AGATHA CHRISTIE

Author

Agatha Christie (Author) is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and, in many languages, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 66 crime novels, 150 short stories, over 25 plays, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott. Her work includes Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and the genre-defining And Then There Were None. Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was written towards the end of the First World War, in which she served in the VAD. In it she created Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective who was destined to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. It was published by Bodley Head in 1920. In 1926, after averaging a book a year, Agatha Christie wrote her first masterpiece. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first of her books to be published by Collins and marked the beginning of an author-publisher relationship that lasted for 50 years and well over 70 books. Ackroyd was also the first of Agatha Christie’s books to be dramatized—under the title Alibi—and to have a successful run in London’s West End. By 1930, Agatha had introduced a new character to act as detective. When she created Miss Marple, Agatha did not expect her to become Poirot’s rival, but with The Murder at the Vicarage, Miss Marple’s first full-length outing, it appeared she had produced another popular and enduring character. The Mousetrap, her most successful play of all, opened in 1952 and is the longest-running play in history. Agatha Christie was made a dame in 1971. She died in 1976. Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) has been managing the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie's works around the world since 1955, working with the best talents in film, television, publishing, stage, and on digital platforms to ensure that Christie’s work continues to reach new audiences in innovative ways and to the highest standard. The company is managed by Christie’s great-grandson James Prichard. Visit www.agathachristie.com for more information.

KEN LUDWIG

Playwright

Ken Ludwig (Playwright) is the most performed playwright of his generation. He has had six productions on Broadway and eight in London’s West End, and his 34 plays and musicals are staged around the world and throughout the United States every night of the year. They have been produced in over 20 languages in more than 30 countries, and many have become standards of the American repertoire. His first play, Lend Me a Tenor, won two Tony Awards and was called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by The Washington Post. Crazy For You was on Broadway for five years, on the West End for three, and won the Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical. It has been revived in London twice. His play Murder on the Orient Express is currently on a year-long tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. In addition, he has won the Edwin Forrest Award for contributions to the American theater, two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, the Charles MacArthur Award, and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year. He also won the Samuel French Award as Playwright of the Year, and he was nominated for an Emmy Award for writing the Kennedy Center Honors. He has had three previous world premieres at Arena Stage, Shakespeare in Hollywood, Baskerville,and Dear Jack, Dear Louise. Other plays include Moon Over Buffalo, Leading Ladies, Sherwood, Twentieth Century, A Fox on the Fairway, A Comedy of Tenors, and The Game’s Afoot. His plays have starred, among others, Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Tony Shalhoub, Joan Collins, Lynn Redgrave, and Kristen Bell. His book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, published by Penguin Random House, won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book of the Year, and has just been released in a new, expanded edition. His essays on theater are published in the Yale Review, and he gives the Annual Ken Ludwig Playwriting Scholarship at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. His first opera, Tenor Overboard, opened at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2022. His most recent world premieres were Lend Me A Soprano and Moriarty, and his newest plays and musicals include Pride and Prejudice Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley, Beginner’s Luck,and Easter Parade. His latest play, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, will premiere this season at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, and Dear Jack, Dear Louise will open in January in New York City at 59E59. For more information, visit www.kenludwig.com.

HANA S. SHARIF

Director

Hana S. Sharif (Director) has directed acclaimed productions of Murder on the Orient Express (7 STLCC nominations), A Christmas Carol (4 STLCC nominations, STL A-List Award), Pride and Prejudice (5 STLCC nominations), Porgy and Bess, The Who & The What (3 SFBA Critic Circle nominations), Fun Home, Sense and Sensibility, The Christians, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pride and Prejudice (DCArts: Best Director/Best New Play), The Whipping Man, Gem of the Ocean (six CCC nominations), Gee’s Bend (CCC Award Best Ensemble, two nominations), Next Stop Africa, Cassie, The Drum, IFdentity, Pretty Fire, Patient 463, I, Marcus Garvey, Quicksand, Hospice, and The Blacker The Berry. Her plays include All the Women I Used to Be, The Rise and Fall of Day, and The Sprott Cycle Trilogy (1880, 1964, 2010).

