STEFANO MASSINI (Playwright)  is an internationally renowned novelist and playwright, the first Italian author to receive a Tony Award. He regularly contributes to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and for several years he has served as artistic consultant at Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa. His works, including The Lehman Trilogy, have been translated into 30 languages, and his plays have been performed in more theatres around the world than those of any other living Italian writer, produced as far afield as Iran and Korea, and staged by directors such as Luca Ronconi and Sam Mendes. His most acclaimed works, beyond The Lehman Trilogy, include: Intractable Woman, a decades-long international success; Ladies Football Club, which premiered to wide acclaim in Spain; and 7 Minutes, hailed by Le Monde as a “masterpiece” at the Comédie Française. He has won numerous Italian awards, including the Premio Vittorio Tondelli and the Premio Ubu, as well as the Tony Award, the Drama Guild Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award. Qualcosa sui Lehman (The Lehman Trilogy) was among the most acclaimed novels published in Italy in recent years and won the Selezione Campiello Prize, the Super Mondello Prize, the De Sica Prize, the Prix Médicis Essai and the Prix Meilleur Livre Étranger. In 2022 he completed his ten-year writing work on the birth of the atomic bomb in a play entitled Manhattan Project, already requested in many theatres around the world. His rewrite based on Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf will debut in 2024.

BEN POWER (Adaptor) is a writer for theatre and the screen. For the last 12 years he has worked at the National Theatre as associate director and deputy artistic director and was responsible for the temporary theatre The Shed. Work for the screen includes Munich: The Edge of War and The Hollow Crown (BAFTA nominations for Best Single Drama and Best Mini-Series). Work for the stage includes adaptations of DH Lawrence’s Husbands & Sons, Euripides’ Medea and Ibsen’s Emperor & Galilean, all for the National; A Tender Thing for the RSC and Complicite’s A Disappearing Number (Olivier and Evening Standard Awards). He was associate director of Headlong where he adapted Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and Marlowe’s Faustus. He is currently creating a television series for Working Title and is published by Faber & Faber.

PETER CHAPMAN is author of The Last of the Imperious Rich: Lehman Brothers, 1844-2008, a leading reference on the history of the Lehman family.

KAREN AZENBERG (Director) This marks Karen Azenberg’s twelfth season as Artistic Director at PTC. Favorite projects include the world premieres of Alabama Story and “i”; the regional premieres of Sting’s The Last Ship and Les Misérables; and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Newsies, Sweet Charity, and The Play That Goes Wrong. Originally from New York, her work there includes Lyrics and Lyricists (92nd St. Y), Blocks (a collaboration with Jonathan Larson), Prom Queens Unchained, and choreography for Richard Greenberg’s The Dazzle (Roundabout Theatre Company). Among her other credits are National Tours of Carousel and Brigadoon, West Side Story (over 15 productions), and productions at Indiana Repertory, Geva Theatre Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Goodspeed, and Utah Shakespeare Festival. Karen is a past president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). Her favorite productions are her son Alexander and her daughter Emelia.

YOON BAE (Scenic & Costume Design) Previously for PTC, Bae designed costumes and set for Putting It Together and The Messenger, the sets for Scapin and Once, and costumes for Once On This Island. Other credits include Don Giovanni (Welsh National Opera), Candide (Tokyo), Closer (Seoul), Oedipus El Rey, The Great Gatsby, Three Sisters, The Importance of Being Earnest, Emma, The Sunshine Boys, Evita, Murder On The Orient Express, The Magic Flute, Anything Goes, As You Like It. UK world premieres include Running the Silk Road (Barbican), Three Thousand Troubled Threads (Edinburgh International Festival), Bedevilled (Crucible), Disconnect, Caridad Svich’s Archipelago, and Howard Barker’s Wounds To The Face. She is a professor at the UNCSA, and a member of Local USA 829 and Wingspace. YoonBae.com

MICHAEL GILLIAM (Lighting Design) Broadway: Bonnie and Clyde, Brooklyn, Big River, Stand-Up Tragedy; The West End: Gershwin Alone; Off-Broadway: Cagney The Musical, Tappin’ Thru Life, The Best Is Yet to Come, Striking 12, Mr. Joy, Blue, Zooman and The Sign, Menopause The Musical; National Tours: Peter Pan, Guys and Dolls, Big River. And many of the country’s Regional Theatres. Awards: Los Angeles Ovation Awards, Drama-Logue Awards, Garland Awards, and the 1999 Career achievement award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.

