JOEL ZWICK (Director) Joel Zwick directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time. Mr. Zwick directed the Broadway production of George Gershwin Alone; he and Hershey Felder have also collaborated on Maestro. Mr. Zwick has directed Broadway, Off-Broadway and Broadway touring companies and began his theatrical career at La Mama E.T.C., as director of the La Mama Plexus. New York productions have included Dance with Me (Tony nomination), Shenandoah (Broadway national tour), Oklahoma (national tour) and Cold Storage (American Place Theater). He acted in the original New York production of MacBird and directed Esther (Promenade Theater, NY), Merry-Go-Round (Chicago and Las Vegas), Last Chance Saloon and Woycek (West End). Mr. Zwick is recognized as one of Hollywood’s most prolific directors of episodic television, having the direction of over 650 episodes to his credit. He has taught drama at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Wheaton College, and the University of Southern California and is a graduate (B.A., M.A.) of Brooklyn College.

TREVOR HAY (Associate Director) Directed the world premieres of An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, Abe Lincoln's Piano, Hershey Felder as Franz Liszt in Musik, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and A Paris Love Story. He is Associate Director for Mona Golabek's The Pianist of Willesden Lane, George Gershwin Alone, and Hershey Felder in Maestro. Former member of the historic Old Globe Theatre in San Diego where, at the age of nine, his first position was selling Old Globe memorabilia. Over the next 32 years, Mr. Hay went on to various aspects of production on more than 80 presentations, including the Broadway productions of Jack O'Brien's Damn Yankees, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Twyla Tharpe's The Times They Are A-Changin'. Included in his 23 seasons at the Old Globe were eleven seasons of the Summer Shakespeare Festival Repertory, as well as work on Tracy Letts' August: Osage County, directed by Sam Gold, and Hershey Felder's George Gershwin Alone, Monsieur Chopin and Maestro.

ERIK S. BARRY (Lighting Design) Erik is a freelance lighting designer based in Chicago. He received the Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for 2019 for The Displaced with Haven Theatre. His designs have been seen at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, Harris Theatre (Chicago), and the Detroit Music Hall. He is the Resident Lighting Designer for Underscore Theatre Company and the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. MFA - Lighting Design: University of Wisconsin-Madison. eriksbarry.com

ERIK CARSTENSEN (Sound Design/Production Manager) Erik has worked for Eighty-Eight Entertainment since 2008. He has served as sound designer on Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, A Paris Love Story, Maestro, Louis and Keely ‘Live’ at the Sahara, An American Story, Beethoven As I Knew Him (Ovation Award Winner), The Pianist of Willesden Lane (Ovation Award Nomination), and numerous other productions. Formerly, he was the master sound technician at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and was production engineer on over sixty productions, including Allegiance, Robin and the Seven Hoods, A Catered Affair, Hershey Felder’s George Gershwin Alone, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Chita Rivera-A Dancer’s Life, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Full Monty, Dirty Blonde, and Floyd Collins.

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.