjunct Professor of performance at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Sammi holds an MFA with Distinction in Voice Studies from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is on the Board of directors of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA).

FAITH HART (Assistant Director) is beyond grateful to be working at Writers Theatre for the first time. Assistant directing credits include Art (Guthrie Theater, dir. Kimberly Senior) and Choupette (Prop Thtr/Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, dir. Coya Paz). Last June, she wrote and directed MAINTENANCE as part of Pivot Arts' The Memory Place at The Edge Theatre. Self-produced credits include Elektra, at solstice (Leone Beach) and Map of Virtue (Chi Yoga Shack). Faith is a member of the Director's Haven 7 cohort at Haven Theatre and will direct Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett this March. She holds a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts (Directing) from The Theatre School at DePaul University. Love to Sam, Masha, friends, and family. 

CELIA VILLACRES (Associate Music Director and Conductor) Writers Theatre debut! Celia is a music director and accompanist born and raised in Chicago. Celia was most recently seen as associated music director/associate conductor on Paramount Theatre’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Other favorite credits include Next to Normal (Paramount’s Copley Theatre), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Breckenridge Backstage), and School of Rock (Paramount). Celia is a graduate of Ball State University. 

JENNIFER MCLORY (Assistant Costume Designer) makes her Writers Theatre debut. She has previously designed What the Constitution Means to Me, Sanctuary City, At The Wedding, and Ann at Theatre Squared where she is also the Wardrobe Supervisor and Wig Stylist. She was the Associate Designer on Detroit '67, Kim's Convenience and Chicken & Biscuits at T2. She has costumed over 100 productions in NW Arkansas including Other Desert Cities and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf (Smokehouse Players); Dark Sisters (Opera Fayetteville); Man of La Mancha (Inspire Theatre); Go, Dog, Go and Peter Pan (Trike Theatre/Walton Arts Center); Mamma Mia and others (Arts One Presents/ACO); Wizard of Oz and others (Arts Live Theatre); Rocky Horror Show, Legally Blonde, Of Mice and Men, and others (Arkansas Public Theatre). She has also costumed a number of television, film, and commercial spots. She holds degrees in creative writing, English literature, and journalism from University of Arkansas. She is also a published novelist in addition to her costuming work.

Daniel Friedman (Associate Lighting Designer) A Chicago based lighting designer, Daniel is thrilled to be returning to Writers Theatre, having been a part of his first show 10 years ago. He has designed lighting with Drury Lane Theatre, The Merola Opera Program, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Matter Dance Company, Momentary Theatre, The Gift Theatre, Studio Mangiameli, The Jacobians, Three Things Productions, Interrobang Theatre Project, Redtwist Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theatre, Red Tape Theatre, Emerald City Theatre, The Blind Owl, and Haven Theatre among many others across Chicago. Additionally, Daniel has served as an associate and assistant lighting designer on productions at San Francisco Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Folks Operetta, Timeline Theatre and Victory Gardens Theatre. Visit danielafriedman.com.

NATALIE COHEN (Assistant Stage Manager) Natalie Cohen is thrilled to return to Writers Theatre. Select credits include Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol (2022, 2023), Once, Athena (Writers Theatre); The Gospel at Colonus (Court Theatre); Clyde’s (Goodman Theatre); Love Actually? The Unauthorized Musical Parody, Bachelor: The Unauthorized Parody Musical (Right Angle Entertainment). She is a graduate of Truman State University and a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.

ZACHARY/HARPER CREWSE (Assistant Stage Manager) returns to Writers Theatre where they previously worked on Once and Into the Woods. They are a stage manager and producer for dance and theatre, whose credits include Madison Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, the Grant Park Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theatre, Lollapalooza, the Actors’ Gym, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Lookingglass, Mercury Theatre, and A Red Orchid Theatre. Harper is the associate producer for Queer Dance Freakout and the producer for Collaboraction Theatre. BFA, DePaul University.

