Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand’s other works include: The Red Glove (1888); Les Musardises (1890); The Two Pierrots, or The White Supper (1891); Les Romanesques (1894), which was the basis for the 1960 off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks; La Princesse Lointaine or The Princess Far-Away (1895); La Samaritaine or The Woman of Samaria (1897); L’Aiglon: A Play in Six Acts (1900); Chantecler: A Play in Four Acts (1910); The Last Night of Don Juan (1921); Le Cantique de L’Aile (1922) and Le Vol de la Marseillaise.

Martin Crimp was born in 1956 and began writing for theatre in the 1980s. His plays include: When we have sufficiently tortured each other (2019), Men Asleep (2018), The Rest Will be Familiar To You From Cinema (2013, voted by Germany’s Theater heute best foreign play of the year), In the Republic of Happiness (2012), Play House (2012), The City (2008), Fewer Emergencies (2005, receiving Italy’s Premio Ubu), Cruel and Tender (2004, written for director Luc Bondy), Face to the Wall (2002), The Country (2000), Attempts on her Life (1997), The Treatment (1993, winner of the John Whiting Award), Getting Attention (1992), No One Sees the Video (1991), Play with Repeats (1989), Dealing with Clair (1988) and Definitely the Bahamas (1987).

His translations of plays include Botho Strauss’s Gross und Klein (2012), Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (2007), Marivaux’s The False Servant (2004) and The Triumph of Love (1999), Genet’s The Maids (1999), Ionesco’s The Chairs (1997), Koltès’s Roberto Zucco (1997), a new version of Chekhov’s The Seagull (2006), and adaptations of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac (2019) and Molière’s The Misanthrope (1996).

His work has been produced in the UK by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Almeida, Young Vic, Barbican, Théâtre de Complicité, the Orange Tree and the Royal Court, and has been translated into many languages and widely produced abroad at venues including the Piccolo Teatro, Milan, the Sala Beckett, Barcelona, the Vienna Festival, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Théâtre de la Ville, Berlin’s Schaubühne, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, and at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, which presented four of his works in their 2006 season, including his first text for opera, Into the Little Hill, written for George Benjamin. His second collaboration with Benjamin, Written on Skin, had its world premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2012, and the third, Lessons in Love and Violence, opened at London’s Royal Opera House in 2018.

In 2020 he was awarded the Nyssen-Bansemer Theatre Prize.

Select credits include: LA premiere of Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance (Geffen); Little Shop of Horrors with Michaela Jae Rodriguez, George Salazar and Amber Riley (Pasadena Playhouse); and world premieres of Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride (MCC, Geffen, Denver Center), Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage (MCC, Woolly Mammoth), Ana Nogueira’s Which Way To The Stage (MCC), and Highway Patrol (The Goodman), co-created with Dana Delany, Dane Laffrey & Jen Silverman. Mike’s award-winning debut short film Troy premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, screening at another 70 festivals internationally, including the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Troy is a Vimeo Staff Pick Best of 2023 and featured online in The New Yorker’s Screening Room. Mike and writer Jen Silverman are currently working on their first feature, with Pacific Electric producing.

Afsoon Pajoufar is a New York-based designer of stage and environment for plays, operas, and other live performances. Recent works include Fuente Ovejuna (Theatre For A New Audience), Adoration (Beth Morrison Projects), Out Of Character (Berkeley Rep), Molière’s Dom Juan (Fisher Center at Bard SummerScape), English (Studio Theatre), Lady M (HeartBeat Opera), MƆɹNIŊ[MORNING/MOURNING] (PROTOTYPE 2022), Mad Forest (Theatre for a New Audience-Fisher Center at Bard), Word.Sound.Power (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Paper Pianos (EMPAC), Will You Come With Me (The Play Company), and The Silence (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Internationally, her work has taken her to Alte Münze (Berlin) and Schauspiel Köln (Cologne). She is a member of USA829. afsoonpajoufar.com

