JOHN CULBERT (Scenic Designer) recently designed scenery for Court Theatre’s production of Travesties, Rigoletto for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Regina and lighting for the Goodman Theatre’s Hughie and Court/Redmoon Theatre’s Cyrano. He received a Joseph Jefferson Award for his lighting design for Court’s production of The Triumph of Love. He has also received Jeff nominations for Mirror of the Invisible World at the Goodman Theatre and Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, Serious Money, Candida, Electra, The Misanthrope, and The Little Foxes at Court Theatre. Recent designs include Court Theatre’s Guys and Dolls, The Romance Cycle, Hamlet, Piano, The Learned Ladies, The Cherry Orchard, and La Bête; Northlight Theatre’s Sky Girls; Goodman Theatre’s Trojan Women, Boy Gets Girl, As You Like It, The Ties that Bind, and Pirate’s Lullaby; the Lookingglass Theatre production of S/M and the About Face Theatre production of Eleven Rooms of Proust. He designed lighting for Akhnaten and Resurrection at Boston Lyric Opera and Death of a Salesman for Singapore Repertory. He has designed productions for the Cleveland Orchestra, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Playhouse 91, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Colorado Opera Festival, Baton Rouge Opera, and Southern Repertory. Other projects include the lighting design for the Chicago Park District’s Buckingham Fountain and Living Together, an exhibit at the Field Museum. Mr. Culbert serves as the dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University.

JAQUELINE FIRKINS (Costume Designer) designed costumes for the Court Theatre productions of Travesties, The Importance of Being Earnest and Fräulein Else. Other design work includes sets and/or costumes for Goodman Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Westport Playhouse, Shakespeare and Company, Shakespeare Festival of Tulane, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Brave New Repertory, About Face Theatre Company, and Yale School of Drama. Independent film design includes Now and Again and Morning Comes. Jacqueline is a recipient of a 2001 Princess Grace Award and a faculty member at Loyola University Chicago.

MARK McCULLOUGH (Lighting Designer) has worked extensively throughout the United States and abroad for theatre and opera. Theatre credits include numerous regional theatre productions as well as Jesus Christ Superstar (on Broadway and for the U.K. and U.S. tours); Whistle Down the Wind at London’s Aldwych Theatre; Aladdin (Hyperion Theatre in Disney’s California Adventure Park) and many Off-Broadway productions including Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home and How I Learned to Drive; Lobby Hero and This Is Our Youth. He has designed lighting for Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro at Metropolitan Opera; for Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades at Royal Opera Covent Garden; for Wagner’s Walküre at Washington Opera; for Shostakovich’s The Nose at Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College and for productions at New York City Opera; L’Opéra de Montréal; Boston Lyric Opera; San Francisco Opera; Dallas Opera; Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. His work abroad includes lighting designs for Opéra National du Rhin; Opera North;Teatro di San Carlo and several productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Gate Theatre in Ireland. Future productions include Luisa Miller at Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain and Das Rheingold at the Washington National Opera.

JOSH HORVATH (Sound Designers) is a Chicago-based sound designer and composer. His designs have been heard locally at Goodman, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Court, Northlight, Apple Tree, TimeLine, Chicago Shakespeare, Naked Eye, and Next. His designs have been heard regionally at Milwaukee Shakespeare, Milwaukee Rep, Madison Rep, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wright Sate University, and the Robey Theatre Company in L.A. Josh was a Joseph Jefferson nominee (Fräulien Else, Court Theatre) and Joseph Jefferson award winner (Electricidad at the Goodman). Recent and upcoming designs include: Hephestus at Lookingglass, Was at Northwestern, and The Jammer at Bailystock and Bloom in Milwaukee. Mr. Horvath composed the music for the films PrettyLadies: the Super8explosion and Stray Dogs. Josh teaches at DePaul University, is a production affiliate of Lookingglass, and is a co-owner of Aria Music Designs, LLC

RAY NARDELLI (Sound Designer) Past Court credits include Endgame, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Fräulien Else (Jeff Nomination). Ray has composed music and designed sound at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Northlight Theatre, Apple Tree, Lookingglass Theatre, Victory Gardens, The Gift Theatre, Northwestern Theatre, DePaul Theatre, Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare, Meadow Brook Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Dolphinback Theatre, American Girl Theatre, Skylight Opera, and Wright State University Theatre. He has assistant sound design credits at Goodman, Steppenwolf, Manhattan Theatre Club and Next Theatre. Ray has recorded, mixed and produced CDs for the musicals The Sound of One, Hillbilly Antigone and La Luna Muda. Film credits include Stray Dogs, Pretty Ladies, and Crush. Ray teaches sound design at DePaul University. Other work includes sound and music used on NPR, PBS, NBC’s The Today Show and Jeff Gorden Racing, a CD-Rom game. Memberships include ASCAP, IATSE #2. and USA #829.

BEN CALVERT (Production Dramaturg)is thrilled to be joining Court Theatre again after working on last season’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Travesties. Ben has worked for several theaters around town but always finds that Court’s productions require him to read the really large books—“Don Quixote” being the largest. Thanks to the Court staff and his family for love and support.