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.

Kevin Depinet (Scenic Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include: Follies, As You Like It, Short Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew, The Adventures of Pinocchio and The Emperor's New Clothes. Other Chicago credits include productions with: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Writers' Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook and Chicago Children's Theatre. Broadway credits include associate designer for August: Osage County and The Motherf**ker With the Hat. Regional credits include productions with: American Players Theatre, McCarter Theatre, The Arden Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre and Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Film credits include scenery for Michael Mann's Public Enemies. Upcoming projects include the scenic design for Detroit (National Theatre, London) and the Myth Buster's Touring Museum exhibit for Discovery Channel this fall. Mr. Depinet studied at Ball State University and the Yale School of Drama, and now serves as an adjunct professor of Design at DePaul University.

Susan E. Mickey (Costume Design) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where her credits include: The Madness of George III, Richard III, Cymbeline, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew. Other Chicago credits include costume design for Jitney and Miss Evers' Boys (Goodman Theatre). Regional credits include designs for: The Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Center Stage, Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, GoodSpeed Musicals, Portland Center Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Studio Arena Theatre, Geva Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and over 50 productions with the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta. Television and film credits include costume design for the feature film The Adventures of Ociee Nash, Miss Evers' Boys (HBO), and Mama Flora's Family miniseries (CBS). Ms. Mickey serves as head of design and production at the University of Texas at Austin.

Robert Wierzel (Lighting Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater for his eleventh production including: Private Lives, Richard III, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice, King John, The Molière Comedies, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Broadway credits include the musical Fela! directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones and David Copperfield's Dreams and Nightmares. Other New York credits include productions with: Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Festival and Signature Theatre Company. Regional credits include productions with: Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, among many others. Opera credits include: Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater and opera companies across North America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Wierzel holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and serves on the faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Mike Tutaj (Projection Design) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Feast: an intimate Tempest, Macbeth and Romeo y Julieta. Other Chicago design credits include: The Detective's Wife (Writers' Theatre); Ask Aunt Susan, The Good Negro (Goodman Theatre); Sweeney Todd (Drury Lane Theatre); The Hot L Baltimore (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Year of Magical Thinking (Court Theatre); A Walk in the Woods, The Pitmen Painters, In Darfur (Jeff Award), Frost/Nixon, The Farnsworth Invention, Martin Furey's Shot (non-Equity Jeff Award), History Boys (TimeLine Theatre Company); Tomorrow Morning (Jeff Award, Hillary A. Williams LLC); Love Person, I Sailed with Magellan (Victory Gardens Theater); Distracted, Kid Simple, I Do! I Do!, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (American Theater Company); Scorched, Pangs of the Messiah and Our Enemies (Silk Road Rising). Mr. Tutaj is an artistic associate with TimeLine Theatre Company and a company member of Barrel of Monkeys Productions.

Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater for his eighteenth production, including Elizabeth Rex, 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.

Melissa Veal (Wig and Make-up Design) has designed wigs and make-up for fifty-five productions at CST including: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Elizabeth Rex, Follies, The Madness of George III (Jeff Award), As You Like It, rivate Live, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Amadeus, Funk It Up About Nothin', The Comedy of Errors, Othello, Passion, Troilus and Cressida, The Three Musketeers, 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 and The Duke on 42nd Street), and all 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.

Nicolas Blanc (Choreographer) makes his Chicago Shakespeare Theater debut. Mr. Blanc is the ballet master at the Joffrey Ballet. Other choreographic credits include: Amplitude Goldberg, In Search of (San Francisco Ballet School); After Having Been (International Ballet Competition Jackson, Mississippi); Epiphanic Solo (Oakland Dance Festival); Pivotal Frequencies (Royal Conservatory of Scotland); and Purple People (EMBARC, Chicago). Mr. Blanc undertook a choreographic lab with dance house Glasgow and was part of the Young Choreographers workshop for Scottish ballet. Dance credits include productions with: Nice Opera Ballet, Deutsche Oper Am Rhein, Zurich Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, where he was made principal dancer in 2004. Mr. Blanc is a graduate of the Paris Opera Ballet School. His awards include a special prize by the city of Dusseldorf, Germany, and his hometown, Negrepelisse, France. Mr. Blanc was named one of the "25 to watch" by Dance Magazine and nominated for an Isadora Dance Duncan Award.