ALEXANDER DODGE

Set Designer

Alexander Dodge (Set Designer)’s Arena Stage credits include Catch Me If You Can, Noises Off, and On the Jump. Broadway: I Need That, Anastasia (Outer Critics nomination), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics nominations), Present Laughter (Tony nomination), Old Acquaintance, Butley, Hedda Gabler. Off-Broadway: Russian Troll Farm, Harry Clarke, Whisper House, The Understudy, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Lucille Lortel Award). London West End: Harry Clarke, All New People. Other: Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame at La Jolla and Paper Mill Playhouses, Japan, Germany, and Austria. DC: Shakespeare Theatre, Folger. Opera: Samson et Dalila at Metropolitan Opera, The Thirteenth Child at Santa Fe, Ghosts of Versailles at LA Opera, Il trittico at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Training: MFA Yale. Instagram: @alexanderdodgedesign

KAREN PERRY

Costume Designer

Karen Perry (Costume Designer)’s previous Arena Stage credits include A Time to Kill and Resurrection. She has designed costumes for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Syracuse Stage), Destiny of Desire (Old Globe), Clyde’s (Berkley Rep/Huntington Theatre, Norton Award for Best Costume Design), Wine in the Wilderness (Two River Theater), A Raisin in the Sun (NYSF Public Theatre), Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical (People’s Light), and Lackawanna Blues (Broadway & Mark Taper Forum). Karen has designed nine of the 10 August Wilson Century Cycle plays (she has yet to design Fences). Upcoming: The new adaptation of Karen Zacarías’ Destiny of Desire: A Telenovela Musical, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, due soon on Broadway. Television credits include The Gregory Hines Show, Saturday Night Live, and The Brother from Another Planet. She has received a Norton Award, Lucille Lortel Award, LA Ovation Awards, a CDG Award, an Ace Award, and a Hewitt Award; is an Emmy and AUDELCO Award nominee; and is a nine-time NBTF Award recipient and Lifetime Achievement honoree.

KENNETH POSNER

Lighting Designer

Kenneth Posner (Lighting Designer) is happy to return to the Arena Stage having last designed the 1996 production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. He designs extensively on and Off-Broadway, for resident theaters and touring productions throughout the United States as well as internationally. Selected Broadway and West End credits include Doubt, Beetlejuice, Mr. Saturday Night, Pretty Woman, Mean Girls, War Paint, Disgraced, On Your Feet!, If/Then, Kinky Boots, Pippin, Cinderella, Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Legally Blonde, Lend Me a Tenor, Catch Me If You Can, The Coast Of Utopia – Shipwreck, Other Desert Cities, The Merchant of Venice, The Little Foxes, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Finding Neverland, and Wicked. He is a graduate of SUNY at Purchase and is the recipient of the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, Joseph Jefferson, Henry Hewes, and Obie Awards.

CHARLES COES & NATHAN A. ROBERTS

Original Music and Sound Design

Charles Coes (Original Music and Sound Design) is happy to be back at Arena where he designed Jitney. His work has been seen at Ford’s with Parade and at STC with Servant of Two Masters. NY highlights include Comedia of Errors with the Public’s Mobile Unit, Beautiful Lady at La MaMa, Sing Street at NYTW, Letters of Suresh at Second Stage, and Golden Shield at MTC. Recent regional work includes Song of Rome at Spoleto, The Pianist at George Street, and Lehman Trilogy at The Huntington and St. Louis Rep. He’s toured the world with the Homer’s Coat production of An Iliad, and been an associate on many Broadway shows including Girl from the North Country, To Kill a Mockingbird, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, and Peter and the Starcatcher.

