Aaron Posner: (Playwright) is a Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award-winning director and adaptor of literature. He is founder and former artistic director of Philadelphia's Arden Theatre and has directed at major regional theatres from coast to coast including Folger Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, The Milwaukee Rep, California Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Round House Theatre, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Theater J, American Players Theatre and many more. His adaptations include Chaim Potok's The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev (both of which have enjoyed successful runs at Cleveland Play House as well as at more than 50 other theatres across the country), Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, Mark Twain's A Murder, a Myster, and a Marriage and many others. Posner was raised in Eugene, Oregon, attended Northwestern University, is an Eisenhower Fellow and now lives near Washington, DC. less is a Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award-winning director and adaptor of literature. He is founder and former artistic director of Philadelphia's Arden Theatre and has directed at major regional theatres from coast to coast including Folger Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville,... more

Antje Ellerman: (Scenic Designer) is happy to continue her collaboration with Laura Kepley, having previously worked together on a production of The Syringa Tree at Trinity Repertory Theatre. Regionally, Ellermann's work has been seen at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Geffen Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Mass MoCA's Bard Summerscape, and Pittsburgh Opera Center. In New York her designs include Invasion at The Play Company, Hamlet, directed by David Esbjornson at Theatre for a New Audience, Liberty City at New York Theatre Workshop and Nine Parts of Desire at Manhattan Ensemble Theater. She has been nominated for a Helen Hayes Award, an Ovation Award and a Lucille Lortel Award for Nine Parts of Desire and for an Emmy Award for Becoming American, The Chinese Experience on PBS. Upcoming productions include Ruined at Philadelphia Theatre Company and Middletown, directed by Les Waters, at Steppenwolf. less is happy to continue her collaboration with Laura Kepley, having previously worked together on a production of The Syringa Tree at Trinity Repertory Theatre. Regionally, Ellermann's work has been seen at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Geffen Playhouse, Seattle... more

Chaim Potok: (Novelist) was born Herman Harold Potok on February 17, 1929. The son of Polish immigrants, he was reared in an Orthodox Jewish home in New York City, where he attended religious schools. As a young man he became fascinated by less restrictive Jewish doctrines, particularly the Conservative side of Judaism. He attended Yeshiva University and graduated summa cum laude in English literature in 1950 before moving on to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained a Conservative rabbi. Potok then taught at several Jewish colleges, including the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, before moving on to become managing editor of Conservative Judaism Journal in 1964. Potok spent a year in Israel completing his doctoral dissertation on philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 and the following year became the editor of the Jewish Publication Society of America, where he remained for eight years before becoming a special-projects editor of the publication in 1974. Potok began his career as an author and novelist in 1967 with publication of The Chosen, the first book from a major publisher to portray Orthodox Judaism in the United States. Two years later, he followed The Chosen with a sequel, The Promise. In 1972, Potok returned to the subject of Hasidism for a third time with his novel My Name is Asher Lev, the sequel to which, The Gift of Asher Lev, was published 18 years later in 1990. His other novels include In the Beginning (1975), The Book of Lights (1981), Davita's Harp (1985), I am the Clay (1992), The Tree of Here (1993), The Sky of Now (1995) and The Gates of November (1996). Potok also published several major nonfiction works, including Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews (1978). less was born Herman Harold Potok on February 17, 1929. The son of Polish immigrants, he was reared in an Orthodox Jewish home in New York City, where he attended religious schools. As a young man he became fascinated by less restrictive Jewish doctrines, particularly the Conservative side of Judaism. He... more

