KIRA OBOLENSKY is an award-winning playwright and writer based in Minneapolis, MN. Why We Laugh: A Terezin Cabaret just premiered in summer 2011 in Prague--in two international festivals. Kira also works collaboratively and a new piece created with Shawn McConneloug, Force/Matter, recently opened in Minneapolis. Raskol, her adaptation of Crime and Punishment for Ten Thousand Things Theatre, was on two critic's top ten lists for 2009; and her novella, "The Anarchists Float to St. Louis" won the Quarterly West Novella Contest, judged by Padgett Powell.  Her new play for Ten Thousand Things Theatre, called Vasa Lisa, the Wise, opens spring 2012. (As of 2012)

MARIA MILEAF's New York directing credits include Lee Blessing’s Body of Water  (Primary Stages) and hisGoing to St. Ives (Outer Critic Circle Award for Best New Play, 2005), Alexandra Gerston-Vasilleros’ The Argument  (The Vineyard), Kira Obolensky’s Lobster Alice (Playwright’s Horizons), Vijay Tendulkar’sSakharam Binder and Erik Emmanuel-Schmidt’s Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran (The Play Company), Brooke Berman’sA Perfect Couple (DR2), Oren Safdie’s Private Jokes Public Places (Center for Architecture), Erik Ehn’s ‘Maid  (Lincoln Center Festival), Neena Beber’s Hard Feelings (Women’s Project), Julia Cho's 99 Histories (Cherry Lane) and Dawn Saito's HA (DTW). Regionally, Maria’s favorite directing credits include Patricia Wettig’s F2M and Joanna Murray-Smith’s Ninety  (New York Stage and Film), Lucy Prebble’s Sugar Syndrome, John Belluso’s A Nervous Smile and Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Tracy Scott Wilson’s The Story (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction, Philadelphia Theatre Company), Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles  (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Wasserstein’s Third (with Christine Lahti at the Geffen Playhouse in LA). On the West End, Maria directed Richard Schiff in Glen Berger’s Underneath the Lintel. She lives in NYC with her husband, set designer Neil Patel and their two children. (As of 2009)