Nathan A. Roberts (Original Music and Sound Design) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, instrument-maker, and sound designer who specializes in creating original music and soundscapes for plays, often live onstage. He is thrilled to be making his Arena Stage debut! DC Theater: The Widow Lincoln, Our Town (Ford’s Theatre); The Servant of Two Masters (Shakespeare Theatre). Off-Broadway: Golden Shield (Manhattan Theatre Club); Letters of Suresh (Second Stage); Crane Story, Dramatis Personae (The Playwrights Realm). Regional: The Way the Mountain Moved, Sense and Sensibility (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Miss You Like Hell, Fun Home, The Christians, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Baltimore Center Stage); Animal Farm (Milwaukee Rep); Sense and Sensibility (Dallas Theater Center/Guthrie Theater); Tokyo Fish Story (The Old Globe). Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama. Faculty: Senior Lecturer in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, Yale University.

BRITTANY BLAND

Projection Designer

Brittany Bland she/her/they (Projection Designer) is a passionate storyteller dedicated to fostering empathy through her work as a projection designer for the stage. She has an extensive portfolio that includes designs for theater, dance, immersive media, and opera. Her notable recent credits include Cats: The Jellice Ball, Becoming a Man at A.R.T., Westerly Breath at the Met Museum, Amani at Rattlestick Theater, A Raisin in the Sun at the Public Theater, and Goddess at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Brittany holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and is a proud recipient of the 1/52 Project grant, which supports emerging theater artists.

LASHAWN MELTON

Hair and Wig Designer

LaShawn Melton (Hair and Wig Designer) is a native Washingtonian hair and wig designer. Arena Stage credits include The Other Americans (Hair Design), Tempestuous Elements (Wig Design), Disgraced (Hair Design), Smart People (Assistant Wig Design), Nina Simone: Four Women (Assistant Wig Design), Pajama Game (Assistant Wig Design), Snow Child (Hair and Makeup Design). Regional wig design credits include The Winter’s Tale (Folger Shakespeare Theatre); Raisin in the Sun, Emma the Musical, The Play That Goes Wrong (Utah Shakespeare Festival); On Your Feet! (GALA Theatre); The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes, Describe the Night, Fairview, Botticelli in the Fire (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 (The Kennedy Center); Comedy of Tenors (Olney Theatre); and School Girls (Round House Theatre). TV/Film hairstylist credits include Lioness, White House Plumbers, Rustin, and Fellow Travelers. Education: BA in Art, University of the District of Columbia.

SORDELET INC. – RICK SORDELET

Fight Director and Intimacy Consultant

Sordelet Inc. – Rick Sordelet (Fight Director and Intimacy Consultant), along with Christian and Collin Kelly-Sordelet created Sordelet Inc., a Native-owned action movement company with 35+ years’ experience. Sordelet Inc. has over 80 Broadway productions to their credit, including The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and, in 2025, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, also Peter Pan and Tina National Tours currently running, plus 53 first-class productions worldwide, as well as numerous films, operas, live events, and loads of television productions. They teach at William Esper Studio, HB Studio, CUNY Harlem, Montclair State, and 22 years at Yale School of Drama. Rick is a board member for Red Bull Theater. They also run Sordelet Ink, with author David Blixt, an e-publishing company for the emerging writer. To learn more, visit www.sordeletinc.com and www.sordeletink.com. Instagram: @sordeletinc

LISA NATHANS

Dialect and Vocal Coach

Lisa Nathans (Dialect and Vocal Coach) is thrilled to be coaching again for Arena Stage with this fabulous team after previously coaching The Other Americans, Data, POTUS, Holiday, Catch Me If You Can, Disney’s Newsies, Anything Goes, and others. Other DC credits include various productions with The Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre, Theater Alliance, Keegan Theatre, and MetroStage. Regional credits include Guthrie Theater, 5th Avenue Theatre, and Theatricum Botanicum. TV credits include National Geographic. Teaching (USA and UK): University of Maryland: TDPS (Associate Professor, Voice, Speech, and Acting); CalArts; Stella Adler Academy; RADA; Royal Welsh; Royal Central; University of Washington (PATP MFA); and University of Minnesota (Guthrie BFA). Training: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama: MFA (Voice Studies); Boston University: BFA (Acting); Linklater Voice Designation; and Colaianni Speech Practitioner. Break legs all!

