The Notebook

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. Michaelson is a New York City-based singer-songwriter with eight full-length albums released via her own record label, Cabin 24 Records, featuring her Gold and Platinum hits, including “The Way I Am,” “Girls Chase Boys,” and “You and I.” As an actress, she made her Broadway debut in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. Her credits as a composer for TV and film include the upcoming Disney film Penelope and ABC/Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere (Emmy Nomination for the original song “Build It Up”). EDUCATION: BA, Binghamton University’s musical theater program.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: The Cake (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble). The Cake has been produced regionally and internationally over 80 times. Her plays have been produced by Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Alley Theatre, and more. Her musical A.D. 16 just premiered at the Olney Theatre Center. As a writer and producer, she has worked on Netflix’s Maid and NBC’s This Is Us. She has developed pilots with Bad Robot, Hulu, Apple TV, and FX. EDUCATION: MFA, The New School for Drama, BA, UNC Chapel Hill. AWARDS: Brunstetter won a Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Long Form for Maid and is a three-time Emmy nominee for This Is Us.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: War Paint, Randy Newman’s Faust (Goodman Theatre); Mad Forest (Remains Theatre Ensemble). BROADWAY: Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal (Pre-Broadway at Arena Stage, Second Stage Theatre); War Paint, If/Then, Grey Gardens (Pre-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons); Never Gonna Dance, Rent (Pre-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop). OFF BROADWAY: Make Believe, Parallelogram (Second Stage Theatre); The Low Road, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide, Fucking A, Dogeaters, Machinal (Public Theater); Our Lady of Kibeho, Angels in America, Landscape of the Body, A Few Stout Individuals (Signature Theater). REGIONAL: Artistic director at La Jolla Playhouse, 1995–1999, ten seasons with Williamstown Theater Festival. AWARDS: 4 Tony nominations, 3 Lortel nominations, 3 Obie Awards. EDUCATION: BS, Northwestern University; MFA, University of California, San Diego.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. Williams is director of the 2023 revival of Aida (Disney Theatrical Group), the upcoming 2024 Broadway revival of The Wiz, along with new musicals Mandela a Revolutionary Musical (New Vic Theatre, 2022), and the world premiere of Hidden Figures. Williams has directed at regional theaters and festivals across the country and has a long history of work on Broadway in Rent, Aida, and Motown: The Musical. Passionate about pairing social justice with the arts, Schele is a founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization committed to dismantling systemic racism on our streets and stages. She is the author of the 2022 award-winning children’s book Your Legacy: A Bold Reclaiming of Our Enslaved History.

CHICAGO: Cabaret (Jeff Award nomination— Best Musical, Paramount Theatre); Oklahoma (Jeff Award nomination— Best Choreography, Paramount Theatre); The Dead (Court Theatre); Thaddeus and Slocum (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Writers Theatre, The Hypocrites, TimeLine Theatre Company, Sideshow Theatre Company, The Inconvenience. ACTING CREDITS: Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Paramount Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Music Theatre Company, Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook. BROADWAY ASSOCIATE: Moulin Rouge, Amelie, American Psycho, Once. REGIONAL: Cabaret (Helen Hayes nomination — Best Choreography), A.D. 16 (Olney Theatre Center); Oklahoma (CCC nomination — Best Choreography, Goodspeed Musicals); Tommy (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); collaborations with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ensemble Theatre Company, Camerata Bern, TikTok, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company. INTERNATIONAL: Associate Director of Close to You (Menier Chocolate Factory, West End). EDUCATION: Northwestern University. AWARDS: SDCF Agnes de Mille commission. Spelman’s new work simone premiered in 2019.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. BROADWAY: Funny Girl, If/Then, Hands on a Hardbody, American Idiot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. OFF BROADWAY: Renascence, Really Rosie, Everyday Rapture, Vanities, Elegies. INTERNATIONAL: Fun Home, Well-Behaved Women, Chicago, 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening & Closing Ceremonies. TELEVISION: Up Here. EDUCATION: MFA in musical theatre writing, New York University. AWARDS: Fulbright Scholar, Sydney Theatre Award for Best Musical Direction, Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical (Renascence), Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for Composition.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: Shrek the Musical (Tony/Drama Desk nominations, Cadillac Palace Theatre/Broadway). BROADWAY: Diana, Mean Girls (Tony nomination), Fun Home (Tony/Drama Desk nominations), The Prom, Tuck Everlasting, Cats 2016 (dance arrangements). OFF BROADWAY/REGIONAL: The Karate Kid, 1776 (2022 Revival), The Secret Life of Bees, Kimberly Akimbo, Gun & Powder, Becoming Nancy, Soft Power (dance arrangements), Fortress of Solitude, Jasper in Deadland, Just So. Clancy arranged strings for Rihanna’s NBA All-Star Game 2011 Halftime Show, as well as arrangements for Sara Bareilles, 2018 Tony Awards Opening.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: Orchestrations for Sweet Charity, October Sky (Marriott Theatre). BROADWAY: Be More Chill. OFF BROADWAY: American Songbook (Lincoln Center); Broadway Bounty Hunter, Baby with Richard Maltby Jr., Billy and the Killers, Generation Me, Renascence. INTERNATIONAL: Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical; Ride (West End). REGIONAL: Disney’s A Jolly Holiday, The Honeymooners (Paper Mill Playhouse); Mystic Pizza (Ogunquit Playhouse); Row (Williamstown Theatre Festival); May We All (Tennessee Performing Arts Center); Love in Hate Nation (Two River Theater); Punk Rock Girl (The Argyle Theatre); Other World (Bucks County Playhouse); Double Standards (The Town Hall); The American Pops Orchestra, The Jimmy Awards. EDUCATION: BA, Northwestern University. @geoffreyhko

