Simon Stephens, Playwright
Simon is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been translated into more than 30 languages and produced all over the world. He is a professor of playwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University, an associate playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, the artistic associate at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, and the Steep Associate Playwright at Steep Theatre in Chicago. His work includes Bluebird, Herons, Port, Christmas, Country Music, On the Shore of the Wide World, Motortown, Harper Regan, Sea Wall, Pornography, Punk Rock, The Trial of Ubu, A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, Marine Parade, Wastwater, I am the Wind, and Three Kingdoms. TV credits include an adaptation of Pornography for Coming Up (Channel 4) and Dive (Granada/BBC).

Mark Haddon, Author
Mark is a British novelist and poet. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English. Haddon won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Overall Best First Book for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in 2006. Haddon is known for his series of Agent Z books, one of which, Agent Z and the Penguin from Mars, was made into a 1996 Children’s BBC sitcom. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2004 BBC television adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ story Fungus the Bogeyman and the 2007 BBC television drama Coming Down the Mountain. Haddon lives in Oxford with his wife Dr. Sos Eltis, a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and their two young sons.

Marissa Wolf, Director
Marissa (she/her) is currently in her second season as artistic director of Portland Center Stage at The Armory, where she recently directed Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Marissa previously served as associate artistic director/new works director at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and artistic director of Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco. Select directing credits include Fire in Dreamland by Rinne Groff (The Public Theater; world premiere at KCRep); Man in Love by Christina Anderson and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens (KCRep); 77% by Rinne Groff (San Francisco Playhouse); Precious Little by Madeleine George (Shotgun Players); The Lily’s Revenge (Act II) by Taylor Mac (Magic Theatre); and The Late Wedding by Christopher Chen (Crowded Fire). She’s been nominated for Best Director by Broadway World San Francisco and the Bay Area Critics Circle. Marissa held the Bret C. Harte Directing Fellowship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and has a degree in drama from Vassar College, with additional training from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. 

Erika Chong Shuch, Choreographer
Erika is a performance maker, choreographer, and director interested in expanding ideas around how performance is created and shared. For You is an ongoing performance making practice that brings diverse strangers together for intimate encounters (foryou.productions). Recent projects also include TheaterTheater, a participatory morality play exploring the hidden forces underlying everyday ethical choices. Her original work has been commissioned and supported by New England Foundation for the Arts/National Theater Project, Creative Capital, Creative Work Fund, Gerbode Foundation, Daejeon Metropolitan Dance Theater (Korea), and The Ground Floor: Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. Erika choreographs nationally for companies such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Folger Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, The Kennedy Center, American Conservatory Theater, Playmakers Repertory Company, Cal Shakes, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Court Theatre, The Old Globe, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Magic Theatre. erikachongshuch.org

Arnulfo Maldonado, Scenic Designer
Off-Broadway credits include Paris, Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company); Power Strip, The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater); Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club, Lucille Lortel Award); School Girls, Charm (Manhattan Theatre Club); one in two (The New Group); A Strange Loop, Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); Usual Girls (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Underlying Chris (Second Stage); Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre). Regional: Alley Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Guthrie Theater, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Woolly Mammoth. Tour: The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (BAM, International). Arnulfo is a Clubbed Thumb affiliated artist, a recipient of a Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Award, and a multiple Henry Hewes Design nominee. Training: NYU Tisch School of the Arts. arnulfomaldonado.com @arnulfo.maldonado.design

Alison Heryer, Costume Designer
Alison is a costume designer for live performance, film, and print media. Her design credits include productions at Steppenwolf Theatre, 59E59 Theaters, The New Victory Theater, Gertrude Opera, Seattle Rep, Portland Center Stage at The Armory, Portland Opera, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, ZACH Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, The Hypocrites, Redmoon Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and the SXSW Film Festival. She has exhibited work at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, the Prague Quadrennial of Design and Space, and World Stage Design Exhibition. Alison is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and the associate professor of costume and textiles in the School of Art + Design at Portland State University.    

Robert J. Aguilar, Lighting Designer
Portland Center Stage at The Armory designs include In the Heights. Other NW credits: In the Heights, MAC BETH, A Raisin in the Sun, I Am My Own Wife, Lizard Boy (Seattle Rep); Hir, Barbeque, Angels in America (Intiman Theatre); The Year of Magical Thinking, The Wolves (ACT); Urinetown (ACT/The 5th Avenue Theatre); The Pajama Game, How to Succeed ..., Jasper in Deadland (The 5th Avenue Theatre); Spelling Bee, String, Trails, Afterwords (Village Theatre); Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters (The Seagull Project). Regional credits: Little Shop of Horrors, Marjorie Prime (Pittsburgh Public); Susan (Public Theater UTR); Full Gallop (The Old Globe); In the Heights, Seven Spots on the Sun (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Robert is the lighting director for Seattle Repertory Theatre. robertjaguilar.com @fake_robert

