Anshuman Bhatia 

Lighting Design, Birthday Candles and Fabulation,

Regional: Designs have appeared at Arena Stage, Austin Opera, Bard Music Festival, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Classic Stage Company, Dublin’s Civic Theater, Hartford Stage, HERE Arts Center, Keen Company, Kentucky Opera, LoftOpera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Madison Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Omaha, Opera San Jose, Pacific Symphony, Palm Beach Opera, Primary Stages Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Repertory Theater of Saint Louis, Santa Fe Opera, Soho Rep, The Atlantic, The Juilliard School, The McKittrick Hotel, The Park Avenue Armory, The Public, Virginia Arts Festival, WP Theater, Writers Theater. Education: MFA NYU. Member USA829.  

Jade King Carroll

Producing Artistic Director
Director, The Light and The Dark

CTC: The Tempest Off-Broadway: Proof of Love (New York Theatre Workshop/Audible at Minetta Lane/audiobook); Autumn’s Harvest (Lincoln Center Institute); Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth , (The Playwright’s Realm);  New Golden Age (Primary Stages-Susan Smith Blackburn nominated); Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money (Atlantic Theater – NYT Family Pick). Regional:The Jumping Off Point (Round House Theatre)Seven Deadly Sins - Wrath (Miami New Drama – Drama League Award); New Age (Milwaukee Rep); Red Velvet (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Detroit ’67 (McCarter Theatre co-production with Hartford Stage); Intimate Apparel, The Piano Lesson (McCarter Theatre); The Piano Lesson (Hartford Stage);  Having Our Say (Hartford Stage co-production with Long Wharf Theatre); Trouble in Mind (Two River Theater & Playmaker’s Rep); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Syracuse Stage); Stew (Ebony Rep Theater); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Whipping Man, Native Gardens, Skeleton Crew, Bad Dates, Perseverance, How I Learned What I Learned (Portland Stage); The Revolutionists, Sunset Baby (City Theatre); A Raisin In The Sun (Perseverance);  Seven Guitars, The Persians  (People’s Light and Theatre);  Fat Ham (Playmaker’s Rep); Still Life (Ancram Opera House); King Hedley II  (Portland Playhouse); A Raisin the Sun, Cardboard Piano (Juilliard) Laughing Wild, Redeemed, Skeleton Crew  (Dorset Theatre Festival); Audio Dramas: “Marvel’s Wastelanders: Doom” (Marvel, Ambies Nomination for Best Production); “Proof of Love” (Audible); “Redeemed” (Broadway Podcast Network/Dorset Theatre Festival); “The Bleeding Class” (Geva Theater); “Isolated Incidents” (Broadway Podcast Network). Broadway, Associate Credits: Associate Director The Gin Game, A Streetcar Named Desire. Awards: Paul Green Award from the Estate of August Wilson, Drama League, Gates Millennium Scholar.

Azalea Fairley

Costume Designer, Fabulation

Broadway: Associate designer A Strange Loop; Assistant Designer Hamilton. Off-Broadway: Shadow/Land (The Public); TJ Loves Sally 4Ever (Jack Theater); What Lies Beneath (On Site Opera NYC). Regional: After Midnight (Paper Mill Playhouse); Eternal Life Pt1 (Wilma Theater, PA); Clyde’s (George St Playhouse NJ); Detroit ’67, Schoolgirls (TheaterSquared AR), Blood Knot (Flat Rock Playhouse NC), By the Way Meet Vera Stark (Colorado Fine Arts Ctr), 10×10 Play Fest (Barrington Stage MA). Film: “Murderer and The Rainbow Experiment.” Awards: Nominations for the Audelco Awards, the Barrymore Awards, and The Henry Awards. Education: B.A. DePaul University 

Ann C. James

Intimacy Director, Fabulation and The Light and The Dark

Ann C. James, Sensitivity Specialist, made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator on Broadway for Pass Over. Broadway: credits include The Outsiders (2024 Tony Award Best Musical), Lempicka, Hamilton, Parade (2023 Tony Award for Best Revival), Sweeney Todd, Heart of Rock and Roll, and Jelly’s Last Jam. Off-Broadway/Regional: Love All; The Untitled, Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical; Sunset Baby; Jonah; White Girl In Danger; How To Defend Yourself; The Comeuppance; Evanston Salt Costs Climbing; My Broken Language; The Half-God of Rainfall; Here There Are Blueberries; Life and Trust; The Lonely Few. Tour: Hamilton (UK, Australia). James’ company, Intimacy Coordinators of Color was recently awarded a Special Citation from the OBIE Awards and The American Theatre Wing. 