Carolyn Mazuca is a Texas born and Los Angeles based Costume Designer for stage and screen. Her work is inspired by her love of character development, her fine arts background, and her family’s generational history in the arts. Carolyn’s theatrical work includes the productions of La Havana Madrid at South Coast Repertory, Native Gardens at Dallas Theatre Center, and Mother Road at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Arena Stage. Her film work includes the designs for Body Language (post-production) and What?. Carolyn is a member of the IATSE Costume Designers Guild and works as an Assistant Costume Designer on union productions such as Perry Mason Season 2. Carolyn earned her BFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University. www.carolynmazuca.com

Pasadena Playhouse credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The Fantasticks, and Real Women Have Curves. His work has been seen all over Los Angeles and in theaters nationwide, including Geffen Playhouse (The Inheritance, The Legend of Georgia McBride); Mark Taper Forum (November); Guthrie Theater; Goodman Theatre; Arena Stage; Trinity Repertory Company; Cincinnati Playhouse; Baltimore Center Stage; and Alliance Theatre. Josh is an ensemble member at IAMA Theatre Company and is on the faculty at Chapman University. He is an LA Ovation and Knight of Illumination Award winner and a Helen Hayes Award nominee. Josh received his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three daughters. joshepsteindesign.com

Edward S. Hansen is a lighting designer and associate for theater, installation, and events. Selected Assistant/Associate credits include The Inheritance (The Geffen Playhouse), Between Two Knees (Perelman Center for the Performing Arts), When Playwrights Kill (Signature Theatre New York), GLOW: The Gala, Warner Bros. Icons of Horror, & Music (Madame Tussauds New York). Edward received his B.F.A. in Theatre Design from the University of Southern California. www.edwardshansen.com

Pasadena Playhouse: Little Shop of Horrors. Locally, she has designed at the Geffen Playhouse, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, East West Players, and IAMA Theatre Co. Regional Sound Design credits include Denver Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Folger Theatre, Olney Theatre, Everyman, Yale Rep, Signature Theatre (VA), Kansas City Starlight Theatre, and others. Associate Sound Design: Manhattan Theatre Club, The Kennedy Center, CENTERSTAGE, Arena Stage. Outside of the theater, she has taught undergraduate and graduate students, and spent five years at Walt Disney Imagineering. Training: Prague Conservatory of Music, California Institute of the Arts, Yale School of Drama.

Rachel Lee Flesher (they/she/he) Select Los Angeles: Jelly’s Last Jam, One of the Good Ones (Pasadena Playhouse); Cabaret, Destiny of Desire, Dial M for Murder (The Old Globe Theatre) Cassils Human Measure (RedCat Theatre), Radical (IAMA Theatre Company). Select Chicago: Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre) Twilight Bowl, Relentless (Goodman Theatre); Constellations, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, The Most…Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre); The Displaced (Haven Theatre); First Love is the Revolution (Steep Theatre). Select television: Intimacy Coordinator: GLOW, You, Hunters, Presumed Innocent, Gaslit. Accreditation: Flesher is on the SAG-AFTRA Intimacy Coordinator registry, CEO of Intimacy Professionals Education Collective, SAG-AFTRA stunt performer, and Fight Director and Instructor with Fight Directors Canada.

Ryan’s versatility in the world of casting speaks for itself. For the last decade, Ryan has cast many theater productions in Los Angeles and New York, including many shows at Pasadena Playhouse and The Wallis. Their portfolio also includes notable TV and film projects such as the Wicked movies, This Is Us, Atypical, and many more. Ryan puts inclusion and diversity at the heart of everything they do. Their mission is to celebrate and actively advocate for performers who reflect the full spectrum of human diversity to help expand a multiplicity of narratives; narratives that reflect the real world we live in and challenge conventional boundaries that currently exist in the entertainment industry. rbtcasting.com. @rbtcasting