Ursula Rani Sarma (Playwright) is an award-winning writer of Irish Indian descent. She has written plays for Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre of Ireland in Dublin, as well as American Conservatory Theater, Ambassador Theatre Group, Traverse Theatre, Paines Plough, and the BBC, amongst many other companies. Her recent productions include Joanne (Clean Break, Soho Theatre), Débris (Théâtre La Licorne), The Ripple Effect (Ambassador Theatre Group/London Cultural Olympiad), Yerma (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Riot (A.C.T. Young Conservatory/Theatre Royal Bath), The Dark Things (Traverse Theatre), and Birdsong (Abbey Theatre). Ms. Sarma has been writer-in-residence for Paines Plough, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and Royal National Theatre, among other companies. She is currently developing plays for Abbey Theatre, Traverse Theatre, and Djinn Theatre Company. For the screen, her work includes “Raw,” “Red Rock,” Anywhere but Here, and Judge Dee. She is currently adapting the book Henry’s Demons for BBC One and writing an original drama entitled Guardian for Channel 4.

Carey Perloff (Director) is celebrating her 25th season as Artistic Director of American Conservatory Theater, where she commissioned and developed this adaptation of A Thousand Splendid Suns. Known for innovative productions of classics and for championing new writing and new forms of theatre, she has directed classical plays from around the world, 10 plays by Tom Stoppard (including the American premieres of The Invention of Love and Indian Ink, also at Roundabout Theatre Company, and two productions of Arcadia), and many productions by favorite contemporary writers such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, José Rivera, and Philip Kan Gotanda. Her other productions include Hecuba, Mary Stuart, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Tosca Café, The Voysey Inheritance, Scorched, and Underneath the Lintel. Ms. Perloff is also an award-winning playwright. Her recent play Kinship premiered at the Théâtre de Paris in 2014; Higher won the 2011 Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation Theatre Visions Fund Award; and Luminescence Dating premiered in New York at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Ms. Perloff’s book, Beautiful Chaos: A Life in the Theater (City Lights Foundation Books), was selected as San Francisco Public Library’s One City One Book selection for 2016. Before joining A.C.T., she was Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company in New York, where she directed the premiere of Ezra Pound’s Elektra, the American premiere of Pinter’s Mountain Language, and many classic works. Named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettresby the French government, Ms. Perloff received a B.A. Phi Beta Kappa in Classics and Comparative Literature from Stanford University and was a Fulbright Fellow at Oxford.

Ken MacDonald (Scenic Design) has designed The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring (Canadian Stage, Vancouver Opera, Tapestry Opera), The Barber of Seville and Macbeth (Pacific Opera Victoria), The Threepenny Opera, The Rake’s Progress, and Susannah (Vancouver Opera), A Thousand Splendid Suns (American Conservatory Theater, Grand Theatre, Theatre Calgary), Sovereignty and The Shoplifters (Arena Stage, Theatre Calgary), Engaged, Our Town, Sweet Charity, Arms and the Man, Our Betters, and The Doctor’s Dilemma (Shaw Festival Theatre), Wanderlust, Moby Dick, and The Trespassers (Stratford Festival), Parfumerie, Blithe Spirit, The Government Inspector, and ’night, Mother (Soulpepper Theatre Company), The Arsonists, The Overcoat, and Vigil (Canadian Stage), Sextet, The Amorous Adventures of Anatol, Marry Me a Little, Benevolence, and The Dishwashers (Tarragon Theatre), and The Waiting Room, Hamlet, and Art (Arts Club Theatre Company). Mr. MacDonald has received a Gemini Award for Outstanding Production Design for The Overcoat (CBC); two Dora Awards; a Betty Mitchell Award; and 17 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. kenandmorris.com.

Robert Wierzel (Lighting Design) has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in opera, theatre, dance, museums, and contemporary music, on stages throughout the country and abroad. Mr. Wierzel’s theatre work has been seen on and Off Broadway, including Fela! (Tony Award nomination), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill starring Audra McDonald, David Copperfield: Dreams and Nightmares,and productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Signature Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, Mostly Mozart Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Acting Company, and Lincoln Center Festival/American Songbook. He has collaborated for decades with choreographer and director Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Mr. Wierzel is currently in pre-production on a new musical, A Walk on the Moon. He is on the faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a creative partner at Spark Design Collaborative.

David Coulter (Original Music) is an English-born multidisciplinary artist, musician, composer, director, and educator based in the Bay Area. Since the 1980s, he has directed shows, produced records, and played his musical saw and other assorted weird and less-weird instruments in studios, theatres, and stages and on recordings around the world with the likes of The Pogues, Tom Waits and Robert Wilson, Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, Hal Willner, and Gorillaz. Mr. Coulter curates and directs numerous multi-artist events. His credits include Monkey: Journey to the West (Gorillaz/Chen Shi-Zheng), Double Fantasy Live, Rain Dogs Revisited, Twisted Christmas, In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited, and An Anatomy Act. He was also associate musical director and multi-instrumentalist on The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets (A.C.T., 2004). He is a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, and he has played the didgeridoo at the invitation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on a number of official occasions.

Janet Foster, CSA (Casting) has cast for American Conservatory Theater for the past six years, including Hamlet, The Birthday Party, A Walk on the Moon, Indian Ink, The Orphan of Zhao, Maple and Vine, Endgame, Play, The Scottsboro Boys, The Normal Heart, A Christmas Carol, 4000 Miles, Dead Metaphor, Arcadia, and many more. Her Broadway credits include The Light in the Piazza (Artios Award nomination), Lennon, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Taking Sides (co-cast). She cast the Off Broadway productions of Lucky Guy, Lucy, Close Ties, Brundibar, True Love, Endpapers, The Dying Gaul, The Maiden’s Prayer, Dream True, The Trojan Women, and A Love Story. For Playwrights Horizons she cast Floyd Collins, The Monogamist, A Cheever Evening, Later Life, and many more. Ms. Foster’s credits include Intiman Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Old Globe, Baltimore Center Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, Two River Theater, and American Repertory Theater. Her television, film, and radio credits include “Cosby” (CBS), Tracey Takes on New York (HBO), The Deal by Lewis Black, Advice from a Caterpillar, “The Day That Lehman Died” (BBC World Services/Blackhawk Productions; Peabody, Sony, and Wincott Foundation Awards), and WNYC Tom Stoppard Radio Plays for 2010–2011.