Marti Maraden (Director) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater having directed the 2005–2006 Season production of Much Ado About Nothing (After Dark Award-Best Direction). As one of Canada’s foremost stage directors, she has directed for major theaters across the country, including the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage Company, Manitoba Theatre Centre, and the Vancouver Playhouse. From 1997 to 2005 she served as Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario. Ms. Maraden, along with Des McAnuff and Don Shipley have recently assumed the artistic leadership of the Stratford Festival, where previously she served as Associate Director, and as Director of the Stratford Festival Young Company. Ms. Maraden has also served as President of the Board of Equity Showcase Theatre, and has taught at several Canadian and American universities. As an actor, she has appeared in productions at the NAC, Stratford Festival, and Shaw Festival, as well as at major theaters in Canada and the United States.

Patrick Clark (Scenic Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include Much Ado About Nothing. U.S.  Regional credits include:The Invention of Love, Amadeus, Jane Eyre, Three Sisters, Othello, Jane Eyre and The Constant Wife (Guthrie Theater).  Canadian credits include: Hello Dolly, Anything Goes, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus, Pericles, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Comedy of Errors, Juno and the Paycock, As You Like It, Titus Andronicus, The Boyfriend, and Homeward Bound (Stratford Festival); Hit the Deck, Cuckoo in the Nest, and She Loves Me (Shaw Festival); The Matchmaker, Macbeth, Into the Woods, Private Lives, Blythe Spirit, and Charley’s Aunt (Atlantic Theatre Festival).  Other credits include designs for Neptune Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, Centaur Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Calgary and Vancouver Playhouse.  Mr. Clark is a member of The Royal Canadian Academy.

Christina Poddubiuk (Costume Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, following costume design for Much Ado About Nothing in 2005. U.S. Regional credits include: The Tempest and The Philanderer (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Canadian credits include: Summer and Smoke, The Circle, The Heiress, Major Barbara, Ah, Wilderness!, Widowers’ Houses, Candida, Picnic, Heartbreak House, The Madras House, Lady Windermere’s Fan, The Chocolate Soldier, Getting Married (Shaw Festival); Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Carousel, Memoir, Much Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, She Stoops to Conquer (Stratford Festival); Mary Stuart, King Lear, Don Carlos, The Misanthrope (Soulpepper Theatre, Toronto); After the Orchard, Trying, Mary’s Wedding, Skylight (National Arts Centre); Caesar and Cleopatra, Saint Joan, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Man of La Mancha (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton); Béatrice et Bénédict (Canadian Opera Company, Toronto). Her next project will be designing All’s Well That Ends Well with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Christopher Akerlind (Lighting Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, having designed Measure for Measure (2004)  and Antony and Cleopatra (1999). Recent Chicago credits include designs for: Shining City, The Light in the Piazza (Jeff Award, Best Lighting Design) and Electricidad (Goodman Theatre); Twelfth Night and The Piano (Court Theatre); The Pillowman and Homebody/Kabul (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Other recent projects include the premiere of Phillip Glass’s new opera Appomattox (San Francisco Opera); Talk Radio on Broadway and Belle Epoch directed by Martha Clarke (Lincoln Center Theatre). He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design, the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration, and numerous nominations for the Drama Desk, Lucile Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards.

James Savage (Sound Designer) is head of the sound department at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his sound design credits include: Passion, How Can You Run with a Shell on Your Back?, Hamlet, A Flea in Her Ear, The Princess and the Pea, Seussical the Musical, Peter Pan, A Little Night Music, Much Ado About Nothing and work on other CST productions since November 2002. He has served as the lead mix engineer with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Regional design credits include sound design for Sondheim’s Saturday Night and assistant sound design for Hot Mikado (University of Cincinnati—College Conservatory of Music).

Melissa Veal (Wigs and Makeup) Chicago Shakespeare Theater design credits include: Passion, Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, The Three Musketeers, Short Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Hamlet, Hecuba, A Flea in Her Ear, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (at CST and at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon), Much Ado About Nothing, Short Shakespeare! Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure, The Merry Wives of Windsor, King John, The Molière Comedies, A Little Night Music, Rose Rage: Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3 (at CST and The Duke on 42nd Street), The Taming of the Shrew, and wig supervisor for The School for Scandal. Canadian credits include: 10 seasons with the Stratford Festival, where she was the recipient of four Tyrone Guthrie Awards, including the Jack Hutt Humanitarian Award, Canadian Stage Company, Canadian Opera Company, Tarragon Theatre, Mirvish Productions and long-time association with The Grand Theatre in London.

