Sami is a writer from London. Theater credits include: two Palestinians go dogging (Royal Court/Theatre Uncut); A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain (Paines Plough/Gate Theatre); Metamorphoses (Shakespeare’s Globe); Wonder Winterland (Oxford School of Drama/Soho Theatre); the Palestinian in the basement is on fire (Pint-Sized/The Bunker); Wind Bit Bitter, Bit Bit Bit Her (VAULT Festival); Iron Dome Fog Dome (The Yard/First Drafts), Carnivore (Brockley Jack). Audio credits include The Twig (That Podcast/ETT); Fledgling (Radio 4); 50 Berkeley Square (Radio 4). Sami won Theatre Uncut’s Political Playwriting Award for two Palestinians go dogging and has been a writer-in-residence at Shakespeare’s Globe as well as on attachment at the National Theatre Studio. He is currently working on a handful of theater commissions and is also developing TV projects as well as a feature film.

Laura is a writer based in London. Current commissions include The Royal Court Theatre and Headlong. Previously she was writer in residence at Shakespeare’s Globe, and the Channel 4 Playwright in Residence at Clean Break. She is a MacDowell Colony and Yaddo Fellow. Recent work includes: The Blue Woman (libretto, The Royal Opera House); Metamorphoses (Shakespeare’s Globe); Chaos (National Theatre Connections); These Walls (Clean Break); Joanne (Clean Break); Bird (UK tour); Blister (Paines Plough). Radio plays include Fragments (BBC Radio 4); My Boy (BBC Radio 4, winner of Best Drama, Sony Radio Academy Awards); and Lucy Island (BBC Radio 3). Screen credits include The Midwich Cuckoos (Sky); Hanna (Amazon); Glue (E4), and Rough Skin (Channel 4, nominated for Best Short at the BIFAs). She is currently writing a feature film for Film 4 and adapting a TV series for the BBC.

Shana Cooper’s directing credits include classics and new work across the country from New York (Julius Caesar at Theatre For A New Audience and the world premiere of Barbara Hammond’s Terra Firma Off-Broadway with The Coop) to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, most recently directing Paula Vogel’s Indecent. Other directing credits include regional productions at The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Court Theatre in Chicago, Studio Theater, Seattle Rep, California Shakespeare Theater, and Playmakers Repertory Company. Ms. Cooper is an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s Directing M.F.A. program, a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington D.C., and has served as Associate Artistic Director of Cal Shakes (2000 to 2004) and Co-Founder of New Theater House (2008 to present). She received a 2014 Leadership U Grant, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group; a 2010 Princess Grace Award; a Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize from Yale School of Drama; and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. Ms. Cooper received her M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. Shanacooper.com

Erika Chong Shuch is a choreographer, director, and performance maker whose work spans devised experimental performance and social practice and produces unexpected forms of audience engagement. Shuch has worked for theaters including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Roundhouse Theater, Getty Villa, Theater for a New Audience, Pittsburg Public Theater, Portland Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Folger Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Erika’s work has been supported by Creative Capital, New England Foundation for the Arts, among others. She was a 2021 finalist for SDC’s Fischandler award and is a Fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts. Shuch founded For You, a performance group that brings strangers together and considers performance making as gift-giving. Their works include First Things First (2019-20, the Momentary), Artists and Elders (2020-current), Dr. G.’s Bingo Extravaganza (2022, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and The Welcoming (forthcoming). www.foryou.productions 

Sibyl’s interests span design for live performance, installations, exhibitions, and design for mental health care initiatives. Her foundation as a theatrical set designer led Sibyl to co-author the book Scene Shift: U.S. Set Designers in Conversation with Maureen Weiss, in Fall 2022. Sibyl has designed for theaters across the country including A.C.T., Theatre for a New Audience, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group, the Geffen Playhouse, to name a few. Unique projects have included Eric Idle’s What About Dick? (Orpheum/Netflix), Toy Story the Musical for Disney Cruise Lines, and the dinosaur puppet stage at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Sibyl is an Associate Professor at USC in the School of Dramatic Arts. sawgirl.com

An-lin Dauber is a set and costume designer based in Seattle. Off-Broadway/New York: Paul Swan is Dead and Gone; What You Are Now (The Civilians), H*tler’s Tasters, Great Novel (New Light Theater); Salesman 之死, June is the First Fall (Yangtze Repertory Company); Bulrusher, Passage (Juilliard); Letters That You Will Not Get (American Opera Project). Seattle: Amen Corner, Marisol, Blood Wedding, Small Craft Warnings, The Time of Your Life, A Bright Room Called Day (The Williams Project). Regional: Huntington Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Alliance Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Park Square Theatre. Assistant Professor of Costume Design at UW. MFA Yale School of Drama. Member of USA 829. anlindauber.com

Thorn Michaels is a Seattle-based lighting designer for theater, dance, and opera. She has designed for The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Opera, Kentucky Opera, Village Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Santa Fe Playhouse, Velocity Dance Center, Seattle Shakespeare Company, ArtsWest, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Public Theater, and others. As the 2016-2017 Hemsley intern, Thorn served as an assistant lighting designer and assistant lighting supervisor for New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Festival, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and San Francisco Opera. She holds an M.F.A. in lighting design from the University of Washington (2016). thornmichaels.com

Regional Theater: Nicole is Having a Baby and Flex at Humana Festival; Native Gardens at Cleveland Playhouse; Romeo and Juliet and Tenth Muse at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Monster Builder at South Coast Repertory; Three Musketeers and Romeo and Juliet at Denver Center; Tempest, Hamlet, Love’s Labor’s Lost, and Venus in Fur at Santa Cruz Shakespeare; 1984, La Ruta, Magellanica, and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart at Artist Repertory Theater. Additional Credits: Rodolfo received his Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music and was recently featured in Prague for the 2019 Prague Quadrennial for his music from Magellanica for Artist Repertory Theater. rodyortega.com