Jeffrey Van Curtis: (Costume Designer) is Cleveland Play House's costume shop manager. For CPH he designed costumes for Bill W. and Dr. Bob; Doubt; I Am My Own Wife; Rounding Third; Proof; Dinner with Friends; and Art. For the Case Western Reserve University/CPH Master of Fine Arts Acting Program he designed An Orchard, All's Well that Ends Well, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, As You Like It, Heartbreak House, Hurlyburly and Hay Fever, and he designed several CPH Theatre for Children productions. He has designed for Coconut Grove Playhouse, Studio Arena Theatre, and Music Theatre North, and he also created wigs for CPH productions of Private Lives, Triumph of Love, Quilters and A Wonderful Life. He worked at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Lyric Opera Cleveland, the former Cleveland-San Jose Ballet, and on the film Kansas City, among others. He holds his MFA, Costume Design and Technology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. less is Cleveland Play House's costume shop manager. For CPH he designed costumes for Bill W. and Dr. Bob; Doubt; I Am My Own Wife; Rounding Third; Proof; Dinner with Friends; and Art. For the Case Western Reserve University/CPH Master of Fine Arts Acting Program he designed An Orchard, All's Well... more

Laura Kepley: (Director) directed Cleveland Play House mainstage productions of In the Next Room, or the vibrator play and My Name is Asher Lev; the reading of Daphne’s Dive for New Ground Theatre Festival; and CPH FusionFest 2011 readings of Silent Sky and Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile. She joined CPH in 2010 as associate artistic director, having arrived in Cleveland from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. While at Trinity Rep, she directed The Clean House, The Syringa Tree, and world premieres of Shapeshifter, Boots on the Ground, and Some Things are Private. Kepley has directed over 20 new plays including Breadcrumbs at Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The K of D at The Kennedy Center and Orlando/University of Central Florida Shakespeare Festival, and several written by George Brant such as Grizzly Mama at Dobama Theatre, Elephant’s Graveyard at The University of Texas at Austin, and shoptalk for The Drama League’s DIRECTORFEST. She has worked with playwrights on the development of their work at The Public Theater (N.Y.), The Playwright’s Center (Minn.), PlayPenn (Pa.), Naked Angels (N.Y.), PlayhouseSquare’s Launch Program (Ohio) and WordBRIDGE Playwrights' Lab (S.C.). Kepley is a Drama League Fellow and a recipient of the 2009 – 2011 National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program for Directors. less directed Cleveland Play House mainstage productions of In the Next Room, or the vibrator play and My Name is Asher Lev; the reading of Daphne’s Dive for New Ground Theatre Festival; and CPH FusionFest 2011 readings of Silent Sky and Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile. She joined CPH in 2010... more

Lindsay Jones: (Composer/Sound Designer) was composer and sound designer for My Name is Asher Lev at Cleveland Play House. Off-Broadway credits include Through the Night, Westside Theatre; The Brother/Sister Plays, The Public Theater; The Burnt Part Boys, Playwrights Horizons; Top Secret, New York Theatre Workshop; and many others. Regional credits include McCarter Theatre Center, Arena Stage, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Guthrie, Chicago Shakespeare, South Coast Repertory, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle Rep, Northlight, The Milwaukee Rep, and Geva. International credits include productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada, Scotland, and England with Royal Shakespeare Company. He is winner of five Joseph Jefferson Awards, 16 nominations; two Ovation Awards, three nominations; Los Angeles and San Diego Drama Critics Circle Awards; nominations for Drama Desk, Henry Hewes Design, AUDELCO, and Barrymore Awards; and the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Film and television scoring includes Mama, I Want To Sing; Family Practice; and A Note of Triumph (2006 Academy Award-winner, Best Documentary, Short Subject). less was composer and sound designer for My Name is Asher Lev at Cleveland Play House. Off-Broadway credits include Through the Night, Westside Theatre; The Brother/Sister Plays, The Public Theater; The Burnt Part Boys, Playwrights Horizons; Top Secret, New York Theatre Workshop; and many others. Regional credits include McCarter Theatre Center,... more

