Brian Friel (1929-2015), largely considered modern Ireland’s leading playwright, was born to a schoolmaster and a postmistress. After working as a teacher in Derry for ten years, he married Anne Morrison and moved to Donegal to begin writing in earnest. His first significant theatrical success was Philadelphia, Here I Come, which debuted to rave reviews at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1964. He went on to pen The Loves of Cass McGuire, The Mundy Scheme, The Freedom of the City, Living Quarters, Faith Healer, an adaptation of Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons, Dancing at Lughnasa (winner of three Tony Awards, a New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Play and an Olivier Award for Best Play) and Wonderful Tennessee. In 1980, Mr. Friel joined Stephen Rea in founding the Field Day Theatre Company, where they first staged the Ewart-Biggs Peace Prize-winning Translations, an adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. The Company’s productions explored the middle ground between the secular culture of Northern Ireland and the more traditional rural world.

Famously reclusive, Friel stated, “I am married, have five children, live in the country, smoke too much, fish a bit, read a lot, worry a lot, get involved in sporadic causes and invariably regret the involvement, and hope that between now and my death I will have acquired a religion, a philosophy, a sense of life that will make the end less frightening than it appears to me at this moment.”

Braden Abraham joined Writers Theatre as the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Artistic Director in 2023. He comes to Writers from Seattle Rep, the largest resident theatre in the Pacific Northwest, where he advanced the organization as a director and producer, including the development and premiere of many new plays. He directed six world premieres for Seattle Rep and over 20 productions including: True West, Clybourne Park, Photograph 51, Ibsen in Chicago, Betrayal, Luna Gale, A View from the Bridge, A Great Wilderness, Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. 

Among his initiatives as the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Artistic Director , Braden committed Seattle Rep as one of the first partner theaters to bring the Public Theater’s model for the Public Works program across the country. Seattle Rep’s Public Works strengthens community connection through making ambitious productions of participatory theater. Braden also re-envisioned the New Play Program, commissioning and premiering plays by Anna Zeigler, Samuel D. Hunter, David Grimm, Justin Huertas, Samantha Silva, Cheryl L. West, and Karen Hartman, and supported the work of dozens of playwrights and directors through premieres and the Other Season development lab. Many projects developed through this program went on to acclaimed runs at Seattle Rep and around the country including Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Come From Away, Cheryl L. West’s Shout Sister Shout!, Erica Schmidt’s Mac Beth, and Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice.  Under his leadership, Seattle Rep was the only theater outside New York and London to present David Byrne’s Here Lies Love. Most recently, Braden initiated 20x30: Reimagine the Anthropocene, to commission twenty new plays by the year 2030, and New Directions, a unique commissioning program designed to support generative work from directors. 

Around the country, Braden has developed new work at Ojai, O’Neill, Denver Center, and Perseverance Theatre. He has been a guest artist at Stanford, Gonzaga, Seattle University, and the University of Idaho. He conceived and developed Way Stations, a series of interactive walking tours in Seattle for the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards and is the co-creator of Gordon Hempton: Let it Happen, an audio installation about the life and work of Emmy-Award winning sound ecologist Gordon Hempton. He is married to Cheyenne Casebier and the proud papa of Phoenix Faye Abraham.

ANDREW BOYCE is a Chicago based designer working in Theatre, Opera, Dance, and Film/TV. At Writers: Mystery of Love and Sex. Recent Chicago credits include: Leroy and Lucy (Steppenwolf); The Audience (Drury Lane); Beautiful (Marriott); A Raisin in The Sun (Court) among others. NY credits on Broadway and with New York Theater Workshop, Primary Stages, Lincoln Center, Atlantic Theater Company, Roundabout, among others. Regional credits with most major regional and LORT theaters across the U.S. Opera and Dance: Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Boston Lyric Opera, Curtis Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Yale School of Drama. Associate Professor of Design at Northwestern. www.andrewboycedesign.com

[Bio as of April 2025]

JANICE PYTEL previously designed costumes for Writers Theatre's productions of The Caretaker, The Detective's Wife, A Streetcar Named Desire, Picnic, and The Savannah Disputation. She has collaborated with numerous award-winning playwrights and directors including Les Waters, Lucas Hnath, David Cromer, Bruce Norris, Anna D. Shapiro, Doug Wright and Moisés Kaufman. In Chicago she has designed at Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre, Writers Theatre, Goodman, Chicago Opera Theater and many others. Her work at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, where she is an ensemble member, includes critically acclaimed mid-west premiers of The Cake and Dry Land. Her Broadway credits include I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations, and Dana H.. You can see samples of her work at http://janicepytel.com/

[Bio as of April 2025]

MAXIMO GRANO DE ORO is a Lighting Designer for theater, opera, and dance originally from New Jersey. He received his BFA in Lighting Design from Rutgers Mason Gross and his MFA from Northwestern University. Chicago credits include: A Raisin in the Sun (Court Theatre); Dear Elizabeth (Remy Bumppo); Selling Kabul (Northlight Theater); City of Others; Everybody; Sweat; As You Like It; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo; In His Hands; Resiliencia (Northwestern Wirtz Center); The Magic Flute; The Medium (Northwestern Opera). Regional credits include: Prelude to a Kiss, a Musical (Milwaukee Rep); Far Away (Villanova Theatre); The Winter's Tale; Macbeth; Much Ado about Nothing; The Tempest (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). Web: Maximolightingdesign.com / Instagram: max.gdo_ld

[Bio as of April 2025]

ANDRE PLUESS (Sound Designer) is a composer/ sound designer based in Chicago. His credits include composition and sound design for numerous productions for Lookingglass, Court Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, About Face Theatre and many other Chicago and regional theaters. Broadway credits: Metamorphoses, I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations and The Clean House (Lincoln Center). Andre has received multiple Jeff Awards, an LA Ovation Award, Barrymore Award, Drama Critics Circle Award, and Drama Desk/Lortel nominations for composition and sound design. Recent projects include: The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Life Sucks, Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth, Treasure Island, Title and Deed, Eastland: A New Musical, Cascabel, In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story, Metamorphoses, and Peter Pan (A Play) (Lookinglass); Equivocation (Arena Stage); Stage Kiss and Jungle Book (Goodman Theatre); Endgame (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Milk Like Sugar (La Jolla Playhouse/ Playwrights Horizons); The Arabian Nights and Argonautika (Lookingglass, subsequent regional productions); Ghost Light, White Snake, King Lear, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); and Macbeth and Titus (California Shakespeare Festival).