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: Ms Blakk for President, The Minutes, Visiting Edna, Airline Highway (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Last Ship (CIBC Theatre/Broadway); Spongebob Squarepants (James M. Nederlander Theatre/Broadway). BROADWAY: Funny Girl, The Minutes, Diana, Choir Boy, Torch Song Trilogy, Boys in the Band, Amelie, The Humans, Fun Home. OFF BROADWAY: Kimberly Akimbo, Paris (Atlantic), The Flick, Hir, Kin, Placebo, Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons); We’re Gonna Die, Make Believe, Dogfight (Second Stage Theater); The Visitor, The Outer Space, Troilus and Cressida (Public Theater); Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: National Theatre, Young Vic, Theater Basel, Staatsoper Berlin. AWARDS: Tony, Obie, Hewes.

Banakis is a designer for theater, opera, film, and environments based in Brooklyn, NY. Brett is a co-founder of AMP Scenography, a design collective created to amplify emerging and underrepresented designers by engaging in equitable collaborations. Brett is delighted to return to Chicago Shakespeare following the move of The Notebook to Broadway after its world premiere production at The Yard. Other Broadway: The Outsiders (as AMP, Tony Nomination), The Cher Show. Off-Broadway: All of Me (New Group), Camp Siegfried (2ST), Your Own Personal Exegesis and Ghost Light (LCT3), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Transport Group), Big Love (Signature), Sunday (Atlantic). Regional: An Officer and a Gentleman (National Tour), Mysterious Circumstances, POTUS (Geffen Playhouse). International Scenic Supervisor for all worldwide productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Broadway, West End, Melbourne, San Francisco, Hamburg, Toronto, Tokyo, US Tour). Faculty member at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. brettjbanakis.com @brettjbanakis @ampscenography

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: The Tempest. BROADWAY: Peter and the Starcatcher; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Bandstand, Lobby Hero, Time and the Conways, &Juliet (upcoming). OFF BROADWAY: Alice by Heart, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow, The Pain of My Belligerence, Preludes, Fly By Night. REGIONAL: The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mixed Blood. EDUCATION: MFA, University of California San Diego. AWARDS: 2012 Tony Award, 2017 Tony Nomination, 2014 & 2019 Lortel Awards, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019 Drama Desk Nominations, 2019 Olivier Nomination, 2017 TDF/Kitty Leech Young Master Award.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: co-designer Goodnight Oscar (Goodman Theatre). BROADWAY: The Rose Tattoo, Derren Brown: Secret, Regina Spektor: Live on Broadway, Junk, Six Degrees of Separation, Fully Committed, Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, Fun Home, An Enemy of the People, Seminar. OFF BROADWAY: Unknown Soldier, Pain of My Belligerence (Playwrights Horizons); Make Believe (Second Stage Theater); The Mother (Atlantic Theater Company); The Light (MCC Theater). CONCERTS AND TOURS: Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, The National, St. Vincent, & David Byrne. AWARDS: 3 Tony Award nominations, The Lucille Lortel Award, IRNE, 2 Ovation Awards, OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design. www.benstanton.com

