RACHEL ROCKWELL (Director/Choreographer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she directed Short Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew, The Adventures of Pinocchio and The Emperor's New Clothes. Other Chicago directing/choreography credits include: Sweeney Todd, The Sound of Music, Ragtime (Jeff Award for Best Musical and Best Director), Miss Saigo (Jeff nomination for Best Musical and Best Director, Drury Lane Theatre); Shout! (Jeff nomination for Best Revue), 42nd Street (Jeff nomination for Best Director and Best Musical), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Jeff nomination for Best Musical), Les Misérables (associate director, Jeff Award for Best Musical), A Christmas Carol, Disney's High School Musical, Seussical! the Musical, Disney's Aladdin (Marriott Theatre); Hair (Paramount Theatre); Enron (TimeLine Theatre Company); John and Jen (Apple Tree Theatre); You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown! (Drury Lane Water Tower Place); Leaving Iowa (Fox Valley Repertory); Married Alive and It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Noble Fool Theatricals). Choreography credits include: The King and I (Jeff nomination, Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook); Up, Lost Land, The Cherry Orchard (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); A Chorus Line (Jeff nomination), Houdini and Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (Marriott Theatre). Ms. Rockwell was named Best Director of 2010 by Chicago Magazine.

DOUG PECK (Music Director/Orchestral Reduction) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where he served as music director for Seussical! the Musical and musical supervisor for Willy Wonka. Winner of five Joseph Jefferson Awards and two After Dark Awards, Mr. Peck's other Chicago credits include work with: Court Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Writers' Theatre, Marriott Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Paramount Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook, Porchlight Music Theatre and Ravinia Festival. Regional credits include productions with: Huntington Theatre, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre and Peninsula Players. His concert collaborations with husband Rob Lindley include galas for many theaters listed above, as well as Follies in Concert, and an evening of every song that won the Academy Award for the Chicago Humanities Festival. He can be heard on the recordings Bright Young People: The Songs of Noël Coward, Foiled Again: Live, and Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein. Mr. Peck studied at Northwestern University and Interlochen Center for the Arts. Upcoming credits include: Dreamgirls (Marriott Theatre); James Joyce's The Dead (Court Theatre); Sweet Charity (Writers' Theatre); and The Jungle Book (Goodman Theatre).

ALAN MENKEN (Composer) Stage credits include: Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Carol, King David, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Real Life Funnies, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Weird Romance and Der Glocker Von Notre Dame. Film credits include: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Newsies, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Home on the Range. Other achievements: A Billboard #1 album (Pocahontas) and #1 single ("A Whole New World"). Awards include eight Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, ten GRAMMYS, London Evening Standard Award, Laurence Olivier Award, New York Drama Critics Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. Recent stage adaptations include The Little Mermaid and Leap of Faith, live-action film adaptations of A Christmas Carol and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, plus the film Noel.

HOWARD ASHMAN (Lyricist) wrote the lyrics for the Disney animated films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin (three songs), and served as producer on The Little Mermaid and executive producer on Beauty and the Beast. With composer Alan Menken, he received two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes for Best Song ("Beauty and the Beast" and "Under the Sea") and four Grammy Awards. He received an Academy Award nomination with Mr. Menken for "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin. As author, lyricist and director for the stage musical Little Shop of Horrors, which ran for five years in New York and has been produced worldwide, Mr. Ashman received two Outer Critics Circle Awards, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a London Evening Standard Award and a Drama Desk Award. For his screenplay version of Little Shop of Horrors, Mr. Ashman received a nomination from the Screen Writers Guild and "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was nominated (with Mr. Menken) for an Academy Award for Best Song. He was author, lyricist and director of Smile for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Book. His other credits include: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; The Confirmation (his only full-length play); and served as Artistic Director of the WPA Theatre (1976–1982). Born on May 17, 1950 in Baltimore, Mr. Ashman died at age 40 of complications due to AIDS on March 14, 1991 in New York City.