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Michael Lincoln: (Lighting Designer) designed The 39 Steps, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Chosen, Rabbit Hole, and Of Mice and Men for Cleveland Play House. His career encompasses over 200 designs including the Broadway productions of Copenhagen, Skylight, and More to Love and off Broadway productions of People Be Heard; Mr. Goldwyn; Down the Garden Paths; The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin; If Love Were All; Defying Gravity; Bunny, Bunny; You Should Be So Lucky; and Desdemona. He has designed nationally with long associations at Indiana Repertory Theatre, The Studio Theatre, Alley Theatre, Bay Street Theatre, Los Angeles Ballet, and Santa Fe Opera. He was also associate lighting designer for the Broadway productions of Guys and Dolls, Six Degrees of Separation, and City of Angels among many others. Lincoln won the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle and Drama Logue Awards and leads the Ohio University Production Design and Technology program. less designed The 39 Steps, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Chosen, Rabbit Hole, and Of Mice and Men for Cleveland Play House. His career encompasses over 200 designs including the Broadway productions of Copenhagen, Skylight, and More to Love and off Broadway productions... more

Michele Volansky: (Dramaturg) is associate professor of Drama at Washington College. She serves as conference dramaturg and associate artist for PlayPenn Conference and has worked at the Atlantic Theatre Company, the Arden Theater, Azuka Theatre Collective, 1812 Productions, Theatre Exile/Act 2 Playhouse as well as on the artistic staffs at Actors Theatre of Louisville (1992-95), Steppenwolf Theatre Company (1995-2000) and Philadelphia Theatre Company (2000-2004). In her career, she has worked on over 150 new and established plays, including the Broadway productions of Buried Child and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She is the 1999 inaugural recipient of the Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy and is a past President of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Volansky is co-author, with Bruce Graham, of The Collaborative Playwright. She is finishing her PhD at the University of Hull (England), writing about the critics Kenneth Tynan and Frank Rich. less is associate professor of Drama at Washington College. She serves as conference dramaturg and associate artist for PlayPenn Conference and has worked at the Atlantic Theatre Company, the Arden Theater, Azuka Theatre Collective, 1812 Productions, Theatre Exile/Act 2 Playhouse as well as on the artistic staffs at Actors Theatre of... more

Paul Fouquet: (Casting) recently completed casting for the PBS movie Becoming Helen Keller to air in spring 2011. Previously cast seven Broadway shows, including Tony Award nominated Having Our Say and 25 off Broadway Shows. Additionally, three "Movies of the Week" (with Tyne Daly, Claire Danes, Christopher Reeve, Ed Asner and Daniel J. Travanti), five pilots and two PBS specials by Wendy Wasserstein and Terrance McNally (with Bernadette Peters, Nathan Lane, Blythe Danner, Spike Lee and Paul Sorvino), the Peabody Award-Winning mini-series Liberty as well as the Emmy Award-Winning mini-series Benjamin Franklin and John & Abigail Adams. Also cast mini-series God in America, The People v. Leo Frank, Dolley Madison and Louisa May Alcott. Some regional casting includes Cleveland Play House, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Geva Theatre Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Magic Theatre. The office has received 12 nominations and has won three Artios Awards, Outstanding Achievement in Casting. less recently completed casting for the PBS movie Becoming Helen Keller to air in spring 2011. Previously cast seven Broadway shows, including Tony Award nominated Having Our Say and 25 off Broadway Shows. Additionally, three "Movies of the Week" (with Tyne Daly, Claire Danes, Christopher Reeve, Ed Asner and Daniel J.... more

Shannon Habenicht: (Stage Manager) is in her fourth season with Cleveland Play House. Her CPH stage management credits include Radio Golf, Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays), The Kite Runner, Backwards in High Heels, My Name is Asher Lev, A Christmas Story, Ain't Misbehavin’, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, A Christmas Story, Noises Off!, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Piano Lesson, and Rounding Third. She has stage managed at Great Lakes Theater and Idaho Shakespeare Festival numerous productions including A Christmas Carol, Arsenic and Old Lace, Hayfever, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Amadeus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). less is in her fourth season with Cleveland Play House. Her CPH stage management credits include Radio Golf, Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays), The Kite Runner, Backwards in High Heels, My Name is Asher Lev, A Christmas Story, Ain't Misbehavin’, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, Mahalia:... more