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. BROADWAY: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Tony nomination), Hadestown (Tony Awards), Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Freestyle Love Supreme, The Cher Show, Bandstand, Bright Star, It Shoulda Been You, Mothers and Sons, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Tony nomination), The Performers, Magic/Bird, over 30 additional Broadway productions with Acme Sound Partners and 5 additional Tony nominations for The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Fences, Hair, In the Heights.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. Neal is a highly-praised hairstylist and wig designer for film, television and theater, who made history alongside collaborator Jamika Wilson as the first Black nominees and winners in the best hair and makeup category at the Academy Awards. In addition to her Oscar, Neal’s intricate wig building for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom also led her to be recognized by BAFTA, Critics Choice, Hollywood Critics Association, and Variety Artisans awards. Recognized as one of Essence’s most recent “Black Women in Hollywood to Know,” her credits include Uncut Gems, The Humans, Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues, Pose, and Annie Live, for which she won an Emmy award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program. Before breaking into film and television, Neal began her career on Broadway, where she won the first ever Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Wig and Hair for her work on Shuffle Along. She also served as the hair designer for A Raisin in the Sun, Iceman Cometh, Malcolm X the Opera, Trading Places, and soon KPop the Musical. Neal is a graduate of The Juilliard School Professional Internship Program for Wigs and Makeup and attended Jackson State University. She is originally from Gary, Indiana.

With offices in both New York and Los Angeles, The Telsey Office casts for theater, film, television, and commercials. The Telsey Office is dedicated to creating safe, equitable, and anti-racist spaces through collaboration, artistry, heart, accountability, and advocacy.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: 150 plus productions over 24 years, including 35 plays in Shakespeare’s canon under current Artistic Director Edward Hall and Founding Artistic Director Barbara Gaines. Also at CST: nine productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals under the direction of Gary Griffin. CHICAGO: Bounce, Light in the Piazza (Goodman Theatre); REGIONAL: SIX (CST, American Repertory Theater–Artios Award, Ordway Center, The Citadel); Ride the Cyclone (CST, Fifth Avenue Theatre/A Contemporary Theater, Alliance Theatre); OFF-BROADWAY: Ride the Cyclone (MCC); Rose Rage: Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3, directed by Artistic Director Edward Hall (The Duke on 42nd Street); Marionette Macbeth (New Victory); BROADWAY: SIX, The Notebook; INTERNATIONAL: The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale (Auckland, NZ); Pacific Overtures (Donmar Warehouse–Olivier Award, Outstanding Musical); Henry IV, Parts One and Two (RSC). Prior to casting, Mason enjoyed a career as a Joseph Jefferson Award-winning actor and singer and has been a visiting educator at Northwestern University and multiple college programs across the country.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: Music director and conductor on Paradise Square (The Nederlander Theatre). OFF-BROADWAY/REGIONAL: Music supervision and orchestrations on Mary & Max (Theatre Calgary); music supervision and co-orchestrations We Were Everywhere (Lewis Center); music director on Girl from Nowhere (New York Musical Theatre); music director on The Snow Queen (Signature Theatre Company). FILM: Supervised and orchestrated over twenty movie musical shorts on the film festival circuit including scores by Anna K. Jacobs, Zoe Sarnak, and Avi Amon. MENTORSHIP: New York Youth Symphony Musical Theatre Composition Program (Music Director), Maestra Music, American Theatre Wing/National Endowment of the Arts Songwriting Challenge.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: associate choreographer on Grease, Footloose (Marriott Theatre). REGIONAL: Associate choreographer credits include AD 16 (Olney Theater); Shout, Sister, Shout (Seattle Repertory Theatre). PERFORMANCE CREDITS: Memphis (Artistry); In the Heights (Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Portland Center Stage); West Side Story (Guthrie Theater); West Side Story (Ordway Center for the Performing Arts); Hairspray (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres); Cabaret (Theatre Latté Da).

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: assistant sound designer on Richard III, The Notebook. CHICAGO: Pro-Am (First Floor Theater); Seagulls (Oak Park Festival Theatre); Extra Yarn, Dooby Dooby Moo (Lifeline Theatre); A Town Called Progress (Promethean Theatre Ensemble); assistant sound designer on POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, Describe the Night, Choir Boy, Seagull (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); New Stages 2022 (Goodman Theatre). REGIONAL: Montana Shakespeare in the Park; associate sound designer at The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre Center, Hartford Stage. EDUCATION: BFA in sound design, The Theatre School at DePaul University.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. BROADWAY: Jagged Little Pill, The Lion King, The Color Purple. OFF BROADWAY: The Unsinkable Molly Brown. NATIONAL TOURS: Matilda, Annie, Oliver!, Seussical. REGIONAL: Paper Mill Playhouse, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse. EDUCATION: MFA in stage management, University of California, San Diego; MA in elementary education, University of Southern California.