Paul Adolphsen (he/him) is a dramaturg, writer, and educator originally from Seattle. Before joining Seattle Rep, Paul served as Literary Manager at Oregon Shakespeare Festival for three seasons and at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida for two seasons. As a dramaturg, Paul has worked with Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Five College Opera, among others. He was a founding producer of the UMass New Play Lab, and from 2015–2016 served as a Fulbright Student Research Fellow at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. Paul’s writing about theater and performance has been published in Theatre Journal, on HowlRound.com, and by Penumbra Theatre Company. He holds an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Jeffrey K. Hanson (he/him) has been a proud member of the Seattle theater community and Actors’ Equity for over 32 years. He has worked extensively as a production stage manager at ACT and The 5th Avenue Theatre. He is thrilled to return to Seattle Rep where he previously stage-managed Selling Kabul, Metamorphoses, True West (’97 production), The Cider House Rules – Parts I & II, Private Eyes, and All in the Timing. Other Seattle credits include shows at Seattle Children’s Theatre and Intiman. Regional credits include shows during two seasons each at Arizona Theatre Company and New Mexico Repertory Theatre.

Lucas Esperanza (he/him) is a Filipino-American theater artist dedicated to cultivating stories and developing creative opportunities that advocate for a future that not only demands, but honors the voices of underrepresented communities. Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Lucas is a recent graduate from the University of California, Irvine where he studied Drama and Political science. Recent credits include Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla Playhouse/Tectonic Theater Project), Tiger Style! (South Coast Repertory), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Center Theatre Group), What I Learned In Paris (South Coast Repertory).

Max (he/him) is thrilled to be joining Seattle Rep this season! He is a recent Arizona State University graduate, where he earned his degree in theatrical production and design with a concentration in stage management. Recent credits include: HEDDATRON, Healing Wars, La Comedia of Errors (Arizona State University), #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence (Binary Theatre Company), The Tempest and Just Deserts (Santa Cruz Shakespeare). Much love to his family and friends back home in Arizona!

Kjerstine Rose Anderson (she/they) is excited to return to Seattle Rep after appearing in Pride and Prejudice in 2018. Her work in Seattle includes Assassins and Tribes at ACT, Sense and Sensibility and Maltese Falcon with Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Julius Caesar with Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Tour. They have appeared on the stages of Cal Shakes, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater Festival, The Wallis-Annenberg Center in Los Angeles, and with Fiasco Theater Company in New York City. She is the founder of the Greenwood Acting Studio. You can learn more at greenwoodactingstudio.org. Their work here is dedicated to their family. 

Meme García (they/them) is a trans actor and playwright originally from El Salvador. They are a Fulbright Scholar and graduated with a M.A. in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. They hold double degrees in Theatre and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Seattle University. As an actor, they have worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Realm, American Shakespeare Center, upstart crow collective, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle Rep, ACT Theatre, Strawberry Workshop Theatre, and Book-It Repertory Theatre. Their first play, house of sueños, was produced with Seattle Shakespeare Company. They are currently working on a queer retelling of the Salem Witch Trials. memerosagarcia.com, @memerosagarcia

Nike (NEE-kay) Imoru was last seen at Seattle Rep as Water/Poet in The Breach: A Story About the Drowning of New Orleans, with the late John Aylward. Other notable credits include the titular roles in Hamlet and Coriolanus; Earl of Warwick in Bring Down The House (Henry VI Parts 1 & 2); Aaron the Moor, Titus Andronicus; her one-woman Medea, performed in Delphi, Greece. More recently she read the titular role in Helen of Troy at the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco. She is a 2022 Lunt-Fontanne fellow. Nike is also a casting director. She has cast numerous feature films and over seventy episodes of television. She is a member of the Casting Society of America, a teacher, writer, director, and producer. Her PhD is from the University of Warwick, UK.

It is delightful to be back at Seattle Rep, where Darragh (he/him) has been in numerous productions over the years, most recently as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and The American Problem and The Hound of the Baskervilles, and as Carl/Steve in Clybourne Park. He’s performed locally with ACT Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and New Century Theatre Company, where he was the Artistic Director from 2011–2018. Nationally, Darragh has worked at The Guthrie Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, A.C.T. in San Francisco, The Folger Theatre, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, and 10 seasons with American Players Theatre in Spring Green, WI. He was awarded the Gregory Award for Outstanding Performance for his portrayal of Hamlet in Seattle Shakespeare’s 2010 production. Darragh has the pleasure of serving as the Act I Campaign Director here at Seattle Rep, and lives on Vashon Island with the incredible Jessica, Máire, Finn, and Juna.

Miguel Castellano is excited to be returning to Seattle Rep. He is a local actor who is originally from Southern California where he received his B.F.A. in acting from California State University, Fullerton. He’s been seen most recently in Mr. Dickens and His Carol (Seattle Rep), Sweat (ACT), and Drum & Colours (Seattle Shakespeare Company). Much love!

Varinique Davis (she/her) studied at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. She is a member of the Miranda Family Fellowship created by Lin-Manuel Miranda. V’s credits include Seattle Rep's Public Works productions of The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It; Macbeth (Seattle Shakespeare Company); Mamma Mia! (Village Theatre); Howl's Moving Castle (Book-It Repertory Theatre); Office Hour (ArtsWest). “I would not be the artist I am today without Black influence, culture, and experience. For this, I’m eternally grateful.” @515davis