James Ard is a noisemaker specializing in new works. His designs include collaborations with Under the Radar at The Public Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Portland Center Stage. Internationally, his designs have appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe and Sibiu International Festival. In the San Francisco Bay Area, he’s worked with A.C.T., TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, and is a Resident Artist with Golden Thread and Crowded Fire Theater.

Ana Bayat is an award-winning theatre artist and multilingual, multidisciplinary creator whose work spans over three decades across stage, screen, and languages. She is the creator of the critically acclaimed Mimi’s Suitcase, recipient of the Neda Nobari Foundation Grant for Innovative Arts and an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award nominee. Trained in the Stanislavski tradition in Tehran and later in Speech and Dramatic Arts in England, Ana is a professor at Saint Mary’s College of California and an internationally sought-after language and dialect coach. Her recent credits include coaching Glenn Close on Apple TV’s Tehran and performers on Paramount+’s The Agency. She is currently completing a documentary on language, culture, and memory. Ana’s recent theatre projects as dialect coach include English by Sanaz Toossi at Melbourne Theatre Co., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Barrington Stage, The Old Globe, Studio Theatre (also as cultural and casting consultant), and Wish You Were Here at South Coast Repertory (also as casting consultant and cultural dramaturg) and A Distinct Society at Human Race Theatre. http://www.anabayat.com/

Shahrzad Mazaheri is a DC based costume designer and lecturer. She is delighted to make her Alley Theatre debut. Recent works: In Clay (Signature Theatre); English (Goodman Theatre/Guthrie Theater co-production, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Wish You Were Here (South Coast Repertory); Someone Will Remember Us; POTUS; Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B (Trinity Rep). Upcoming: Sleuth (Guthrie Theater), Safety Not Guaranteed (Signature Theatre). More at shahrzadmazaheri.com.

Sherrice Mojgani recently designed The Comedy of Errors and All’s Well that Ends Well (The Old Globe); Derecho and The Garden (La Jolla Playhouse); Bulrusher and Blues for an Alabama Sky (McCarter Theatre Center); The Mountaintop and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Round House Theater); Tiny Beautiful Things and The Folks at Home (Baltimore Center Stage); The High Ground, The Heiress, and Two Trains Running (Arena Stage). Sherrice is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz and an M.F.A. in Lighting Design from UC San Diego. smojgani.com

Evren Odcikin (he/him) is a Turkish-American director, writer, and arts leader based in New York City and San Francisco. He is a celebrated champion of historically-excluded voices in the American theater through work that is heart-centered, politically engaged, globally minded, and centers joy as resistance. He is committed to building his work with and for the communities it represents. He is the proud 2024-25 Artist in Residence at Golden Thread Productions and a 2025 Iris Lab Fellow with UC Santa Cruz. Recent directing: Soho Rep, PlayCo, Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T., Guthrie Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Geva Theatre, Northern Stage, Berkeley Rep, Prague Shakes, Utah Shakes, Marin Shakes, Magic Theatre, and Playwrights’ Center, amongst others. As a playwright and translator, he’s received commissions, workshops, and productions from Cal Shakes, NYU Abu Dhabi, Golden Thread, Crowded Fire, and Custom Made. Evren served as the Interim Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2023, where he was Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programming from 2019-2023. Evren serves on the boards of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and Golden Thread Productions. odcikin.com

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning English (co-production, Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company) and Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons; Williamstown/Audible, released 2020). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company (Launch commission; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant), Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). In television, Sanaz recently staffed on Invitation to a Bonfire (AMC), A League of Their Own (Amazon), and Five Women (Marielle Heller/ Big Beach), and sold an original idea, The Persians, to FX with Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields attached as Executive Producers. Sanaz is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award, the 2022 recipient of The Horton Foote Award and, most recently, the 2023 recipient of the Best New American Play Obie Award. MFA: NYU Tisch