Barbara Gaines (Director/Artistic Director) is the founder of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she has directed more than 30 of Shakespeare’s plays. Honors include: the 2008 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre; and Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Production (Hamlet, Cymbeline, King Lear and The Comedy of Errors), and for Best Director (Cymbeline, King Lear and The Comedy of Errors). In 2005, Ms. Gaines was awarded the prestigious Honorary OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in recognition of her contributions strengthening British-American cultural relations. She received the Public Humanities Award from the Illinois Humanities Council, and is the recipient of the Spirit of Loyola Award. Ms. Gaines received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Dominican University and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Lake Forest College. Ms. Gaines serves on the Shakespearean Council of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and is a Life Trustee of Northwestern University. She is a member of the Cultural Affairs Advisory Board for the City of Chicago and has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Gaines recently made her Lyric Opera debut directing Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth.

Timothy Findley (Playwright) known to most as Tiff, began his career as an actor, part of the original Stratford Festival company in the first production of Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker. Playwright Ruth Gordon, encouraged Tiff to write, and he eventually left acting to become a full-time writer in the 1960s. Tiff’s first two novels— The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969)— were rejected by Canadian publishers and first published in Britain and the United States. His third, The Wars, won the 1977 Governor General’s Award and was released as a film in 1981. As well as four collections of short stories and eleven novels, including Famous Last Words (1981), The Pianoman’s Daughter (1995), and Pilgrim (1999), Findley was the author of three memoirs and eight plays, including Elizabeth Rex, which premiered at Stratford Festival and won a Governor General’s Award. Tiff met his life partner, writer William Whitehead, in 1962. The two collaborated on several documentary projects, and for many years lived together at Stone Orchard near Cannington, Ontario, later moving to southern France. In 1996, Findley was invested as Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres. An outspoken and lifelong champion of human rights, Tiff was president of PEN Canada and a founding member and chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada. He was appointed to the Order of Ontario and in 1985 became an Officer of the Order of Ontario. In 2002, he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Daniel Ostling (Scenic Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include: Amadeus, A Flea in Her Ear, The Merchant of Venice, A Little Night Music and Pacific Overtures. Other Chicago credits include productions with: Lookingglass Theatre Company (ensemble member), Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, among others. Broadway credits include: Metamorphoses (2002 Tony Award nomination). Off Broadway credits include: Clybourne Park, The Pain and the Itch (Playwrights Horizon); Glorious Ones (Lincoln Center); Durango (Public Theatre); Lookingglass Alice (The New Victory Theater), Arabian Nights (Brooklyn Academy of Music); and Measure for Measure (New York Shakespeare Festival). Regional credits include productions with: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and American Conservatory Theater, among others. Opera credits include: Lucia Di Lammermoor, Sonnambula (The Metropolitan Opera); Merry Widow (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Ainadmar (Tanglewood Music Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic); and Galileo Galilei (Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Barbican Centre, Goodman Theatre). Mr. Ostling is an associate professor at Northwestern University.

Mariann S. Verheyen (Costume Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where her credits include: The Three Musketeers, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Jeff Award nomination), The Merchant of Venice, King John, Julius Caesar and As You Like It (Jeff Award). Broadway and off Broadway credits include: Peter Pan, Everybody’s Ruby (Audelco Award nomination) and Blood Relations (Villager Downtown Theater Award); as well as productions for Second Stage Theatre, The Juilliard School and The Public Theater. Regional credits include: The York Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Boston Ballet and the Alabama, Colorado and Oregon Shakespeare Theatres. Ms. Verheyen has ten years of commercial styling in New York City, and has designed for Disney Cruise Lines, Disney World Animal Kingdom and Sea World San Antonio. Awards include: two Boston IRNEs, the SUZI of Atlanta and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the high school and college she attended. She is head of the costume design program at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, School of Theatre.

Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Design) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include: The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Edward II, Amadeus (Jeff Award nomination) and Cymbeline (Jeff Award nomination). Off Broadway credits include Cactus Flower.  Regional theater credits include productions with: Dorset Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Ford's Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Westport Country Playhouse, Manhattan School of Music, George Street Playhouse, Barrington Stage Company, Portland Stage Company, TACT, Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Bay Street Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company and TheatreWorks. He has served as associate lighting designer on over thirty-five Broadway and West End plays and musicals including: The Miracle Worker, A Steady Rain, 9 to 5, Shrek, November, The Pirate Queen, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Odd Couple, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spamalot, Bombay Dreams, The Graduate, Man of La Mancha, Hairspray, The Crucible, 42nd Street, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Music Man, The Civil War, On the Town and Triumph of Love.

Lindsay Jones (Sound Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater for his seventeenth production, including Cymbeline and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Other Chicago credits include productions with: Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre and Lookingglass Theatre Company. Regional credits include productions with: American Conservatory Theater, South Coast Repertory, McCarter Theatre, Arena Stage, The Old Globe and Hartford Stage. Off Broadway credits include: The Brother/Sister Plays, The God of Hell, In the Continuum 1001 and Beautiful Thing, among others. International credits include productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Scotland and England. He is the recipient of five Joseph Jefferson Awards, two Ovation Awards, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, two Drama Desk Award nominations and the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Recent film and television scoring credits include Family Practice for Sony Pictures and A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject) for HBO Films.

Jenny Giering (Original Music) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where, as the Bob Tilles Music Chair, she created the original music for As You Like It (Jeff Award nomination). Other Chicago credits include The Mistress Cycle (Jeff Award nomination, Apple Tree Theatre and New York Musical Festival). Off Broadway credits include: Alice Unwrapped (The Zipper Factory Theater). Regional credits include: Crossing Brooklyn (The Boston Music Theatre Project, The Transport Group, The Beautiful Soup Theater Collective); and Saint-Ex (The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company). Ms. Giering’s awards include: The National Art Song Award, The Dramatists’ Guild Jonathan Larson Fellowship, the Constance Klinsky Prize from Second Stage Theatre and the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award. She was named the Clifton Artist in Residence at Harvard University and Composer in Residence at The Sundance Institute Theatre Program Playwrights Retreat at UCross. Ms. Giering is currently at work on a new commission for Playwrights Horizons.

Melissa Veal (Wig and Make-up Design) has designed wigs and make-up for over fifty productions at CST including: Follies, The Madness of George III, As You Like It, Private Lives, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Amadeus, Funk It Up About Nothin’, The Comedy of Errors, Othello, Passion, Troilus and Cressida, The Three Musketeers, A Flea in Her Ear, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (at CST and The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon), Much Ado About Nothing, The Molière Comedies, A Little Night Music, Rose Rage: Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 (at CST, The Duke on 42nd Street) andall six CPS Shakespeare! productions.She worked for ten seasons with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she received four Tyrone Guthrie Awards, including the Jack Hutt Humanitarian Award. Other Canadian credits include work with: The Shaw Festival, Mirvish Productions and The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. Ms. Veal received the 2007 Hurckes Award for Artisans and Technicians.

Eva Breneman (Dialect Coach) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she served as dialect coach for The Madness of George III.  Other Chicago credits include productions with: Writers’ Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, TimeLine Theatre Company (associate artist), Northlight Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company (production affiliate), Court Theatre and Remy Bumppo Theatre. Off Broadway credits include Mamma Mia! (national tour and Las Vegas). Regional credits include Around the World in 80 Days (Centerstage Baltimore, Kansas City Repertory). Television credits include The Chicago Code (Fox TV) and The Beast (A&E Television). Ms. Breneman received a BFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and an MA from The Central School of Speech and Drama. 

Janet Louer (Bear Movement Coach) makes her Chicago Shakespeare Theater debut. Other Chicago credits include the direction of: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (The Mercury Theater, national tour; Jeff Citation); RENT, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Women, Into the Woods and Les Misérables, among others (The ATC Repertory Company at Wilmette Theatre, where she serves as artistic director).  National tours include choreography for: Assassins, The Secret Garden, Once on This Island, Barnum, Into the Woods and Anyone Can Whistle. Regional credits include productions with: Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Alma Theater at Cain Park and Pegasus Players.  Ms. Louer has served as a casting director for television, film and stage, as well as a talent agent for film and stage. She holds an MA from NYU in movement psychotherapy and is a faculty member for DePaul University’s School for New Learning.