Playwright

Young Jean Lee is a playwright, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by The New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. In 2018, she became the first Asian-American woman to have her play produced on Broadway with her show STRAIGHT WHITE MEN. She has written a screenplay commission for Plan B Entertainment, and her short films have been presented at The Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Literary Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. She is currently working on a Broadway play commission for Second Stage and a screenplay commission for Cinereach.

Director

Justin is an actor, director, dancer, and Co-Artistic Director of Lanes Coven with his wife Lily Narbonne. With Lanes Coven: Topdog/Underdog (Sound Design), The Servant of Two Masters (Truffaldino), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Proposal (Director), The Importance of Being Earnest, Romeo & Juliet (Director + Role of Tybalt), Macbeth (Director), The Dumb Waiter, Taming of the Shrew. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin,  Justin worked with Milwaukee Ballet for 8 years, and trained at Houston Ballet and Virginia School of the Arts. OFF BROADWAY: Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Theater). REGIONAL THEATER: Marie, Dancing Still (5th Avenue Theater Seattle), Cyrano (SPARC formerly known as Livermore Shakespeare Festival), Little Dog Laughed & Rock of Ages (Santa Rosa Rep), A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater). TV/FILM: Law & Order SVU, “Little Women.” MFA, American Conservatory Theater. justingenna.com

Playwright

William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April, which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.

- Shakespeare birthplace trust

Director & Adaptor

M. Graham Smith is a freelance Director, Educator, and Producer and he’s so thrilled to reunite with collaborators Justin Genna and Lily Narbonne eight years after working with them on Qui Nguyen’s Begets at ACT in San Francisco. Recent directing credits: The Tempest (Marin Shakespeare), Gods & Monsters (New Conservatory Theater), World Premieres of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion, Kevin Rolston’s Deal with the Dragon (Magic Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe), The Mortification of Fovea Munson (The Kennedy Center); Father/Daughter (Aurora); White Chip (B Street), Pickleball (B Street), You for Me for You (Crowded Fire), and White (Shotgun). Graham’s new play FDR’s Very Happy Hour, centering d/Disability and Access in an immersive environment had its World Premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville and will be embarking on a National Tour in October of 2026. He teaches at A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep. He’s a graduate of Wesleyan University where he directed the first workshop of In The Heights.