OTIS RAMSEY-ZÖE

Dramaturg

Otis Ramsey-Zöe (Dramaturg) is a care worker, dramaturg, director, theater arts educator, and Literary Manager at Arena Stage. He has developed new works at such institutions as Sundance Institute, Kennedy Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Center, and National New Play Network. He has held posts in Dramaturgy at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Carnegie Mellon University, Theatre at Northeastern University, Women’s Studies and Honors Humanities at the University of Maryland, Performing Arts at American University, and Theatre Arts at Howard University. He was Associate Artistic Director at banished? productions, Future Classics Program Coordinator at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Literary Manager at Center Stage, and an Allen Lee Hughes Senior Fellow at Arena Stage.

CAPARELLIOTIS CASTING

New York Casting

Caparelliotis Casting (New York Casting) Select Broadway/Off-Broadway: Mary Jane; Prayer for the French Republic; Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; 2:22 A Ghost Story; Grey House; Summer, 1976; The Comeuppance; Ohio State Murders; Cost of Living; Macbeth; The Minutes; Skeleton Crew; Ink; Letters From Max; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Waverly Gallery; Boys in the Band. Select theaters: Signature NYC, Atlantic, Ars Nova, The Old Globe, CTG. TV/Film: New Amsterdam (NBC, series casting), The Boys in the Band (Netflix, original casting).

RAIYON HUNTER

DC Casting

Raiyon Hunter (DC Casting) is a casting director, producer, and arts administrator from New Orleans, Louisiana. She currently works as the Casting Director/Line Producer of Arena Stage. Previously, she worked as the Casting Director of Children’s Theatre Company and the Spelman Leadership Fellow at the Alliance Theatre (Atlanta, GA) where she has contributed to a multitude of shows in varying capacities ranging from Casting Associate to Director on productions such as Do You Love the Dark?, Darlin’ Cory, Bina’s Six Apples, Good Bad People, Confederates, and more. Additionally, she has been in residency at Oregon Shakespeare Festival under Nataki Garrett and The Repertory Theater of St. Louis under Hana S. Sharif.

ASHLEY D. POLASEK

Creative Associate

Ashley D. Polasek she/her (Creative Associate) is the Executive Director of The Ken Ludwig Company. Credits include Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express at Chichester Festival Theatre and UK National Tour; Crazy For You at Chichester Festival Theatre and West End; and the world premieres of Tenor Overboard at Glimmerglass Festival (Script Associate), Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me A Soprano at Alley Theatre (Creative Associate), Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty at Cleveland Play House (Creative Associate), and Ken Ludwig’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (Creative Associate). She holds a doctorate in Adaptation Studies, lecturing on her specialism, Sherlock Holmes adaptations, across the US, UK, Continental Europe, and Asia, and serving as a technical advisor for film and television, most recently on Enola Holmes (Legendary Pictures) and Let’s Go Luna! (PBS Kids). She is the author of several books and dozens of chapters and academic journal articles on adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary journal The Conan Doyle Review, and a member of the Baker Street Irregulars.

CHRISTI B. SPANN

Stage Manager

Christi B. Spann (Stage Manager) has been working as a stage manager in DC since 2011. Recent Arena Stage productions include Holiday, The High Ground, Exclusion, POTUS, and Tempestuous Elements. She previously spent 12 seasons on the stage management staff at the Denver Center Theatre Company and has also worked with The Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, MN, and Virginia Repertory Theatre in Richmond, VA.

DAYNE SUNDMAN

Assistant Stage Manager

Dayne Sundman (Assistant Stage Manager) is always glad to be back at Arena Stage. Past favorite shows at Arena include Unknown Soldier, POTUS, Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, American Prophet: Frederick Douglass in His Own Words, Catch Me If You Can, Newsies, The Heiress, and Anything Goes. Other credits include Murder on the Orient Express (Great Lakes Theater); Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Sense and Sensibility (Idaho Shakespeare Festival); Jane Anger, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (STC); and The Great Society, Born Yesterday, and The Little Foxes (Asolo Repertory Theatre). Allen Lee Hughes Fellow. Baldwin Wallace University 2015.