Brendan Aanes, Original Sound Designer & Composer
Brendan (he/him) is a Brooklyn-based sound designer and composer whose work includes design for plays, musicals, and interactive installations, scores for theater and dance, live foley, and design for concert performances. Recent credits include Fire in Dreamland at The Public Theater, Balls with One Year Lease Theater Company (Drama Desk nomination), {my lingerie play} at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Cowboy Bob at Ars Nova, The Unfortunates, John, The Hard Problem and Chester Bailey at American Conservatory Theater, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Glass Menagerie and Othello at Cal Shakes, and The Music Man at Sharon Playhouse. Brendan received his M.F.A. in music from Mills College. aanes.org

Sharath Patel, Sound Designer
Sharath works nationally and internationally, focusing on experimental, commercial, academic, political, and socially conscious theater. Recent work: In the Heights, Macbeth, The Color Purple (Portland Center Stage at The Armory); The Mystery of Irma Vep (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Snow White (Seattle Children’s Theatre); Pass Over (A Contemporary Theatre); Amadeus (Folger Theatre); Ibsen in Chicago (Seattle Rep); Wolf Play (Artists Repertory Theatre); Nina Simone: Four Women (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (Marin Theatre Company); As You Like It (Cal Shakes); Free Outgoing (East West Players); WIG OUT! (American Repertory Theater/Company One Theatre). He is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, IATSE, and the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, and a resident artist at Artist Rep. M.F.A.: Yale School of Drama. sharathpatel.com

Natalie Greene, Associate Choreographer
Natalie (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Francisco. She is the artistic director of the award-winning devised theater ensemble Mugwumpin, having directed In Event of Moon Disaster (Z Space, TBA Award), choreographed Blockbuster Season (Intersection for the Arts), and co-created/performed in multiple productions for the company. Natalie teaches dance and theater in the Department of Performing Arts & Social Justice at the University of San Francisco. Recent choreography: The Good Person of Szechwan (Cal Shakes), The Looking Glass Self 1.0 (Mugwumpin at CounterPulse), Cabaret (Stanford University), and Vinegar Tom (Shotgun Players). Choreography and intimacy direction: The Children (Aurora Theater Company), Passion (Custom Made Theater), Woman Laughing Alone with Salad and Elevada (Shotgun Players). Big thanks to Erika and Marissa. mugwumpin.org

Mark Tynan, Stage Manager
Imagine being in a room full of artists, watching the birth of an idea, a movement given purpose, a sentence, phrase, scene, act given life. Then imagine that room translating to the stage with lighting, sound, costumes, scenery, and props; then you can imagine what Mark’s (he/him) job is like. Special thanks to the stage management apprentices, Dana Petersen and Macarena Subiabre. Prior to Portland Center Stage at The Armory, Mark toured nationally and internationally with musicals including Dreamgirls, The King and I with Rudolf Nureyev, How to Succeed …, Grand Hotel, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, and Jersey Boys. Other Portland credits include several summers with Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard. Regional credits include Alley Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and Casa Mañana Theatre.

Danny Rosales, Production Assistant
Danny is ecstatic to start 2020 back at Portland Center Stage at The Armory. His previous credits at The Amory include The Magic Play and Every Brilliant Thing. Some of his favorite stage management credits include The Brothers Paranormal (CoHo Productions/MediaRites’ Theatre Diaspora); Here on This Bridge: The -Ism Project (MediaRites’ Theatre Diaspora); and A Map of Virtue (Theatre Vertigo). When he’s not busy working on shows, you can usually find him playing with trash or eating too much ice cream. But silliness set aside, Danny is grateful to be working on this fantastic show with such amazing people. Lastly, he would like to thank his friends, family, and doggos for all their love and support.

Chrissy McNair, Neurodiversity Consultant
Chrissy is a neurodiversity consultant specializing in the areas of inclusion, strategic planning, and public policy advocacy for individuals, small businesses, and non-profits. She is the mother to three boys, one who is a young adult on the Autism Spectrum. Chrissy is dedicated to supporting organizations in their quest to provide a more inclusive and accepting environment for neurodiverse employees and customers. She is also passionate about supporting parents and caregivers of loved ones with special needs, is a public speaker, and is the author of the book Special, Too — A Guide to Nurturing the Special Needs of the Caregiver. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, sons, two loyal dogs, and feisty rescue kitten. 

Scott Stackhouse, Dialect Coach
Scott teaches vocal production, text, and dialects for the M.F.A. program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A graduate of UCLA, Scott has worked nationally as an actor, director, vocal coach, and fight choreographer. Most recently, he served as voice coach on productions of Pride and Prejudice, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and A Christmas Carol at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Rise Up at The Coterie Theatre; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at the Unicorn; and The Mousetrap at Tent Theatre. Scott holds a certificate in Louis Colaianni’s Phonetic pedagogy and is an editor-at-large for the International Dialects of English Archive.