James Ijames (Playwright) is a playwright, director, and educator. James is the recipient of the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play, a Pew Fellowship for Playwriting, the Terrance McNally New Play Award, Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize, the Whiting Award, a 2019 Kesselring Prize for Kill Move Paradise, a 2020 and 2022 Steinberg Prize, and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He received a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and a M.F.A. in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. James is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University. He resides in South Philadelphia.

Saheem Ali (Original Director) Saheem is a proud immigrant from Kenya. He received a Tony Award nomination for directing the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Fat Ham on Broadway, an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations for Fat Ham’s Off Broadway run at The Public Theater, where he serves as the Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director. His production of Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park) was recorded for PBS’s Great Performances and was the subject of the documentary Reopening Night on HBO. Productions include Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theatre Company); Goddess (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater); Romeo y Julieta, Shipwreck, and Richard II (radio plays). Other productions: Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep), Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club), Tartuffe (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre). He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow, and a Shubert Fellow.

Dominique Fawn Hill (Costume Design) Dominique’s designs include world premieres of plays and musicals produced at venues such as The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Playwright’s Horizons, and Geffen Playhouse. Her theatre credits include Broadway: Fat Ham (Tony Award nomination). Off Broadway: Tambo & Bones (Lucille Lortel Award nomination) (Playwrights Horizons), Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (MTC), The Dark Girl Chronicles (The Shed), and 125th & FREEdom (National Black Theatre). Dominique is currently designing across the nation while being an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. DominiqueFHill.com.

Mikaal Sulaiman (Sound Design) The Old Globe: Debut. Broadway: Enemy of the People, Doubt, Thanksgiving Play, Fat Ham, Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living, Macbeth, Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off Broadway: Sabbath’s Theatre (New Group), The Half-God of Rainfall (NYTW), Primary Trust (Roundabout), On Sugarland (NYTW), Sanctuary City (NYTW), Fairview (Soho Rep), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova). Awards: Tony Award nom, Drama Desk nom, Obie Awards, Creative Capital Award, Henry Hewes Award, and CTG Sherwood Award. mikaal.com.

Skylar Fox (Illusion Design) Obie Award–winning director, writer, and designer based in Brooklyn. He is co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed, designed, and co-written The Grown-Ups (Top 10 NYC Productions of the Year in Time Out New York); Alien Nation; Providence, RI; Thank You Sorry; and Apathy Boy. Other directing includes Pussy Sludge (HERE), Passion Play (IRNE Award nomination). In his other life, he designs and stages magic for theatre. Broadway: Fat Ham; associate designer for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Back to the Future, and A Beautiful Noise. Off-Broadway/International: Once Upon a Mattress (Encores!); Boop! (Broadway in Chicago); The Preacher’s Wife (The Alliance); The Comeuppance (Signature); You Will Get Sick (Roundabout); Wicked, Matilda (Atelier de Cultura, São Paulo); and Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival). www.skylarfox.com, www.nightdrive.org.

Lisa Kopitsky (Fight Director) is a New York-based fight and intimacy director and movement dramaturg. Broadway: Fat Ham, How I Learned to Drive, Flying Over Sunset, The Iceman Cometh, The Children, The Father. Public Theater: Hamilton, Fat Ham, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth (Mobile Unit); Detroit ’67, Urge for Going, Neighbors (Public LAB). Off Broadway: Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls… (MCC); Epiphany, Intimate Apparel, Greater Clements, Power Strip, Marys Seacole (Lincoln Center). Metropolitan Opera: Carmen, Rigoletto. Founding member and Creative Director of Vixens En Garde.

Ryan Patrick Kane (Production Stage Manager) Broadway: Fat Ham, I Need That. Off Broadway: Fat Ham (Public), Oh, Mary! (Lortel), Infinite Life (Atlantic), Sandblasted (Vineyard/WP), Selling Kabul, The Thin Place, Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), On Set with Theda Bara (The Brick), This Beautiful Future (Cherry Lane). Regional: The Niceties, A Guide for the Homesick (Huntington), Violet on a Bus (A.R.T), Romeo & Juliet (Boston Ballet). Television: “76th Annual Tony Awards,” “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” “WeCrashed,” “Harlem.” Education: BFA in Stage Management from Emerson College.

Evelyn G. Myers (Assistant Stage Manager) (she/her) The Old Globe: Globe for All (The Comedy of Errors), Globe for All (Henry V). La Jolla Playhouse: The Garden, POP Tour (Hoopla!), POP Tour (Pick Me Last), POP Tour x National Disability Theatre (Emily Driver’s Great Race Through Time and Space). North Coast Repertory: Sense of Decency, Pippin. Grand Central Art Center: Savage in Limbo. Hollywood Fringe Festival: The First and the Last (Encore Award). Young Theatre: Bell, Book, and Candle (Kennedy Center Excellence in Stage Management Award).

Anjee Nero (Stage Management Swing) The Old Globe: Ride, Cabaret, Destiny of Desire, Come Fall in Love, Almost Famous, The Gardens of Anuncia, The Heart of Rock & Roll, Bright Star, Allegiance, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Benny & Joon, October Sky, Rocky Horror Show, Life After, The Wanderers, Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show, Twenty-Seventh Man, A Room with a View, Kingdom, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Be a Good Little Widow, more. Broadway: Bright Star. Regional highlights: Bright Star (Kennedy Center), Fly, Sideways, Ruined, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Herringbone, The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse), Ruined (Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Kiss Me, Kate (Hartford Stage), Venice (Center Theatre Group), Antigone (SITI Company).