Josie Rourke (Director) is the Artistic Director of London’s Bush Theatre. She recently took the helm of this 36-year-old company that presents new plays and develops new writers. She has held positions at the Donmar Warehouse, Sheffield Theatres and the Royal Court, as well as maintaining a busy freelance career, most recently David Mamet’s The Cryptogram starring Kim Cattrall and Douglas Henshall at the Donmar Warehouse. Rourke made her RSC directing debut with Philip Massinger’s 1631 Believe What You Will, and directed Shakespeare’s King John for the RSC’s Complete Works festival.

Lucy Osborne (Scenic and Costume Designer) makes her Chicago Shakespeare Theater debut. US theater credits include Artefacts (from The Bush Theatre, London) and Some Kind of Bliss (from Trafalgar Studios, London) both of which played at the 2008 Brits Off Broadway Festival (Theater 59E59, New York). Theater credits in her native U.K. include: 2000 Feet Away starring Joseph Fiennes, Broken Space Festival, Tinderbox, The dYsFUnCKshOnalZ (Bush Theatre); Macbeth (Edinburgh Lyceum/Nottingham Playhouse); Rope (Watermill); Closer (Northampton Theatre Royal); Touch Wood (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Breaker Morant (Edinburgh Festival); Ship of Fools (set, Theatre 503); The Long and the Short and the Tall (Sheffield Lyceum); Dr Faustus (The Place); Richard III (Cambridge Arts Theatre); The Tempest (set, Box Clever Theatre); The Prayer Room (Edinburgh Festival/Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Flight Without End, Othello, Lysistrata (LAMDA); Season of Migration to the North (RSC New Work Festival); Almost Blue (Riverside Studios); The Unthinkable (Sheffield Crucible); Generation (Gate Theatre, Notting Hill).

Robert Wierzel (Lighting Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include The Comedy of Errors, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice, King John, The Moliere Comedies, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Regional: Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, D.C.), Milwaukee Repertory, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, and Berkeley Repertory, among many others. New York: David Copperfield’s Dreams and Nightmares (Broadway), Fela! (37 Arts) directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones; Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, Signature Theatre Company. Opera: Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theatre and opera companies across North America, Europe, and Asia. Other credits include collaborations with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance (Bessie Awards) and Philip Glass, including Hydrogen Jukebox (American Theatre Wing Award). Mr. Wierzel holds and MFA from the Yale School of Drama and serves on the faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

James Savage (Sound Designer) is head of the sound department at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his sound design credits include: SS! A Midsummer Night’s Dream, CPS Shakespeare! Macbeth, Funk it Up About Nothin’, Willy Wonka, Othello, CPS Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet, Passion, How Can You Run with a Shell on Your Back?, CPS Shakespeare! Hamlet, Hamlet, A Flea in Her Ear, The Princess and the Pea, Seussical the Musical, Peter Pan, Much Ado About Nothing, A Little Night Music, and work on other CST productions since November 2002. His special effects design credits include: Macbeth and Cymbeline. 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 (Wig and Makeup Design) has designed wigs and makeup at Chicago Shakespeare for over 30 productions, including: Macbeth, Amadeus, The Comedy of Errors, Othello, Passion, Troilus and Cressida, The Three Musketeers, Hamlet, A Flea in Her Ear, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (at CST and on tour to Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon), Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, 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 as wig supervisor for The School for Scandal. She worked with the Stratford Festival for 10 seasons, where she received four Tyrone Guthrie Awards, including the Jack Hutt Humanitarian Award. Other Canadian credits include work with Canadian Stage Company, Tarragon Theatre, Mirvish Productions and a longtime association with The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. Ms. Veal was the recipient of the 2007 Hurkes Award for Artisans and Technicians.

Alaric Jans (Composer) returns for his 34th production with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. His scores for CST have received five Jeff Awards: Twelfth Night (1996), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (1999, and 2006 with Lindsay Jones), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Tempest; and an After Dark Award for The Merry Wives Of Windsor (2004). He received a Special Achievement Award from the Jeff Committee for his music for A View From The Bridge at St. Nicholas Theater. Recent scores for Provision Theater include A Christmas Memory and the classic children’s musical, The Adventures of Captain Marbles & His Acting Squad. Broadway credits include music for The Water Engine (in which he appeared as “the Musician”) and music and lyrics for Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (with James Quinn). Several films directed by David Mamet feature Mr. Jans’s music: House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, and The Winslow Boy. Alaric Jans is the 2009 recipient of the the Bob Tilles Music Chair.

Matt Hawkins (Fight Choreographer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where he previously served as fight choreographer/assistant director on Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Edward II and Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet. Chicago fight choreography credits include: The Brothers Karamazov and Black Diamond (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Peter Pan, Cave With Man, Curse of the Crying Heart (Non-Equity Jeff Award), Valentine Victorious (The House Theatre); and Peter Pan (Northwestern University). Chicago directing credits include: Hatfield & McCoy (Non-Equity Jeff Award, The House Theatre); On My Parents’ 100th Wedding Anniversary (The Side Project Theatre Company); Alice (The Neo-Futurists); and Red Noses (Strawdog Theatre Company, April 2009). He has also worked with The Kennedy Center, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Redmoon Theater and Chicago Children’s Theatre. He is currently creating 500 Clown and The Elephant Deal, which opens at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in June 2009.