TIM RICE (Lyricist) was born in 1944. From 1956 to 1965 he wanted to be Elvis. Then he met Andrew Lloyd Webber whose musical ambitions were in theatre rather than rock. They joined forces as one could knock out a decent tune, the other had a way with words. They wrote four shows together. The first, The Likes of Us (1965–6), was never performed, but Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1969–71) and Evita (1976–78) became, and indeed remain, hugely successful all around the world, on both stage and screen. Feeling certain that they could never top this lot, the pair went their separate ways in the early eighties, whereupon Andrew Lloyd Webber immediately topped that lot with Cats. Mr. Rice then wrote Blondel (1983), a medieval romp, with Stephen Oliver, which ran for a year in London, but not for long anywhere else. In 1986 came Chess, written with ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Chess had a healthy UK run but flopped on Broadway in 1988, the New York Times bloke simply not getting it. In 1989 Rice translated the famous French Berger-Plamondon musical Starmania into English, which merely resulted in a hit album in France. In the nineties he worked primarily with the Disney empire, contributing lyrics to the movies Aladdin (music by Alan Menken) and The Lion King (music by Elton John and Hans Zimmer) and to the stage shows Beauty and the Beast (music by Alan Menken), The Lion King and Aida (music by Sir Elton). In lunch breaks he wrote the words for Cliff Richard's theatrical extravaganza Heathcliff (music by John Farrar) which toured the UK in 1995–96. He is currently reworking an operatic musical he has written with Alan Menken (King David), and on new treatments, for both stage and screen, of Chess, the New York Times bloke having been replaced. He also has a new idea which may or may not see the light of day. He has won many awards, mainly for the wrong things, or for simply turning up. He lives in England, has three children, his own cricket team and a knighthood (that's Sir Tim to you).

LINDA WOOLVERTON (Book Writer) Writing credits include: the screenplay for the animated feature film Beauty and the Beast (Golden Globe winner and Academy Award Best Picture nominee); the screenplay (shared) for Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey; screenplay (shared) for the animated feature film The Lion King; the book for the Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast (Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical, winner 1998 Olivier Award Best New Musical); and book (shared) for Elton John and Tim Rice's Broadway musical Aida. Also she has written two young adult novels, Star-Wind and Running Before the Wind. She holds a Bachelor's degree in theatre arts from California State University Long Beach and a Master's degree in Theatre from California State University Fullerton. Ms. Woolverton is currently involved involved in writing and producing film projects for Miramax and Revolution studios. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Lee Flicker and daughter Keaton.

SCOTT DAVIS (Scenic Designer) returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where his credits include: Othello: The Remix, Murder for Two and Short Shakespeare! Macbeth (2011). Other Chicago credits include: L-Vis Live (Victory Gardens Theater); Venus, Where We're Born (Steppenwolf Garage); Kin (Griffin Theatre); Peribanez, A Midsummer Night's Dream, In Trousers, MASS, The Jungalbook (costume design), You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, State(s) of America (Northwestern University); and Trinity River Plays (associate designer, Goodman Theatre and Dallas Theatre Center). Regional credits include: Filthy Rich, The Colored Museum, Alice in Wonderland, Home Free!, The Weir (Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center); In the Heart of America (associate designer, Rep Stage); Through the Looking Glass and The Cassandra Project (The Capitol Fringe Festival). Mr. Davis is adjunct faculty at Columbia College and received degrees from the University of Maryland College Park and Northwestern University.

THERESA HAM (Costume Designer) makes her Chicago Shakespeare Theater debut. Other Chicago credits include: The Glorious Ones (Non-Equity Jeff Award), The Wild Party, Side Show, Dirty Blonde (Bohemian Theatre Ensemble); Sweeney Todd, The Sound of Music (Drury Lane Theatre); A Civil War Christmas, Souvenir (Northlight Theatre), Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni (The Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera Chicago); Hansel and Gretel, Die Fledermaus (DePaul Opera Theatre); and productions with Porchlight Music Theatre, Theater on the Lake, Stage Left Theatre and First Folio Theatre. Regional credits include The Little Theatre On The Square, Ensemble Theatre Company Santa Barbara, TheatreWorks Hartford and Quality Hill Playhouse. Upcoming projects include Don Pasquale (The Ryan Opera Center) and Annie (Paramount Theatre). Ms. Ham is an adjunct faculty member at Wilbur Wright College.