Author and Contributors

Mikael Burke is a Princess Grace Award–winning director and Jeff Award recipient whose work spans Chicago and regional stages across the United States. In Chicago, he has directed for Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Goodman Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Chicago Children’s Theatre, About Face Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, Northlight Theatre, Raven Theatre, Jackalope Theatre Company, First Floor Theater, American Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, The Story Theatre, Refracted Theatre Company, and Windy City Playhouse. His regional credits include productions at Yale Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Hartford, Forward Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, TheatreWorks Colorado Springs, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Phoenix Theatre Indianapolis, and Third Avenue Playworks.

Burke is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre–Acting in the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he teaches performance and directing. He previously served as Associate Artistic Director of About Face Theatre and continues his relationship with the company as an Artistic Associate. He is also an Associate Artist with Remy Bumppo Theatre Company.

His directing work is known for its rigorous attention to text, ensemble-driven storytelling, and contemporary relevance, with a particular commitment to developing new work and amplifying underrepresented voices.

Wilson Chin is a New York–based scenic designer whose work spans Broadway, off-Broadway, opera, film, and television. His Broadway and touring credits include Cost of Living by Martyna Majok (Pulitzer Prize winner), Pass Over by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Henry Hewes Award nominations), Next Fall, and the international tour of Annie, including performances at Madison Square Garden starring Whoopi Goldberg.

His extensive off-Broadway and regional theatre work includes productions with Roundabout Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, MCC Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, and many others. In opera, his designs have been seen at Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Canadian Opera Company, where he received a Dora Award.

Chin’s film and television credits include Spike Lee’s filmed adaptation of Pass Over, HBO’s Game Theory with Bomani Jones, and NBC’s Blindspot. He has served as an associate designer on numerous Broadway productions, including Sunset Blvd., A Doll’s House, and & Juliet.

He is co-chair of the American Theatre Wing’s Obie Awards, a board member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 (Eastern Region), and a founding member of several arts advocacy organizations, including The 1/52 Project and Design Action. Chin has also served as an adjudicator and voter for the Tony Awards and other major theatre honors.

Gibson Alessandro Cima is an Associate Professor of Theatre History and Head of the Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies program in the School of Theatre and Dance at Northern Illinois University. His scholarship focuses on South African theatre and performance, theatre of the Global South, and postcolonial theory. His essays have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Black Theatre Review, and South African Theatre Journal.

Cima’s current book project examines the influence of South Africa’s anti-apartheid protest theatre on post-apartheid and global stages, tracing how activist performance practices circulate across national and political contexts.

As a theatre practitioner, he has devised performance work addressing Georgetown University’s historical ties to slavery, directed the U.S. premiere of Juliet Jenkin’s The Boy Who Fell From the Roof, and presented his own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III at South Africa’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. His work bridges scholarship and practice, emphasizing theatre’s role in political memory, resistance, and social transformation.

Alys Dickerson is a Chicago-based actor originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, and a Master Actor with American Players Theatre, where this marks her fourth season. She holds an MFA from Northern Illinois University and has studied at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.

Dickerson’s recent roles include Lady Macduff in Macbeth, The Jewish Wife in Fear and Misery, Antigone in Antigone, and The Commissioner in Titanic: The Commission’s Inquiry. Since the pandemic, she has shifted much of her creative focus toward fostering conversations around racial fluency and equity through education programs at American Players Theatre.

She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and is deeply committed to work that blends artistic excellence with community engagement. Alys is one of six siblings and values faith, family, and good food.

Marcus Doshi is an internationally recognized theatre maker who designs lighting and scenery for theatre, opera, and dance, and collaborates with artists and architects on a wide range of interdisciplinary projects. His work is known for its bold visual clarity, musicality, and dramaturgical integration, guided by his manifesto, Good Lighting for the Stage. He is the author of Towards Good Lighting for the Stage: Aesthetic Theory for Theatrical Lighting Design (Routledge).

Doshi’s work has been seen on and off Broadway, at major regional theatres, and at opera companies throughout the United States and internationally, including The Royal Opera House (London), Canadian Opera Company, La Monnaie (Brussels), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. Broadway credits include Pass Over and Linda Vista. His long-standing collaborations include Theatre for a New Audience and Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

He has received numerous award nominations, including Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Henry Hewes, and AUDELCO honors. Doshi is a Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University, where he teaches in the MFA design and directing programs.

Mary Kathryn Nagle is a playwright and attorney specializing in tribal sovereignty and Native rights. Born in Oklahoma City, she is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her law degree, summa cum laude, from Tulane University Law School. Following law school, she clerked for two federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska.

As an attorney, Nagle has litigated major cases involving Native sovereignty, including Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013), in which she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act. During law school, she began integrating legal advocacy with playwriting as a means of advancing Native voices.

She is an alumna of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, where she developed Manahatta, a play that received national recognition and multiple awards. Her play Sliver of a Full Moon has been performed at the United Nations and leading law schools nationwide. With Sovereignty, commissioned by Arena Stage, Nagle became the first Native American playwright to have a work produced at that venue.