Acadia Barrengos (she/her) is a New York-based director whose work excavates lost histories and engages audiences viscerally. In addition to NYC, she has worked in Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and New Jersey. Inspired by the study of epigenetics, Acadia is driven by stories that wrestle with inheritance. Her work prioritizes surprise, ensemble, and rhythm. Acadia’s work walks the line between hope and doubt and investigates the space between the pedestrian and the spectral, the bloody and the magical.

B.F.A in Directing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Minor in Arts Entrepreneurship.

Alvin Tan is the founder and artistic director of The Necessary Stage, one of Singapore’s most respected theatre companies, and the co–artistic director of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. Since founding The Necessary Stage in 1987, Tan has championed a collaborative, research-driven methodology. The company’s signature play-building process blends rigorous investigation, extensive improvisation, and collective authorship. Under his leadership, TNS has become one of Singapore’s most influential theatre groups. He was a Fulbright Scholar at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and holds degrees from the National University of Singapore, the Institute of Education, and the University of Birmingham. His contributions have been widely recognised, including the Young Artist Award, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and the Cultural Medallion.

Director, Professor, and writer Anne Bogart has led the Directing concentration at Columbia University's School of the Arts Theatre program for over 30 years. 

Co-founder of the renowned SITI Theatre Company and the revolutionary Viewpoints acting method. 

She is the recipient of four Honorary Doctorates from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Skidmore College, Bard College, and Cornish College. She was a recipient of a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, the Richard B. Fisher Award, a USA Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received the 2016 Alfred Drake Award from Brooklyn College. 

Bogart is the author of six books: A Director Prepares, The Viewpoints Book, And Then, You Act, Conversations with Anne, What’s the Story, and, most recently, The Art of Resonance.

Brian Kulick is a director, writer, producer, educator, and current Chair of the Graduate Theatre Program at Columbia University. He has been the Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company, where he directed Galileo with F. Murray Abraham, The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, and The Forest with Dianne Wiest. 

Before this, he was an Artistic Associate and then Associate Producer for the Public Theatre, where he directed the New York premiere of Tony Kushner’s adaptation of A Dybbuk, as well as acclaimed productions of Twelfth Night, Winter’s Tale, and Timon of Athens at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. 

He is the author of Staging Shakespeare, How Greek Theatre Works, The Elements of Theatrical Expression, The Secret Life of Theatre, and Staging the End of the World: Theatre in a Time of Climate Crisis.

Joe Deer is an award-winning director and choreographer of more than 200 productions spanning Off-Broadway, London, regional, international, and university stages. A Distinguished Professor of Musical Theatre emeritus at Wright State University, he led the Musical Theatre Initiative and founded the school’s Musical Theatre Program, whose alumni now appear on Broadway, national tours, and international stages. He founded the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance and received its Career Achievement Award. A sought-after master teacher, he has taught worldwide at institutions such as Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Danish Academy of Musical Theatre, Royal Welsh College, Sheridan College, Scuola del Teatro Musicale, and leading U.S. programs including Carnegie Mellon, UNCSA, and CCM. He is also affiliated with The Muse Machine and The Human Race Theatre Company. Deer is the author of Directing in Musical Theatre and co-author of Acting in Musical Theatre.

Kareem has directed at MCC, Atlantic Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists, The Civilians, Cincinnati Playhouse, Geva Theatre, The Magic, Berkeley Rep, and others. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. His plays include Fountains of Youth, Dodi & Diana, American Fast, A Distinct Society, The Triumphant, Pareidolia, The In-Between, and The Yacoubian Building, produced at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Writers Theatre, Noor Theatre, Target Margin Theatre, Theater Alliance, and more. His work has been developed at Atlantic Theater Company and the Denver Center. Kareem has received fellowships from Sundance Theatre Lab, Stratford Festival, Banff Playwrights Lab, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Second Stage, Soho Rep, Lincoln Center, and NYTW. He is a NYSCA/NYFA Playwriting Fellow, a two-time Capital Rep New Play Award winner, and a recipient of the Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman Playwriting Award. 

Mei Ann Teo is a queer Singaporean immigrant and multidisciplinary theatre maker whose work spans music theatre, reimagined classics, intermedial forms, and documentary performance. Their directing credits include SKiNFoLK at The Bushwick Starr, Ruth Tang’s Building A Character at Wild Rice’s Singapore Theatre Festival, and Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong, premiering at Shakespeare’s Globe before a major U.S. tour. They directed the North American premiere of Walden at TheatreWorks Hartford, winning multiple Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. International work includes the world premiere of Dim Sum Warriors in Shanghai, touring 25 Chinese cities, and the acclaimed Lyrics from Lockdown, which toured internationally and across U.S. institutions. Teo has received the Josephine Abady Award and the Lily Fan Director Award, and has led programs at Musical Theatre Factory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and now Pink Fang

Pirronne Yousefzadeh directs theatre that speaks to the moment and uplifts Global Majority communities with joy, buoyancy, and theatrical imagination. She is Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Partnerships at the Playwrights’ Center, and previously served as Producing Artistic Director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and Associate Artistic Director/Director of Engagement at Geva Theatre. She is also a founding member of Maia Directors.

A NYTW Usual Suspect and New Georges Affiliated Artist, she is an alumna of the Drama League Directors Project, SDC Denham Fellowship, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Soho Rep Lab, and NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship. She has taught at UT Austin, Rutgers, and Bard Early College, and guest-directed at Yale, Juilliard, Fordham, and UMN. She holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University.

Director and actor Shaun Patrick Tubbs' path has taken him from Wright State to Juilliard, from Miami to New York, from performing center stage to shaping stories from the director’s chair. His productions include Ragtime (Union Avenue Opera), Defacing Michael Jackson (Miami New Drama), The Tempest and Life Is a Dream (Juilliard), Sweat (Wright State University), Black Dick (New York Theatre Workshop), Independence Eve (Signature Theatre DC), hop thA A (Ars Nova), Artney Jackson (The Lark/New Black Festival), and Disgraced (Asolo Repertory Theatre).  A recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, Shaun holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BFA from Wright State University. He is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), and SAG-AFTRA.

Suman Mukhopadhyay’s films and theatre explores contemporary socio-political realities through a sharply critical lens. He's directed nine feature films, including Putulnacher Itikatha, Nazarband, Asamapta, & the National Award–winning Herbert. His work has been awarded at major festivals such as Busan, Montreal, Dubai, Munich, San Francisco, Seattle, & Kerala, & he received honors from the Motion Picture Association & Asia Pacific Screen Awards. One of India’s leading theatre directors, Suman has staged work ranging from European drama to major Bengali and Indian adaptations, including Teesta Paarer Brittanto, Mephisto, Bisarjan, and King Lear. He's taught and directed at UC Berkeley, University of Toledo, Kalamazoo College, and Barnard College. He was a Fulbright fellow at Columbia University, a George A. Miller Visiting Artist at UIUC, and a recipient of the 2025 Hubert Bals Development Fund.