WILL VAN DYKE (Composer) is a Grammy-nominated music producer, songwriter, music director, orchestrator, and arranger working in theater, television, and film. Will is currently the music director of The Heart of Rock and Roll on Broadway. He is also the music director of the forthcoming Swept Away. Will is also the Music Supervisor/Orchestrator/Arranger of Little Shop of Horrors and Pretty Woman worldwide. He also recently served as the Executive Music Producer for the film Theater Camp. Will has penned the score to The Messenger, Ass, and i at Pioneer, as well as The 64 Keys (Cleveland Play House), The Gravedigger’s Lullaby (Off-Broadway), and Straight (Off-Broadway), among others. Will writes musicals with Jeff Talbott. For more: www.willvandyke.com or @wvdmusic.

BRYCE ROBINETTE (Sound Design) is excited to be in his second season here at Pioneer Theatre Company. He has toured across the country running theatrical and concert productions such as: the Australian Off-Broadway Company, The Temptations, Pat Benatar, Superband, and many more.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (Dramaturg) has served as dramaturg on PTC’s What the Constitution Means to Me, Mary Stuart, The Lifespan of a Fact, Sweat, Oslo, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Sting’s The Last Ship, I Hate Hamlet, An Inspector Calls, and Of Mice and Men. Recent projects include co-creating To See Beyond Our Time with Daniel Charon (Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company). Harbold is Co-founder and Co-artistic director of Flying Bobcat and Assistant Professor with the University of Utah’s Department of Theatre. AlexandraHarbold.com

EMILY NACRISSA GRIFFITH* (Production Stage Manager) This is Emily’s eighth season with Pioneer Theatre Company. She graduated from UVU with multiple awards for her work, including the Kennedy Center’s Meritorious Achievement Award. She has also managed multiple productions for Sundance’s Summer Theatre.

JAMES O. HANSEN* (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be in his first season here at Pioneer Theatre Company! Recent PTC credits include: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, The Rocky Horror Show, and Christmas in Connecticut. Clue (starring Sally Struthers), The Wedding Singer, and A Christmas Carol at The Gateway Playhouse. Joseph…Dreamcoat (starring David Archuleta), Mary Poppins, and Wonderland at Tuacahn Amphitheatre. James earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts Management from Dean College. Special thanks to his Mom, Family, and Ostie for their love and support! DHH.

SARAH HUDSON* (Assistant Stage Manager) is pleased to be returning to PTC following work with them last season as both a Stage Manager and Company Manager. Her work with PTC includes Putting It Together, What the Constitution Means To Me, and The Prom! Other favorites include The Addams Family and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Summerstock Austin, the world premiere of Gold Mountain with Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Ragtime at Texas State University. She holds a BFA in Stage Management from Texas State University. Many thanks to Karen, Diane, and her family. Proud Equity member. 

BOB CLINE (Casting) is the founder of Bob Cline Casting in New York. He has cast film, TV, commercials, over 75 national tours, and numerous regional theaters across the country and has been associated with the casting for PTC for many years. Cline is currently a proud faculty member in Pace University’s theatre program, in charge of the senior BFA musical theatre majors. He is the Associate Director of Broadway Artists Alliance, enjoys working with The Open Jar Institute, and often teaches through The Growing Studio and The Actor’s Loft.

PIONEER THEATRE COMPANY (PTC) Now celebrating its 62nd season, the award-winning PTC is Utah’s premiere professional theatre company and leading arts organization of the West. Led by Artistic Director Karen Azenberg and Interim Managing Director Diane L. Parisi, PTC presents world-class productions that celebrate diversity in culture and society and serve as the connecting bridge between art and scholarship as an affiliate of the University of Utah. 

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) Founded in 1933, AEA represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers nationwide. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actor’s Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #equityworks

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States