[Bio as of April 2025]

SHERYL WILLIAMS has been supporting intimate theatrical storytelling throughout the Chicagoland area since 2017. As a T.I.E Assistant Faculty and Court Theatre’s Culture and Consent Consultant, she loves helping all artists find the "Yes" of every moment together. Works include: I and You (Citadel Theatre), Falsettos (Court Theatre), Marriage of Figaro (The Lyric Opera), and Fun Home (Porchlight Music Theater).

[Bio as of April 2025]

EVA BRENEMAN (Dialect Coach) is delighted to be back at Writers. Writers credits include: The Last Match, The Importance of Being Earnest, Arcadia. CHICAGO: Primary Trust (Goodman); Becky Nurse of Salem (Shattered Globe); Dear Elizabeth (Remy Bumppo); Fen (Court Theatre); Murder on the Orient Express (Drury Lane); The Chinese Lady (Timeline). BROADWAY: Airline Highway (Samuel Friedman Theatre). OFF-BROADWAY: Boswell (59E59). REGIONAL: The Chinese Lady (Denver Center); ten seasons -- American Repertory Theater; Romeo and Juliet (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). EDUCATION: MA, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; BFA, NYU. Ms. Breneman is an associate artist at TimeLine Theatre Company.

[Bio as of April 2025]

Bobby Kennedy is the Director of Artistic Development at Writers Theatre. He has been the resident dramaturg at the theatre since 2008 and has led the theatre's new work program since 2014. Highlights of his tenure include the world premieres of Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol, Wife of a Salesman by Eleanor Burgess, Dishwasher Dreams by Alauddin Ullah, Witch by Jen Silverman, Trevor by Dan Collins and Julianne Wick-Davis, and Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf by Tim Sniffen; the national premieres of Quixote: On the Conquest of Self by Mónica Hoth, Claudio Valdés Kuri, and Georgina Escobar, and The Dance of Death by Conor McPherson; and the Chicago premieres of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, A Distinct Society, Tiger Style!, Athena, The Last Match, The Niceties, Smart People, and Marjorie Prime. In addition to his dramaturgy work at WT, his credits also include the world premieres of Give It All Back (SideShow Theatre Company), Body and Blood (The Gift Theatre), Ibsen is Dead (Interrobang Theatre Project) and The Peacock (Jackalope Theatre Company), as well as the midwest premiere of The Luck of the Irish (Next Theatre Company). Kennedy co-founded The Spontaneous Theater Project in Boston and has also worked with Huntington Theatre Company and New Repertory Theatre. He is an alumnus of Boston University.

Katie Galetti is the Artistic Producer and Casting Director at Writers Theatre in Glencoe and a member of CSA. She also serves as the Casting Consultant at Remy Bumppo Theatre in Chicago, and is a freelance casting director regionally. In addition to her casting work, Katie produces and directs events of multiple genres, including opera, digital, experiential, and film. She's worked with Little Cinema Digital, 13Exp, and HERE Arts & Culture Consulting as a producer, is the founder and Artistic Director of Janus Concert Series, and is a founding member of the Chicago Opera Collective. Outside of theater, Katie is a volunteer with Resilience Chicago as a Sexual Assault Crisis Advocate and a classically trained vocalist. More information can be found at www.katiegaletti.com.

MIRANDA ANDERSON is happy to be back at Writers where she has previously worked as the stage manager for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, The Band's Visit, Once and Athena. She has frequently worked with TimeLine Theatre where selected credits include: What the Constitution Means to Me, Trouble in Mind, Campaigns Inc., and Relentless. She has also worked at Rivendell Theatre, The House Theatre, First Folio Theatre, and The Hypocrites, among others. From 2012 to 2018, she toured with The Hypocrites’ Gilbert and Sullivan productions to regional theaters including Olney Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse, Skirball Center at NYU, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and American Repertory Theatre in Boston. Miranda is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

[Bio as of April 2025]

ETHAN KARAS is thrilled to be making his professional Assistant Directing debut with Writers Theatre alongside this stellar cast and crew! Currently finishing his Senior Year at Northwestern, he recently directed Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage and performed and projection designed for The Great Sea Serpent at Northwestern. Earlier this year, Ethan assisted on the video design teams for The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy at New York Theatre Workshop as part of the Under the Radar Festival and Elevator Repair Service's Ulysses at Bard SummerScape. He would like to thank Mom, Dad, and Josh for their endless love and support.

[Bio as of April 2025]

ZOE JENNINGS is excited to join Writers Theatre in their first Assistant Stage Managing role with the company. Previous credits include Crew Cover on Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, and Every Brilliant Thing (Writers Theatre). A recent Chicago transplant, Zoe has been delighted to get to know the wonderful artists at Writers and dive into the Chicago theater scene. Past theater work includes Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager roles at Lewis & Clark College and with Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, in Portland, OR.

[Bio as of April 2025]