Anton Chekhov (Playwright, 1860–1904) first turned to writing as a medical student at Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1884. Among his early works were short monologues (“The Evils of Tobacco”) and one-act farces (The Bear, The Proposal, The Wedding). His first completed full-length play was Ivanov (1887), followed by The Wood Demon (1889), The Seagull (1896), Uncle Vanya (1899), Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904).

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Co-Translators) Mr. Pevear was born in Boston, grew up on Long Island, and attended Allegheny College (B.A., 1964) and University of Virginia (M.A., 1965). After a stint as a college teacher, he moved to the Maine coast and eventually to New York City, where he worked as a freelance writer, editor, and translator, as well as a cabinetmaker. He has published two collections of poetry, many essays and reviews, and 38 books translated from French, Italian, and Russian. Ms. Volokhonsky was born in Leningrad, attended Leningrad State University, and upon graduating joined a scientific team whose work took her to the east of Russia, to Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island. She immigrated to Israel in 1973 and to the United States in 1975, where she attended Yale Divinity School and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Soon after settling in New York City, she was married to Mr. Pevear, and a few years later they moved to France with their two children. Together they have translated 30 books from Russian, including works by Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Boris Pasternak. Their translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov received the 1991 PEN/Laura Pels Translation Award, and their translation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina was awarded the same prize in 2002. In 2006 they were awarded the first Efim Etkind International Translation Prize by the European Graduate School of St. Petersburg.

Susan Hilferty (Costume Design) has designed over 350 productions across the globe, including in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Japan, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Malaysia, Spain, Brazil, Germany, and South Africa. Her many Broadway designs include Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards, Olivier Award nomination), Hands on a Hardbody, Spring Awakening (Tony nomination), Lestat (Tony nomination), Annie, Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations, Henry Hewes Design Award), and Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland. Her designs for opera include Rigoletto (Metropolitan Opera) and Manon (LA Opera, Staatsoper Berlin). She just completed her 101st Off Broadway design—Richard Nelson’s Illyria—and Uncle Vanya is her 31st collaborationwith him. She works with many well-known artists, including Athol Fugard, the South African writer with whom she worked as set and costume designer and often as co-director on over 34 productions since 1980. Ms. Hilferty also designs for film, dance (Alvin Ailey), the circus (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey), and concerts (Taylor Swift’s Speak Now World Tour). Her many awards include the Obie Award (Sustained Excellence of Design), The Lilly Award, and The Ruth Morley Design Award. In addition, she chairs Graduate Design for Stage & Film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Jennifer Tipton (Lighting) is well known for her lighting for theatre, opera, and dance. Her recent work in theatre includes Richard Nelson’s Illyria (The Public Theater). Her recent work in opera includes Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (Metropolitan Opera), and her recent work in dance includes Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet (Bolshoi Ballet). Ms. Tipton teaches lighting at Yale School of Drama. She received The Dorothy & Lillian Gish Prize in 2001, the Jerome Robbins Award in 2003, and the United Scenic Artists Gracie Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008.

Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) has cast the Globe productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Ken Ludwig’s Robin Hood!, Skeleton Crew, Red Velvet, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Blameless, Meteor Shower, tokyo fish story, Constellations, The Last Match, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Rich Girl, Arms and the Man, Buyer & Cellar, The White Snake, The Twenty-seventh Man, The Royale, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Water by the Spoonful, Time and the Conways, Bethany, The Winter’s Tale, The Few, Double Indemnity, The Rainmaker, Other Desert Cities, Be a Good Little Widow, A Doll’s House, The Brothers Size, Pygmalion, and Good People. Their Broadway casting credits include Junk, Meteor Shower, A Doll’s House Part 2, The Front Page, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Glass Menagerie, Jitney, The Little Foxes, The Father, Blackbird, An Act of God, Airline Highway, Fish in the Dark, It’s Only a Play, Disgraced, Holler If Ya Hear Me, Casa Valentina, The Snow Geese, Orphans, The Trip to Bountiful, Grace, Dead Accounts, The Other Place, Seminar, The Columnist, Stick Fly, Good People, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The House of Blue Leaves, Fences, Lend Me a Tenor, and The Royal Family. They also cast for Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theater Company, Signature Theatre Company, LCT3, Ars Nova, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, and Arena Stage, among others. Their film and television credits include HairBrained with Brendan Fraser, “American Odyssey” (NBC), “How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC pilot), “Ironside” (NBC), and Steel Magnolias (Sony for Lifetime).