Marc Desormeaux (Composer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include Much Ado About Nothing. Mr. Desormeaux has composed scores for numerous productions in major theaters across Canada and in Europe. Credits with Ms. Maraden include Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night and Travels with My Aunt (National Arts Centre). Selected credits: Orpheus Descending, The Lark, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet (Stratford Festival); The Drawer Boy (original cast production: Mirvish/MTC/National Tour/Vienna English Theatre), Summer & Smoke, Pygmalion (Shaw Festival); A Room of One’s Own (Shaw Festival/National Tour); Zadie’s Shoes (Mirvish Productions). Canadian premieres of American plays include Proof (MTC/Citadel), Boy Gets Girl (CanStage). Mr. Desormeaux was the creator and featured actor (Chet Baker) of Time After Time (GCTC). His multi-media musical Cyberia was produced by the National Arts Center in 1997. He is also the co-writer/performer of Brigit’s Reel with Canadian fiddler Trish Barclay.

Robin McFarquhar (Fight Choreographer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include: Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Hamlet, A Flea in her Ear, The Merchant of Venice, King John, Julius Caesar, Richard II, King Lear, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Antony and Cleopatra, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Richard III, Othello, Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet (at CST and on NEA tour); Macbeth and Pacific Overtures. Other Chicago credits include: Lost Land, The Ballad of Little Jo, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Clockwork Orange, The Libertine, Time to Burn, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Time of Your Life, The Berlin Circle (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Richard II, All the Rage, Griller (Goodman Theatre); Life's a Dream and Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards (Court Theatre). Other credits include: work on Broadway, Old Globe Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, American Players Theatre, South Coast Repertory, the Idaho, Illinois, Utah and Virginia Shakespeare Festivals, international tours to England, Japan, Cyprus and Hungary, and the national tour of The Color Purple.

Christine Adaire (Vocal Coach) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where her credits include: The Two Noble Kinsmen, A Flea in Her Ear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, Othello and Richard III. Other Chicago credits include: The Iphigenia Cycle, Life Is a Dream (Court Theatre); Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky (Goodman Theatre); Oliver!, Brigadoon (The Mariott Theatre); The Master and Margarita (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Orpheus Descending (American Theatre Company); and Frozen (Next Theatre). Regional credits include projects with Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Theatre for a New Audience (New York). She has been a core company member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts for 24 years. She has taught at DePaul University, The National Theatre School of Canada, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Shanghai Theatre Academy in China, the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, Spain, and currently is on the faculty of the Theatre Conservatory at The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Larry Yando (Text Coach) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater where his credits include: the title role in Cymbeline, The Tempest, Timon of Athens, All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear and Two Noble Kinsmen. Regional credits include: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre); Travesties, Measure For Measure, The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband (Court Theatre); Nixon’s Nixon, Bach at Leipzig, Rocket to the Moon (Writers’ Theatre); Mother Courage and Her Children (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Titus Andronicus (Defiant Theatre); Angels in America, Amadeus, Arcadia (Milwaukee Repertory); I Hate Hamlet (Royal George Theatre) and Scar in The Lion King.

Bob Mason (Casting Director) is in his eighth season as casting director at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his classical credits cover more than two-thirds of Shakespeare’s canon, including 12 productions with Artistic Director Barbara Gaines. Other CST productions of note include a quartet of Stephen Sondheim musicals (Pacific Overtures, Sunday in the Park with George, A Little Night Music, and Passion) directed by Gary Griffin, as well as Rose Rage: Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3 (director Edward Hall) and The Molière Comedies (director Brian Bedford). Additional Chicago casting credits include: the Sondheim/ Hal Prince premiere of Bounce (Goodman Theatre and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts); The Good War, The Immigrant (Northlight Theatre); The Boys Are Comin’ Home, Asphalt Beach (Northwestern University’s American Music Theatre Project); and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Royal George Cabaret). Prior to casting, Bob enjoyed a 15-year career as a Jeff Award-winning Chicago actor and singer and has been a visiting educator for the School at Steppenwolf and Northwestern University.