Cheryl Strayed (Original Book) is the author of Tiny Beautiful Things, Torch, Brave Enough, and the No. 1 New York Times best seller Wild. Her books have been translated into more than 40 languages around the world. The Academy Award–nominated film adaptation of Wild was released in 2014. Ms. Strayed’s essays and stories have appeared in The Best American Essays, Vogue, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is the co-host of The New York Times’s “Dear Sugar Radio” podcast, which originated with her popular “Dear Sugar” column.

Marshall Heyman (Co-Conceiver) has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, InStyle, W, Harper’s Bazaar, New York, and many others. He recently wrote for the AMC show “Dietland.”

James Vásquez (Director) recently directed the world premiere of American Mariachi at The Old Globe. Previously with the Globe, he directed Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Rich Girl, and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show; served as associate director for Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax; andprovided musical staging for The Comedy of Errors, Boeing-Boeing,and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, among others. With The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, he has directed Clybourne Park and the world premiere of Acquainted with the Night. He received the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical in 2018 for In the Heights (Moonlight Stage Productions) and in 2010 for Sweeney Todd (Cygnet Theatre Company). His other recent directing/choreography credits include American Mariachi (Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company), The Lorax (Children’s Theatre Company), The Addams Family and Chicago (Moonlight Stage Productions), West Side Story and Cats (San Diego Musical Theatre),the West Coast premiere of [title of show], Pippin,and Next Fall (Diversionary Theatre), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Pageant (Cygnet Theatre Company), as well as developmental workshops at La Jolla Playhouse and Goodspeed Musicals. Mr. Vásquez is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Shirley Pierson (Costume Design), a San Diego–based, award-winning costume designer, is pleased to return to The Old Globe to design costumes for Tiny Beautiful Things. Previously at the Globe she designed Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery and Rich Girl, and for The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, she designed Richard III. Her other regional theatre credits include The Fantasticks (Pasadena Playhouse), Hir and Shockheaded Peter (Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Costume Design), The Wind and the Breeze, Pageant, The Importance of Being Earnest (Craig Noel Award nomination), Travesties, Assassins, A Christmas Carol, Parade (Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Costume Design), Spring Awakening, Mistakes Were Made, The Glass Menagerie, Little Shop of Horrors, Our Town, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Private Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, and The History Boys (Cygnet Theatre Company), The Moors, The Boy Who Danced on Air, Now or Later, Marry Me a Little, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabbler, When Last We Flew, Pippin, Next Fall, and Harmony, Kansas (Diversionary Theatre), and Seascape and Into the Woods (New Village Arts). Ms. Pierson has also designed costumes and puppets for Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program, which focuses on issues of literacy, nutrition, and conflict management in schools throughout Southern California. Ms. Pierson received her M.F.A. in Theatrical Design from San Diego State University. shirleypiersondesigns.com.

Melanie Chen Cole (Sound Design) is delighted to be returning to The Old Globe after designing The Imaginary Invalid in 2017.Sheis a San Diego–based sound designer who has worked all over the country. Her recent regional credits include the 2019 POP Tour Light Years Away, At the Old Place, and the 2017 POP Tour #SuperShinySara (La Jolla Playhouse), Aubergine, Actually, and Vietgone (San Diego Repertory Theatre), Steel Magnolias (Dallas Theater Center), Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (A Noise Within), Moon Over Buffalo, The Father, and This Random World (North Coast Repertory Theatre), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Avenue Q, and Men on Boats (New Village Arts), and Smokefall and Bachelorette (Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company). She holds an M.F.A. in Sound Design for Theatre & Dance from UC San Diego. melaniesound.com.

Chandra R.M. Anthenill (Production Stage Manager) has worked on the Globe productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night (Globe for All), Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Guys and Dolls, Camp David, and The Comedy of Errors. Her credits as production stage manager include Fun Home, Beachtown, Roz & Ray, Into the Beautiful North, R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE, Outside Mullingar, The Oldest Boy, Everybody’s Talkin’: The Music of Harry Nilsson, Oedipus El Rey, and Honky (San Diego Repertory Theatre), The Last Wife, Bad Jews, Sons of the Prophet, True West, Fool for Love, Spring Awakening, Assassins, and Company (Cygnet Theatre Company), and Pippin (Diversionary Theatre). Her credits as assistant stage manager include Junk: The Golden Age of Debt (La Jolla Playhouse), In the Next Room or the vibrator play, The Who’s Tommy, Walter Cronkite Is Dead, Tortilla Curtain, and Zoot Suit (San Diego Repertory Theatre), and Dirty Blonde (Cygnet Theatre Company). Ms. Anthenill is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.