Kristin Leahey

Dramaturg, The Light and the Dark

Kristin Leahey, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Boston University. She has freelanced as an artist with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, O’Neill Theater Center, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Primary Stages, Classical Stage Company, Playwrights’ Center, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Guthrie Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The Old Globe, the Indiana Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, American Theatre Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Hartford Stage, People’s Light, Ireland’s Galway Arts Festival, Teatro Vista (artistic associate), Steep Theatre (ensemble member), and A Red Orchid Theatre, among others.  

She holds a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, earned her M.A. in Theatre from Northwestern University, and her B.A. in Drama and History from Tufts University. Her publications include articles in Theatre Topics, Journal of American Drama, and New England Theatre Journal, as well as in the anthologies Teaching Performance Practices in Remote, Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy Anthology, and the Routledge Companion to Latine Theatre and Performance. Leahey is the co-editor of LMDA’s Review and is the editor of a Special Issues Section of Theatre History Studies on Queer and Transgender Performance and Theatre. She recently completed a research grant from the Harry Ransom Center. She was Wolly Mammoth Theatre’s literary manager, the Seattle Rep’s literary director, and a producer with the WP 2020–22 Lab. She received a Fulbright and will collaborate with the Abbey Theatre. 

Seth Reiser

Lighting Designer, The Light and The Dark

Seth Reiser is a set and lighting designer for theater, opera, dance and music whose work has been seen throughout the United States and internationally.  CTC: A Raisin in the Sun, Our Town. New York: credits include designs for Second Stage, Geffen Hall, 59E59, NAATCO, Clubbed Thumb, the Park Avenue Armory, Carnegie Hall, PS 122, the Flea, HERE Arts, Classic Stage Company, and the Public Theater.  Regional: highlights include designs for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre DC, Dallas Theatre Center, Two River Theatre Company, GeVA, Portland Center Stage, Trinity Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory, The Denver Center Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth, American Repertory Theatre, and Playmakers Repertory. Education: MFA, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

Arya Shahi 

Director, Birthday Candles

Arya Shahi is a director, writer, performer, composer and lyricist. He is the co-founder of PigPen Theatre Co. Broadway: Water For Elephants (composer/lyricist). Off-Broadway: The Old Man and The Old Moon* (New Victory, The Gym at Judson), Pericles (performer, Theater for a New Audience) #BARS Workshop (Writer/Performer, Public Theater). Regional: English (director, The Old Globe), The Old Man and The Old Moon* (Berkeley Rep, The Old Globe, Writers Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Wallis), The Tale of Despereaux* (Berkeley Rep, The Old Globe), The Hunter and The Bear* (Writers Theatre), Water for Elephants** (Alliance Theatre), The Phantom Folktales*** (Virgin Voyages) Albums: Bremen, The Way I’m Running, Whole Sun, Water for Elephants (PigPen Theatre Co.) Select Awards & Honors: Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical, Drama League Nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outer Critics Circle Nomination for Outstanding New Broadway Musical (Water For Elephants). Overall Excellence Award (The Nightmare Story and The Mountain Song) NYC International Fringe Festival, Off Broadway Alliance Best Unique Theatrical Experience Nomination (The Old Man and The Moon), Artist Ambassador for New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU, 2021-2024)  

Shahi’s book, An Impossible Thing to Say, has garnered many awards and nominations, including 2024 Best of the Year (Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature), 2024 Best of the Year (Cooperative Children’s Book Center), the 2023 Best Books, Fiction List (The Horn Book), and more.  

Education: Carnegie Mellon University, BFA Drama with University Honors, 2011  

* performer/writer/director   **composer/lyricist     ***writer/director 

Brittany Vasta

Scenic Designer, Birthday Candles, Fabulation, The Light and The Dark

Broadway Associate: The Lifespan of a Fact, Chicken & Biscuits, Uncle Vanya. Off-Broadway: Octet, Rinse Repeat (Signature Theatre); Harlequin & Pantalone (NY City Center); Life Sucks (Theatre Row); Happy Birthday Wanda June (The Duke); Lawnpeople (Cherry Lane); Vilna (Theatre at St. Clement’s); Leap and the Net Will Appear (The Flea); Road to Damascus (59E59), Your Hair Looked Great (Abrons Arts Center). Regional: Redwood, Choir Boy, the ripple the wave that carried me home (Portland Center Stage, OR); Octet (Berkeley Rep); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Syracuse Stage); School Girls or the African Mean Girls Play, Sex with Strangers, Welcome to Fear City, Brother Toad (KC Rep); My Name is Asher Lev, The Whipping Man (Portland Stage Company, ME); August Osage County, From the Author of (UDel Rep); Richard III, The Devil’s Disciple (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Gypsy (Theatre Aspen) Nomination: Drama Desk for Octet. MFA, NYU. USA 829 member