BRADEN ABRAHAM (Artistic Director) joined Writers Theatre as Artistic Director in 2023. He comes to Writers from Seattle Rep, the largest resident theatre in the Pacific Northwest, where he advanced the organization as a director and producer, including the development and premiere of many new plays. He directed six world premieres for Seattle Rep and over 20 productions including: True West, Clybourne Park, Photograph 51, Ibsen in Chicago, Betrayal, Luna Gale, A View from the Bridge, A Great Wilderness, Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Among his initiatives as Artistic Director, Braden committed Seattle Rep as one of the first partner theaters to bring the Public Theater’s model for the Public Works program across the country. Seattle Rep’s Public Works strengthens community connection through making ambitious productions of participatory theater. Braden also re-envisioned the New Play Program, commissioning and premiering plays by Anna Zeigler, Samuel D. Hunter, David Grimm, Justin Huertas, Samantha Silva, Cheryl L. West, and Karen Hartman, and supported the work of dozens of playwrights and directors through premieres and the Other Season development lab. Many projects developed through this program went on to acclaimed runs at Seattle Rep and around the country including Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Come From Away, Cheryl L. West’s Shout Sister Shout!, Erica Schmidt’s Mac Beth, and Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice.  Under his leadership, Seattle Rep was the only theater outside New York and London to present David Byrne’s Here Lies Love. Most recently, Braden initiated 20x30: Reimagine the Anthropocene, to commission twenty new plays by the year 2030, and New Directions, a unique commissioning program designed to support generative work from directors. Around the country, Braden has developed new work at Ojai, O’Neill, Denver Center, and Perseverance Theatre. He has been a guest artist at Stanford, Gonzaga, Seattle University, and the University of Idaho. He conceived and developed Way Stations, a series of interactive walking tours in Seattle for the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards and is the co-creator of Gordon Hempton: Let it Happen, an audio installation about the life and work of Emmy-Award winning sound ecologist Gordon Hempton. He is married to Cheyenne Casebier and the proud papa of Phoenix Faye Abraham.

Kathryn M. Lipuma (Executive Director) has served as the Executive Director of Writers Theatre since March 2007 where she is responsible for overseeing all management, administration and operations for the company. Most recently, she led the planning and construction of WT's award-winning performing arts center, designed by internationally renowned architect and MacArthur Fellow and "Genius" grant recipient Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, which opened in February 2016. Prior to Writers, Lipuma spent nine seasons as Executive Director at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre Company in New York. At Signature, she worked with and produced plays and programs from such acclaimed writers as Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Maria Irene Fornés, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Romulus Linney, Arthur Miller, Paula Vogel, August Wilson and Lanford Wilson. During her tenure, she helped create and launch Signature’s groundbreaking $15 Ticket Program. Prior to her time at Signature, she spent six years with Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Lipuma currently serves on the Board of Directors for Arts Alliance Illinois, the statewide advocacy coalition; the Board of Directors and Past Chair of the League of Chicago Theatres, an alliance representing more than 200 Chicago-area theater companies and producers; and as an Advisory Council Member for The Actors Fund. Lipuma is the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre. She is also the co-creator of DoNorth, an umbrella organization joining four cultural neighbors—Chicago Botanic Garden, Kohl Children’s Museum, Ravinia Festival and Writers Theatre—to attract new audiences to the cultural, environmental and community activities of the North Shore. She is a graduate of The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

TheatreSquared's signature offering of bold new plays in an intimate setting has driven its growth to become Arkansas's largest theatre, welcoming more than 80,000 community members to 350 performances and events each year. Its pioneering work has been recognized with the 2022 Obie Award as well as critical acclaim from The New York Times (“Best Theater of 2020” list), The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, NPR’s "All Things Considered", and the American Theater Wing, founder of the Tony Awards.
The theatre is also one of mid-America’s leading new play laboratories, having supported the development of more than 70 scripts. The company has helped launch new work by Bryna Turner, Candrice Jones, José Cruz Gonzáles, Sarah Gancher, The Kilbanes, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Anne García-Romero, Rachel Lynett, Tony Meneses, Lisa D’Amour, Qui Nguyen, Mona Mansour, Karen Zacarías, and many others.
TheatreSquared’s remarkable expansion—with a twentyfold increase in audience in just the past decade—parallels the emergence of its home region in the northwest corner of Arkansas as a booming population center and destination for American art. Since its founding in 2005, TheatreSquared’s work has remained rooted in its founding vision, that “theatre—done well and with passion—can transform lives and communities.”